Investigations in RPGs: "Doing the Legwork"

Occasionally, when playing tabletop RPGs you'll want to run your players through an investigation. Maybe this week you want a little freedom from the usual slog of combat and a good mystery seems like an excellent way to change things up. When I've been a player, I've enjoyed many of the investigation adventures I have played through, though some were more successful than others. So the question stands, how do you run an investigation for your game?

Doing Investigations in a tabletop RPG comes up from time to time in online forums and discords. Often the aspect of mysteries that is brought up the most often concerns how to present clues to the players in a meaningful way. The other aspect that is brought up during these discussions tends to be able the rules of whatever game system is being used and how they tend to fail to present investigations very well mechanically. Does the game present the process of investigation in a way that is diegetic and meaningful to the players without making the whole process too difficult for the players, nor too easy where the GM is just handing all the clues to the players without any game mechanism in play?

Often the question mainly comes down to How hard or difficult is it for the players (PCs) to find clues?

A lot of advice I see online when it comes down to Investigation adventures is, "When the players reach a new location and are looking for Clues - if the clues are important to the adventure then just give them the adventure. No rolls are needed. 

I kind of hate this advice though. It lacks the experience and diegetic feel that players, like myself, are seeking when we play through an investigation adventure. I want to feel like I found the clue through my own abilities (or the character's abilities), not to be handed a clue just for showing up. Not only that but it completely ignores a multitude of information that the detectives discover along the way that is not helpful at all. Red herrings, rumors, and misleading information. A GM could give these all out along with the important clues, but again this goes back to the player and PC just being given things instead of feeling like they achieved any kind of success for finding them.

Most games will have investigation skills or at least use perception skills in place of an investigation skill to handle mysteries. in D&D 5e, they have a skill called Investigation that a player can roll to discover anything from hidden information or items to figure out what kind of weapon caused a wound. In 5e it's a succeed or fail roll. I imagine that most DMs will not tell the player what DC they need to roll for investigation so that the player remains in the dark about whether they succeeded or failed the roll.  Most games are similar to this. You roll and you either succeed and gain information or a clue. or you fail and you get nothing or a red herring. 

Shadowrun: One of the Best Classic Investigation Games

Most of the best investigation missions/modules I have played have been mostly old Shadowrun adventures. Back in the late 80's and into the 90's, in my experience FASA Games figured out how to help a GM run an investigation game in a way that best solves the dilemma of bad rolls vs good diegetic experience. Most games have investigation skills or a few perception skills in place of an investigation skill to handle mysteries. Shadowrun is more like the latter where it doesn't have an "Investigation" skill, but instead, you use Perception and other character skills to gather clues and information.

Shadowrun does investigations a bit differently than most games and I believe that the 2nd and 3rd editions handle it the best. Part of this is because it's not just a skill or even one skill for that matter. In Shadowrun you start out with a number of Contacts; these are NPCs from who you can call up and gain information, a favor, or job offers, etc. When you get a contact, the most important part of them isn't what their name is but what they are, and what kind of profession they fall into. Are they a secretary, a security guard, a pizza delivery boy, etc. Names are all good, but what they do for a living, or on the side, gives you more information on what they can offer your character. Shadowrun uses these contacts for all kinds of things but for the purpose of this discussion, we will be focusing on how they provide information and possible clues.

When you start an Investigation in Shadowrun you are given the basic rundown on the details of the mystery. A kid was abducted from a home, a teenager who ran away from home, a missing celebrity, an employee who was murdered, etc. The players get the basic rundown of the situation and the GM has the backstory and knows what happened. But how the PC's investigated the mystery is left to the players to figure out and often the first step to any investigation was "Legwork". This is where the PCs call up their relevant contacts to gather information. Smart Shadowrunners who want to live a long life does legwork. A smart Shadowrunner knows that clients lie and clients would never tell them everything. So smart Shadowrunners do the legwork to find clues but also uncover information that wasn't told or that event the client may not have access to. Each section of a Shadowrun mission has a legwork sidebar, with suggested contact types that are relevant to the info they are looking for. Some professions might lower or increase the target number to the roll needed to gain info because the profession might be better or worse placed for having come in contact with information relating to the mission. 

