MYSTERIES

An e23 Sourcebook for GURPS from Steve Jackson Games

GURPS, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. Pyramid, GURPS Mysteries, e23, and the names of all products published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license. Some art copyright www.clipart.com. All rights reserved. GURPS Mysteries is copyright 2005 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this material via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

Written by LISA J. STEELE Edited by ALAIN H. DAWSON and SCOTT HARING Additional material by ALAIN H. DAWSON, ROBERT O'CONNOR, HEATHER OLIVER, SEAN PUNCH, WILLIAM H. STODDARD, JONATHAN TURNER, and HANS-CHRISTIAN VORTISCH Template checking by DEVIN GANGER AND BRIAN HOGUE
Playtesters: Bill Collins, Robin Holly, John Perreault, Andrew Wardell, Viola Wardell, and Allen Wilkins

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

Stock #82-0104 Version 1.0 April 6, 2005

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . 4
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1. THE IMPERFECT CRIME . . . 5

SOME GROUND RULES . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Mysteries Are Not Like Real Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 RPG Mysteries Are Not Like Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 RPG Mysteries Are Not Like Other RPG Adventures . . . . . . 6 DESIGN PRINCIPLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Keep it Simple! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Information Management . . . . . 7 The Path of Least Resistance . . . 8 Writers Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Information Management: An Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 A TAXONOMY OF MURDER . . . . . . . . . 9 Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 To Murder, or Not to Murder? . . . 9 Matching the Mystery to the Characters . . . . . . . . . 11 Plot Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Single Adventures and Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Is Failure an Option? . . . . . . . . . 14 Is There a Shortcut? . . . . . . . . . . 15 DEEP BACKGROUND: THE CRIMES STORY . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Adversary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Mark of Cain . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Least Likely Person . . . . . . . 17 The Victim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Supporting Cast . . . . . . . . . 18 Killing Victims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Hook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Curtain-Raiser Scene . . . . . 20 GOING FOR THE RIDE: THE INVESTIGATIONS STORY . . . . . . . . 21 Using Your Chosen Format . . . 21 The Great Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . 21 Cozy Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Hard-Boiled Format . . . . . . . . . . 22 Procedural Format . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Thriller Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Improvised Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Stirring Up Trouble . . . . . . . . . . 26 Hiding Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 THE CONFRONTATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Drawing-Room Speeches . . . . . 28 In the Lair at Gunpoint . . . . . . . 28 In the Interrogation Room . . . . 28 The Villains Response . . . . . . . . 29 The Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2. A LITTLE REDDISH MOULD . . . . . . . . . . . 30

HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS . . . . . . . . 30 Describing the Scene . . . . . . . . 30 Crime Scenes and Criminals . . . 31 Cause, Mechanism, and Manner of Death . . . . . . . . . . 32 Time of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Homicide or Suicide? . . . . . . . . 32 Dramatic vs. Realistic Forensics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Causes of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Disposing of Bodies . . . . . . . . . . 34 Identifying a Body . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Other Crime Scene Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 GM Note: Game Mechanics . . . . 40 NON-HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS . . . . 40 Arson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Burglary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Kidnapping and Blackmail . . . . 43

EXPANDED INFLUENCE AND REACTION RULES . . . . . . . . . 53 Working with Police . . . . . . . . . 54 Optional Modifiers to Investigators Skill Roll . . . . . 54 Detecting Lies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Subsequent Interactions . . . . . . 56 Using Social Skills on PCs . . . . . 56

4. OATHS AND ORDEALS LOW-TECH MYSTERIES . . 57

LOW-TECH MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The Low-Tech Investigator . . . . 57 Amateur Sleuths . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Adapting Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Low-Tech Crime Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Other Times and Places . . . . . . . 59 The Low-Tech Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Why Cant I Invent Fingerprints? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 The Veil of Night . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The Confrontation . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Gossip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Undercover Investigations . . . . . 63 Punishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Sample Organization: The Inquisition . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Sample Organization: Victorian Thief-Takers . . . . . 65

