murder in mind...

[Child of Hypnos]

I'm kinda new to this DMing stuff, so this question will probably sound a tad weird.

I want to give my PCs in the Eberron Campaign i'm running a change of pace, so i figured a good involved murder mystery (preferably one grizzly enough to make use of the Dread & taint rules from Heroes of Horror) would be ideal.

Trouble is, i'm not sure how all the finding clues stuff works.

How do i go about getting them to track down the killer?, 'cause i know that if i get it wrong the murderer will either be untraceable or traced far to fast.
Any suggestions? anyone?

 

[birdchili]

- physical evidence: have the players find something or some physical clue. This can suggest a certain guilty party, or just provide a clue to where to look next, or an avenue of questioning for various npcs.

- interviews: make the characters good! have the relevant information everyone knows down before hand so you don't end up giving too much away in one npc conversation.

- magic/divination/scrying: be ready for it.

In general - I'd say players miss a lot more than they catch as far as clues go (my experience) so err on the side of too many clues. On a similar note - make sure that missing one clue somewhere doesn't make the whole thing unsolveable - provide multiple ways to figure things out.

Having some early red herrings for players to chase is a good idea as long as it isn't too frustrating.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

When setting up a "whodunit," DMs, like mystery authors have a unique edge - they already know whodunit. Therefore, it becomes much, much easier for them to make the links between various clues to get the "right" answer.

Players, generally speaking, don't have that kind of mental cheat sheet.

Therefore, a clue or puzzling bit of info that seems obvious - even stupidly, blindly, oh-my-gosh-how-can-they-miss-this obvious - to you might go right past your players.

An interesting idea I saw once, when this same idea was discussed a little while ago, is to have numerous potential bad guys. Let the players find the clues, let them discuss what they all mean, let them figure out the links and then, after they've decided who the guilty party is and how they did it, make that what happened.

If you're good, your players will never know the difference.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

Npc conversations is an additional problem..
the basic plot's inspired by 2 steal this hook articles-
but basically the victims are supposed to indicate a vampire (this campaign has a lot of vampires so getting the PCs to assume that should be easy at least.)
the murderer is infact a deranged warforged tainted scholar (from HoH), how do i stop witnesses revealing this to early?

 

[Child of Hypnos]

'An interesting idea I saw once, when this same idea was discussed a little while ago, is to have numerous potential bad guys. Let the players find the clues, let them discuss what they all mean, let them figure out the links and then, after they've decided who the guilty party is and how they did it, make that what happened.

If you're good, your players will never know the difference. '[/QUOTE]

An intrestin idea - sadly ive already got a villan (or was it villains?)

my next time though...

 

[Reynard]

Players, generally speaking, don't have that kind of mental cheat sheet.

Actually, I have discovered that in D&D -- especially at levels where True Seeing and Scry and Divination are available -- it is a good thing to let the PCs know who did it right off the bat. The trick is forcing them to *prove* it. They can use magic and stuff to track down the killer, or examine leads, etc... But, ultimately, in front the local magistrate or Lord or whatever, they have to have to real, hard evidence. Magic can create as many lies as it can reveal, so even in a magical society, actual eevidence is going to be necessary.

Have the characters witness a grisly murder in an alley. They are the only ones around. The killer escapes. The guards come and charge the PCs. After a night in jail, the Magistrate sees them and gives them 24 hours to prove their innocence (this is, after all, a world without a Bill of Rights) or they will be convicted of the murder. Should they flee, they will convicted in absentia and a price will be put on their heads.

Incidentally, bringing the Magistrate a cleaved and burnt corpse isn't going to do it. they need a confession or overwhelming mundane evidence.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

Have the characters witness a grisly murder in an alley. They are the only ones around. The killer escapes. The guards come and charge the PCs. After a night in jail, the Magistrate sees them and gives them 24 hours to prove their innocence (this is, after all, a world without a Bill of Rights) or they will be convicted of the murder. Should they flee, they will convicted in absentia and a price will be put on their heads.

doesn't really lend itself well to Horror though does it?...

that and the fact that unless my PCs have a personal stake in all this they'll probably just ignore it. ive got 4 CN and 1 LE PCs to drag into this

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Illusions are just about custom-made for this sort of thing.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

Illusions are just about custom-made for this sort of thing.

now i like that idea, (not quite sure how im gonna work it, but i like)

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

doesn't really lend itself well to Horror though does it?...

It might, if, upon casting Speak with Dead on the corpse, it just starts screaming and gibbering (perhaps the effect of a new necromantic spell that killed it?).