There are lots of ways to organize your material for a mystery roleplaying adventure.
Many GMs find a flowchart format useful. Turn left and follow the trail of clues that way, turn right and investigate another path.
But I confess, I am much more of a straight-line breadcrumbs sort of GM. Which means, I suppose, that I dole out the clues in succession, nearly all of them leading in the same direction.
There are still opportunities to go left or right. But it’s more of a Y branch that reconnects farther down the track, rather than an entirely new line of investigation. I’ve found that if either trail veers too far off, the PCs will either become hopelessly lost or lose interest.
That means for a linear investigation, you’ve got, at the most, one red herring to dangle in front of the players. One false lead maintains for the players the flavor of an investigation without derailing it. At worst, the PCs must backtrack to the point they followed the false clue.
Far better, in my experience, to return them to the main line as soon as possible. An investigative tree with too many – or too far-reaching branches – ultimately means there is an investigative track the PCs are missing. And if that’s the case, it essentially means the GM is designing two investigations. Â Regardless of how realistic separate wrongdoings might lead to the same perpetrator, for a game session requiring a few hours, it’s an inefficient use of everyone’s time.
That’s my case for making investigation scenarios linear. I’d love to  hear about the approaches of other GMs. Share them in the comments section below.
Another timely topic from my perspective. I surveyed my players last week, and “problem-solving” (which, to my mind, is one of the cornerstones of all storytelling) came up number one on their list of preferences. I have a second survey out that includes a question about the level of continuity they prefer, so that will tell me something about the scale of the mysteries they want to deal with.
Rather than linear, I tend to like to arrange my clues in a funnel. Eventually they’ll end up at the center of the mystery, but they may get there via many routes. Many of my clues are floating clues, and can be put wherever the PCs decide to search for them.
Even if I’m not using a GUMSHOE game system, I use the GUMSHOE technique of never letting a core clue get missed because of a bad die roll. I may fail forward, but if they need the clue, they find it.
Oh, I love the visual of a funnel. That is really an enticing thought. I may have rethink things. Way to go Nojo.
I do similar, Nono. Good visual; hadn’t thought to descibe it that way.