In the previous session my players were asked by a king to investigate a nearby town as they have stopped hearing from them, but the players have also been catching rumors about high kobold activity in the region, when they arrive at the town, they will find the town in ruins, all of the wood and buildings appearing to have been rotted away. I'm drawing a blank on how to run an investigation for them, anyone got any tips that could help me out?
The easiest way is to establish for yourself what actually happened and then let them do the investigating. It’s kinda hard to plan for stuff like that because you don’t know what they’re gonna do, where they’re gonna go, or how they’re gonna go about things. But as long as you know all the facts behind everything then you’ll be able to narrate whatever they uncover.
I do have two major suggestions for you though:
Make sure that nothing is entirely dependent on a single NPC, or a specific clue that can only be found in one place. If you do, that’s the one NPC they will kill, or the one place they will never go.
Make sure you have no fewer than 2 NPCs that can “pop in” and drop a couple clues for the times the party gets stuck without any idea how to proceed. (I personally try to keep around 4 of them in the wings all with different clues or other ways to help them find a way to move forward.)
+1 for knowing what has happened for yourself, rather than trying to plan specific clues. For example, you might have planned that the party will find kobold arrows in a body, which wil ltell them kobolds did this. But if they don't investigate the body, then your clue is lost. You might have had them find tracks of giand crocodiles being ridden by kobolds, but if they don't check for tracks, they're going to miss it.
Instead, if you say to yourself "the kobolds rode in on a giant crocodile in the river, shot the townsfolk full of arrows, and then the crocodile ate most of them, and then the kobolds burnt the village down before leaving on a path that follows the river", then whenever the PC's investigate something, you can decide on the fly whether they're likely to find anything important. "I investigate the burnt building" with a good roll might yield arrowheads, which they identify as kobold. "I investigate the dead body" might yield that it has kobold arrows, and a leg is missing, seeming to be ripped off. "I investigate the wound, looking for any evidence of what caused it" may yield that it was huge teeth, as of a beast, which will immediately prompt any ranger to say "I look for tracks", which reveals it was a giant crocodile, and there's the info they need - it was a giant croc, and kobolds with bows, who burnt the village down and killed the people. Then they can decide what to do from there.
This particular video might be helpful too. It’s about how to prevent failing from turning into failure. I bring it up because IMO, mystery campaigns include lots of ability checks.
In the previous session my players were asked by a king to investigate a nearby town as they have stopped hearing from them, but the players have also been catching rumors about high kobold activity in the region, when they arrive at the town, they will find the town in ruins, all of the wood and buildings appearing to have been rotted away. I'm drawing a blank on how to run an investigation for them, anyone got any tips that could help me out?
The easiest way is to establish for yourself what actually happened and then let them do the investigating. It’s kinda hard to plan for stuff like that because you don’t know what they’re gonna do, where they’re gonna go, or how they’re gonna go about things. But as long as you know all the facts behind everything then you’ll be able to narrate whatever they uncover.
I do have two major suggestions for you though:
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
The DM Lair on youtube has a good video on this, it's only 12 minutes long but gives some good tips:
Running Investigations & Mysteries in D&D - YouTube
+1 for knowing what has happened for yourself, rather than trying to plan specific clues. For example, you might have planned that the party will find kobold arrows in a body, which wil ltell them kobolds did this. But if they don't investigate the body, then your clue is lost. You might have had them find tracks of giand crocodiles being ridden by kobolds, but if they don't check for tracks, they're going to miss it.
Instead, if you say to yourself "the kobolds rode in on a giant crocodile in the river, shot the townsfolk full of arrows, and then the crocodile ate most of them, and then the kobolds burnt the village down before leaving on a path that follows the river", then whenever the PC's investigate something, you can decide on the fly whether they're likely to find anything important. "I investigate the burnt building" with a good roll might yield arrowheads, which they identify as kobold. "I investigate the dead body" might yield that it has kobold arrows, and a leg is missing, seeming to be ripped off. "I investigate the wound, looking for any evidence of what caused it" may yield that it was huge teeth, as of a beast, which will immediately prompt any ranger to say "I look for tracks", which reveals it was a giant crocodile, and there's the info they need - it was a giant croc, and kobolds with bows, who burnt the village down and killed the people. Then they can decide what to do from there.
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This particular video might be helpful too. It’s about how to prevent failing from turning into failure. I bring it up because IMO, mystery campaigns include lots of ability checks.
In truth, that entire series is DM gold.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Thank you all for your replies, they've been a great help to me!