New year, new GM, they say. One thing I’ve never really embraced is running investigative games; all that breadcrumb-laying, clue-ordering, never really floated my boat. I’ve also played in games in my past where these were a massive disappointment; PCs flailing around desperately to get to some sort of conclusion, to be informed gleefully by the GM of all the clues we’d missed, often due to something as straightforward as a failed skill roll or not being in the right place at the right time. Call of Cthulhu, I’m looking at you.
But I’ve played in some decent investigative games at conventions recently, so I’m going to give it a go. I’ve even drafted an investigative scenario into an almost-baked form (that is, it’s enough notes for me to run it, although your mileage may of course vary).
And because I want to make things difficult for myself, I’m using a system I haven’t used before as well – Urban Jungle, which is a game of anthropomorphic noir from Sanguine Games. Anthro noir isn’t a genre I’m particularly keen on, but I’ve always thought Gangbusters needed something a bit more to it – magic, the occult, everyone being animals – and the system is neat and crunchy and has some interesting mechanics about avoiding combat or surrendering. For example, there’s a Gift, Coward, which many characters start with which gives a massive bonus to Dodge and to escape combat – as long as your character is Panicked, which means you’ve taken some damage and are unable to attack – you can also choose to become Panicked to get this bonus to Dodge – making Non-Combat characters significantly hardier in combat at the cost of not being able to directly attack enemies. I’ll give it a full review when I’ve seen it in play.
In this first instalment, I present to you the adventure itself – along with the attached beer mat synopsis of its structure. In my next post, as well as providing a .pdf version of this, I’ll try to dissect how I’ve tried to balance investigation with action. The setting, on the off chance you’re not familiar with UJ’s three city settings, is Bellegard, a pseudo-New Orleans, in 1930. The basic structure of these notes, as you’d expect, is like I mentioned here.
Round About Midnight
Introduction
As midnight falls across Bellegarde, creatures of the night make their move. An unprovoked attack on the Savanna Room nightclub ends with Vince Renoit, noted entrepreneur and the most successful rum-runner in the city, dead. Who could have done it? His jealous fiance Lorna Devin, jilted and neglected by the lion of Bellegard? Tubs L’Phant, jazz performer in too deep? His scheming brother Pierre? All the while the Bellegard Crime Syndicate waits to make their move, and up-and-coming rat Dollar Bill Mizzoni looks to light the powder keg beneath Bellegard.
In order to take Renoit out, Dollar Bill has paid the Swamp Gators Gang to hold up the Savanna Room. In the ensuing chaos, Vince has been shot – with clues left pointing to a few different suspects. As allies and associates of Renoit, the PCs must find the murderer before the city’s nightlife descends into all-out war.
Cast
Vince Renoit is a lion entrepreneur. He’s gregarious and friendly, and has built his speakeasy up from being honourable and keeping a clean reputation with everyone he deals with. If you’re using your own PCs or Pregens, each of them should have something to link them to Vince – and make it in their interests to bring his murderers to justice.
Dollar Bill Mizzoni is a mouse mobster. In a few years he’ll run half the city – unless the PCs take him out now. He’s quiet, thoughtful, and incredibly cruel – he’ll try to avoid even speaking directly to the PCs, and plays a role in the background of this adventure for the most part.
Lorna Devin is a cat femme fatale. She’s betrothed to Vince but with him being so occupied with the nightclub recently has taken to stepping out with Dollar Bill. She can’t deny that it’d be easier for her if one of her paramours was to be out of the picture, but she didn’t shoot Vince.
Tubs L’Phant is the hot draw in the Savanna Room, an elephant trumpet player. He’s deep into a spiralling booze and gambling addiction, and when Dollar Bill offered him big bucks to get a way into the Savanna Room, he couldn’t help but sell out his boss.
