Interlude: Murder on the Crossroads

I turn my back to the wind
To catch my breath
Before I start off again
Driven on
Without a moment to spend
To pass an evening
With a drink and a friend
Rush, Time Stand Still (1987)

For various reasons, both of my groups needed to take a short break. Just a week for the Abomination Vaults campaign and a couple of weeks for the Rifts: Mindscape campaign. Work and vacations are to blame, but that is life when you play tabletop roleplaying games. It happens. For those still available to play, we had a hole in the schedule to fill.

Before I even had a chance to consider what to run, the guys in my Rifts campaign told me they already had plans. They informed me I was going to run Pathfinder for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) by the Pinnacle Entertainment Group (PEG). Easy enough! I’ve run several Savage Worlds campaigns and even more Savage one-shots. It’s an easy system to pick up and run, even if it has been a year since I last touched it.

All I needed to decided, “What adventure should I run?” PEG offers a plethora of excellent one-page adventures, but none of those were piquing my interest. I could write my own adventure. I’ve done that plenty of times, but I really wanted something that was low/quick prep. I poured over my collection of adventures from various systems. Some members of the group aren’t fans of dungeon crawls, so a good number of considerations were tossed out immediately.

Ultimately, I settled on Murder on the Crossroads by Brian Suskind from Midgard Sagas, published by Kobold Press. Midgard Sagas is a collection of adventures for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5E) which “started life as conventions events.” This adventure is a gothic murder mystery and although the adventures in this collection are meant to be run in 4-6 hours, I have found this one easily fills 2-4 sessions (8 to 24 hours depending on the group and how the adventure is run).

I have run Murder on the Crossroads before. In fact, I have run it twice using two different systems, sorta. I knew the adventure and I knew I could convert it to SWADE quite easily. The first half of the adventure introduces the PCs to House Legora, introduces a murder twist to the story, and empowers the PCs to investigate the crime. The second half of the adventure revolves around the fallout from the crime(s) committed. This is perfect for two sessions and the group liked the idea of a murder mystery when I pitched it to them.

My first experience with this adventure was in March of 2020. That date sound familiar to any of you? Yep, I thought it would. I ran the first half of Murder on the Crossroads using D&D 5E for one of my friends and my kids. I printed the huge maps for House Legora which took up most of my large game table. That was a saga unto itself, a real headache. The group explored the locale, investigated the crime scene, interrogated suspects, and discovered the identity of the killer!

We broke for the night with plans to come back the next weekend to finish up. The COVID 19 lockdown ruined those plans. Some in the group were against moving the game online, so it went on hiatus and died there. Even when we finally started getting back to playing in-person, we never picked this one back up.

My second experience was a year or so later when my Tuesday online group (which I began running long before COVID) decided to play Pathfinder 2nd Edition (PF2E) for the first time. I had already prepped MotC for the earlier game. I just needed to upload some maps and tokens to Roll20, convert the material to PF2E, and we would be off and running. I pitched the adventure to the group and they were immediately hooked. This time we had no problem playing through to the end over the course of 4 game sessions and everyone enjoyed the experience. We also got to enjoy those huge maps, a feat I found difficult to accomplish at the game table. Virtual tabletops are handy like that.

So I started prep for Murder on the Crossroads with Pathfinder for Savage Worlds with three goals in mind. One, I needed to narrow down elements of the mystery to help ensure we could finish the adventure in 2 game sessions. Two, I needed to eliminate extraneous material that got in the way of keeping the game fast, fun, and furious (the mantra for any Savage Worlds game). Three, I needed to shrink the map down so I could easily manage it at my game table.

Why did I need to work on the mystery elements? The adventure provides a plethora of suspects, clues, and leads. As players explore and investigate, they narrow down that list until they finally point the finger at the suspect they believe to be the killer. Sounds simple, right? Well, it is and isn’t. SPOILER: Whoever the players (or PCs) identify as the killer(s) is correct. This is a common “trick of the trade” for GMs running mysteries. The group has fun exploring the mystery and the players get to feel like real detectives when they solve the case. Murder on the Crossroads provides enough material to point to any number of killers.

