Highly recommend reading Three Clue Rule and the articles that follow it. Justin Alexander offers a HUGE amount of advice on the topic. Three Clue Rule is just the tip of the iceberg.
His book So You Want To Be A Game Master also includes the Three Clue Rule and other best bits from the blog, laid out to step a new GM through learning everything.
I wrote a mistery adventure based on the "Phantom of the Opera" book (yes, book) called "Phantom of Music", I uploaded it to DM's Guild as "The Phantom of Music: An Adventure of Love and Dead". There, I took extreme care of adding plenty clues, and presenting to the DM a full section of "here's all that happened, when it happened and what every NPC knows and believes" so the DM is never set aback for a question that they can't answer. I take special pride on a mechanic I added at the end of the adventure when the PCs meet the "final boss", in which they can make a group Intelligence (Investigation) check with a DC 30 to try fit in all the clues they got into a solution, with this DC being reduced for each clue they got. This kinda reflects the classic moment from a mistery novel in which the detective finds the last clue that makes everything fit together. I also made sure to add 3 possible villains that the DM can choose at the start of the adventure, so that there is always a surprise.
3:30: I *strongly* recommend referring to the “ands” of this step as ‘therefores’, as it helps ensure that the link between the cause and the effect is credible. Edit: I know that ‘therefore’ doesn’t fit the example given (I think that the example given could use a ‘but’, rather than an ‘and’), but I still think that it’s a good writing habit.
If you want to have other characters as red herrings or just reasons to be considered a suspect, make everyone have something they want to to keep secret. The mayor's assistant is acting suspicious? Maybe they actually think the mayor did it and are trying to cover for him. The other town bard is on your suspect list? Maybe he was talking bad about the traveling bard too, but actually he steals all the songs he sings and didn't want the other bard to out him. The thieves guild has been said to deal is body snatching and grave robbing? Maybe they saw Agnes do the crime but they want her to get away with it so they can blackmail her when she becomes the new mayor.
A huge level-up for mystery game design for me comes from the game Outer Wilds. Absolute gem of a game, and it very effectively showcases how to set the stage for a nonlinear mystery for your players to solve. The game even features it’s own clue map, which the developers initially created to help their own design process, as the player character’s ingame log.
Wild I've never really used a clue map the City of Mist TTRPG talks about creating mysteries via the "Iceberg method". The more convoluted the mystery the more layers it has. Typical starting with the ending (always the bottom most layer) and working backwards while creating locations, npc's, and clues for your players to interact with and discover
Will try to do that for my game. Still new to running stuff and we don't play that often as busy peeps, but with this I can see where some of my shortcomings are. Fingers crossed my players will make better progress after this. Thank you for the great video and already looking forward to February.
Two of the better tutorial is have read on making scenarios is Mothership (more of a mystery turns into Horror turns into survival game) and City of Mist. City of Mist has the concept of an iceberg. You start with one node. that splits into a few clues in the first layer "the mystery" , many of those clues crisscross into other clues of the next layers, where you get part of the answers but even more questions. And then many of the clues converge in the next layer, where you get more answers than questions. Untill finally you solved it and have to resolve the final scene/conflict. Not only does the crisscrossing in the middle ensure that if you missed one clue somewhere, or the PCs interpreted it wrongly, there are additional paths that let them find another connection and confirm or readjust their theories the structure of the iceberg makes it so that the mystery at first feels more and more vast as you uncover more clues and unanswered questions and then slowly get to the "AHA" moment when the clues converge to a point.
Thanks a lot for this video! Was just looking for something like this, has been very helpful, think I'll immeadiatly begin creating a mystery for my players, the last few sessions have been a bit stale, think that should help haha
I once tried running a murder mystery. Players refused to inspect the murder location or the body. They then got stuck. I made the decision to have the murderer attack them to cover their tracks. Players declared they solved the mystery. 😂
I got a mystery session coming up and this video came at the perfect time. It’s about one of my players (monk) discovering who betrayed them and got them removed from their monastery. Because it’s so niche I’ve had to make it from scratch. This will really cut down the amount of work that I have to put into it. Thanks man 🙏
Nice use of "The Game" Such a great movie and I feel it was underrated even at its time (I am old and saw it in the theatre😆) Also, EXCELLENT content here! This is super helpful!
Super helpful. I’ve been working on a ghost story mystery and struggling to connect the clues in a way that would push the mystery forward. Your system (I think) will give me a tangible way to make it work.
This is a very nice way of breaking down and structuring the process of creating mysteries. Very helpful! Will definitely use this the next time I create a mystery adventure! 😊
Excellent stuff! This is next-level GM advice. But for the newer GMs out there I would caution that this is a pretty advanced technique. And it's quite clear it takes some time. So if you decide to try for something like this don't rush it. Take your time and get it right. Because if you do pull it off it's something your players will likely never forget! And plus you might end up with something good enough to publish.
