Category: Monster of the Week Roadhouse: General Discussion

I need some advice on a mystery.. And this may just be a “I don’t fully get how to run a mystery yet” situation.

I will try to be succinct, but warning, that isn’t my strong suit…

I have a mystery I am developing that goes something like this: 

Day:  Hunters are called to a crime scene by a local cop.  At the scene, they find a body of a man laying on a bed with blood coming out of his nose, ears, eyes, and corner of lips.  The record player is running but no record is on the turntable. (there will be other little clues, but i’m shortcutting to the relevant.  The land lord asks them to be quick because the tennant hadn’t paid rent in a couple of months, so he needs to flip the apartment to start bringing in some money.

Dusk:  The hunters are called to another murder a few days later.  In this apartment, the scene looks about the same as the first.  Investigation will reveal that the dead man worked for a record store.  There is also a flyer for a halloween party at a dance club featuring DJ Big Easy. 

Investigating the record store ties back to the original murder scene because the landlord sold all the records of the first victim to the record store.  Victim 2 found one of the records, a Louis Armstrong record he’d never seen before, and took it home to listen to it…

I will forego the rest of the mystery at this point, because this is enough info for me to pose my question.

After the hook (Day), I am unclear what kind of clues would lead to something else. I think that players would kind of have to spin their wheels attempting to investigate, but not really find anything until the second murder reveals more clues that can be followed and therefore dots to be connected.  Is it fair to create a mystery that isn’t solvable until a sufficient amount of clues/events take place?

Secondly, within the context of the previous question, how do you deal with starting moves like, the Flake’s “When and where will the next event occur?”  I don’t see how that could be determined after victim 1 is killed.

Any suggestions or thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I am pretty certain, but I wanted to be 100% sure before I run MoTW.

Luck does not replenish (under normal circumstances. It does not reload after every session.

Is this thinking correct?

I am considering creating a custom move called, “Jump Scare”.

The victim of “Jump Scare” gets a -1 carried forward for the remainder of the scene, due to being spooked.