Sleuthsim: Introduction and Rules Part I
Sleuthsim began on MSpaint fan adventures & tumblr, as a homestuck or problem sleuth style forum adventure/webcomic hybrid, presented in the style of a visual novel a la hiveswap friendsim (the release of which inspired this project in the first place, way back in 2018). This was partly because both the form and content of the story were a natural fit, partly because I felt i required a spontaneous source of procedural input in order to coalesce a database of ideas I’d built up over the past few years into something with a sense of momentum and direction.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I found that the audience inputs were too inconsistent to move the story along. Besides, if they ever picked up, my current job and school situation would not allow me to work on a webcomic with a consistent update schedule. I decided that the procedural or generative element of the story would be more productive if it came from a solo adventure or journaling game, going by the example of the excellent play reports of EGRESS developed and compiled by KB of the blog Goblin Cat Gallery.
The game I feverishly typed up in the next several days is a hexcrawl through a mysterious mansion that functions as a school for young detectives, attempting to solve a mystery. The rules are outlined below. These are noticeably incomplete - I am hoping to “playtest” and figure out what works as the story progresses. I may add or remove rules & elements, test variations, or just take a break and play a pre-existing journaling game. By its very nature, this is project is experimental and variable. I may workshop this into a tabletop game that can stand on its own with one or more players, or a story in some other medium that uses original characters instead of preexisting IPs. Play to find out what happens!
A note on the form
Part of my reluctance to put pen to paper relates to the scope and reception of the project - it is at its heart a work of fan fiction. While the work possesses a unified framework largely inspired by homestuck/hiveswap and a series of unfortunate events/all the wrong questions, the cast of characters and attendant media properties ballooned to megacrossover status. The amount of media properties represented resemble works like Tails gets Trolled, Scoob and Shag, or (I say with reluctance and distaste, revealing my middle school reading habits) Powerpuff girls doujinshi.
The obvious downside of this is that the more specific and diverse my cross-section of tastes and interests on display, the fewer people will be “into” it, or even familiar with all of the works referenced. This is an extremely personal work, the equivalent of smashing toys I like together, and I have no idea how legible it will be to any given reader (the name of this blog will give some indication as to why it shook out this way). With this in mind, the subsequent posts will consist of with a record of play/development and a summary of the narrative that occurs, followed by text that renders the fiction itself in the form of dialog and text (maybe with some images if i have the time). If the fiction portion of this is not of interest to the reader, feel free to just read the game potion (vice versa too, though i have a hard time imagining this to be the case).
Sleuthsim Rules 01 - the Case
The primary mystery-solving unit of play is a case - a case may consist of multiple days of in-game time, but the assumed default is 1 day. At the start of a day, you have 12 hours (divided into 24 moves, or 3 rounds of 8 moves each) to solve a case; Begin by separating the major arcana from a tarot deck, then drawing a spread of 3 cards: space one represents the victim or object of a crime, space two represents the nature of crime, and space three represents the companion who will be assisting you in solving the mystery for the day. After this is determined, shuffle these cards back into the tarot deck - this will be your primary deck. You will also need a secondary tarot deck, as well as at least 2 decks of regular playing cards to build yours and NPCs’ action decks.
The goal is to solve the case by forming a Denoument, or presentation of your interpretation of the case. This consists of a spread of tarot cards representing the Perpetrator (major arcana), Motive (cups), Method (Swords), Feasibility (Staves), and Drama (Pentacles). Each suit must be of the same number for the Denoument to be successful.
You solve this mystery by exploring the house, in the form of a hexcrawl, which resets at the start of each day. Your starting hex represents the scene of the crime. Roll 1d10 to determine what part of the house this is: 1-2 = 1st floor, 3-4 = second floor, 5-6 = third floor, 7-8 = lower level, 9-10 = grounds. Each hex entered, including the starting hex, must have a type of room determined by either a d20 or a d10 depending on the part of the house (I will link to the relevant tables when they are posted).
Traversing a hex takes half an hour. Roll 1d6 to determine how many additional entrances a room has, then a another to determine their position. The result is number of degrees clockwise to the side of the hex you entered from. If a 6, it is located in the floor or ceiling (flip a coin). If you roll the same number twice, then the entrance located there is obstructed, only accessible via a Puzzle.
To traverse a hex with more than one entrance, roll 1d2-1d6 to pick a direction (clockwise from top right), and move there. Each hex has 1d4 objects of interest. Draw the result from your primary tarot deck - each of the faces and major arcana is an NPC, and each of the minor arcana 1-9 are clues. Discovering a or solving a clue, or meeting a person adds that card to your evidence deck. If that card is a minor arcana, it also puts a card of the corresponding suit into your action deck.
At the start of every round (4 hours), your companion will present you with a dialogue option in the form of a single card drawn from the primary deck. Decide what the upright or inverted interpretations of this card represent. If you choose upright, they gain a point of trust, and you loose an action card. If inverted, they gain a point of mistrust and you gain a dialog card. Trust and mistrust cancel eachother out. Characters can have up to a maximum of three for either. For each point of trust, a failure turns into a success during debate or interrogation. Vice versa for mistrust.
NPCs have clues of their own to uncover and suspicions of their own to needle. Whenever someone is encountered, they will have a number of face down cards drawn in their evidence deck drawn from your secondary tarot deck, along with a corresponding dialog card (if applicable). They start with 1 card, and automatically add another each round.
You can choose to present cards from your evidence deck to NPCs to elicit their feelings and opinions. Roll 2d6 to determine their reaction:
2 They immediately become suspicious or aggravated, triggering a debate.
3-6 Their opinion is not immediately helpful or relevant to the case at hand
7-9 You notice a tell, prompting an interrogation.
10-11 They offer one of their clues in exchange for a physical (10) or mental (11) puzzle
12 - They present you with evidence of their own, sharing one of their face down cards freely, or giving +2 rank to an evidence card if they are already known
During dialog (interrogation or debate), you each draw 3 cards from your decks and lay them out in order. Higher suit beats lower. In the case of numerical ties, specific suits beat other suits during interrogation; this win order is reversed for debate. During interrogation, double ties go to the PC; during debate, they go to the NPC.
A successful interrogation means you uncover one of their face down cards, search your primary deck for its equivalent, add them to your catalogue, and shuffle. If you already have the card(s), you instead raise or lower the number of one of the suits in your Denoument by 1, as your suspicions are confirmed (this means searching your primary deck for the desired card, discarding the original card, and shuffling).
During interrogation, each win reveals a face down card from the NPC. However, this leaves you vulnerable to countermeasures - if you have the majority of losses, that NPC will interrogate you, triggering a debate. Winning a debate allows you to raise or lower the number of one of the suits in your denoument by 1. Losing it means you lose a card from your Denoument.
When discovering a clue, roll 1d4 to determine its nature
On a 1, the clue is straightforwardly apparent, and you add it to your evidence
On a 2, the clue requires a skill check to notice it and determine its significance
On a 3, the clue requires a Physical Puzzle be solved to retrieve it
On a 4, the clue requires a Mental Puzzle be solved to retrieve it
Skill checks have a starting difficulty threshold of 3 (roll above to succeed). The threshold goes up by 1 every round. You add the number of action cards in the relevant suit as a positive modifier.
Puzzles require a number of cards of a matching suit that add up a random number (roll 1d6 per round for physical puzzles, 1d4 per round for mental). Physical puzzles require evidence cards, and mental puzzles require action cards.
The day ends when 24 moves have passed, or you have drawn all cards in the primary deck. At the end of a case, If you have a denoument, you must defend it by debating a Teacher NPC.