RA; the Path of the Sun God

Wonderful animated film about Egyptian mythology, and the birth of the Sun God Ra

Not Drunk Enough - BOOK THREE

Awesome web comic, think supernatural monster horror meets escape room

This is a really interesting blog post from Sean McCoy about running investigations in tabletop role play games. The whole things is worth the read (it's very short) but I'll highlight a couple sections with my thoughts:

I want to “be” a detective in an rpg. I want to solve the puzzle.

This is the core difference between games like Brindlewood Bay and Gumshoe, versus games like Delta Green. It's the difference between wanting to play the fantasy of being a detective and wanting to actually solve a crime the way a detective would. Sean sums up my opinion on the matter nicely here:

I want to “be” a detective in an rpg. I want to solve the puzzle.

In Delta Green, you get to solve the mystery. In Gumshoe, you play a character solving a mystery. Two equally valid ways to tell similar stories, but fundamentally different from a game design standpoint.
Which means as a GM, the game you run is going to change the way that your Mystery flows. Both in your prep, and for your players at the table.

He also highlights something I've noticed in my own experience: investigations are hard for players to play through:

...Players, or a lot of players, don’t know how to run investigations.
...
In investigations, players know they should look for clues, but generally don’t have a strong grasp on when they’re closing in [on the mystery].

Part of this clarity comes from good scenario design, but Sean also presented a really interesting tool for this: an Investigation sheet.

Similar to the way a character sheet teaches a player how to play their character, the investigation sheet would teach a player or a group of players how to solve a mystery and what clues to look for. I haven't implemented something like this in any of my games, but it's something I'd really like to try.

Oh man, am I excited for Control: Resonant to come out later this year. Remedy Studios is one of those companies that I trust implicitly to give me an experience I won’t forget. The way they present stories to the player and allow them to dig as deep as they’d like is an inspiration. Like a mystery that doesn’t ask to be solved but instead asks the player why they want to know in the first place.