Spellbound
$44.99
Spellbound is a magical murder mystery game for 13 to 17 guests and one or two hosts. It is set at a magical school, with students, professors, and visiting detectives as characters. Will the students and professors solve the mystery and save the school from an ancient enemy? Written by Lisa Perez. Recommended for ages 12+.
Spellbound is a murder mystery game for 13 to 17 guests and one or two hosts. It is set at a magical school, with students, professors, and visiting detectives as characters. Download the free introductory pdf file.
Note that Spellbound starts with a crime that is not a murder, but a theft of memory – so as to make it more appropriate for younger people.
Spellbound is an enchanted evening of magic, mayhem, and mystery! Your guests will be in the middle of the action, and it will be up to them to wheel and deal to get what they want. Will they achieve their goals, keep their secrets hidden, and survive Spellbound?
Spellbound lasts for about four hours and is suited to an evening. It is often played over a meal – a finger buffet if possible, to allow guests to circulate and talk in private.
Note that Spellbound is a bit more complex than some of our other games. If you've not hosted one of our games before, you might want to allocate a bit longer to prepare for it and to read through how it's going to work.
"Spellbound was an amazing game and led to a magical evening full of intrigue and betrayal and enough stories to last the rest of the weekend. Thank you so much."
Daniel Langley, United Kingdom
See stories and pictures from Spellbound
Welcome to the Tremaine School of Magic, which is located within an ancient British castle. The castle is built at the top of a cliff and is miles from the nearest town or city. Students and Professors live in the castle during the school year, but today is the last day of school before summer break.
Last night, someone painted a red X on the Headmaster's door. This morning Professor Bennet, the Headmaster, woke up unable to remember anything. Not even his own name! Parents are convinced that the school is under some sort of magical attack, and the professors have announced that if the culprit is not caught, the school will close and will not reopen next year. Professor Riley Karlsen, the most senior teacher, is overseeing investigations. No-one may leave the school grounds before the end of the school day. Anyone caught doing so will be presumed guilty and detained for questioning.
Even with all of that going on, today is still the dreaded day of finals. Each professor will give an exam and grade the students' performance, and a full scholarship will be awarded to the student with the highest grades.
Let's hope the students' memories are working better than the unfortunate Professor Bennet's!
Suitable for expert hosts.
Includes rules for the use of poison.
Includes rules for combat.
Does not start with a murder that needs solving.
The free introductory pdf file contains an introduction to the game, a cast list of all the characters, and a copy of the Sorcerer's Scoop.
Cast of characters
Professors
- Professor Lee Roderick: Professor of Alchemy
- Professor Riley Karlsen: Professor of Transformation
- Professor Skyler Patterson: Professor of Foretelling
Students
- Angela McIntosh: A smart, studious girl
- Blair Jones: A fun-loving, friendly student; the class clown
- Casey Lansing: A rebellious rule-breaker
- Dave White: A smart, studious boy
- Erick Bennet: The son of Professor Bennet
- Jason Edwards: The most popular boy in school, dating Shantell Andersen
- Julie Andersen: The smartest girl in school, Shantell’s sister
- Nina Brown: A socially awkward, quiet student
- Ryan O’Callaghan: A good-looking, arrogant student
- Shantell Andersen: The most popular girl in school, Julie’s sister, dating Jason Edwards
- Taylor Martin: A rich and popular student
- Veronica Olsen: A rich and popular student, best friends with Shantell
Detectives
-
- Detective Kerry Stephens: The head detective investigating the case
- Detective Alex Rogers: Detective Stephens’s partner, also investigating the case
Spellbound is for 13 to 17 guests:
- 13 guests (4 male, 5 female, 4 any)
- 14 guests (4 male, 5 female, 5 any)
- 15 guests (4 male, 5 female, 6 any)
- 16 guests (4 male, 5 female, 7 any)
- 17 guests (4 male, 5 female, 8 any)
You also need one or two hosts, to organize the party and ensure everything runs smoothly. (We recommend two hosts, particularly if this is your first Freeform Games murder mystery party.)
