When we talk about mystery scenarios, we obviously spend a lot of time looking at clues. Broadly speaking, a clue is something that an investigator can use to reach a conclusion:
- The murders always happen on the night of a full moon; therefore a werewolf is responsible.
- The accounting records reveal that John Fairbanks has been making payments to the corporate saboteurs.
- The trail of footprints leads to Old Man’s Cave.
And so forth.
A hint, on the other hand, is similar to a clue, but DOESN’T point to a conclusion. They’re less specific than that. They’re suggestive of something more general or, perhaps, ephemeral. Another way to think about is that a clue provides an answer, but a hint suggests a question.
This doesn’t, however, mean that a hint is necessarily subtle. Stuff like
- A bloody handprint smeared across the wall;
- A portrait with the eyes gouged out; or
- The front door of Alicia’s house being ajar when you arrive
can all be very obvious and in-your-face, even if it’s not entirely clear what’s going on.
Other hints, though, might be so subtle that the players might not even realize they were significant until later, like:
- Broken pieces of glass on the floor of a dungeon corridor.
- “Silver snakes” being mentioned off-handedly or metaphorically in several different lore books.
- A slightly greasy residue on a door handle.
Hints are not just random set dressing, though. They are, in fact, hinting at something. (It’s right in the name.) It’s just that they are so fractured, partial, distorted, or incomplete in their nature that their true meaning cannot be fully perceived. The difference between photograph and a dim shape glimpsed murkily through a thick fog.
USING HINTS
Hints can be used to achieve a number of different effects.
They can set mood or tone for a scenario. Basic examples include simple signals that “something weird is going on here” or “something terrible happened here.”
They can also serve as a warning of danger. This can be highly situational, but whether it’s a bloody knife or a broken vase of flowers lying on the kitchen floor, PCs who take the hint might realize it’s time to draw their guns, call the cops, or activate their shielding charm.
Similarly, a hint can be a signal to investigate. A sort of, “Hey! Look over here!” Whatever the PCs find upon taking a closer look, of course, may have nothing to do with the original hint.
Tip: A hint suggesting the presence of a trap can be a fun combination of danger warning and investigation signal.
Hints can also more broadly serve as a form of foreshadowing. Why did all the toy soldiers have their legs ripped off? While initially being just a creepy-yet-enigmatic detail, the truth will become apparent when the PCs meet the legless zombie boy who’s been locked up in the attic.
Something to be aware of when using hints is that there’s not always a sharp distinction between a clue and a hint. Players can also be devilishly insightful, so don’t be surprised when they perform a bit of intuitive judo and somehow glean great truths from the most inscrutable details.
This is, of course, just fine: The goal of a mystery, after all, is for the investigators to acquire knowledge, and the players will likely be incredibly stoked to have solved such a fiendishly difficult riddle.
But it can be a useful reminder that, if there’s something the PCs absolutely must NOT know (for whatever reason), then even hinting at it may be dangerous. You might get some mileage from figuring out how to hint at the thing that hints at the truth. That ought to slow them down… for a few scenes, at least.
