Decisions, decisions...

[Owen E Oulton]

I'm in a bit of a quandary. I've just wrapped up a major plotline involving the origin of the Dyson Sphere, multiple universes, the Grandfather (from Classic Traveller), Forbidden Planet and other stuff, and I'm looking to do a few small-scale, "intimate" adventures focussing most of the spotlight on one PC per adventure. Two are pretty straightforward - a Bajoran adventure for the Bajoran PC (gotta exploit that Species Enemy: Cardassian Disad), and one where the Caitian PC's diplomat brother/rival needs help.

It's the one for the Tellarite engineer that has me caught between two differing treatments. Lieutenant (jg) Tal picked up the sobriquet "the Killer Targ" and a few points of Agression Renown during a barroom brawl with some Klingons a while back - he's less than a meter and a half tall, but took out a 2m tall Klingon with a straight-from-the-shoulder punch to the family jewels. Klingons don't differentiate between dirty and clean fights, just success and failure, so the rest of the Klingons were impressed and "adopted" him. Now, he's been invited to the wedding of Klingon he bested. While on Qo'noS, the groom and his father, a member of the High Council, will be attacked. The father will be killed and the son left in a coma. Needless to say, evidence will be found implicating the Killer Targ and the PCs will have to prove him innocent.

Here's my dilemma. I have two equally interesting ways of handling it. I can do a classic Agatha Christie style "whodunnit," or I can go for CSI Qo'noS. I did a classic style murder mystery (Murder on Starbase 21) several years ago, for a different gaming group, and had a ball, but the CSI treatment is soooooo tempting.

If you were playing in the game, which would you prefer, and why?

[black campbellq]

No reason you can't do a little of both. The forensics stuff is fun and fits with the observational deduction of Doyle/Christie/other mystery writers.

[Phoenix]

My bias opinion would be CSI...

As for the Bajorian...Have a Cardassian discover the Dyson Secret, he shows up demanding to be part of the action. Or, just be evil, have him/her assigned by Starfleet under the 'cultural exchange program' (assuming your post DW).

[Owen E Oulton]

No reason you can't do a little of both. The forensics stuff is fun and fits with the observational deduction of Doyle/Christie/other mystery writers.

Well, to be sure, Holmes did a lot of what we would call forensics, but I'm more thinking of the essential feel of to two genres - there's a very different feel between the classic murder mystery and the modern police procedural.

I'm leaning more toward the CSI style, but damn! that Agatha Christy/Ten Little Indians-style murder mystery was fun.

(The Bajoran adventure will have nothing to do with the Dyson Sphere. It will be set on Bajor and in occupied Cardassian space. The idea is to get away from the deep dark mysteries of the Sphere for awhile.)

[Loki]

Both ideas sound interesting, but I think CSI is more Star Trekkish, with all that tech gadgets around, I think most players would want to use them.
I just can't imagine Miss Marple wandering around with a law enforcement tricorder doing microcellular scans of the crime scene.

[Tobian]

Depends on how complicated you want to get You could use the two styles against each other, which would help to give two oposite style of player a chance to showcase their skills (if such a division exists) - a medical / science team who try to analyse confusing forensic data and a tactical / command / counselor led team who try to find out WHY Agathur Christie style.. This is where the work could come in.. Whomever perpetrated the crime might have for whatever reasons carefully created a dozen false trails for the investigators to follow, using the fact that Starfleet will rely on advanced Forensics to help it catch the guilty, but hiding the socio political issues would be more complex, unless it unravelled into a spate of murders.

It has to be said I have been toying with the idea of turning the tables on my players in a couple of the games I'm running and giving them the problem not of knowing who it is but proving it or doing something about it! This is exactly where the Agathur Christie style of using guile bluff and a razor sharp mind into tricking the guilty in to revealing their guilt, rather than just pressing a few buttons on their console and idfentifying the correct DNA

[Tricky]

I'd have to agree that using both styles (whodunnit and CSI) would probably be best, ever wonder how CSI type stuff is done in a Star Trek setting.

You'd need one guy, maybe two. A couple of tricorders and a good computer.

Think about it; in the Fed. Cardassia and probably most of the other big Gov't, everyone's DNA is on file. Find some trace DNA, scan it, compare it to the database, find the suspect.

