Murder at Tulip King Hotel

Overview

Murder at Tulip King Hotel is a print-and-play murder mystery case file created by Print Mysteries. It’s set in 1934, and places the player in the role of an investigator who needs to solve the death of Dr. Harold Fulbright, an American scientist who was found dead in the fictional Tulip King Hotel. The case has six structured objectives, lots of of evidence to analyze, seven witness interrogations, and 33 optional hint clues available for when you get stuck.

It’s sold as an instant digital download for $16.00. After purchase, players simply print out the PDF on standard A4 or US Letter paper, and start playing. It is rated Medium-Hard in difficulty and I found this to be pretty accurate. It’s aimed at fans of detective fiction, escape room puzzles, and for anyone who loves logic-based games.

This review covers the game’s setting and narrative, content structure, gameplay mechanics, difficulty level, and the type of player most likely to enjoy it. No spoilers are included for the solution or the identity of the killer.

The Mystery Setup

The main story of Murder at Tulip King Hotel revolves around the suspicious death of Dr. Harold Fulbright, an American scientist who was on the verge of a significant breakthrough in synthetic fuel research. He is discovered dead in the hotel’s reading room. There is only a narrow 10-minute window in which the murder could have taken place, which tightens the field of suspects and creates a logic puzzle around timing and opportunity.

The five other suspects are also attendees of a scientific symposium that have come to see Dr. Fulbright. There are a bunch of common professional ties and intersecting personal matters that could make any of these suspects seem guilty when looked at through the right lens. This a classic trope in detective fiction, and it works pretty well here. Players are asked to analyze lots of varied evidence to slowly wittle down the list of suspects until only one person remains.

There are 6 objectives to complete. Objectives range between confirming alibis and comparing fingerpints, to solving puzzles. As you complete each objective, you’ll eliminate suspects and introduce new evidence and story.

Content Breakdown

At 43 pages, Murder at Tulip King Hotel is a pretty hefty case file. But as with all games from this publisher – smaller bits of evidence, thankfully, are combined on pages. So you can expect one page to have multiple notes and other tidbits of information that don’t require a full spread. If this wasn’t the case, you’d easily be looking at over a 100 pages to print out. The evidence and the story are clearly designed to use up as little.

There’s a big variety of clues in this game including maps, fingerprints, coded messages and some contextual clues that you’ll need to pick up from interrogations. This variety tests a range of deductive abilities rather than simply relying on one mechanic.

The optional clue hints were very useful and needed. The are not included in the printed PDF, so you can’t accidentally see them. If you want a hint, you simply scan the QR code and it’ll take you to hints website. The hints don’t directly give you the answer, so you’ll still need to work it out for yourself, but there are multiple ones available for every objective and puzzle, so you’re guaranteed to be able to complete it.

Murder at Tulip King Hotel Review

There were 6 objectives to solve in this game. Each one had multiple steps to it, so it was never as simple as searching for a lie in documents. I’ve done a few cases by Print Mysteries, and noticed that every new case tries to outdo the last one – so there are no similar puzzles, story elements or general train of thought. It’s always a completely unique and interesting experience. And this holds true for this case as well. For the first time, they’ve added a puzzle that requires you to use a scissors to cut out text fragments to try and combine them in the right order. It’s a fun mechanic for a puzzle that I enjoyed way more than I expected to.

The story is pretty involved, but not overly complicated. You’re the investigator and you have to use 1930s methods in order to investigate. So things like fingerprints and handwriting will all need to be manually compared by eye,

As I mentioned earlier, it’s rating of medium-hard is accurate. I’ve completed lots of these types of cases and this one was definitely a challenge. The cut-up paper puzzle was the most perplexing one I’ve done from this company and required some serious investigating through the materials in order to eventually solve it.

The story, the evidence and puzzles were all excellent. I really can’t fault this game at anything. It’s low-cost, fun and challenging, which is everything I want in a murder mystery case file. It’s gets full stars from me and is a must-buy if you enjoy these types of games.

Difficulty Analysis

Murder at Tulip King Hotel is classified as Medium-Hard. In the context of print-and-play mystery games, this places it far above beginner-level cases but below cases that make you want to pull your hair out. The Medium-Hard rating reflects the combination of evidence types and the time it will take to complete all the objectives.

While some of their games are more puzzle-focused or code-focused, this case is clearly analysis-focused. In order to complete most of the objectives, I needed to have a good understanding of where and what every person in the hotel was doing. Using a highlighter helped a lot to keep track of what everyone’s alibi was.

Solo, it took me 4 hours to complete. I was in no rush, and enjoying the case throughout my time with it. In a group setting, you could probably complete it faster.

Format and Setup

Murder at Tulip King Hotel is a print-and-play product, meaning you get your file as a PDF that is downloaded immediately after purchase. There is no physical product shipped to you. The PDF is designed for standard A4 or US Letter paper, both of which are the most widely available paper sizes, and no specialist printer or paper stock is required.

Because it is a digital download, there is no waiting time for delivery. There are also no expensive printing and shipping costs added onto the price, so you get a premium product at a very low price.

Considerations

Pricing

Murder at Tulip King Hotel is currently priced at $16.00 USD as a single-purchase digital download. This seems to be the standard price tier for the more content-heavy Print Mysteries titles. Slightly shorter cases in the catalog are priced lower (for example, Hell at the Restaurant is listed at $12.00).

At $16.00 for tons of content, evidence, interrogations, puzzles and hints – you really can’t go wrong with this case file. A physical game of this size and scope would easily cost over $50. A group of four splitting the cost brings the individual cost for a gaming night well below $5.00 per player.

Frequently Asked Questions

Verdict

Murder at Tulip King Hotel is an extremely well-constructed printable murder mystery case file that has everything I want in a game: a great setting, an interesting suspect pool, varied evidence types, and a structured gameplay format that prevents the investigation from going off the rails. The medium-hard difficulty kept the entire playthrough challenging but fun, and the 1930s hotel setting was a fun throwback to whodunit games that I grew up on.

At only $16.00, the price is beyond reasonable. It’s a huge and complex mystery that I had a blast with alone. But I can imagine it being an incredibly fun and unique date night experience or game night idea.