Observations of the Fox

There is something that drives all stories, whether the dramatic tension of a inter-character relationships, the adrenaline pumping of an action adventure or the shrouded enigma of a mystery. In every story, there is something that stands in the way of one party achieving their goals...if the goals had no obstacles, they wouldn't be goals...and if they were easily achieved, then there wouldn't be much of a story. Every type of story has obstacles, the genre of the story simply defines the type of obstacles expected. For decades roleplaying has done action-adventure, where the obstacles are monsters, traps and magical curses. For years, recent games have started to master the notion of interpersonal drama, where the obstacles are rivalries, love triangles, and situational triggers that prompt a characters primal drives in a given direction. But recently, I've been hearing questions about ways to run a good investigation or mystery. These have been popping up in a f...