Murder Mystery Tarot - How will YOU die?

This is a tarot game, rather than a spread for readings.  It can be a fun group game, with each person “predicting” someone else’s murder… And it’s also a great way to learn to recognise each card.

The game works particularly well with Rider-Waite style decks, as it was designed based on the card images in these decks.  Using other decks is equally possible but may require more lateral thinking.

How to Play

First, separate your Tarot deck into six piles: the Major Arcana, Court cards, Pentacles, Cups, Wands and Swords.  Shuffle each subdeck and place them, face down, like this:

The murder “victim” is chosen before the first card is turned over.  One person takes their turn at being the “victim” each round.

To play the game, start by turning over the leftmost card.  This court card identifies the murderer.  Use your imagination, your inspiration from the card or your knowledge of Tarot to decide “who dun it”.  The court cards are richly associated with personality attributes; you can also use the old physical stereotypes which are assigned to the cards (like, Princess of Swords is a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and so on).

The card from the major arcana represents the murder weapon.  Some of the cards give obvious deaths (Strength? Eaten by lions!  Hanged Man? Well…)  Others can be more lateral (the Moon could be deception or poison, for example).

The pentacles card tells you the location of the scene of the crime.  Pick the setting of the card (for instance, the lady on the 9 of pentacles is in the garden; and the miser on the 4 of pentacles is probably sitting on the toilet).

The cups card is the excuse the killer will use to try and get away with it.  Maybe their alibi is their family (10 of cups); or they fled the scene of the crime are were never seen again (8 of cups)…

Use the wands card to decide the outcome for the murderer.  Do they escape across the globe (2 of wands), turn the crime to their advantage and achieve fame and fortune (6 of wands AKA victory) or can they only escape discovery by marrying the investigating police officer?! (4 of wands)

Finally, the swords card is the outcome for the victim of the murder.  Maybe they escape and it’s no more than a bad dream to them (9 of swords)… but then maybe they can’t escape (8 of swords)… or they’re just plain dead (10 of swords)!

So... how will YOU die?