I remember running a werewolf mystery and having one night have a rampage where several houses were hit in one night except the herbalist's house that sat between two of them. The town and party initially thought the herbalist might be connected to it until it was discovered pretty early on that the house was skipped because of the Wolfbane the herbalist grew around their home.
Some murder mystery tips, à la Colombo, Agatha Christie, etc: 1. Everyone has something to hide, even if it is not related to *this* crime. Some might even have secret reason to hate or envy the victim, might have stolen something from the victim before they were killed, etc. 2. The victim may not have been the intended target. 3. The murder might not have been the end goal-- perhaps instead, someone is trying to frame the prime suspect to get something of theirs. Or perhaps the murder was accidental. 4. Another crime may interrupt the investigation-- perhaps the killer is panicking, or trying to cover their tracks. 5. The victim might be guilty of something, themselves. Or, at least the killer thinks so. 6. These suspects/witnesses know each other. Some might defend each other, some might attack each other, some might harbour old grudges, or bring up old scandals. 7. The murderer may have a willing or unwilling accomplice who doesn't share their motive. D&D specific tips: 1. Try and let each player flex their skills. Not all of them will have "investigatory" skills, and every once in a while you might want to put a roadblock in front of them that requires the skill of a wizard, or a barbarian. Or just a mid-game combat. 2. Stick to low levels, or prepare to learn high level spells and abilities really well so you can work around them and your players don't blast through your mystery with a single spell slot. (Think information gathering spells.) 3. Don't hinge it all on finding EVERY clue. A single fumbled roll shouldn't ruin all their chances. 4. If your players are stuck, feel free to invent a clue on the spot that might put them back on track. Maybe have a few easy ones prepared. 5. Have some NPCs that the players can be SURE are innocent from the get go. It helps to have a friend. My friend ran a mansion murder mystery once, and it was grand, full of suspects and scandals. I've never run something quite the same, but a few mystery novels can really give you a feel for misdirection, motive, etc. 😊
And the last tip, be prepared to change who the culprit is. If the party comes up with a plausible suspect that isn't the one you had in mind, but it kinda also fits, I say why not change your idea and let them be right
@@THEPELADOMASTER That's a cool idea, though personally I wouldn't do it on the fly, in case I as DM were to forget any bits of evidence that would conflict with new ending. Mismatched alibis motives, etc. Maybe instead the DM could consult their notes between sessions, taking the time to make sure it all makes sense and is narratively satisfying. I guess this really depends on the complexity and details of the mystery. Also, I'd make sure not to pull back the curtain too much! Your players might feel deflated if they know you "let them win," so to speak.
@@mirthfulArtist another option might be having a 'true' culprit but allowing the party to come to whatever conclusion fits the investigation they conducted & the clues they gathered & how they rolled to interpret them. there might be a VERY different set ending circumstances after making an incorrect accusation that may or may not result in an NPC's death in the world & severe ramifications for letting the guilty party get away, & there's definitely an avenue for a party to just never figure out how bad they messed up if they don't seem concerned with double-checking their work or examining how things play out.
So. I’m working on a one-shot that follows the “Whodunnit” quest from Oblivion. A bunch of people in a house, a murdered party member, and chaos. All I know right now is that there are five suspects, it has to be one of them, one of them(an angsty tiefling with a dubious history) is a massive red herring, and that the murder was actually done by some kind of demon, but was put in motion by one of the guests. Beyond that… I’ve got very little. I’m a writer, but I’m very very new to dnd and don’t know how to dm at all.
I just ran this for a group of friends. They figured out what happened quickly and easily. They talked to Tabitha’s boyfriend and offered to help him, and escort him to the windmill to keep him from hurting anyone while they figured out how to cure him. It was really kind of touching, and it made me feel really bad when he transformed into a werewolf and attacked them and ran off into the night. They still have several people to talk to in town, which I planned for them to talk to them before all that went down. But it will be interesting when NPC’s try to say things like “that’s a fairytale, werewolves aren’t real.” And hearing what my players will say in response after that.
i actually created a mind map detailing clue locations and where it **should** lead the players. it's been SUPER useful for keeping everything together
I am a big fan of building sandbox style campaigns so I use mysteries to motivate the party to interact with different things based on what triggers their curiosity
Every time I’ve introduced a mystery to my players, it takes AT LEAST three sessions for them to solve because they just HAVE to wade through ALL the details. Thanks for the guide, this is really helpful.
this is the most helpful video I've ever seen on dnd. this doesn't just apply to mysteries, but your players discovering the story as well. The story comes in puzzle pieces that the players put together over time. When you talked about having individual snapshots being put together, I was like "FINALLY! someone has addressed this concept!" It was so hard for me to put into words... I have the compelling images, the ideas, the connections to the players, and what I want to give them to move the plot forward, but how to piece it together was a complete mystery to me(no pun intended), and this video couldn't have given me a better idea of what to do. Thank you SO much.
I would add a few things to your preparation. Never forget about your player’s spells. If they can raise tabitha or ask her spirit what happened - the mystery can be short circuited. Reward the spells being used but cat’s paw a bit to keep things going. Tabitha won’t betray her love even in death and if risen will go so far as to blame a party member to save him. These are complications but should just be used sparingly. And lead to more clues. And secondary, a crime/mystery should never be just a mystery that waits to be solved. The term “and then it got worst” is important in making the mystery feel alive and not like a trap or puzzle. Add sightly increasing stakes. If they blow though the mystery of who killed our victim, Make it clear that this was not the only wolf in town. Maybe the curse was put on the liver because someone wanted to break them up and morally that person is the real bad guy (But do give rewards for the good job of the first mystery solved). Maybe have the players mistake in accusations cause a NPC the players like or was nice to them get the blame from scared villagers and now they have to find the real killed before a person they know is now innocent pays the price for there mistake. The complication midway though often adds tension that can lead you running faster into that final battle and usually is pretty simple to game plan. Lastly, have a plan F for failsafe. If they are failing at enough die rolls have a secondary way to get the info. Never fail to accurately for the bad luck of players to prevent them getting a final or critical clue. So you may want to have an if everything fails plan or the party just can’t put anything together. Always have a super simple pointer evidence or character. When they see Tabitha the dirt in her got on the Wizards fox familiar and someone recognizes it and asks why they were at the scene of the crime. Or maybe this person can all most put it together but works with the players and helps them by having them put together everything. That person could be good or evil, but they are just not the quest giver. Love your videos. Glad I found you and hope you explode in popularity.
on my last session i rolled EIGHT natural 1s.... i like the failsafe plan idea because anyone can have an off night when rolling the dice and it can really screw up your plans. (I'm the Cleric. We almost wiped on session 1)
What worked for me is preparing Information, not just clues. So the players may get clues or Information in any way they think of. This helped me to respond to creative and unseen decisions the players and ways they go into. So for this example of the murder scene, I would prepare all the Intel they can get, more than who can say what. So when the group comes up with the idea to oberve a specific NPCs, I can imagine what intel they would get out of it, instead of are there in the right spot or do they ask the right questions. This way I can provide clues in any form, the group comes up with. Similar like your example with the information about the boyfriend. But with all of the information. There are maybe some informations that can be only gathered by specific ways, but this is also an information by itself.
I think that is the idea in general, but it is nice to prepare things they most likely find somewhere so you don't have to make it up. You can always improvise if the players find a logical way to get info
@@ToonedMinecraft It depends. I prepared mysteries or cases only in this way. Of course, they may find clues for specific locations, NPCs or so, and these I had prepared the normal way of course. It depends sometimes on the group: Are they most of the time creative? - than specific planning will fail more often. Is it a system with lot of options (my experience with Mystery and criminal cases came from Dark Heresy), than specific planning will fail more often. Etc. In a group that really sticks to what you handed to them or a rule system with narrow options or more grounded setting (no magic, psionics, tech-blabla etc.) will also provide more planning basd. I hate to prepare, that is mostly trash, because it will never see the light of the day. so I prepare for improvisation - it is not less work, not soecific, but more flexible. Not better in any way, but worked for me for this topic. Not all the time ;)
Yes, the guilty npc might not give you the same clues in the same way as planned! If the pcs do something unexpected, it might make it impossible to give out the clues as the gm originally wanted to.
