Murder Mystery One Shot

[ChainAttack641]

So I have been requested to write a One Shot for my church. They all don't know how to play, (I do) should I run a Murder Mystery One Shot, if so, do you have any tips?
Thanks

[Fayd]

Gonna be honest, D&D isn’t exactly a great game for murder mysteries. It can be done but that is not it’s strong suit.

Characters with high perception, insight, and investigation will have the most do do but unless you craft your scenarios carefully characters without that may have a lot less to do.

But if it has to be murder mystery... make sure to include lots of clues, more than you think they will need because they will miss a handful. Include a few red herrings; false positives are more interesting than false negatives in my experience. Try to work in a combat or two that is thematically appropriate.

Make sure all of the knowledge skills (Arcana, religion, nature, history, and so on) can contribute in some way to solving the mystery.

Finally as it is for new players, don’t rely too heavily on assumptions that experienced players would have.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Honestly my biggest tip for running a murder mystery is to use a system like Gumshoe that's built for it. I know that's not strictly speaking helpful, so I'd also recommend this: https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule

[Reynaerde]

Gonna be honest, D&D isn’t exactly a great game for murder mysteries. It can be done but that is not it’s strong suit.

Characters with high perception, insight, and investigation will have the most do do but unless you craft your scenarios carefully characters without that may have a lot less to do.In a situation like this I would also make the characters for them (and make sure that each has some crucial skills to add to the story).

You could also have a look at The Lost Kenku, by Shawn Wood, it's a mystery tale for introducing new players. I'm afraid I can't include the link because I'm too new to the forum, but it's easy to google.

[Tawmis]

So I have been requested to write a One Shot for my church. They all don't know how to play, (I do) should I run a Murder Mystery One Shot, if so, do you have any tips?
Thanks

So, my first thought...
It's for your Church.
Rather than have a game that centers around murder... (which may give a bad impression to first time Church go-ers that D&D is evil and centers around murder and death)...

I would rather do some sort of rescue mission... whether it's to save someone from a band of goblins, or recovering some relic that's been stolen...

This also allows to present a lot of different visuals (monsters from the Monster Manual) to show them things... Change up some of the DC of the monsters, so that they encounter plenty of different things along this rescue mission... Rather than making it all about humans and elves and dwarves all trying to figure out who a murderer is.

Just my two cents.

[Reynaerde]

I would rather do some sort of rescue mission... Or find a Lost Kenku!

I'm allowed to include the link now: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/227627

[firelistener]

So, my first thought...
It's for your Church.
Rather than have a game that centers around murder... (which may give a bad impression to first time Church go-ers that D&D is evil and centers around murder and death)...

I would rather do some sort of rescue mission... whether it's to save someone from a band of goblins, or recovering some relic that's been stolen...

This also allows to present a lot of different visuals (monsters from the Monster Manual) to show them things... Change up some of the DC of the monsters, so that they encounter plenty of different things along this rescue mission... Rather than making it all about humans and elves and dwarves all trying to figure out who a murderer is.

Just my two cents.

I'll second this. One-shots usually go a lot better if they are less serious and have a light-hearted tone.
I ran one that involved a wizard apprentice that had stolen a wand of True Polymorph and turned his master into a sheep. The guards were all awakened animals, complete with a bear-using-the-outhouse gag, and the boss monster was a bed turned into a "bed dragon" wyrmling. It's a pretty popular free adventure:
https://winghornpressdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/the_wild_sheep_chase_v2.pdf

That being said, I've _also_ run a Scooby-Doo style mystery like this as the opening adventure in one of my games. If you want to read about it, I've transcribed it here.
For me, the players boarded a cruise ship as guards to protect passengers from the "ghost pirate" that had been kidnapping the wealthy passengers. The ghost pirate appeared after I gave the party about 10 minutes of role playing with some whimsical cruise-guests in a ballroom, and they fought a few sahaugin that appeared with the green-glowing pirate. The pirate bailed early, and the captain told them to go search rooms. They did, and I let them find a wardrobe with a false backing that contained some gloves coated with glowing green goop and a picture of the bartender they met earlier (it could've been anyone; I just picked the bartender because that was who they remembered well from earlier) with a beautiful woman. I then had them get directed to the cargo hold and galley, where the green goop had been obtained from the head cook (the captain told them this when they showed him the boots, and identified the woman as being the bartender's wife). They fought a few more sahaugin and the cook identified the woman in the picture as the owner of a rival cruise-line that he used to work for. The party went to confront the bartender and a battle ensued with more sahaugin and the bartender/pirate using a magical rod of domination that was controlling the sahaugin. He told them all about how he just wanted to scare people away from the cruise line to drum up business for his and his wife's business.
^That adventure took 3 sessions because my players were new, like yours will be, and were very sluggish with their actions in combat and still learning what kinds of ways they could interact with the game world. I would _highly_ recommend against a complicated mystery like that unless you have multiple long sessions to play.

An even better idea I just had might be:
Someone has stolen a giant wagon full of sugar! The local sheriff is offering a reward for the arrest of the culprit. Some wagon tracks lead the party to a bakery, where a mad wizard has unleashed candy-golems crafted with the sugar to wreak havoc on the town. You get the added bonus of these enemies not being people, so there shouldn't be any moral quandary about fighting them.

If you follow the 5-room-dungeon plan to design the bakery, you should have a very solid and fun one-shot. Even if you don't do the bakery thing, a 5-room-dungeon is great for these types of games.
http://strolen.com/viewing/5_Room_Dungeon

[Bobthewizard]

I ran one that involved a wizard apprentice that had stolen a wand of True Polymorph and turned his master into a sheep. The guards were all awakened animals, complete with a bear-using-the-outhouse gag, and the boss monster was a bed turned into a "bed dragon" wyrmling. It's a pretty popular free adventure:
https://winghornpressdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/the_wild_sheep_chase_v2.pdf

I'll vote for Wild Sheep Chase. Some combat, roleplaying, and investigation. Great short adventure for new players.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Also, reference to a great novel. So it has that going for it, which is nice.