the ONE trick to make Better D&D Mysteries

Mysteries, heists, and solving crimes can be really fun DnD adventures, so how do we make them?
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Check out the Pointy Hat Guide to Mystery-Making HERE!
docs.google.com/document/d/1x...
Video Editing by the amazing Bia: / bnazf
Writing, Illustration, and Narration by me: / antodemico
Additional sketches by the amazing Fey: / feymilde

[@pointyhatstudios]

Well mister video watcher, I'll get out of your hair now 😊 ... Just... one more thing that's been bugging me 🕵‍♂

[@-t-4543]

I know it’s cliche to say but, first.

[@ryanhenderson225]

Thanks for the excellent video you wonderful monocloptic friend!

[@SymbioteMullet]

Surely it'd be off your hair, since you're a hat, if there's a hat in your hair something might have gone wrong...

[@zackf16yt69]

I feel wierdly familiar with this mystery hmmmmmm

[@zackf16yt69]

My players also solved this mystery, I will say my players loved it thanks for the behind the scenes on how it was made

[@michielpolorocks]

Just imagine making a mural with 4 monkeys but when the players visit the show there's only 3 monkeys

[@pointyhatstudios]

fantastic micro clue!!!! really cool! I'm taking that next time I run this. In my adventure, there are 4 cages in the animal wrangler's tent but only 3 monkeys.

[@MidPointFTW]

Sekiro?

[@irishkat8451]

Ah, yes. Sekiro. Edit: ah shit it was the other way around

[@NixityNullt]

Ah yes, the often forgotten "do no evil" ape

[@kentonbaird1723]

@@pointyhatstudios What if.... I was the fourth monkey all along? What if the real monkeys were the friends we made along the way? OH GODS! ALL THE FRIENDS! THEY'RE ACTUALLY MONKEYS! GAAAAHHHH! DIE!!! (and that's the motive behind the murder that begins campaign 2's mystery)

[@TheSilverSynchro]

The last time I set up a murder mystery in a campaign, one of the players confronted the killer alone and was killed... This is why communication in the group is super important.

[@sumdude5172]

Thats awesome, id love the resulting drama

[@meelsie143]

lmfao

[@SophiaAphrodite]

This is where DM flagging danger would have helped.

[@TheSilverSynchro]

@@SophiaAphrodite They already knew of the risks and thought they could handle it themselves, but thank you for your constructive criticism. :)

[@Imagicka]

​@@SophiaAphroditeDMs can only ask, "Are you certain you want to do that?" so many times.

[@andrewdowns3673]

You see, Murder Mysteries in DnD are a lot alike a doughnut hole in the doughnut's hole. But we must look a little closer. And when we do, we see that the doughnut hole has a hole in its center - it is not a doughnut hole at all but a smaller doughnut with its own hole, and our doughnut is not whole at all!

[@brucemaximus3797]

...I think comprehending this is how one summons Cthulhu.

[@andrewdowns3673]

@@brucemaximus3797 Who knew the Mountains of Madness were made from doughnut holes within donut wholes within dunot hwoles.

[@kendrajade6688]

@@brucemaximus3797 It just means there's a mystery within the mystery.

[@bryanburgess3950]

It's pretty simple tbh, the analogy just makes it idiosyncratic

[@EnbyWrites3709]

Great, now I’m confused AND hungry

[@AvangionQ]

If you run a mystery in a D&D setting, there's a bunch of setting-breaking Divination spells you should be aware of.

[@Lilith_Harbinger]

Good point! divination is something i am conflicted about, because it seems to either skip entire parts of the story/adventure to get information or it's tax that the player has to use in order to progress. The GM has to be very careful and calculating to make sure the diviner gets something out of divining, without trivializing the pursuit of knowledge.

[@SecularMentat]

The murder took place in a location of a paranoid high wizard that cast Mordenkinen's Magnificient Mansion over and over until it became permanent. Divination spells don't work inside those walls. Crazy old coot! Or even worse, you could use Nystuls Magic Aura to give a false lead.

[@Ninjat126]

At low levels, characters won't have access to all the big Divination spells. At high levels, NPCs have ways to shut down divination. You've got to watch out for the in-between, when PCs can spam Detect Thoughts on every single NPC or just use Commune to ask God who did it, but you're still dealing with murders small-scale enough that it would be weird for all the gardeners to have a Ring of Mind Shielding.

[@unluckyone1655]

​@Ninjat126 you can run a murder mystery in a pocket dimension. Pocket dimensions can be hidden from the gods.

[@NightShadowwhisper11]

Simple solusions: If one-shot: max lvl 4. Ban detect thoughts, the players will understand. If drop in adventure: know your group. If they have access to magics that can trivialise some aspects. Use a mix between false clues and nystuls magic aura.

[@Cassapphic]

2 things. 1) I love how this mystery feels like an ace attorney case where the setup is so ridiculous and obviously incriminating that it immediately puts you so heavily on the backfoot to try to defend in any way. 2) The circus mystery lends itself super well to a final boss fight, the artificier himself could have all sorts of magical gizmos to fight with, and could be flanked by other performers, trapeze artists swinging at the players from above, a fire eater using spells and abilities or even just some animla companions, since its an attempt to fake his own death it also naturally sets up a good opportunity, the last stretch of the mystery is trying to find where he fled to and when the players do he comes out swinging.

