"detective stories"

[Persell]

any advice on how to handle detective stories?


since its hard to plant evidence that will EVENTUALY lead to the culprit... bt isnt either something where they'dhave to read your mind... or blatantly obvious.


(and this is BEFORE considering all the complications a twilights investigation charms bring in.)

 

[Flagg]

I once ran a seat-of-my-pants murder mystery plot that my players have talked about for years afterward.


The secret to keeping things mysterious is that I had no idea who the killer was either!


I just let the players run with their own personal theories, throwing in random clue-like bits of info, ominous events, and the occasional deliberate red-herring. Whenever a player had a theory that I thought was really cool and creative, I'd make that the truth of the situation.


It got very complicated, and was a feat of plot-manipulation to bring together at the end, but I pulled it off somehow, and the suspense was maintained until the end.


-S

 

[Silence In Daylight]

any advice on how to handle detective stories?
since its hard to plant evidence that will EVENTUALY lead to the culprit... bt isnt either something where they'dhave to read your mind... or blatantly obvious.


(and this is BEFORE considering all the complications a twilights investigation charms bring in.)

 First, do some research among your players to see if any of them read mysteries. Then, read some of the classics (Doyle, Christie, and the like) that your players aren't familiar with.


 Finally, steal plots at will. =)

 

[Guest]

Never underestimate the value of just making shit up as you go along.


Personally, my players are way too unpredictable to plan anything terribly far in advance - invariably, if I do, they will do something that makes whatever I had pencilled in as even a vague idea of what might happen totally impossible. so I just have a general idea of who might be involved in any given thing, and take notes as I start defining the situation in response to their inquiries/actions.


Granted, my general response seems to be fairly evil and generally screws over my players' characters more often than not, but they seem to like it, so s'all good.

 

[Jakk Bey]

Read Dan Simmons.  John D. MacDonald.  Go for the heavy hitters.  And then remember that you're in a fantasy game, and you need to then find Barry Hugharts's The Bridge of Birds and the rest of the Master Li series--one of the best Reinterpreting-Chinese-Mythology-Into-Adventure-Mysteries ever done.  Seriously.  


Barry is the shizzle. Classic magic and mysticism, and great mysteries.  Cosmic plots with gods and the Thousand Hells, and couched in the format of a humerous mystery.  


The key is to maintain the elements of the fantastic.  That may mean that you have to contact Yu-Shan to get your evidence, and that bureacrats may bar their way. It may mean that the very Spawn of Hell have been summoned, and the question of why would do such a thing is always in order.  


And always maintain a sene of wonder and myth, with long held traditions and beliefs.  Legends and stories as clues, not just dropped pieces of cloth.  Yes, you can have little stories of political intrigue and murder mysteries, but Exalted should have BIG, Heaven shaking mysteries.  People stealing the Peaches of Immortality, stealing Goddess' robes to cloak their mortality, dipping their brushes into a Divine Inkstone to pawn off as their own inspired work.  Demons released and legends unbound, and trying to be very quiet about it for a while.


I like to plot out mysteries with whodunnit first.  Their motives.  The obvious ones, and their resources.  Then introduce the complications.  Once you understand who did it, and why, then what they can bring to bear to obfuscate their crime, you have a better idea of how to tell the tale.  


You might want to look at the Laura Joh Rowland Detective Sano series, which started off with Shinju--Feudal Japanese detective fiction.  Sano is minor police officer and fencing instructor, and eventually gets the ear of the Emperor.  It's a great source for ideas on how the Realm might impede an investigation, when political motives in a feudal society are in question.


And don't be afraid to retcon events.  If the PCs aren't getting your clues, then you might want to examine what you've given them, and see if something else makes better sense, that way they don't just bang their heads in frustration.  Whatever makes the game more enjoyable for your players.