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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 9614134" data-attributes="member: 86653">Welcome to the sprawl, aka mission creep.This is one of the many reasons why you don't take rules like "yes, and..." out of their original context and apply them in a different context. The "yes, and..." rule from improv has a very specific and limited use. It's there to help establish a scene, to collaboratively build the scene together, up until you find the game of the scene, then you stop using "yes, and..." to build. Unless you want the game to endlessly sprawl, stop using "yes, and..."Look into the already mentioned three-clue rule. It works great for mysteries.I've found simply writing down the specific clue the PCs are meant to find (on a 3x5 card) in a given scene and literally handing them the clue works great. Be sure to write down what the clue is, i.e. what they've actually found, and not what the clue means...that's up to the PCs/players to decide. This is one of three clues they can find in a scene. Tell them that. "There are three clues in this scene." Hand them the card of each clue as they find it. When they get the last clue tell them that. "This is the third and final clue of the scene."This functions like both a progress clock and an easy way to look back over the clues they've found to remind themselves of what they've done, what clues they have (because they're literally in their hands), and a way to keep them on track.This is also why you should never include anything like a red herring in an RPG mystery. The players are their own red herrings. They will latch onto anything and spin it into the most wild and outlandish theories. If you let them they will suddenly create a globe-spanning conspiracy out of a simple smash-and-grab at the local bodega.The other option is to scrap what you had and build an entirely new campaign based on the PCs'/players' wild theories. That can be a lot of fun.If you need more combat, use the old pulp trick of sending a goon in with a gun...or any other era/genre appropriate weapon.</blockquote>

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