Hear me out, (and this is partially for myself later) Have the werewolf be another girl in town that the huntsman is trying to help. That way when the townspeople/ players automatically suspect him (because of tropes) it becomes a nice twist. The girl could be his sister (unknown to her) or her best friend to really up the guilt and drama.
@@benjaminholcomb9478 Ooh man, now we've got three different ways this same setup could play out. 1.) Boyfriend was the werewolf, got delayed and tragically killed the girl as laid out in the video 2.) Boyfriend's sister was the werewolf, blacksmith's daughter was suspicious why he went out at night, he tried to keep her away while keeping her in the dark, she tragically died. Lots of clues lead back to the boyfriend, such as the muddy boots and the key, because he was the one who locked up his sister every full moon. He's extremely distraught about the death, but still wants to protect his sister 3.) One or both of the secret couple is a werewolf, and the blacksmith's daughter found out - perhaps she stumbled upon them, perhaps she was investigating. In this case, the werewolf is likely much less sympathetic. Could be an intentional murder to keep her quiet, could have a secondary motive of jealousy. Likely one of the secret couple involved in the murder was reluctant while the other pushed for the murder. This lets you dynamically adjust this same scenario depending on how the party is doing. If you were planning on running the mystery straight -- boyfriend was the werewolf, he transformed in front of her and tragically killed her -- but the party connects some strings and comes to one of these other conclusions -- *let them be right!* Even if it wasn't what you had planned, let them be the brilliant detective. You're not trying to outsmart the players, you're trying to provide them an engaging experience On the other hand, if they immediately guess it was the boyfriend based on tropes -- nope! He was protecting his sister. If they immediately "cheat" with speak with dead -- you've got a plan for that. Speak with dead revealed / gave a strong clue that the boyfriend is the werewolf and he murdered her...but that's only half the story, and in setting out to prove it they start to find evidence pointing to the full story. Perhaps the werewolf was cheating on her, and the spiteful secret lover got the boyfriend to murder her competition. Does he remember transforming in front of her? Or did the spiteful secret lover not properly secure his chains when the blacksmith's daughter came to investigate? Does he know the secret girlfriend caused the tragedy? Is he hiding her involvement? There's a second mystery behind the first one -- but only if you need it. I'd definitely plan to play it straight, it's a good mystery and we all know the memes about puzzles for children stumping the party. Your backup plans are only if the mystery immediately gets spoiled.
Update: they had a couple of loose end to finish up before continuing to this village. This took 4,5 hours and then we ordered pizza 😂😂 all in all a very DnD like experience
*checks the description of Speak with Dead* I never noticed that 10 day clause, that's actually really slick, and it means you don't have to mutilate the body's mouth.
My big takeaway from writing a mystery is start with the bad guy and consider the consequences of his actions, even if he’s pretty smart. A smart bad guy might hire underlings to carry out his dirty business. But those underlings could be a liability if left alive. Take inspiration from real life criminal enterprises.
This is BY FARRRRRR the best video I’ve EVER seen about how to build a mystery!!! I could easily take this advice and use it to build a mystery novel as well as a one-shot! GENIUS.
Out of all of the mystery videos I've looked up this one has never been front and center, but this is one of the most useful videos ever! This is so helpful, especially because it includes detailed examples to get the gears rolling. Thank you so much!
5th Level Cleric: "The body hasn't been burred yet you said?" Mayor: "...Yes, why?" Cleric, about the ruin the DM's not so well laid out mystery plot: "I can cast the spell Speak With Dead and have the victim herself tell us who killed her." The answer to that of course is to make it so the victim doesn't actually know who murdered them or destroy the mouth. It is something to keep in mind though if you've got higher level players and they have access to information magic.
at least in 5e, the spell description goes out of its way to point out that the responses are brief, cryptic, repetitive, or any combination of these. Asking for the name of the killer, even in this example story might result in something like a pet or nickname that other locals dont know, but is the most personal name the dead character could use for her boyfriend - and thus the most likely answer. this could then require you to figure out who this obvious nickname belongs to. you could even repeat the name in the love letters so that no direct reference to the name is initially avalible. and they must piece together that pet name A goes to Villager B. Edit: the response might also be heavily laced with disbelief that her boyfriend could have done this, which could introduce a red herring of him being framed
@@daemosblackSpells are just another thing to keep in mind when making ANY sort of encounter for your players. You don't want things to fall apart because someone casts Grease or summons up the spirit of the murder victim. Good idea on how to avoid it being a problem in the example case without it being a full stop on the party and giving them a _clue_ but not an _answer_ to things.
@@vladspellbinder oh I absolutely agree, but what I was trying to get at is that I've noticed a trend in discussions online of dnd tactics and the like that often show people are reading a spell - getting excited about how the spell might work from a purely - let's call it thematic sense even though thats not the right wording - and often don't double check if the spell or other parts of the rules might be mitigating what the spell can do. A good example of a joke version of a spell misinterpreted going around right now is the prestidigitation can make a nuke meme (obviously as a meme they aren't seriously thinking it) - in short they state that it doesn't give a limit to how much it can warm and object. - it does though, since the rules state no effect the centrip does can directly damage a target, that implies a temperature limit below what could injure a person. This is an extreme example and rambling. My point is contrary to what seems to be the common thought, WotC puts a lot of thought into how spells and abilities interact and about 70% of the time a "hack" of the game is misreading or missing something in the rules
Excellent description! Candlekeep Mysteries is a good source for some pre-written ones for levels 1-17. I've been DM for a group just running through them (level up each week) and most are very fun. This video breaks down the elements so much better than trying to figure out what good mysteries have in common.
Whole hearted agree with my fellow commenters, excellent video! Straight forward and provides the basics to create a fun and engaging mystery! I did run a mystery in a DnD campaign; it went quite well; the players followed leads and figured out who was behind the murders in town. They linked it to one of the local ruler's consorts who was a Succubus. It was late that night (in game) so some of the players decided to set a watch over the Succubus's room. One of the members was following another possible lead, while two of the players became highly suspected of crime by the local guard and were imprisoned. One of the players guarding the Succubus's room, decided that half the party could handle the Succubus, who had become suspect that they were on to her and had a number of lesser demons on call to assist her. Long story short, the player character who decided to attack was charmed first round and reduced to 0 HP by the Succubus's kiss. The two other player standing guard fought off the demons and wounded the Succubus. She then fled, but was later found in the campaign and was dealt with swiftly.
Love how you put some red herrings in there to throw off your group but still allowed them to come to the correct conclusion! Also a perfect example of what can go wrong when players split the party haha.
Hey Master the Dungeon. I recently stumbled upon your videos and I'm loving them! Father better than they should be for such a small channel! Hard to believe you only have 600 subs
I honestly love this specific mystery because one of my players had something similar happen to him in his backstory so it could add a little at the end!
Thank you so very much for this. I rarely comment on videos, but this video was incredibly helpful. I was inspired to write a dnd murder mystery after watching Twin Peaks for the second time.
“Ok but isn’t it suspicious she’s a blacksmith’s daughter, and her last name’s Smith? Seems odd” my players, probably , before chasing absolutely unimportant threads through the session
I did a whole mystery plot on a ship using a doppelganger as the BBG but while one of the players was, unbeknownst to the party, afflicted with lacanthropy. It ended up being a huge mystery and social interaction that had the party accusing each other for a while and locking up their strongest fighter for a while.
Just came upon these videos and this is the most straight forward guide I have ever seen. Also you have a good speaking voice that’s easy to listen too and the simple Art really helps with the descriptions and such. Also I do like the background music.
This has inspired me to run a mystery one-shot in a couple of weeks, like this but a little more complex and with twists (the werewolf was framed by the Ranger). Thanks so much!
Great video on designing and running mysteries. My only suggestion is to cut down on the skill checks. If the party is in the right area then they should find an initial clue or two. Save the skill checks for secondary clues. The main issue with skill checks in a mystery is that if the party fails too many checks, the mystery remains a mystery. Another issue is that if you're calling for a particular skill check and they fail, the players will probably know that there is something in the area to find, but their characters won't. What do they do then? Search some more? And if they can find it eventually, why not let them find it automatically to begin with? With a roleplay-heavy adventure such as a mystery, a lot of dice-rolling isn't necessary since most of the adventure relies on learning where to go or who to ask in order to find the necessary clues, then piecing them together. Just some thoughts. Thanks for the design tips on creating such an adventure.
