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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RenleyRenfield" data-source="post: 9614140" data-attributes="member: 7044197">I'm gonna be sticky icky here... but this is 100% the GM's fault, and signs of a GM who likely doesn't have a mystery, so they are just avoiding giving actual clues and don't have real answers. Let me explain... "Yes...And" implies the GM is giving something valuable to the And part.   If the Mystery is really a man in a mask going around with techno-kits to make electrics go haywire as if possessed by ghosts to tenants move out and he buys up the lot... Player says "I look for a clue in the haunted house and see why the lights flicker oddly" Bad Yes And from GM = "The lights seem to be on the same timer and system as the rest of the house." = this literally did nothing for the player.... So now the player has to think of random stuff until they can fit that pointless 'clue' into whatever conspiracy they can think of.  A clue must always = <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tell the character where to go get a clue next, or...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tell the character which suspect is exonerated, or...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tell the character a truth about what the goals of the mystery is, or...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tell the character a weakness on how to defeat the mystery, or...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tell the character what the mystery is going to try next.</li> </ul>So to do better, we need to alter the clue we gave above to be something like... Good Yes And from GM = "The lights are on the same remote circuit the rest of the electronics are in the house, all of it can be controlled remotely.  And the camera was the first item to turn on and record out front when this haunting happened." = now we now a clue 'something about remote electronics' and we know where to check next 'the door camera'.   This does not reveal the whole mystery, but it keeps things moving along. They go to the door camera, they get the footage of a van drive up, stop, house goes nuts, then drive off.   They get a license plate or name off the van, and know where to check next... See?  the Mystery is trundling along, clue after clue.  At any time the players can go elsewhere, try other things, and that's fine.    It's ok to point clues at the same next spot (or a few spots in case you have several actors in the mystery).  Eventually they get to the place the van parks, they break in and see all the remote control equipment and they find records of locations where value is high and all being bought out by same agency... and so on...   even in my simple example, the mystery would take the players 10 stage to resolve = but it would always resolve.   because all of the "Yes, you find a clue And...." keeps giving them things that resolve the mystery, tells them where to go, and give them the info to know "who, what, why, and how do I defeat" </blockquote>

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