I just wanted to let you know that I really liked your (I’m assuming that Rob is the one that monitors the contacts) method of making NPCs. I was wondering if you had considered posting it on you blog or in some other written format. It is definitely something I would steal for myself.

Well, who am I not to give our listeners what they request? After the break you can read my method of turning NPC creation over to your players.

Before we get into the new rules it should be mentioned that not every NPC needs to be created by the players. Many you can do yourself. There is a website called Seventh Sanctum that helps make this a cake walk. Remember that in using my method we don’t need super detailed characters, just a jumping pad. Start with something simple, pick a Name Generator of your liking and roll up a random name. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the Quick Name Generator. I also suggest generating 5-10 and picking and choosing. The Quick Name gave me the following male names:

• James Hunter George
• Kory Glen Robinson
• Landon Roman
• Michael Tommy Johnson
• Rosendo Jan Hart

I take a look at this and pick and choose a few names that jump out at me. First, Landon Roman sounds fine. Then we’ll make Kory Hunter, Tommy Hart, Glen Johnson and James George. I always suggest making multiple NPCs with this method. You never know what name is going to match with what description.

After that I jump to another set of generators, the Character Generators. Again, the Quick Character Generator hits my sweet spot. So lets crank out ten Modern: General characters.

• The delusional, outgoing leader who can’t resist a fight.
• The non-athletic , moralistic rascal.
• The athletic, open-minded fighter pilot.
• The non-athletic policeman.
• The strong, brave librarian.
• The aged, broken-hearted, philandering manager from a bad family.
• The stockbroker with an odd birthmark.
• The sickly murderer who can’t resist a fight.
• The sickly, hypocritical soldier.
• The strong, unwise acrobat.

As a rule of thumb I always generate more Characters then Names to give myself some room to play. Outta that list I like the non-athletic policeman, the strong, brave librarian, I also want to drop some details and make a the aged, broken-hearted, manager and a . Lastly lets keep a fighter pilot but let’s make him sickly. Now I look over the names and match up names with brief descriptions.

• Landon Roman: The aged, broken-hearted, manager.
• Kory Hunter: The hypocritical soldier.
• Tommy Hart: The sickly fighter pilot.
• Glen Johnson: The non-athletic policeman.
• James George: The strong, brave librarian.

Not bad as a start, but lets give them a little more detail. Lets tie in some of the Character Scrambler stuff. We’ll generate ten scrambled characters and come out with:

• The moody art student whose loyalties are suspect and ever-shifting and who is seeking True Love.
• The technical guru who keeps trying to relive their youth and who follows the protagonist anywhere.
• The mysterious yet totally ineffective magical knight who wants everything for their children.
• The super-sexy super spy who tries to uphold their beliefs.
• The antisocial miser who is a bit wacky and whose time-traveling creates their own past.
• The rightful heir to the empire who only gets loud because they care.
• The scoundrel with a heart of gold who is on the run from the law and who has lost it all.
• The innocent and loving girl whose sexual preferences are in question.
• The strong but not very smart man who is completely confused about their own past.
• The wanderer with a unique gift who is driven insane by their strange powers.

Oh, we’ve got some “loyalties are suspect and ever-shifting” and some “trying to relive their youth”. Good stuff, a bit over used but it’ll help us build a bit of depth. Lets look at our five characters with some new details added in.

• Landon Roman: The aged, broken-hearted, manager who wants everything for their children.
• Kory Hunter: The hypocritical soldier who has lost it all and is on the run from the law.
• Tommy Hart: The sickly fighter pilot with a unique gift who is driven insane by their strange powers.
• Glen Johnson: The non-athletic policeman who keeps trying to relive their youth.
• James George: The strong, brave librarian whose sexual preferences are in question.

Wow, so Landon is a family man now. Did his wife die? Did she leave him? Maybe she’s still alive and he’s in love with someone else and maybe that someone else is a PC? Then Glen, a cop trying to relieve his youth. Sounds like a lot of potential plot fodder there. And lets not overlook Tommy’s strange power. Is that why he’s sickly? Maybe his magic is a cancer and he’s just trying to get rid of it. Or maybe he is sickly because he’s been committed to an asylum. Read over your NPCs and start asking yourself why. Why is Kory on the run? Why did Tommy get powers? Why is James sexual preference in question? Then ask what can that do for your game.