When a PC reaches out to a contact, the player makes a roll against the contact's rating. The contact's rating is a measurement of how friendly and close the Shadowrunner is to their contact and how willing they are to share info with the Shadowrunner. The player counts the number of successes and the number of successes are measured against the threshold needed for the quality of information they can gather. Example below, lists three different queries that the PCs want information on. They want information on Monty Boudreaux, the Fixer, Neuanalysis, and Wally Huggins. Any street contact might have info on Monty, Any Corporate Contact might have info on Neuranalysis, and only a Martix search can pull up info on Wally. A Corporate Contact isn't going to have access to the same information and rumor mill as a street contact, and vice-versa. 

A GM could easily convert this over to a game like Call of Cthulhu. The BRP game system, which CoC is based on, has multiple levels of success. In the case of CoC, a player can make a skill test and roll either a Standard Success - less than or equal to the PC's skill, a Hard Success - less than or equal to half of the PC's skill, an Extreme Successes - less than or equal to 1/5th of the PC's skill, or a Failure.

Using the second example, a failure would get the same result as 0 successes.

A Standard Success would obtain the players the same result as 1-2.

A Hard Success would obtain the players the same result was 3-4.

And an Extreme Success would obtain the players the same result as 5+. 

The main idea of this system of handling information is the better the results the better the quality of the information they gather. With even a failed roll you can gain something. Looking over the example you can see the quality of information in action. The better the quality the more detail and exact the information. With Wally Huggins, the quality of the information makes it easier to locate Wally in the Seattle Metro. With Neuranalysis the quality of the info gathered becomes more and more recent and pertinent. 

Another aspect to this that the example doesn't show is how each PCs can gain different information. While one PC might learn about the unpleasant incident that happened at Neuranalysis during the blackout, another PC can learn about Yamatetsu's interest in Neuranalysis. Each player feels like they made a difference.  

If a GM knows the system they are running well enough, I'm sure they can take this approach and work it into that system without any issues.

This is an extremely cool solution to maintain the diegetic experience while also allowing the dice to still serve a function within the game. I hope this can help anyone who is struggling with running an investigation in a role-playing game - who doesn't want to just hand the players clues while not allowing the mystery to get stuck just because of some poor dice rolls. It might be a bit more work for the GM but I think once you get used to these concepts, after a while it will become second nature for a GM to break up clues in this way when they prepare to run a mystery. 

RuneQuest: Disordered thoughts on Disorder.

 Rune - DISORDER

Previously I talked about how Runes play a significant part in all aspects of Runequest: Roleplaying In Glorantha and how I want to explore the various runes so that I can use them in my own games as building blocks for storytelling. But I feel I should get to a good understanding of each rune so that each rune can be used as a building block for storytelling to its fullest possibilities. So to start things off with this series of explorations, I decided to start with the Disorder Rune. 

You can find the first post in this series here.

I feel that a lot of gamemasters and players see the Disorder Rune as just a source and cause for Misfortune. But I think it has a lot more to offer us other than being the source of ill luck and I want to try to explore that fully here. But let us start off by seeing how Glorantha and Greg Stafford defined Disorder; this will give us a clean base to start from.

Looking at both the Glorantha Sourcebook and the Core Runequest: Role Playing in Glorantha book we come away with a few facts:

• Disorder was born from chaos and the empty void. 
• Disorder is said to be the firstborn of the powers and the foundation of the universe
• The power of Disorder was used to drive off chaos and hold it at bay.
• Darkness was born from Disorder as it was used to hold chaos at bay. It was the defense that Disorder created Darkness as a defense from Chaos and the void.
• Disorder is the polar opposite of Harmony. 
• Disorder is a Symbol of Individualism, of Me and I.
• Disorder is the symbol of selfish, impulsive, and contrary deeds, thoughts, and words. It is the source of greed and thoughtlessness.
• Ratslaf was the God of Disorder and Confusion - the personification of Disorder. Called the Dupe of Disorder.
• Boggles are creatures born from disorder. 

