Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[sirkaikillah]

So I am new to Gming Savage Worlds. I have developed a Paranormal investigation campaign, ala x-files. I have had great success as a Gm in combat centric rpg campaigns; tell story, add monsters and let the players at it, resolve fall out from combat, move campaign forward, rinse then repeat. There is a lot more to my success, but that is the basic to my campaigns.

In my new Savage World paranormal investigation campaign, I want the emphasize of the campaign to be on the exploring mystery, and less on killing monsters. I purchased the Horror supplement, love it. But I am new at gming a game focused on mystery and discovery of the unknown. It is a campaign where monsters, faeries and magic co-exist in our modern world, hidden by shadow, mystery, hoaxes, misinformation and most importantly disbelief.

So any advice on making my savage world game more mysterious?

[Pariah74]

http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/How_to_Run:Call_of_Cthulhu
That should have something in it of value.

Other advice I would give would be to use allies and extras as Red Shirts. They are the ones that die to prove the situation is serious. Don't be afraid to put the dice down and just declare a death, either. "Sorry, but Buddy the photographer now has a large metal spike sticking through his chest. He looks up at you and tries to talk, but collapses into death." They'll inevitably try to revive and save him, but it's okay to tell them that he died of plot.

Also, don't ever put vital clues in places they may not find them. I know it's tempting to have them go on this wild chase to find abstract clues...but players are not really detectives, and you'd be amazed at how easy a mystery seems when you are the one who crafted it. Decide on 3 or 4 good solid clues and make sure they find them. If they completely miss all the clues you can always have the police (who should be the dumbest half-wits in your game) stumble on them and ask for help.

Don't reveal the bad guy right away. Whether he is somebody they know, or a monster lurking in the shadows or whatever. Let them find the results of his violence, or whatever his crimes are, after it's been perpetrated a couple times. Then once they have some clues, let them formulate a plan and have the plan work so they at least catch him in the act...he could always escape, at that point as well.

Be sparing with the red herrings. Just avoid them altogether for a good while. It's hard enough to get PCs herded in the right direction. Misinformation should only be used once you're bored of doing it normally, and then only once in awhile. It will really mess them up IME.
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[Timon]

My standard answer to this question is to use the three clues rule.

Mysteries impose a structure on your game: there has to be a path of investigation leading from where the players currently are to where they need to be/ what they need to do. The finding of clues is not where the fun is. The fun is in working out what those clues mean and getting into fights, breaking into places to get infomation, car chases and sneaking around.

Create lots of clues and have them turn up wherever the players happen to look, be prepared to change the mystery into whatever weird deduction they make and have clue-laden thugs kick in the door because the players were "getting too close" when things aren't moving forward.
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[VonDan]

yeah they both stole what i was gonna say.

I set up my pulp game to start as a mystery when a museum party is attacked and robbed


Let them find clues but they may think it leads ones place and you another. So be flexable and think ahead how the clue paths can be made to led to the next encounter.

Have a few leading red shirts that they wont know are red shirts because you added so much character and flavor. Not really a lot more book keeping, i created a trio Wheels, Ace and Salty all built on the exact same sheet except the pilot skill related to car, plane, boat

Dont show the big bad but have lead minions that if they survive come back again and maybe reflect the same genre but a dark oppisite of the pc.

And maybe look in the PC backgrounds to find a way to to them into the mystery
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[Jordan Peacock]

Okay, my original response to this was WAYYYYYY too long, and mostly could be summed up as, "Yeah, what Pariah74 said!" So here's my shorter version:

A few points I can think of (besides that) from my own experience with running games with a mystery element:
1) Err on the side of excess of clues to point the heroes in the right direction. Some of them may never be discovered, or interpreted correctly; that's fine. If the heroes DO find them all, then multiple clues pointing them in the same direction may help to reassure them that they're on the right course.

2) Beware bottlenecking the action on solving a tough puzzle or making a skill check. Requiring a Notice check for every vital clue, or a Knowledge roll for every important piece of information invites the possibility that the dice won't cooperate, the heroes fail the check, they are out of Bennies (or don't spend them, not realizing this is "crucial"), etc.

Notice rolls and such should be saved for "extra credit" clues -- things that would help the heroes get to the right solution faster, or avoid some troubles along the way, but without which the adventure won't come to a grinding halt.

