Investigations
The Basics
The Chronicles of Darkness are tales of mystery, and protagonists are driven to uncover them. For a casual, momentary investigation that shouldn’t play a deep role in the story, you can use a single dice roll to represent the effort. However, investigations can become the foundation for extended scenes, for stories, and even for entire chronicles. This system allows for more depth than the standard dice mechanics.
At its core, this system is about uncovering and accumulating Clues, which serve to benefit later actions. Usually, the investigation is a means to an end. Maybe the players’ characters need to stop a monster menacing the community. Maybe they’re trying to uncover a mystical cure to a family member’s terminal illness. Even when the desired result is simply uncovering the truth, Clues help the characters establish and qualify the truth, which may mean the difference between being locked away for claiming the fantastical, and having hard data which can save lives and change fates.
Two Essential Rules of Investigation
These two rules are important for maintaining the integrity of investigations in your chronicle.
No Hard Answers
Don’t settle on hard answers up front. As Storyteller, don’t devote too much energy to coming up with all the potential Clues and answers ahead of time. This could put you in a position where you’re railroading the players, and forcing them to go along with your plans. Or worse, they could get frustrated as the puzzle pieces aren’t coming together in a way they expect. Improvisation is your best tool in investigation.
Let the players have some say in the Clues they establish, and work with them to bring together the results in a way that makes sense for everyone. This will give them an investment in the story, and will take some responsibility off your shoulders. It will also help to cater the story to their specific interests and biases. When they succeed, ask them, “What do you find?” and let their answers inform the direction of your story. If you have a culprit in mind, that’s fine. However, let the players help guide the path to that culprit if at all possible.
No Binary Rolls
If your chronicle’s integrity or pacing would be negatively impacted by a failure, don’t let that failure act as binary stakes in an investigation. In popular fiction, particularly the kind the Chronicles of Darkness emulate, the protagonists will generally end up figuring out the mystery. This doesn’t intuitively map to the success/failure nature of Storytelling system dice rolls. Play with stakes. Maybe failure at a given stage means the protagonists still find their Clue, but the antagonist realizes he’s being pursued. Maybe finding that Clue takes longer than expected, so the culprit can get away with another stage of his plan. A good investigation story needs to maintain momentum, lest it become frustrating.
In this system, Clues offer dice advantages for later rolls. Failure doesn’t inherently mean the Clue isn’t uncovered; it just means it can’t offer a dice benefit later. It’s up to you to determine just why that is. Is the evidence tainted? Is there a mitigating twist?
How to write a Cop Show
Frame the Action
Unlike most actions in the Chronicles of Darkness, this style of extended investigation assumes the characters do a myriad of things across the course of the effort. It should never just be a series of rolls; you always want to give as much context as possible between each step, with each Clue.
This is more than just explaining Clues; you want to space out the events with action scenes, social scenes, and events that further the plot and maintain momentum. This serves two main purposes. First, it mixes up the action and offers variety. Second, it builds a sense of stakes. If the world turns while the investigation proceeds, then real things happen and time is of the essence. Sure, the characters might get closer to the murderer if they push the investigation forward. But what about the cultists threatening to tear into the fabric of reality? A Storytelling game is about choice, and this gives your players choices of what to engage.
What is a Clue?
Clues, in the scope of these rules, are a specialized type of equipment. However, the existence of a Clue isn’t always tied to an actual object with which a character can interact. Sometimes, a Clue is an important fact, or even a series of well-connected dots. Clues are different from most equipment in that their advantages are resources which can be expended. These resources, called elements, can be used for anything pertaining to that Clue or the investigation at large. They may help a principle investigator pursue a culprit; they may help in the court room when seeking conviction. They could even offer valuable insights which could protect potential victims from the perpetrator. Once fully expended, a Clue cannot offer its benefits again.
If the characters aren’t looking to solve a centralized puzzle with Clues, they can be stockpiled and used at other times. For example, players may use these investigation rules in order to dig up blackmail material; each item of blackmail material would count as one specific Clue, and its elements could be used as Leverage in a Social Maneuver (see p. 81). Clues can go above the normal +5 limit on dice bonuses; they’re limited only by the character’s Investigation Skill.
Clues are best represented visually at your table. Index cards are a good place to start, with ticks or glass beads to represent the available elements on each. This way, players can see what their characters have to draw from. They can also be handed from character to character.
Clue Elements
Most Clues start with a single element. Clues established with an exceptional success gain an additional element. Clues established by specialists gain an additional element. In this case, specialists are characters who have 4 or more dots in the relevant Skill, or a Specialty directly relating to the Clue. A character may only contribute a given Skill or its Specialties one time in a given investigation for this purpose. Some Merits or other variables can influence the number of elements a Clue receives. Elements can be spent for +1 to a relevant dice pool, or as part of the effort to solve the investigation. A character can only spend elements from one Clue at a time, or Clues equal to her Investigation dots. She may spend any number of elements from a Clue, however.
