Murder mystery tips and tricks

[tardy hull]

I'm making a murder mystery campaign for my players, it's my first time running one, does anyone have any tips or advice for the creation and running of my mystery

[mighty obsidian]

The first question is the murder itself, and how the culprit hid their tracks.

I'd recommend looking at Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. It's a mobile game that has some idea as to how some murder mysteries can be done.

[green raven]

https://youtu.be/P9_bzZ-pptk?feature=shared

[tardy hull]

Thanks to both of you!!!

[devout bridge]

give you characters a npc thats with them the whole time that they loooovvveee like someone they could never ever in 1 millions years believe is the killer. then twist the twisted knife later on and really mess with em!!! hahaha its like elmo turned bad elmo lol

[river plaza]

I recommend building a flow chart to help plan your adventure! Figure all the key clues you’d want your players to hit to get to the end of the story—consider how it all connects to the murderer in the end.

[green raven]

https://tenor.com/view/chart-calculating-gif-14969083

[mighty obsidian]

I'd counterargue against this - this is the oldest trick in the DM book, the players tend to catch onto this pretty quickly, and if they do catch onto it, they may not end up trusting any NPC you try to get them to attach to later on, which will bite you in the ass.

"Why are my players murderhobos who won't interact with my world like normal people?" - The DM who tried to backstab their players in the first few sessions and gave them trust issues, probably

[devout bridge]

If I’m not giving my players trust issues am I doing my job as a dm?!? 😂

[mighty obsidian]

If your view of a DM's job is creating a world that players are concerned about and treat like a real place that they can care about...probably not

That's how I work at least.

[tardy hull]

Actually me

The hard part is knowing how all this will work without being able to test it, I know where people will find shit but when and how are very different

Also I don't know how good people are at mystery solving in general

[sly imp]

I have a habit of running mysteries in campaign (current player intrest score is 7/13)

Usually these 3 things help.

Answer/give exposition on anything only if player ask and stop in between and continue only if they ask further with some line along lines. If they miss out on some plot crucial stuff can always find a letter or clue later but the immersion of them getting answers by asking questions needs be maintained.

Actual edited out notes or some pictures or some puzzle helps (just make sure it's the easiest stuff you can find I usually look for kid puzzles 🤣). Do try make sure u have a NPC or way for them to get help in solving said stuff in case they r stuck.

Finally a NPC or a damsel (can be male or female) who is clueless and asks them questions which you definitely want them to find answers too helps. And yes if they are too obvious players will call you out 😅. But in long term they help a lot.

The biggest thing to look out for is they do not get stuck once they start going different direction aka stuck in a phonix wright game using quick save and handing out every single evidence cause can't follow game logic

(thankfully have a sporting table so when a NPC or bad guy call them out for being dumb or going in wrong direction they don't take it personally.......tho usually such npc die very fast tho 😅)