# Jubensha (剧本杀)
**Jubensha** (剧本杀, jùběnshā, literally "script murder") is a Chinese hosted murder mystery game in which each player receives a booklet for one character, containing a backstory, relationships, secrets, and goals, and the table reads, investigates, discusses, and finally votes on who committed the crime before a host reveals the full story.[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) The genre took shape in China during the 2010s and grew into a large commercial industry of specialist venues, professional scriptwriters, and published box sets.[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) • [2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) English-language writing also uses the names script murder, scripted murder, and script kill for the same format.[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | 剧本 (jùběn, "script") + 杀 (shā, "kill"); also called script murder or script kill[3](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/) |
| Group size and length | Typically 4 to 8 players in a venue or via app with voice chat; sessions run four or more hours[4](https://mssv.net/2025/03/26/heres-what-makes-jubensha-different/) • [2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) |
| Scale in China | By 2021, roughly 45,000 jubensha shops and about ten million active players[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) |
| Market size | The script murder industry passed 10 billion yuan in China by 2019, a 68% increase year on year[5](https://www.scriptedmurder.com/blog/english-jubensha) |
| Scripts | More than 3,000 Chinese scripts had been published by late 2019[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) |
| Host | A paid host (主持人, zhǔchírén), often called the DM or GM, guides the session and reveals the story[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) |
| Decisive mechanic | The killer knows they are the killer, so one player spends the session deceiving the others[3](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/) |
## How a session runs
Each player receives a personal booklet describing their character's backstory, relationships, secrets, objectives, and what they personally know about the crime.[3](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/) Over the following hours the table reads, searches for clues, discusses, and votes on the culprit; the host then reveals the whole story.[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) Sessions in specialist escape-room-style venues cost up to 300 yuan (about $42.68) per person and take over four hours, with players given costumes and an immersive environment to rummage through.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) Play also happens digitally, through apps with group voice calls; one app player reported having completed over 110 murder mysteries with games lasting up to seven hours.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html)
The usual goal is to name the killer, but scripts vary in objective. Restoration (还原, huányuán) scripts ask players to reconstruct the whole story, not only to identify the murderer.[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) Designers also classify scripts by emphasis, including story reconstruction, timeline reconstruction, emotional role play, logical deduction, and character relationships.[6](https://whale-lynx-2xde.squarespace.com/blog/starting-point-for-design)
## Origins and growth
Script murder's main influences are Western detective games, a line running from Cluedo and Jury Box to murder mystery dinner parties, though China also has a centuries-old crime fiction tradition called gong'an featuring upright court magistrates.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) The social deduction game [Mafia](https://www.edgepedia.org/mafia-party-game), invented in Russia in the 1980s, spread the appetite for hidden-identity games in China, and its more complex variant Werewolf (langrensha) inspired specialist centers, more than 40 mobile apps, and a TV show.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html)
**The shift to scripted mysteries** came around 2015, when pirated versions of Western box set games circulated in Chinese board gaming circles, especially a hospital-themed game called Death Wears White; this inspired Chinese writers to create their own games, which they called "scripts."[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) In 2016 the reality show [Who's the Murderer](https://www.edgepedia.org/whos-the-murderer) premiered on the streaming platform Mango TV, adapting the Korean format Crime Scene with celebrity sleuths, and venues across China began recreating its experience.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) Hundreds of centers opened after 2016; Chengdu alone had more than 200 murder mystery centers by 2019, and 130 companies exhibited at the International Mystery Game Expo in Shanghai that November.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 further boosted jubensha apps among young people in major Chinese cities, since the games could be played without meeting in person.[7](https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/232986/Chapter_5_larp_v2_full_F-1.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)
The industry's rapid growth also produced problems that venues and creators acknowledged: storylines stolen between venues, escalating extreme or explicit content, and rampant piracy, with one scriptwriter finding his first game distributed free online within weeks of release.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html) In 2022, Chinese authorities encouraged "healthy" jubensha content and even commissioned patriotic-themed scripts, omitting the murder, to educate players about Communist Party history.[8](https://rabbithole.rs/blog/the-complete-history-of-jubensha.html)
## How jubensha differs from related games
Jubensha is often compared to murder mystery parties, live-action role-playing (larp), escape rooms, and tabletop role-playing games, and researchers note that this reliance on comparison has made the format hard to deconstruct on its own terms.[9](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389445980_The_Collaborative_Sensemaking_Play_of_Jubensha_Games_A_Deconstruction_Taxonomy_and_Analysis) The distinctions are concrete. Compared with Western murder mystery games, jubensha is longer, has a paid host, uses active clue-searching, and tells the killer that they are the killer, so one player deceives the others throughout.[3](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/)
