>>97910070
I can't tell you what your mystery should be but the most important advice is don't make a location or tree for you clues.

make a list of clues and whenever it's relevant to reward the players with a clue choose the most appropriate.

Next you need 3-5 clues for every fact you want the players to discover.

Start from the end of the mystery / inciting incident then just remove information, mix it up so order of events is unknown and there are people with different pieces out of order.

bonus points for giving each person / clue holder 3 clues about them to figure out where, who, or what their angle is. This makes them feel more alive in the setting and creates red herrings.

>>97910070
>what are your methods to create a mystery for the players to investigate?
I have none.
But if I had the inclination, I'd read older mystery literature or watch older mystery movies. Avoid anything past the turn of the millennium.

>How do you employ the NPC to deliver information?
I don't.
But if I would, I'd use the tropes and behaviors I learned from my personal research.

>Or create set pieces?
I don't.
But if I would, I'd use patterns established from what I learned from my research.

>How do you make investigating FuN?
I don't, nor do you, nor does anyone else.
You don't "make something fun", you find someone who has fun with something. You make a group of people who have fun with something. If you don't know what your group finds fun, you ask them what they find fun.
You don't ask a bunch of strangers who will never play your games or ever be in your group what they find fun; that's the worst way to learn what your group has fun with.

inb4 another fucking faggot screeches at me for answering retarded questions.

>>97910751
Looking at your answer is easy to know why this board has the fame of only be able to run dungeon crawlers or endless battle simulators.

>>97910630
This is solid advice. Thinking about clues as the information you want the players to have and then decoupling them from specific NPCs or locations allows your mystery to be much more flexible.

>>97910070
I copy the plot of TV shows and movies that I like

>>97910913
This board hates combat and dungeon crawling.
Lurk moar.

>>97910070
>what are your methods to create a mystery for the players to investigate?
I usually think of a big set piece and work around it. Maybe a gruesome crime scene a la Seven, or a final confrontation with a supernatural evil, or a final walk though a huge empty hospital where the final victim is being treated. Then I think what could lead to that happening. Usually as I expand that one thing I liked improves because now I can give it extra meaning.
Otherwise investigation games can have decent generators. I used it for Midnight of the Century and it gave me a lot of interesting stuff for the players to connect I would had improvised without tables proposing it before the players did.
>How do you employ the NPC to deliver information?
I usually make NPCs as needed. I have the info they could get in my head, give them a quirk from what's around, and then improvise.
>How do you make investigating fun?
Have multiple clues, don't give them red herrings because they will spend all their time on that. Make the ticking clock very evident. Have a good ending.
After that, it depends on the players. Some will love the shittiest bare bones investigation, others will do the same task over and over and get mad that they don't progress things. I usually inform them if they're doing pointless shit, like asking them how they think that would help, because I think they'll hate the frustration more than the meta. Down time is also very important, consider how Blade Runner RPG explicitly forces players to take downtime and roleplay their personal life too.

>>97911199
So what does this board like?