You’ve generated hundreds of one-line NPCs now, thrown them all in the game, and let the players start interacting. You’ve determined a few things here and there, on the spot, and made the players feel like their in a living setting. Now, one of your players has expressed a great interest in Jame George. He wants James to be more than just a one-line character. Here’s the system I teased earlier.

NPC Creation System

First we assume you’re using the Three Things method of character creation. Every NPC is composed of three facts. That’s all they get… until they get more. We already know a bit about James George, but those are bonus things. This process turns the Three Things over to the players. First, they need to spend something to do it. If you game has a luck balancing mechanic (Bennies in Savage Worlds, Action Points in D&D, Force Points in Star Wars, or even Willpower in World of Darkness) use that. If not, then it is on you to figure out what to use. The player who wants to create an NPC has to pay SOMETHING.

Everyone is playing a World of Darkness game and Paul decides that James George is his kinda guy and wants to know more about him. James is just a lowly librarian and Rob lets Paul define the character further. Paul spends a point of Willpower and tells Rob that he’s going to create James George. Rob nods and the process moves on.

After points have been spent that creating player is allowed to define the NPC’s basic information: (Name, Gender, Race, Class, Clan, Organization, whatever is basic in your game.) and then they cite One of the Three Things. Just one. They get full reign at this point. Even if they’re creating an existing NPC into something more, Maybe James George isn’t his real name and maybe librarian isn’t his real job. The basic stuff is all up to the creating player.The game master can say no though, I urge against it. Instead ask them why? Why isn’t James George his real name? Try to figure out what the player was trying to get out of it and work with them. If you have to say no, pay them back equal points to what they had to spend. If you have to say no, then it shouldn’t cost your player anything. Here’s the big secret, their doing your work for you anyway.

Paul first says that James George is actually his first and middle name, his last name is Westerbrook. That’s right, of the infamous New Hampshire Westerbrooks. He’s just been going by George so he doesn’t get treated differently. Rob nods and jots down James George’s first Thing.

Once your creating player has decided on the basics and given the first Thing everyone else at the table has a chance to offer suggestions. These eventually become the other two things. The creating player collects the suggestions, writing them down if he needs to, then picks his favorite two. Maybe he combines ideas from a couple of source or maybe he takes one of them verbatim from another player. It doesn’t matter because those become the other Two Things. Then the creating player decided who gets rewarded. Two players get rewarded for contributing facts that get used. Each player then gets the same amount of points that the creating player spent. Typically it is if a player’s suggestion is used but sometimes the creating player might reward someone for a good inspiring idea. Again the GM has veto power over these Things but they must pay back out if they just say no.

Mike suggests that James Westerbrook is actually asexual and comes across as a possible homosexual because of his udder lack of interest in women. Bryan then suggests that James joined the military as a way to get away from his family, which is why he’s so strong for a librarian. Jacob offers that James is actually deeply in love with another woman and tries to hide it, which is why his sexual preferences seem odd. Mike, seeing that if Jacob’s suggest is used then his can’t be, offers another option for Paul. Mike suggests that James is a cultist, secretly working with the very organization that the players have been working against. Elder suggests that James was engaged to his character’s sister, a librarian before she died, and he honors her memory by working in the library. Paul considers carefully and then gives points to Bryan and Elder.

This last step is exceptionally important. The GM then writes down the Three Things, adding appropriate interpretation where needed. We know that James is ex-military but we don’t know what branch. And no one has decided WHY James’ sexual preference is in question. Maybe these questions don’t need to be answered, but the GM is always allowed to. Remember that if you change a Thing too much you might need to pay out extra.

Rob writes down the final notes and then runs the finished character by the players:
James George Westerbrook III

• James George is a strong, brave librarian who lost all desire for physical relations after the death of his fiance.
• James George is actually a Westerbrook, the third James George of the the infamous New Hampsire Westerbrooks, rumored cultists. James tried to break away from the Westerbrooks and opted to use his middle name as his last name.
• James joined the US Army as a way to get away from his family, he served a tour in Iraq before his term was up. He still maintains the fitness regime.
• James was engaged to his Elder’s sister, who was a librarian before she died. He honors her memory by working part-time in the library.

You’ll notice, if you look carefully, that a lot of the other player suggestions were lifted into this character. The players made solid suggestions and while only two get rewarded for them there isn’t any reason why you can’t use all of the ideas given to you. You might even want to jot down some of the unused ones for other characters.

