I used to never run entire sessions dedicated to solving a murder. Whodunits have become probably the most challenging game to write and run so far. Given the amount of work they take to write, I don't know that I could deal with putting them into a sandbox game where players are just as likely to ignore them.
Anyway, I've come up with a method for writing a murder mystery I thought I'd share.
Step 1) The Crime
First I come up with the crime. At this point it isn't important to think of anything other than what happened to who. You may already have an idea who did it, but I find it easier to think of that later.
Step 2) The Crime Scene
Next, you want to come up with a list of all the clues left at the scene. Anything the culprit touched, used, or left behind. This is a lot easier in a fantasy game where you don't have to deal with CSI.
These clues should say something obvious about the killer. For example, in the game I'm running tonight the killer scaled a wall using the vines to get into the victims 4th floor window. If the players are clever, it automatically narrows the list of suspects to people that can physically or magically perform the feat, of which there are only 7 in town.
Footprint size, cigar butts, clumps of hair from a struggle...
Step 3) The Suspects
After I have the clues and can imagine what the killer must be like from them, I make a list of all the people that the clues could fit. The more people on the list, the longer the mystery will take to solve. I think about half a dozen is a good number.
Step 4) Alibi
Of the six or seven suspects, I'll come up with alibis for about half of them. One of them should have a good motive to commit the murder, and maybe a reason to hide their alibi. That way, it will be possible for the players to work out a wrong answer to the puzzle and lose.
Step 5) Motives
More than one of the suspects should have a connection to the victim and / or a reason to want to kill him. There can be cross over with people that have alibis. Maybe some of the people that fit the bill don't have any reason at all to commit the crime.
Step 6) The Killer
By now, you have it narrowed down to one or two possible suspects. You have, in effect, solved your own mystery. Pick the killer.
Step 7) The Smoking Gun
There should be a hard to reach or impress witness, or an object hidden on the killer or his property, that helps prove that he is the one.
I think this inside out method of writing a mystery insures that there is a clear path to victory through deductive reasoning, and a possibility of failure.
I wasn't too convinced that a good Murder Mystery format could be designed for RPG play; then I tried my own hand at it and found a formula I think worked, in the "Murder, She Gnomed" scenario in my upcoming Gnomemurdered RPG.
RPGPundit
That's pretty exciting. Is your formula in the book or just the adventure?
...Yeah, that would work.
Seems pretty solid to me.
Personally, though, my approach thus far to this kind of thing (which has only cropped up once or twice, admittedly) is to consider what happened, specifically, then figure out what would clues the events that transpired would have left behind. So I guess I take your steps 5 and 6 and put them before step 1.
I also somewhat disagree with your inclusion of step 7. There shouldn't necessarily always be effectively an "I win" button for this sort of scenario. If it makes sense that there is one, then fine, but I'm doubtful that there is always going to be one or more pieces of conclusively damning evidence.
Quote from: GnomeWorks;343420Seems pretty solid to me.
Personally, though, my approach thus far to this kind of thing (which has only cropped up once or twice, admittedly) is to consider what happened, specifically, then figure out what would clues the events that transpired would have left behind. So I guess I take your steps 5 and 6 and put them before step 1.
I also somewhat disagree with your inclusion of step 7. There shouldn't necessarily always be effectively an "I win" button for this sort of scenario. If it makes sense that there is one, then fine, but I'm doubtful that there is always going to be one or more pieces of conclusively damning evidence.
I hear you about taking the steps out of my order. I go back and forth while I'm doing it as well.
I realize you don't need step 7, but I think it is good for the game most of the time. Most of the people I play with enjoy knowing that there is a way to win. As a GM, it is easy to always put another step in, to omit evidence, change things, or just write something very complicated. Real investigators can do a better job of solving a mystery than gamers because real life investigators can actually, physically, look at evidence and talk to people. In an RPG, you pretty much have to feed it to the players to let them know what is going on. It is still, probably, going to be hard enough.
Quote from: Cranewings;343358That's pretty exciting. Is your formula in the book or just the adventure?
Well, the formula can be very easily deduced from the adventure. One of the key elements is that there be a large cast of NPCs, that each have their own personalities, motives, and secrets. You could say its character-based mystery, rather than plot-based mystery, and in so doing sidesteps the general issues of railroading.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;343529Well, the formula can be very easily deduced from the adventure. One of the key elements is that there be a large cast of NPCs, that each have their own personalities, motives, and secrets. You could say its character-based mystery, rather than plot-based mystery, and in so doing sidesteps the general issues of railroading.
RPGPundit
I've thought about writing a game in the way you are describing, but that can be a hell of a lot of work (:
The problem also is that its two utterly different things to do:
1. create a crime in an RPG and give the PCs the tools needed to solve it.
2. Emulate a "murder mystery" with all of its standard elements of genre.
In a Murder Mystery, for example, the culprit must almost NEVER be the first person it seems to be, nor must the crime be truly resolved until the end of the mystery.
RPGPundit