3. THE DEADLIEST OF REVEALERS . . . . . . . . . . 44

WITNESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Solving Mysteries . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Handling the Talking Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Who is a Witness? . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Perception: What Does a Witness Know? . . . . . . . . . 46 Sense Roll Modifiers . . . . . . . . . 47 Memory: What Does a Witness Recall? . . . . . . . . . 49 How Reliable is the NPC? . . . . . 49 Getting People to Talk . . . . . . . . 50 Accomplices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

5. THE MODERN DETECTIVE . . . . . . . . . . 66

MODERN MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 The Modern Investigator . . . . . 67 Adapting Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

GURPS MYSTERIES

The Modern Crime Scene . . . . . 68 The Modern Investigation . . . . 69 Can I Invent Fingerprints First? . . . . . . . . . 70 Confrontations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Defense Investigators . . . . . . . . . 71 Lawyering Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Punishment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Sample Organization: The Pinkerton Agency . . . . . 73 SCIENCE FICTION MYSTERIES . . . . . . 74 The Science Fiction Investigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 The Science Fiction Crime Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Adapting Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 As You Know, Bob . . . The Perils of Exposition . . 76 The Science Fiction Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Bio-Tech and Other Genre Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 1984 and the Death of Privacy . . . . . . . . . . 77 Confrontations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Alien Outlooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Sample Organization: Universal Coverage Insurers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 TIMELINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Adapting Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Magical Trace Evidence . . . . . . . 84 Investigations Using Magic . . . . 84 Time Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Questioning the Dead . . . . . . . . . 85 Spells and Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Magical Confrontations . . . . . . 86 Gods of Thieves and Secrets . . . . 87 Fantastic Punishments . . . . . . . 87 Sample Organization: The Guild of Seeker . . . . . . . 88 A COMPENDIUM OF USEFUL GURPS SPELLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 For Investigators . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 For Criminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 HORROR MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 The Horror Investigator . . . . . . 93 The Horror Crime Scene . . . . . 93 Adapting Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Monster Hunting . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Monsters as Investigators . . . . . 94 Does Cthulhu Have Fingerprints? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Confronting Monsters . . . . . . . . 95 Closure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Sample Organization: Dana Detective Division . . . . 96 PSIONIC MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Four-Color Mysteries . . . . . . . . . 98 Psionic Investigators . . . . . . . . . 98 Psionic Crime Scenes . . . . . . . . 98 Investigating Psis . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Adapting Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Confrontations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Sample Organization: Tau Station Public Psi-vestigators . . . . . . . . . . . 99

7. CHARACTERS . . . . . . . . . 100
PRIVATE EYES AND POLICE . . . . . . . 100 CHARACTER CONCEPTS . . . . . . . . . . 101 Defense Attorney . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Another Day, Another Dead Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Fire Marshal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Untraditional Detectives . . . . . . 102 Genius Detective . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Hard-Boiled Detective . . . . . . . 103 Investigating Mage . . . . . . . . . 104 Medical Examiner . . . . . . . . . . 104 Police Detective . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Private Psi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Specialist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 That Darn Kid . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES, AND SKILLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 New Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 New Combat Technique . . . . . 112 EQUIPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Binoculars (TL5+) . . . . . . . . . . 113 Body Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Cameras (TL5+) . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Crime Scene Equipment . . . . . 114 Defensive Sprays and Tasers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Firearms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Flashlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Handcuffs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Weapon Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

6. PARANORMAL MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . 82
FANTASY MYSTERIES . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 The Fantasy Investigator . . . . . 82 The Fantasy Crime Scene . . . . . 83 Technomancer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

