You all gather in the wake of the crime and attempt to piece together your memories, with the aim of identifying the perpetrator. In each round, you recall more and more about the circumstances of the crime, as each round deals with a different period of time from the evening the crime was committed. This means the crime cannot be fully reconstructed until Round 3. You are of course free to flick back through your game booklet at any time. You decide as a group if the discussion is starting to go around in circles, and when you want to move on to the next round. A rough estimate is 30 – 60 minutes per round.
Your game booklet is intended for your eyes only. Only the sections on Game Rules, Structure of the Game and Background are the same for every player. You are allowed to withhold information about your character, but you must not lie! If you are directly asked about a specific piece of information, you must tell the truth. The perpetrator is the only person who is allowed to lie and mislead other players. What you can do, however, is present the truth in such a way that it casts you in the best possible light. You can decide for yourself what information you wish to share. But be careful: If you fail to share enough information with the group, you may not be able to solve the crime. You can only succeed by working together! If you share too much too soon, you may come under suspicion from the other players. If you accidentally lied and you are not the perpetrator, simply try to correct your mistake as soon as you can.
You will find out whether you are the perpetrator in the following section, which contains information on your character. The perpetrator will never be one of the absent characters. They are always presumed innocent.
Each Culinario Mortale game consists of three rounds with a clear game structure. We have listed the individual phases of the game for you.
We intentionally omitted the topic of food from the structure of the game. Depending on your personal preferences and number of courses, there are several ways to integrate your dinner menu into the game. You can either leave longer breaks between rounds, allowing you time to eat, or you can eat during the game itself.
The host should read aloud the sections Game Rules, Structure of the Game (this text) and Background. Each player introduces themself in a couple of sentences. Following this, Paul Hopkins reads the Prologue from the incident booklet.
After being prompted by the host, all players read Round 1 in silence. You should then discuss the first period of time from the evening of the crime.
All players read Round 2 in silence. The host reads Incident A from the incident booklet. Everyone discusses the second period.
All players read Round 3 in silence. The host reads Incident B from the incident booklet. Everyone discusses the final period.
Each player makes an accusation against one other player. All accused suspects have the chance to defend themselves. Following this, the group votes on who they want to accuse of the crime.
The Solution is read aloud. Did you manage to identify the perpetrator or did they go undetected?