Watched this as there's gonna be a murder session in a campaign I'm planning, then realised this can be used for the whole campaign... all about perspective.
I'm definitely going to use this to help me out. I'm pretty new to DMing I started work on hosting games when I learned about Dread And I have only run three campaigns so far and two of them are relying on a mystery. One of the issues I had was how to lay out the clues for my players and the clue map definitely seems to be a great way to help I'm definitely going to have to use it when I write out my next campaign.
This was great. I'm midway through a published adventure (Strixhaven) and I feel a clue map would have been great to have. I wouldn't mind a video on how to use this midday through a campaign to save it or just make it better.
@15:05 Use caution when putting "must find/discover" clues behind a "check"--- if the character fails the check they won't be able to find your clue. This will either force you to ask for another roll and hope they roll higher-- begging the question, "why have the check?" or it will require you "moving the clue" to another location and hope they find it then
There is a way to get around this if you absolutely need to. Once the first person fails ask who else wants to help. Have them all roll. Then declare that the highest rolling character is the one that finally found the clue. If the first player was still highest then declare that with everyone's help they finally succeed. Yeah, it's kind of cheating. But used sparingly people may not even notice. And it sure beats having the whole game come to a grinding halt and/or everyone getting frustrated. And if you like since they didn't make the roll outright you can have some complication arise due to them having to spend extra time on it so it won't feel so cheap.
You could have it so the roll isn't to find the clue but it's for if you leave evidence that you were there. Or maybe you damage the clue item somehow.
Another great video of yours. Organizing mysteries is one of my weak points so I really appreciate the ideas presented! Thanks a bunch 🎉 Another question: have you read the GM guide to player goal focused narrative by the Fischel brothers? If so I'm really interested about your opinion on this approach. 😊
Regarding Opus, how do we let players use their own sounds? How would you sync up that audio for a group that plays online? Or do you think it’s mainly a feature that benefits in-person games where players have a device in front of them?
You can "invite" players through Opus by sending them the invite link from within your session. Then once they join, all the players will hear your music and sfx through their browser, and everyone will hear any sfx the players play. Hope that makes sense!
I start every day by laying face down in the mud for four hours, then I do sixty consecutive hot cold plunges in an old refrigerator that I found on the side of the road. It's time consuming, but I like the routine
Do we lay out the clues at random in the rows of three? I'm finding it hard to connect everything together. And then do we just change the clues when tying it together to make it make sense??
My advice to anyone looking to do this: take the non-DnD components of this and use them in a system that is designed for this kind of play like 'EUREKA!' The ruleset and inherent design philosophy of DnD (esp. 5e) is not built for this sort of play. And that's okay. Don't burn yourself out trying to bend or twist the rules to work for you. Branch out and either use or borrow *heavily* from a system that wants to help you tell this story.
If you do lie about something (like for a critical failure) you need to explicitly throw that event into doubt later on by saying something that directly conflicts with it. That is the difference between you lying, amd a character lying
I'm sure this will be an informative video, and I will absolutely be taking notes while it plays in another tab so that I don't have to see your face, but what on earth is that creepy and condescending expression you're wearing? I've had this video tabbed for days, and every time I come back, I am immediately repulsed by your vibes.
Highly recommend reading Three Clue Rule and the articles that follow it. Justin Alexander offers a HUGE amount of advice on the topic. Three Clue Rule is just the tip of the iceberg.
His book So You Want To Be A Game Master also includes the Three Clue Rule and other best bits from the blog, laid out to step a new GM through learning everything.
This channel should have way more views. The amount of work you put into simple things is crazy. Keep up the good work
I love the map methodology. I’d be comfortable running a mystery with this process, where I’ve avoided them previously.
Subbed, great video.
I wrote a mistery adventure based on the "Phantom of the Opera" book (yes, book) called "Phantom of Music", I uploaded it to DM's Guild as "The Phantom of Music: An Adventure of Love and Dead". There, I took extreme care of adding plenty clues, and presenting to the DM a full section of "here's all that happened, when it happened and what every NPC knows and believes" so the DM is never set aback for a question that they can't answer. I take special pride on a mechanic I added at the end of the adventure when the PCs meet the "final boss", in which they can make a group Intelligence (Investigation) check with a DC 30 to try fit in all the clues they got into a solution, with this DC being reduced for each clue they got. This kinda reflects the classic moment from a mistery novel in which the detective finds the last clue that makes everything fit together. I also made sure to add 3 possible villains that the DM can choose at the start of the adventure, so that there is always a surprise.