Holy crap my dm ran this for us as a one shot. It was awsome. I cant believe i found this video lmao. Anyways take this advice cuz it was a great experience
I’m wanting to set up a short game (2-4 sessions probably) in the Grim Hollow setting, and was thinking of having a mystery aspect to it. This is a great guide, and actually does inspire me a bit. I like the idea of the werewolf being a part of the mystery. Though rather than a straight rip off, I have to wonder what would be a way to spice it up. Right away, I have a couple ideas. The main one I can describe is as follows. There’s actually several werewolves in town (no more than 3), one of whom is related to the victim (unsure if they will be dead, or so grievously wounded that they are comatose, which would prevent Speak with Dead shenanigans). Hints could lead to the party THINKING it was this related individual who did the attack, when perhaps in reality it was the other lycanthrope who did the attack, while the related individual may have either attempted to stop it, or not even been present.
Little tip for actually coming up with the premise of a mystery: i see a few ppl who try, but their mysteries ultimate boil down to theatrics instead of being based in logical fact finding. What i do is list out all of the facts of the scenario, the whole truth exactly as i would write a story. Then, i decide on what parts i will hide, such as all of the information about who the bad guy is; why they did it; or, who did it. Who, what, where, when, how, and why are the things that need to be collected in order to determine the full story. So by taking out one if those elements, you now have a mystery. You can make anything into a mystery if you just withhold information, and then provide ways for the pcs to gain that information. If that is the main mechanic of the encounter, it is a mystery. Once the missing information is collected, the GM can tell the players that they have solved it somehow, or what i like to do is make the PCs do a final skill check to determine if the players are successful or not. In other words, each piece of info might be true, or false; the players dont know. So once they think they have all the info, they can roll a relevant skill like investigation, or persuasion to convince the authorities of their evidence. Each piece of true evidence would give that check a bonus, and every piece of false info would add a penalty. You can also make a mystery encounter harder by simply hiding more info from the start, or adding more challenging skill checks, or adding an extra red herring (but dont add a lot of these)
The second quest I ever ran was a mystery because both my players and I love puzzles. It was a prominent church and landmark in the area that was burned down by foul play. I wish this was around when I did that because many of my clues, though I thought they were good, were often too cryptic or missed. Biggest take aways are simple story, MANY overlapping clues/evidence, and not too sequential (many places they could try out next)
This is excellent! Better than most videos I’ve seen on building a mystery in GENERAL! Like I’ve seen videos on how to write mystery novels but this can apply to that or really anything in the mystery genre.
This Video is SO good. Im new to DnD (so far I only DM'd the icespire peak campaign) and I am currently designing a solo campaign for a friend of mine. I intend to do a murder mystery style campaign for more roleplay opportunities (rather than solo fighting) and this video is so perfect for that I really love this thank you so much
This is amazing, come on algorithm, make this channel show up more! Thanks for the tips. I am making a missings person mystery for my group and this helped a lot :)
What about red herrings, distractions, meandering, twists and turns, and all that stuff that makes mystery even more fun in story writing? Do they apply to D&D sessions as well?
That’s awesome. I’m a big fan of Rebus puzzles. I make the puzzles on a full piece of paper , cut it into a few pieces , and my adventurers find them throughout the dungeon. Last adventure I had a PhD, 2 teachers, and other professionals and the potheads is the one that ended up solving the puzzle 😂😂😂😂
14:32 honestly when I saw the mayor the first time and he was tired I was like "yep probably he did it" even after u said it was the werewolf bf I thought it was just a theory 😆
I remember I made a mistery as the main plot for a group of friends. I was obsesed with the mafia and secrecy, so I made a mafia like mistery where it was a secret group controlling the region affairs. It was kinda modern. I started it by a lot of villagers and business owners complaining about a gang, and they seeing how they extorted or punched some people. So they go to stop them. They were a clasical teenage gang, so I quickly surrendered and the party just took them to the plaza to the people decide what they where doing to them. Also they interrogated them publicly but the party were the only ones able to hear their confessions. The thing is that one of the guys told that there was another person behind the extorsions who covered their backs. Then two things happened. First a man walked to one of the teens and shot him without reason and no one said or did anything. And the one that was spilling the secrets was shot by who knows who. So now they had three leads: The person that shot one of the teens face to face, the assasin and the place where he shot, and a gathering point that one of the teens revealed where he met the other person which they worked with. They took the lead of the man and of the gathering point. Idk remembered what they did to the gathering point but there were some clues there, and the man was the head of a big family owned gun business. That person was the teens father and shot him because of how angry and upset he made him. So they followed that lead and began an inflitration. They began a quest line for that family to gain their trust and recover information about them in general. Okay, then my players, well, one hadn't time and other ghosted me. So the rest of the plot was that the family was colaborating with the mafia (Which was super secretive and no one knew about it) and that the gangs they, accidentally killed was getting the extortion business done for the mafia. If they followed the lead of the house or the assassin they would had a more sherlock type of mistery conecting leads, and with the family they had an espionage and infiltration mission. They would have acted as the right hand for the family, gained their trust, learned about the family, steal information, gain access to information, that kind of stuff.
It's worth taking a look at the Gumshoe system for clues and investigation approaches, and Call of Cthulhu adventures are good for mystery scenarios too.
I've actually ran a mistery adventure very much like this example as the first big adventure to some friends a couple of years ago... they were very clever and went straight to the best clues so they ended up fighting a few wererats in the city mines and rushing to tell the townsfolk they were in danger because there were several infected. I'm looking forward to making a bottle episode with my new table on a knives out vibe and this video has been VERY HELPFUL
Thank you so much for this video. I may end up using your example murder mystery in my next session. Party arrived in the 12-building hometown of our halfling craftsman and met several people, then rested. Woke to the town crier announcing the murder.
Think harder. What answers can you give that don’t instantly unfold the mystery? “Who killed you? I didn’t see.” “What happened before you died? I was eating dinner then just saw black.” “Do you know how you died? No.” “Did you have any enemies? (Red herring) My brother in law didn’t like me very much.”
Conflicting information it seems. The body was found at the farm (4:40) but when building out the list of locations with clues and information you say the body was found at the graveyard (7:29).
The graveyard is where the body is. It will be buried in the evening, so to examinate it you need to go to the graveyard. Probably just a mistake in the voice-over :)
this could be handled by tabitha not wanting to reveal her bf as a werewolf, and just focusing on that she feels like it's her fault. That would give the clues that it was closer to an accident and that it is someone tabitha would want to protect.
Several ways to get around this: -Mouth is too damaged to speak clearly -Keeps repeating "Werewolf," which is true, but doesn't spoil the entire mystery immediately -Parents/society doesn't like magic or necromancy, so forbids you to use it. Personally I'd have rewritten the story as Tabitha suspecting an affair, catching the werewolf in the mill, and running out to the murder location with wolf on her tail. This would change her even knowing who the werewold actually is.
This video is fantastic and very well made! I’ve given a murder mystery to my party before and while I was too obtuse with the clues I provided they were pretty blown away and proud of themselves by the end! Always remember that you’ll have to consider the world your party lives in, as magic can do some crazy stuff such as speaking with the dead or even resurrection at high levels. Think of ways around those mystery-squashers, such as a victim being misled intentionally to believe they were murdered by someone else so they reveal misleading information if resurrected, the killer removing the head/mouth of a victim so they can’t speak (yuck…), and other circumstances that you could use to keep the mystery from becoming too easy Another fun spell you may want to play with: feign death. The premise of my party’s mystery was that the pair of murders occurred while a brotherhood of freedom fighting bards were all alone in an inn, and the end reveal was that one of the “victims” was actually the killer and was a double agent for the group the brotherhood was strategizing against, killing their leader and trying to frame another member for the crime so the brotherhood would tear itself apart. The party figured out his feign death trick in the end,and it was an INSANE reaction when he came “back to life” from being strangled Planning to hit them with another surprise murder mystery soon, so this video and the comment section is super useful stuff 😎
Thanks for the helpful video. I used the plot today with my d&d group but changed the story from a love story to a poacher getting caught by the hunter. My kids in the group are a bit to young to get the romance part yet, or maybe I just hope they don’t… Anyway, they managed to solve it just over an hour. It was a fun short story even though they caught on to the werewolf plot pretty quickly but still had to find the culprit. They ended up ambushing the hunter in the mill and almost killing him before he even transformed in a werewolf. After the hunter told them what happened they chained him up in the mill that night. They called the town watch over that night to make sure they had evidence to show about the claim of a werewolf. It was endearing to see them plead for the hunter’s life with the mayor and to find a way for the villagers to life with the hunter and his werewolf side. Thanks again.
