Murder Mystery in Urban Setting - HELP! Ideas!

[hammymchamham]

Ok, so soon I'm going to be starting a campaign. I'm planning on doing a game set somewhere in Forgotten Relms but no idea where (most likely Baulders Gate... J/k). I'm going to start by running the Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Dramoralalala (haha I don't know how to spell it) moduel to get used to DMing again and kick off the campaign.

But after the PoR I want to do a murder mystery in a pretty good sized town. But I have no idea how to do this. In the past my games have pretty much been 'you find a cave and some monsters are in it' or 'you come to a house, and inside are all these bad guys'

I have the BoVD and plan to use some aspects of it, perhaps even a cult of baddies who are doing the murders.

So, and tips, ideas etc would be helpful for how to run a good urban adventure (looking for quite a few months worth of gaming bi-weekly) with a murder mystery behind it.

Thanks

 

[Piratecat]

Hey iconic pig, what level are the PCs? It'll make a big difference, what with divination spells and all.

 

[hammymchamham]

Arrrrrrr, shiver me timbers

I'm planning on starting them at 4th or 5th level. Hopefully they'll gain no more than 2 levels through PoR, but we'll see. I have no idea what classes they will be.

 

[WayneLigon]

A murder mystery is probably one of the harder things to run, given the prevalance of divination magic. Some things to consider:

1. Know what spells the party has available at any one time. If they're low level, this usually isn't a big problem; I don't know what level POR is for, nor the level of character that's likely to walk out of it. Consider also all the items they may have.

2. Consider the town's resources. If there is a high-level cleric there, you have to think about Speak With Dead, Raise Dead, etc. (Ressurecxtion and Raise Dead have a nifty loophole: they don't work if the person doesn't want to come back. So.. make sure it's someone who doesn't , for whatever reason).

3. Consider who dies and why. Maybe it's a town official who has been using his office to cover up for this evil cult: they have his son, and so he had to do their bidding. But why is he dead? They must no longer need him for some reason. Maybe he found out his son is forever lost to him and he arranged his own murder, unwilling to live with the guilt any longer.

4. They must care about the murdered person somehow. Maybe he was a friend. Maybe she had something the PC's need desperately and only by finding the murderer can they retrieve it. There is also the good old 'We must clear our own name!' ploy.

I know that there were a few novels published that were murder mysteries set in the Realms (Murder In Cormyr comes to mind) but I've not read them and so cannot say if they were 'fair' mysteries or relied on last minute insane deductions.

I have no idea how your players are with this, but that idea of 'fairness' makes or breaks a mystery for me. They must have a fair chance to figure the tihng out.

 

[Undead Pete]

Ok, here are some ideas off the top of my head (warning: they may suck. I still haven't had my caffeine drip turned on)

• Use Doppelgangers.
• False leads are always wonderful
• Frame the PC's (so what if it's not original...they be running from the "good guys" and that's always fun)
• Bring in moral issues. Suppose the victims aren't exactly the best-aligned folk. Do the players still pursue the killer? Better yet, make the killer a crazed fanatic paladin.
• Involve competing Theives Guilds. Make it a plot from an outside source to undermine them.
• The victims aren't dead. They've had their souls removed by some big evil nasty who is storing them to fulfill her nefarious purposes
• The victims ARE dead, but are having a bad habit of returning as undead. Set the type based on the level of your PC's
• The victims aren't just being killed. They're exploding rather messily in public places due to some "Arcane Bomber". The victims could be random, or political in nature.
• Make sure to emphasize the effect the murders are having on the city's population...from the aristocrats down to the dregs. Have a timeline set up for the intensity of public reaction.
• Large pieces of the victims are being removed....later the PC's find out that those pieces have now been melded together into a flesh golem which is terrorizing the streets.

Hope I sparked some ideas.

 

[Mystic Eye]

When you get a chance take a look at our books called Of Places Most Foul. There are a couple of pieces that may fit for you but one called Great Smiles.
Also, several of the Locales in our Foul Locales: Urban blight book are set up for an Urban murder mystery.

 

[Grazzt]

For ideas concerning murder mysteries, if you can find it (most likely on EBay), locate an old 1e module called "The Assassin's Knot."

 

[Tonguez]

I was once involved with a murder mystery which had 3 fun factors

1. The PCs had just been part of a battle against a Necromancer and Zombi inions about a month earlier

2. About a week after the murders began (and after 4th death) Zombi's attacked the local Morgue (Red Herring but the PCs immediately concluded that the Necromancer was involved!)

3. A Mysterious figure in black was seen at the scene of each murder but quickly dissapeared when others arrive (- the PCs assume this is the murderer. In fact this figure was an NPC NG Spectre who was formerly a paladin until killed by a Spectre. The NPC is also investigating the murders, and towards the end begins to help the PCs)

4, The Murderer is part of a Cult and is taking the hearts of his victims to be offered as sacrifices in return for which the Dark-god grants a new power (1 per sacrifice eg increase strength, ethereal jaunt, protection from detection) ie the longer it takes to find the killer the harder it gets to stop him

5. After 12 Hearts are offered the Dark-god will in fact take over the Killers body and in that way enter the world as the Avatar of Murder

 

[hammymchamham]

Thanks for the ideas. Keep em comming

Make sure to emphasize the effect the murders are having on the city's population...from the aristocrats down to the dregs. Have a timeline set up for the intensity of public reaction.

I didn't even think about having a time line for public reactions. A time line will help alot for this. Thanks

 

[Mr Fidgit]

timelines are great for mysteries...one of the few good things about Ravenloft: House on Griffon Hill was the timeline. things in the region kept changing, so PCs wouldn't know what to expect from one day to the next (or one hour to the next! )