RPGaDay 2019: 13 Mystery

Jinkies! The Beholder!

The single hardest kind of adventure to write is the mystery, in any game. The reason is both simple and decidedly complex: too many moving parts. You can’t just drop a monster in a room and call it done. There’s a lot of plotting that goes into presenting a mystery in a D&D game. Also, role-playing, despite being descriptive and cinematic, is not suited for whodunnits. You can’t cut away from the heroes to show the killer’s hands as he takes off bloody gloves to reveal he’s missing his pinky. The players “camera” never leaves their side.

I tend to write all of my rpg mysteries the same way, with slight variations. These aren’t hard and fast rules; they represent what works best for my DM style, my way of telling a story. Maybe you can get some use out of looking at my process.

First things first. Figure out what the mystery is (usually, but not always, a murder). Figure out who did it, and why they did it, and how they did it. Simpler is probably better. Murder in a game with medieval monsters present need not be spectacular, but it should make sense. There should be a compelling reason for the suspect to commit murder, but really, any plausible reason will do.

Once you have those details established, figure out three pieces of evidence that scenario would generate. This can be a physical detail (muddy boot prints on the kitchen floor) or it can be statement from a witness to the crime. The evidence should be accurate and true. Ideally, the evidence must point to the killer in some obvious way, such as “the scrap of cloth in his hand is a perfect match for your torn cloak”

Now those three pieces of evidence are placed into your scenario for the players to find. I don’t ever make them roll to notice. They have to get this clue or they can’t solve the mystery. In fact, if it looks like they are going to miss a clue, I move the piece in question right in front of them so they can’t miss it.

That’s the structure, in its most basic form. You can certainly make it more complicated, but if this is your first mystery, don’t. If this is also  your player’s first mystery, then really don’t. Not until you can see if your players will enjoy such a thing. You need to gauge how challenging the clues were and how quickly they put the pieces together.

You can add more clues, or introduce false clues called Maguffins to baffle the party. These false clues seem important, but actually aren’t part of the murder. You can also introduce Suspects into the formula. Suspects must have a connection of some kind with the victim, and optimally, a reason to want them dead, however unreasonable. A murder plot should have at least three suspects, each with their own connections to one another as well.

These kinds of things get big and complicated real quick, which is why I think you should only do it if your group is really into being a Sword and Sorcery Scooby Doo gang. Most groups won’t be that hardcore. The basic outline ensures that players will need to engage in the back story but it won’t spiral out of control. That said, if you need to help a stumped group, have the murderer attack them for “getting too close.” They get to round out the evening with a brawl, and it looks like you planned it that way all along.