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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6291496" data-attributes="member: 4937">Let me just briefly talk about murder mysteries in a high magic setting.If you want to plan a great D&amp;D murder mystery, you have to think like Agatha Christy.&nbsp; In an Agatha Christy story, the murder is hidden behind several layers of tricks and misdirections.&nbsp;&nbsp; The murderer plans a sophisticated plot to thwart criminal investigation, and the reader/investigator is expected to tease out what the actual method was from amongst the false leads.&nbsp; Far from making such plots more difficult to pull off, magic actually makes them far easier and more satisfying.&nbsp;&nbsp; In addition to standard Agatha Christy misdirection like - the murderer was one of the victims (and not necessarily the last one), there are mutliple murderers (thus giving everyone air tight alibi's), the first victim was not the intended victim (thus throwing off investigation of motive), and so forth - magic lets you convincingly pull of some Agatha Christy tricks that are otherwise implausible.&nbsp; For example...a) The murderer was polymorphed or otherwise completely disguised at the time of the killing.&nbsp; Viewing the murder through the eyes of any witness - nearby stones, plants, the murdered person themselves, produces false leads.b) The murderer was a conjured/called creature employed by the murder plotter.c) The murderer was mentally dominated at the time.d) The murderer employed a modify memory spell on himself removing all memory of the crime, thereby allowing him to convincingly lie that, &quot;He didn't do it.&quot; because he has zero memory of the event or of modifying his memory.&nbsp; You want to use Zone of Truth as a plot point... fine.&nbsp; Now you are playing the murder's game.&nbsp;&nbsp; e) The murderer has switched bodies using magic jar, illusions polymorph any object, doppleganger, etc.&nbsp;&nbsp; The murderer faked his own death, and took over the identity of who he actually killed.f) The murderer used magic or a potion to place himself in a death-like state as one of the apparant victims of the crime, hiding among the 4-5 other dead bodies.&nbsp;&nbsp; He then either has woken up and escaped from his burial place, or intends to do so in the future - with or without the aid of an accomplice.&nbsp; And you can stack layers and layers of this sort of misdirection, carefully building up a real mystery at what ever depth you think your characters have the skill to reach.&nbsp; Magic is not your enemy in building murder mysteries.&nbsp;&nbsp; Agatha Christy would have loved to be able to employ magic I think, except that she probably would have found it made it just too easy.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6291496, member: 4937"] Let me just briefly talk about murder mysteries in a high magic setting. If you want to plan a great D&D murder mystery, you have to think like Agatha Christy. In an Agatha Christy story, the murder is hidden behind several layers of tricks and misdirections. The murderer plans a sophisticated plot to thwart criminal investigation, and the reader/investigator is expected to tease out what the actual method was from amongst the false leads. Far from making such plots more difficult to pull off, magic actually makes them far easier and more satisfying. In addition to standard Agatha Christy misdirection like - the murderer was one of the victims (and not necessarily the last one), there are mutliple murderers (thus giving everyone air tight alibi's), the first victim was not the intended victim (thus throwing off investigation of motive), and so forth - magic lets you convincingly pull of some Agatha Christy tricks that are otherwise implausible. For example... a) The murderer was polymorphed or otherwise completely disguised at the time of the killing. Viewing the murder through the eyes of any witness - nearby stones, plants, the murdered person themselves, produces false leads. b) The murderer was a conjured/called creature employed by the murder plotter. c) The murderer was mentally dominated at the time. d) The murderer employed a modify memory spell on himself removing all memory of the crime, thereby allowing him to convincingly lie that, "He didn't do it." because he has zero memory of the event or of modifying his memory. You want to use Zone of Truth as a plot point... fine. Now you are playing the murder's game. e) The murderer has switched bodies using magic jar, illusions polymorph any object, doppleganger, etc. The murderer faked his own death, and took over the identity of who he actually killed. f) The murderer used magic or a potion to place himself in a death-like state as one of the apparant victims of the crime, hiding among the 4-5 other dead bodies. He then either has woken up and escaped from his burial place, or intends to do so in the future - with or without the aid of an accomplice. And you can stack layers and layers of this sort of misdirection, carefully building up a real mystery at what ever depth you think your characters have the skill to reach. Magic is not your enemy in building murder mysteries. Agatha Christy would have loved to be able to employ magic I think, except that she probably would have found it made it just too easy. [/QUOTE]

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