How Freeform Games murder mysteries work
Spellbound is unlike other murder mystery games – it doesn't start with a murder to solve (although one is likely to be committed during the game). Instead, plenty of other plots and secrets will keep everyone busy, as each character has several objectives they must try to accomplish. Spellbound isn't scripted, and lets the players decide how to achieve their goals and thwart their enemies.
On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer, the Librarian, and welcomed to the Tremaine School of Magic.
They then receive their detailed backgrounds – including dark secrets, objectives and money. The fun then begins as they form alliances, blackmail each other, steal items and maybe even try to attack one another!
Finally, the game concludes and everyone finds out how they did, and what secrets everyone else was concealing.
Recommended for ages 12+
We recommend Spellbound for those aged 12+, as it is family-friendly and contains no adult themes.
Extra characters
Sometimes you have too many guests and need more characters. So most games have free extra characters (written by us or previous hosts) included in the download when you purchase the game.
- 'Ginger' Roberts – freelance reporter in search of the Big Story. (Any)
(by Freeform Games) - Harley Garrick – school groundskeeper. (Any)
(by Nathanial McConnell) - Patrick O'Grady – the new kid (M)
(by Andreah Mathews) - Sally May – the school nurse (F)
(by Andreah Mathews)
Please note that we haven't always tested these – and they may not tie in exactly with our games.
"Thank you for a great site, fantastic games, good service and very quick reply. Keep up the good work." Ole Martin Brodwall, Norway
Cast Iron Guarantee
We offer a Cast Iron Guarantee on all our murder mystery games. If you're not completely satisfied with Spellbound then please let us know within 30 days and we will refund you. See our full terms and conditions, and our refund policy.
Trouble downloading? If you have trouble downloading the game files, please first check your spam folder. If you still can't find the download email, contact us with the name of the game and the email address you used to purchase it, and we'll resend it.
7 reviews for Spellbound
Q & A
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Anonymous –
Great game with a lot of subplots going on. Everybody loved the exams and were trying hard to pass them. We all had a blast!
Simrat –
I hosted this for my birthday last year and it was amazing. No one in my group (including me) had ever played a murder mystery game but everyone was able to get up to speed and really get into their characters. The magic theme also made it very interesting and unique. Highly recommend!
Zoe –
So fun! This is the best murder mystery I’ve hosted yet (and the first from this company). Lots of plots interweaving, every person/character (from a set of 16) felt important and had things to do, and a good amount of information for everyone to work with. Great mix of having enough information about your character and other relevant ones to riff off of while also being given very tangible goals to work toward. Would definitely recommend this to anyone who has an invested murder mystery group!
It is complicated as warned, but our group handled it well even with a mix of people who have done murder mysteries before and people who haven’t. I would highly recommend having everyone read their info ahead of time — it helped us out a lot!
Laura Graham –
We arranged Spellbound for my husband’s 40th. It was our first murder mystery and it won't be our last. We played Spellbound and it was a lot of fun. Everybody got dressed up and got into character. It was fun watching all the alliances and lying going on. Time got the better of us. I would say it would be best to have a librarian's assistant as there was a lot going on. Looking forward to playing the next one.
Samantha Roberts –
Thank you so much for creating a Harry potter-esque Murder Mystery. I hosted Spellbound in October and my guests ate it up! While no-one correctly guessed the murderer, they had a lot of fun just plotting and scheming the whole way through.
A Customer –
Spellbound was a great game, and everyone enjoyed it (including 6 novices!). I thought the structure, with the regular exam tasks, worked very well. The library was fun too, and enabled me to give a bit of extra help to some people, without being too obvious.
Cindy Haacke –
Thought you might like to know how Spellbound went. We played it this last Saturday and I think it went well over all. This is our family’s third one of your games we have played in the past year! Bottom line, everyone had a fun night. Thanks for providing great games. Keep it up!