Normally, this would not be a problem but this particular group of players were/are “Completionists” with a capital C. Even when they had enough clues, they wanted to find more. They wanted to suss out every possible detail to make sure they were making the absolute best decision. I didn’t spot the problem quickly enough and they got to the point they started causing analysis paralysis when identifying the killer. They had too many clues pointing at too many suspects. I cut off the flow of clues but the mistake had already been made. I finally told them they had all the clues they were going to find and needed to decide based on the info they had. It was a tough decision and once they announced the identity of the killer, we were able to move into the second half of the adventure.

That was totally my fault and I did not want to repeat my mistake. So this time, I picked the killer(s) in advance and walked backwards through the material eliminating unnecessary clues and leads. Well, most of them were eliminated. Any good mystery needs a red herring or two. Once complete, I was ready to move on to the next part of prep.

Most Fantasy d20 (F20) games include a certain amount of resource consumption as part of adventure design. The PCs survive so many encounters before short or long rests in D&D 5E. Pathfinder 2E characters have limited resources they need to replenish periodically. When resources are consumed, it is time to get some rest and recovery. Savage Worlds on the other hand doesn’t really bother with that much. Sure, the group could take enough Wounds, they need to retreat for healing. Or they could run out of bullets or rations, but that really isn’t in line with the “fast, fun, and furious” moniker of the game. Power Points, the fuel for PC’s powers, can be easily restored by spending Bennies (5 Power Points per Benny spent) and Bennies flow like crazy during a Savage Worlds game. Rest and recovery really happens when it makes sense in the story. This story was only going to last 2 sessions, so there was a lot of material I just axed because it wasn’t needed including [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and [REDACTED].

What? You didn’t think I was going to spoil everything, now did you?

Finally, I needed to shrink down the map so it fit on my game table. I planned to build House Legora using Dwarven Forge terrain. I’m a sucker for awesome terrain and by all accounts, my players love it too. I don’t have the means for multi-story builds yet, so House Legora needed to be converted from two stories into a single story structure. Then I tossed out most of the cave system out as well, keeping only the final chamber where the PCs face the BBEG of the story. Murder on the Crossroads is packed with interesting details so I needed to make sure I had a place for all of them in House Legora 2.0.

This is the final result of that effort. This build includes the Entry Hall, the Grand Hall (in the middle), Griffon Suite, Manticore Suite, Wyvern Suite, quarters for the PCs, a kitchen, the majordomo’s quarters, an arboretum, and General Legora’s personal chamber. It also includes…

A cavern where the PCs can battle the main villain of the adventure. Ignore the hellish landscape around the cave, that’s not important. I swear!

All was ready for the adventure! The players showed up (as did their PCs), a murder occurred, they investigated the murder and found the killer, and then all hell broke loose! They fought their way to the BBEG and took him down. We had a great time and Murder on the Crossroads served us well yet again.

So now I’ve run this adventure three-ish times using three different systems and I can honestly say, Brian Suskind did an excellent job. The story is broken into two distinct halves, an interesting murder mystery and the battle to stop the dastardly deeds of the villain. Both halves play well together and House Legora is a fun locale to explore. The stars of the show are the plethora of NPCs Brian created for us. The adventure is packed with interesting flavor and material to bring each of them to life and that is where this adventure shines the most. If your group is anything like mine, they will find plenty of reasons to love and hate all of the NPCs in this adventure.

GM’s Note: Despite running this adventure three times, only one player participated in more than one running. My son, Stephen, played in the first attempt that was ruined by COVID 19 and then in the third iteration we just completed. He told me he enjoyed finally getting to see the end of this story, even after a 4 year break.

My son and his friends working on the murder mystery. Like my purple construction paper fog of war?

Oh man, everything is on fire! What did they do!?!

Finally got to use that balor miniature, even if everyone kept calling him a balrog the whole time. Tolkien would be proud, I guess.

Have you played Murder on the Crossroads or Pathfinder for Savage Worlds? If so, let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear about your experiences.