Uncovering the Truth
Once characters have the requisite Clues, they may Uncover the Truth. So long as they have the required number of Clues, this doesn’t require a roll; they have pieced together the puzzle. However, for every Clue short of the required total, the Storyteller adds one significant complication to the investigation. Some example complications are:
If possible, use input that came from the players during the investigation to determine the results. This doesn’t necessarily mean they get to determine the culprit, but they should be able to influence the finer details. After all, if they made hypotheses and assumptions during the investigation, and their efforts were successful, that should mean most of their theories rang true.
Step-By-Step
Step One: Decide the Scope of the Investigation
First off, you need to determine the full scope of the investigation. What are the characters ultimately looking for? What’s their end game? This will often take multiple Clues before it becomes viable. For most stories, one to five Clues should be sufficient, where five Clues indicates a consuming task. If you want the investigation to be the thrust of an extended chronicle, the target number should be at least half the number of planned chapters to allow for deviation in the plot, or up to twice the total number in a highly-focused chronicle.
Once characters reach the required number of Clues, they’re able to Uncover the Truth if that’s their goal. They can do so without any additional rolls if they spend a number of Clue elements (divided however they like) equal to the required Clues for the investigation. See below for more on Uncovering the Truth.
Step Two: Determine the Potential Clue
Once the characters go digging for Clues, you have to determine what they find and what it means. Ask some simple questions of the player. “Where is she searching?” “What does she hope to uncover here?” “How does she think he did it?” Those are just some basic examples. Pay close attention to the context, and ask questions based on that. Consider what matters, what the character already knows, and what she values. Let the player’s answers guide the search for a Clue.
Step Three: Establish Interval
Next, you have to determine how long the search takes. This is governed in part by context, and in part by the needs of your story. Searching for a Clue is technically an instant action, but can take a span of time. If the end result of an investigation is the focus of an extended chronicle, you might want the players to stretch out their efforts, for example. If the character is casing a room from which a monster fled, it might only take a few minutes. If she’s diving to a sunken ship to find a specific chipped goblet owned by the monster, that could take an hour or more.
Don’t be afraid to add story framing to the search for a Clue. In our previous examples, maybe the monster left behind a dangerous contaminant the characters have to overcome to case the scene. Or for our wrecked ship, perhaps the characters have to traverse shark-infested waters to get where they need to be. If the characters perform particularly well in these efforts, consider offering bonuses to the effort to find the Clue.
You can use out-of-character designations if you want to string an investigation out over an extended period. For example, you may allow for one Clue per game session. This would support a “season arc” like in popular television shows. Every “episode” the characters can get a little closer to the final reveal. If the characters uncover the truth faster than expected, that gives you more time at the end of the arc to explore the ramifications and implications of the truth. If they’re moving quickly, you can offer side stories and personal exploration stories.
Step Four: Create Dice Pool
By now, you should have an idea of what the character is doing to establish the Clue. This could mean research, forensics work, interviewing witnesses, or any other action pertaining to the investigation. Establish a dice pool pertaining to that action. Allow the player some input here; there’s a good chance she has a dice pool in mind already when determining her character’s action. Look to the suggested modifiers for some examples of what might modify this dice pool.
Step Five: Uncover the Clue
With the roll, the character uncovers the Clue.
Uncovering the Clue
The dice pool depends on how the characters approach the pursuit. Each time the same Skill is used to uncover Clues in an investigation, the dice pool suffers a cumulative -1 penalty. A diverse, holistic approach always helps in investigations. Continuing with the same approach offers diminishing returns.
Dice Pool: Special Action: InstantSuggested Modifiers: Crime scene over a day old (-1), over a week old (-3), over a year old (-5), tenacious questioning (+1), thorough canvassing (+2), personal grudge (-2), relevant superstitions (+ or – 1 to 3), too emotionally invested (-2), unrestricted access to the scene (+2), someone tampered with evidence (-1 to -5), crime aligns with investigator’s Virtue (+1), crime aligns with investigator’s Vice (-2), lone investigator (-1), rushed for time (-1 to -3)
Clue Tags
Clues can be tagged, like equipment. These tags influence how the Clue is used. If you’re using index cards or other visual markers for Clues, be sure to note any relevant tags. Here are some examples from the Uncovering Clues mechanics:
Incomplete
Incomplete Clues are useful, but not quite as much as others. Their elements may only be used to grant dice to other rolls to uncover Clues. They may not add to other rolls or be used as part of an effort to solve the final investigation.
Tainted
Your character has evidence that supports a strong narrative, but that evidence features reasonable doubt or potential holes. If a character has access to a Tainted Clue, ignore the first success on any actions pertaining to the investigation. Your character may have multiple instances of this penalty; additional instances are cumulative. For example, with three instances of Tainted, you must roll four or more successes to succeed, or eight to succeed exceptionally. Any time an element from this Clue applies, it applies a -2 penalty instead of the normal +1 bonus. The element is removed from the clue as usual. This reflects the need to work out the Tainted Clue fully before it no longer hurts the investigation.
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