Have an idea for a murder mystery and need input

[The Patterner]

So I'm currently leading a Pathfinder (1st ed) campaign that takes place in a Pirates of Caribbean/ Black sails style of universe were the players are, well, treasure hunters/pirates. I'm currently fastly approching a end point to the first act of the campaign and need to do something else for a while, so I can plan act two (act three is more or less planed out already).

So to do something else I decided to run a little muder mystery. The idea is to place it in the 'real' world during the roaring twenties. So around 1924-1927. It will primarily take place on the french country side close to Paris.

Starting levels for the characters will be 5-7 and they have to play as some form of caster. They also can't be human. The idea is that ever since they were born there has been some form of mentor around who helped them learning magic and who provided them with a potion to make them look human.

That mentor has sent a letter to them asking them to come by their estate, it's a matter of urgency and when they arrive the mentor has just been murdered. They don't know each other, and they all belive they are unique in origin and magic use.

I have some story elements tought out:

• There are four players and they will all be born on one of the following: winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox, autumn equinox.
• Their mentor was working on some form of ritual but was stopped by the murderer.
• Maybe that the killer will be a shapeshifting dragon who is the last of it's kind. Not sure.

So what I kind of want to have input on are general thoughts and if there are some magic that should be banned or nerfed?

[GloatingSwine]

I guess the first thing you have to deal with is what happens when they cast Speak with Dead.

(Prep for the most likely questions, possibly have it not work the first time and use that as one clue that someone else has cast it on the body within the last week which could give them a lead to motive).

[The Patterner]

I guess the first thing you have to deal with is what happens when they cast Speak with Dead.

(Prep for the most likely questions, possibly have it not work the first time and use that as one clue that someone else has cast it on the body within the last week which could give them a lead to motive).

Oh, like the angle of someone beating them to the punch.

Are there any anti-divination stuff that would allow for me to create false leads. If they realize some of the information they get with magic is false that would make them question even the true information.

[GloatingSwine]

Oh, like the angle of someone beating them to the punch.

Are there any anti-divination stuff that would allow for me to create false leads. If they realize some of the information they get with magic is false that would make them question even the true information.

There are magic items of Nondetection that can protect against divination and scrying.

Also false leads like hairs from a third party that will lead them to a false lead (but potential witness) if they Scry.

[Eldan]

The easiest way to work around Speak with Dead is to have the victim not know what killed them. The murderer came from behind, or used a spell from a distance, or just set the building on fire. If the victim didn't see anything, they can't say anything. Still give valuable clues, but not spoil the entire investigation. Also, if they are private investigators, maybe they can't easily access the corpse, so you get the bonus fun of having them heist into a county morgue to steal the body for some necromancy.

The biggest and most important input on any mystery adventure is this: expect your players to repeatedly not get it. Plant three times as many clues as you think are necessary to solve the adventure, and have a backup plan in case the players manage to collect all those clues and still not understand it. Nothing ruins a mystery like the detectives standing around staring at their notebooks for half an hour, or repeat all their steps again because they can't think of how to proceed. For the backup plan: have one with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, to get the action going again. If the players spend three days and don't have any idea where to go, have the murderer make a big mistake. Or a second murder, with more clues. Or a surprise witness, who secretly approaches the detectives. Or have the murderer decide that the detectives are getting too close and plan a hit on the detectives themselves.

[The Patterner]

The easiest way to work around Speak with Dead is to have the victim not know what killed them. The murderer came from behind, or used a spell from a distance, or just set the building on fire. If the victim didn't see anything, they can't say anything. Still give valuable clues, but not spoil the entire investigation. Also, if they are private investigators, maybe they can't easily access the corpse, so you get the bonus fun of having them heist into a county morgue to steal the body for some necromancy.

The biggest and most important input on any mystery adventure is this: expect your players to repeatedly not get it. Plant three times as many clues as you think are necessary to solve the adventure, and have a backup plan in case the players manage to collect all those clues and still not understand it. Nothing ruins a mystery like the detectives standing around staring at their notebooks for half an hour, or repeat all their steps again because they can't think of how to proceed. For the backup plan: have one with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, to get the action going again. If the players spend three days and don't have any idea where to go, have the murderer make a big mistake. Or a second murder, with more clues. Or a surprise witness, who secretly approaches the detectives. Or have the murderer decide that the detectives are getting too close and plan a hit on the detectives themselves.

So regarding the first point I'm thinking that maybe I should set it up so that the players are among the prime suspects and therefore can't really investigate as openly as they would like. Could lead to them needing to break-in, hide, lie etc.

And yeah, regarding the clues I agree 100%, it's a lot more difficult to plan clues than one might expect.

[Eldan]

If you want the players to go somewhere, plant at least three clues about that place. If they should suspect someone, plant at least five. And don't make them subtle. I've run dozens of mysteries over the years, and the one consistent thing I've found is that the greatest talent players have are not finding clues and misinterpreting the clues they do find.

[The Patterner]

So general pointers seem to be:

Regarding clues.
- Think you have enough clues, double them. And then tripple that.
- Be prepared to throw out even more clues and maybe even taking a sledge-hammer approach.

Regarding magic
- You can always have obstacles that forces the players to rely on other things than magic. Better than outright bans/nerfs.
- You can plant false leads that specifically will make divination unreliable (hair from someone innocent for example).

I feel like I have to decide exactly who all the prime suspects are, and establish reasons to why they have things to hide (having affairs, being con-artists etc).

That gives them motive, while also providing a good explanation to why they are uncooperative

[Eldan]

There could be other students of that mentor. Their motivation to keep quiet could be that, like the players, they are trying to keep their unusual talents secret.

[smetzger]

If they get stumped. Have the bad guy get nervous and send a hit squad against them, which will of course give your players more clues.

Have a red herring that is a dead end.