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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Frostmarrow" data-source="post: 389284" data-attributes="member: 1122">I see major problems with the Hound of Baskerville and Murders in the Rue Morgue in D&D.***Spoilers:A fire breathing dog is killing people seemingly wantonly on the moor. It turns out it's just a big old mastiff with chemicals on it's snout so it looks like it's breathing fire. The bad guy sics this disguised dog on various people, killing them. Now, if this was D&D why not use a regular hell hound instead? And if so, where's the mystery?The Rue morgue was the first novel to feature a murder in a locked room. It's a regular whodunnit apart from the fact it seems impossible for any man to be the murderer. It turns out it's an ape who can access the room from the chimey or some such. If this is D&D a murder in a locked room is not such a big mystery. It's too easy to enter a room, kill a guy and leave whilst the door is being locked.***I'm just being a big spoil-sport. Now I feel the need to be a bit more constructive. This is how I would make a mystery. I would invent the villain and his goal. It could be as simple as trying to kill off a number of heirs in order to secure a rich legacy for himself. Then I would remove all obvious clues of his goal and crimes. For example if I used the character mentioned above I'd change his last name to make it less obvious that he is in fact a living relative of the victims.When I was done with the villain I'd steel myself to create as vivid other characters as possible, some with obvious motives and others without. I'd see to it that most of the character's have the power to kill a person in the way the victims have been killed. That is I would sooner use a blunt object to the head than immolation in acid admixed fire. I'd go for the blunt object to the head even if the mystery is set whithin a arcane academy.With this I would consider the mystery complete. The rest of the story I'd leave to my players. I'd set the stage in a arcane academy or a mansion and then let the PCs interview all the NPCs and take action surveilling the suspects.I don't think I would have an elaboate mystery. In fact I would try to make the plot as simple as possible. I'd leave the mystery making to the players. As my captain in the army once said (tongue in cheek): "You don't need to prepare exercises for rookie soldiers in the field. Just let them out there and they will create their own."But this is D&D. How can we deal with divinations? Any suggestions?</blockquote>

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