D&D 5E Unraveling the Mystery Too Quickly?

[Retreater]

I'm running a campaign adventure that is strongly based in investigation (Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, if you're curious).

With activities like splitting the party, gathering clues, asking the right questions, and making obscenely high skill checks, the party is managing to bypass many of the side adventures that give extra clues that they honestly don't need.

I've run mysteries successfully in other systems (including Call of Cthulhu), but there just isn't enough meat to this genre in D&D to make it work the same way.

In a mystery game in a system not especially designed for this style of play (like D&D), what do you do as the GM? Do you add more complications? Do you let them have their victory quick? Do you stick to the script and not allow them to make skill checks to say - follow a suspect?

 

[Oofta]

Running mysteries is more of an art than a skill. Some of my thoughts on things I do now and then

• Splitting the party? Great time for an ambush! Even if it doesn't end with death - just a threat to stay out of it.
• Red herrings. Just because Joe told you Sally did something, it doesn't mean she did even if he really believes it. Even zone of truth only reveals if the speaker believes what they're saying.
• Multi-part mystery. Yes, they find out who stole the McGuffin but the thief swears up and down that Mr McGuffin was alive and well. The suspect may be a thief but they are not a murderer!
• Scooby-Doo mystery. The mystery is why the monsters are attacking, or perhaps the monsters are just illusions?
• The Red Headed League mystery. Take Sherlock Holmes as a guide. The detective had an incredible intellect, but the fun was in unraveling the story behind the story. In this particular story, a guy was invited to a special group of red heads. The reason was simple - the rogues needed to get him out of the house so they could dig a tunnel to his neighbors and he was known to be a light sleeper.
• Henchmen are only told what they need to know.
• Innocent dupes. Especially in a world where spells like Suggestion work, it's easy to get innocent bystanders to do seemingly innocuous things to achieve your goal.
• Multiple mysteries. While chasing down one mystery the group falls into another.
• Some people are just really, really good at lying. I sometimes give NPCs things like expertise in deception if I think it's appropriate.

 

[jasper]

Dam @Oofta beat me too it. I would add FALSE villain. Use another season's villain to throw the Scooby gang off track.

 

[billd91]

If you want to slow the pace down or they aren't ready for the challenges involved in getting to the end of the mystery, then by all means, toss in some complications. Just don't do too much of it or it'll feel like a 13-episode Netflix Marvel TV show that would have been better paced at 10 episodes (Luke Cage, Iron Fist, I'm looking at the two of you).

 

[jayoungr]

I've run mysteries successfully in other systems (including Call of Cthulhu), but there just isn't enough meat to this genre in D&D to make it work the same way.

Maybe it will help to look at it this way: Mysteries in D&D are essentially done through freeform roleplay.

 

[practicalm]

To keep my players going, I had every villain involved and through in a few extras as well. I wanted this to be a It's a Mad Mad World race to the treasure.
I played up every sob story from the two potential sympathetic villains. So many red herrings it was a fish market. Fun time was had.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm running a campaign adventure that is strongly based in investigation (Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, if you're curious).

With activities like splitting the party, gathering clues, asking the right questions, and making obscenely high skill checks, the party is managing to bypass many of the side adventures that give extra clues that they honestly don't need.

I've run mysteries successfully in other systems (including Call of Cthulhu), but there just isn't enough meat to this genre in D&D to make it work the same way.

In a mystery game in a system not especially designed for this style of play (like D&D), what do you do as the GM? Do you add more complications? Do you let them have their victory quick? Do you stick to the script and not allow them to make skill checks to say - follow a suspect?

Give them the quick victory. They’ve earned it through their actions and their deductions, and to deny it to them because you think they achieved it too quickly or too easily would be to deny their agency. Their decisions would be of secondary importance to your evaluation of how difficult the mystery should be as a determining factor in their success and failure.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Order the holodeck computer to create an antagonist that is a match for the players, not the characters.

 

[commandercrud]

D&D is a terrible engine for mysteries.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

DMs often drag out their mysteries for too long. Like, way too long. If the players' actions are making the mystery "too short", that might actually be a good thing. Mysteries are meant to be solved.

That said, if you feel like the players are underleveled--award XP for solving mysteries!

For Dragon Heist in particular, you can always introduce a second (or even third) faction to complicate matters. That's what I've done in the heavily modified version of Dragon Heist that I'm currently running. And check out the Alexandrian Remix of Dragon Heist on thealexandrian dot net if you haven't already done so. It will make your game better.