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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pamphylian" data-source="post: 9818154" data-attributes="member: 7053769">Yeah, probably not the best way to communicate clues or info that needs to be known. It probably does work best with a somewhat open-ended campaign where something the players get unexpectedly interested in can blossom. I think mystery can be still useful as an avenue or added texture to a central threat - you can structure a lot of a campaign against a BBEG as a multilayered mystery - why are these goblins acting weird -> what is the dark entity they keep mentioning -> where did this thing come from -> etc, where delving deeper at each step (seeking lore, in a sense) can give the PCs a way to short circuit pure brute force. I think part of the reason why the campaign structure of local bad guy -> turns out he was working for a bigger bad guy -> turns out that bigger bad guy is a pawn in an even bigger grand scheme of the BBEG is popular (besides providing leveled threats) is because it naturally builds in a mystery in to game play - players start assuming there is an even deeper plot afoot at each step, and once they start conspiracy theorizing, they are naturally engaging with the world and what ifs about its various actors (what if the king's vizier is really pulling the strings of...). Players as crazed conspiracy theorists might be one of the best states of things - engagement maybe behind only seeking vengeance for a slight and deranged scheming, in my experience.</blockquote>

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