MDZS, the Brindlewood Version
Mar. 7th, 2026 11:28 amI'm writing a Brindlewood Bay adventure based on MDZS/The Untamed.
Or rather, based on one small detail of MDZS/The Untamed, using a modern-AU setting: Investigating the death of Lan Furen. (Adventure title: Lost in the Clouds. Complexity 7. Would be 6, but the death is 30-ish years old, so they're working with some difficulty.)
Brindlewood Bay has a different approach: Instead of "GM decides on the details of the murder and sets a bunch of clues that the players have to find and figure out," the GM sets the location, a list of suspects, a list of clues - and the players then come up with their own idea of who did what. Then they roll. If they roll high enough, they were correct and have solved the murder. (If they roll almost high enough, they were correct but now there is a complication - the murderer is getting away, or attacks them, or someone is in danger because of what they've revealed, etc.)
I don't have to decide what happened to Lan Furen to have it as the base of a murder mystery here. I just have to figure out who might've been involved, invent some clues, and throw them at the players.
( It's been more difficult than I thought. )
Or rather, based on one small detail of MDZS/The Untamed, using a modern-AU setting: Investigating the death of Lan Furen. (Adventure title: Lost in the Clouds. Complexity 7. Would be 6, but the death is 30-ish years old, so they're working with some difficulty.)
Brindlewood Bay has a different approach: Instead of "GM decides on the details of the murder and sets a bunch of clues that the players have to find and figure out," the GM sets the location, a list of suspects, a list of clues - and the players then come up with their own idea of who did what. Then they roll. If they roll high enough, they were correct and have solved the murder. (If they roll almost high enough, they were correct but now there is a complication - the murderer is getting away, or attacks them, or someone is in danger because of what they've revealed, etc.)
I don't have to decide what happened to Lan Furen to have it as the base of a murder mystery here. I just have to figure out who might've been involved, invent some clues, and throw them at the players.
( It's been more difficult than I thought. )