Investigation Rules

I am setting these under the five classic journalistic questions, who, what where, when, and why (and how). My system is using a roll-under mechanic, so success would mean that a number of clue points are generated. The amount is (margin of roll-under plus skill rating). As you can see below, magic and the supernatural would have a role in it as well.

Who...

Is the victim?
Is the murderer?
Are any potential witnesses or collaborators?

What...

Is the connection between the victim and killer?
Was the method used?
Any magic used in the attack?

Where...

Was the murder done? (Was the body moved?)
Was the body placed? (Ritualistic placement?)

When...

Was the murder done?

Why/How?

Was the murder done?

Clues:

They would cost points to find and the players could use them to ask specific questions of the GM. For instance, finding maggots on the body could help tell how long ago the murder took place (a 1 point clue). Finding a driver's license in the wallet could answer the "who" question very well (5 point clue).

Therefore, I was thinking of assigning point values to clues in the following manner.

For every category of question answered after the first one...two points.

Usefulness of answer...

Vague...1 point
Useful but incomplete...3 points
Complete...5 points

The clues are "growable." For instance, they find a skeleton of a murder victim and they only know that is probably from a young Causican woman. Perhaps if they invest two points (from a 1 to 3 point clue), then someone in their organization was able to extract DNA from it and identify since the victim voluntarily donated for one reason or another.

Another example would be to combine 1 point clues together. Using my post above, insects, corpse decomposition and other factors allow the investigators a much smaller window as to the time of death.

If the investigator fails, then there is always the next crime scene if need be. It seems like the TV cops fail to find the killer after the first murder. It takes a few, as sad as that is, in order to figure out who did it.  Of coursse, most shows stick to the one killer, one episode format.  So a mixture of them wouldn't hurt.

There is going to be low-level magic available in the setting. In this setting, it has just come to the surface years and people are exploring it like they were DNA in the 1930-1950s. Magic is there and can be harnessed but there are still unknowns out there. So, some future predicting and postcoginiton is there but you can't rely solely on it.  It's experimental but proof has been find for people with the right level of access to the truth.

I know people might run out of points so I need to make a rule for the points to refresh.  I will probably make the point refresh time based for the most part. Perhaps a day or two at least. Maybe I will have so it takes a day for every point rolled over the TN since I am using a roll under mechanic. I know it can take a long time to solve a case in rl but I am fudging a bit here.

In the meanwhile, I could have a random assignment generator ("I don't pay you just to sit on your butt all day,ya know:") to break up the monotony of the investigation. Some of the assignments would be opportunity for further roleplay, others for combat and still more to gain knowledge.


Anyway, the problem I have is that I am want to provide some detail but I don't know how to work a crime scene or even have that much experience with crime shows. I was hoping that I could get help with examples of clues, ask additional sub-questions or any other comments.   Finally, I hope this is making sense up to this point.