Comments on: Ask The GMs: Penetrating the veil of mystery

By: Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-03-12

Ravenous Role Playing » Blog Archive » Friday Five: 2010-03-12 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:37:46 +0000

[...] Ask The GMs: Penetrating the veil of mystery Ever read a well written mystery and think it would be a great role playing session? Think again. It’s hard to do a mystery when there are 4-6 other people sitting around the table helping you mold the story. There are some tips and tricks to pulling it off, though. Go see what the GMs Mike and Johnn have to say on the matter. [...]

By: Johnn

Johnn — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:58:35 +0000

@Jeremy – I have not tried Mike’s method either, and it would make me a bit nervous. But I will give it a shot.

I like your thugs tip. I think you are quoting Raymond Chandler. Though, he never had any vampire orc space pirates in his mysteries. :P

By: Johnn

Johnn — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:56:06 +0000

@Loz – great tip about theme and GM interest.

By: Johnn

Johnn — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:54:39 +0000

@Robert – good call. Several heads vs. one at the game table. Fantasy mysteries give you magic and the gods as hacks, but modern mysteries are less forgiving.

Perhaps the best mantra is, keep it simple and let the players make it complicated.

By: Loz NEWMAN

Loz NEWMAN — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:19:19 +0000

There are different sub-types of mystery scenario : some are more cerebral “puzzles” (locked-roomers, whodunnits), some are more “action movie” (rooftop or car chases, thug-fests), some are more “romance novel”, some are “Thriller” or outright “horror”. You can start from a concept and just hope the players buy into it… or you can take a short while to think about what your players will get the most “kick” out of, and then develop your budding scenarios in that direction. This will also have the effect of helping you pick sources of inspiration amongst the truly vast amounts of fiction available.
P.S. Add in some things that *you* will get a kick out of too. Plot-twists, surprise appearances, echos of past scenarios, coincidental dramatic NPC encounters, red herrings. It helps keep your scenarios surprising.

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:16:00 +0000

What you gotta watch out for when making mysteries is players discovering plot holes. You may think that your month long preparations got them all out, but there is always someone in the group that knows more about the setting/technology/procedures than you do and is sure to point it out (like physicists playing in hard scifi campaigns…). Sure, some of these plot holes and inconsistencies may be the same as those that slip through in movies, books, and TV shows, but they got an advantage in that as long as the characters don’t notice, they may as well not exist. This leads to having to rewrite the whole story on the fly as Mike pointed out.

By: Jeremy Patrick

Jeremy Patrick — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:54:15 +0000

This was a very helpful question and response–mysteries are quite difficult to pull off and I agree with the general approach of coming up with a list of NPCs, their alibis and motivations, and a few clues that will point in the right direction and a few that will serve as red herrings.

I have to disagree with Mike’s idea of the GM not knowing who the perpetrator was in advance and just adopting whatever theory the PCs come up with that seems dramatically appropriate. The problem with this is that if the GM doesn’t know who was “really” responsible, how he can role-play the murderer in a believable way? The GM is also far more likely to get tripped up by inconsistent details if he doesn’t know who the murderer actually is, since he has no idea whether the NPC was involved or not. Finally, the players will quickly pick up on the idea that the murderer is whoever they investigate last and grow cynical if they realize that this isn’t a real mystery but simply an exercise in GM manipulation to give the appearance of a mystery.

On an unrelated note, when running a mystery it’s easy for some players to grow a little bored with constant talking and investigation, so don’t forget the great line of one of the classic mystery novelists (paraphrasing): “Whenever things get a little slow, I have two thugs burst into the room!” Of course, “two thugs” can be orcs, space pirates, or vampires depending on the setting in which the mystery takes place. The thugs can be unrelated to the mystery and simply serve up action, or they can be a GM device to drop a clue to point the PCs in the write direction (one of them is carrying a business card, embossed hankerchief, ID chip, etc.)
Jeremy Patrick´s last blog ..Star Wars Recap # 34