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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Niccodaemus" data-source="post: 5719684" data-attributes="member: 6683506">I can't take credit for this idea, but I forget who posted it. It was in reference to a mystery style game.For any clue, create three versions of it, in three different places. One might be the cryptic dying words of an opponent "Beware the Chamberlain!" Another might be a letter from the  Chamberlain himself, incriminating him. A third might be a set of cuff links, with his initials.You don't know that the players will find any specific one (or even if they do, that they will make the right assumptions) and if they find all three it will just confirm what they should know.A note concerning prophecy:I don't know if you are planning using prophecy in your game, but it can be an interesting tool. It can certainly FEEL like "railroading" if character actions have been fortold. However, use this caveat... even though you plan for the characters to fulfill the prophecy, always keep a loophole that allows for others to do it. That is... if the characters die or even walk away from the story, figure out  a way that it would not make the prophecy false.I'll give you an example.I had a group of players traveling for weeks into a distant wilderness to find a lost crown in an elf/human city. Once the players had gotten way past the point of no return, and were in an isolated valley, a new player wanted to join the game.Now this one always gets me, because I HATE going with "you were with the party all along". (One way to avoid this, is to have a group of hirelings go along. The new player can be among that group. Sort of like the background characters on LOST. Once in a while, one would come to the forefront. But it just didn't work with Nikki and Paulo).Anyway, I told him to let me think on it, and I would figure out how to bring him into the game.Now, my entire story was predicated on time travel. The players would to to the past, and somehow retrieve the crown from the living king. On the king's tomb is a prophecy to the effect that the crowns (Kings and Queens) would be joined by those who separated them.Jump to mid week. Keith (the player), and I did a little one-on-one session. He lived in the elven/human city, and was just purchasing his first suit of armor. While in the armor shop, the city was being attacked by orcs. He rushed outside to see what the commotion was, fought one orc, an then wham! A group of riders was bearing down on him. As they were about to run him over, he got dizzy, all went dark, and he found himself in the ruins of the city. (He then very railroady got captured by some frog men)Ok.. so now the players arrive at the ruined city. They come across some strange muddy tracks. A battle between frog creatures and a man. But them man's footprints seem to originate from nowhere. They follow the tracks, and rescue Keith's character.Ok... now they adventure, find the portal through time, get arrested (they have found a unique sword of demon slaying and are walking around the city with it). They captain of the guard presents them with an identical (but 700 year younger sword) and wants to know wtf is up.They spill the beans, and get an audience with the king. While explaining their story, the city is attacked by orcs, and an assassin kills the king and grabs his crown. They kill the assassin, grab the crown, find some horses, and are heading out of dodge when ...  yep... Keith's character steps in front of the horses. Everyone gets pulled back to the future, with Keith's footed version of his character lagging behind a few days and meeting the frogmen.Now.. this was risky... very plot heavy, and had two instances that were railroady. One was Keith getting caught by the frogmen. (I don't count the horses running him over.. that was more of an event).The other was after they grabbed the crown.However.. lets say they DIDN'T grab the crown. Or ran out on foot. Well... once they had the crown, that triggered their jump back to the future. That was a given. So... if they all died, then another group of people were on those horses, and that group would get pulled to the future. If they were running out of town on foot, they were being pursued by a group of people on horses.In other words, there was no predetermined way for the adventure to end, although I had a specific way in mind. But whatever happened, the prophecy had to be true, as well as the incident with the horses.I think the important point is... don't get too attached to the ENDING of your story. There are a thousand things between here and there that can thwart it, not the least being players who intentionally try to do so for fear of being "railroaded".</blockquote>

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