Ideas/Notes
Keep It Subtle But Detailed
Roles/PCs
The PCs are employees of the Mercier Film Company, a film studio that used to dominate the silent era but have experienced a steady decline into obscurity since the advent of talkies. Maybe move setting to ‘30s/’40s for accuracy? Set roles, short description for each.
Director
Former Lead Actor/ress
Screenwriter
Casting Director
Stunt Double
Walk-on/Bit part?
Make-up/Wardrobe? - Still unsure
Head Camera Man? -
Understudy? - Too similar to Former lead
Honestly maybe just make everyone actors. Bit boring though. Could ditch set roles? But I want a tight group.
Maybe have a detective/reporter role. Don’t know how well it would work or fit in. Maybe have them be a key NPC the PCs report to at the end of every day?
Have the players DM me 2-3 secrets for their character. Tie them in to the mystery.
Add ‘Fatal Flaw’ section to CS. Use it against the PCs/tie it into the mystery. Maybe keep it a secret too? Or give players the option maybe?
How do you have complex, deeply flawed characters noir is knowen for without them being total 3deep5u edgelords?
Clues/Pacing/Keeping Things Intresting
Unsure how to go about dropping initial clues. Maybe Bella wrote the PCs a letter or something that has the clues.
Even better, in the week leading up to her death Bella was acting strange and had odd conversation with PCs. Give each person a short prompt and have them write their characters reaction/response to the conversation. Literacy test + drop clues.
Even Betterer, maybe combine the two?
Clues should be ‘wierd’/non-conventional/otherwise interesting
Mayber throw a couple of more normal ones in there to balance it out
Noir tends to be snappy, but might be hard to translate this without leaving people behind - Less roles then?
Time Limit - Maybe 4-7 days then the PCs are arrested. If things are still interesting towards end maybe give them a grace period.
Have clues/events happen after a certain amount of time has passed to keep PCs on their toes - Say the police raid their hotel on Wednesday and they lose everything inside.
Have inactive/left behind characters temporarily out of action - Was being tailed so had to lay low, in hospital for minor injuries, ect.
Kill off inactive characters after 1-2 weeks? If player comes back let them rejoin with new character.
Be cruel but not unfair? Keep sending the PCs back to square one (or close to it) but give the apparent options to semi-quickly progress back.
Have players submit 1-2 NPCs each (to be played by them) that have some sort of relation to their character. Use these as bait for drama/corpse fodder.
Things get too stale have men with tommy guns kick down the door lmao
Setting/Locations
It’s gotta be in LA, though maybe New Orleans could work?
Startout with the PCs hiding out in a dinky, rundown motel on the outskirts of town - Orange County maybe? Have that be their ‘base’.
Since they’re on the run maybe have the majority of the RP take place in the surrounding countys/less populated areas/farmland/etc. Build LA up as a shining ideal just out of reach - only let the PCs go there for the climax, if at all. Though that does throw a bit of a wrench in the clue department.
Do up a short history lession/cheatsheet to pin in discussion. Go over common slang, recent history/current state of LA, societal conventions and taboos, the basics of everyday life, etc.
Have the PC’s get kicked out of/denied acess to places and have to find
alternate ways in - could get stale
Who Dun It/Red Herrings
‘Seedy underbelly of the Dream Factory that is Hollywood’
Gotta make a flow chart to keep track of everything - what clues are red herrings, what ones pay off, which ones are related to which PC, etc.
Incorperate PC info/backstory into it. Personal mysteries are more intresting/higher stakes - some people might be iffy about that though?
Have them suspect eveyone?
Cast the PCs against each other - Don’ know how well this would work, maybe something reserved for the climax?
Maybe they never find out how actually did it? Like whoever it was had connections/it was organised by some bigwigs who put a stop to the PCs investigation and give them an easy out if the agree to forget all about it - could play into inter-PC betrayal?
Or they could find out who did it but the big wigs don’t want their involvement known. So the PCs cut a deal and throw the guy who did it, the reporter/detective NPC, and maybe another NPC or even PC under the bus and walk out clean.
Have them discover something they didn’t set out too, ala Chinatown.
Feeding this, have an A plot and a B plot.
Noir stories typically end messy with the characters either dead or fundamentally changes/broken. No happy endings here, at best lukewarm. Facter in player input for where they think their character might end up.
Have an element of surrealism to it all.
Have Bella be the femme fatale, manipulating the PCs from beyond the grave.
A cult or something to do with/involving wicca?
Corruption a must, maybe something to do with an actor’s union? - SAG was founded in ‘33 and the mob controlled a lot of unions/business involved in making movies at the time.
The prohibition was also repealed in ‘33.
Definaly involve a couple Rockerfeller types. - Maybe Bella is related to one of these Rockerfeller types and there is some big secret. Could make a good B plot.
Involve the construction of the Goldern Gate Bridge somehow.
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