Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 thespeck1990 Jan 14, 2011 13:57:47	So, I'm designing a campaign that is heavily based upon the party solving a whodunnit-style murder mystery.  In short, they'll end up in a space-and-time-travelling mansion that traps them until they can figure out who among the NPCs in the mansion is killing off everyone and perpetuating the powerful ritual. The party has just hit paragon, and I've been running their adventures since level 1, so I'm pretty well-versed with the group. I've run across a couple snags in trying to run a true mystery, where clue-finding and puzzle solving rule the day.  I thought I'd ask what you all would do about these issues.  I have a few ideas about some of them, but I'd like to hear from others. 1) Ability to use insight skill Naturally, I don't want to just let the paladin in the group throw a 30+ on an insight roll to figure out that the murderer just lied about killing off the other "guests."  But it's poor form just to say "No insight checks ever!"  What should be done if a character happens to roll a really high insight check?  I want to reward their skill, but I don't want to give away the mystery. 2) Party tries to beat their problems into the ground This is a common issue in any party, but it's worth mentioning here.  The party might up and decide that they just can't trust anyone and maybe they should just detain/maim all of them until they work things out.  At the beginning this would be hard since the party would be outnumbered, but closer to the end (when more people are dead) they could probably persecute the innocent more easily.  I see this as an outside-chance event, given the paladin's presence, but it's still a concern. How do I discourage the party from manhandling the NPCs? 3) Party makes all-too-logical decisions that make the murderer's life a bit too difficult This is related to issue #2.  You never want to put down the party's creative ideas, certainly, but I've got murders to commit!  Suppose the party convinces, forces, or otherwise gets the NPC's to all stay in one room during the night.  Maybe one particularly uppity NPC just never wants to comply, but I can't reasonably say "Nobody listens to you and they all foolishly go back to their respective rooms alone."  How can I manage the situation to give the murderer room to operate, at least until the party gets enough clues to nail him to the wall? 4) General suggestions Lastly, I'm looking for any general suggestions about mystery-making, clue-making, puzzle design, etc.  I have the NPCs decided on, but I'm open to any ideas! Thanks much, sorry for the length of this post. ~Nagrim
#2 crowscape Jan 15, 2011 0:31:49	1 is simple (though not necessarily easy) to fix: give everyone a reason to lie. All that insight does is let you sense their hiding something, but it doesn't tell you what. It's not mind reading. And a staple of murder mysteries is that every character is hiding something (an affair, debts, identity, etc). 2 can be solved by making everyone in that mansion have powerful friends, so the party does not want to get rough with everyone or make false accusations, as the consequences will be dire if they are wrong. 3 can be approached in a similar fashion to 1. Everyone is lying. Everyone is doing something they shouldn't be doing. Simply looking for a guilty party, the suspicious person, is not enough. 4 the obvious plot twist: as the characters close in on their suspect, he winds up dead. It's actually not a bad idea if the players have focused on the wrong person to begin with. But, if it was the true murderer, it requires some creative preparation of making it so the murderer can be logically chosen by Schrodinger's cat, and definately should not be used if the clues getting them that far were rightly earned. Also, make sure they don't have access to divination rituals.
#3 thespeck1990 Jan 19, 2011 10:30:26	Thanks for the suggestions.  I kinda figured on giving everyone some shady background-type motives to help with that, and I've actually come up with a scheme where the killer purposefully gives himself a temporary-amnesia potion each day and then performs the crimes at night...much of the time, even *he* doesn't know he's the murderer.  This is one thing the characters will have to work out, which will be a big clue in solving the crime. Most fortuitously, nobody in the party can cast rituals...they're kinda striker-heavy :p Making the NPCs powerful is wise, I think.  Hopefully the party isn't dumb enough to scoff at them anyway. Thanks very much!