Post by Zeedox in DETECT OR DIE comments

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So! I managed to build a Case - The Case of the Fall, where a husband and his butler has murdered his wife and thrown her out a window to make it look like an "accident". You were right to keep things simple - even though all the clues seems TOO obvious to me, for the players it was just hard enough that we could finish in a single sitting. Inspired by the real death of Appia Annia Regilla.

It was hard to drop clues about the identity and backstory of the detective, but I imagine that will be easier on a second playthrough. I'm really eyeing the optional rule to color descriptions based on the current holder of the glass. Also hard to decide when to ask for a roll, and when just to give a Clue directly to the players.

Fun game, all in all! The players we're imagining it like Pixar's Inside Out, which I thought was a great take on it.

Silk & Stone289 days ago

That's excellent - and I'm glad it went well! I've had some Inside Out type imagery show up in some games I've run, mostly when using the Knife Fight In the Memory Palace rules for semi-competitive play.

Silk & Stone289 days ago

Oh, and as a second suggestion: Consider having them roll, but the roll is to determine if they get Deja Vu, or the World gets Deja Vu, or Morale or whatnot, and the Clue happens either way. This can be usefully be framed as 'do you easily find and digest this detail, or does it take you a moment or remind you of something you don't want to remember, in an inchoate way.'
It's a good way to split the difference between knowing they really need the Clue and wanting it to be something they can engage with.

Zeedox288 days ago(+1)

That’s good framing - you get the result but with a little flavoring, and maybe some resource gain / loss. I’ll try that next time.

How about when there are many clues in a place, some a little bit more hidden? For example, I had a ring hidden in some high grass that the players never rifled through, and I didn’t know if how heavy handed I should have been in pointing it out.

Silk & Stone288 days ago

My advice on that front is just to have more clues than you need, and so if they miss a few juicy ones it's not the end of the world. You can tell them after they solve the Case! There's a Reconstructure expertise, if I remember my own writing correctly, that also lets them know if they haven't found any clues you had pre-written.
If they absolutely need a clue, force it (offer them a roll where no matter what, they find the clue, but a bad roll stings a bit) as discussed above. Missed clues are actually good, because they mean the players genuinely get to carve out their own path through the mystery - as long as there's enough clues to get there in the end. You may have to generate some on the fly to make sure, but again that helps the players take ownership of their solution.

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