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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 9625000" data-attributes="member: 85870">I think the disconnect here is the phrase, there isn't a solution yet.As a GM in Ironsworn, I will nearly always have potential solutions to a "mystery" already outlined in my head (*edit, or yes, even written down in my notes [the horror!!]). Possibly two or three avenues that solve the "mystery" as well as plug in to one or more character's goals.But I don't choose which avenue has "always been the truth" until the last possible moment---because the dynamics of play can push one potential solution to the fore in such a way that it ultimately becomes obvious that, "Oh yes, of course this is what happened, and here's why, and here's why it's important to Character X, Character Y, and NPC Z."There are clues. There are leads. There are potentially even "living world" concerns where some piece of evidence can only be in one place at a specific time (though Ironsworn's play loop doesn't typically enforce that sort of thing in any rigid fashion).But the totality of the "ultimate truth" of the mystery isn't revealed until the very last possible moment. Because Ironsworn is the kind of game that pushes character stakes in the fiction to the absolute forefront.*Edit --- and yes, occasionally, due to in-play dynamics, scene framing, and player-driven intent, sometimes an entirely new "mystery resolution path" raises its head mid-stream in play. But it's based/grounded in existing evidence uncovered, in previously established fiction, by adherence to game principles, and giving the players their due. It's never a "haha, pull the rug out from under the party!" type of dynamic. It's merely a realization as a GM---literally playing to find out---what the "real truth" of the matter always was and now means for the PCs.The other thing that's interesting is that the majority of the time, due to play dynamics, the end result rarely ends up being the most directly productive or beneficial for the PCs. When the mystery is "solved", it is almost always accompanied by "unwelcome truths" that have come to light during its resolution.[USER=6684958]@bloodtide[/USER] 's constant whining about "capitulating to the random whims of the players" is nonsense, because the play procedures of the game rarely produce "get out of jail free" results. And on the very rare occasion that procedures do produce such a result, play remains interesting because now there's a fresh narrative drive to follow---"Wow, now what are you going to do with that?"</blockquote>

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