[@espurrbuns4881]

We used The Real Housewives of Barovia in our curse of Strahd campaign. Figuring out who helped Ireena’s killer into Strahd’s castle to kill her before she turned vampire while also gossiping with all the consorts (one of which betrayed strahd and let Ireena’s killer in) was super fun. 110% would recommend it.

[@claressadubs]

That sounds so fun and potentially hilarious 😄

[@pLanetstarBerry]

Also, a protip: if you're gonna throw in a red herring to pad the runtime, don't make them too relatable by having them skip out on a party they said they were "too tired" to go to. I did that. The party wanted to know more about him. They prioritized clearing his name, pinpointed the storyarc's big bad because they thought BBEG was slowly poisoning the red herring (BBEG did a different crime), then the fighter romanced the red herring and now they're dating. I'm glad things worked out, but that was not my intention 😂 You want an effective red herring, don't make my mistake.

[@Cassapphic]

honestly that seems cool how a minor npc just meant as a red herring was received so well by the party that they basically made them into a more important character.

[@SamuelJSAdamsI]

Generally don't add red herrings because it's really difficult to convince your players that it's a false lead rather than a Machiavellian villan always 2 steps ahead thus creating the perfect alibi. Instead let your players create red herrings by trying to investigate

[@elisabethgent1532]

One of my player's characters married an NPC that I threw in to give them information. That particular player had to be away from the game for a while, so we just said they were on their honeymoon. It worked out perfectly.

[@aidanhershberger8558]

Pair this video with the 3 Clue Rule from the Alexandrian and you can run pretty much any heist/mystery/investigation scenario you can think up or modify. Amazing advice.

[@calebulman]

Beat me to it

[@linkow]

I scrolled down looking for an Alexandrian reference. 👍🏻

[@arielganot1423]

How are you putting them out so quickly? Really the quality is just so good. Truly my favorite KZbin channel!!!

[@thedorklord1029]

The real reason mysteries are hard to wright in D&D is because the players often end up being the perpetrators.

[@donspafford414]

I just imagined Scotland Yard showing up to arrest Arthur and his knights of the round, and yes, this is indeed accurate!!

[@RobertYo125]

Pointy Hat: "Play your party where everyone is a private detective, I would play that." Me: "Isn't that just Call of Kthullu?"

[@hauz287]

Yeah but you keep your sanity after solving a crime in this one 😂

[@Poniksei]

ive been intending to just play a murder mystery in call of cthullu

[@robin98464]

I mean yes and no. I had my group for example play as a bunch of criminals and they stumbled across something old after their where trying to get away from a robbery and then had to figure out how to not die and get away in the end of it.

[@Max3110]

@@hauz287 ik it's a joke but most of the modules I read grant SAN recovery for certain goals met in the case of campaign-play

[@Shalakor]

The only downside of Call of Cthulhu is that everyone at the table goes in knowing they're playing Call of Cthulhu. With D&D or another system, you can never be sure what degree of the supernatural played a part in the mystery. Though, as downsides go (and all options have downsides), suppose that's not too bad.

[@AunSiro]

Great video, I agree with your advice! Having enough clues for the players is vital. I would also give two additional advice: - Visualize how the whole events developed in detail. It is really easy to corner yourself accidentally if you try to improvise too much. I’d say that mysteries are the kind of game that more prep require for the DM. - It is really fun to combine the mystery with a ticking clock in order to keep the tension! If the characters take too long, maybe an accomplice escapes, or a suspect that knew too much is killed, or the bad cop that hate the party will arrive and take control of the investigation. These bad events are also a great opportunity to incorporate additional clues to the game. If they took really really too long, the culprit may escape too, but always leaving behind enough clues to transform the mystery into a pursuit!

[@hiigguys7395]

Literally just ran a murder mystery last week. It was a changeling who could only transform into others who they stole the faces of. They transformed into the doctor who they also murdered. As the "doctor", they gave a wrong time of death for the other victim. They hung out with the party immediately after they committed the murder, when they told everyone the murder had taken place. The party would be their own alibi and they would be the party's alibi as well.

[@yitzakIr]

Oh that sounds infuriating. How did it go?

[@mibbles2371]

I would love to know how this went?

[@mr7oclock346]

Reading Sherlock helped me to understand mysteries. I got into Sherlock, because one of my players wanted to play a investigator. I basically ended up running the campaign with him being a PI and the other players being his muscle or criminal contacts

[@zoushaomenohu]

Pointy's players: "But what about the orangutan?" 🤔 Pointy Hat: "WE! DO NOT! TALK ABOUT! THE ORANGUTAN!" 😱

[@assuranceofsucces2017]

Is this a The Murders in the Rue Morgue reference😂

[@AranShallKickUrAss]

i nearly spat out my drink at the "dnd really is a place where your dreams can come true" and the statement preceeding it 😂

[@hornettecco7499]

Gotta say I love the amount of clips from Clue in here, criminally underrated mystery movie that really does feel like a d&d group's humor at times.

