Mystery Brainstorming

[Chrono]

I am trying to come up with a good murder mystery plot that my party can cover over three sessions. The murder, in typical Dresden fashion, could not have been done by a human so the party investigates to see what sort of fairy or demon or rogue spellcaster did it.

Since I watch a lot of TV I figure session one is crime scene investigation and interview witness, session two is tracking down the bad guy, and session 3 is the big showdown. My problem with that plan is that there is absolutely no mystery or surprise involved. 

How do I get a good mystery for an adventure without railroading the party?

[JDK002]

I would say work backwards in plot design.  Come up with motive and who the killer is first.  Once you have that killers personality and motive down you can come up with a convincing setting and victim pretty easily.

As for railroading, come up with several clues to find and hints from witness interviews.  Let some of them be red herrings that lead to dead ends (and probably trouble for your players).  It gives th freedom to investigate wha they want and in turn gives you more ideas.

[UmbraLux]

How do I get a good mystery for an adventure without railroading the party?

Instead of not knowing who the suspects are, give them too many.  Start with at least three entities who could have been responsible, perhaps more than three.  Give them reasons to dislike each other...which is also reason to pin the blame on their rivals. 

Now your first couple of sessions are about interviewing the rivals and trying to sort truth from vindictiveness.  The second session may be tracking down some of what they've been told and research into what the rivals have done in the past to learn what they're capable of now.  Which still leaves session three as your confrontation.

[JDK002]

Going with the multiple possible killer, you could actually leave it open asto who you end up having the killer be based on how your players approach the whole situtation.

This would require a bit of improv on the GM's part, and possibly setting up 3 different confrontation scenes though.

[Chrono]

Going with the multiple possible killer, you could actually leave it open asto who you end up having the killer be based on how your players approach the whole situtation.

This would require a bit of improv on the GM's part, and possibly setting up 3 different confrontation scenes though.

I'm not sure I follow. How would this work exactly?

[JDK002]

I'm not sure I follow. How would this work exactly?

Basically when you start the scenario even you don't know exactly who the killer is.  You instead have say 3 different npc's that can be the killer.  Then during the game you decide who the killer will be based on the actions and ideas of your players.

[Richard_Chilton]

Multiple possible killers work well with declarations.

Houses of the Blooded is a FATE flavoured game - and one the scenarios in the book describes a "these are the people present at this get together" then kicks off the action with "You find a body".

Then the players start making declarations.  The author has run the scenario several times and never had the same murder victim much less the same killer.

Richard

[crusher_bob]

Try This for ideas.

[Chrono]

Wow. That was an INSANELY helpful thread. Thank you sir!

[Taran]

I wouldn't put too many red herrings.  Murder Mysteries are hard enough as it is, and PC's tend to overlook seemingly obvious clues.

[admiralducksauce]

I really liked what I found in this article. Basically it's a node-based plot structure.

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-approach

I also completely agree with the "have more suspects than you need" posts. Unless you absolutely require a particular entity to have committed the crime, it works best to have the PCs either inadvertently or explicitly determine the culprit.

And don't forget the best option: Maybe the PCs did it! 

[Orladdin]

wow-wow-WOW!

Awesome articles, folks!  Thanks!

[Chrono]

Yes, these are some very useful links. I look forward to trying them out at our next game session.