Conducting Investigations - LunarNeil/Call-of-Cthulhu-Campaign GitHub Wiki
This is a game where Investigators spend most of their time investigating mysteries interwoven with threats of personal danger. Mysteries are usually mysterious, so by definition it should be difficult for a player to find their way through the complex webs of intrigue, but not frustrating.
Creating just the right level of difficulty is the Moderator's role, but players have the important task of discovering the hidden clues and solving the mysterious problems that the Moderator takes pains to set up. This section will explain how players can use their own wits and the Investigator's skills to unravel the most tangled of mysterious scenarios, and have a lot of fun in the process.
None of these rules rely on dice rolls, though dice rolls can be used as part of an investigation.
-Mystery Scenario Breakdown
Each investigation scenario can be broken down into a few components that repeat throughout the mystery, and a basic structure that ties all the components together, with variations that keep it from becoming predictable and boring. In this section we'll break down the components, and in the next section we'll put them together into a basic structure to show how it works. The following can be seen as the core elements of a good investigation scenario:
Problems:
-Clues
You will see many references to Clues throughout this rule book. Clues are nothing fancier than a plot thread, usually represented by some curious information written by the Keeper onto an Index card and handed to the player. They serve to advance the story without having a character instruct the Investigators where they need to go. You can also think of Clues as "Hints" that don't make much sense on their own, but can be assembled like puzzle pieces to reveal a Secret. Investigators will rarely have all the puzzle pieces, but once they get enough they'll start being able to make some guesses. Hopefully they'll figure it out on their own, but if they wish they can always use Sanity points to do research.
-Sleuthing out the Clues
Most of the Clues the Keeper hands out will happen during Investigation Attempts. Like real police of the era, Investigators will do most of this investigation by eye (that is, just looking at things) and will occasionally want to copy down information they see written, or collect a sample of a substance, or sometimes just smash their way in to try and steal the information they're looking for. The goal with these scenes is to make the players interact with the environment. Try to create settings with many interesting things to interact with, not like the featureless walls of a dungeon.
When making an Investigation attempt, most of the time there's nothing to roll, and players will want to narrate to you what they are doing and looking for. Because the goal of an investigation attempt isn't to roll the dice, but to interact with the environment, create rich descriptions that have several sensory cues about whatever is out of the ordinary. Desk lamps can illuminate areas of interest. Fresh tobacco smells can indicate a recent visit. Scratches on a desk drawer can indicate an attempt to force it open. Occasionally a Skill check is needed (unlocking a door quietly so as not to alert the resident) but our Call of Cthulhu game has no "Search" Skill to automate the process.
-Putting Clues Together
When a player puts enough clues that they finally make a deductive leap and correctly guess what they point to, they have discovered what is called a Secret. Secrets are special insights, and aren't automatically shared with the group. They are usually a card given by the Keeper with a description of the secret discovered ("Dexter is actually a Necromantic Spirit possessing Ward's body!") and can give the Investigator who discovered them a powerful new Clue ("There must be a reversing Invocation to banish the Spirit!") or a special advantage. When a Keeper wants to give a Secret to an Investigator they can either be overt about it, which means the Investigator is probably "acting funny" for a moment of realization, or they can be as sneaky and covert as they wish.
Investigators do not need to say what the Secret is, or say that it is a secret. Not even when invoking its power. Secrets can be shared, but it still remains a Secret so long as it has not been "openly revealed." Revealing the Secret is just explaining what the secret is, and allows the Keeper to jump in and flesh out what it means, and allows the Group to gain the benefits, but it removes the idea of the Secret entirely. Now it is just information, so write it down in your Journal.
The group of Investigators don't need to always solve things on their own, they can pool their clues and have a discussion about where the clues point. If they conduct this conversation in-character the Keeper is able to be of more assistance as well. These discussions are a good way to compare clues and reveal truths as a group, making it so nobody in the group gets a Secret for it and so everyone can contribute.
-Creating Mystery Plots
Every good Mystery needs a good plot. Plots are the story of what happens, when, and where. Writing a good mystery plot isn't that difficult, the rules of the genre are well established and can be used to guide you in creating an enjoyable mystery. First, let's define the three components you'll need when making a Mystery scenario for this game: Clues, Problems and Settings.
- Problems: Problems are the thing to be solved. This can be a murder or a theft, like in many detective stories, or it could be a terrifying creature that seems to be stalking the group. Problems drive the story, and there are usually multiple problems going on all at the same time. This allows for misdirection without being intentionally deceptive about who did what.
- Clues: Clues are the building blocks of the big picture, the hints that lead your Investigators towards solving the mystery once and for all. Big clues can give things away too early, and having too few clues can make the game frustrating and slow. Using a large number of small clues is a great way of giving your Investigators small tastes of success without giving away the game too early. It is also important to offer lots of clues because Investigators are sure to miss most of them.
- Settings: Settings are the descriptively-rich environments that Clues abound in. There are bound to be many locations in the Scenario that the Investigators can travel to, some of which you may be forced to think up on the fly, but you are likely to only have a few real Settings with much exploration potential.