The Character Survey is a unique set of questions that help flesh out the general concept and feel of a character. The first step is asking the players for notes about their characters before you draft up the questions. Have them give you a few, brief, concepts and ideas they have for their characters. Get an idea of what the character is about, what’s important for the player to include, and the general idea\concept\feel\whatever of the character. Once you feel you have a firm grasp on what kind of character the player is trying to play then you draft up a list of questions for them.

I suggest starting with a few standard questions that everyone gets asked. Depending on how many questions you’re asking in total it could be two, four, or eight standard questions that everyone gets. What is your name? What do you look like? How do you feel about your Country? All those are good standards. Remember to encourage your players to elaborate. These aren’t fill in the blank questions, their essay. Asking your name also implies I want to know about your name. Do you have nick names? Are you named after anyone? Do you like your name? These sub-questions might need to be spelled out for some groups.

With the standard questions out-of-the-way the real fun starts for you, the GM. You get to imply things in these questions. For example, if you ask: “Why have you been visiting Doctor Marshall, a renowned psychiatrist, for six months now?” you have implied that the character has some sort of mental issue they need to see a psychiatrist regularly for.  Of course, it couple imply a romantic relationship or maybe a new friend. Clever players can twist simple questions into something more interesting. That is the fun part for the players. Of course your implications can be more obvious like asking: “How do you hide your scar?” This directly implies the character has a scar, no getting around it. And answer of “I don’t have a scar.” just isn’t acceptable, if that was the case then why was the question asked in the first place? Make sure to strike a fine balance between writing the character for the player and giving them room to create.

I also think it’s a good idea to write a unique connecting question for everyone. Is there a particular place that all the characters hang out in? Do they all live in the same neighborhood? Maybe they all see the same psychiatrist? Using the example of Doctor Marshall from above you could ask another player: “You recently appeared on a television program debating what topic with renowned psychiatrist, Doctor Marshall?” Now there are two characters that are familiar with this Doctor Marshall character and a bridge can be further build between the two. This lets the GM get some control over how the party is formed while still leaving the details up to the players. If your players all meet in a tavern then you might ask one, “How is it that you know the bartender of said tavern?” another character might be asked, “Why did your father sell his tavern to the bartender of said tavern?” and a third is asked, “Why do you visit said tavern every Tuesday night?” All three characters are now connected via the tavern, but in very different ways.

I enjoy making my players squirm and I always saved the best question for last. I made the last question in all my surveys to be something that looked, at least initially, very negative. Of course, I wanted to give the players a bit of wiggle room too so it wasn’t just like, “Why do you rape puppies?” Some of the better questions I asked were: “When your girlfriend told you she was pregnant you did something drastic to get rid of that burden, what did you do?” – “How did you justify eating human flesh to the police?” – “How did your sister die and why didn’t you help her?” – “You raped that girl but only you and her know it. Why haven’t either of you told anyone?” – “Why haven’t you told anyone that you have terminal cancer?”

If you look closely, I implied an abortion, created a rapist and a cannibal, made someone watch their sister die, and gave someone cancer. Some of my players squirmed around the questions, others tackled them head on, and some came up with some very clever rational. Our cannibal wasn’t aware, he ate at a restaurant that a local gang was using to dispose of bodies. The guy with a pregnant girlfriend faked his own death and now watches from the shadows, regretting leaving his family. Our cancer patient wrote it off as pride and our rapist hasn’t gotten back to me on that question yet. We gave him a few suggestions but we’ll see what direction he takes it. The easy way out is to say you were both young and it, technically, qualified as statutory rape.

This technique doesn’t preclude writing a backstory, but I’ve found it tells me enough as a GM to write a game for everyone. It also lets me make suggestions and obstacles for the characters right off the bat. While not everyone will like or be comfortable with this approach I find it to be very useful. It answers important questions about the character but doesn’t close any doors. It lets the players come up with more details at the table about their character’s past and doesn’t force everything to be pre-determined. Of course, my issues with backstory is a different article.

Let it Ride!

Stolen from Burning Wheel

The Let it Ride! rule says that Game Masters should Let one roll stand for the scenario/situation. Perception tests, Stealth tests, Persuasion tests, any skill or stat that is repeated being tested during a scenario, should be tested once at the beginning. The successes from that test count for the rest of the scenario. But, when conditions change, or players change their course of action, let/make them test anew. If a player succeeds on her Perception test, then that success counts toward all instances where dice would be tossed for Perception for the duration of the scenario until things change. Sometimes that means you will always notice things, whereas other times you will be a dunce. This is not to say you won’t make the same test multiple times, the important thing is that the Game Master describes the scenario changing. No calling for three Stealth tests in a row to sneak across town without explaining why you’re making three rolls.

