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D&D 5E National Treasure Plot
- Thread starter Gwaihir
- Start date
Check out anything from the gumshoe line of games for some inspiration. That's all specifically detective-y. It can be tricky to run in D&D though. A lot of DMs gate their clues behind a search roll, so if you make you investigate roll when you search the desk, you find the Duke's diary, that sort of thing. The problem is that method leaves a pretty significant chance that the party either won't search the right place, or will fail their roll when they do search. The gumshoe solution is to bin the rolling for key clues. If the party states they are searching the dukes office, they find the diary, whether it's in the desk, a flower pot, or an old boot.. Of course you can actually hide things as well, but I wouldn't recommend it for key information.
I would also recommend having way more clues than you actually need. I specifically mean multiples of the key info, perhaps in different forms, that you can seed across the likely places the party might go to look for them. This helps dodge the problem of the party simply not thinking to search the one and only place you've hidden the clue. Clues should be thick on the ground.
I would also recommend having way more clues than you actually need. I specifically mean multiples of the key info, perhaps in different forms, that you can seed across the likely places the party might go to look for them. This helps dodge the problem of the party simply not thinking to search the one and only place you've hidden the clue. Clues should be thick on the ground.
The thing you need to be careful of is that there always has to be a path forward, even if it has a price.
For example, let's say they totally miss what you thought would be an obvious clue. It happens, even if you have multiple clues. There needs to be a path forward. Maybe they need to pull in a favor and must promise 5% of the treasure in order for information, or because they missed a clue the next fight is more difficult.
It can also be tricky if you're expecting your players to solve every puzzle instead of their PCs. Some groups like literal puzzles, others don't. Personally I find puzzles in the game kind of annoying - I'm not my PC. My PC has skills and training that I don't have. When I've done it, I used skill checks to provide additional clues and made sure that the skills of the PC mattered. It's a tricky balance and one that's going to vary from group to group.
You also want to allow for failure - you don't want people to think they're going to succeed no matter what they do.
Consider throwing in a competing party of NPCs that can either use things against the party or gains benefits the party was expecting.
In any case, good luck!
For example, let's say they totally miss what you thought would be an obvious clue. It happens, even if you have multiple clues. There needs to be a path forward. Maybe they need to pull in a favor and must promise 5% of the treasure in order for information, or because they missed a clue the next fight is more difficult.
It can also be tricky if you're expecting your players to solve every puzzle instead of their PCs. Some groups like literal puzzles, others don't. Personally I find puzzles in the game kind of annoying - I'm not my PC. My PC has skills and training that I don't have. When I've done it, I used skill checks to provide additional clues and made sure that the skills of the PC mattered. It's a tricky balance and one that's going to vary from group to group.
You also want to allow for failure - you don't want people to think they're going to succeed no matter what they do.
Consider throwing in a competing party of NPCs that can either use things against the party or gains benefits the party was expecting.
In any case, good luck!
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I certainly considered running that exact plot. The difficulty if what to do if the players miss clues - some of them require quite implausible leaps! Murder Mystery storylines have the same problem.
I try not to get fancy with the clues. Once you start in with the puzzles and whatnot you've added another gate to solving the mystery, and one that will be a huge letdown if solved by a roll rather than the PCs. That's not quite the same thing as cryptic of course. That's actually a great tool.
Cryptic and incomplete information can be a wonderful thing for investigative games. For example, in the Duke's office, you find a letter that reads Things are spiraling out of control, we need to talk. Meet me by the fountain at last bell. M. That's a cool clue. The players get some solid info - the Duke is certainly into something that requires clandestine meetings, which could warrant some more digging, and now we have the mysterious M, another avenue for investigation.
When possible, I like to leave multiple lines of inquiry stemming from new info. Both the new things in the clue index the same path, finding out what nefarious plans are afoot, but the players have more than one way to check things out, or can split up and rock both at once. Rather than a trail of breadcrumbs, I like to think of the plot as an interconnected web of information, which multiple lines of connection between the moving parts. The players are a lot less likely to lose their way in a web than on a trail.
Cryptic and incomplete information can be a wonderful thing for investigative games. For example, in the Duke's office, you find a letter that reads Things are spiraling out of control, we need to talk. Meet me by the fountain at last bell. M. That's a cool clue. The players get some solid info - the Duke is certainly into something that requires clandestine meetings, which could warrant some more digging, and now we have the mysterious M, another avenue for investigation.
When possible, I like to leave multiple lines of inquiry stemming from new info. Both the new things in the clue index the same path, finding out what nefarious plans are afoot, but the players have more than one way to check things out, or can split up and rock both at once. Rather than a trail of breadcrumbs, I like to think of the plot as an interconnected web of information, which multiple lines of connection between the moving parts. The players are a lot less likely to lose their way in a web than on a trail.
Man in the Funny Hat
Hero
Yeah, I've done it before. The campaign played out like D&D meets the X-files. It became impossible for me to actually reconcile all the loose ends of plots and clues so I just wound up ignoring a lot of them or twisting their meaning unforgivably, not unlike, "What I told you is true - from a certain point of view," or some CSM-like stuff that just says, "No, that was just a flat-out lie. THIS is the truth... and there's your next clue."
I mostly had fun as the DM. I think the players mostly had fun too, but occasionally I could feel that THEY would get frustrated at NEVER getting answers or reaching the end of particular strings of clues. Eventually the clues have to LEAD SOMEWHERE and pay off or the players will just get tired of the endless chase.
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