Host kit · 12–20 players · 3.5 hours

The Hollow Masquerade: the whole evening.

A free sample: the host guide, the invitation to send, the first prop, and the opening act of the player scripts. Everything else — the other acts, the words you say aloud and the sealed solution — unlocks with the paid kit below.

Back to the kit

The last night of Carnival, and the senator's masquerade is the only invitation worth having. By midnight the music has stopped, a mask lies face up on the canal steps, and Count Ottavio Moro is dead beneath it — though half the party would swear they spoke to him an hour later.

Before the night

Print the booklets and buy or make a dozen simple masks. Guests draw a mask at the door, and the mask they draw decides who they may speak to.
Light the room with candles or lamps only. The plot depends on people not being able to recognise each other across the room.
Build the marked mask and the gondola receipt early. The monogram inside the mask is the clue the whole solution turns on.
Keep the drinks in one place and the food in another, so the party keeps moving through the room the way it would in a palazzo.

Running order

7:45 pmThe masking

Let each guest draw a mask at the door and give them a booklet and a name card. Nobody uses their own name for the first hour.

8:00 pmAct I — The Masking

Read the senator's welcome and toast, then take the Act I pages. End the act on the insult to three houses.

8:45 pmDinner

Serve dinner now. Masks may be worn or set aside at the table, and either choice becomes evidence later.

9:00 pmAct II — The Water Gate

Stop the music, announce the mask on the canal steps, then the body. Hand out evidence and let the room accuse in whispers.

10:15 pmAct III — Unmasking

Let each guest remove one other guest's mask and one secret with it. Then take accusations and read the solution.

10:50 pmThe last gondola

Hand the guilty guest the confession card, then let the table unmask properly and compare notes. This is the best photograph of the night.

Seating

With twelve to twenty players, use two long tables and treat each as a household: the senator's table and the contessa's. Seat the singer at the senator's right, the confessor at the other end, and the officer where he can watch the water gate. Give every table one person who knows something the other table needs.

If it goes wrong

If the masks make people shy, have the senator command everyone to introduce themselves as somebody else for one round.
If the table is too large to accuse individually, let each household nominate a speaker.
If the mask-swap is guessed early, say the count was seen on the water stairs at midnight by two servants, and let them argue about which count.

After the night

The masks are the party favour, but keep the marked one — it is the prop the next table needs. Wipe the inside clean before storage.

Send this

The last night of Carnival. The Senator's doors open at eight and close at midnight.

Senator Alvise Contarini requests the pleasure of your company at a masquerade on the final night of Carnival, at the Palazzo Contarini on the Grand Canal. Masks are provided at the door and must be worn until midnight.

Supper will be served at nine. The water gate will be open all evening, and the gondoliers have been instructed to wait.

You are invited as a guest of the house. Come as somebody else entirely — the city has quite enough of you already.

Reply to the palazzo by Thursday. Masks are drawn at the door and cannot be exchanged.

If you send it digitally

Send it as a folded card with a single mask outline embossed or drawn on the front, the three paragraphs inside, and the words 'MIDNIGHT IS THE UNMASKING' at the foot.

Three physical props carry this story. Each one is buildable in under half an hour with things you probably already have.

Prop 01 · 25 minutes

The marked mask

The mask with a torn lining and a monogram, which proves which guest was wearing whose face.

What you need

A plain white half-mask
Silk or cotton lining fabric
Fabric glue
A fine pen and a small monogram stamp or stencil

How to make it

Glue a lining inside the mask and let it dry flat under a book.
Tear the lining at one corner so the monogram shows through the hole.
Write 'A.C.' in the corner of the lining in faded ink, small enough to be missed.
Hang the mask with the others but keep it slightly apart, so the guest who draws it feels they have been given something.

Sealed in the paid kit

The other 2 props

The remaining build sheets: materials lists, cutting guides and the folds that make them convincing by candlelight.

Unlock the full kit — $42

Print one booklet per guest from these pages. Each act has a line to read aloud and a secret for that character alone — the lines are what the table hears, the secrets are why they lie.

Act I · 8:00 pm

The Masking

Host: Welcome the guests as the senator, make the toast that insults three houses, then take the Act I pages in mask order. Nobody uses their own name until Act III.

Senator Alvise Contarini

The host

I collect votes, statues and other people's debts, and tonight I collect the whole city in one room. Masks stay on until midnight. If you recognise someone, be kind enough to pretend you do not.

Only you know You have borrowed heavily against the palazzo and the count is the only man who knows how badly. You invited him tonight to negotiate, and you made sure the water gate was open.

Donna Fiorella

The singer

I sing for the city and the city's enemies pay me, which is a very old arrangement and none of your business. Tonight I am not singing. Tonight I am listening.

Only you know You were engaged to the count years ago and he ended it badly. You have been in the palazzo since seven, before the guests, because the senator asked you to come early.

Brother Matteo

The confessor

I cannot repeat what I hear, but I will describe it, which is a distinction the Church has never quite settled. I heard a great deal this evening before the music started.

Only you know The count confessed to you this afternoon that he was being blackmailed and intended to name the blackmailer at midnight, in front of the whole party.

Capitano Rizzo

The officer

I patrol the canals and I have been seen in the wrong palazzo, which is the nature of patrols. There are four gondolas at the water gate and only three should be there.

Only you know You have been paid by the count to look the other way at the water gate tonight, and you have the money in your coat pocket.

Sealed in the paid kit

The other 2 acts

Every remaining character script, the line they read and the secret they are protecting, laid out to print and fold into booklets.

Unlock the full kit — $42

The welcome

“Welcome to the Palazzo Contarini, on the last night of Carnival. Masks are drawn at the door and worn until midnight. The water gate is open, the gondoliers are waiting, and the count is expected. If you recognise someone, be kind enough to pretend you do not.”

Sealed in the paid kit

The dinner toast and the accusation

The two speeches that open the second half and close the night, with the cue for when to stand up and how to hand over the confession.

Unlock the full kit — $42

Host’s eyes only

The culprit, the method, and how the clues fit

The solution never appears on this page. It arrives with the paid kit, sealed, to be read aloud only after every guest has accused.

Unlock the full kit — $42

Unlock

Everything, printed.

What you have just read is the sample. One payment unlocks the whole kit on this page — every act, the props, the speeches and the solution — ready to print the moment the card clears.

3 acts of player scripts, one booklet per guest
3 prop build sheets
The dinner toast, the accusation and the cue list
The sealed solution, for the host only

One payment, one kit, yours to print again for the next party. Bought it already? Open the printable kit.