When your Game Master calls for the SAME roll for a second time without describing how your conditions have changed then its your job to yell out “LET IT RIDE!” and repeat your last results to him. Of course if that first roll was piss poor you might want to just keep your fool mouth shut.

Don’t be a Dick

Stolen from Houses of the Blooded

This rule states that if you find a way to interpret a rule that clearly damages the play environment, sabotages other people’s fun or is just plain nonsensical, don’t use the rule in that way. I fully endorse taking stuff from players who decide to be dicks. Of course, a warning is fair. Sometimes, we get caught up in the drama of the moment. Sometimes, our characters’ motivations seep into our own. Sometimes, those characters we play just get the better of us. But, we have to remember that what we’re doing is building a story, and sometimes, the hero doesn’t win. Sometimes, the hero loses. But then, sometimes, the player is just a dick. Don’t be a dick.

The first thing the Game Master needs to do is to determine the total Investigation Time and the Investigation Milestones. This should all be done in Hours. Simple investigations might only take an hour or two while truly epic ones might take thousands of hours. Remember, 24 hours is One Day of investigating, 168 is a week, 744 is a long month (31 days), and 8760 hours is roughly one year. Of course all these numbers assume the players investigate for 24 hours a day. Realistically anything around 3,500 hours is going to be about a year of work with sleep and a bit of down time. Few people can do this work for hours on an end without break.

The Milestones are 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 of the total Investigation Time. Milestones are in the points at which information can still be gathered but incompletely. The First Milestone (1/4 of the total Investigation Time) yields only 25% of the total investigation results. The Second Milestone (1/2 of the total Investigation Time) yields only 50% of the total investigation results. The Third Milestone (3/4 of the total Investigation Time) yields only 75% of the total investigation results. These Milestones allow players to stop investigations early and not walk away with nothing.

The player then makes the standard check to ensure success. If successful then 1d10 plus the appropriate trait is added to the Completed Investigation Time. Once the Completed Investigation Time is equal to or greater than the Total Investigation Time the investigation is complete and the Game Master gives the results to the players. At any time the players may stop making checks and take the last achieved Milestone results.

If the roll fails then no progress is gained but if your system uses some sort of critical failure system (natural 1s, under 1%, etc) then on a critical failure the player rolls 1d10 and subtracts that number from the Completed Investigation Time. These are small setbacks, misinformation, and false leads.

What the appropriate trait is depends on the system being used, it’s typically a part of whatever was being rolled for the check. This might be a connected Attribute or simple a fraction of the rolled Skill. The appropriate trait should be between 1 and 9, never able to double the potential of the 1d10 roll. You’ll have to figure that one out on your own.

We suggest keeping the total required time a secret from the players. Rarely do investigators know how long a case is going to take them. Just let them keep racking up time until they quit or have finished the case. This decision is left up to the Game Master and there is no wrong way to handle it.

Now, the Investigation is completed but what did all that rolling of dice mean? I hope it wasn’t just an exercise in “Roll until I say stop!”. We’ll, you’re right. While you were rolling you should be keeping track of a few important numbers. Record how many successes, failures, total time gained, and total time lost.  Give all this information to your Game Master and let them interpret it in order to give you a solid narrative.

Game Masters: Look over your players results. Did they succeed more than they failed? Did they fail at all? Did they add a lot of time or just a little? Maybe they hurt more than they helped or they didn’t help at all. The numbers can tell you a lot about how the investigation went down. If one player succeeded on every roll but only added an hour or two at a time it means they did constant, steady, work but didn’t have any major breakthroughs. If another player rolled more failures than success but when they succeeded they added a ton of time then they only really contributed in bursts, finding important information at the right times and floundering the rest of the time.

Lastly, look at what skills or traits the player was using. If you have three players doing three different things then play all that into the narrative. Maybe one player hit the streets to talk to the locals, flavor his results that way. If another hit the library and dusted off moldy tomes then his information should be along those lines. While the mechanic is basic the flavor is what makes all the difference.

The Six Resources

There are six key resources for survival, in no particular order they are: Food, Water, Medicine, Shelter, Protection, and Tools. Each resource is important to your survival. You might have noticed that Food and Water are separate resources, while both could be considered the same thing (Nutrition) in order to help stress the survival aspect of this system they have been broken into two separate elements that need to be managed. The next question might be about the difference between Shelter and Protection. Shelter is the physical place you stay and the things we use to cover ourselves while Protection is the means of which you overcome hostile threats. Protection translates roughly into guns, swords, traps and any weaponry you can think of.

