How to Make a Murder Interesting [Archive] - Wizards Community

How to Make a Murder Interesting [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
tSawyer
10-08-06, 12:16 AM So the campaign that I'm working on all ties back to a murder that's going to happen at game one. I have the whole campaign outline written up and now I'm working on writing the first adventure. My problem is that I'm having trouble with this scene that's supposed to be such a huge part of the entire story. Lots of the plot hooks are found in the next scene (at the residence of the recently deceased), including a puzzlebox that the characters will spend most of the campaign trying to open. The problem is that I can't seem to find a way to make the murder scene interesting.

So here are the details: the characters are enjoying a night out in Sharn. While walking about around the Morgrave campus, a worried student runs into them. He begs the characters for help. His teacher is dying. By the time they get back, the teacher's dead. He was shot in the back with a poisoned arrow and, after the paralysis set in, his attacker came in and finished the job. The teacher, an orc botanist, had been meditating in the Hadrill Gardens when all of this happened.

So how do I make this encounter/scene/whatever memorable enough to still be as interesting and vivid when the character hit level 12?

Help please.

-Tom Sawyer
Solarious
10-08-06, 03:27 AM The best way to make it interesting is to make something blatantly wrong about the entire scene. For example, a certain type of prolific flower in the garden has died to a plant, but all other plants are untouched. Or maybe the corpse is on fire but it isn't burning. Maybe there's a trail of bloody teeth leading away from the murder victim. Or perhaps your orc botanist has a dinstant abberant touch from long ago durring the Daelkyr invasion, and when he dies, there are Cultists of the Dragon Below worshipping the corpse... who defend it fanatically.

Then, you refresh their memory with the motif every few levels, making what seems 'wrong' stronger (and deadlier) each time it recurrs. But the first time will stick out the most, because, well... it was their first encounter with it. Make sure you don't assign hard and fast mechanics (or capabilities) to it, so you can change it as you go along. You want to be able to keep this concept nebulous and mysterious, because if you (or the players) understand it completely, it takes the fear and apprehension away. Oh, and make sure all divinations refer to their questions obliquely, in a 'out of the corner of your eye' way. Don't give them an information blank, just skirt around the edges of the subject, and feed your players crumbs when they finally deserve it. Make their imaginations work, for it conjures up images more vivid than anything you could describe in detail.
OneWinged4ngel
10-08-06, 02:49 PM Good call, Solarious. I totally agree with your post. That strange, growing theme is the sort of thing that immortalizes crimes in the media in the real world, and that should be proof enough that such things would be interesting in a fantasy setting. Make the crime unique and notable with a disturbing and mysterious motif.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
tSawyer 10-08-06, 12:16 AM	So the campaign that I'm working on all ties back to a murder that's going to happen at game one. I have the whole campaign outline written up and now I'm working on writing the first adventure. My problem is that I'm having trouble with this scene that's supposed to be such a huge part of the entire story. Lots of the plot hooks are found in the next scene (at the residence of the recently deceased), including a puzzlebox that the characters will spend most of the campaign trying to open. The problem is that I can't seem to find a way to make the murder scene interesting. So here are the details: the characters are enjoying a night out in Sharn. While walking about around the Morgrave campus, a worried student runs into them. He begs the characters for help. His teacher is dying. By the time they get back, the teacher's dead. He was shot in the back with a poisoned arrow and, after the paralysis set in, his attacker came in and finished the job. The teacher, an orc botanist, had been meditating in the Hadrill Gardens when all of this happened. So how do I make this encounter/scene/whatever memorable enough to still be as interesting and vivid when the character hit level 12? Help please. -Tom Sawyer
Solarious 10-08-06, 03:27 AM	The best way to make it interesting is to make something blatantly wrong about the entire scene. For example, a certain type of prolific flower in the garden has died to a plant, but all other plants are untouched. Or maybe the corpse is on fire but it isn't burning. Maybe there's a trail of bloody teeth leading away from the murder victim. Or perhaps your orc botanist has a dinstant abberant touch from long ago durring the Daelkyr invasion, and when he dies, there are Cultists of the Dragon Below worshipping the corpse... who defend it fanatically. Then, you refresh their memory with the motif every few levels, making what seems 'wrong' stronger (and deadlier) each time it recurrs. But the first time will stick out the most, because, well... it was their first encounter with it. Make sure you don't assign hard and fast mechanics (or capabilities) to it, so you can change it as you go along. You want to be able to keep this concept nebulous and mysterious, because if you (or the players) understand it completely, it takes the fear and apprehension away. Oh, and make sure all divinations refer to their questions obliquely, in a 'out of the corner of your eye' way. Don't give them an information blank, just skirt around the edges of the subject, and feed your players crumbs when they finally deserve it. Make their imaginations work, for it conjures up images more vivid than anything you could describe in detail.
OneWinged4ngel 10-08-06, 02:49 PM	Good call, Solarious. I totally agree with your post. That strange, growing theme is the sort of thing that immortalizes crimes in the media in the real world, and that should be proof enough that such things would be interesting in a fantasy setting. Make the crime unique and notable with a disturbing and mysterious motif.