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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 5716855" data-attributes="member: 63">E.N. Publishing released the 2nd adventure in the ZEITGEIST adventure path today, and it involves a city-wide murder mystery with multiple interconnected plots. What sorts of experience do you have playing in or running investigative games?Personally, I've played in a few Call of Cthulhu one-shots and a D20 Modern game where we were like the Men in Black for magic instead of aliens. I ran a modern fantasy conspiracy game, and a multi-season Eberron cop drama set in Sharn. And of course I've lived in a culture with Law & Order, CSI, and Psych on every week, so it's hard not to get a steady dose of murder mystery plots.But running mysteries is hard, at least if you want it be challenging. Easy-to-solve mysteries and impossible-to-solve are easy to design. Either you string clue to suspect to clue to suspect, or you have masterful crimes with clues that only make sense if you already know the criminal's identity.I remember an old blog post that suggested that for every revelation you want the PCs to reach, you should seed three possible clues, and then keep your mind open for your players to come up with something completely different. Did the killer sneak in through the septic system by transforming into an ooze, and you want them to head into the sewer to track him? Make sure to mention a fetid stench at the murder scene, the inch of water on the floor of the bathroom, and droplets of slime stuck to the victim's body. Any favorite RPG mysteries, especially modules? Do you have advice to GMs who want to run a murder mystery, to make the game a solid challenge for the players?</blockquote>

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