Pierre Renoit is a shifty lion accountant, and Vince’s brother. He manages the business side of the nightclub and suspects it could be an inside job – he’s thought about pulling one himself enough times. It’s possible that Pierre is a pregen – in which case his innocence is definite – but he should have close links to the PCs. He’s been rather obviously set up for the murder, and so the players should be discouraged from assuming his guilt.
Dime Store Danny is a mouse hit man and, along with Nickel Nitkowski, a shrew mobster, Dollar Bill’s right hand man. He shot Vince in the back room while the Savanna Room was being attacked.
Clay Cotton is a crocodile thug and leader of the Swamp Gators. Mizzoni paid him to attack the Savanna Room to create a distraction for Dime Store Danny to shoot Vince.
Plot
To summarise – Dollar Bill is behind it all. He got a pass into the back room of the Savanna Rooms from Tubs L’Phant, offering to pay his gambling debt off for him. He gave the pass to Dime Store, then got the Crocodile Rocks to hold up the nightclub so that Dime Store could sneak into the back room and shoot Vince with Lorna Devin’s pistol, then plant the pistol in Pierre’s desk. He’s hoping that this will cause the whole Renoit crime empire to collapse, and he can move in on their turf. Unfortunately for him, he’s picked a night when the PCs are in the nightclub.
Scene One – The Savanna Rooms
It is nearing midnight at the turn of a sweltering Bellegard evening. The jazz is hot and the whisky sodas are ice cold as the Savanna Room parties on and on. The PCs will be various locations around the nightclub, drinking or fraternising. They should be in the main part of the nightclub – if one of them starts in the back rooms, as soon as the commotion starts Vince will insist they go and investigate.
The music shudders to a halt as a group of crocodiles come in –
“Nobody tries anything stupid, nobody has to get hurt. Jewelry, watches, cash, all in the holdalls, nice and easy…”
The speaker is an immense crocodile, and his gang circle the room clearing out cash from partygoers. Remind the players that they are in a speakeasy that’s technically illegal – it’s not exactly realistic to call for the cops. The crocodiles that circulate are thugs, but they aren’t covering the room very well – and apart from the leader don’t appear to be armed.
Assuming the PCs intervene, run a round or two of combat before they hear a shot fired from the back room followed by a scream. Anyone who moves to investigate immediately manages to see a shadowy figure running away. At the shot, there is one more round of combat before either the cops arrive, or the crocodiles flee.
Scene Two – The Back Room
Vince Renoit, the nightclub owner, lies in a pool of blood slumped against his leather sofa. He’s been shot through the head from somebody shooting from a lower vantage point to him – there doesn’t seem to be sounds of a struggle. Lorna is nowhere to be seen – she had a feeling this might be Dollar Bill and is worried she’ll be implicated. Pierre arrives straightaway, flustered and with a cut on his lip. Obviously if Pierre is a PC, he’ll arrive on the scene with the other PCs – he will notice that his desk has been disturbed.
A search of the crime scene reveals an engraved compact pistol that has been hastily stuffed in Pierre’s desk. The handle has been wiped down but the barrel is still warm. They have their murder weapon. Pierre or anyone associated with the club will reveal that the back room doors are usually kept locked, with only a few regulars having access to the keys – Pierre, Lorna, Tubs L’Phant (as a regular in the club he often takes drinks with Vince in the back room, although they had recently fallen out), and if appropriate one or two of the PCs.
Scene Three – The Streets of Bellegard
If they chase, or track, the fleeing figure, they can corner Dime Store Danny. He says he went to hide in the back room and found the door unlocked, but disturbed Lorna and Pierre having an argument, and when Vince intervened, he saw Lorna shoot Vince. He tells them that he knows Lorna used to hang around with the Swamp Gators Gang – maybe she set it up? – and will tell the PCs of their base in the Undercity. He’ll say anything and implicate anyone to avoid being captured – up to and above calling the cops and getting them to take him in (Dollar Bill can easily bail him out with his connections on the force) – and will also try to work out what the PCs already know.
