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Questions tagged [investigation]

For questions about investigating mysteries and crime in-game. Finding and interpreting clues, interrogating witnesses and catching criminals is often crucial to such investigations.

6 votes
2 answers
237 views

Preparing a murder mystery for player consumption

At this stage in my homebrew sandbox game, the PCs are Lv14, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard and Fighter. They are also filthy rich by the usual standards of D&D, having been sailing around the world in a ...
Monty Wild's user avatar
  • 2,654
10 votes
1 answer
293 views

How can I best reward players for finding secrets without breaking game balance?

So I'm still fairly new to GMing and Pathfinder 2E, but one thing I like to include is secrets in my dungeons for my players to find. Finding secrets is fun, and getting rewards for doing so is even ...
Wipqozn's user avatar
  • 203
13 votes
4 answers
4k views

What are the best questions when using Speak with Dead as a tool for investigating murder? [closed]

In larger cities in Dungeons & Dragons, just like in real life, murder is probably commonplace enough that the city guard would have specialists for investigating corpses that turn up similar to ...
aslum's user avatar
  • 9,402
24 votes
8 answers
5k views

How can a DM communicate to the players that subtlety is needed in a mystery adventure?

I am a beginner DM and also a player. In our current adventure (Rise of Tiamat), where I am a player, we are tracking some shady individual (Mr. X) involved with a cult. We recently entered a tavern, ...
FerventHippo's user avatar
  • 2,036
37 votes
6 answers
7k views

Being as careful as we ought to be takes too long and is boring, what can we do differently?

What can we either as players or as characters do to be more careful about investigation and reconnaissance without making things slow and boring? As a party we tend to make poor tactical decisions. ...
Jack's user avatar
  • 36.4k
3 votes
0 answers
94 views

Need clues that an NPC is hiding financial hardship. (Sci-Fi/modern) [closed]

I'm planning on running a Traveller game soon. The premise of the session is that an NPC has "stolen" his own artwork in order to get the insurance money (because it is insured for more than ...
Daniel T.'s user avatar
  • 223
3 votes
2 answers
530 views

Need some help figuring out this Passive generation

So DNDBeyond is calculating this character's Passive Investigation as 37, and I can't figure out how/why... The character is a Pallid Elf Rogue (Scout) 12/ Ranger (Hunter) 5 with the observant feat ...
ScorpioSymbol's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

How can an Awakened creature be detected as such?

Ichabod the Inscrutable has created a magic item that casts the Awaken spell. He wants to use it on his pet crow, and then send it to spy on his rival, Zizak the Zephyr. The relevant portions of the ...
aaron9eee's user avatar
  • 10.8k
8 votes
3 answers
402 views

How to avoid alienation by expected but slow mood shift, and still keep players out of spoilers?

I run a My Little Pony(MLP) campaign. By design, at the start of the campaign what the citizens (PCs) know about the world is true, but it's not the whole and complete truth, and many issues of the ...
Cloud Ring's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
51 views

How might investigating a prison break be accomplished? [closed]

I can't think of a way to concisely fit my entire question in the title, but here goes. I'm currently running Dark Heresy 2e for my group, as my second time GMing a game (the first time was short-...
Presidential Penguin's user avatar
23 votes
10 answers
5k views

How to reveal a time limit without videogaming it?

I am under the impression (so correct me if I'm wrong) that having a close time limit on objectives could be fun if there is not an abuse of the game mechanic. So one hand, I want my players in a game ...
Melferas's user avatar
  • 629
5 votes
1 answer
193 views

Ideal group size for a murder/horror mystery [closed]

I am writing a short murder/horror mystery adventure. System will be D&D 5e, and players will be level 2 (I plan to give them the 3rd level during the adventure). There will be some strong DM ...
WakiNadiVellir's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
70 views

Need a simulation of a lost recording related to a murder mystery game realted to the murder on former UN secretary [closed]

I'm a scout leader in Sweden and I'm preparing a murder mystery for my scouts. We prepare simulated tasks for them so that they gain more intel so that they can solve the mystery of the death of Dag ...
K. Maxwell's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
598 views

How do I find out who wrote a note?

So I'm playing in a campaign right now, and my party has just received a threatening letter that was left in their dining room stuck to the wall with a dagger. We don't know the writers actual name, ...
RevanantBacon's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
3k views

How can a character discreetly record a conversation for later playback?

If a character wanted to discreetly "record" a conversation as evidence to provide to a judge how could they do this without the other party knowing? Ideally this would only involve RAW D&D 5th ...
Newbie12345's user avatar
  • 1,765

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