[@jmsnsage]

So thanks to your other video about Liches (which was amazing too btw) I got the idea to run a murder mystery in the city my players are in, in which, William Shakespeare is trying to complete a Lich ceremony (since he was known as the immortal bard). I wanted to have my players go to a play written by Shakespeare, (Romeo and Juliet) but the NPC’S playing Romeo and Juliet are going to be killed as a part of the ritual required to make Shakespeare a Lich. Then the players will kill Shakespeare at the end. Long story short, this video is perfect timing, since I’m planning on my players attending the play tonight! Seriously, your videos are the best. Thanks for such great (and original) work! :)

[@tiph3802]

That's awesome. How did it go?

[@ryanhenderson225]

Reminds me of that time I ran a Samurai murder mystery dinner party in our western campaign (spoiler alert: it was the one who had made a deal with a vampire demon)

[@richardsmith2719]

… … … Oh, that just makes too much sense.

[@unknownspeaker4815]

Wait, it wasn't the butler?

[@ryanhenderson225]

@@unknownspeaker4815 Because of you I felt the need to research whether samurai lords had butlers in ancient Japan. Turns out they did and I totally missed an opportunity to have a sassy Japanese alfred in this guy's castle!!!

[@unknownspeaker4815]

@@ryanhenderson225 lol! Now that you know, next time you do something similar you can have that sassy Alfred

[@codyhood3061]

The heavy lean into knives out and glass onion was great 😂

[@NoSystemFound]

My week: *utterly horrible* Pointy Hat: *post a new video* Me: :DDDD

[@avivyoukerharel2140]

Thank you! I rememeber i left a comment requesting this video! Just shows how much you care about your community! ❤

[@Ivinary]

Honestly, this is literally my favourite dnd channel. All videos are incredibly well structured, visualised and delivered! And it has such a unique style, flavour, so much work and passion put in. Just incredible!

[@phobiawitch835]

I love this, and thank you for sharing your guide for mysteries! I’m working on one for Grim Hollow surrounding a village where kids are going missing and the parents are finding wooden “dolls” in the beds a couple days later. Anyone who has read the Grim Hollow book will know the two types of crestures I’m using for this mystery.

[@ZombieNikuchan]

I'd recommend checking out the adventure "Murder at the Crossroads" in the Kobold Press book 'Midgard Sagas'. It's a murder mystery where the answers are set up by the Player's actions. It's designed to be run as a convention game so about 4 hours. I've run twice it and it's been a big hit both times.

[@EpicGalaxyDragon]

I was looking to see this comment, their system for having multiple potential culprits and it getting narrowed down by the player's choices (instead of being predetermined by the GM) is something I want to implement in future mysteries.

[@RenoKyrie]

The only bad mystery is the overcomplicated mystery with very little lead Like seriously how the hell did someone steal Grandma Samantha's cookie while the cookie is heavily secured and theres no sign of break in

[@alexanderticonuwu7591]

Easy, she ate it herself as a very convoluted attempt at tax fraud. When in doubt, assume it's some form of being cheap.

[@grammarmaid]

Elementary, my dear Reno. The cookie was a mimic the entire time.

[@donspafford414]

The cookie jar is a mimic itself

[@foxylovelace2679]

Grandma has dementia

[@voidmystic00]

This guide works equally well for story writing. Keep the perspective of the characters and the audience in mind and you can have a compelling mystery.

[@mattt3195]

i have a pretty strict mantra of, "the internet is where i get things for free". call me old school. BUT boy oh boy am i compelled to give you money so you keep doing this. i watch a LOT of youtube informational formats and you truly hit the mark here. fun, entertaining, informative, actionable items, dos, donts, laughs, personality. and what a voice. I assume a patreon exists. lemme go look for that now. thank you.

[@scott4092]

Ahh you're a life saver, my group found a wererat lass who was turned by an overpossesive lover, and now they want to bring him to justice, and I had no idea how to run a mystery until now. Okay I have three hours to come up with clues n stuff, here goes!

[@last2nkow]

this multiple clues system reminds me of the best DM advice i rely on for starting an adventure. always have 3 or more hooks for an adventure plotline prepared. if the party are too focused on getting drunk at the tavern to check the job board, no worries, one of the victims of the plot is at the bar drinking their sorrows away loudly. they dismiss the sad drunk as not their problem? fine they are questioned by the town guards under suspicion of being the perpetrators of the plot, and when they leave they are told not to leave town as they are suspects. 3 different hooks leading to three very different entry points to the adventure. just like having multiple clues for the mystery.

[@michaelauer7543]

The Alexandrian has an article on this calling it the “three clue rule for running mysteries“. Your video is very entertaining, so value added! Cheers and Enjoy the Game!

[@EmptyKingdoms]

He most certainly read it, but since he did want to come across as original, claimed he was just giving off his own experience-based advice. Unnecessary, The Alexandrian's blog is, as most blogs, free to access and share. Even a midway nod - "I've read something similar at The Alexandrian" - would have sufficed.

