A brief online discussion this morning about investigative gaming in tabletop RPGs had me thinking, what are the central pillars of an investigative game?

A bit of my resume: I’ve run a lot of investigative games, the vast majority being Call of Cthulhu which I have run almost 400 sessions of over the past 5 years. You can read the session recaps dating back to this blog’s inception on the Session Recap page.

I like to break an investigative game into three pillars: the Central Mystery, Clues, and Procedure. While these components can be parts of many other types of games, such as dungeon/hex crawls and intrigue games, I the constituent ingredients that make those recipes is different from a “straight” investigative game.

THE CENTRAL MYSTERY

In most investigative games, the inciting incident that kicks off the campaign is not the actual inciting incident; rather, it’s often an unintended byproduct of the perpetrator or victim: a letter from a relative, the reading of a will, the arrival of a mysterious package, the disappearance of a friend or loved one, the erratic behavior of someone you know well.

If you are running an investigative game, it’s helpful if you know this background information and many prewritten scenarios include all of this up front. In some games, however, the central mystery is uncovered through play. Both are valid, but very different, ways to solve the mystery.

There are all kinds of central mysteries to an investigative game, but I will cover four here: the Conspiracy, the Cold Case, the Cover Up, and the Lost/Forgotten Mystery.

The Conspiracy is a mystery which typically involves a secret plan by a person (or persons) who intends some type of great harm. The cultists working out the exact date of When The Stars Are Right to bring into existence a great existential threat, the megacorp that purchases dead police officers for medical research, and the nobleman gathering arcane artifacts for some unknown purpose are examples of a conspiracy mystery.

The Cold Case is an old, or even ancient or generational crime, which was never resolved. The reason your great, great grandfather was exiled from England, the recent theft of an artifact tied to an ill-fated South American expedition, and the appearance of a copycat murderer in the style of a famous serial killer from the Gaslight era are examples of a cold case mystery.

The Cover Up is similar to a conspiracy but typically involves a high level politician, law enforcement agency, or military leader hiding the existence of a crime. The politician that fakes the murder of a nosy journalist to look like a suicide, the Superintendent of a military academy that arranges for an ‘accident’ at the firing range, and the small-town medical examiner falsifying death certificates are examples of a cover up mystery.

The Lost/Forgotten Mystery is one of the hardest to run, in my opinion. This typically involves a Great Universal Truth, one which people will kill for in order to unlock its secrets. The dead matriarch that leads you on a clue-solving rabbit hole, the resurfaced recorded tapes of a 1970s cult leader that purported to be able to enter other realms of existence at will, and the discovery of an inscription which seems to lead to the hidden treasure vault of the Knights Templar are examples of a lost or forgotten mystery.

CLUES

Without clues, the central mystery will never be solved! I tend to break clues down into the following categories: hard clues, soft clues, red herrings, nested clues, and secondary and tertiary mysteries.

A hard clue is any physical evidence directly related to the central mystery, the proverbial smoking gun. Fingerprints, DNA evidence, torn clothing, and diary entries are examples of hard clues.

A soft clue is evidence gathered through eyewitness testimony, second hand accounts, and anecdotally. The account of someone you interview or interrogate, a second hand journal entry, or an intuition you get when speaking to someone are examples soft clues.

A red herring is a clue which at first appears connected to the central mystery but in fact is not. The business card for a local dry cleaner which turns out to just be the local dry cleaner (who is away on vacation, of course) is an example of a red herring.

A nested clue is one which is related to the central mystery, but only through another hard or soft clue. The business card for a local dry cleaner which leads you to a key to a safe deposit box the dry cleaner found in a pair of pants is an example of a nested clue.

Secondary and tertiary mysteries are small self-contained mysteries that may or may not be connected to the central mystery. If a secondary or tertiary mystery is related to the central mystery, it becomes a nested clue when that connection is made. These kinds of mysteries can add a great amount of depth to your game, but note that they will exponentially add that much more time to the campaign due to the additional investigation required.

PROCEDURE

Last, but not least, is procedure, the mechanics by which the players investigate clues and solve the central mystery.

There are many, many different mechanics available for breaking an investigation into a set of rules of play specifically designed for investigating and solving mysteries. This will be very dependent upon your group’s preferences and the genre that the mystery is set in. There are, however a few overarching guidelines: location, time frame, and investigative intent.

LOCATION
Does the investigation take place on a ship stranded in the middle of a stormy sea? Aboard a forgotten orbital station above a post apocalyptic Earth? During the performance of a Noh play? In a mansion located on an otherwise uninhabited island? While the player characters are on a religious pilgrimage?

TIME FRAME
Is there some sort of constraint or time limit placed upon the players? Does the mystery need to be solved in one night, week, or year?

INVESTIGATIVE INTENT
Are the player characters professional law enforcement agents? Private detectives? Normal everyday people now in over their heads? Globe-hopping adventurers? Retired crusaders now living in a monastery?

Once you know the location or setting, time frame, and investigative intent of the player characters, the actual system you will use will typically become self evident. Whether the game system uses a skill challenge type of resolution, Library Use/Psychology/Spot Hidden skill checks, or Clue Points is a matter of system preference and premise acceptance for each individual table.

I hope this brief overview on investigative games was helpful! I may post a follow up to this which goes into the nitty gritty of how you put all of these elements together to craft a successful investigative game..