The Ballot, 22:00 | Japanese-Style Murder Mystery for 6-12 Players + Host | Printable PDF | 110-140 min

THE BALLOT, 22:00 — a Japanese-style murder mystery for 6–12 players and 1 host. 110–140 minutes. Printable PDF.

A town gymnasium, serving as a counting centre for one night. Polling day for the mayoral election, and the question on the table is whether to merge with the city next door.

Two candidates. The sitting mayor, against it. A first-time challenger, for it.

At 21:15 every ballot is counted.

A tie. And on the table, one ballot nobody can rule on. Both names are written on it. Both are struck through. The hand is shaking.

At 22:00, the counting officer — the man who was supposed to rule on it — is found on the floor of the ballot store. The door was locked from the outside.

There is no vote in this game

In most murder mysteries everyone votes at the end to name the killer. Not here. Here you sign the count record.

1. Does that one ballot go to a candidate, or is it void?
2. What goes in the remarks column about how the officer died?

All six of you have to sign the first one. One person refuses, and nothing is settled.

Rule it for a candidate and that candidate is mayor. Rule it void and the tie stands — which, by law, means the mayoralty is decided by drawing lots.

Two of you need it to count. Two of you need it not to. The other two do not care who wins, which is exactly what makes their signatures the expensive ones.

WHY IT WORKS AS A CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

• Close reading with stakes. Every clue is a document students have to read carefully. Missing one detail changes who they accuse.
• Evidence-based argument. Players make a claim, cite the document it came from, and defend it against the other readings at the table.
• Structured discussion. Fixed phases — reading, discussion, investigation, final discussion, resolution — so the conversation does not drift.
• No preparation beyond printing. The host script is written to be read from the top. No rules to adjudicate, no dice, no components to assemble.

HOW THIS DIFFERS FROM A MURDER MYSTERY PARTY KIT

If you have run a boxed “murder mystery dinner” before, this is a different genre. Please read this before buying.

• The host does not play. They run the game. That is what lets the story hide information the way it does.
• Each player gets a private booklet with a secret only they know, and two goals — one shared with the table, one private.
• The culprit is a player, not the host, with their own goals to pursue.
• Single use. Once a group knows the answer they cannot play it again — but you can run it for new groups as often as you like.

WHAT YOU GET (11 files, 10 of them PDF)

A read-me for everyone, a host script with the full running order and read-aloud text, the evidence set, one private booklet per character, and a plain-text version you can paste into a video call or a shared document.

WHAT YOU NEED

6–12 players plus one host, 110–140 minutes, and either a printer or a shared screen. First-time hosts can run this. Everything prints in black and white on ordinary paper.

LICENSE

Classroom and club use is fine, including running it for as many groups as you like. Streaming and let’s-plays are allowed, monetized or not. Please do not redistribute or resell the files, claim authorship, or post the solution publicly.

HOW THIS WAS MADE

This scenario was written with the assistance of an AI language model (Claude, by Anthropic), then edited, structured, and consistency-checked by a human before release. The plot, characters, clue structure, and all text were reviewed by the maker.

Ai-Q Labs makes murder mysteries in which all the evidence is text — a corrected page proof, a radio log, a weather record. Check out Ai-Q Labs for the rest of the series.