I'm planning a 'murder mystery' with heavy slasher themes about an Oni hiding in a small forest town. The monster has killed 2 victims, which gets the party involved. With each night, the casualties climb. The Oni himself is hiding as a guard in the general store - the storeowner saw the first murder but made a deal to protect himself and his young daughter. Thats all i have so far.
A few ideas I had on this mystery I think are worth thinking about. 1. Transformation into a werewolf would damage clothing. His boots could be splayed open. Peasants don't usually have a lot of clothes, especially good boots. 2. A werewolf doesn't really appear out of nowhere. So there is a cause of the boy's condition. Likely it's another werewolf but it could be something else.
Not sure why but mysteries are the easiest to prep and run for me. But I will say that being deliberate about a dead end is a MUST. I can’t count how many times I relied on players just to take a shot in the dark to move forward with a mystery. And then it gets dropped. Have those clues spread out and even agnostic to location. A tip from the lazy DM guide. This way if players keep heading in the “wrong” direction, you aren’t just repeatedly telling them it’s a dead end.
You can even throw in a mystery on top of a mystery by including the werewolf that bit the boyfriend. Lots you can do with a double mystery like including monthly animal corpses found by hunters at the lodge that predates the boyfriends turning to introduce the second mystery or have the first werewolf actively trying to obstruct the solving of the murder. You can also have the mayor be or control the first werewolf but unaware of the connection to the first murder to thicken the plot or add more opportunities for combat if your players like that. You can also have clues that lead to a small group of kobalds or goblins who picked over the body before it was found and took the key and a locket or a ring, thereby clearing the name of the guard who found her. Okay now I'm writing a short campaign. I'm inspired.
Mayor: "There's been a murder"... Party: "I cast Speak with Dead", "I cast Zone of Truth", "I quiz the villagers... what DC do I need for my Insight check?"
I ran a murder mystery game once where the clues were given by the ghost of the victim. The murder happened 12 years before and the ghost was trying to prevent the criminal from committing another murder. Being a ghost, the clues were nearly as disturbing as the murder itself. The murder was a well-respected member of the town counsel who had walled up his wife's body in his home. and was preparing to get married again. The ghost was his unborn child. It was an adults only game and it was a horror setting.
It's something that's fairly broadly applicable to DMing as a whole, but it bears mentioning here: Make the mystery difficult, but let them use their skills! If someone has a creative idea or clever use of an ability that you didn't anticipate but you suddenly realize will short track them right to the solution, let them do it! I love it when my players come up with clever ways to destroy my encounters.
Thank you. this is the best video I have ever seen for DND mysteries. I do love dnd and all it's lore, but why we can't play it with the same roleplay, mysteries and plots than vampire? I'm trying really hard to put this things together and you really help!
One of my best stories as a DM, was with a cabal of Moon Rats that were slowly plotting to take over, and stealing things, resulting in a long string of thefts that the players had to investigate. The "police" was run by a neat freak and a very messy guy, who could not stand each other, but the players needed both to get things done. The items that were stolen were all minor magic items that had some special meaning or use to their owners.
There's a book for Dungeon Crawl Classics called 'Transyvanian Adventures', which for running Hammer Horror games. It has a section on how to set up a mystery, and suggested an anime series 'The Casefiles of Young Kindachi', which was a pretty informative series when it came to learning about mystery design.
I wish I had this video a couple of years ago when I did a clue board game themed one shot. We had lots of fun and they almost didn't solve it twice. The first mistake was to blame the mansion staff. Then they nearly blew up the mansion by accidently starting a fire in the wine cellar, and then try to put it out with the wine...then the whiskey. The fire spread and caught some Dynamite on fire. Thankfully two weeks earlier I had written a note to myself that the cellar doubled as a panic room. They had discovered this on the way in and used it to contain the blast... mostly. In the end they cought the killer and ran for their life from the maids who had to clean up after them.
Great video. One issue however is hiding clues behind difficulty checks. How will the party or the GM move the story forward if the party can’t acquire clues because of failed checks? Gumshoe RPG handles this rather effectively. Clues are always available because players don’t roll to acquire them. And they can still roll to get more clue detail.
Place the clue somewhere else. (example) The Key if not found at the initial spot could be found when they visit the Hunter's lodge. The other choice (as mentioned in the video about guiding) is to encourage your players to find ways to help each other on ability checks. Guidance (cantrip), Enhance Ability (2nd Level Spell), Help Action, etc. can help players reach the DC and provide some RP'ing which is what you are trying to encourage in the first place. I do agree that you have to have a "fall back plan" when people roll as poorly as I do though lol
Fail forward: even if the pcs fail the check, they still learn the important info. Instead of withholding the info, just penalize them in another way, like the killer strike another victim; a different npc starts to suspect the pcs; or maybe some ambush or trap. Basically: if the players fail, it also has to be FUN, so how do you make that failure fun instead, and still end up with the clue becoming revealed. Perhaps the information is less useful if it is said out loud, so the pcs learn a clue, but it ultimately doesnt help as much as it would if the players kept it to themselves. Maybe the killer is listening in. You could also frame someone if the players really botch a check, that would sandbag them hard, especially if there is a time limit. A case of mistaken identity could shift the story and provide a lot of rp
Have your players' character sheets. Use their passive scores at hand and make passive checks when something non-obvious happens. If they pass a passive check, you might give them a small hint, or ask for an active skill check. Only make active checks when the aforementioned condition is met, or when players actively ask about something.
I remember running a werewolf mystery and having one night have a rampage where several houses were hit in one night except the herbalist's house that sat between two of them. The town and party initially thought the herbalist might be connected to it until it was discovered pretty early on that the house was skipped because of the Wolfbane the herbalist grew around their home.
Ooooh! The red herring/secret weakness combo! That's great!
you have inspired me
Can I use this?
@@ginza_animatex4083 There's a reason the saying is, "good DM's borrow, great DM's steal."
Some murder mystery tips, à la Colombo, Agatha Christie, etc:
1. Everyone has something to hide, even if it is not related to *this* crime. Some might even have secret reason to hate or envy the victim, might have stolen something from the victim before they were killed, etc.
2. The victim may not have been the intended target.
3. The murder might not have been the end goal-- perhaps instead, someone is trying to frame the prime suspect to get something of theirs. Or perhaps the murder was accidental.
4. Another crime may interrupt the investigation-- perhaps the killer is panicking, or trying to cover their tracks.
5. The victim might be guilty of something, themselves. Or, at least the killer thinks so.
6. These suspects/witnesses know each other. Some might defend each other, some might attack each other, some might harbour old grudges, or bring up old scandals.
7. The murderer may have a willing or unwilling accomplice who doesn't share their motive.
D&D specific tips:
1. Try and let each player flex their skills. Not all of them will have "investigatory" skills, and every once in a while you might want to put a roadblock in front of them that requires the skill of a wizard, or a barbarian. Or just a mid-game combat.
2. Stick to low levels, or prepare to learn high level spells and abilities really well so you can work around them and your players don't blast through your mystery with a single spell slot. (Think information gathering spells.)
3. Don't hinge it all on finding EVERY clue. A single fumbled roll shouldn't ruin all their chances.
4. If your players are stuck, feel free to invent a clue on the spot that might put them back on track. Maybe have a few easy ones prepared.
5. Have some NPCs that the players can be SURE are innocent from the get go. It helps to have a friend.
My friend ran a mansion murder mystery once, and it was grand, full of suspects and scandals. I've never run something quite the same, but a few mystery novels can really give you a feel for misdirection, motive, etc. 😊
And the last tip, be prepared to change who the culprit is.
If the party comes up with a plausible suspect that isn't the one you had in mind, but it kinda also fits, I say why not change your idea and let them be right
@@THEPELADOMASTER That's a cool idea, though personally I wouldn't do it on the fly, in case I as DM were to forget any bits of evidence that would conflict with new ending. Mismatched alibis motives, etc.
Maybe instead the DM could consult their notes between sessions, taking the time to make sure it all makes sense and is narratively satisfying. I guess this really depends on the complexity and details of the mystery.
