Mystery Adventures

KnowTheToe · Jul 2, 2004

I am in the middle of creating a mid level mystery adventure based mostly with-in the city. I have to be very general in my description as I plan on play testing this at the next chicago game day.

Anyway, there is a crime committed and many clues are left behind. The PCs will have 3-4 leads to follow. Some of those leads will seem to be dead ends which may become important later in the game, a few will lead to other ave of pursuit and some will just be a waste of time. I have a complication that hits the players and they will not know if it is linked or not. The complication could be very deadly and make the players, if they are not careful, some important and powerful enemies (lots of potential RPing here).

What I want to avoid is spoon feeding the mystery to the PCs and making it an excercise of going from point A to B to C. I also don't want to make it so complicated that they get lost. PCs can easily get lost, especially if it takes several game sessions to finish.

I am planning on adding distractions to the mystery to divert the PCs attention and therefore make the mystery seem larger than it truely is, but I wanted to get some other opinions and experience.

So, after all of this vague babbling what I am asking is, how do you handle mysteries? How do you keep them interesting and keep the PCs thinking?

Thornir Alekeg · Jul 2, 2004

First suggestion, make sure the players understand that you are planning on running a mystery, that there will be clues and leads, might be false trails and you will not spoone feed them if they don't work at this.

Second, how long do you think this adventure might take and how often do you play? My group plays infrequently and a mystery that I tried with them ended up impossible because they lost too many details during the weeks between sessions. I had to spend too much time reminding them of details that were important, and it clued them in that they were important.

Last, have some subtle backup plans to nudge them back on track if they get completely lost. If you don't you either have to spoonfeed them to get them back on track, ruining the mood, or they flounder along for so long they just get frustrated and look for some simple orc tribes to slaughter.

KnowTheToe · Jul 2, 2004

The group meets every other week. I do create handouts of almost all of the clues. Otherwise I have found people forget ALL of the more subtle clues and facets of the adventure.

Dirigible · Jul 2, 2004

Last, have some subtle backup plans to nudge them back on track

You mean smaller, more discreet spoons?

how do you handle mysteries?

Exactly as you outline. Do that, and it should work fine. Not very helpful, I know, but there you go.

Oh, and one other thing: always let the PCs followe very lead no matter how far off track they get. Sometimes they reach the correct conclusions by a roundabout route; more oftne, it's a perfect exercise in off-the-cuff and improvisational GMing.

Thornir Alekeg · Jul 2, 2004

Dirigible said:
You mean smaller, more discreet spoons?

Yes, you know like those little spoons they put into mustard jars. They aren't really big enough to eat with, and most people just ignore them and stick their knife into the jar anyway.

Oh, and one other thing: always let the PCs followe very lead no matter how far off track they get. Sometimes they reach the correct conclusions by a roundabout route; more oftne, it's a perfect exercise in off-the-cuff and improvisational GMing.

If you have a very goal-oriented group, they might get very frustrated if they get so far off the track they cannot figure out how to get back. Obviously its all about knowing your group and making sure they are having fun. My group tends to be pretty linear in their thinking, so the "smaller, subtle spoons" help them without being obvious that I'm pulling them back when they get lost and frustrated.

Toe, it does sound to me like you have a good plan. Good luck.

Chunklets · Jul 2, 2004

Just off the top of my head, maybe try to pick up a copy of the old 1E module called The Assassin's Knot. It was a pretty nice little mystery adventure, and you might find some useful ideas about running such a game. In any case, best of luck with your game; getting a mystery adventure right is very rewarding for a DM (I've found, anyway), but it is tough to do!

Hand of Evil · Jul 2, 2004

Start from the solution and work backwards, building a flow chart, thinks like clue A: a small scrap of paper with some writing on it - Found Yes; Leads to Clue D - Found No; Nothing Happens.

List out your clues, including false ones.
NPCs, build relationships to players based on sucess of interaction rolls, and place in your flow chart. Players piss off NPC, he tryes to kill them.
NPCs. do a family tree showing relationship to the mystery.