Pacing the next three scenes
There are three scenes that will provide various clues to the murderer next, and you should aim to provide a range of play experiences in each one – broadly speaking it works for one to be a roleplaying challenge, one a fight, and one a chase – and you can select which one is most appropriate for each based on both the fiction and the level of energy at the table.
There are three clues for them to discover in these scenes – the default is that they find Dollar Bill’s involvement in each, and also rule out the Swamp Gators, Lorna Devin and Tubs L’Phant as actual murderers. It’s possible that they decide to go straight to Dollar Bill after finding out of his involvement – in order to do this they’ll need to learn that he’s based at the Phillips and get access to him – for which any one of the other scenes can get them – either Cotton, Tubs, or Lorna, can get them access to the suite by arranging to meet with Mizzoni.
Scene Four – The Undercity
The PCs find the headquarters of the Swamp Gators Gang in a partially-flooded warehouse in the Undercity. Clay Cotton, leader of the gang, sits in a beach chair sipping pina coladas surrounded by his lackeys.
The default is that this is a roleplaying scene – Cotton has little to gain by denying the source of his work, and either he or his lackeys can be easily persuaded to reveal that the raid was financed by Dollar Bill. He was paid a substantial sum to raid until the gunshot, and then get out of there – and given the password for the door as well (High Water Rising), which meant they could get in armed. A couple of days ago, Dollar Bill also got them to deliver a package to Tubs L’Phant, the jazz trumpeter regular at the club, which he thought was unusual – he doesn’t work for Dollar Bill.
If questioned about Lorna, he admits that he doted on her “half a lifetime ago,” but says that she’s moved up in the world now – and wouldn’t be seen dead with a two-bit thug like him. He can give them her address, a flat overlooking Spanish Park in an exclusive area of the nicest part of the city.
If they need a fight, have Cotton’s thugs be more belligerent and make them beat it out of them. Cotton will just watch, amused, before revealing the details. For a chase, have one of the crocs slip away obviously to tell Dollar Bill – he can reveal everything once caught.
Scene Five – Lorna Devin’s apartment
Lorna is terrified and has already called Dollar Bill, who has sent round Nickel and his mobsters to guard her. The default is that the PCs have to fight them to get to Lorna, who then reveals that she has been seeing Dollar Bill, and he knows about her gun, but that she lost it a couple of nights ago and hasn’t seen it since. She didn’t shoot Vince, but has grown apart from him and is also terrified of Dollar Bill – especially his two lackeys, Nickel and Dime. She tells them that the only other person that had access to the back room key was Tubs L’Phant – he’s a regular drinker with Vince and her, and the jazz-man hadn’t been the most reliable lately. Him and Vince had an argument after Vince implied that his performances had deteriorated, and challenged him about arriving to his spot late and drunk.
If they need a chase, have Lorna flee in her automobile (or on foot through a crowded department store if the PCs do not have a jalopy). For a roleplaying scene, have them stumble into Lorna outside her apartment – and have them both avoid the minders.
Scene Six – Tubs L’Phant
The PCs can find Tubs in the Greasy Parrot, a dive bar in the Finny Gramoo, drowning his sorrows. The default is that this is a chase scene – as the PCs approach, they see him ruefully looking at an envelope of money – before some of Dollar Bill’s thugs grab it off him and make off into the night. The washed up elephant can only scream “My money! Somebody help me! And hope the PCs give chase (on foot, or by car if they have a car).”
When questioned, he reveals he gave a copy of the keys to Dollar Bill – he was told they were going to rob the register, not kill the owner. He is deeply in debt from gambling and just needed the money – he regrets what he has done. He shows them their (handwritten) agreement and is prepared to testify.
