I watched a whole lot of Law &amp; Order with an eye toward trying to understand how they structure their mysteries. I noticed a few things that I think ought to help run a mystery game. (Life has gotten in the way of testing my theories in the game I was to run, so do report back if any of this helps!)

First, a mystery is not a confusing story--it's a simple story about a perpetrator, a victim, and a crime scene, that the characters learn out of sequence. Supposing we're talking about a murder, there is a victim, and there is physical evidence. The detectives will have physical evidence to check out, and they'll want to learn about the social network that the victim was a part of. The clues and interviewees lead to more places to look for more evidence. 

Bringing me to the second point: the detectives spend as much time or more ruling possibilities out than learning about them. The common problem GMs face is not wanting to give out too much information; I suspect that the thing to do is give out a good amount of information that looks suspicious, so that the characters turn up new evidence while ruling out suspects. 

The elements of a mystery game, then:


nameless NPCs who are forthcoming with information, though they don't have any idea how it fits into an investigation; 
named NPCs who act suspiciously and lie to the PCs, but because they are concealing a secret that doesn't directly relate to the crime;
a perpetrator who seems like they can be ruled out, but whose guilt will be revealed when facts that come up while the PCs are ruling things out show the motive, means, and opportunity of this perpetrator. Justice is served, etc. etc.


Like I said, these are theories that haven't been borne out by play. But I stand by this idea that a crime is a simple linear incident, and an investigation is a nonlinear process of alternately expanding the network of physical and social links, and ruling things out, until only the perpetrator remains. 

How can I learn how to lay out an "evidence scene"?

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