Solving a Mystery: A Fate Toolkit, Carved from

Brindlewood
Finding Clues
Before attempting to Solve a Mystery, you’ll want to find some Clues to guide your theorizing.
Say what you’re doing to investigate the mystery, be it searching a room, talking to a suspect,
holding a séance to commune with the confused spirit of the victim, or whatever.
Investigations will typically be Overcome actions, with Difficulties set by the GM or opposed
by Defend actions by NPCs.

On a Success, the GM will reveal a Clue. On a Success With Style, the GM will reveal a Plot
Clue as well. On a Tie, the GM may reveal a clue at a minor cost. On a Failure, the GM may
reveal a clue at a major cost. You and the GM may invoke as usual to adjust the result.

In addition, the GM may reveal a clue instead of any other benefit you might get from a roll.
For example, on a success with style to Create an Advantage, the GM might reveal a clue
instead of giving you a second free invoke on the aspect. Or, the GM might reveal a clue
instead of giving you a boost when you roll a tie on an Attack.

Solving the Mystery

When the players have an open, freewheeling discussion about the solution to a mystery and
reach a consensus, one person rolls (4dF as usual), and adds the number of clues used in the
theory or otherwise explained away.

Skills (or Approaches) do not add to this roll, and NPCs may not Defend against it. Invoking
may not modify the roll up or down, either. The theory should stand or fall on its own merits.

The mystery’s Difficulty is revealed by the GM at the start of the game. Typical mysteries have
a difficulty between +5 Superb and +8 Legendary.

On a Failure, the solution is incorrect, and the GM reacts by making things worse, typically by
escalating danger or closing off opportunities. Adding or removing one or more aspects would
be a typical move. Or, the solution is correct, but at a major cost (e.g., the culprit gets away).

On a Tie, the solution is correct, but the GM will add some unwelcome complication, or
otherwise require a minor cost be paid. The GM may present an opportunity to confront the
culprit, but the characters will be at a disadvantage: the GM gets a boost for the confrontation.

On a Success, the solution is correct, and the GM will present an opportunity to confront the
culprit.

On a Success With Style, the solution is correct, and the GM will present an opportunity to
confront the culprit. In addition, the players may create an aspect with one free invoke,
representing their advantage over the culprit. Or, the GM will reveal some additional secret
related to the overarching plot or the characters’ backstories.

For the GM: Building a Mystery

A mystery is a scenario type, not a scene type; any given mystery will have many scenes.
Mysteries have the following components:
Title
Either at the start of the scenario or at an opportune moment (e.g. the body is found), reveal
the title of the mystery. Something punny is preferred. The title is a Scenario Aspect.

Difficulty
The base difficulty for a mystery is +5 Superb.

The base difficulty requires the characters to have found and used at least one clue in their
theory in order to have a chance at succeeding.

To have better than a 50/50 shot at success, the players will need to use at least as many
clues as the mystery’s difficulty in their theory.

The difficulty is always passive. NPCs may interfere with the PCs' efforts throughout the
scenario, but they may not Defend against (i.e. Provide Active Opposition to) their roll to Solve
a Mystery.

For harder mysteries, you can adjust the difficulty up to +8 Legendary—or as high as you like.
But remember that this means the characters will need to find more clues before having a
reasonable chance at Solving the Mystery. You can lower the difficulty too, but be warned that
this makes it statistically possible for the characters to solve the mystery before they’ve found
any clues.

Suspects
These are the NPCs who happen to be around when the inciting incident of the mystery
occurs. They might be relatives, friends, and rivals of a murder victim. They could be
competitors in a baking contest that was sabotaged. Maybe they’re rival witches who blame
each other for the escape of a local demon. Whoever they are, they should all have some
investment in the mystery.

There should be a good number of suspects in any mystery—at least as many as the mystery’s
difficulty, probably more, but at most twelve.

If you have the time, prep a few interesting details about each suspect: how they appear, their
personality, their general motivations, their connection to the mystery, and so on. To prompt
your roleplay, it’s also a good idea to come up with one or two typical quotes; you needn’t ever
say these out loud, but they can help put you in the right headspace when you switch between
NPCs. If you don’t have time to prep all these details for a suspect, provide one detail about
them and ask the group to help fill in further details.

Clues
You should prepare a list of potential clues that the characters may find throughout the course
of the mystery. Have at least a dozen, preferably around twenty. Clues should be vaguely
suspicious objects or bits of conversation that the characters could uncover as they
investigate. A clue should not be a glaringly obvious solution to the mystery by itself. Rather,
each clue should suggest some partial explanation; introduce some complexity, complication,
or contradiction to the facts of the case; or provide a possible but not confirmed motive,
means, or opportunity.

When selecting a clue to reveal, you may use existing setting, scenario, zone, organization, or
character aspects to inform your choice. For example, if a room in the mansion has the zone
aspect Like a Storm Went Through, that might suggest that a clue like this would be an
appropriate find: “A broken ancient Greek vase. When the shards are reassembled, the figure-
painting seems to show a bird-headed woman.”

Clues are not aspects, but, once discovered, they might suggest aspects that could be added
into play. For example, if the characters discover a clue like “A rusty iron fire poker, dented
and bloodstained,” that might suggest that the room should have the zone aspect Disused
Fireplace.

Setting
The mystery takes place in a somewhat self-contained location that has a combination of
gravitas and whimsy, with some element of liminality. Some ideas: grand residences such as
castles, mansions, or estates; isolated locations such as villages, trains, or pocket dimensions;
places of amusement such as fairs, theatres, or carnivals; places of learning such as schools,
museums, colleges, or libraries; cavernous spaces such as trains, subway tunnels, culverts, and
caves.

Divide the setting into zones, and come up with a few setting and zone aspects. Ask the
players to help describe something interesting about each zone, and use that to add more
aspects.

Plot Clues
These are similar to clues, but instead of being tied directly to the current mystery, they
pertain instead to some larger story. They might hint at elements of a character’s backstory.
They may provide ambiguous details about a dark conspiracy at work behind all of the
mysteries in a campaign. They could provide partial guidance to solving a bigger problem
shared by all of the characters, such as how to return home or the location of a treasure. Or
whatever else fits the campaign.

In general, plot clues should not be admissible when theorizing about a mystery’s solution:
they are about something bigger. But from time to time, the current mystery and the
overarching plot may converge. Discuss as a group and use your judgement as storytellers,
just as you would when deciding whether to allow an invoke on an aspect.

Credits and Copyright

This toolkit is © 2022 by Trystan Goetze. It is released under a CC-BY 4.0 International
licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Thanks to Kat, Ink, and Matt for
playtesting. This work is based on Brindlewood Bay, a creation of Jason Cordova and Gauntlet
Publishing. This publication is not affiliated with Jason Cordova or Gauntlet Publishing. This
work is based on Fate Core System, Fate Accelerated Edition, and Fate Condensed (found at
http://www.faterpg.com/), products of Evil Hat Productions, LLC, developed, authored, and
edited by Leonard Balsera, Brian Engard, Jeremy Keller, Ryan Macklin, Mike Olson, Clark
Valentine, Amanda Valentine, Fred Hicks, and Rob Donoghue, and licensed for our use under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Fate™ is a trademark of Evil Hat Productions,
LLC. The Powered by Fate logo is © Evil Hat Productions, LLC and is used with permission.
Derivative works must attribute the author of this toolkit and include the licence text for
Brindlewood Bay and Fate.