Suggestions for running an investigative-type game?

[jaults]

I am planning on starting an Iron Kingdoms game in the near future. Usually, my games tend to be combat-heavy. But this time, I would like to gear the campaign toward more investigation and problem solving challenges.

Does anyone have suggestions for this? Anything from "this book has interesting rules," to "this DM technic is useful," to "this premade adventure is good in that respect" would be greatly appreciated. Also, any Dungeon adventures (3E only, please) that are focused on investigation would be great.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Voadam]

Murder mysteries are good.

I'm running Demon God's Fane and it has a murder mystery with different people knowing different information.

The key is for stuff to be revealed with reasonable investigation. If everything just comes out of the blue the players are not involved in the plot. If the information is too hard to find then it never comes out and intricate plots are only for the DM to know. So having information be revealed by PC actions is key.

Have charts of NPCs with short descriptions of them and their role in your plots.

The game I'm in now is high plot and intrigue with theocratic imperial politics, an arcane witch hunt about to take off, evil nobles dealing with slaves and evil magic trading, infernal powers ascending, different religious factions active, secret societies, and my PC in the middle of it with vague references to his role in certain prophecies.

I have an in-depth chart of NPCs I've encountered, who they are and what I know about them.

I love figuring these things out and diving into the politics and intrigue. And then when I come upon the slavers blowing them up with chain lightnings.

Have different factions always active even if not necessarily antagonistic to the PCs.

 

[Desdichado]

The first part of the Witchfire trilogy, which luckily is already in your setting of choice, is pretty investigative heavy. You might want to start there.

 

[Raflar]

I ran a campaign this past year where the PCs were Private Investigators for the City of Westgate. I found the key to their enjoyment (and involvement) was in depth characterization of the NPCs. I had a list of over 50 NPCs each with a picture (almost all were famous Hollywood Celebs) and a brief blurb on their personality and where they fit in the storyline.

My PCs love to interact and fortunately for me I love to 'act' so I had a lot of fun being all these different people, changing my voice as much as I could. Sometimes it was hard (especially at a Noble Dinner Party with over 80 guests) but I found I could feed the PCs information without it being forced on them.

For example: Their next door neighbour was a kindly old lady who ran a bakery and loved to talk. Her husband was an aging Seargeant in the City Watch. She started to tell the PCs how the 'old guard' is being replaced by these new younger men, and they hope they could still make ends meet with the bakery.

In my storyline, Westgate's Army and City Watch were slowly being replaced by men from Teziir. On the day when all the key positions were replaced, Westgate was attacked (by monsters & pirates hired by these same men). This 'new' army quelled the attack and became heros, thus cementing themselves into the City heirarchy.

Now the PCs have to convince the Ruling Nobles & the citizens that the 'watch' is evil and that Westgate was taken over and they didn't even know it...

but then my game stopped due to new jobs for my players and I had to move on to another campaign....

If you want more information on my Westgate Campaign you can see it here: http://www.raflar.com/fantasyrpg/westgate-background.php

 

[Pandion]

I agree with JD. The WFT is a good place to start for an investigative adventure. Take a look at this advice thread though before running it:

http://forums.privateerpress.com/index.php?showtopic=6226

 

[maddman75]

I am planning on starting an Iron Kingdoms game in the near future. Usually, my games tend to be combat-heavy. But this time, I would like to gear the campaign toward more investigation and problem solving challenges.

Does anyone have suggestions for this? Anything from "this book has interesting rules," to "this DM technic is useful," to "this premade adventure is good in that respect" would be greatly appreciated. Also, any Dungeon adventures (3E only, please) that are focused on investigation would be great.

Thanks,

Jason

One method I've found useful is to drop many hooks, and see what the PCs will bite on. Maybe you have several possibilities in your home city - corruption in the guard, a looming war with a neighbor, a new theif guild rising to power, and a cult of demon worshippers setting up shop. Let them hear something about each of them and go with that.

Another important thing to remember is not to set up enemies to be defeated, but conflicts to be resolved. This requires more thinking on your feet than location based gaming, but can be much more rewarding. Determine who the players are, what they want, and what they will do to get it. Then throw the PCs in the middle and see what happens.

I highly recommend abandoning the CR/ECL/XP system for this kind of game. While it works well for 'kill em all and take their stuff' kinds of gaming, I find it lacking for a more story or investigative style of game. Personally I just hand out XP so everyone will advance at the rate I want them to advance.

 

[Henry]

I am not very good at making mysteries, but here is what has worked for me:

1. Decide the truth. Decide what has already happened, and who, what, when, where, and why.

3. Reverse-engineer those things. Work backwards to figure out what happened stage by stage, and clues and evidence will automatically suggest themselves. Did A have to hire killer B to murder victim C? Then Killer B is still out there somewhere with A's true identity, or at least info on how to contact him.

4. Throw in complications when it's too easy. Perhaps the characters have to FIND killer B. Perhaps as they corner him, he is shot (as in the case with Zam Wessel in Attack of the Clones). Perhaps Killer B is gone, but his apartment/notes/transactions are still around.