Also, I'd make sure not to pull back the curtain too much! Your players might feel deflated if they know you "let them win," so to speak.
How do I copy and paste these tips? 🤣
@@mirthfulArtist another option might be having a 'true' culprit but allowing the party to come to whatever conclusion fits the investigation they conducted & the clues they gathered & how they rolled to interpret them. there might be a VERY different set ending circumstances after making an incorrect accusation that may or may not result in an NPC's death in the world & severe ramifications for letting the guilty party get away, & there's definitely an avenue for a party to just never figure out how bad they messed up if they don't seem concerned with double-checking their work or examining how things play out.
So. I’m working on a one-shot that follows the “Whodunnit” quest from Oblivion. A bunch of people in a house, a murdered party member, and chaos. All I know right now is that there are five suspects, it has to be one of them, one of them(an angsty tiefling with a dubious history) is a massive red herring, and that the murder was actually done by some kind of demon, but was put in motion by one of the guests. Beyond that… I’ve got very little. I’m a writer, but I’m very very new to dnd and don’t know how to dm at all.
Ya lost me at 'let's assume the players act like normal people'
💀💀
True dat. I've been blessed with players who behave like fairly reasonable people but I've noticed that many other groups are not so endowed.
I've seen a few videos on d&d murder mysteries, but this is easily the most intuitive and comprehensive. Great video!
Thank you!
I second this. Honestly a great vid
Agreed. This is by far the best one I have seen
Totally agree. Love your channel. Such useful advice.
Agreed!
I just ran this for a group of friends. They figured out what happened quickly and easily. They talked to Tabitha’s boyfriend and offered to help him, and escort him to the windmill to keep him from hurting anyone while they figured out how to cure him. It was really kind of touching, and it made me feel really bad when he transformed into a werewolf and attacked them and ran off into the night.
They still have several people to talk to in town, which I planned for them to talk to them before all that went down. But it will be interesting when NPC’s try to say things like “that’s a fairytale, werewolves aren’t real.” And hearing what my players will say in response after that.
The mental image of a commoner looking a wizard in the eye and saying "Thats a fairy tale, werewolves aren't real" is so great
As someone that LOVES mysteries but doesn't know how to write them, this provided an awesome template! Thank you!!
Glad we could help!
i actually created a mind map detailing clue locations and where it **should** lead the players. it's been SUPER useful for keeping everything together
Are you willing to share this?:)
This is literally the most comprehensive guide on writing a murder mystery I've ever seen
I am a big fan of building sandbox style campaigns so I use mysteries to motivate the party to interact with different things based on what triggers their curiosity
Every time I’ve introduced a mystery to my players, it takes AT LEAST three sessions for them to solve because they just HAVE to wade through ALL the details.
Thanks for the guide, this is really helpful.
this is the most helpful video I've ever seen on dnd. this doesn't just apply to mysteries, but your players discovering the story as well. The story comes in puzzle pieces that the players put together over time. When you talked about having individual snapshots being put together, I was like "FINALLY! someone has addressed this concept!" It was so hard for me to put into words... I have the compelling images, the ideas, the connections to the players, and what I want to give them to move the plot forward, but how to piece it together was a complete mystery to me(no pun intended), and this video couldn't have given me a better idea of what to do. Thank you SO much.
I would add a few things to your preparation. Never forget about your player’s spells. If they can raise tabitha or ask her spirit what happened - the mystery can be short circuited. Reward the spells being used but cat’s paw a bit to keep things going. Tabitha won’t betray her love even in death and if risen will go so far as to blame a party member to save him. These are complications but should just be used sparingly. And lead to more clues.
And secondary, a crime/mystery should never be just a mystery that waits to be solved. The term “and then it got worst” is important in making the mystery feel alive and not like a trap or puzzle. Add sightly increasing stakes. If they blow though the mystery of who killed our victim, Make it clear that this was not the only wolf in town. Maybe the curse was put on the liver because someone wanted to break them up and morally that person is the real bad guy (But do give rewards for the good job of the first mystery solved). Maybe have the players mistake in accusations cause a NPC the players like or was nice to them get the blame from scared villagers and now they have to find the real killed before a person they know is now innocent pays the price for there mistake. The complication midway though often adds tension that can lead you running faster into that final battle and usually is pretty simple to game plan.
Lastly, have a plan F for failsafe. If they are failing at enough die rolls have a secondary way to get the info. Never fail to accurately for the bad luck of players to prevent them getting a final or critical clue. So you may want to have an if everything fails plan or the party just can’t put anything together. Always have a super simple pointer evidence or character. When they see Tabitha the dirt in her got on the Wizards fox familiar and someone recognizes it and asks why they were at the scene of the crime. Or maybe this person can all most put it together but works with the players and helps them by having them put together everything. That person could be good or evil, but they are just not the quest giver.
Love your videos. Glad I found you and hope you explode in popularity.
on my last session i rolled EIGHT natural 1s.... i like the failsafe plan idea because anyone can have an off night when rolling the dice and it can really screw up your plans. (I'm the Cleric. We almost wiped on session 1)
What worked for me is preparing Information, not just clues. So the players may get clues or Information in any way they think of. This helped me to respond to creative and unseen decisions the players and ways they go into.
So for this example of the murder scene, I would prepare all the Intel they can get, more than who can say what. So when the group comes up with the idea to oberve a specific NPCs, I can imagine what intel they would get out of it, instead of are there in the right spot or do they ask the right questions. This way I can provide clues in any form, the group comes up with.
Similar like your example with the information about the boyfriend. But with all of the information.
There are maybe some informations that can be only gathered by specific ways, but this is also an information by itself.
I think that is the idea in general, but it is nice to prepare things they most likely find somewhere so you don't have to make it up. You can always improvise if the players find a logical way to get info
@@ToonedMinecraft It depends. I prepared mysteries or cases only in this way. Of course, they may find clues for specific locations, NPCs or so, and these I had prepared the normal way of course.
It depends sometimes on the group: Are they most of the time creative? - than specific planning will fail more often. Is it a system with lot of options (my experience with Mystery and criminal cases came from Dark Heresy), than specific planning will fail more often. Etc.
In a group that really sticks to what you handed to them or a rule system with narrow options or more grounded setting (no magic, psionics, tech-blabla etc.) will also provide more planning basd.
I hate to prepare, that is mostly trash, because it will never see the light of the day. so I prepare for improvisation - it is not less work, not soecific, but more flexible. Not better in any way, but worked for me for this topic. Not all the time ;)
Yes, the guilty npc might not give you the same clues in the same way as planned! If the pcs do something unexpected, it might make it impossible to give out the clues as the gm originally wanted to.
NWBO
NWBO
Hear me out, (and this is partially for myself later)
Have the werewolf be another girl in town that the huntsman is trying to help.
That way when the townspeople/ players automatically suspect him (because of tropes) it becomes a nice twist.
The girl could be his sister (unknown to her) or her best friend to really up the guilt and drama.
Then when they run off to the windmill the party thinks he's going to kill again.
or her secret lover
@@destroyerheekoo exactly. Hence why he would murder her. She (dead girl) would've "found him out" and he offed her.
Dun Dunnn Duuuunnnn
@@benjaminholcomb9478 Ooh man, now we've got three different ways this same setup could play out.
1.) Boyfriend was the werewolf, got delayed and tragically killed the girl as laid out in the video
2.) Boyfriend's sister was the werewolf, blacksmith's daughter was suspicious why he went out at night, he tried to keep her away while keeping her in the dark, she tragically died. Lots of clues lead back to the boyfriend, such as the muddy boots and the key, because he was the one who locked up his sister every full moon. He's extremely distraught about the death, but still wants to protect his sister
3.) One or both of the secret couple is a werewolf, and the blacksmith's daughter found out - perhaps she stumbled upon them, perhaps she was investigating. In this case, the werewolf is likely much less sympathetic. Could be an intentional murder to keep her quiet, could have a secondary motive of jealousy. Likely one of the secret couple involved in the murder was reluctant while the other pushed for the murder.
This lets you dynamically adjust this same scenario depending on how the party is doing.
