How to Play 24 Hour Crime Scene

Firebreathing Kittens

How to Play 24 Hour Crime Scene

24-Hour Crime Scene is a tabletop RPG in which the players collaboratively solve a murder mystery, by inventing the clues and attaching them to suspects and locations themselves. Ultimately, the solution to the murder is something they come up with together, and not something pre-planned by the GM.

In the episodes, I will be facilitating the game, but it can easily be played without a GM entirely.

There are three sheets of paper that are shared among the players in this game-- a crime scene to show the location of the murder, a Victim sheet as the players uncover clues about the victim, and some suspect sheets to track clues that connect to the suspects.

During the game, the players decide where the murder happened, and who the victim is, and establishing some clues.

Then, the players take turns. On each player's turn, they draw a card and answer a prompt associated with it. For purposes of the episode, the facilitator will draw from a single deck of cards and read the prompts to the players to answer.

Then, the active player takes an action which may result in a scene. They can investigate by establishing something about the crime scene, the victim, existing evidence, or one of the clues. They can inverview a suspect, which means they will narrate some information that the suspect reveals during the interview-- that information is recorded on the suspect's sheet. They also can find a new suspect, and reveal what their link is to the victim, crime scene, or a clue.

Finally, on a player's turn they can Consult with the other players to determine some facts about the case. These questions should never be completely closed or absolute-- instead of "Did this person kill the victim?" they can ask "who seems to be more guilty?"

Once the player has done both things-- answered the prompt and taken their action-- the next player takes their turn.

When all the cards have been drawn and the last player finishes their turn, the players will have a final Consult scene to decide which suspect to charge with the murder. This discussion ends in a vote by the players. Whichever suspect gets a majority is charged with the crime, and justice shall be served.

Some tips for playing are to play with a very "yes and" mindset-- don't have an idea of who committed the crime in advance, and leave it open for interpretation. Do make a lot of connections between the various clues, evidence, and suspects so that they won't seem to be a random collection of things, but instead tie together into a complete story.