murder in mind...

[Hypersmurf]

Remember, criminals will have some vague idea of how investigative techniques work.

Before fingerprinting was common, nobody needed to wear gloves when they killed someone. Before forensic ballistics could match a bullet to a gun, it wasn't as necessary to ensure that your murder weapon could not be found.

Criminals who are putting some thought into a murder will take steps to avoid Speak With Dead and Scrying. For Speak With Dead, the obvious first step is to destroy the body, or at least the head. Alternatives would be to ensure that the victim cannot identify you even after they're killed - striking unseen, or using illusions to mask one's identity, or using Modify Memory to implant a false scene just before landing the final blow.

Scrying, Object Reading, and the like mean that it's important the murder weapon is not recovered, since it is a link back to its owner.

Take a look at an average episode of CSI. If there's a nice obvious bloody knife with a suspect's fingerprints on it that turns up in the first ten minutes, one can almost guarantee that the suspect isn't the killer. The 'easy answers' are either blocked (no fingerprints, no witnesses, etc), red herrings (the fingerprints have another explanation), or frames (the fingerprints were planted by the real killer). It takes an esoteric answer to crack the case - something the killer overlooked.

In D&D, there's plenty for a killer to overlook. How many murderers think to take precautions against the investigators calling in a druid to cast Stone Tell and get a rock's-eye view of the incident?

-Hyp.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

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?).

Out of curiosity what would you call it? new spells definitely are not my strong point.
although i can use that as a link in itself - he can have been taught it by the fiend thats influencing him.

In D&D, there's plenty for a killer to overlook. How many murderers think to take precautions against the investigators calling in a druid to cast Stone Tell and get a rock's-eye view of the incident?

wouldn't the rock see the same illusions that the corpse saw? - doesnt really help the Pcs acheive their goal.
not that im complaining, the more confused they get, the more murders, the more paranoid they become.

 

[adwyn]

Anticipate what they will do, especially with regards to magic. Even if the PC's cannot cast some spells there may be NPC's who can. Perhaps a whole string of killings as the killer strikes down those who could reveal him, or he may bribe or threaten someone into lying which puts the PC's in the position of proving what happened.

Additionally the spells may not always be clear. The victim, focused on the blows, might refer to a metal hand instead of a warforged. With the right nudge the players can easily take that to mean a gauntlet which in turn could be the name of a group knights they met earlier.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Out of curiosity what would you call it? new spells definitely are not my strong point.

How about ...

Bry-shyul's Hideous Demise
Necromancy [Evil]
Level: Sor / Wiz 5
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Living creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will half
Spell Resistance: Yes

Your hand is cloaked in a disturbing aura of pure evil and negative energy. The creature touched takes 1d6 damage per caster level, to a maximum of 15d6. A creature slain by this spell cannot be brought back to life via raise dead or reincarnation. Additionally, any use of speak with dead or similar effect on a creature so slain results only in screaming and gibbering. Any attempts to contact the soul of the deceased creature, other than miracle or wish, yield the same results.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

Now that is NASTY!

and complete with suitably Lords-of-dust-esque sounding creator.

might have to make a slightly less offensive version though,
blood drain is definitely goin to be the cause of death.

 

[babomb]

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.

Schrodinger's murderer!

 

[Child of Hypnos]

even schroedinger couldn't argue that he was neither dead or alive when they closed the lid on him though.

I still think that the multiple murderer system is an intresting idea.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

Any other suggestions?
the ones i have are good, but more is better

 

[Digital M@]

I found it is good to to crate a line diagram of where the clues lead. Players always miss clues, forget to follow up on them or find in character reasons to ignore them. By having a quick line diagram you can see where the players are and you can tweak the story, by dropping new clues or answers to clues the party has missed. I find this neccessary in creating a murder mystery game.

Balancing a mystery can be difficult. If it is too straight forward, it is boring for the players, create to many leads and false trails and the players quickly get lost and then bored and frustrated. This is the reason I like the flow chart. If players are struggling, I look down at the chart and throw in an encounter that can feed them some information or highlight a clue they may have forgotten. It is all about pacing.

 

[NCSUCodeMonkey]

The most important thing that I've learned about mystery adventures is that they are particularly hard to predict. What I usually do is to figure out the main players (the murderer, his lackeys, eye witnesses) and locations. Then spend some time thinking about when they spend their time where, what their motivations are, etc. Once the PCs stumble into the mystery, they'll immediately start taking actions that you would've never considered, but that's OK because you know how the environment will react as they chase down the mystery.

NCSUCodeMonkey