If you were planning on running the mystery straight -- boyfriend was the werewolf, he transformed in front of her and tragically killed her -- but the party connects some strings and comes to one of these other conclusions -- *let them be right!* Even if it wasn't what you had planned, let them be the brilliant detective. You're not trying to outsmart the players, you're trying to provide them an engaging experience
On the other hand, if they immediately guess it was the boyfriend based on tropes -- nope! He was protecting his sister.
If they immediately "cheat" with speak with dead -- you've got a plan for that. Speak with dead revealed / gave a strong clue that the boyfriend is the werewolf and he murdered her...but that's only half the story, and in setting out to prove it they start to find evidence pointing to the full story.
Perhaps the werewolf was cheating on her, and the spiteful secret lover got the boyfriend to murder her competition. Does he remember transforming in front of her? Or did the spiteful secret lover not properly secure his chains when the blacksmith's daughter came to investigate? Does he know the secret girlfriend caused the tragedy? Is he hiding her involvement?
There's a second mystery behind the first one -- but only if you need it.
I'd definitely plan to play it straight, it's a good mystery and we all know the memes about puzzles for children stumping the party. Your backup plans are only if the mystery immediately gets spoiled.
@@tomc.5704 4. The werewolf being their mutual friend ( female for the love interest drama)
I'm running a murder mystery based on this vid TOMORROW and I can't wait to see how this goes. Great video, thank's for the inspiration!
Update: they had a couple of loose end to finish up before continuing to this village. This took 4,5 hours and then we ordered pizza 😂😂 all in all a very DnD like experience
That sounds AWESOME! 🙌🏻
Rule 1 of being a D&D assassin: Cast "speak with dead" on the victim so it can't be done by the investigators.
THAT'S SO GOOD
*checks the description of Speak with Dead*
I never noticed that 10 day clause, that's actually really slick, and it means you don't have to mutilate the body's mouth.
My big takeaway from writing a mystery is start with the bad guy and consider the consequences of his actions, even if he’s pretty smart. A smart bad guy might hire underlings to carry out his dirty business. But those underlings could be a liability if left alive. Take inspiration from real life criminal enterprises.
This is BY FARRRRRR the best video I’ve EVER seen about how to build a mystery!!! I could easily take this advice and use it to build a mystery novel as well as a one-shot! GENIUS.
Out of all of the mystery videos I've looked up this one has never been front and center, but this is one of the most useful videos ever! This is so helpful, especially because it includes detailed examples to get the gears rolling. Thank you so much!
5th Level Cleric: "The body hasn't been burred yet you said?"
Mayor: "...Yes, why?"
Cleric, about the ruin the DM's not so well laid out mystery plot: "I can cast the spell Speak With Dead and have the victim herself tell us who killed her."
The answer to that of course is to make it so the victim doesn't actually know who murdered them or destroy the mouth. It is something to keep in mind though if you've got higher level players and they have access to information magic.
at least in 5e, the spell description goes out of its way to point out that the responses are brief, cryptic, repetitive, or any combination of these. Asking for the name of the killer, even in this example story might result in something like a pet or nickname that other locals dont know, but is the most personal name the dead character could use for her boyfriend - and thus the most likely answer. this could then require you to figure out who this obvious nickname belongs to. you could even repeat the name in the love letters so that no direct reference to the name is initially avalible. and they must piece together that pet name A goes to Villager B.
Edit: the response might also be heavily laced with disbelief that her boyfriend could have done this, which could introduce a red herring of him being framed
@@daemosblackSpells are just another thing to keep in mind when making ANY sort of encounter for your players. You don't want things to fall apart because someone casts Grease or summons up the spirit of the murder victim.
Good idea on how to avoid it being a problem in the example case without it being a full stop on the party and giving them a _clue_ but not an _answer_ to things.
She also might want to hide the fact that her boyfriend killed her as a werewolf.
@@jamesarmstrong5316 thats up to the DM of course, but good point
@@vladspellbinder oh I absolutely agree, but what I was trying to get at is that I've noticed a trend in discussions online of dnd tactics and the like that often show people are reading a spell - getting excited about how the spell might work from a purely - let's call it thematic sense even though thats not the right wording - and often don't double check if the spell or other parts of the rules might be mitigating what the spell can do.
A good example of a joke version of a spell misinterpreted going around right now is the prestidigitation can make a nuke meme (obviously as a meme they aren't seriously thinking it) - in short they state that it doesn't give a limit to how much it can warm and object. - it does though, since the rules state no effect the centrip does can directly damage a target, that implies a temperature limit below what could injure a person.
This is an extreme example and rambling. My point is contrary to what seems to be the common thought, WotC puts a lot of thought into how spells and abilities interact and about 70% of the time a "hack" of the game is misreading or missing something in the rules
Excellent description! Candlekeep Mysteries is a good source for some pre-written ones for levels 1-17. I've been DM for a group just running through them (level up each week) and most are very fun. This video breaks down the elements so much better than trying to figure out what good mysteries have in common.
Thanks for the info!
I love how they always remind you that your players are going to get things wrong.
Whole hearted agree with my fellow commenters, excellent video! Straight forward and provides the basics to create a fun and engaging mystery!
I did run a mystery in a DnD campaign; it went quite well; the players followed leads and figured out who was behind the murders in town. They linked it to one of the local ruler's consorts who was a Succubus. It was late that night (in game) so some of the players decided to set a watch over the Succubus's room. One of the members was following another possible lead, while two of the players became highly suspected of crime by the local guard and were imprisoned. One of the players guarding the Succubus's room, decided that half the party could handle the Succubus, who had become suspect that they were on to her and had a number of lesser demons on call to assist her. Long story short, the player character who decided to attack was charmed first round and reduced to 0 HP by the Succubus's kiss. The two other player standing guard fought off the demons and wounded the Succubus. She then fled, but was later found in the campaign and was dealt with swiftly.
Love how you put some red herrings in there to throw off your group but still allowed them to come to the correct conclusion! Also a perfect example of what can go wrong when players split the party haha.
The artwork, narration and info in these videos are delightful.
Hey Master the Dungeon. I recently stumbled upon your videos and I'm loving them! Father better than they should be for such a small channel! Hard to believe you only have 600 subs
We're happy you've been enjoying them!
How am I almost 3 years into being a DM and I’m just now finding this channel?? Each video is immaculate! Thank you for all your hard work!!
I honestly love this specific mystery because one of my players had something similar happen to him in his backstory so it could add a little at the end!
Witcher 3 had similar quest in Velen
I've been wanted to write a D&D 5e murder mystery module. I've had the premise in my head for years - thank you for inspiring me to actually do it. 😀
Thank you so very much for this. I rarely comment on videos, but this video was incredibly helpful. I was inspired to write a dnd murder mystery after watching Twin Peaks for the second time.
“Ok but isn’t it suspicious she’s a blacksmith’s daughter, and her last name’s Smith? Seems odd” my players, probably , before chasing absolutely unimportant threads through the session
I did a whole mystery plot on a ship using a doppelganger as the BBG but while one of the players was, unbeknownst to the party, afflicted with lacanthropy. It ended up being a huge mystery and social interaction that had the party accusing each other for a while and locking up their strongest fighter for a while.
I love how elegant and clear your explanations are.
You're gonna be a big channel with content like this. I promise. Keep it up!
Just came upon these videos and this is the most straight forward guide I have ever seen. Also you have a good speaking voice that’s easy to listen too and the simple Art really helps with the descriptions and such. Also I do like the background music.
Let me just say thank you, as someone who struggles to come up with good flowing mysteries this helps a lot for me to understand how to better.
This has inspired me to run a mystery one-shot in a couple of weeks, like this but a little more complex and with twists (the werewolf was framed by the Ranger). Thanks so much!
Great video on designing and running mysteries. My only suggestion is to cut down on the skill checks. If the party is in the right area then they should find an initial clue or two. Save the skill checks for secondary clues. The main issue with skill checks in a mystery is that if the party fails too many checks, the mystery remains a mystery. Another issue is that if you're calling for a particular skill check and they fail, the players will probably know that there is something in the area to find, but their characters won't. What do they do then? Search some more? And if they can find it eventually, why not let them find it automatically to begin with? With a roleplay-heavy adventure such as a mystery, a lot of dice-rolling isn't necessary since most of the adventure relies on learning where to go or who to ask in order to find the necessary clues, then piecing them together. Just some thoughts. Thanks for the design tips on creating such an adventure.
