1.

OVERVIEW
1. Mystery as an important question which needs to be found out, often via
answering sub-questions.
2. Kinds of Mystery Structures in play
1. Set: established criminal and likely chain of process
2. Improv and semi-improv: including the “mystery landscape” of TFtL.
3. Brindlewood: collaborative and more improv based on details
3. Focus for discussion is on planned mysteries, as those elements carry over

2. SETTING UP
1. What is the mystery: Incident vs. Big Problems
1. Inciting crime: visualizing how the PCs enter into the story
2. Big Problem: larger crime or situation
2. Mysteries vs. Problem Solving
3. Mystery stories can be bad models
4. Some good models

3. PLANNING
1. The fun of prep and outlining.
2. How I Plan
1. The power of the timeline.
2. Mapping out locations– place lists
3. Key characters
4. Roles
5. Relationship maps
3. Things to Keep in Mind While Planning
1. Knowing the form and granularity of the system and working with that
2. The problem of player-facing material
3. Rule of three and steps
4. Core versus developmental
5. Adapting existing mysteries– outside looking in
6. Mysteries as secondary plot (backfill)
4. Adapting Existing Mysteries

4. IN PLAY
1. Beginning
1. Setting genre expectations
2. Modeling interactions
3. Establishing Information Sharing
2. At the Table
1. Being Obvious
2. The importance of repetition, restatement, and reframing
3. Roll for clues
4. Witnesses and Lying
5. Eliminating Possibilities and Clearing People
6. Details not in evidence and managing misinformation lightly
7. The dangers of red herrings
8. Clue Pacing
9. Choices, Alternate Clues, and Thinking About Paths
10. Spotlight management and different time streams
11. The redundancy problem
12. The parrot problem
3. Problems and Player Management
1. Player prep (Deodatus)
2. Keeping player involvement
3. Players will not ask the right questions
 4. Mysteries take longer than you think
5. Player trust– and player paranoia
6. Handling Disagreements
7. Dealing with players who don’t really want a mystery
8. Records and Notes

5. OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
1. Improvised Mysteries
1. Incidents
2. Characters
3. Connections
4. Backfilling
5. Giving yourself space and room
6. Parallel with BB Theorize
2. Info Management between sessions
3. Start of session restatement and summary
4. Returning Characters

6. SYSTEMS TALK AND EXAMPLES

1. Gumshoe approach
2. Brindlewood Bay
3. Monster of the Week
4. Tales from the Loop
5. My Examples
1. Kuro
2. Dresden Files
3. Delta Green
4. Coriolis
5. Call of Cthulhu
6. Night’s Black Agents

Links
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/age-of-ravens-mysterious-planning
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/wuxia-mysteries
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/age-of-ravens-conspiracy-sandbox
https://ageofravens.blogspot.com/2017/07/bright-flash-tales-from-loop-mystery.html
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/age-of-ravens-tales-things
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/gourdian-not-a-yokai-hunters-society-scenario
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/delta-green-divergence-casefiles-part-1
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/delta-green-divergence-casefiles-part-2
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/delta-green-divergence-campaign-concept-scenario
https://www.gauntlet-rpg.com/blog/delta-green-divergence-casefile-critical-carbine
https://ageofravens.blogspot.com/2010/09/story-beats-and-showing-victory.html