A few things that Disorder is not following the definition of other runes.

• Disorder is not change or transformation. Possibly only a catalyst for change but change is governed by Movement.
• Disorder is not War or Conflict. These were the domains of Kargan Tor, who in the God Times was the personification of death. He was the great divider. War is the death of connections. It divides one group from another. One place from another place.
• Disorder is the lack of Order, of Harmony, but it's not Chaos.

We can also look at its opposite/opposing rune for guidance as well. Harmony suggests Order, Law, Unity, understanding, and balance and so this would lead one to assume that Disorder would be the opposite. Disarray, disorganized, lawless, confusion, instability, and imbalance.

How we can perceive Disorder and use it for our stories.

Disorder is that which makes us Individuals, makes us want to be different from each other. It can be seen as the rebellious spirit that wants to push back and say No when everyone else wants us to follow along and say Yes. These attitudes push back at the harmonious ones that exist in communities, taking the coercion that exists and causing cracks to form. But much like cracks in a bowl can ruin a bowl, these cracks can add beauty and freedom to a community if allowed to exist much like how Gold can be used to fuse the cracks in a bowl together; like you see in Kintsugi. The gold cracks ruin the once perfect unity of the bowl's surface but now add depth and beauty that wasn't there before. Making the bowl unique. 

The individualism that Disorder provides is the source for the Me first; it's egotistical and selfish. When in the place of authority, of leadership, it is pleased as long as it comes first. But when not in a position of power then it is the thorn in the side of those who are.  As much as individuals in a community can be leaders, helpers, and heroes, they can be greedy, gluttonous, have addictions, disloyalty, envious, slothful, etc. Each adds character and personality to the community. And individuals can be both a hero and disloyal. A leader and lazy. They can be harmonious in one aspect of communal life and full of disorder in another aspect. By adding depth to how the Disorder Rune is interrupted, you get a vast array of possibilities that can lead to amazing role-playing moments, and make for great adventure seeds.

Disorder is one of the great motivators for drama within a community and relationships. A misunderstanding between lovers can cause a whirlwind of drama that spirals out of control, even going as far as starting a feud that lasts generations. A member of the community's well-kept secret could lead to dangerous results for everyone. Kin that refuses to help kin or clan can cause lasting harm to trust and bonds. Though Disorder within the community doesn't always have to end badly. What if a member of the communities differences from their neighbors leads them to discover a raid before it happens, saving lives. Or leads a clansman to defy their elder's orders and seek out the help of outsiders, the clan chieftain, etc. There is as much good to be found in Disorder as there is bad - it just all comes down to how you use it and it doesn't have to be only reflected in people. It can appear anywhere, even in nature.

Discord in nature appears when the natural environment acts contrary to what is normal. This could be as simple as two creatures that are normally predator and prey becoming unlikely companions or forming a symbiotic relationship. Disorder can appear in a forest when the complex relationships of the various plants and creatures in the forest are thrown out of balance when one plant or creature dominates the forest. This could be an overabundance of mice, which eat more of the seeds and plants than they normally would, causing damage that wreaks havoc to the whole ecosystem. Disorder can appear when there is an overabundance of snow in the winter which causes flooding in the spring. Or the lack of rain in the winter and spring which leads to a drought in the summer. Or it could cause a dry winter but a wet summer. Disorder in nature likes to keep us on our toes with its contrarian attitude. 

Disorder Adventure Seeds

Below I've written down a few free Adventure seeds that each have Disorder as part of their theme. 

