Maids & Masters (& v0.13 & Investigation Mechanics)

Now that I think I'm happy with where the investigation into the cult is and the new mechanic is built for that (because I can't stop myself from experimenting with new mechanics in this game), it seems appropriate that these "investigation mechanics" also get used for v0.13's murder mystery. So now on top of using the new mechanic in more places, I'm trying to use the new mechanic in more ways, including across multiple maps (which presents its own challenges).

I haven't tested it yet, but the introduction is complete, along with the first leg of the investigation. So far I'm happy with how everything is turning out. It felt good to write, and I feel like I'm seeding enough questions and additional nuance and other complications. Plus, as long as the mechanics work the way they're supposed to, keeping track of the vital information you find should be easy for people who (for some reason) don't want to do any reading and just get the footnotes.

 

Though I do want to make a differentiation there. The "vital information" does not fully cover all of the important information. I'm not sure how intertwined they'll end up by the time I'm done writing everything, but there is a story here beyond the murder mystery itself. If you stay on the rails and only do the bare minimum, you'll be able to solve the mystery just fine; but you won't get the whole story. There's still the death of the previous Master Bancroft that - while it isn't vital - does still play a role in all of these events. On top of that, there's everything that happened between that death and the new Master Bancroft succeeding the Estate, which I've already mentioned several times in the first step of the quest. These stories won't tell themselves - you'll need to go out of your way to ask the right questions of the right people at the right time.

I think I've also got the "hey Phoebe, do it for me" mechanic working in a way I'm happy with as well. It'll still be a struggle to figure out exactly how to not break progression with it, but the mechanic does what it's supposed to do, and doesn't do anything unless you go out of your way to tell it to do something, which were the main goals. It should also make the narrative of the mystery itself nice and concise for anyone who can't keep track of all the details in something like this.

Now I just have to introduce the rest of the cast, hide the murder weapon in a place where it can be later found, throw a couple wrenches in there to keep things interesting, and figure out how to write a satisfying reveal despite giving you (the player) the ability to select incorrect options the whole way through. That last one will be the real trick, because I think rather than using game mechanics to force you to only have "correct" choices, I'm just going to leave wrong choices everywhere, and you'll need to remember your discoveries in order to properly nail the killer's reveal at the end.