**Against larp and tabletop games.** Jubensha is described as a distinctive Chinese adaptation of larp, originally adapted from immersive commercial experiences such as escape rooms, in which specialized studios charge fees for organizational services, customized props, and themed environments.[10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403549863_What_are_Studio_Games_Using_the_GFI_Model_to_Investigate_Chinese_Jubensha) Unlike many larps that emphasize collaborative storytelling and emotional performance, jubensha works from an unchanging script with a deduction-based framework: rather than inventing fresh core narratives, participants jointly piece a prewritten scenario back together by acting it out and reasoning through it.[10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403549863_What_are_Studio_Games_Using_the_GFI_Model_to_Investigate_Chinese_Jubensha) Jubensha scripts are more structured and professionally designed and are guided by staff, while larp scripts prioritize improvisation, player freedom, and minimal physical infrastructure; one analysis calls studio jubensha a commercially packaged, "rigorous scripted larp."[10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403549863_What_are_Studio_Games_Using_the_GFI_Model_to_Investigate_Chinese_Jubensha) Tabletop role-playing games, by contrast, use imagination, dice mechanics, and improvisation, and give players more freedom to change story outcomes.[10](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403549863_What_are_Studio_Games_Using_the_GFI_Model_to_Investigate_Chinese_Jubensha) Jubensha has no dice, no character creation, and no improvised world.[3](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/)
## Players and social role
A study of Chinese murder mystery players in the International Journal of Role-Playing proposed an eight-type player typology inspired by Bartle's taxonomy: professor, braggart, conqueror, detective, actor, politician, socializer, and viewer.[11](https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/article/download/303/861/3278)
The venues have taken on a social function beyond the game itself. Commentators describe jubensha parlors as coveted "third spaces" away from home and work for Chinese Gen Z players, a role malls and cafes played for earlier generations.[12](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/the-rise-of-scripted-murder-games-from-china/) Players also cite the format's value for breaking the ice, which has made it a popular choice for corporate team-building events.[2](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html)
## Research and applied uses
**Cultural heritage.** A 2023 study in the International Journal of Role-Playing argues that larps, specifically in the form of jubensha, play a role in safeguarding China's intangible cultural heritage: while Chinese MMORPGs present national-level intangible elements from different regions, jubensha focuses more on the indigenous traditions and customs of small-scale local areas.[13](https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/article/view/358)
**Museums.** Museums in China are adopting jubensha, described there as a narrative-driven larp format rooted in Chinese narrative traditions, to attract visitors and build gamified experiences; researchers have proposed quantitative frameworks, such as the Motion in Mind model, to evaluate these designs using cases including the Sea Monster Exhibit, Canal Mystery, and Jiangmen Script Tour.[14](https://dspace.jaist.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10119/20075/1/proceedings_of_AWIST2025.pdf)
**Education.** A mixed-method study of 84 Chinese college students, with 42 in an experimental group playing educational [live action role-playing games](https://www.edgepedia.org/live-action-role-playing-game) 2 to 5 hours per week over 8 weeks, found improvements in social-emotional competence in the dimensions of Engaging with Others, Collaboration, and Open-mindedness.[15](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1538761/full)
**Artificial intelligence.** Jubensha has become a testbed for AI research: a 2023 arXiv study explored the application of large language models to Jubensha as multi-agent detective role-playing, a setting that requires deception, deduction, and hidden information.[16](https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00746)
## Spread beyond China
The format has begun reaching English-speaking players. A January 2024 YouTube video is credited with introducing most attendees at the first English-language jubensha convention to the game, and convention demos are where most North Americans first play; at that event, four out of five attendees had never played before and nine out of ten said they would play again.[1](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/) [Translation](https://www.edgepedia.org/translation) is a real constraint: clues based on wordplay, names, or the components of written [Chinese characters](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-characters) often cannot survive translation and must be rebuilt from scratch for English scripts.[3](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/) Singapore-based studios now create original English jubensha games, and the format has been compared, in its spread, to the way it packages a hosted immersive experience in a box for a contained room.[17](https://jubenshacon.com/about/)
## References
1. [What is jubensha? Jubensha Central](https://jubenshacentral.com/guides/what-is-jubensha/)
2. [Murder, They Scripted, Caixin Global / Sixth Tone (2019)](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2019-12-28/murder-they-scripted-101498732.html)
3. [What Is Jubensha? Inside China's Script Murder Games, Missing Witness](https://murdermysteryai.com/blog/what-is-jubensha-script-murder/)
4. [Here's What Makes Jubensha Different, mssv (2025)](https://mssv.net/2025/03/26/heres-what-makes-jubensha-different/)
5. [Scripted Murder, Melbourne Jubensha](https://www.scriptedmurder.com/blog/english-jubensha)
6. [Designing a Jubensha Game? Start here! Twist n Turn Studios](https://whale-lynx-2xde.squarespace.com/blog/starting-point-for-design)
7. [Chapter 5, larp in China, Tampere University repository](https://trepo.tuni.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/232986/Chapter_5_larp_v2_full_F-1.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1)
8. [The Complete History of Jubensha, Rabbit Hole](https://rabbithole.rs/blog/the-complete-history-of-jubensha.html)
9. [The Collaborative Sensemaking Play of Jubensha Games, Games Research and Practice (2025)](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389445980_The_Collaborative_Sensemaking_Play_of_Jubensha_Games_A_Deconstruction_Taxonomy_and_Analysis)
10. [What are Studio Games?: Using the GFI Model to Investigate Chinese Jubensha, International Journal of Role-Playing](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403549863_What_are_Studio_Games_Using_the_GFI_Model_to_Investigate_Chinese_Jubensha)
11. [Player Category Research on Murder Mystery Games, International Journal of Role-Playing Issue 13](https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/article/download/303/861/3278)
12. [The Rise of Scripted Murder Games from China, The Strong National Museum of Play](https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/the-rise-of-scripted-murder-games-from-china/)
13. [Experiencing China's Intangible Cultural Heritage in Role-playing Games, International Journal of Role-Playing (2023)](https://journals.uu.se/IJRP/article/view/358)
14. [Quantitative Optimization of Gamified Museum Experiences: A Motion in Mind Approach, AWIST 2025](https://dspace.jaist.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10119/20075/1/proceedings_of_AWIST2025.pdf)
15. [The impact of educational live action role-playing games on social-emotional competence, Frontiers in Psychology (2025)](https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1538761/full)
16. [Deciphering Digital Detectives: Understanding LLM Behaviors and Capabilities in Multi-Agent Mystery Games, arXiv (2023)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00746)
17. [About, Jubensha Con 2026](https://jubenshacon.com/about/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Board, card, and puzzle games › Tabletop role-playing games*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license