That's a really cool mechanic for the final encounter!
YES I love this method! This has some really similar elements to my own mystery-making methods, I'm so glad to see this
it's so fun when dnd tubers talk to each other
I'm so glad! I really liked your prep video, can't wait to see more!
@@powerwordspill Thanks so much!! I'm just about to record the next ^_^
3:30: I *strongly* recommend referring to the “ands” of this step as ‘therefores’, as it helps ensure that the link between the cause and the effect is credible.
Edit: I know that ‘therefore’ doesn’t fit the example given (I think that the example given could use a ‘but’, rather than an ‘and’), but I still think that it’s a good writing habit.
If you want to have other characters as red herrings or just reasons to be considered a suspect, make everyone have something they want to to keep secret.
The mayor's assistant is acting suspicious? Maybe they actually think the mayor did it and are trying to cover for him.
The other town bard is on your suspect list? Maybe he was talking bad about the traveling bard too, but actually he steals all the songs he sings and didn't want the other bard to out him.
The thieves guild has been said to deal is body snatching and grave robbing? Maybe they saw Agnes do the crime but they want her to get away with it so they can blackmail her when she becomes the new mayor.
A huge level-up for mystery game design for me comes from the game Outer Wilds. Absolute gem of a game, and it very effectively showcases how to set the stage for a nonlinear mystery for your players to solve. The game even features it’s own clue map, which the developers initially created to help their own design process, as the player character’s ingame log.
That sounds awesome! I'll definitely have to check that out
Wild I've never really used a clue map the City of Mist TTRPG talks about creating mysteries via the "Iceberg method". The more convoluted the mystery the more layers it has. Typical starting with the ending (always the bottom most layer) and working backwards while creating locations, npc's, and clues for your players to interact with and discover
I ran a homebrewed one shot last October that was my high fantasy version of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” And we had a blast!
Will try to do that for my game. Still new to running stuff and we don't play that often as busy peeps, but with this I can see where some of my shortcomings are. Fingers crossed my players will make better progress after this.
Thank you for the great video and already looking forward to February.
Seriously underrated creator
Two of the better tutorial is have read on making scenarios is Mothership (more of a mystery turns into Horror turns into survival game) and City of Mist. City of Mist has the concept of an iceberg.
You start with one node. that splits into a few clues in the first layer "the mystery" , many of those clues crisscross into other clues of the next layers, where you get part of the answers but even more questions. And then many of the clues converge in the next layer, where you get more answers than questions. Untill finally you solved it and have to resolve the final scene/conflict.
Not only does the crisscrossing in the middle ensure that if you missed one clue somewhere, or the PCs interpreted it wrongly, there are additional paths that let them find another connection and confirm or readjust their theories the structure of the iceberg makes it so that the mystery at first feels more and more vast as you uncover more clues and unanswered questions and then slowly get to the "AHA" moment when the clues converge to a point.
Thanks a lot for this video! Was just looking for something like this, has been very helpful, think I'll immeadiatly begin creating a mystery for my players, the last few sessions have been a bit stale, think that should help haha
Haha this was also a reminder for myself that I need to run more mysteries! They're my favourite type of adventure to play
I once tried running a murder mystery. Players refused to inspect the murder location or the body. They then got stuck. I made the decision to have the murderer attack them to cover their tracks. Players declared they solved the mystery. 😂
he racked up tension and suspense with that ad. Such a twist!
I got a mystery session coming up and this video came at the perfect time. It’s about one of my players (monk) discovering who betrayed them and got them removed from their monastery. Because it’s so niche I’ve had to make it from scratch. This will really cut down the amount of work that I have to put into it. Thanks man 🙏
Thank you for this, made me really think about my homebrew adventure!
Nice use of "The Game" Such a great movie and I feel it was underrated even at its time (I am old and saw it in the theatre😆)
Also, EXCELLENT content here! This is super helpful!
Super helpful. I’ve been working on a ghost story mystery and struggling to connect the clues in a way that would push the mystery forward. Your system (I think) will give me a tangible way to make it work.
You almost make me believe I can DM! Almost :) Seriously, though, great content as always. Thank you!
I will be trying this out soon! Thanks!
came back just to say... I'm definitely using this structure for my next adventure. TYVM!
Im running my first campaign on Thursday and this is going to help solidify my format.
This is a very nice way of breaking down and structuring the process of creating mysteries. Very helpful! Will definitely use this the next time I create a mystery adventure! 😊
Tribute to the algorithm. This was a very good one, that map was useful and i will definitely incorporate this into my next session
Excellent stuff! This is next-level GM advice.