1) Food

Anything consumable that helps keep your body running. Most doctors agree that you can survive without food for around eight weeks as long as you have water. For the game resources you are only in trouble when you’re Food resource is at -50 (almost eight weeks), although the Game Master might change that number based on other factors such as physical exertion or lack of quality food. Running out of Food means your characters have all starved to death and the game is over.

2) Water

We aren’t just talking about the cool blue stuff we find in lakes and oceans, Water represents any liquids which provide us with needed nutrients. Again, most doctors agree that assuming you’re in reasonable shape, that your not subjected to extreme heat or cold, and not exerting yourself then a human can live for about 3 to 5 days without any water. For the game resources you are only in trouble when you’re Water resource is at -5, although the Game Master might change that number based on other factors such as extreme heat and cold or physical exertion. Running out of Water means your characters have all dehydrated and the game is over.

3) Medicine

Everyone gets hurt or sick eventually. Medicine is more than just antibiotics and band aids, its anything we use to help our bodies repair or heal itself. Cough syrup, splints, stitches, pain relievers, or even getting the proper amount of sleep fall under the Resource of Medicine. For the game resources you are in trouble when you’re out of Medicine.There is no grace period like with Food and Water because running out of Medicine isn’t a direct death sentence. When Medicine reaches zero the Game Master has two options, they can either increase the amount of time healing takes in the system or they can suspend it all together. This means character either stop or slow down regaining lost hit points, life tokens, or whatever generic health system your game uses.

4) Shelter

More than just a roof over your head, although that is important and a measured resource, Shelter also represents clothing and a certain level of physical comfort. Without proper storage and protection other resources dwindle faster than usual, including your characters. For the game resources you are in trouble when you’re out of Shelter. There is no grace period like with Food and Water because, like Medicine, running out of Shelter isn’t a direct death sentence. When Shelter reaches zero your other resources deplete faster. Again the final call is left to the Game Master and the depletion rates might change depending on the specific Resource. We suggest at least doubling the depletion rate for all resources although some (Food and Water primarily) might deplete faster than others (Tools and Protection primarily)

5) Protection

Eventually you’re going to be attacked by something hostile and physical. Protection is a measure of your resources to fight back with. Bullets, knives, poison, traps, and even having a dependable location all count towards Protection. Eventually the bullets run out or the swords break though. For the game resources you are in trouble when you’re out of Protection. There is no grace period like with Food and Water because running out of Protection isn’t a direct death sentence. When Protection reaches zero your Game Master is allowed to penalize your attack ability. This might mean being out of ammunition to shoot, having swords or knives break, a simple statistical reduction of any attack bonus you may have or a penalty towards any attacks you make. If you’re system doesn’t have a well-defined combat mechanics (really?) then running out of Protection might increase the power of your opponents in order to represent your lowered defenses.

6) Tools

Anything we need to use in order to built thing is a tool. Obvious examples are hammers, screwdrivers, or wrenches but Tools is also a catch-all for supplies that tools are used on. Wood, steel, cloth, fan belts, gears, and anything else not covered by the other Resource types. For the game resources you are in trouble when you’re out of Tools. There is no grace period like with Food and Water because running out of Tools isn’t a direct death sentence. When Tools reaches zero your Game Master is allowed to penalize your non-attack abilities. Similar to Protection this might mean not being able to repair and craft things or it may be a statistical reduction of any bonus you may have or a penalty towards any rolls you make. If you’re system doesn’t have well-defined mechanics then running out of Tools might increase the difficulty of what you’re doing in some other fashion.

Measurement

All resources are measured in how many more days they provide. For example, you might have 74 days of Food, 92 days of Water, 12 days of Medicine, 360 days of Shelter, 102 days of Protection, and 32 days of Tools. That doesn’t sound too bad, except for the 12 days of Medicine. This will also help you write your game, 12 days of Medicine means its time to go collect some Medicine resources. Resource management can help write the game for you Game Masters out there but just remember to make it an incentive not a roadblock.

Resource Depletion

Now we’ve talked about what we’re tracking and what happens when we run out but the question remains: How do we run out? The simple answer would be since every Resource is tracked in Days then when One Day passes all resources drop one point. Of course, your players are going to try to ration, save, and just plain argue to keep resources so a more complex answer can also be given. It is no mistake that there are six resources and the easiest die to find is a six-sided one. If you want a more abstract or dynamic system for resource completion you can use the following system.

