Homicide: Who is John Doe?

This is part two of a solo play RPG I'm doing using the Mythic GM Emulator. The first part can be found here.

When we left, our main character Evan Stacy and his partner Jeff Long were just leaving the crime scene, but with no statement of intent as to where they were headed next (the next scene). The game context looked like this:

Chaos: 6
Characters

• Jeff Long, Evan's partner on the force
• Jeff's troubled relative in Indianapolis
• Evan's Rabbi on the force
• Evan's family
• Evan's wife
• Evan's professional contact
• The victim, an adult male
• The anonymous tipster
• The forensics team
• The shooter
• The rental office staff

Threads

• Who killed the victim
• Jeff has a relative in trouble
• Evan is on the road to divorce
• Rental records for the murder scene are missing

You may notice I added three entries, a thread for resolving who actually shot the victim, Jeff's troubled relative, and a character entry for the rental office staff. The first was so obvious I just forgot to write it down. The second I overlooked, and the third wasn't explicitly mentioned, but it was implied by the facts we uncovered last time. I also expanded the forensics team to include all the police at crime scene, Now, on with the show!


A couple of questions to resolve before we move on to the next scene. In the last scene Evan proposed a theory: due to the lack of physical evidence, the victim was shot elsewhere, and moved to the apartment for reasons unknown. He also feels the lack of rental records is unusual enough to bear further investigation. I need to find out what Jeff thinks. Both ideas seem reasonable, so...

• Q1: Does Jeff agree with Evan's moved body theory? (very likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q2: Does Jeff think the lack of rental records worth investigating? (very likely)
• Answer: Yes

"I got your back partner" says Jeff as the two leave the crime scene and head down the stairs. "Think we should head to the rental office?"
"Yes, but let's walk and check out the area around the building. Maybe we can figure out why someone chose this place."
"Right."

That suggests two scenes, first a survey of the building grounds, and second a visit to the rental office. We'll resolve them one at a time. First let's survey the surroundings:

• The scene has been interrupted (roll 4).
• New scene event: Focus: Remote event. Meaning: Struggle death.

Well, well, well. A remote event focus means something that occurred elsewhere and struggle death has to be the murder itself. It's clear that our stroll around the building has uncovered a vital link between the victim and the scene of the murder. To me this sounds like the detectives have discovered how the body arrived. I'll make a couple dice rolls to see how that works. The results make it clear Evan spots whatever it is. I'm going to go with suspicious vehicle, probably a car or truck. Luckily I have a random table for that. The result: A pearl silver compact SUV. It has major damage to the side. It has cracked glass.

"Wow that's been through the wringer." Evan gestures at the SUV "Let's check it out." As Jeff checks the plate, Evan circles the vehicle, looking for signs of foul play. Given this interrupt scene has a meaning associated with the death of our victim, I think we'll be using likely/very likely for a lot of our odds.

• Q3: Are there plates on the vehicle? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q4: Are there any signs that the vehicle was used to transport the body? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q5: Is it locked? (50/50)
• Answer: Yes
• Q6: Do the plates match the vehicle? (likely)
• Answer: Yes

Let's find out who owns this and where they live using a few dice rolls. The dice tell us the owner is female, age 40, name (pulled from a random message in my spam folder): Michelle Allen. Let's see where she lives. Odds are not here, since we've determined this is mostly student apartments. Possible though.

• Q7: Does she live in the apartment complex? (unlikely)
• Answer: Yes

Hmmm. Interesting. As Jeff calls the crime scene techs over to secure the vehicle, Evan pokes around to establish what ties the vehicle to the body transport. The most likely answers are blood and or gun. Blood is more likely, since even stupid criminals know to get rid of murder weapons. A third possibility is signs of gun fire, bullet holes or gunpowder marks.

• Q8: Is there blood in, on, or near the vehicle? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q9: Is there a gun in, on, or near the vehicle? (50/50)
• Answer: Extreme yes
• Q10: Are there signs of gun fire in or near the vehicle? (50/50)
• Answer: Yes

So... dumb criminals then. A roll of 2d6 comes up 6, pretty average, so the gun is unremarkable. I'll go with a .45 semi-automatic pistol. Having the murder weapon does give us a new thread, who owns the gun. We'll leave that task to the crime scene techs for now. We have blood on the vehicle, let's find out where. It's either in the passenger compartment, in the cargo area, or on the exterior. Given the damaged state of the vehicle, Evan guesses the damage is the result of an altercation while someone was driving. In the passenger compartment seems most likely.

• Q11: Is there blood in the passenger compartment? (likely)
• Answer: Extreme yes
• Q12: Is there blood in the cargo area? (50/50)
• Answer: No
• Q13: Is there blood on the exterior? (50/50)
• Answer: No

That holds with Evan's working theory. The next obvious step is to follow the lead, time to find Ms. Michelle Allen and see what she knows, but before we do that let's establish a couple more facts if we can:

• Q14: Can we determine how long the victim has been dead? (likely)
• Answer: Yes
• Q15: Does the state of the car appear to match that timeline? (likely)
• Answer: Yes

I'll use a die roll to establish time of death. We already determined the remains were smelling pretty bad, so we'll say at least two days... 1d4+1 gives us about two days. That implies the SUV has been sitting here about that long as well. Time to interview Allen.

Since we need to figure out if she's home, it's helpful to establish the time of day. The previous roll for day/night was 35 on a d100, so we'll say mid- to late-morning. Odds are a working person isn't going to be home. Let's frame the scene as interviewing Allen at her apartment, and see how it plays:

• The scene proceeds normally (roll 7).

No interrupts or altered scenes, so Evan and Jeff knock on the door. Let's see how things go...

• Q16: Is Allen home? (unlikely)
• Answer: No
• Q17: Is the apartment locked? (near sure thing)
• Answer: Yes
• Q18: Can the detectives get a look inside? (50/50)
• Answer: Yes
• Q19: Anything look out of place? (unlikely)
• Answer: Extreme yes and an event
• Focus: NPC negative. Meaning: Extravagance travel.

"Looks like someone packed up in a hurry" says Evan, peering in through the sliding glass door on the walk out patio. "Closet's half-empty, bed unmade, open suitcase on the table. Let's put a uniform on the front door and this one, then have that talk with the rental office. Now we have two things to ask about."

Things are looking grim for Ms. Allen. This feels like a good place to pause and catch up. We've added several elements to our context. A murder weapon, a second crime scene, and a possibly fleeing Ms. Allen. Our detectives have a partial working theory of the crime and more clues, so I think we'll leave chaos at six. Here's what the context looks like now:


Chaos: 6
Characters

• Jeff Long, Evan's partner on the force
• Evan's Rabbi on the force
• Evan's family
• Evan's wife
• Evan's professional contact
• The victim, an adult male
• The anonymous tipster
• The forensics team
• The shooter
• The rental office staff
• Michelle Allen, owner of the damaged SUV found near the crime scene

Threads

• Who killed the victim
• Jeff has a relative in trouble
• Evan is on the road to divorce
• Rental records for the murder scene are missing
• Who owns the murder weapon
• Where is Michelle Allen

And on that note I'll wrap this up and think about next steps. The rental office is a good next scene, then a little more investigation of Allen, background check, checking out her apartment, and finding out where she works and interviewing any known associates. After that we'll see what the crime scene team has to say.

• The next post in the series.