This was amazing. I like the modular way of thinking of this
Holy crap my dm ran this for us as a one shot. It was awsome. I cant believe i found this video lmao. Anyways take this advice cuz it was a great experience
I’m wanting to set up a short game (2-4 sessions probably) in the Grim Hollow setting, and was thinking of having a mystery aspect to it. This is a great guide, and actually does inspire me a bit. I like the idea of the werewolf being a part of the mystery. Though rather than a straight rip off, I have to wonder what would be a way to spice it up. Right away, I have a couple ideas.
The main one I can describe is as follows. There’s actually several werewolves in town (no more than 3), one of whom is related to the victim (unsure if they will be dead, or so grievously wounded that they are comatose, which would prevent Speak with Dead shenanigans). Hints could lead to the party THINKING it was this related individual who did the attack, when perhaps in reality it was the other lycanthrope who did the attack, while the related individual may have either attempted to stop it, or not even been present.
I like this idea!
Very very very helpful. Its so nice to have an example and an actual scenario that you could compare to your own story
Little tip for actually coming up with the premise of a mystery: i see a few ppl who try, but their mysteries ultimate boil down to theatrics instead of being based in logical fact finding.
What i do is list out all of the facts of the scenario, the whole truth exactly as i would write a story. Then, i decide on what parts i will hide, such as all of the information about who the bad guy is; why they did it; or, who did it. Who, what, where, when, how, and why are the things that need to be collected in order to determine the full story. So by taking out one if those elements, you now have a mystery.
You can make anything into a mystery if you just withhold information, and then provide ways for the pcs to gain that information. If that is the main mechanic of the encounter, it is a mystery. Once the missing information is collected, the GM can tell the players that they have solved it somehow, or what i like to do is make the PCs do a final skill check to determine if the players are successful or not. In other words, each piece of info might be true, or false; the players dont know. So once they think they have all the info, they can roll a relevant skill like investigation, or persuasion to convince the authorities of their evidence. Each piece of true evidence would give that check a bonus, and every piece of false info would add a penalty. You can also make a mystery encounter harder by simply hiding more info from the start, or adding more challenging skill checks, or adding an extra red herring (but dont add a lot of these)
This inspired bender prepwork, and once my group goes through all the content, I wanna share it went. Thanks for making this video!
The second quest I ever ran was a mystery because both my players and I love puzzles. It was a prominent church and landmark in the area that was burned down by foul play. I wish this was around when I did that because many of my clues, though I thought they were good, were often too cryptic or missed.
Biggest take aways are simple story, MANY overlapping clues/evidence, and not too sequential (many places they could try out next)
This is excellent! Better than most videos I’ve seen on building a mystery in GENERAL! Like I’ve seen videos on how to write mystery novels but this can apply to that or really anything in the mystery genre.
This Video is SO good. Im new to DnD (so far I only DM'd the icespire peak campaign) and I am currently designing a solo campaign for a friend of mine. I intend to do a murder mystery style campaign for more roleplay opportunities (rather than solo fighting) and this video is so perfect for that I really love this thank you so much
How’s the campaign going, a year later?
@@angelalewis3645 well the solo campaign didn't get going but instead they are now 4 players and it's going pretty well so far
This is amazing, come on algorithm, make this channel show up more! Thanks for the tips. I am making a missings person mystery for my group and this helped a lot :)
im trying to start my first campaign and this is been very helpful, will definitely be watching this a few times. this has been really helpfull.
What about red herrings, distractions, meandering, twists and turns, and all that stuff that makes mystery even more fun in story writing? Do they apply to D&D sessions as well?
i just watched this and it is AMAZING! can't wait to binge the rest of the channel
This is a wonderful mystery! Thanks for sharing it with us!
I keep coming back to this video
That’s awesome. I’m a big fan of Rebus puzzles. I make the puzzles on a full piece of paper , cut it into a few pieces , and my adventurers find them throughout the dungeon. Last adventure I had a PhD, 2 teachers, and other professionals and the potheads is the one that ended up solving the puzzle 😂😂😂😂
14:32 honestly when I saw the mayor the first time and he was tired I was like "yep probably he did it" even after u said it was the werewolf bf I thought it was just a theory 😆
I remember I made a mistery as the main plot for a group of friends. I was obsesed with the mafia and secrecy, so I made a mafia like mistery where it was a secret group controlling the region affairs. It was kinda modern. I started it by a lot of villagers and business owners complaining about a gang, and they seeing how they extorted or punched some people. So they go to stop them. They were a clasical teenage gang, so I quickly surrendered and the party just took them to the plaza to the people decide what they where doing to them. Also they interrogated them publicly but the party were the only ones able to hear their confessions. The thing is that one of the guys told that there was another person behind the extorsions who covered their backs. Then two things happened. First a man walked to one of the teens and shot him without reason and no one said or did anything. And the one that was spilling the secrets was shot by who knows who. So now they had three leads: The person that shot one of the teens face to face, the assasin and the place where he shot, and a gathering point that one of the teens revealed where he met the other person which they worked with. They took the lead of the man and of the gathering point. Idk remembered what they did to the gathering point but there were some clues there, and the man was the head of a big family owned gun business. That person was the teens father and shot him because of how angry and upset he made him. So they followed that lead and began an inflitration. They began a quest line for that family to gain their trust and recover information about them in general. Okay, then my players, well, one hadn't time and other ghosted me. So the rest of the plot was that the family was colaborating with the mafia (Which was super secretive and no one knew about it) and that the gangs they, accidentally killed was getting the extortion business done for the mafia. If they followed the lead of the house or the assassin they would had a more sherlock type of mistery conecting leads, and with the family they had an espionage and infiltration mission. They would have acted as the right hand for the family, gained their trust, learned about the family, steal information, gain access to information, that kind of stuff.
Thank you for working this out with options to enhance.
Great advice for handling a mystery! I'm looking forward to trying this system.
Thank you, hope it makes session creation easier for you!
Why am I only finding this now? This whole channel is amazing!
It's worth taking a look at the Gumshoe system for clues and investigation approaches, and Call of Cthulhu adventures are good for mystery scenarios too.
Such a good video step by step
This was so so good, and so so simple! Someone could literally run your idea as a session, too!
I've actually ran a mistery adventure very much like this example as the first big adventure to some friends a couple of years ago... they were very clever and went straight to the best clues so they ended up fighting a few wererats in the city mines and rushing to tell the townsfolk they were in danger because there were several infected.
I'm looking forward to making a bottle episode with my new table on a knives out vibe and this video has been VERY HELPFUL
the best video on how to create a mystery session, easy
Knives out is an incredible isnpiration if you look for the concepts used for the mistery in its story. Such a good movie!
Ight, I'm stealing this.
Thank you so much for this video. I may end up using your example murder mystery in my next session.
Party arrived in the 12-building hometown of our halfling craftsman and met several people, then rested. Woke to the town crier announcing the murder.
And when the cleric casts "Speak with Dead", your mystery collapses on itself.
Think harder. What answers can you give that don’t instantly unfold the mystery? “Who killed you? I didn’t see.” “What happened before you died? I was eating dinner then just saw black.” “Do you know how you died? No.” “Did you have any enemies? (Red herring) My brother in law didn’t like me very much.”
Conflicting information it seems. The body was found at the farm (4:40) but when building out the list of locations with clues and information you say the body was found at the graveyard (7:29).
The graveyard is where the body is. It will be buried in the evening, so to examinate it you need to go to the graveyard. Probably just a mistake in the voice-over :)
Mystery: WHERE THE FUCK IS YOUR NOSE GONE
Incredibly good channel. Such good tips, and well presented. You're up there with Matt Colville for sure
Yep!
“I cast Speak With Dead on Tabitha’s corpse and ask her who or what killed her.”
Couldn’t resist. 🤔😏😉
Love your content! Subscribed!
*audibly throws papers of clues and connections*...congrats i guess
LOL
this could be handled by tabitha not wanting to reveal her bf as a werewolf, and just focusing on that she feels like it's her fault. That would give the clues that it was closer to an accident and that it is someone tabitha would want to protect.
This is when the werewolf killed her with a sneak attack.
Several ways to get around this:
-Mouth is too damaged to speak clearly
-Keeps repeating "Werewolf," which is true, but doesn't spoil the entire mystery immediately
-Parents/society doesn't like magic or necromancy, so forbids you to use it.
