Mysteries remain one of the most discussed elements of role-playing and solo play only adds to this. Many GMs can't handle the issues around discovering clues, providing leads to players and many other elements of investigation adventures. For the solo player these can be even more acute, how exactly can we piece together a mystery and keep our own knowledge of the solution from ourselves? It just doesn't work.
Indeed given the usual structure of a mystery adventure, whereby there is a solution and a (hopeful) myriad of clues pointing to the answer, this clearly won't work for solo play, becuase there is no hidden information necessary for this style to work.
However, having used Technoir in the past for exactly this, it perfectly captures the sense of discovery that you want as a player, and provdes a satisfying solution to the mystery at the same time.
Technoir initially is a cyberpunk noir game of players investigating a mystery, in that game usually the players are somewhat tied up in the initial setup and some of the elements of the game. This doesn't have to be the case, although it does help in some circumstances.
It is also applicable to a lot wider genres than cyberpunk. I've used it in police procedurals through to Scooby Doo style kids high jinks.
I want to take you through the use of 'Clue Maps' for solo mysteries, from their construction through to use at the table and eventual solution.
Pre-game
So, normally with Technoir you take a 'Transmission' and randomly roll three nodes and link them together to form the initial setup, but what does that actually mean?
A Transmission in Technoir parlance is 6 Items (or clues) in 6 Categories. Connections (people), Locations, Events, Objects, Threats and Factions. This leads to 36 clues that can be linked to this particular mystery. You could amend these categories to fit your game better but I've not felt the need to when I've used it.
Now, it is possible to construct these during play, similar to how the Location Crafter can work. However, because of the work that is required to come up with the entries and you don't know how they will come up in your game, I personally don't see any issue with populating it prior to play (again like the Location Crafter).
Here's an example one that I will use in my demonstration. It is based on a police procedural style game set in Port Blacksand, a fantasy city from the Advanced Fighting Fantasy books:
So to go through it and how I came up with those entries.
Connections
Honestly the easiest section to come up with, this is just a list of names at this moment in time. I will generate further details when I introduce them to the Clue Map.
Connections are people that represent single individuals who are somehow mixed up with the whole mystery. They could be victims, perpetrators, conspirators or simply mixed up with the whole thing.
Events
I used Kellri's Sci-Fi Blocks fpdf for this. There is a section at the back for city wide events that is very useful (beyond it's usefulness for generating future locations). Some may need adapting if rolled but well worth picking up (it's free).
These are background (and sometimes foreground) events that are happening around the time of the mystery, and could be involved in some fashion.
Factions
I picked details from the map I am using, and made the rest up myself (only a couple of them). You could probably find generators for these, or pick them from the background of the game you are playing, if you are using an established setting.
Factions are groups that may be involved in the mystery. In a cyberpunk or modern mystery these would be corporations, unions etc. and there's no reason they aren't in a fantasy universe either.
Locations
Again, I picked these from the map and a random generator (I can't remember which now!).
Fairly self explanatory these, it helps if these are generally disreputable places, but high class locations can work just as well.
Objects
I made some of these up, and used a Fiasco playset to come up with the others. Fiasco playsets are great for 'Transmission' population if you can find an appropriate one.
Another fairly self explanatory category, weapons, cash and other desirable items make good objects.
Threats
Again, I came up with these either from the map or random name generation. Once again you could use a random generator or setting elements if they are available.
These are a little trickier, they are factions and groups who want to harm the characters directly, whereas factions are not as direct.
Initial setup
So now I have my 'Transmission'/clue matrix or whatever else you want to call it, it is now time to generate the initial setup of the mystery. This is the core inciting event that starts the whole thing off, it could be a murder, some form of terror incident, or whatever intrigues you.
This always involves 3 clues, giving you enough to work with, without laying out half the mystery in one go.
You can roll these completely at random, hand pick all or some. I have decidced to roll them all, just to walk you through the process.
So I rolled 3 pairs of dice getting, [1] [3] - Ran Riverbrand, [2] [4] - Virus, and [1] [1] - Rhesan Coli.
An unusual grouping, but let's see what I can come up with, and here's my initial mystery sheet.
I must admit to feeling a little stumped, so I fell back on that best of solo gamer's prompts - a Mythic complex question, for which I rolled Disrupt Magic!
So this instantly came to me, one of Ran or Rhesan is trying to release a magical virus and the other has come to the Port Blacksand Guard to report them. Is it likely he was involved in this plot initially? Very likely - No. Well, there's Mythic doing it's thing again. So there must be some other connection between them - complex question time again - Negligence Wounds.
So (let's determine this 1-3 Ran 4-6 Rhesan [1]) Ran was the lover of Rhesan, but he has been rejected and is now ignoring him, now Ran has found out that Rhesan is planning to release a magical virus in to the city and wants to get revenge by informing the Guard.
OK, hopefully that makes sense and you can see how I have arrived at this using the map and Mythic to clarify things. You know I was tempted to pick some and run a 'standard' murder, but now I'm glad I didn't!
I will post the second part in a few days, once I have had time to play it out and type it up. In the meantime feel free to ask me any questions below, or find me on the Mythic Discord.
