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View Full Version : Making a Criminal Justice/Mystery Campaign...



Chaosvii7
2013-07-26, 02:07 AM
I'm trying to create the foundation for a campaign setting in which the PCs are hired into an internship with a washed-up detective in order to make ends meet and hopefully get back on his feet. There's a lot more to the plot beyond sending them out on crime-solving sprees and trying to fight the injustices within society, but I need a good place to start in terms of assignments. You know, things that go missing, people dying, places with strange occurrences, etc. - anything that could be considered criminal justice(though not jury duty, I can't imagine that being too fun for PCs). I was going to use my book of two-minute mysteries and turn them into sessions or modules if I could, but I can't do that forever, and I was wondering if anybody has good ideas or advice on structuring mysteries and crimes in fantasy settings. I'll re-read my two-minute mysteries and likely find use for them, but I'm looking for good ideas that can get the ball rolling before I dig into the big plot.

Any suggestions? If you want/need more about the idea of the areas, the setting, or the overarching plot, just feel free to ask. Didn't seem worth it to just dump everything here, so I'll address stuff as it comes up. It is a standard fantasy setting, with at least mid-level magic, but it is less about super-powerful spellcasters(though there are definitely supernatural forces).

kieza
2013-07-26, 03:07 AM
A man comes into the agency with a tale of woe and mystery: he's a widower for the past four years, ever since his wife was caught in the crossfire during a shootout with a gang of thieves. He moved on, had a brush with alcoholism, and made a recovery. But only a few days ago, he received a letter that appears to be from his dead wife. The letter is in her handwriting, smells of her perfume, and mentions a handful of things that only she could know...but it's dated just a few months back. In the letter, his wife claims to be held captive in a small town a few days' travel away...he wants the detectives to follow the letter back to the source and either rescue his wife, or put an end to the hoax.

You can do all sorts of things with this hook, but when I ran it, his wife was an ex-supersoldier who had managed to retire and suppress the psychosis that was a side-effect of her modifications. Her "death" was actually faked by a group of her former comrades, who were trying to recruit her into their world-domination scheme. Unfortunately, by the time she could get a message out, she was suffering a relapse and mental breakdown, and when the party showed up for the rescue they had to deal with her homicidal urges and hallucinations before they could reintroduce her to her husband.

Chaosvii7
2013-07-26, 09:10 PM
WOW. That's a great mystery, it's so morphic and it's foundation for any number of plot hooks. That's wonderful, thank you very much!