[@ZatchGround]

Your sponsors segway are too good to skip, congratulations on the great work! Really enjoy your content!

[@StinkerTheFirst]

Yes, starting with the ending actually makes perfect sense. Then the mystery has a neat conclusion and end point, and will suffer from the endless mystery boxes of tv shows. Also, I hadn't thought of using more or less clues as a lever of difficulty. Nice.

[@LoganGreitzer]

Speak with dead is the main spell that ruins a murder mystery in Dnd. BUT it can only be used on a corpse once every 10 days so if you can work in a way for the villain to have already cast it on the corpse the spell will fail and they won't be able to solve it so easily.

[@kevinricard1491]

Best Fridays are when Pointy posts

[@emilycreamer1307]

My DM pulled out a little murder mystery module they bought for a session, and it mutated into an underground cult where we are now traveling in our campaign to collect monster hunter supplies in order to take out each of the six "murder suspects" who were the cult leaders that murdered someone who tried to connect the dots and out the secret cult. (Cults were not in the module AT ALL) XD

[@flamespire2235]

I believe The Alexandrian wrote an article titled the three clue rule that is pretty much the same concept, gr8 minds think alike it seems :)

[@bikzimusmaximus5250]

Ooh it's the three clue rule... I don't know where you picked it up but the Alexandrian talked about this exhaustively on his blog back in 2008. I think he's the originator of the idea.

[@vixenmercyrolls]

Antonio, you never dissapoint. I started writing a 'missing person' political intrigue plot for DnD a month ago, and now this?? Twas fate, my good sir

[@Ashen-Crow]

I'm literally procrastinating on writing a mistery one shot at the moment, thanks!

[@theminism]

the BBC Sh*rlock music at the beginning jumpscared me so bad, but then Bia's absolute strength of will and power to not use a single clip from it... her power

[@pointyhatstudios]

we decided we would not use BBC Sh*rlock on purpose

[@Yugurta85]

I was actually blown out by the approach a little indie RPG called "The Between" (by Jason Cordova, about solving paranormal mysteries in victorian London). In that game, there is no predetermined answer to the mystery. The players simply go on getting and acquiring clues until they decide to take action (time is always pressing in the setting, as there will be multiple threats and mysteries at the same time). Then they have to come up with an answer for a question about the nature of the problem and/or how to deal with it. They link as many clues as they can in a plausible way that they come up with to determine that answer, and then make a roll against X difficulty. The more central te question, the higher the difficulty and the more clues they have to link, and if they pass the roll, that is indeed what happened, and can act accordingly. It is not necessarily easily translatable to DnD or other RPGs, but it is a super interesting approach, where the collective storytelling absolutely shines. It also makes it so the DM has to prepare less. Quite interesting.

[@johnmobley9369]

I still cannot believe the right you release these videos that especially at the quality level. Do you have such a niche humor that is exactly the thing I’ll laugh at. Ideas/concepts that I find actually compelling and unique. And I feel like I’m talking to a really funny friend

[@warrior_chick]

This video could not have come at a better moment for me! =') I am preparing to run a one shot, DMing for the very first time, for 1st time players and I decided immediately this was going to be the genre! THANK YOU SIR!!! ='3

[@andrewghostboy475]

Same here

[@frodrickfronkenstien582]

I created a mystery around Apollo's stolen guitar pick, I'm definitely going to use your structure. Love the channel.

[@monkeymule1286]

The rule of threes, yes, Excellent. The instinct as the dm is to make it "tricky" but really the task is to design the accessibility. It's almost impossible to over do a web of leads that starts giving up crumbs, out of order, but almost immediately, before the players even think "It's started". Running mysteries has also changed the way I handle perception/investigation type rolls, a pass/fail binary can really gum the works in an unsatisfying way so I graduate the intel, even a "fail" can lead to the accidental uncovering of part of the mystery. Best if its a part the player is not currently engaged with, looking for the weapon? fail and discover a clue to why, for ex. Great work Pointy! I think this genre is a great challenge for DMs and Players and helps everyone really develop their story telling chops.

[@andrewtomlinson5237]