Scene Seven – Confrontation
Once the players have found out about this, they have enough evidence to confront Dollar Bill. He rents a suite at the Phillips Hotel. Either Tubs, Cotton, or Lorna can get them access to him. He’s sat in a plush leather chair, and tells them that a change is coming to this city, and that they have no chance but to follow him – he offers reasonable terms to them, and is prepared to forgive them for any of his minions they have knocked out of the picture. This is likely to be a fight, and Dime Store and Nickel are both there to back him up, along a group of other Normal NPCs to make up the numbers to one more than the number of PCs. At the first sign of trouble, Dollar Bill flees out to the back room and tries to get away and call the cops. If he does this, they arrive to see him flee the city, paying out of the Phillips, his designs on the Renoit family for the moment frustrated.
NPC Statistics
Swamp Gators Gang Members – normal crocodiles
All Common Traits d6, Swimming, Fighting d6
Punch 2d6 Dmg +1 / Baseball Bat 3d6 Dmg +2
Counter w/Baseball Bat 3d6 @ Close / Dodge d6 / Soak d6
Initiative d6, Panic Save -2
Clay Cotton – elite crocodile gangster
All Common Traits d8, Brawling, Danger Sense, Swimming, Endurance d8, Fighting d8
Pummel 3d8 Dmg +2
Dodge d8 / Soak 2d8
Initiative d8 d12, Panic Save -2, Injured Save -4
Lorna Devin – normal lion femme fatale
All Common Traits d6, Noncombatant, Stealth, Observation d6, Presence d6, Transport d6
Punch d6 Dmg +1
Dodge d6 (+d12 if nonviolent)/ Soak d6
Initiative 2d6, Panic Save -2
Tubs L’Phant – normal elephant jazzman
All Common Traits d6, Noncombatant, Singing (with trumpet), Academics d6, Evasion d6, Negotiation d6, Presence d6
Punch d6 Dmg +1
Dodge d6 (+d12 if nonviolent)/ Soak d6
Initiative d6, Panic Save -2
Mizzoni’s Minders – normal rodents
All Common Traits d6, Brawling, Evasion d6
Pummel 2d6 Dmg +2 / Pocket Knife 2d6 Dmg +1 Blade / Service Pistol d6 Ammo d4 Dmg +2
Dodge 2d6 / Soak d6
Initiative d6, Panic Save -2
Dime Store Danny – elite mouse hoodlum
All Common Traits d8, Endurance d8, Evasion d8, Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Coward, Veteran
Punch 2d8 Dmg +1 / Service Pistol 2d8 Ammo d4 Dmg +2
Dodge 2d8 (+ d12 when Panicked) / Soak 2d8
Initiative 2d8, Panic Save -2, Injury Save -4
Nickel Nitkowski – elite shrew hoodlum
All Common Traits d8, Veteran, Evasion d8, Fighting d8, Shooting d8,
Punch 2d8 Dmg +1 / Tommy Gun 3d8 Ammo d6 Dmg +2, Sweep (if you hit, attack another different target as well)
Dodge 2d8 / Soak 2d8
Initiative 2d8, Panic Save -2, Injury Save -4
Dollar Bill Mizzoni – superior mouse mobster
All Common Traits d10, Coward, Contortionist, Evasion d10, Shooting d10, Tactics d10
Magnum Pistol 2d10 Ammo d4 Dmg +3
Dodge 2d10 (+d12 if Panicked)/ Soak d10
Initiative d10 , Panic Save -2, Injury Save -4
In general, I want all the usual stuff from good one-shot play to be present in an investigative scenario. I want pace, in-fiction investment from the players, and a tight start that force the players into action. In all of the disappointing investigative games of my past, these are what have been missing. I also want to avoid any clueless wandering. This isn’t restricted to investigative games, but it is a common trap to fall into in games like Call of Cthulhu – where a lack of obvious leads (or ones that the PCs have noticed) can leave the PCs aimlessly waiting for another NPC to die and hopefully supply them with clues. Here are the principles I’m applying to my investigative prep.
Burn After Running: RPG One-Shots 