Murder Mystery · 19th-Century Russia (Russian) · Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov

The Karamazov Affair

A wealthy patriarch is murdered for 3,000 roubles. Three brothers and a servant hold the pieces.

4 players · 4 episodes, one each morning · $1.99

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Friends join by replying YES to an email. No app or account needed.

⚡ Interactive Story Sample

Experience Episode 1 Right Now

Select a character and make their fateful opening decision. See how the Story God narrative engine responds before starting the full chronicle with your friends.

Playing as Dmitri

The Accused · “Caught near the gate with money he refuses to explain.”

📍 Where You Are

Grushenka's sitting room at dawn. You are still in last night's blood-spattered clothes. Two imperial gendarmes stand outside the garden doorway.

🔫 Your Loaded Gun

Fifteen hundred roubles are sewn into your coat lining—money from Katerina Ivanovna. You heard your father cry out in the garden, but you did not strike him.

Choose Your Action For Night 1:

The premise

From the morning police interrogation to the night before the trial, every alibi and confession shifts who takes the fall.

Every morning, each player receives a private episode in their inbox: what their character saw, what they learned, and a choice only they can make. They reply with their decision whenever suits them that day, and the next episode follows from what everyone chose. No app, no account, no scheduling a time to play together.

The cast

4 roles. Each player takes one.

Dmitri

The Accused

“Caught near the gate with money he refuses to explain.”

You threatened your father publicly and were seen at his garden wall the night he died. You didn't kill him—but clearing your name requires exposing the woman you love.

Ivan: Your intellectual brother—whose courtroom testimony can save or condemn you.

Alyosha: Your youngest brother—the only person in town who believes your innocence.

Smerdyakov: The servant—whose convenient seizure left you as the sole suspect.

Ivan

The Intellectual

“Inspired a murder he thought was purely theoretical.”

You argued that if there is no immortality, everything is permitted—and left for Moscow knowing someone took your words as a contract. Telling the court destroys your own name.

Smerdyakov: The servant—who hints that he acted on your exact philosophy.

Dmitri: Your older brother—sitting in a cell for a murder you helped set in motion.

Alyosha: Your younger brother—trying to save Dmitri without letting you break.

Alyosha

The Witness

“Found the only eyewitness who saw a second figure.”

You discovered an elderly neighbor who saw a second figure moving like a servant at midnight. You hold the evidence that can crack the prosecution—at the cost of tearing your family apart.

Dmitri: Your imprisoned brother—counting on you to find proof before the trial.

Ivan: Your brilliant brother—on the verge of a public breakdown over his guilt.

Smerdyakov: The quiet cook—watching your investigation from his sickbed.

Smerdyakov

The Servant

“Protected by an alibi while holding the stolen roubles.”

Your epileptic seizure gives you an ironclad medical alibi, and the 3,000 roubles are hidden where only you know. You can disappear cleanly—or pull Ivan down with you.

Ivan: Your philosophical mentor—bound to you by shared complicity.

Dmitri: The convenient scapegoat—whose temper made your crime look like his.

Alyosha: The quiet threat—asking questions near the garden gate.

How it works

1
Add your friends
Enter the email addresses of the 4 people you want to play with. Nobody needs an app or an account.
2
They reply YES
Each friend confirms by replying YES to the invitation email. Players must be 18+, and anyone can reply STOP at any time.
3
One episode every morning
Each player gets a private episode from their character's point of view, then replies with their choice.
4
The ending
After the final episode, everyone receives the ending, with the choices each player made in secret revealed.

Play With Your Friends

The Karamazov Affair

Experience Episode 1 Right Now

The premise

The cast

How it works

Add your friends

They reply YES

One episode every morning

The ending

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