GURPS MYSTERIES

INTRODUCTION
Yeah, thats me, Tracer Bullet. Ive got eight slugs in me. Ones lead and the rest are bourbon. The drink packs a wallop, and I pack a revolver. Im a private eye. Calvin, Something Under the Bed is Drooling At their root, mysteries are about mans quest for knowledge something is hidden and must be found out. Order must be restored. Honor and integrity must be maintained in spite of corruption and indifference. Mysteries are about puzzle-solving. Reason, logic, and perseverance let investigators triumph over a criminals cleverest schemes and darkest deceptions. This universal drive to find the truth is what makes mysteries so compelling, and also what makes them so compatible with all types of settings. GURPS Mysteries delves into the mystery genre, showing how to structure a mystery campaign, or layer a mystery plot over an existing campaign of any type. A mystery adventure is part stage magic. It works by sleight of hand. The audience, or in this case, the players, expect to be fooled at least for a while. GURPS Mysteries lays bare some of the classic tricks. It explains why some tricks that work for mystery writers wont work for GMs and what tools GMs have that writers dont. It also describes specific challenges inherent in running low-tech, modern, science-fiction, and paranormal mysteries, and specific tools that GMs can use in each of these settings. For players, Mysteries explains how to portray experienced investigators. It describes modern forensics and modern theories on interviews and interrogation, as well as low-tech investigative methods, spells that can help or hinder an investigation, the use of psionics in mysteries, and more. Whether you are playing a forensic expert, genius detective, meddling kid, or jaded gumshoe, there is something here for you. So put your feet up on the desk, and lets see who comes in the door.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lisa J. Steele is a criminal defense attorney and author based in Massachusetts. She is a vice-chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) Forensic Evidence Committee. She represents clients accused of crimes ranging from minor traffic offenses to capital murder. Ms. Steele is the author of several legal articles about criminal defense, GURPS Cops, and Fief, from White Rose Publishing. She is a contributing author to White Wolfs Dark Ages: Europe and Spoils of War. Her personal interests range from science fiction to economics to medieval history to firearms.

About GURPS
Steve Jackson Games is committed to full support of the GURPS system. Our address is SJ Games, Box 18957, Austin, TX 78760. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) any time you write us! Resources include: Pyramid (www.sjgames.com/pyramid/). Our online magazine includes new GURPS rules and articles. It also covers Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, and many more top games and other Steve Jackson Games releases like In Nomine, Illuminati, Car Wars, Toon, Ogre Miniatures, and more. Pyramid subscribers also have access to playtest files online! New supplements and adventures. GURPS continues to grow, and well be happy to let you know whats new. For a current catalog, send us a legal-sized or 912 SASE please use two stamps! or just visit www.warehouse23.com. e23. Our e-publishing division offers GURPS adventures, play aids, and support not available anywhere else! Just head over to e23.sjgames.com. Errata. Everyone makes mistakes, including us but we do our best to fix our errors. Up-to-date errata sheets for all GURPS releases, including this book, are available on our website see below. Gamer input. We value your comments, for new products as well as updated printings of existing titles! Internet. Visit us on the World Wide Web at www.sjgames.com for errata, updates, Q&A, and much more. GURPS has its own Usenet group, too: rec.games.frp.gurps. GURPSnet. This e-mail list hosts much of the online discussion of GURPS. To join, point your web browser to www.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l/.

Page References
Rules and statistics in this book are specifically for the GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Any page reference that begins with a B refers to the GURPS Basic Set e.g., p. B102 means p. 102 of the GURPS Basic Set, Fourth Edition. Page references that begin with CI indicate GURPS Compendium I, those beginning with CII indicate GURPS Compendium II. Other references are BIO for GURPS BioTech, C for GURPS Cops, CV for GURPS Covert Ops, G for GURPS Grimoire, H for GURPS Horror, HT for GURPS High-Tech, M for GURPS Magic, MA for GURPS Martial Arts, MF for GURPS Modern Firepower, P for GURPS Psionics, S for GURPS Space, SPI for GURPS Spirits, T for GURPS Technomancer, UN for GURPS Undead, UT for GURPS Ultra-Tech, and UTT for GURPS Ultra-Tech 2. For a full list of abbreviations, see p. CI181 or the updated web list at www.sjgames.com/gurps/abbrevs.html.