Roll a single six-sided die. This is how many total days resources you’re going to deplete. If the result is a Six, then every resource depletes One Day. Any other result is decided by rolling another six-sided die. You can either roll to see what resource isn’t depletes (which is suggested on initial rolls of four or five) or roll to see what resource is depleted (which is suggested on initial rolls of one or two). No resource should deplete more than One per Day base on these rolls. If you’re shelter resource is gone then you should apply the Shelter penalty after you determine what resources are depleting. Lastly, if a Resource is already bottomed out and it is rolled to deplete the Game Master has two options. Either the group got lucky and that Resource is unaffected or they will have to roll for a different result.

Example: Greg is rolling for today’s resource depletion. His first roll is a four, meaning they are going to lose one day of resources from four different resources. Greg decides that instead of rolling four times to see what is going to deplete, he is just going to roll twice to see which two don’t deplete. Greg rolls and determine that Water and Protection will be the two resources that don’t deplete. Unfortunately their Shelter hit zero yesterday so this is going to really sting.

If you want your game to skip more than one day then you can roll a single six-sided die per resource per week to determine their depletion. This gives the players at least one free day but that seems fair in light of the abstract progression of time. It is not suggested to skip more time then could be measured with this weekly mechanic. This is going to be a survival game after all and if you’re skipping months or years then survival isn’t really a factor any longer.

Starting Resources

You know what you’re tracking and how it goes away but how do you get it to start with? There is no simple answer for this question. It is all highly dependent on the starting situation. In dire straits you may start the players with a single six-sided die roll per resource or if the situation is a little calmer you could multiply that out. Starting with lower resources prompts the players to begin with resource gathering while starting with higher implies a more stable situation where the players can focus on other efforts.

Regaining Resources

The next question is likely about how to rebuild lost resource pools. Again, there is no simple answer. Your Game Master might determine that performing some actions improve a Resource. You could spend Tools to rebuild Shelter for example. Maybe defeating the near-by looters will increase your Protection. Starting a farm would surely increase your Food while scavenging bottles of water could increase your Water. All of this, and the exact numbers, are left up to your Game Master to relay to you. It depends heavily on the feel of the game and how desperate this survival situation is.

The backbone of Detective Points uses tokens, chips, coins, or some way to tracking the points. At the start of the game the Game Master sets aside a bag of tokens to dole out to the players during the course of the game. When the Game Master introduces the first clue they may offer any Player who defines its Leads a Detective Point. A Lead is a detail of the clue; why it’s there, what it means, who left it, or any number of things. The Game Master might offer points for specific Leads (Who’s shoe is this? Why is this knife in the bathroom?) or they may open the floor up for anything the Players may come up with. If the Game Master doesn’t want the Players to define Leads then they simply don’t offer a Detective Point. If the Game Master has a specific idea in mind for the Clue then they shouldn’t offer a Detective Point for Leads, they should simply use their basic system for relaying that information.

Players collect Detective Points whenever the Game Master lets them define Leads. Then they spend them to create new Clues. Whenever a Player has a chance to find a new clue that Player simply holds up a Detective Point and declares what they found. The Game Master has first swing at giving a Lead or denying the Clue. This lets the Game Master keep their game on course or lets them turn control over to the other Players. If the Game Master defines the Lead then they get the Detective Point. If the Game Master shoots down the clue that Player gets to keep their Detective Point and that Clue can not become a False Lead. If the Game Master declines his right to create the first Lead then any other Player may accept the Detective Point and give the Clue a Lead. After the first Lead is given the Player or Game Master who defined the first Lead may offer another Detective Point to define more Leads. Again, the next Lead goes to the Game Master first and if the Game Master passes then it opens up to the other Players. This process continues until someone chooses to stop creating new Leads.

If a Player creates a Clue that no one can come up with the first Lead for then the Detective Point returns to the Player who suggested the Clue and the Game Master is now allowed to file that Clue away as a False Lead. False Leads can be used later in the case to throw off the Players (But what about that Blonde Hair, how does that fit into this mess?). Eventually the Players may discover that Lead is a False Lead but those mechanics are dependant on the system you’re using.

Detective Points require a level of discussion. These mechanics can turn wacky quickly and it is always within the Game Master’s right to turn down anything that breaks the game, just doesn’t make sense, or harms another player’s fun in the game. Defining Leads that point to other Players may be acceptable in some games but in others it turns a fun game into an argument.