Sit him down, show him the evidence, use the other Tricorder as a lie detector.
Or hire a Betazoid!

And dont forget the 'Psycho-tricorder'!

[Poolshark]

Just my tuppence worth (with no apologies British pence! )

I think modern trek (eg TNG onward) would fit a CSI theme better with all the gadgets and technology and technobabble and so on. A few hints of Agatha Christie (with all the suspects in the room, and Captain Poirot telling us how it was done?) would be fitting, with the much needed fight with the Klingons at the end?

Classic Trek would be more like the opposite. TOS put more emphasis on people, and less on technobabble. Maybe a little tech used in the forensics etc, but more focus on the people.

Personally, I prefer the second version. It allows more varied role-playing IMHO, but that would all depend on how it was run, I guess.

Cheers

Tas

[Owen E Oulton]

The thing to remember with this scenario is that there are only three PCs and one Federation NPC. None of them are Security officers, although a couple have the Security skill. The NPC has some medical training. Since they're on Qo'noS, they don't have access to all of Starfleet's facilities, and since one of them is the suspect, they won't have access to much in the way of Klingon facilities, either. What evidence there is has been planted to frame Lt. Tal.

The setting is an ancient Klingon castle, the seat of a minor House, set in the mountains halfway around the planet from the Capital - think "Scottish castle" or "Baskerville Manor." The dear departed is the head of the House, and the groom (in a coma, remember) is the heir. The bride-to-be is the youngest daughter of the head of a neighbouring Great House. The PCs are a bunch of foreign strangers - only 6 of the BoP's crew remain who know the PCs, the rest having died in the assault on Cardassian Prime at the end of the Dominion War, 8 months ago.

[Tobian]

Well then if you'd said that it's definatelly going to be Agathur Christie! The setting suggests that kind of close and personal interrelation of character types. Of course I can't quite imagine a Miss Marple style doddering round the place asking clever questions, because unlike middle England they aren't going to play the social guessing game, they're gonna start challenging you to a duel if they think you're insinuating anything with your line of questioning!

[Tricky]

It would probablly be a stretch, but what about doing it kinda 'Film Noir'ish, or like a typical American Detective novel, kinda a Micky Spalain kinda deal. Getting in a Klingon's face, slapping him in the face, and telling him he better "Spill the gagh if he know's what good for him!" might be funn, especailly if your Tellerite's reputation is that good.

[Poolshark]

It would probablly be a stretch, but what about doing it kinda 'Film Noir'ish, or like a typical American Detective novel, kinda a Micky Spalain kinda deal. Getting in a Klingon's face, slapping him in the face, and telling him he better "Spill the gagh if he know's what good for him!" might be funn, especailly if your Tellerite's reputation is that good.

Micky Spillane's M'ikgh Ha'ma?????



Cheers

Tas

[black campbellq]

Micky Spillane's M'ikgh Ha'ma?????

It was a wet day in Imperial city. The kinda wet that makes you wanna stay inside with a bottle of blood wine and a warm dame. I was short the dame...that is, until she walked in. She had legs that went all the way to the floor and a set of ridges that made me wanna break out my mountain climbing gear. The kind of cookie a targ-heal like me could never get....

[Tobian]

LOL starting to sound like.... Dixon Hill

[Owen E Oulton]

Oh, believe me, the hard-boiled (Hammet, Chandler, Spillane, et alia) genre would not work with the PCs in question - not their style, at all. An attempt to do a hard-boiled pulp/noir adventure with them would surely degenerate into The Three Stooges meet Sam Spade... Not what I'm going for at all.

Much as I'd like to do a CSI adventure (I do, I really do!), I'm going to have to agree with Tobian, this really is much more of a setup for a classic whodunnit (say, why do you spell Dame Agatha's name with a "ur" ending?), with just enough CSI to allow them to use their Security (Security Systems) skill.

I think, perhaps, that I'll save the CSI-themed for the Caitian character's adventure. Thanks for everyone's input.

However, this is shaping up into an interesting discussion of how different genre themes can be used in a Trek setting. As has been pointed out, a Federation-based murder mystery would work very well with a modern police procedural theme, a là CSI. What about other genres, though? How would you handle a hard-boiled Raymond Chandler-esque story?