Good mysteries are open-ended in nature, with one Problem to begin the story, a secondary Problem being discovered before you're half-way through, and a number of Settings that are relevant to the investigation, each of which has several clues (and often one major Secret to discover).
-Creating Mystery Scenarios
Mysteries are not just confounding plots, they're intellectual puzzles built upon an enjoyable dramatic framework. When creating a mystery scenario for this game, it can be helpful to follow the well-tested formula for literary mysteries, which gives players everything they need and lets Keepers focus on running the game and adding in a few twists as time goes on:
- One: Introduce a Problem, a Suspect, and a Setting very early into the scenario. The best way to do this is to have them all occur at the same time, much in the way that Police Dramas often begin at the scene of a violent crime where the primary suspect is a spouse. It doesn't matter if this Suspect or Problem is the main suspect or problem, it just needs to start off a chain of events
-Avoiding Stuckness and Chokepoints
This is mostly a Keeper section, so players can ignore it if they choose.
The importance of Clues is how they advance the plot. In a mystery, advancing the plot requires that the Investigators discover the Clues themselves as they work towards a solution. It is also important that the Mystery be mysterious enough that players cannot guess what will happen several steps ahead, even if they always have a good idea where they should go next. But if the Investigators don't notice the clues, or make the wrong assumptions, they can head off in entirely the wrong direction. Pushing them back onto the path, no matter their failures, takes away the Mystery and ruins the experience. So instead of removing the chance of failure or removing the search for clues, Keepers should remove the idea of checkpoints entirely.
This is called the Three Clue Rule, and it states:
For any plot-sensitive problem you need the Investigators to solve, include at least three clues and one alternate path.
For any story-ending conclusion you need the Investigators to make, include at least three problems and one alternate path.
This means for every plot-essential conclusion or Secret the Investigators have to reveal to advance to the next scene, or identify the bad guy, you need three solutions and enough room for a creative solution as well. You should also have Multiple plot-essential Secrets instead of a single signpost secret. So for any essential plot point you should have 3 Secrets supported by at least 9 clues.
Here is an example:
In this decrepit mansion is a secret door that leads to a series of dank caverns where Aldous Fibly is conducting his eldritch experiments. The secret door is now a chokepoint problem, because players must advance to that next area at some point, and so try to make sure that there are at least three solutions. The first solution remains the same: a successful Investigation attempt to notice the feeling of a cold draft from the wall, the way the bookcase sways when you touch the books, and the subtle scrapes on the hardwood floor. To this we could add a note in a different location where a cultist is instructed to "hide the artifact behind the bookcase" (where the secret door is); a badly damaged journal written by the architect or a contractor refers to the door or caverns; a second secret path leading to the caverns from the frigid cliff-side (this counts as a separate solution because it immediately introduces the possibility Investigators searching a new location); a probable scenario in which the main villain or a cultist will attempt to flee through the secret door; the ability to interrogate captured cultists; and so forth.
In this way the Keeper does not need to fudge things in favor of the Investigators, nor give them a blatant hint that removes the fun of investigation, just create a rich environment full of clues to discover. Once a Keeper gets used to this method of scenario design it becomes trivial to include multiple solutions to a single problem, or to provide multiple problems that all lead to the same conclusion.
-Good Investigation Techniques
Investigators may not be Sherlock Holmes, but they can use the same methods as he does:
- Deduction is Reasoning Backwards
Many times a mystery will start with some event or some mysterious event. Trying to imagine what could have happened is always a mistake. Try to start with what you know and work backwards from it, collecting data as you go. If you have a body, the first clue as to how they died is certain to be on or near the body!
- Make no Theories before you have Data
Don't make wild guesses before you have evidence. The world of the Mythos is full of strange things, stranger even than the Investigators can imagine. Investigators should collect as many Clues as they can before they start making logical assumptions. If they find one clue and drive off, it would not be surprising if they get off track.
- Pay Attention to the small Trifles
Most of the Clues used to reveal a secret are small, seemingly unimportant things. You can't pay attention to every bit of small nothing as if it was as valuable as a footprint or a scrawled note, but searching for small trifling bits of evidence can help clear up paths and reveal Secrets.
- Obvious Facts can be Deceptive
If something is incredibly obvious it can also be overlooked. Every clue should be challenged and examined with an equal degree of skepticism. If you find a body in the river you may assume he drowned, but what if he did not?
- Talk to your Companions
When in doubt, share your thoughts with your allies. You can learn a great deal from the different way a companion may interpret a problem, or the unique skills they have may give them a perspective on it you lack. They may also have clues you missed that help fill in the gaps. Doing this in-character also allows the Keeper to help nudge you in the right direction.
Follow these simple rules for handling mysterious circumstances and the players will be able to solve the mystery for themselves in the classic style, without the Keeper tipping the scales in their favor. The one bit of Holmes wisdom you should discourage is his famous expression that "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth" for in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos, the impossible is not only probable, it is inevitable.