Personally I'd have rewritten the story as Tabitha suspecting an affair, catching the werewolf in the mill, and running out to the murder location with wolf on her tail. This would change her even knowing who the werewold actually is.
This video is fantastic and very well made! I’ve given a murder mystery to my party before and while I was too obtuse with the clues I provided they were pretty blown away and proud of themselves by the end!
Always remember that you’ll have to consider the world your party lives in, as magic can do some crazy stuff such as speaking with the dead or even resurrection at high levels. Think of ways around those mystery-squashers, such as a victim being misled intentionally to believe they were murdered by someone else so they reveal misleading information if resurrected, the killer removing the head/mouth of a victim so they can’t speak (yuck…), and other circumstances that you could use to keep the mystery from becoming too easy
Another fun spell you may want to play with: feign death. The premise of my party’s mystery was that the pair of murders occurred while a brotherhood of freedom fighting bards were all alone in an inn, and the end reveal was that one of the “victims” was actually the killer and was a double agent for the group the brotherhood was strategizing against, killing their leader and trying to frame another member for the crime so the brotherhood would tear itself apart. The party figured out his feign death trick in the end,and it was an INSANE reaction when he came “back to life” from being strangled
Planning to hit them with another surprise murder mystery soon, so this video and the comment section is super useful stuff 😎
I'm sad I only just discovered your channel, it's been so helpful for my next campaign!
AWESOME video. Really terrific. THanks for this.
A video on how you deal with magic, such as Speak with Dead, in this situation would be a helpful followup.
Thanks for the helpful video. I used the plot today with my d&d group but changed the story from a love story to a poacher getting caught by the hunter. My kids in the group are a bit to young to get the romance part yet, or maybe I just hope they don’t…
Anyway, they managed to solve it just over an hour. It was a fun short story even though they caught on to the werewolf plot pretty quickly but still had to find the culprit. They ended up ambushing the hunter in the mill and almost killing him before he even transformed in a werewolf. After the hunter told them what happened they chained him up in the mill that night. They called the town watch over that night to make sure they had evidence to show about the claim of a werewolf. It was endearing to see them plead for the hunter’s life with the mayor and to find a way for the villagers to life with the hunter and his werewolf side.
Thanks again.
OMG! This was great! You earned my sub and I'm probably going to binge your stuff for the next hour before work.
I'm planning a 'murder mystery' with heavy slasher themes about an Oni hiding in a small forest town. The monster has killed 2 victims, which gets the party involved. With each night, the casualties climb. The Oni himself is hiding as a guard in the general store - the storeowner saw the first murder but made a deal to protect himself and his young daughter. Thats all i have so far.
A few ideas I had on this mystery I think are worth thinking about.
1. Transformation into a werewolf would damage clothing. His boots could be splayed open. Peasants don't usually have a lot of clothes, especially good boots.
2. A werewolf doesn't really appear out of nowhere. So there is a cause of the boy's condition. Likely it's another werewolf but it could be something else.
Not sure why but mysteries are the easiest to prep and run for me. But I will say that being deliberate about a dead end is a MUST. I can’t count how many times I relied on players just to take a shot in the dark to move forward with a mystery. And then it gets dropped. Have those clues spread out and even agnostic to location. A tip from the lazy DM guide. This way if players keep heading in the “wrong” direction, you aren’t just repeatedly telling them it’s a dead end.
You can even throw in a mystery on top of a mystery by including the werewolf that bit the boyfriend. Lots you can do with a double mystery like including monthly animal corpses found by hunters at the lodge that predates the boyfriends turning to introduce the second mystery or have the first werewolf actively trying to obstruct the solving of the murder. You can also have the mayor be or control the first werewolf but unaware of the connection to the first murder to thicken the plot or add more opportunities for combat if your players like that. You can also have clues that lead to a small group of kobalds or goblins who picked over the body before it was found and took the key and a locket or a ring, thereby clearing the name of the guard who found her. Okay now I'm writing a short campaign. I'm inspired.
Great template!
I'll be sure to test it out, it's straightforward but seems very useful
Glad it was helpful; let us know how it goes!
Mayor: "There's been a murder"...
Party: "I cast Speak with Dead", "I cast Zone of Truth", "I quiz the villagers... what DC do I need for my Insight check?"
I ran a murder mystery game once where the clues were given by the ghost of the victim. The murder happened 12 years before and the ghost was trying to prevent the criminal from committing another murder. Being a ghost, the clues were nearly as disturbing as the murder itself. The murder was a well-respected member of the town counsel who had walled up his wife's body in his home. and was preparing to get married again. The ghost was his unborn child. It was an adults only game and it was a horror setting.
That video was awesome! Thank you for the advice and ideas!!
It's something that's fairly broadly applicable to DMing as a whole, but it bears mentioning here: Make the mystery difficult, but let them use their skills! If someone has a creative idea or clever use of an ability that you didn't anticipate but you suddenly realize will short track them right to the solution, let them do it! I love it when my players come up with clever ways to destroy my encounters.
More of this please.
We'll certainly try!
how did I JUST come across your channel? your content is amazing! Keep em coming!
Thank you. this is the best video I have ever seen for DND mysteries. I do love dnd and all it's lore, but why we can't play it with the same roleplay, mysteries and plots than vampire? I'm trying really hard to put this things together and you really help!
This was very helpful! Thank you!
Great video! Trying to make a game with very little combat but I need more in depth things to do. Thanks!
love the art, great ideas.
One of my best stories as a DM, was with a cabal of Moon Rats that were slowly plotting to take over, and stealing things, resulting in a long string of thefts that the players had to investigate.
The "police" was run by a neat freak and a very messy guy, who could not stand each other, but the players needed both to get things done.
The items that were stolen were all minor magic items that had some special meaning or use to their owners.
There's a book for Dungeon Crawl Classics called 'Transyvanian Adventures', which for running Hammer Horror games. It has a section on how to set up a mystery, and suggested an anime series 'The Casefiles of Young Kindachi', which was a pretty informative series when it came to learning about mystery design.
I wish I had this video a couple of years ago when I did a clue board game themed one shot. We had lots of fun and they almost didn't solve it twice. The first mistake was to blame the mansion staff. Then they nearly blew up the mansion by accidently starting a fire in the wine cellar, and then try to put it out with the wine...then the whiskey. The fire spread and caught some Dynamite on fire. Thankfully two weeks earlier I had written a note to myself that the cellar doubled as a panic room. They had discovered this on the way in and used it to contain the blast... mostly. In the end they cought the killer and ran for their life from the maids who had to clean up after them.
Great video. One issue however is hiding clues behind difficulty checks. How will the party or the GM move the story forward if the party can’t acquire clues because of failed checks? Gumshoe RPG handles this rather effectively. Clues are always available because players don’t roll to acquire them. And they can still roll to get more clue detail.
Place the clue somewhere else. (example) The Key if not found at the initial spot could be found when they visit the Hunter's lodge.
The other choice (as mentioned in the video about guiding) is to encourage your players to find ways to help each other on ability checks. Guidance (cantrip), Enhance Ability (2nd Level Spell), Help Action, etc. can help players reach the DC and provide some RP'ing which is what you are trying to encourage in the first place. I do agree that you have to have a "fall back plan" when people roll as poorly as I do though lol
Fail forward: even if the pcs fail the check, they still learn the important info. Instead of withholding the info, just penalize them in another way, like the killer strike another victim; a different npc starts to suspect the pcs; or maybe some ambush or trap. Basically: if the players fail, it also has to be FUN, so how do you make that failure fun instead, and still end up with the clue becoming revealed. Perhaps the information is less useful if it is said out loud, so the pcs learn a clue, but it ultimately doesnt help as much as it would if the players kept it to themselves. Maybe the killer is listening in.
You could also frame someone if the players really botch a check, that would sandbag them hard, especially if there is a time limit. A case of mistaken identity could shift the story and provide a lot of rp
I have an idea for a murder mystery that I haven't figured out yet, but this was a great source of inspiration for it.
Have your players' character sheets.
Use their passive scores at hand and make passive checks when something non-obvious happens.
If they pass a passive check, you might give them a small hint, or ask for an active skill check.
Only make active checks when the aforementioned condition is met, or when players actively ask about something.
It's great to have options outside of redundant combat encounters.
Very solid information and good tipps!
I would only remark that you need a plan B if the players fail all their investigation checks :D