Mystery & Suspense
From Tazlure Gaming System Wiki
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The Theme Park |
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[edit] Introduction
Mystery and Suspense are both highly appreciated arts in a PBP. Leaving the reading audience guessing. Adding a bit of tension. The suggestion of a riddle to be solved. They all captivate the reader, relieving their boredom, which is the original definition of suspense. So in general we are speaking about nystery, action/adventure, crime, and detective stories.
[edit] Creating Suspense
Keep raising the stakes and creating disasters. The formula for building suspense is a bad start that gets worse. Suspense is about problems and obstacles, disasters and failures, small triumphs and big reversals. Add a sense of urgency. The story must be about a crisis that’s devastating to the protagonist’s world, and the hero must be willing to do anything to prevent it from occurring. The protagonist should be working under what seems to be insurmountable odds. All his skills and strengths must be stretched to the breaking point in order to save the day. The hero should bend, but never buckle under the pressure the antagonist applies. The antagonist, by his nature, will cross lines without a second’s thought, while fully conscious of his actions.
Nothing in life runs perfectly to plan for anyone. Make nothing straight-forward for the protagonist. The hero shouldn’t be able to rely on anything going right for her, and any step forward should come at a price. The antagonist shouldn’t go unscathed, either.
[edit] Clues
NPC’s are great deliverers of clues, especially when the player does not know what is going on. A casual conversation or a direct hint as blunt as a wooden mallet is usually enough to get the interest of your player. Make sure you keep a list of clues for yourself in case you loose track! You should always know what the clues lead up to for the grand finale.
Besides: since you already know the ending, you can easily track back to see what clues you have to leave behind to be found out!
- “Oh bother,” the lady remarked at the engagement dinner, “I’m pregnant and again I have no clue who the father is.”
If they don't get it, ask yourself if they really need to already or if you can feed it to them in easier portions later on in the story. Not everybody is a great mind reader, after all.
[edit] Red Herring
Red herrings are great and very tasty. False clues that they are you can have your player running around for absolutely nothing, or maybe that red herring turns out to be for real after all! Whaddayaknow: the butler did do it!
Remember that a truth is always best hidden in a couple of lies…and the other way around.
- “So,” The innkeeper quirked an eyebrow, “I’d stay away from that Velarian brew if I were you..it does strange things to people.”
[edit] Personal Motivation
Why would someone walk into a haunted house for crying out loud? Sure, some intrepid adventurers have that knack of simply landing themselves into trouble with every step of the way, but usually you have to create a reason for them to be there.
Make it a personal one: lost items, lost friends or family, a false accusation, hope or dreams or even a personal challenge put on their path by faith or their long term rival. It doesn’t matter, as long as they feel they have something to gain by solving this mystery.
- Somewhere inside was the answer. Now it was up to him to take up the challenge or leave the field.
[edit] Your Villain
The villain, also known as the protagonist. They guy you love to hate. He/she should be strong, witty and believable with at least one weakness. Something vital is at stake here, providing motivation for the hero.
The fun part here is that you do not necessarily have to reveal your bad guy. Yes, indeed: you can go a whole adventure with solving and all without ever meeting the initiator, even though you know him/her through and through because of their actions. You might have suspicions....great! That's what we live for! Go after him another time! We'll have more fun.
Of course you can simply make him known at the end, but don't forget that it's quite alright to have the butler do it. Cliche's are often forgotten because they are cliché's. Yet they can be so much fun, although that sweet little girl with the flowers would make for a great unexpected turn of events too.
The Big Unknown is what sets the mood in many scary movies. Use it. Don't show the monster if you don't have to. If you do: use the unexpected, which sometimes IS the expected.
[edit] Humour
Yes, the fun part...litter great Unknown Tomes of Old around or have a mysterious broken down musicbox playing in the night. I remember a little handheld videogame that zoomed at night because of the batteries...still gives me nightmares.
Unknown items are wonderful to use. Make them find out what it is about...or not. Let them puzzle and figure out they can't use it, or let them use it without knowing they could!
The fun of an item is to discover if the players can handle it or not. For all they know it might just be another red herring.
- Mara woke up from a strange dream. Music had been playing all along. Music she still heard while she was awake! Next to her bed the little dryads danced in the silver box to a tune that was impossible to be played...because the musicbox was broken.
- Yet it played...
- And played...
[edit] Ending with Questionmarks
Listen to the words hidden in their posts and find out what path they are following. Grant them the freedom to write along with you and change what is happening. After all, if this was only your story they could just sit back and read it as a book.
Part of a good mystery is to give your players the idea that they are actually influencing the story. It gives them a sense of responsibility to see it through…or to take the blame when they fail, adding an extra incentive, of course. How frustrating when you find out you never got that big fat clue at the beginning! Great characterdevelopment!
Sometimes the player's imagination can run away with them and actually create a stronger story - don't be afraid to go with it and use your ideas to enhance what could become a bigger plot.
So what if you throw your whole adventure upside down and end with a completely different scene. Nobody ever got hurt by using the questionmark in “The End?” It promises more to come.
A fade in-fade out trick from the movies rounds off your adventure while leaving the path open for other explorations.
- It was a shame that the supposed monster had never been found, but satisfied with the return of the fish-population the fishermen decided to let it rest. After they had paid our intrepid adventurous a handsome sum they bid them farewell and returned to their daily chores. Under the smooth surface of the lake something stirred, something that had been asleep for years. Disturbed by the busy fish it moved.
- A soft splashing sounded.
- The fishermen looked up at each other.
- Slowly they shook their hands and decided to ignore it.
- It had to have been their imagination.
- Or not?