GURPS MYSTERIES

CHAPTER ONE

THE IMPERFECT CRIME

A person who is tired of crime is tired of life. Horace Rumpole, Rumpole of the Bailey So you want to run a mystery adventure in a roleplaying game? Lets get the bad news out of the way up front; its going to be a lot of work to prepare and run the session. However, done well, its worth it. That hard work will pay off with a rewarding and unusual adventure that taxes your players wits, teases their imaginations, and leaves them hungry for more. This chapter will help you avoid many of the obvious pitfalls and organize your ideas into an interesting adventure. Subsequent chapters will provide you and your players with technical information, rules mechanics, setting specific ideas, and character templates and equipment. This chapter contains essential guidelines for how to structure a mystery adventure. It comes first because it lays out some vital groundwork for GMs. Players may want to skip this chapter and start with Chapter 2. Mystery adventures are more enjoyable when GMing sleights-of-hand and misdirection come as a surprise. The mystery adventure fits into any setting, and can be used with nearly any group of players and characters. You can use the basic idea in a near-infinite number of ways: there are puzzle mysteries, action mysteries, funny mysteries, dark mysteries, horrifying mysteries, hightech mysteries, low-tech mysteries, historical mysteries, psychological mysteries, scientific mysteries, computer mysteries . . . as many mysteries as there are settings. What they all share is one of the most powerful central ideas in storytelling: something is hidden, and it must be discovered.

SOME GROUND RULES

Your preparation begins well before you actually start designing the adventure. You need to start with some basic gotchas that arent necessarily obvious, even to experienced Game Masters.

MYSTERIES ARE NOT LIKE REAL LIFE

You can use real-life crimes for inspiration. The tabloids, the newspapers, and the True Crime section of your local library or bookstore will provide you with stories of crime and punishment on a daily basis. But thats about as far as you should go. The mystery genre for good reason has evolved a powerful set of conventions, which have nothing to do with realism but everything to do with the demands of drama. If you violate these conventions, youll have a harder time coming up with a satisfying adventure. Here are some of the most important: A mystery has a worthy adversary. Real criminals usually arent dramatically interesting. Their crimes, while

shocking and tragic, arent hard to solve. Real people seldom use elaborate fake timetables, elaborate alibis, or cunning poisons; if they think about covering up at all, they generally just try to guard against witnesses and fingerprints. Even serial killers tend be lonely, marginal figures with histories of child abuse and mental illness, not charismatic geniuses a la Hannibal Lecter. In a mystery story or game, thats a recipe for anticlimax. The crime itself may be impulsive or meticulously planned, but solving it should be a real achievement. A mystery is rational. Real crimes are full of uncertainty and loose ends. In reality, if theres a spot of garden soil on the carpet by the body, it may merely have been tracked in by the family dog, and have nothing to do with anything. Itll be put in an evidence bag and subjected to some fairly routine analysis, which probably wont turn up anything anyway. In a classic mystery, that spot is probably there for a reason. If it werent, the author wouldnt have mentioned it. (At the very least, if the spot is a red herring, the detective is given a fair chance to deduce that it isnt important.) As GM,

you need to use the same principle. Yes, this is meta-game thinking and you should use it! Cluttering up the crime scene by describing random and unimportant details is realistic, but it gives you bored and frustrated players when lead after lead comes up dry. A mystery has a definite resolution, where the loose ends are tied up. The realworld justice system is complex and slow. Criminals can make bargains with police and prosecutors for lighter sentences. It can take months, sometimes years, to bring a complex case to trial. Real detectives have to justify their methods and conclusions to jurors while being cross-examined by a skilled attorney. Even after a conviction, a criminal may challenge the detectives work in appellate courts and habeas corpus proceedings for years to come. And some questions may never be answered. At the end of a mystery story, by contrast, the investigator usually has no doubt about the villains guilt. The criminals punishment is a nigh-certainty. In any case, its beyond the scope of the plot, which is completely and satisfyingly fulfilled by unmasking the bad guy.

GURPS MYSTERIES