Sometimes in tabletop RPGs It's hard to run a mystery. Players can often figure out the secrets ahead of time by just knowing what the tropes are. For example the most helpful character in the beginning is usually the one who turns out to be the traitor moving between two locations often results in an ambush. if there's a young woman who wanders around looking worried, that means her son has been kidnapped by a Beholder, and now you have to go rescue him. In one of our D&D games, we had rescued an old noble lady, and was invited to the Lord's Manor, where he was holding a small party. We met several of the guests, the maid, the head butler, the gardener, the cook. Wait a second, rich noble party, plenty of servants. *gasp* Is this going to be a murder mystery? Look, you guys have been to parties before. This isn't anything special. Is it dark and stormy outside? Okay, it is, but that's just a coincidence. With lightning? *lightning and thunder* Okay weather is a thing which happens people! And there's a haunting atmosphere? *haunting keyboard refrain* We were Not taking the night seriously after that Man, that Noble's are really nice guy. It's a shame he's going to be murdered tonight Everyone goes to bed, And we pleasantly get woken up by a blood-curdling scream. Because of course we do. And I've got my magnifying glass, my little hat, and my pipe and I'm super excited to be getting to the bottom of this mystery. And of course what's any murder mystery without a nice, long, complicated, murder plan We find the Lord's body in the art room After gathering evidence, What we deduced, was that someone killed the Lord, by dripping poison into his goblet from overhead. They sneaked up onto the roof, and through the window dripped the poison in. We decided that we had to have a person get information out of the suspects. So we needed someone intimidating to interrogate them That's where I came in The interrogations did not go very well. Did you, kill the Lord? No Well, I tried my best. That's all I could get out of them. I kid you not, we spent six hours in real life trying to figure out the mystery, and debating the evidence. I started getting a little frazzled We eventually came to the conclusion, That either, All of them were colluding and we should kill everyone, Or, No one did it. Or, One of them, or or maybe, maybe we did it. I mean, I didn't watch myself when I was sleeping, maybe maybe I did do it. Eventually, we had to let everyone go free. There was nothing we could do, We couldn't figure it out. I mean, really what evidence did we have that the Lord was dead? Other than his body, which was dead. I had a similar thing happen in a game I was running, Only, the exact opposite. I was GMing a Call of Cthulhu game set in the 1920s, Chicago We had a private investigator, Dick Tracy! World's greatest detective, On the case. In the plotline, characters were going back and forth between the waking world, and the dream lands. Nightmares had managed to find a portal and were invading our reality. Secretly, one of the NPC's Was actually possessed by a nightmare named Melthad, Who had taken over his mind. Now, at this point in the plot, I had not established that nightmares could do this, and there was going to be this big reveal later. Dick Tracy went to a hospital, to speak with an NPC who is secretly being possessed by Melthad. Play-by-play, Dick Tracy went into the hospital, First time meeting this guy I might add. I said "He's sitting up in bed" smiling and waving toward you." And the investigator took one look at him and said "He's smiling? Oh, a nightmare slipped into his body and he's secretly being possessed by Melthad." oh , I, I wasn't supposed to figure that out was I? Dick Tracy! World's greatest detective! *DING* What was also funny was that there was no doubt in his voice like, "Hmm, I'm getting there sneaking suspicion that something might not be right!" No! The player got it right away. Less than two seconds after meeting the guy. My villain didn't even manage to get in one line before he figured it out. NOT ONE LINE! Everything was ruined! I had a, I had a thing planned! A whole thing! Where I was gonna be leading them on, Make them think like, "Ooh, what's he planning?" Make him think like he was normal, and then weird things was gonna start happening, and they're gonna be like "Hmm, something's up." "What could that be? I don't know." And then, and then, and then they weren't gonna be able to figure it out for a while, I was gonna be, giving them subtle hints! And, and, and, and they, they still weren't going to be able to put it together! And there were gonna be this big reveal at the end. And they were gonna be all like, *gasp* "What!? That's so cool, Ben!" You're so awesome, and good at making, uh.. secret things, and we were totally led on by that!" But, NOOOOO! None of that, happened! Another smaller story, I was playing the Scotland Yard board game. If you don't know, it's a game where you have a big city map, and one person places the criminal. Making moves in secret, trying not to get caught. I was the criminal. I take my turn, and hide. First player, in the first round, shifts over, one square! Catches me immediately. There's this one guy there, he said, "Man, I've been playing the Scotland Yard board game, since I was kid for like, 15 years. It's one of my favorite games, I have never seen the criminal get caught in the first move." Well, It's good that I could be the one to give you this, experience. "I mean if someone were intentionally trying to get caught it still be really difficult because--" Okay! Thank you! You can stop complimenting me now! Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys, next time.