3) Heroes tend to invent their own red herrings, once they have a few pieces to the puzzle, so I rarely need to provide them on my own. Players start coming up with theories, perhaps colored by their own biases, and it might lead them off into odd directions unanticipated by the GM. Save especially "twisty" mysteries with lots of red herrings for when you've already run a few mystery-based games and your players are starting to get jaded with more straightforward cases.
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[The Dread Polack]

Not much to add. I'd just like to also recommend spending some time at http://thealexandrian.net/, as Timon has pointed out. In addition to the 3-Clue Rule, he has a lot of other good GMing advice for running mysteries, and adventures in general. I recently killed a lot of time there.

[amerigoV]

Here are some rambling musings I put together right before I ran a Ravenloft game (and I will add the Cthulu link above )

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/lab/wikis/horror
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[Locke]

One resource you may want to check into is the GURPS Mysteries book from SJ Games. It's only about $14, and while it does have some GURPS-specific information in there, it gives a really good breakdown of the different types of mysteries you might run and how to pull them off.
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[VonDan]

If they are really stuck just have them meet Velma Dinkley to explain the clues as a Deus ex machicka
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[Crumbs]

You can also take a look at Realms of Cthulhu it has some good advice on running a horror/occult/mystery game since it's basically a Savage Worlds version of Call of Cthulhu.

Agents of Oblivion might be worth looking into as well.

[Jeffrywith1e]

I was going to recommend the GURPS Mysteries book, too.

And mental images of Velma are not as innocent as they used to be.







one quick search on Google proves that it's not just my brain, either.
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[VonDan]

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[Vikki_Felde]

Hi Sirkaikillah!
I understand your trepidation. It’s hard to transition a group that does the hack & slash to more mystery driven storyline which often moves along at a slower pace. My recommendation is to have a mix of building mystery and action. Let’s be honest, it’s fun to defeat the bad guy. It’s even more rewarding when you finally unravel the plot and track down the big bad guy and give him what he deserves, something about the hunt makes it even more satisfying to players.

What has worked for me in the past is to run “episodes”. Each story is a self contained little investigation (with some mystery, investigation and some action) but within those stories, drop in clues to the over arcing plot. While the game might play like disconnected one shots, the players will soon learn that all these seemingly random events are connected and can be traced back to one source. If you hint and drop subtle clues to the players, you’d be surprised at the theories your players will come up with to explain the events. They will speculate about who’s behind it and why, and that’s some good fun for the GM too.
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[sirkaikillah]

Wow! I am so glad I possed this question on this forum. Thanks for the great advice. Some things I really like, red shirt fodder and give them obvious clues to move the story forward and make checks to find clues that give pcs an advantage or short cut. Thanks

[mrcaptainpants]

I have nothing to add, but I want to thank the OP and everyone who responded for one of the most useful and informative threads I've read in a while. There's some pure gold in this here thread. Nicely done, everyone!

[jonrog1]

http://critical-hits.com/2009/06/02/the-5x5-method/

I just built my 1930's Shanghai Agents of Oblivion campaign using this. The great thing is, the clues I've planted are fairly linear and easy to find (thereby cutting down on frustration), but the players can't figure out CONTEXT, so it creates a lot of table (and e-mail) chatter on figuring out significance, etc. Is this magic book the key to this plotline, or that? What's his motive -- opposed to another NPC, or his own?

Got to say, it's a really strong campaign framework.

[jonrog1]

I would also note, somewhat OT, concerning the Three Clue Rule: there's a commonly accepted rule in modern Hollywood that anything you want an audience to remember has to be mentioned/seen three times.

[kreider204]

[Jeffrywith1e]

GURPS Mysteries goes further with the Rule of Three. They have a rule of Seven- no more than 7 NPCs, no more than 7 clues, no more than 7 important ideas, but then they say if even better if you can narrow all of the above to no more than 7 total. Like most GURPS books, it's a great resource.
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[warrenss2]

Try to understand that reading and watching mysteries is a lot easier that trying to solve one in a RPG. The clues have to be obvious for some players to catch. You are going to find that they will latch on to something that is not even a clue, with bulldog tenacity and NOT drop it, while ignoring what you would think is an obvious clue.

Be ready to be flexible and also ready to fly by the seat of your pants. LISTEN to the players as they talk about what the clues mean and what their conclusion/deductions are... it just might be better that what you had originally planned... if so... steal it and apply it shamelessly!!!

It will just show what great detectives the characters are.

Remember, they ARE the HEROES of the campaign. They should shine.
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