Noob GM Help: Casefile Neutral grounds

[MrobFire]

So I'm supposed to GM Neutral Grounds tonight so that my rpg crew can give fate a test run and a couple of little things are confusing me.

1) If the PCs investigate the murder scene and find evidence that points to Damocles (poser red court, I might have the name wrong) how do they identify that it is damocles? Specifically, should I just tell them about the characters that are involved (w/o specifying who's big bad and etc.) since their characters are presumed to be "in the know" or, alternatively, should they have to make a contacts/lore/whatever role to determine that vampire bite + sword wound = that asshole Damocles?

2) The casefile hints that you could have Damocles show up at Eric's house to mess with the PCs but... my assumption based on the timeline was that that would be during the daytime. Am I missing something, is it assumed that Damocles was camped out in the building already?

3) Any hints for how the search panned out? Hints on making the final battle exciting? Any other tips and tricks / wisdom people feel they should impart to me?

[devonapple]

I need to reread the adventure, but for evidence pointing to Damocles, usually a witness who can describe a perpetrator is the easiest means of identifying a specific person. Visual ID is a strong lead.

If the perpetrator leaves behind a signature item or identifier - intentionally or not - that (plus vampire bites) may put an investigator on to Damocles without needing a witness, but Damocles and his connection to this signature item would have to already be familiar to the investigator.

After that, it's all about forensic tests hoping to find unique fibers, hair or genetic samples, etc., and those may not stand on their own as leads - they would only be able to support other evidence and help build the picture of the crime.

[Bruce Coulson]

Keep in mind that an adventure which goes nowhere is no fun.

For indentifying the perp, look at what skills would seem reasonable to make such a judgement.  Investigation, Contacts, Lore, etc.  It's helpful to spread out the info, so that each player feels that they are involved in solving the mystery.

In the version we played, we followed the breadcrumbs...errr...clues until we found the perpetrator.  For a complex game, we would have had more interference on the way to the confrontation; as it was, we only had to sneak through ghoul-held territory in following the trail.

For keeping things moving, the GM for our game emphasized a time limit; someone had been kidnapped, we had no idea why, or what was going to happen if we didn't rescue them soon.

The final battle ideas; the bad guy should be anticipating some opposition.  In the chapter on running the game, there is a section on how to scale opposition for the group.  Perhaps Damocles has minions/thralls trying to prevent the PCs from getting close.  Keep in mind that the bad guys can concede as well; if it looks like the PCs are going to win, Damocles can flee, keeping his unlife.  (Think traditional; threaten the hostage by putting them in jeopardy, then fleeing while the PCs effect a rescue.)

[devonapple]

Perhaps Damocles has minions/thralls trying to prevent the PCs from getting close.

Especially this, which echoes Raymond Chandler's advice "When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.”