Help Designing an Adventure (4E)

[Deme]

I need help figuring out what sort of things to do in a particular adventure I'm planning. You see, my friend and I are playing a two-person, co-DMed campaign where our 4 characters each are a mercenary group, and can be deployed willy-nilly, in whatever combos satisfy us.

The problem is, for this final adventure of our first level, we want more characters than we feel comfortable handling in one group at a time, so we're splitting the party: 6 characters in two groups on one mission, but doing two different types of things.

I have proposed as a plan that the mercenaries are contacted by some Person X who is in the area to do a specific and important task -- a buisness deal, peace treaty, magic ceremony, whatever. However, Person X is being attacked by strange people and needs some bodyguards. Group A will be serving Person X directly as bodyguards as well as helping her with this task. Group B will be trying to find out who is attacking her.

...The problem is... I have no idea how to plan out this sort of adventure, and what sort of thing should be in it, or how to plot a sort of "Murder Mystery." It's going to be relatively short -- in terms of whole combat encounters, maybe as little as one or two per group, with other stuff interspersed as need be. Skill challenges take less time, and may be good here.

Anyway, so I need a little help with figuring out the shape of this adventure that I can fill with the specifics later, or even just some adventures I could look at for reference for how this sort of plotting works.

[TricksyAndFalse]

You see, my friend and I are playing a two-person, co-DMed campaign ...

You and your frend are both player and DM? Won't that leave you always knowing at least about half of what's going to happen?

I have no idea how to plan out this sort of adventure, and what sort of thing should be in it, or how to plot a sort of "Murder Mystery." It's going to be relatively short -- in terms of whole combat encounters, maybe as little as one or two per group, with other stuff interspersed as need be.

I don't know how much experience you have designing skill challenges, but the ideal is that it should be okay to fail the challenge. A failure can mean a loss of potential loot, a loss of healing surges, or a tougher encounter later. With a murder mystery, then, the PCs should be guaranteed to get the clues by the end of the challenge, but failing the challenge might mean they have less time to act on the clues, ot the bad guys are better prepared for their coming.

Some DMs are tempted to have "realism" by allowing for the possibility the PCs never find the clues. But in all murder mystery novels, books, and TV shows that people enjoy, the protagonists find the clues that help solve the mystery. It's a challenge for the protagonist, they might suffer setbacks, they might miss some clues, but they always get enough clues to solve things correctly by the end.

I'd suggest a skill challenge and combat challenge for each group, and then a combat encounter for a mix of members from each group. Maybe like so:

Group A are the bodyguards. They get a combat encounter against some attackers. Afterward, they get a chase scene (perhaps across rooftops) to catch a person of interest who was seen with the attackers, or is wearing an identical uniform, or something. Success means they capture him and learn the location of the end boss. Failure means he doesn't get caught, but he leads them to the end boss lair. The end boss will know they're coming and be more prepared than if they succeeded.

Group B are the investigators. They get a skill challenge to poke into matters, ask questions, and look at clues. If they succeed, they learn a weakness of the end boss, and the final encounter is easier. Succeed or fail, their questions have tipped off the bad guys, and they are attacked.

The groups merge into a group of 4-5. Maybe 1-2 characters wounded in earlier encounters are left behind to rest up. The end boss encounter has four possible states: he knows they are coming and they don't know his weakness, he knows they are coming but they know his weakness, he doesn't know they are coming but they don't know his weakness, or he doesn't know they are coming and they know his weakness.

[Deme]

You and your frend are both player and DM? Won't that leave you always knowing at least about half of what's going to happen?

Sort of, yeah. We switch after every level who's DMing, though between us, though some of the big-big longterm things have been agreed on, though there's still room to mess around between point A and B by whomever's in charge at that time.

I don't know how much experience you have designing skill challenges, but the ideal is that it should be okay to fail the challenge. A failure can mean a loss of potential loot, a loss of healing surges, or a tougher encounter later. With a murder mystery, then, the PCs should be guaranteed to get the clues by the end of the challenge, but failing the challenge might mean they have less time to act on the clues, ot the bad guys are better prepared for their coming.

Some DMs are tempted to have "realism" by allowing for the possibility the PCs never find the clues. But in all murder mystery novels, books, and TV shows that people enjoy, the protagonists find the clues that help solve the mystery. It's a challenge for the protagonist, they might suffer setbacks, they might miss some clues, but they always get enough clues to solve things correctly by the end.

I'd suggest a skill challenge and combat challenge for each group, and then a combat encounter for a mix of members from each group. Maybe like so:

Group A are the bodyguards. They get a combat encounter against some attackers. Afterward, they get a chase scene (perhaps across rooftops) to catch a person of interest who was seen with the attackers, or is wearing an identical uniform, or something. Success means they capture him and learn the location of the end boss. Failure means he doesn't get caught, but he leads them to the end boss lair. The end boss will know they're coming and be more prepared than if they succeeded.

Group B are the investigators. They get a skill challenge to poke into matters, ask questions, and look at clues. If they succeed, they learn a weakness of the end boss, and the final encounter is easier. Succeed or fail, their questions have tipped off the bad guys, and they are attacked.

The groups merge into a group of 4-5. Maybe 1-2 characters wounded in earlier encounters are left behind to rest up. The end boss encounter has four possible states: he knows they are coming and they don't know his weakness, he knows they are coming but they know his weakness, he doesn't know they are coming but they don't know his weakness, or he doesn't know they are coming and they know his weakness.

This sounds like a pretty satisfying rough framework. Thanks ^^