Investigation adventures can be a little of a change of pace for games, letting characters who have invested in social skills get some mileage.
But how can you write a good investigation, without railroading people through a sequence of scenes? And why would this be discovered? It can take some practice to get this right. So, let's come up with a basic idea to give you a starter for where to leave clues. Let's say you want a murder that leads to finding a cult. So, start with the cult- why have they murdered the victim? Who were they, and why was that particular person murdered? Was the victim left for someone to find as a message, or did someone not have time to hide the body? How was the target killed- a knife, club, or with magic? These are points where you can leave a clue. Next, where do those clues lead? A knife, discarded, might lead to a weapons merchant who could advise who they sold that knife to. A Detect Magic spell might reveal the tye of magic used to slay a target. Regular clues, like clothing scraps caught on a nail, notes left by a dying victim, and so on, might lead to a nearby gang who could give directions, or mislead them into a different direction- perhaps a trap. It's fairly important to 'fail forward' with investigations, to avoid people just feeling frustrated and giving up. If they miss a clue, let them find something else which gives them a direction to go with. So if they get the wrong end of the stick, and are sure that the gang's lying to them, go with it- let them fight the gang (maybe it'll break things up) and have them discover a note in the gang leader's pouch directing the gang to throw the PCs off the trail. That way, the cult can have an ambush prepare, but your players can feel clever and maybe think of a way to infiltrate the gathering without springing the ambush, which can be a lot of fun too. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 21 August 2019. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm Luke. He/him pronouns. Archives
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