In the first video, I talked about the Briefing, where you give the characters concrete facts to work with, and several avenues for them to explore.
Intrigue is a method where you insert an object or event into the mystery that should not be there. It could be a second flagon of ale on the table, when the victim was alone, or a mysterious guest at the tavern who no one knows or spoke to.
There is a common failsafe in mystery adventures for when the characters/players are floundering, you have the villain burst in, with gun drawn, and accuse the characters of getting too close. That has got many a GM out of a dead-end mystery adventure.
As a halfway house between throwing up the entire mystery and letting the players flounder is to inject an NPC into a scene. Maybe the players want to check the victim’s home one more time, but this time they see a black-garbed figure jump out of a window and run away. What have they taken from the scene? Who were they? New questions can spark life back into a mystery and a half-glimpsed license plate can give the characters a new lead.
Intrigue is a mystery within a mystery, but one you can throw into your investigative game as and when needed.
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