Mystery campaign

>>53074135
Drop clues in 3's.

Never hinge the entire adventure on actually SOLVING the Whodunit. If they solve it in 3 seconds, have a backup adventure ready to go.

Red Herrings everywhere. Make them have to actually guess what's relevant.

>>53074208
I have plans for full success, partial success, and outright failure
by three do you mean 1 real one tangential one red herring? or straight up 3 clues at a time

>>53074262
If a single detail must get across to the players, it needs to come up in a game at least three times. So if the Whodunit relies on the players following muddy footprints, then mention mud and people walking in the mud at least three times.

>>53074135
The easy way to write a mystery is to set a scene that gives you an isolated location with a limited suspect crew, then have the crime happen (murder's great).

Next give clues that eliminate suspects. The players can deduce the identity of the killer by collecting enough clues to eliminate everyone else as a suspect.

So you take shelter in a huge old house with 7 other people as a HUGE STORM blows in, pileing snow outside. Nobody will be able to enter or leave for days when..

Someone dies!

Now we just make our cast and figure out complications and ways they can make the story more fun

Jack is a girl pretending to be a boy. She is standoffish and very protective of her privacy and wants to avoid getting drawn into the murder mystery.

Sam is a scarred man that was a thug. He wants to get away from that life, so he's traveling with a lot of stolen money that he is trying very hard to hide.

Rick is a wealthy trader that had worked with the dead man before. He will recognize Sam as a thug, and think he's the killer. He will also point out that the dead man could have recognized Sam, giving a reason for him to kill. He secretly stands to make a lot of money from his dead business partner.

Neevie is a kind and gentle soul, a traveling nun that is horrified by the murder. She seems far too innocent to have killed anyone.

Atticus is a watchman that takes his guard duties very seriously. He tries to organize the investigation and plans to arrest the killer.

Shadow is a horse. Horses don't kill people.. Or Do They?!

This lets you give them a bunch of clues. Not all of them lead to the murder.. Jack and Sam are hiding things, but not the things that lead to the murder. If players are having a hard time just have the murder kill someone else, reducing the suspect pool and giving them another scene to search for fresh clues.

>>53074334
okay cool, the complete whodunnit story arc should only last like 8-14 hours so ill drop those hints apart to make sure they dont realize im doing it

>>53074356
it does take place in a castle, but the initial murder is my red herring for the main killer trying to fuck over the PCs claim to the castle, which ill mke fairly obvious
as it is also a red herring for the killer trying to convert the members of the castle into vampires
I want to start them off on an obvious trail that is just a tool to find clues for the actual mystery

I'm just terrified theyll try to murderhobo and fucking die to a vampire

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>>53074391
Well if you've got a vampire you can always start them with 6 hours or so before sunset to work with. This gives them time before the vampire himself shows up.

Make sure not to put too many layers of misdirection in. Each red harring should be moderately hard to get to the bottom of but not totally derail the investigation.

>>53074466
naw the only huge one is that they think its just a murder for land
but yeah, heavily overcast day, a lot of stuff taking place at night

>>53074135
Just watch Clue with tim curry

>>53078145
Pretty much what everyone is describing in this thread is exactly that movie.

Plus it helps that it's a really good movie, too.