My family would like a mystery one-shot, but they don't like learning rulesets. Are there any modules that give me a good mystery with clues and motives and stuff, but keep class, level, and system mostly irrelevant?
>>96546756Play Clue.
>>96546818this
>>96546756This is a whole genre of board games. Where each mystery is its own packet and you buy a $20 expansion, and open and solve together going through envelopes and clues as you learn XYZ.It's actually a decent introduction to role playing and getting into characters. I had the one w/ the white boxes that I can't remember the name of and, after 3 weekends of playing 2 of those adventures, three of my friends were ready to hop into D&D. That group didn't last, but one of the players is still at my table.
>>96546975T.I.M.E. Stories! That's the one I'm thinking of.But yeah, there are tons of these and they're all the same.
>>96546818Clue does not have motives. It has no plot or characterization whatsoever.
>>96546756>basically all mechanical detail irrelevantWouldn't this actually be playing pretend then?
>>96548939Sure man. TTRPGs always are.
>>96546756Look into murder mystery parties.
>>96546756You're looking exactly for Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. There's even a Lovecraft rebranding (Bureau of Investigations).
>>96546756A lot of Call of Cthulhu premades could be played entirely narratively.
>>965467562hufag, I know RPGautism pretty well, I know what you're going through here. But seriously, your family just wants a mystery boardgame. Unless they're explicitly asking for an RPG, don't assume its what they want.If they are, use a PbtA or BitD-based system where all the player needs to know is how to read their playbook and roll dice.If they aren't, just get a fucking boardgame. Clue is the most entry-level option and is good as a weekday game night thing.
Take them to an escape room.
>>96550337PBTA/FITD sounds terrible for a mistery. And I love AW and (most) of its descendants.
>>96550386PbtA Kult is really fucking good for mysteries tho
>>96550496The what now?
I may be quiet, but I'm reading the replies and plan to look into them all. Keep 'em coming. Thank you all.>>96550337They like roleplaying. I used to run a homebrew for them.>>96550370They're going to take me to one later.This is for a road trip, so I'll be prioritizing the suggestions that don't take a board--another reason to slip mechanics--but the others may well be useful later.
>>96550337There are Blades in the Dark mystery modules? That's the one system I know well. I have some knowledge of Paranoia XP and Open Legend.> read their playbookNot going to happen. If they need to learn rules, that means that I need to learn the rules and then explain to them what they need to do.
>>96546756Eh, I believe GUMSHOE games are kind for that
>>96546756>>96550956>Wants to run a mystery oneshot.>Needs a mystery module that is system-agnostic.>Needs to be able to play in a moving car.Not for nothing Anon, but that sounds like a custom job.Luckily, writing a mystery doesn't have to be the most insane thing if you go backwards.>Make up The Answer.>Come up with the Big Clues that would reveal The Answer when understood correctly.>Come up with the Small Clues that help you understand the Big Clues, or connect the Big Clues together, or connect the Big Clues to Characters,Places, Etc...>Come up with Red Herrings to muddy the investigation.The way I remember GUMSHOE doing it is that players got the major clues more-or-less for free, but they have to be proactive to get the minor clues through skill checks or just roleplay.https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/367555/easier-mystery-playI haven't read this thing in a while but it might be worth skimming. (The preview is the entire book with a big watermark on it.)
>>96550301me when someone asks me to set up a quick engine in ss13 (I would rather set up supermatter)
>>96548284Good.
