Category Archives: Theory

“Mr Body’s Body…”: Tips and Inspiration for Running Closed-Room Adventures

Posted on 15 February 2010 | Leave a comment

We’ve reached part 3 of our series on creating closed-room adventures. Now that you’ve created the adventure it’s time to run. That’s where closed-room scenarios really shine: once you’ve done all the set-up work, running the game is comparatively easy.

Running A Closed-Room Adventure

If setting up a closed-room scenario seems like a lot of work, it can be. But the reward is that frequently, the GM can simply sit back, enjoy the game, and answer a few questions. Many closed-room adventures can basically run themselves as the PCs interact primarily with each other to complete the adventure. It can take a little while for the players to warm up in this type of a game, so expect it to start out slow.

Make sure to give your players enough time to read their character information. Generally, your players are going to need 15-20 minutes to read over their information. But if the game still doesn’t seem to be moving, you may need to improvise something to get it rolling. Try to keep this to something very minimal–a messenger arriving with a clue or a servant finding a crucial prop or something.

Your main goal here is to get the players interacting with each other. Anytime play slows down or the players get stuck, try to intervene in a way that will engage a player with at least one other player. Truthfully, though, if you’ve set up your game so that each PC has a relationship to at least one other PC in the game, you shouldn’t have to do much.

Try not to have PCs who don’t know anyone; that sets the player up with a severe handicap in the game and makes much harder for them to get involved. If your plot absolutely requires you to have a completely unknown character, try to make sure you give that character to an experienced and outgoing player.

That’s the byword for closed-room games: interaction. Everything you do as a GM should be in encourage player interaction, both with other players and (if appropriate) with the setting. Keep your intervention as short and as minimal as possible.

Examples of Closed-Room Plots

Below are a few movies that are basically closed-room “adventures”:

Also, by signing up for the Guang Keshar Development Newsletter, you’ll receive the free closed-room adventure: A Taste of Intrigue as soon as it becomes available.

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Steps for Creating a Closed-Room Adventure

Posted on 9 February 2010 | Leave a comment
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This is Part Two of our three-part series on creating and running closed-room adventures. Part One defines a closed-room adventure and why you may want to make one.

Here’s the steps I go through when I write a closed-room adventure:

  1. What are the characters’ goals? Write down what the PCs need to accomplish in this adventure. Is it to solve a murder? Thwart hijackers? Evict unwanted new tenants from a house? Elect a new Prince? The goal needs to be something definite and tangible–the PCs need to know when they’ve accomplished (or failed) at the goal without the GM telling them.
  2. Determine the proper location. Does the adventure take place in a mansion? One room of a castle? A lunar shuttle? A prison cell? The “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln” attraction at Disneyland? It must take place in one location from start to finish. That location can have a few rooms, but it should still be a limited, definable space that can be closed off from the rest of the world (or solar system, or whatever surrounds it).
  3. Determine why the characters can’t leave. This doesn’t require armed guards or magically sealed rooms (though it certainly can, if that’s appropriate to the situation); a simple promise from the PCs not to leave until the goal is accomplished can be enough. Or for the ultimate isolation, place the adventure somewhere the environment will prevent the characters from leaving–such as a deserted island or a shuttle in space. Whatever the reason, it needs to make sense, given the goal and location.
  4. Figure out who’s involved. Determine what PCs and NPCs (if any) are needed. If the PCs are trying to solve a murder committed by one of them, you may not need any NPCs. If they need to save the passengers on a hijacked shuttle, you’ll need one or more hijackers, for example.
  5. Determine what the PCs need to successfully complete the adventure. Adventure needs generally come in two forms: items and information. Take the needed information and parcel it out among the characters. For maximum PC involvement, every character should have at least one needed bit of information, but no one should have all the pieces. You can place items in the location or give them to the characters, as needed by the adventure.
  6. Write up information sheets for the players. Take the information you created in the last step and write out a sheet for each character detailing what they know and what they have. This is also a good place to suggest individual character goals which can set the PCs at cross-purposes to one another. Pass out these sheets to the appropriate player at the beginning of the game. Tell the players that those sheets are for their eyes only–they do not exist in game so other players shouldn’t be reading them. The players need to have total control over what information reveal and when.
  7. Determine what the PCs know about each other, if anything. If any of the PCs know each other, this should also be in the information sheets you pass out at the beginning. Include how they know each other (are brother and sister, went to the same school, etc.) and a brief summary of how they’ve interacted in the past.
  8. Write an introduction for the adventure. This should be information all the characters know, setting up the scenario for them. It can be as short as a single sentence (“You’ve received an invitation to a dinner party at the mansion of a famous recluse”) or it could be a few paragraphs long. Keep it as short as possible–PCs shouldn’t have to spend more than about 10-15 minutes max reading over the crucial information. Alternatively, you can tell this to the players at the very beginning of the session.
  9. Create any needed maps, floor plans, etc. It can be very helpful to the players to have a visual reference of the layout of the adventure location. It doesn’t need to be a scale model (though it certainly could, if you’ve got the time and inclination), but it should give the basic information about where everything is.
  10. Create any needed props. If the adventure requires any in-game maps or notes, or any such item, it’s better to have at least one copy it the players can refer to an pass around. That keeps you from having to remind them about the information on the note. Also, this way, if they overlook something, it’s their own fault and not yours for failing to remind them.
  11. Plan a timetable of events. I rarely use planned events in my closed-room games, but sometimes they’re needed. Also, it can help to have a list of possible events to get the PCs back on track if they head off on a tangent (or red herring) or to   move forward if they get stuck.

Next Time: Tips on running your closed-room adventure and some examples of closed-room scenarios in movies.

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“Mr. Body’s Body–It’s Gone!”: Creating Closed-Room Adventures

Posted on 2 February 2010 | Leave a comment

Have you ever wanted to run a game where the players do all the work? Where you can set up the situation, then just say “Go!” and watch it unfold with little to no input from you? Believe it or not, you can–by using a closed-room scenario for your adventure.

This is the first post of a three-part article on creating closed-room adventures. Today we’re discussing what a closed-room scenario or adventure is; next week I’ll outline the steps I take to create a closed-room adventure; the third section will discuss tips for actually running that game and give some examples of closed-room movies you can use for inspiration.

What is a Closed-Room Scenario?

Most often seen in mysteries, a closed-room scenario takes place in a single “black box” location. What that means is the scenario takes place in a single, limited location. For some reason, the characters can’t leave the location, nor can anyone new enter it until the scenario is over.  Everything the characters need to solve the mystery is contained in that one location, whether it be items placed in the location or information the other PCs have.

Frequently, these scenarios require few (if any) NPCs. They also tend to work best with pre-generated characters, which makes them ideal for convention games or for introducing players to a new system. I have run closed-room games where the players brought in their own characters, but these were usually the first adventures of a new campaign; I still knew the characters that would be involved in it.  That’s the key to a successful closed-room scenario: you have to tailor it to specific characters.

Next week: The steps I use to create a closed-room adventure.

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