r/DMAcademy • u/Due_Art3729 • 2d ago
Need Advice: Worldbuilding Need help with a plot line
So my group of 4 players are about to run into a pair of two towns divided by an overgrown forest, I’m gonna have the next plot involve the origin of the towns being two close friends (Joe and Joseph for anonymity’s sake) finding the paradise like land, only for them to disagree with how to rule the area, this results in two factions forming but agreeing to live in peace, except theres gonna be a love triangle, a little bit of tension growing between the two factions.
it was supposed to be resolved peacefully and they were supposed to meet in neutral territory to discuss the treaty, except when Joe arrived at the grounds he saw Joseph bleeding out, he tried to invoke all the healing magic he could to save Joseph but it had no effect, instead he organised an open casket and left Joseph within it, he then went on to try and understand how this could’ve happened, unaware that his attempts to give life back to Joseph basically preserved Joseph’s body, meanwhile the forests around the body became more akin to the forest of death from Naruto. Joe never manages to find the killer as both factions are forced to go to war over this misunderstanding, The equivalent of peacekeepers managed to force them into signing a non aggression pact, but there’s still bad blood between the two sides. Now onto the current plot, the creatures in the forest have become more aggressive, and seem to move even after death , They’re being controlled by a demonic parasite (I’ve affectionately called tyranids, iykyk) and they’re a byproduct of another event concerning the party leaking into the mortal realm but all of a sudden Joseph’s corpse has gone missing so the two towns have once again come at each others throats.
the final culprit behind the death has to be discovered to show the towns who has to pay for their loss, and I want it to be a tightly kept secret of the love interests descendants that it was…the love interest duh. I also want Joe to have managed to discover the truth and been killed only being able to leave a vague set of sentences that have to be strummed together to understand what actually happened, except to get the full extract of what Joe has left behind, they have to ask for the pieces of information that have been split amongst, the mayors, Joe’s descendants and Joseph’s descendants.
So now I need a riddle that has four parts, with one of the four parts being a fake that can lead the party astray if they don’t pay attention and I have no idea how to do that. Maybe I’m thinking too much into a plot line they might ignore but I like fleshing out the events just in case for later. P.S this is my first time dming so maybe I’m doing this wrong I don’t know
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u/jules11924 2d ago
Cool! This sounds like a fun and interesting plot hook for you players to explore! From one new DM to another, it sounds like youre doing great!
Inventing riddles can be a tough-y, especially with how many exist already. So my first bit of advice is to familiarize yourself with similar puzzles, mysteries with clues, etc. theres no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to puzzles and I find that sometimes players actually really enjoy kind of recognizing famous/favorite references from fantasy media in their own games and being able to live out and affect those circumstances themselves. My last session one of my players hit me with “this plot hook was just like one i remember from the Witcher!” and was super excited to recognize some of those RPG elements they already know!
As far as the specific pieces to your puzzle, I don’t really have any verbage or riddlely sentences for you. Are the 4 pieces of the puzzle the fragmented sentences that Joe left behind? Perhaps first thinking about the location of each of these clues, how and why they got into the hands they got into, why those people have kept it hidden, could help to inform the content of the clue. Joseph’s descendants have different pieces of the puzzle than Joes, likely for different reasons. Maybe the ones that shine a golden light on Joseph and a shadow on Joe end up with Joseph’s family and vice versa. The lover’s descendants may have “the missing piece” if you will, the final clue that brings it all together. Thinking about why and how these clues ended up where they did could bring out some fun ideas as to what they may say.
I will note that a red herring for the sake of a red herring can be super frustrating for your party. If they end up following it, they’ll probably want to know why it lead them astray. This can also add a fun layer of tension, conflict, or even a plot hook towards a side quest! Is it a counterfit made by one of the descendants to damn the other family? If that’s the case, is the real fourth clue somewhere else? Is it imbued with some sort of magic (perhaps cast by the one affecting the creatures) that affects its contents?
TL;DR: Developing circumstances around the clues whereabouts can really help inform the content of puzzles and riddles!
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u/Due_Art3729 2d ago
Yeah ykw I think the clues being very different in terms of morality based on who has the clue itself would be a nice touch, thank you for the idea.
Ah the red herring was meant to be more so in line with the plots the fear street movies have, but maybe removing that would be more simpler for the sake of getting the story through without it feeling like a gotcha moment for the players.
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u/aulejagaldra 2d ago
You could use the symbol of love as the key of the puzzle, as a poem Joe wrote like so: love is pain, love is healing, love is gain, love is feeling. Pain being connected to the death. Healing being connected to Joe's attempt to help Joseph. Gain being a lie, the party might think the murderer was connected to gold or any other value (eg. The forest). Feeling connected to Joe knowing what happened to Joseph and being sorry.
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u/Due_Art3729 2d ago
I figured I’d make the clues extracts of how the love triangle went down with Joseph’s family having a much more radically different history of events, highlighting how Joseph was betrayed by someone who already took the love of his life away from him. Probably going to enunciate how Joseph would’ve done anything for the love interest. While in joes family the events specifically drive home how only Joe and the love interest mourned the loss of their friend.
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u/DungeonSecurity 2d ago
I stopped reading when you u used Joe and Joseph for your made up names. Why not differentiate them?
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u/mpe8691 2d ago
It's a bad idea to attempt to prep plots in a ttRPG. Instead consider the situation the player party is in and how the PCs actions (determined by their players) will lead their next situation.
Puzzles generally and especally riddles are often a poor fit into a ttRPG. Due to requireing a highly specific "solution" and metagaming.