Most of the first part of this year, my players spent investigating the disappearance of a young Lord who had inherited a Manor house and estate 30 some miles outside the city. There were a bunch of farmers, and crofters and an inn, plenty of old buildings, and the Manor House had been taken over by some serious dark power, so it took the players weeks to dare investigate. I'm lucky that my group is of a vintage that has played a lot of different games over the decades, and I'd mentioned at the start of the campaign that one section would be fairly Cthulhu esque in aproach. and they picked up on the tone straight away. I managed to build in a few combat encounters throughout proceedings to keep the fighters occupied, but I had spent a hellishly long time writing clues and prepping handouts and din;t want it to descend into a "Kill things and search them for clues" adventure. There were at least two entire sessions where no one even rolled any dice. It took just over three months (1 x 4-5 hr session per week) of them searching and investigating, and going back to the city to search the vaults of the council records and general chasing down of leads and a few red herrings. I'm pretty sure they could have easily done it in half the time, but every time they made a connection, they wanted to verify it, just to make sure. They quickly realised that the young Lord may have got himself into some very deep shit, and didn't want to follow him into it without knowing exactly what the might be dealing with. I was really worried about three or four weeks into it, that they must be getting bored, and contacted a few of them outside of the game to ask if I needed to try and speed it up, and was told that they'd been discussing it between themselves and were absolutely loving it and were perfectly happy to take as long as was needed. They ultimately solved it, sadly the Lord was in fact dead... but due to the Law of Common Ascendence, because their were no living heris, they were entitled to claim the Manor and Estate sibject to the tennants approval. They now have land and titles, and would fight any dragon, demon or army who threatened their people. One little bit of advice I would offer to anyone running a mystery... There will be points in the adventure where they get stuck and veer in the wrong direction, and short of you saying "This is totally the wrong way guys..." will take up time and ultimately prove fruitless. This is the point where Mysteries can start to be problematic. So, even if they are not close to finding a NEW clue, just rewarding their endeavours by making something up on the spot that merely CORROBORATES something they already know is unlikely to damage the plot in any way, and they will feel like they earned it, and that their silly decision to go check the completely unrelated bakery down the road for clues, because someone misheard something... was still a good idea, and despite them not actually moving forward, they won;t at least feel like they took a step back.

[@knid44]

I don’t know how you edit so many clips in one video. Amazing as always!

[@animusnocturnus7131]

The Gumshoe system suggests to write 3 clues in increasing difficulty. 1 automatic, 1 that's available with a good roll, and 1 that's available if the characters are asking the right questions. You can throw in red herrings as well, but for every red herring you should offer at least 2 clues that contradict the red herring. Also, don't be afraid to let players succeed if they throw something at you that you haven't anticipated. You don't need the resulting clue to be the reveal of the entire plot, but let's say that your Druid, who never takes the Speak with Animals spell, for some reason took the Speak with Animals spell this time, don't panic, just let the animals agree to help for a piece of cheese and when the players give them the cheese they point the adventurers to a clue. Maybe they have seen a figure in the area whose description resembles that of one of the suspects, or for the case we have in this video... they say that the dead man smells of monkey. And as always: Don't be afraid to steal your players ideas! Sure, not all of them are pure gold, but if you like something, that's now true.

[@SunKiddow]

I have one tip as well! When running a mystery players will be guessing and sometimes they guess correctly the first time. Don't fret! I have come to enjoy those moments when my players guess right, but they will no matter what start looking down other avenues and confuse themselves very quickly and forget that initial correct guess. Keep your poker face, and when the reveal comes they will get a huge kick out of actually having guessed right! Let them have that victory. I had a monster mystery were a guy was killed by a troll. The answer was that it was a local girl who was cursed by someone to transfrom into the troll. The players made a guess that she was the troll, semi as a joke, but quickly checked other possibilities. They were so ecstatic when I revealed they had been right all along, and it is still something they talk about 3 years later. TL;DR: If your party guesses the answer for your mystery imediatly, keep your poker face, keep playing, and enjoy the story.

[@zodiacwitch]

"start from the end" is my number 1 advice for friends who tell me they struggle with writing mysteries. Start from the end! the rest is clue placing.

[@karalei6113]

I am in fact starting a DnD campaign were everyone is a detektive and the are trying to solve mysteris in Waterdeep. This video came at the perfect time and helped me a lot. Thank u for ur work :)

[@VioCrow]

This video feels so catered to me, basically every campaign I run either is a mystery or has a mystery element because I love them, especially murder mysteries!

[@sordcooper2]

reminds me of how i build adventures for Dark Heresy. Basically thought of what the baddy wanted to do, how they did it, who they roped in to help, and then made everyone involved make at least one mistake.

[@RyuuKageDesu]

There's also the red herring. I find the false clue dropped either early, and easily ruled out, or late, tossed out by the guilty in desperation. Instant plot twist.

[@TheFischsalat]

Another trick i want to mention is: dont be afraid to warp reality arround your players. i often get my players in a mystery to theorize about the whole thing and they can come up with pretty good ideas hovering around som minor detail i made up on the fly for atmosphere.... so i change the mystery. when its cool, and possible and not contradicting other things that already played out i frequently take the ideas of my players, give them another twist and use them for the rest of the mystery.

[@voidmystic00]

I believe all fantasy should have some mystery. They both invoke the sense of wonder and curiosity that play off each other's themes. Not that mystery needs to a large portion of the fantasy, but a little goes a long way.

[@socraticgambler]

This effing guy has the best ad reads in the business. Do not skip, do not collect $200.

