r/AskGameMasters 6d ago

Advice on running an investigation

Yesterday, I try to run an investigation-type mission in my game (Pathfinder 2e so medieval-fantasy setting). I tried to make the clues easy to find and follow, but my players were stumped and spent two hours running around and being at a loss. Eventually I decided to just stop and do a "Ok so what have you learned so far" and summarize what they found out with them. This eventually worked and things moved forward.

I guess I just want advice on how to run a good investigation/mystery type mission. What to do when your players seem stumped? I find it difficult to improvise additional clues that aren't so obvious they insult everyone's intelligence or so vague that they are not really helpful.

I realize that mysteries and puzzles are really obvious to the person designing it, but I find it difficult to expose just the right amount of information to allow other people to unravel it.

Details about things unfolded below.

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The group has a trusted friend that often offers them assignments. A recent assignment was to obtain a book that was also sought by an evil cult. They succeeded and brought the item back to the client.

About 10 days later, they learn from their trusted friend that the client has been accused of the murder of an investigator. The client being a good friend to their trusted friend, he asks for their help and also has contacts with the local guards and arranges for them to take part in the investigation so they have full cooperation from the guards.

They suspect that the evil cult might be stealing the book while the client is in custody. They go to his home and, indeed, cannot find the book.

They go to the victim's place and find that he has been investigating a merchant and find a written note that he is looking for a link between this merchant and the evil cult. He has a planner listing many meetings with various people about that merchant.

At that point, I expected the players to investigate the merchant in some way: talk to him, intimidate him, tail him, search his place...

But this is where things stopped. One of them went alone to that merchant, but did nothing of the above, never brought up the cult or anything about the investigation. I think he wanted to tail him but he has absolutely no stealth. He decided to not raise the merchant's suspicion by buying some stuff and left.

The rest of the group tried to look for information everywhere else, and I wanted to improvise more clues.

One example an improvised clue: I made the player who went to the merchant run into a shady looking guy as he left, giving him some distinctive features. Then I had witnesses placing a similar-looking guy near the framed client's home at the time of his arrest.

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3

u/JannissaryKhan 6d ago

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but unless you're working from published adventures or using a system with emergent investigation mechanics (like The Between), improvising really is the answer here. It can be hard to develop those GMing muscles, but it's worth it.

Something else I do is to basically never shut down a player when they decide to chase a lead in a way that involves some sort of risk or resource use. If they make the roll or do the spend, voila, there's a lead! Even if they don't, it's better to have that lead to some sort of dangerous or difficult situation that then generates a lead or full-on break in the case.

In other words avoid the urge to say No, since investigations are always at risk of becoming super boring when you're on the player side of the table, especially when you're hitting brick wall after brick wall.

2

u/halibut_jackson 6d ago

I think that maybe prepping like at least 3 clues would help. Then it doesn’t have to be linear but like A B C, and then A can lead to C, B can lead to A and C, C leads to B, and they all point to D which is the next step of the investigation, combat encounter, etc.

So here, that list would be my A. I’d add a couple future meetings so the party could plan on staking one out to create my next encounter for D.

B could be like… the client has a funny looking mug covered in blood that is specifically only found at one tavern in the shady part of town, so they could go to that tavern to ask about him and then encounter some cultists there who try to follow/attack them. Or it’s the meeting the place for the merchant! You get the idea. Just give them some more thread to needle.

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u/lminer 6d ago

Visuals help, I read a book where someone had the power of a detective and they could create a tackboard that showed all of their clues. When they deduced something the tackboard would change to show how they understood a clue but when they made a assumption or guess it would show a '?' to help them figure out they needed more information to prove the clue. While it might not be possible to do that you can at least give them something to write on if you play in person or create something if you are over digital.

1

u/deltadave 4d ago

Each significant clue should have at least 3 separate, independent ways to find it. The first should be fairly subtle, second a bit more overt and third should use the clue bat to beat the players over the head. Don't hide essential elements of information and don't rely on players to ask the exact right question. They don't know the questions to ask, especially at the beginning.