Murder mystery

[Noldor Elf]

I have planned on running a one-shot adventure in modern world. The characters would be on vacation, either on cruising ship or on some island.

The theme of the adventure would be like Agatha Cristie's "And the there were none" or recent Renny Harlin movie "Mindhunters". In other words: there is one killer among the small group (8-12 people) who is killing the other one by one.

Could that type of adventure work? Should I let one of my players to be that killer?

How would you plan and run this type of adventure? I have thought that I design most of the kills and the drop them in as needed and possible (perhaps even premade time schedule). The hard part could be that with my 3 players there will be 5-9 NPC (including the killer) for me to play, and all of them should be recognized by their behavior and style.

As a player, what would you do in that kind of situation?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have run nearly that kind of adventure in 2 different ways.

The base adventure was the same in both cases: The party become guards for a caravan that is transporting a young woman to her wedding. The wedding is one of political convenience-it will end a war. However, not everyone wants the war to end, so she is marked for death. Despite several decoy caravans, the one the party was in gets attacked by a large force, and takes refuge in an abandoned fortress. While the attackers debate seige and attack, a secret passage out of the fortress is discovered, and the survivors dissapear into the Underdark. Even in the Underdark, though, people (NPCs) keep dying, one by one- but because the Underdark is a hazardous space, no one notices at first. However, eventually one of the deaths is suspicious and it becomes obvious that there is an Assassin in their midst!

As it turns out the assassin is the young woman's maidservant. A shapeshifting assassin, she has been killing people off one at a time to improve her odds of escape.

The players LOVED IT!

The first way I ran it was for my private gaming group, and everyone in the party was a hero.

However, when I ran it at a convention, I cast one of my friends (who had played it the first time) as the assassin.

If the party is comprised of PCs that would naturally generate infra-party tension, you might even get the players suspecting each other, with all that that entails. Since this is a "one-shot," PC deaths don't matter much.

However, I suggest that each player have a character tree. (This was a DarkSun innovation-each player has multiple PCs at the ready, but plays only one at a time, like extra lives in a video game.) Alternatively, you could design the NPCs to be usable as pregen characters in case someone gets killed.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

As far as NPCs, make up a note card on each, putting their base personality types, with a focus on how they handle stress and conflict.

If you use drop in kills, you can come up with key reactions ahead of time. You don't need to have every NPC's reaction described after each death, just hit 2-3 per kill and cycle thru them as the story progresses.

As you go, write down how each NPC reacts to one paticular PC strongly, and wing it with the others. If one gets saved by a hero, they may fall in love, or the annoying guy who is always trying to take charge locks horns with the party leader, etc.

You'll need a

Murder
Fall guy (to plant evidence on).

Others could be

Victem
Child
Damsel in distress
Injured or otherwise infirm, to add a portable obstacle.
Jerk
Helpful
Skilled (the guy who knows what he is talking about in atleast one area, but no one listens to.

This would be a good start.

Also, put in bold at the top any accent so you cannot miss it.

 

[Blue]

I ran a short murder mystery in a fantasy setting and one resource I found helpful was Brent Falconer's Whodunit? page http://www.web-den.org.uk/falconer/games/whodunit.php

I had the PCs enter a small farming dell during the middle of the day, only to find the owner of the general store dead and an empty coffer next to him.

Because it was in the middle of the day, most peope were out at the fields. This helped keep the number of suspects down, you may need to do something similar if you go for a cruise just to keep the NPCs to a managable number.

I made sure that there was everyone had a possible motive, thugh some you needed to dig to find out. Plus I ended up doing it as a two-part murder - one charater had dosed the man with a sleeping potion to get tthe money, but the person who did it had gotten the potion from another man who's wife was sleeping with the to-be-murdered guy, so he took advantage of the sleeping draught to kill him.

All in all, everyone was looking at everyone funny, and the locals were looking odd at this adventuring group who's trying to blame them for a death in their midst. Lots of fun.

BTW, they did eventually find the killer, through great questioning and sleuthful clue-spotting (orange ar hair from the true killer's familiar, etc.)

Good luck!

=Blue

 

[Raven Crowking]

The hard part could be that with my 3 players there will be 5-9 NPC (including the killer) for me to play, and all of them should be recognized by their behavior and style.

In your NPC notes, mark down who is "playing that part" but don't tell the players this. If you can imagine an actor's delivery, that should help you keep your NPCs distinct. However, being told that "The guy reminds you of Elvis" is mood-killing (unless he's an Elvis impersonator).

As a player, what would you do in that kind of situation?

Hopefully, you don't have the kind of players who will just kill them all to save themselves.

RC

 

[Turanil]

As a player, what would you do in that kind of situation?

Sleep with my gun rather than with that beautiful brunette passenger...

 

[Janx]

You know, what sucks is, I posted a thread on this 2 days ago and its already buried...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=91897

Link above contains my findings on running a murder mystery


Janx

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

One possibility is to have a group of characters and NPCs. One of them is a ruthless old evil bastard who gets bumped off in the beginning. Though the victim is not really dead. But he is consumed with hatred and anger at the thought of one of the people on the ship, island, hotel, etc., having try to murder him, only he does not know which one. He decides to start killing them one by one.

Since all the people had a motive and or opportunity to kill the 'victim' they all act suspicious giving a bunch of instant suspects.

If you want to follow the Agatha Christie model, you have to find the one suspect who is least likely to have done it or who seemingly has the strongest alabi.