[@godsamongmen8003]

I only ever ran one mystery, but it went pretty well. The guard captain of Neverwinter had stolen a big haul of gold from the treasury. One of the town guards approached the players and explained that he needed outside help since he didn't know which othee guards he could trust. He wanted the players to find the captain and the gold, hopefully before an innocent man hangs in two more days. I predetermined three clues, but not where or how they would be found. Then during the session, I gave them to the players based on how they searched. The rogue found personal notes in the captain's home, the wizard (who was a really good tracker) followed some tracks through an old tunnel that used to be a sally port in the ruined castle, and the fighter used his own criminal contacts to find the debt collectors heading out to meet the captain. I originally thought the group might try to track the captain through the forest, but the group captured a crime lord, who was owed gambling debts by the captain, and beat the rendevouz point out of him. Since the group has tipped off the gang (by pounding the crap out of the leader) that they were getting the gold back, I improvised one last complication. When they made it back to town, the gang had some hostages to ransom for the gold. The players decided to pay the ransom and hope bringing back the captain would be enough, but it wasn't. I had decided in advance that the cheif magistrate cared more about saving face than real justice, and he was royally pissed about the loss of all that gold. The players were publicly thanked and the captain hanged alongside a perfectly innocent tax collector. But they did save the captain's wife and two kids from a bunch of thugs. Short version: Big pile of gold stolen. Find the theif and the gold before an innocent man hangs. I like that basic formula, might try it again someday.

[@baptistenormand2723]

"- We found all four of you clues ! - Well that's great, I planted 1200." (The good place. Go watch it. It's great :D) Thanks for this video Antonio ! But I think you forgot one tip for the clues, which I thought you would come to when you taught of the examples of what sorcerer can do to screw your mistery : Get specific ! You can allways plant clues that can only be obtained through one player ability. So they will feel special and make the plot go further for using their ability. The warlock can see through magical darkness ? Put a clue behind said darkness. The druid talks to animals ? Well the cat saw something. If I deduct correctly (I'm a student here and have not DMed a murder mistery) you could tailor one of three clues for one specific ability you have seen one player have fun with on other occasions. Just be carefull not to insist that "You feel like the CAT nows SOMETHING èxé" so they don't feel like they are getting railroaded. What do you think ? Am I a good student ? :D

[@hartthorn]

Another thing I like to use when I do mysteries is, if the players have gotten close, but can't seem to pin down the exact mystery, another ploy I use is... have the culprit crack a little. If you have multiple conspirators, maybe just one starts going to loose their cool and the others have to now deal with THEM. Maybe they try to scare off the players or muck up the investigation with some hired goons or such. Or just a covert spell based attempt on their life! Drop a gargoyle on some one, it's fantastic!

[@gabrieldasilva9521]

Love your videos!!! Such amazing content all for free! I've been implementing your ideas and tips into my campaigns and they have been a blast!

[@custardpanda6209]

I’ve been waiting for this since you mentioned it in last video!! Unparalleled advice, lovely to see it done so well!

[@jjthesecond2801]

Incredible quality as always! I love how the video had twists (no, not that kind) in it like your typical mystery story! I can’t wait to use this for a one-shot some time 👍😄

[@TheLanach]

This video dropped hours before I scheduled to run a murder mystery adventure. I stopped everything to watch it! Thanks for the great content

[@declanreiser236]

Additional clue tip! The lazy dungeon masters guide loves using clues to tie players to the world. They recommend you write some or all clues INDEPENDENT from how they are found. This can help with the problem of players “””not finding clues””” dnd is improv, you’re allowed to be flexible, you don’t always have to resort to your failsafes if there are still clues on the table. The lazy dm guide uses clues outside of mysteries but adapting it for this video an example might be we don’t write the players finding the plans or letters in a certain location, we instead just have a note that those clues exist. Now the players can stumble upon them wherever they choose to look that makes sense, breaking into his chamber at night ? Chasing after a wizard that sold him the plans ? Finding out who received the letters and interrogating them, bribing a circus worker. I do think sometimes we have great set piece moments thought out, and maybe sooome of them are truly essential, but players can think of ten solutions and places to look where you thought of one, dnd is half improv and this is a great crossing of planning and improv! Try planning the clues NOT how they ARE FOUND.

[@quietwulf]

Your.videos have quickly become one of my “must watch” list each release. Thanks so much for the huge amount of work and research you put into each video!

[@PandaPrintesa]

Just wanted to say I just found your channel and I am so blown away by it! Your art is amazing and you've inspired me with your creativity countless times. I actually just ran the gentle hag for a 2 year campaign and I can't say thank you enough for all your work!

[@LordNerfherder]

Your humor is fantastic while keeping the actual information serious. I love that aspect of your videos.

[@jomaboe8124]

I ran a murder mystery in combination with a "Where does this disease come from?" Mystery a week ago and the final culprit was a ragged down noble werebear in a cure town of only Woodelves and Halfelves. One of the players jokingly said like 2 hours into the session "Oh it might be a werebear" little did she know. It was fun though, I designed the entire city and went not to give every question a clue (even though every question had clues but it wasn't my method) but I went and made at least two possible clues for every crime scene there was (there were three crime scenes and some clues were more cryptic or harder to find than others). The best thing was that the werebear (they thought he was just a wizard) was their first suspect but they started to make almost everyone a suspect: the high druid of Rillifane Rallathil, the young smith whose father was infected by the disease and whose girlfriend got killed by the werebear, one of the murdered people etc. Your Videos are always really great, keep up this amazing work.

