PDA

View Full Version : Help me set up a mystery adventure!



Bearpunch
2011-08-30, 08:56 PM
My players have recently complained about too much combat (4e can drag, admittedly), so I decided to make an adventures focus on mysterious and terrifying secret affecting a small town. I essentially want (spoliered so Mindartis doesn't read)
A town in which everyone is relatively secretive, and aggresive to questions involving said secretiveness. The mayor is the only truly friendly person in the town. I want players to end up exploring a mysterious spoooooooky location and discover the secret, linking it to the BBEG, a Necr named del'Trix.

I want the cult that worships Del to be there.
I want an enemy that is very powerful, but lost a lot of his humanity. I want it to be the mayor, that has sacrificed part of his humanity to better serve BBEG. I also want him to be a Slenderman type deal, with the hypnosis and childkilling bit in there as well.
But more importantly, I want an investigation to lead to this discovery. This is what I need help with, everything else I can figure. I've never ran a very mystery-centric adventure before, so I have no experience, suggestions are welcome.

SowZ
2011-08-30, 09:11 PM
The idea of a mystery is to give slight clues here and there pointing towards the final reveal. You might have ten clues set up and the party figures it out after five. But after all ten, the party may only have a vague idea. The challenge is, (assuming there are ten clues total,) making clues that aren't so easy the party figures it out after clue one, very possible to figure out after clue four or five, and they should know by eight clued or so, (that's my opinion, anyway.)

Of course, the party won't find all the clues but there needs to be some sort of trail leading them from clue to clue without it seeming like a scavenger hunt or they are following a map. Usually, IMO, mysteries work when they are largely sandbox within a setting. The characters should be encouraged to set up their own plans to catch clues.

Maybe there is a stake out. Or an ambush. Or they go undercover. Whatever. Do your players have that kind of initiative? Also, how do you plan on getting them initially hooked on the mystery so they have the drive to see it to the end?

Bearpunch
2011-08-30, 09:18 PM
I plan on just using the general unsettling nature of the town as a hook. As a last ditch I have a crazy town drunk I can pull out.

So I should think of ten clues, then at a certain time, all will be revealed?

Alright, I will set up a clue in each building in town. Two, if necessary.

Once I get something, I will post it.

Oh, heres one now, outside of the mayors office, on the ground is a piece of paper that has a cults insignia and reads something cryptic, possibly in another language.

SowZ
2011-08-30, 09:29 PM
I plan on just using the general unsettling nature of the town as a hook. As a last ditch I have a crazy town drunk I can pull out.

So I should think of ten clues, then at a certain time, all will be revealed?

Alright, I will set up a clue in each building in town. Two, if necessary.

Once I get something, I will post it.

Oh, heres one now, outside of the mayors office, on the ground is a piece of paper that has a cults insignia and reads something cryptic, possibly in another language.

Sure, but let the reveal moment not be one big event where someone else steps out and explains it, (unless the party has already figured most of it out on their own and they confronted the villian via their own initiative and he has a Bond-villian ego to then explain what they missed,) but let the party figure it out in their own time then decide how to deal with it. This does not preclude assassination attempts if the party gets to close or wild goose chases, though.

And maybe have some clues linked to people, not places, so the party will have to plan stake-outs or an ambush or undercover missions or stalkings.

Bearpunch
2011-08-30, 09:35 PM
Yes, perfect. I've never had much experience in mysteries.

So the town drunk claims the mayor is Slenderbro, so the party does A.
However, upon doing A, everything seems relatively normal except B.
B is not a deal breaker, but something that definetly points to him. B leads to a new place to investigate which is a new lead. At lead C, they determine that the information they seek to solve C is very old, and go to the library. At the library, they encounter Mayor, and, upon looking for said book, it is missing. When they ask librarian, she says that the mayor took it out.

At which point, players have a choice:
Continue to investigate
Confront the mayor.

Sound good?

Drachasor
2011-08-30, 09:43 PM
Importantly, you will want to have several ways for the party to obtain each clue. Ideally the vast majority of the party should be able to obtain any one clue (and rotate around the people who can't, ideally). You can NEVER depend on one or two abilities being used in the right way for a clue to be obtained. Otherwise the party can easily get frustrated mucking around looking for information and finding nothing. This also works well with the party making their own plans to find a clue, since you've provided multiple hooks per clue. Also, try to make sure you reward remotely creative plans with something.

Worst case, if the party is lost and can't figure out what to do next, give them a clue to the next clue. Someone running off somewhere strangely, an odd noise, a death, whatever. Heck, you could plan out a few people to kill off in case the party gets lost.

Sometimes you might need to indicate to the party if someone is acting unusual. They might not be able to tell or might not be able to tell why. Like getting lost, then can really slow things down. So if something like that happens it can be better to let the person with +10 Sense Motive know that the person seems strange in such and such a fashion about such and such a thing, rather than waste half an hour more of game time.

Naturally you'll want to give the party sometime to find clues and work things out on their own, but if they are aimless for 15 minutes or so and they aren't having any good ideas, then toss them a bone. A successful mystery* is, in large part, about testing the limits of the players, but these limits can be hard to know ahead of time. Hence you'll have to fine-tune it during play.

*Assuming you want the figuring out of a mystery to be a gamist puzzle to solve. But from what you've said that is the case here.

Bearpunch
2011-08-30, 10:42 PM
You guys have been a ton of help. Luckily I have another week to write it up. So much time..

What should be the experience handout for an adventure like this?

SowZ
2011-08-31, 05:21 AM
You guys have been a ton of help. Luckily I have another week to write it up. So much time..

What should be the experience handout for an adventure like this?

Glad we could be of service. I'd make sure they are getting at least as much XP as they get in a usual session so as not to discourage this kind of play.

hewhosaysfish
2011-08-31, 06:19 AM
Worst case, if the party is lost and can't figure out what to do next, give them a clue to the next clue. Someone running off somewhere strangely, an odd noise, a death, whatever. Heck, you could plan out a few people to kill off in case the party gets lost.


I like this suggestion. Whatever the cult and/or the mayor are up to, have it layed out in stages such that each stage features A Bad Thing Happening but also yields more clues for the PCs. So, if the PCs are getting too stumped and can't see where to go from here then you can have some NPCs rush into the room, ashen-faced, and gasp "There's been another murder!!"
They get the clues they need to progress but because there are negative consequences for taking to long they don't feel like they're being spoon-fed.

Bearpunch
2011-08-31, 07:09 AM
Yeah, a layer with several clues and one event that takes it to another layer, and everntually, after three or four layers, all is revealed, depending on how well they solve the mystery.

So, how would I reward/almost sorta punish the party for doing good/bad?