But for the newer GMs out there I would caution that this is a pretty advanced technique. And it's quite clear it takes some time. So if you decide to try for something like this don't rush it. Take your time and get it right. Because if you do pull it off it's something your players will likely never forget! And plus you might end up with something good enough to publish.
Did a clue map for CoS. Then I saw your video. Thanks for being late! :) Good vid btw.
You always give me this Heimerdinger vibe
I am a squirrely little man
Watched this as there's gonna be a murder session in a campaign I'm planning, then realised this can be used for the whole campaign... all about perspective.
I'm definitely going to use this to help me out. I'm pretty new to DMing I started work on hosting games when I learned about Dread And I have only run three campaigns so far and two of them are relying on a mystery. One of the issues I had was how to lay out the clues for my players and the clue map definitely seems to be a great way to help I'm definitely going to have to use it when I write out my next campaign.
This was great. I'm midway through a published adventure (Strixhaven) and I feel a clue map would have been great to have. I wouldn't mind a video on how to use this midday through a campaign to save it or just make it better.
Were you at my campaign last night? The group was literally saying they want a mystery and I wasn't sure how to pull it off😂
Very helpful thank you so much!
@15:05 Use caution when putting "must find/discover" clues behind a "check"--- if the character fails the check they won't be able to find your clue. This will either force you to ask for another roll and hope they roll higher-- begging the question, "why have the check?" or it will require you "moving the clue" to another location and hope they find it then
There is a way to get around this if you absolutely need to. Once the first person fails ask who else wants to help. Have them all roll. Then declare that the highest rolling character is the one that finally found the clue. If the first player was still highest then declare that with everyone's help they finally succeed. Yeah, it's kind of cheating. But used sparingly people may not even notice. And it sure beats having the whole game come to a grinding halt and/or everyone getting frustrated. And if you like since they didn't make the roll outright you can have some complication arise due to them having to spend extra time on it so it won't feel so cheap.
You could have it so the roll isn't to find the clue but it's for if you leave evidence that you were there. Or maybe you damage the clue item somehow.
By always having three clues pointing at the same revelation, then no single clue is "must find".
Another great video of yours. Organizing mysteries is one of my weak points so I really appreciate the ideas presented! Thanks a bunch 🎉
Another question: have you read the GM guide to player goal focused narrative by the Fischel brothers? If so I'm really interested about your opinion on this approach. 😊
Awesome ideas!!
You keep jumpscaring me with that puppet clip
Glad your back
Very good content, very inspiring. I hope you can release some content about heist, thank you.
Regarding Opus, how do we let players use their own sounds? How would you sync up that audio for a group that plays online? Or do you think it’s mainly a feature that benefits in-person games where players have a device in front of them?
You can "invite" players through Opus by sending them the invite link from within your session. Then once they join, all the players will hear your music and sfx through their browser, and everyone will hear any sfx the players play. Hope that makes sense!
Somebody get this mustachioed man a monocle and we're in business!
The real mystery is Kelly's skin care routine. What do you do!?
I start every day by laying face down in the mud for four hours, then I do sixty consecutive hot cold plunges in an old refrigerator that I found on the side of the road. It's time consuming, but I like the routine
Dude, i watch you only because of that excellent and noble moustache.
Cool 😍❤️ thank you
I'm currently working on yet another type of mystery: a mole game. Someone in the village has secretly helped the adversary, but who was it?
Do we lay out the clues at random in the rows of three? I'm finding it hard to connect everything together. And then do we just change the clues when tying it together to make it make sense??
Is this something that you can place into an external n going campaign or is this best to do during its own campaign?
you should sell mustache merchhh 👌
My advice to anyone looking to do this: take the non-DnD components of this and use them in a system that is designed for this kind of play like 'EUREKA!' The ruleset and inherent design philosophy of DnD (esp. 5e) is not built for this sort of play. And that's okay.
Don't burn yourself out trying to bend or twist the rules to work for you. Branch out and either use or borrow *heavily* from a system that wants to help you tell this story.
Big Richard Hendricks energy in this video.
D&D Murder Mistery, or should we say.... D&D with a twist?
If you do lie about something (like for a critical failure) you need to explicitly throw that event into doubt later on by saying something that directly conflicts with it.
That is the difference between you lying, amd a character lying
Beware of locking all the clues in a set behind skill checks or other steps whi h could have the players fail.
Definitely! That's an important tip that I should've mentioned
Ads are out of control
I'm sure this will be an informative video, and I will absolutely be taking notes while it plays in another tab so that I don't have to see your face, but what on earth is that creepy and condescending expression you're wearing? I've had this video tabbed for days, and every time I come back, I am immediately repulsed by your vibes.