A thread for advice, anecdotes, and cautionary tales of running campaigns with mystery and crime solving as a focus
Whatever system we're talking about, mystery games feel like the most challenging type to run. Where do you draw the line between challenging the character (roll to investigate crime scene) and challenging the players (which lead is worth following)?
And to what degree is the "truth" set in stone? If as a GM one plots every detail of the crime and evidence to a T beforehand, two pitfalls may arise: the players may spend so much time in pursuit of a red herring that a whole session passes where they are no closer to the truth, and they feel frustrated. On the other hand, if there are no red herrings and the solution is always obvious, where's the "mystery"?
These are questions I ask myself lately while I run isolated World of Darkness one-shots and prepare to start a Hunter: The Vigil (think Batman meets the Supernatural TV series) campaign. In one single-session game of Hunter I ran, I ended up completely changing the identity of the dark mage cabal from crooked city politicians to university board-members because the PCs were focusing on a different aspect of the clue than I intended.
Some of the things I planned got thrown out the window (the mayor didn't get assassinated mid-game, there was no assault on city hall) but this was definitely a successful change because other interesting things happened instead (the dean's interrogation was hilarious, and the attack by shadowy figures in the park by the college was dramatic).
Who else has run mystery/crime-solving themed games? Were they Pathfinder, or some other system? What worked, what didn't work? Or do you just avoid the motif altogether, feeling it would never work for your group?
I don't think I'm smart enough to run something my player's can't figure out right away. I'd love to run mystery game sessions. Just don't think I could pull it off.
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All RPGs at their most basic levels are flowcharts. This is true of dungeons, it's true of hexcrawls and it's true of mystery adventures.
As a GM crafting a mystery requires working backwards from the crime. I usually begin with a card that starts like this.
The Crime: Muuuurder
The Victim: Abigail Bresly (Human Female, Occupation: Courier)
The Murderer: Tarsk d'Vandros (Deadbeat noble)
Motive: Covering up his illegal monster smuggling operation.
Murder Weapon: Cockatrice Gaze
Scene 1: The body
The PCs are alerted to a statue placed in the middle of a road. The statue is fully clothed, and the local watch suspect petrification. The PCs are called to investigate.
Clues:
No Check
- Messenger bag with a symbol of winged shoes.
- The bag contains packages and letters but none of them are addressed to the section of town she was found in.
- The victim is posed as if mid-run.
- Victim is a human female.
Kn. (Local)
DC 10 The messenger bag symbol is for Wingfoot Deliveries. (Lead: Wingfoot Deliveries)
DC 20 The girl is Abigail Bresly, one of the city's fastest couriers. She lives in the Copper Quarter of the city. (A successful Diplomacy Check DC 15 can reveal where she lives, and the PCs can talk to Abigail's husband).
Heal
DC 10 Petrification is clearly the cause of death.
DC 12 She doesn't appear to show any other signs of injury, so this petrification was not caused by any injury.
Kn. (Arcana)
This check can reveal a list of monsters that are capable of petrification.
Diplomacy
DC 10 (Gather Information) A witness from a nearby home can recall being awoken by a strange rooster crow at around 4 AM. Earlier than most roosters would crow, and stranger still in this part of the city.
DC 20 (Gather Information) A homeless fellow can be heard muttering about "The Velvet Man and his Mean Chicken".
Interesting breakdown!
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Building a mystery adventure isn't really any different then building a dungeon. Each room is a scene and instead of doors and corridors connecting them you give clues that will lead to a new scene. They run just about the same too.
There are some particulars to handing over clues to ensure the party doesn't get stuck and they may jump across the flowchart to an unconnected scene if they have a clue they didn't follow previously, but nothing major. I recommend trying to run a mystery or flowchart-style adventure or two if you never have before, they can be quite fun.
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Great question Big Lemon! Very good answer Dudemeister! I have to say that mystery/crime-solving adventures can be both difficult to write and to play out correctly. I agree wholeheartedly with Dudemeister's formula for crime creation. Keep it simple to start. What is the crime? Who committed it? When? Where? How? Why? What evidence was left behind on the scene? Are there witnesses? What did they see? Also, as the GM, keep in mind that no good mystery is complete with one or two solid good herrings to throw everyone off course. Make sure to detail the hell out of the crime scene. Have an idea how your criminal, the red herring suspects, the witnesses if any, the local law enforcement, and anyone else associated with the case will react to questioning of any kind. Outrage, misplaced guilt, nervousness and, of course, well-placed guilt are all very likely emotions that will drive their role-play. A nervous npc can drive hours of role-play when the guy is totally innocent but scared nonetheless. And finally, don't let magic solve everything. A speak with dead spell or raise dead spell can solve every murder. Be careful to set up each crime where those methods become less useful. Badly mangled corpses, the murderer struck from behind, etc.. I'm currently running a Pathfinder converted Eberron campaign setting set in the city of Sharn based solely around crime-solving and mystery. The above mentioned techniques have worked beautifully. And if the players don't solve it. Oh well. Sometimes the cops don't get their man. Only Sherlock Holmes got everyone...