Saw your post about wanting more modules/wanting to play your own game. I'd like to write some mundane mysteries for Eureka - I love the paranormal angle, but if I'm being honest, my first thought when I heard Eureka existed was "oh gods, is... is this a Jessica Fletcher simulator???"
So, out of curiosity, is there a particular era that you'd prefer to play in? I know you've adapted a lot of Call of Cthulhu stuff and I'd be fine with/am comfortable in a 1920s-1930s UK milieu, but I'd also be down for a modern setting, or... really, much of anything.
( @malcolmschmitz )
I’ve mentioned in several posts recently that modern, mundane mysteries are something that Eureka needs to have as a a foundation to contrast the rareness and weirdness of the paranormal, but are also something of is sorely lacking at this time.
Once we finish with the Murder at the Belle Nuit rewrite, we’re actually planning to host a mystery module jam with an emphasis on mundane, “kolchakian”(the rulebook explains what this means), modern(taking place in the 2020s) mysteries.
So yeah if you wanted to give writing a Eureka module a shot, we’d love that. Right now what Eureka is most in need of as a foundation is mystery modules that fit at least two of these three criteria:
>Taking place in the 2020s
>Being not about a paranormal event
>Being “kolchakian.” The rulebook explains this better but essentially it means that the investigation will take place over a large area with multiple different distinct locations that the party travels between.
I actually threw together a list of Eureka module writing prompts recently while I was thinking about it. (These are just prompts, way simpler and more basic than the pitches I mentioned writing in this post.)
One of the main through lines for these prompts is to set up ideas that aren’t too ambitious, so that first-time Eureka module writers don’t get overwhelmed and give up half-way through.
Also everyone check out Chapter Five in the Eureka rulebook for super extensive and detailed guidance about how to write a Eureka mystery module.
Here’s the prompts.
The investigators and some NPCs are invited to a remote location where weather or circumstances traps them, and there is either a murder or a monster or both.
2. There has been a break-in at a house and something precious and easily recognizable was stolen that the investigators have to track down and get back.
3. A wannabe serial killer has killed his first victim (and won’t be doing it again in the timeframe of the module so you don’t have to write 500 different crime scenes).
4. Somebody has been killed and the police immediately arrest the most likely suspect, who claims he is innocent but the police can’t (or won’t) confirm his alibi. The investigators will have to track down several people he claims can vouch for him at the time of the murder. Actually solving the murder is a secondary objective to saving their friend from prison.
You specifically don't have to use these prompts but I thought this would be a good place to post them.