[@SophiaAphrodite]

I did this as side quests that if they pulled on that thread it offered more information to give them more detail than can lead to more plot reveals. Matter of fact the rumor mill in that city had a lot of false leads that allowed them to find out other things that led to other things. It allowed them to learn more about the citizens of the town and also let me relax and let them develop the story for me based on their own assumptions and stealing their conspiracies.

[@johnjohndp]

This is by far the best dnd content channel on youtube, big fan

[@gyroinquisitor8618]

I am currently writting a Murder Mystery for DnD in Ravnica ! Many thanks Pointy !!

[@TheGreatDudist]

To emphasize what I feel like is your best point: A mystery can completely fall apart or go unsolved if your PLAYERS aren't good at or very into mysteries. I feel like this goes hand-in-hand with solving puzzles. Annnnnnnd... that's why I let the players/pcs write most of my mysteries/puzzles FOR me. I'll come up with where/why the puzzle is needed, and for the mystery I'll come up with what is being solved and a list of people who could have done it. But for puzzles, the solution, and for mysteries the method is unknowingly going to be developed by my players. Too often I've had a solution or a method planned out... and then the players just go in a COMPLETELY different direction, and there is NO WAY to get them back to where I intended them to be. So I'll start looking for my own clues to what my players think this puzzle is, or who/what/how done it... and then I'll start building the "answer" in the direction that they're going. And when I feel they've rationalized a solution/answer enough and put in enough effort? I'm like "Yep! You guys were totally right!" They end up feeling good, never get frustrated or bored, and I have to do SO little of the work its ridiculous. Sometimes they'll even give me better ideas for endings than I had before: "We better be careful, if they're actually a Changeling and catch on that we suspect them... they can kill again and make it seem like WE did it!"

[@Cosmic_Ghost_Live]

The timing of this video is so amazing for me! I’m about to start running my first campaign and I want a mystery and I’ve been worried that my players won’t be able to solve it so these tips are amazing and can really help me flesh it out more!

[@Duhad8]

My current on going D&D campaign is structured basically as, "Travel to a place, doing dungeons and side quests along the way to have fun with combat... Then arrive and do a special fun thing that breaks the normal D&D rules to spice things up and let the players flex their non combat skills in and out of game. The 'special fun things' in question so far being: 1. A Jack the Ripper style serial killer investigation with taunting notes and mounting social unrest. (Completed) 2. A royal vault heist. (About to start) 3. A time travel adventure into a different cycle of the world (so basically a mirror universe for most characters the party has met, but for the few immortals and gods to have survived the cycle, its meeting their younger selves) (Coming, but the seeds have been planted for it) 4. Climatic end of the world battle with kaiju. (Coming up)

[@Duhad8]

The way I did the murder was fairly simple: 1. Determine the murderer and who he is/why he did it. (A former adventurer with a detached, 'killing for the greater good is just what we do' mentality and a desire to stoke the fires of revolution by killing well to do city folk at a time of serious unrest between the effectively slave class workers and the wealthy colonial government.) 2. Establish red herrings. Take the clues that point to the murderer and give a few to some of the other suspects to throw off the trail. Not so many that the players could easily mistake them for the murderer once they have all the clues, but enough to make it less obvious. (In this case, the killer A. Worked fast and made clean, precise cuts. That also applies to the sketch back ally doctor and the towns butcher who works with the revolutionaries. B. He clearly was working to stir unrest. This also applies to the butcher, the mob boss running a protection racket on the mines and the racist city guard captain. C. The killer is theatrical with his letters written in blood and showy way of killing that I cannot write here, but think Jack the Ripper at his worst. This applied to the sketchy doctor and the mob boss. Also their where a few other clues like the timing of the killing lining up with when the adventurer arrived in town, NOT when he first made himself known and when he told the party he arrived, but when a few notable towns people first saw him and the letters all had little clues in how they where written to highlight his initials and as a secret vampire, he was conspicuously never seen eating or going out into the light, something he covered for by claiming, as a drow (drow not being evil by default in this setting) he just found bright lights intolerable. (Also the mob boss was a werewolf to avoid it being too obvious that the clues about something supernatural being involved pointed to the ex adventurer.) All put together, the killer was the only one who perfectly fit the bill, with every other suspect eventually being ruled out in discussion.) 3. Write in some events and scenes to give the players clues and to avoid boring anyone who wasn't enjoying the investigation. (A fight to free some miners being tormented by the guards. Investigating a dank sewer to find a ghoul who might know something. A tense and awkward family dinner with the parties goblin ship captain NPC buddy and her estranged revolutionary mother. est.) 4. Come up with an escape plan! If all else fails and the party gets board/frustrated, make sure there is some way for them to pull the plug and get back to things they prefer. Have a plan for an unpleasant, but not horrible alt outcome for the party failing or just giving up. (Luckly didn't need to use it, but the killer eventually murdering the mayor, then sparking a bloody revolution followed by an even bloodier reprisal, allowing the main villains (of which the killer was secretly a member) to get the distraction they need to rob the royal vaults before the party even realizes that's there next step. (In the end the party DID start a revolution, but they helped the goblins win with minimal bloodshed and shore up there control of the island so they wouldn't just be steamrolled by the royal navy.))

