D&D 5E Designing Investigative Adventures

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

Supporter

• Nov 19, 2017

• #1

I've now designed my first investigative adventure. There's a mystery. The players have to solve it.

It's the middle bits that are hard. Big showdown against the Bad Guy at the end? Easy. What the problem is? Easy.

Working out the clues that the PCs can find? Working out what the Bad Guy might have mucked up to leave clues? And making it so that one clue doesn't lead straight to the end because you want there to actually be an investigation rather than a linear adventure? Those are the hard bits.

This is for a convention, so there's a time limit. At some point, the players have to solve it - inside the limit. And not too quick, because advertising a 4-hour adventure which then runs for 30 minutes isn't so good.

Oh, and you have to put all the bits into a format the DM can interpret!

Now to do some revisions.

Cheers!

 

log in or register to remove this ad

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

Supporter

• Nov 19, 2017

• #2

Ultimately, the solution I employed included red herrings. I didn't want to employ too many of them (as they frustrate the players when they go down too many wrong paths), but if using them helps illuminate parts of the city the adventurers normally wouldn't visit? That seemed like a good idea for me.

So, I designed a parallel plot which had some similarity to the events they were looking for, and set the clues to point to it as well. The players can - if they investigate the initial clues enough - not be sidetracked, but my expectation is that many groups won't do that, and so will experience both sides.

I also wanted to be able for the players to get help from other groups. So, if they have uncovered some information, the Watch, the Thieves' Guild and the factions can help them find out more.

Oh, and they could consult a sage. Because I like old-school D&D!

Cheers!

 

pukunui

Legend

• Nov 19, 2017

• #3

Yeah, mystery/investigation adventures are tricky. I tend to avoid them whenever possible. Sounds like you've got it sorted, though. I hope it works out in play.

 

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

Supporter

• Nov 19, 2017

• #4

The great advantage of investigative adventures is that they promote role-playing and exploration. It's really easy to write combat-heavy mods, but it's nice to give something to the role-players out there!

Cheers!

 

pukunui

Legend

• Nov 19, 2017

• #5

Yes. They're just much harder to write - and much harder to run - than combat-heavy adventures.

I am reminded of the "three clue rule" espoused by Jason Alexander. I've always thought that was a good idea, although I've never had cause to make much use of it myself (since I mainly run premade adventures these days).

 

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)

• Nov 19, 2017

• #6

Design investigative adventures as you would a dungeon. Each scene is a room, each clue is a hallway.

 

LordEntrails

Hero

• Nov 19, 2017

• #7

Have you read this?
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule
(EDIT: as mentioned above)

 

hbarsquared

Quantum Chronomancer

• Nov 19, 2017

• #8

LordEntrails said:

Have you read this?
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule
(EDIT: as mentioned above)

Click to expand...

Bookmarked.

 

MerricB

Eternal Optimist

Supporter

• Nov 19, 2017

• #9

One of the things I feel quite strongly is that looking for clues isn't that interesting - it's what the players do with the clues once they find them...

Cheers!

 

pukunui

Legend

• Nov 19, 2017

• #10

MerricB said:

One of the things I feel quite strongly is that looking for clues isn't that interesting - it's what the players do with the clues once they find them...

Click to expand...

That's an interesting approach. I'll have to remember that.