1. While visiting family in another village, the heroes find their family and other locals acting oddly. Their family members seem to have a difficult time recognizing them and will often forget who they are. While in conversation they will easily lose track of what they are talking about or begin talking about something else that has nothing to do with the original subject. Everyone in the local community is having similar issues and has completely lost any way to get themselves organized or work together. 
   Why is this happening: around the community, hanging from trees are small Wooden Disorder Fetishes, until these are removed and destroyed the community will continue to be affected by Disorder and those who stay too long in the village will join the community n their confusion.
2. A Farmer has unearthed an ancient urn while digging a new irrigation ditch. The farmer took this home to show his family with plans to travel in the coming weeks, when time allowed, to seek a Priest's advice about the urn - possibly even donating it to the temple and gain some recognition with the cult. However, the family members were often picking the urn up and examining it over the following week. One family member, a small child, who was more curious than the others was examining the urn when the child lost hold of the urn and the urn broke. No one saw the dark thing that was inside the urn escape but not odd things are happening on the homestead. Broken gates, ruined walls, confused livestock, missing food, etc. A Boggle, unknown to anyone, has been set loose, causing havoc in the area.
3.  The Heroes are at the wedding of a family member when a jilted lover disrupts the ceremony to challenge the bride to a weaving contest to determine who is the most suitable spouse to the groom. The once normal wedding ceremonies are now a heated contest that leaves the groom a prize to be won - no matter what he has to say in the matter.  
4. Adurisa the Bitter lives on the edge of the village and never rises until well past noon. She waits too late in the day when others are thinking about calling it a day to set out to inspect her crops. Near her home is a small cave where she grows many night crops, such as white asparagus and different kinds of edible mushrooms. Because of the odd hours that she works, she is distrusted by many in the village, a few villagers suggest that she is hiding something in her cave, something that could endanger the village. 

Final Words

I found this topic a lot of fun to ponder over for the last few weeks. I'm looking forward to the next Rune I cover, which might be the Movement Rune but we'll see. During the development of this blog post tried to come up with an encounter for my players that focuses on Disorder and ended up with designing a minor god based on the story, Downboy - which is found in the Stafford Library, the book of Heortling mythology. I'll do a full write-up of this minor god of Disorder and movement that was birthed as a result of Orlanth and Eurmal's actions.

Runequest: The Runes that Govern and shape all things.

 The Runes that Govern and shape all things

In Runequest, if you haven't guessed from the title of the game, Runes play a significant part in the role-playing game. This is all the more true with the newest edition in comparison to the older editions of the game, where characters have a set of Runes that can influence their character's personality and that the characters can use to affect actions and the world around them. As the game states, "Runes are intrinsic to Glorantha. They are the cosmic powers that define Glorantha and are manifested by the gods".

Rune infuses all aspects of Glorantha, the most ancient gods of Glorantha - each represented or were the manifestation of these Rune. Acos was the God of Stability, Larnste was the God of Movement, Uleria the Goddess of Love/Life, Kargan Tor the God of Death/Conflict, Orenoar the Goddess of Truth, Tylenea the Goddess of Illusion, Harana Ilor the Goddess of Harmony, and Ratslaf the God of disorder. Each balances with the others and ruling the cosmos along with the Elemental deities of Darkness, Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. With their combined power they shaped the universe to create the world of Glorantha. Using their Runes to create something out of nothing - out of the chaos and entropy that existed before exitance began. Further increasing the influence each of the runes had in the universe with the act of creation and destruction. Embedding the runes into everything. 

I've been thinking about the importance and significance of the runes and how they are so intrinsic to Glorantha over the last few weeks. Pondering how to use them in my own games as a building block for storytelling.  In my thinking, a Gamemaster and/or Players can take this knowledge about how the runes interact and affect the world of Glorantha and craft powerful stories for their own games. Much like the Elder gods, both Gamemasters and Players can use a Rune or Runes to add something more to their games; adding significance and weight to the stories they want to tell. But in order for us to achieve this, to be able to use the rune for this purpose, we have to have a good understanding of the runes individually and how they function in groups. The Rune I have been pondering throughout of this and what has led me to write this blog post I feel is a good place to start at exploring these runes and how we can use them for storytelling. So in my next post, I'll be exploring the Disorder Rune and how I might use it for storytelling. Mainly, what creatures, story hooks, items, and social encounters we can build out of them.

I'll leave you with this question; outside of misfortune what aspects of Disorder appear in Glorantha. What kind of things in the day-to-day life of a Gloranthian person would be affected by the presence of the Disorder Rune?