[@Kroyd.]

This pointy hat is a hero. Thank you pointy. I’m glad I found you and subscribed!!

[@roninanwar]

So as a super fan of this channel I have used a couple ideas that pointy hat has already given. I used this method to write a mystery as a one shot for my players and it went great. The whole session went smooth and it was very easy to sprinkle clues and they totally got it. It was awesome. Thank you pointy hat!!

[@kajetanmazurkiewicz5459]

I love your humour and style, Antonio! You're great and an amazing co tent creator. You are very appreciated 😊

[@mattiekarwin3667]

You've got my curiosity, and my players literally have a circus set up (its run by a pink dragon, the kind that horde jokes), so I'm practically obligated to put your monkey murder mystery to the test (and more broadly, your guide going forward).

[@lfemomo77]

Just found your channel. Super cool. The amount of cuts you weave into your vids must be lotsa work; it’s much appreciated.

[@broke_af_games9661]

Thanks Pointy! I actually run a detective game set in eberron, city of Sharn. This city is so vast that I actually never had the players leave the one plateau yet, save for a single adventure where they got on an airship. Anyway, the players are having a lot of fun. The campaign is going strong, however I feel as though it's becoming a little formulaic so I have been jazzing things up. I haven't done a solid murder mystery yet... As in the PCs are around when it happened.

[@majones117]

Ive been dabbling with the idea of a party showing up to a town doing what they need, and when they try and leave, every way out of town leads back into town. They now have to discover the source and break the curse of the town.

[@Teachidoll]

I discovered your channel about a week ago, and I have watched every single video. I am new to dnd and your video's are just making me more excited to play the game.

[@Max3110]

There is also a great video on running mysteries by Seth Skorkowsky wherein he mentions the idea of having multiple clues in every region/room of the mystery of which one is always found without the group possibly struggling. These clues are in plain sight or on the tip of an unknowing npc's tounge (example given in this video). This idea was maybe originally by Sly Flourish or the Alexandrian but this is I think a great failsave. He alos talks about not at all including red herrings because the party will make them up on their own. And gave tips to maybe making the mystery less linear by the way of distribution of clues and where each of them leads the party. I just want to say these two great videos do definetly go great together and ensure that GMs can build their own little Mystery for their group. And yes that with the red herrings is 100% true. My party can attest it they made them theirself.

[@imperfectimp]

I'm writing an art theft mystery so this video is very helpful. One tip about Know Your Players: watch out for clerics. They can swap out spells daily, so you gotta prepare for the whole arsenal. Speak with Dead? The body is gone (or at least the head). Zone of Truth? Not just the culprit, but other people avoid answers too (e.g. because they were up to something else during the crime, such as having an affair) etc.

[@Nickson_ayo]

I actually really needed some ideas for something to do in the big city with my players, and this gave me the perfect answer! Thanks, Mr. Pointy Hat

[@Closetedtransgirl]

The timing of this is actually comedic, I just finished running my shitty mystery campaign, if only this came out 3 months ago.

[@gjroling]

Brilliant!! I will definitely use this in my next campaign. Thank you Antonio, your videos are so informative and entertaining!

[@shipoopee4642]

I made a mystery where people along a road were going missing and the culprit was an elderly couple on a log cabin that turned out to be an elder oblex living under a giant mimic that looked like a house.

[@alfieenzo8398]

I think this is actually one of the best channels ive ever found, imformative, helpfull but still funny and light hearted at the same time.

[@kesus_khan1]

I've adopted so much of your content into my campaign. My party will be getting into this soon. I just wanted to say thank you, always look forward to your videos.

[@GingerADHD]

I'm so excited! I was about to run one and didn't know how to do it exactly!

[@rulamagic]

Since you asked, there was a method outlined in Storyteller's Handbook to run mysteries and investigations using clues, PC actions, and scenes. It's in the DM's Guild. There's also Seth Skorkowsky's method outlined in his video here in KZbin.

[@_Squiggle_]

I think it's very funny how Pointy Hat is sure someone else came up with a similar idea and the 3 Clue Rule is something the Alexandrian has been teaching for a while

[@Nixter-Bean]

Can’t wait for a vid on my favourite race in fantasy, the orcs Glad I got your vids on my recommendations and binged watched them and subbed

[@justanotherchannelonyoutub126]

I’m fairly new to D&D, but I’ve been hanging around KZbin videos like this for quite some time, and I think if anything is in desperate need of a new twist, its the Gith. I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about them, so please do one of these videos for Gith in the future

[@claressadubs]

This is super helpful and I will absolutely be using it the next time I run a game! I've seen too many comments online about how a "good" mystery is one that's too complicated or too vague for the players to solve bc that means you "outsmarted" them. o_o Love seeing a mystery guide where the purpose of the mystery is to be solved!

[@cylver3593]

I really appreciate all of the work you put into your videos. I have only attempted a murder mystery once before, but that was back when I was still brand new to GMing, so I would say it did not turn out the best. Looking forward to your future videos.