5. Throw in a chase. Players love a chase scene.

The important thing is to make sure the trail makes sense going forward from unsolved to solved, and to do that, it should make sense going backward from solved to unsolved.

 

[kolikeos]

played in one such game, DMd in one such game, both were crapy. maybe i'll try that again sometime when i have more expirience (-points )

 

[Kalendraf]

The devil is in the details. Be prepared to develop some very in-depth stories and NPCs...at least more detailed than most combat-intensive campaigns require. Each NPC should have well-thought-out motives along with various bits of information that they know and can relate. Some of them may provide that information readily, others may be quite difficult to deal with. Some may even lie to prevent undesireable information from being uncovered, all of which may be unrelated to the direct investigation. Red Herrings can be used to intentionally lead the party off track.

As more questions are asked, the party will undoubtedly garner the attention of various power groups who may take an interest in their pursuit. For example, if the party is about to expose a wealthy baron's sordid past, the church may step in to try and carefully prevent this from being exposed if the baron has donated heavily to the church in the past. If the party is about to uncover juicy details about the guard captain's prior lifestyle, the local Thieve's Guild may become involved and attempt to prevent that information from being announced publicly so they can instead use the information to blackmail the captain.

Experience needs to be handled differently. Obtaining information from a reluctant source should probably earn exp, while obtaining info from a very willing source should earn little or no exp. You can base the exp on the CR-rating of the person who has that information, but that may not work for all cases. Information gathering thru alternative means (sneaking into a house, magical divination) are viable options as well. I'd recommend giving each detail an associated EXP value.

 

[Gothmog]

One method I've found useful is to drop many hooks, and see what the PCs will bite on. Maybe you have several possibilities in your home city - corruption in the guard, a looming war with a neighbor, a new theif guild rising to power, and a cult of demon worshippers setting up shop. Let them hear something about each of them and go with that.

Another important thing to remember is not to set up enemies to be defeated, but conflicts to be resolved. This requires more thinking on your feet than location based gaming, but can be much more rewarding. Determine who the players are, what they want, and what they will do to get it. Then throw the PCs in the middle and see what happens.

I highly recommend abandoning the CR/ECL/XP system for this kind of game. While it works well for 'kill em all and take their stuff' kinds of gaming, I find it lacking for a more story or investigative style of game. Personally I just hand out XP so everyone will advance at the rate I want them to advance.

maddman75 offers some great advice here- heed all of it. I really enjoy running investigative dark fantasy type games- very similar in feel to the IK stuff (except for steamjacks), and over the years I've gotten pretty good at it. My main advice would be:

1. Set up situations, not adventures. Have several plot hooks ready, knowing who the major players are, what their motives are, and how they are planning on achieving their goals. Present the hooks to the players, and let them decide which ones they want to follow up on and pursue. Once the players decide on a hook, flesh it out in more detail, and give some thought to how the NPCs would react to someone screwing with their plans.

2. Pacing. This one is really important. Sometimes players will get stymied and frustrated in an invesitigation, and thats when its time to give them a gentle nudge, but be subtle- let them think they figured it out. Maybe present them with a street urchin who tries to pick one of their pockets, and when the PCs catch him, have him offer to tell them a secret if they'll let him go- and his secret provides them another clue into the mystery. Players have a greater sense of accomplishment thinking they figured something complex out than if you present them an obvious clue. Conversely, if the players have a "Eureka!" moment and figure things out quickly- don't change things. Their insight should be rewarded.

3. Have consequences for PC actions. NPCs in investigative type games are not static, and they do not wait in a dungeon room with their treasure waiting to be slaughtered. If the PCs start asking around about them, or cause a scene or scuffle with some minions, you can bet the NPCs involved will take steps to learn more about these interlopers, and deal with them if they are dangerous. Investigative type games rely on logical consequnces to work well, and this is going to mean you need to be able to ad lib plot and NPC actions to a much greater degree than you would in a normal game. The bad news is that this is kinda difficult. The good news is that its easy to get better with practice, and its a lot of fun once you are good.

4. Don't ever say "you check the chest and there are no traps." Investigative type games rely on some uncertainty, so instead say "you don't find any traps on the chest." Things are not always as they seem in these types of games- allies can double-cross you, and the enemy of my enemy can be my friend. Play this to the hilt- your players will thank you.

5. Try not to let situations be resolved with a massive combat or firefight every time. While it can be fun, it does kill the theme and mood of the game. Instead, let the players outwit and cripple an enemy's operation that they can't kill- for example the PCs destroy the alchemical distilling operation the son of a local noble is using to produce a drug to addict the population. Killing a noble isn't an option (at least not without SERIOUS consequences), but getting rid of his illicit business might be.

6. Finally, and I can't stress this enough, DON'T use the CR/EL/XP system for giving out XP. Killing enemies to gain XP is the bane of an investigative campaign. Just decide how many sessions it will take for the PCs to level up, and go with that. Reward good roleplaying and problem-solving in this type of game, not bravado and combat prowess.