How to play Whodunit (Phá Án): crack an invented crime with the case file split across your phones

A game step by step, passing sheets, answers and locks, Chill and Race, the two cases and tips, for 1 to 30 players.

Updated 5 November 2026

Whodunit is a detective game for 1 to 30 players. A narrator introduces an invented crime and its suspects, the case file is dealt across everyone's phones like real paper, and your team works out what happened by answering the case's questions one by one. Its Vietnamese name, Phá Án, means “crack the case”.

In GatherPlay's Whodunit every player has a phone, and a TV is the best way to play: it reads the intro aloud, shows the suspects and, in a race, the lanes of the teams. There are two cases to start with: The Jade Bangle (Easy, about 20 minutes) and The Salted Broth (Medium, about 30 minutes). Each one is its own entry in the game list, with its own page.

The goal

Find out what happened by answering every question of the case. In Chill your team just cracks it at its own pace. In Race, several teams work on the same case and the first one to answer everything wins.

A game, step by step

1. The host picks a case and a mode and starts. In Race, everyone first picks a team: there is a short countdown to join a team or switch, and the host can shuffle the teams or open the case at once.
2. The narrator introduces the case: who you are in the story, the setting and each suspect in turn. The host can skip it. The scene and the cast always stay in your case file.
3. Then the case file is dealt. Your team's sheets are shared out between its players, so each phone holds a few of them.
4. Read your sheets, tell your team what is in them, and pass sheets around or ask a teammate for theirs.
5. Switch to the Answer tab. Your team answers one question at a time, from 6 to 8 choices. Anyone on the team can send an answer, and a confirmation asks you to check it first.
6. A right answer opens the next question. After the last one, your team has cracked the case.
7. When play is over, everyone can tap Show the story. The narrator tells the truth, every sheet opens for everyone, and a summary shows each team's time, wrong picks and hints.

The case file and the sheets

• The setting and the cast, with a name and a role each, are for everyone. The sheets are the evidence: statements, chat messages, a safe's log, a floor plan.
• Only the phone holding a sheet can read it. Teammates see its title and who has it. It is scarce, not secret: you can look at a friend's phone, but the point is to talk.
• In the case file, In your hands lists the sheets you hold and With your teammates lists the others.
• To pass a sheet, open it and tap Give, then pick a teammate. It moves at once, and both phones show a short notice.
• To get one, tap Ask on a teammate's sheet. They see your request with a Give button. If it is still open after 30 seconds, tap Take it and the sheet is yours.
• A phone that fell asleep holding half the file? Anyone on the team can use Deal the sheets again. If a player leaves, their sheets go to their teammates.

Answers, wrong picks and hints

• You see only your team's current question. Each answer you give is sent for the whole team.
• A wrong choice is crossed out and locks your team: 30 seconds the first time on a question in Chill, 1 minute in Race. Each further wrong choice on the same question doubles the wait.
• While locked you cannot answer, but you can still read and pass sheets.
• In Race a wrong choice is crossed out for every other team too, with the name and colour of the team that picked it. Watch the choices other teams cross out.
• Each question has one hint. In Chill it is free. In Race it locks your team for 90 seconds.
• Locks and the Race clock stand still when the host pauses the game.

Chill or Race

• Chill: one team of 1 to 8 players, no clock and no winner. The summary shows your time, wrong picks and hints, so it is a good first game with family and for playing alone.
• Race: 4 to 30 players in 2 to 6 teams of 2 to 5, all on the same case, with a time limit. Teams are named Owls, Black Cats, Silver Foxes, Brown Bears, Grey Wolves and Otters. The first team to answer everything wins, and the others play on until they finish or time runs out.

By default the game picks for you: Chill with 1 to 5 players and Race with 6 or more. The host can choose the mode, the team size and the time limit.

Tips

• Read your sheet aloud before you pass it. The others cannot see it, and the clue is often in a small detail.
• Questions open in order, and each one tells you something about the one before it. Do not rush ahead.
• Reading beats guessing. A wrong pick locks your team, and it gets longer each time you miss on the same question.
• Pick one teammate to send the answers, so a tap does not go out before you have agreed.
• In Race, watch what the other teams cross out: every choice they get wrong is one less for you.

Playing apart

A team can play from different homes. Start a call on Discord or Google Meet and talk there. Everyone joins the room with the code on their own phone, the sheets are passed with a tap and every phone shows the intro as subtitles. A shared screen is not needed.

Start a game

1. Open GatherPlay on the TV and host a Whodunit game. Pick one of the cases.
2. Players join with the code or the QR code, 1 to 30 of them.
3. Leave the mode on automatic or pick Chill or Race, then start. In Race everyone picks a team first.