Introduce the mystery’s narrative! Who is the player? Where are they at? What sparked an investigation? What questions should the players be thinking about?

Make Your Character

Your character has two skills:

Introvert - Avoid contact with people, study, search, focus on a tedious task.
Extrovert - Ask questions, get into places you don’t belong, talk big, cause a scene.

Assign a d12 to one skill and a d10 to the other. You’ll use these skills to overcome complications. • list of 3 -5 questions the players should ask themselves to define their character

When using your Skill, roll the current die associated with it (d10 or d12 to start). If you are instructed to reduce a Skill, use the next smallest die for any future Skill roles of that Skill. d12 → d10 → d8 → d6 → d4 → d2

On a 1-2 Failure | No clue | Reduce Skill
On a 3-4 Hijinks | No clue | Reduce Skill
On a 5+ Success! | Find 1 clue
On a 10+ Success! | Find 2 clues

On a Failure Something bad happens because of your attempt to find a clue. On a Hijinks Wacky hijinks causes no clues to be found. Refill Your Cup Once per game, reset both skills to their max die rating by (narrative description). Counts as a location visit.

Setup

Hints and Hijinx is split into three stages: The Setup, The Investigation, and the Deduction. First, gather your materials • Pen and paper • This book • A set of dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 • A coin (d2) • A deck of playing cards - shuffled, no jokers

Draw the Map

Use the locations provided, or create your own, and draw the map you are playing in with 13 locations. This is optional, but fun. We provided a place for you to draw your map at the end of the book. Label the map’s locations. When you discover a clue, mark where you found it. Try to relate clues and locations together when you write about them.

The Investigation

During the Investigation, you’ll complete rounds of play until you’ve visited all 13 locations, or you are satisfied with the number of clues you’ve collected. Each round, you will take the following actions, in order:

Choose a **location to investigate
Roll on the d66 **complications table.
Write about and resolve the complication using your Introvert or Extrovert skill.
If you are successful, you gather a clue.
- Draw a card from the deck to lookup what clue you find.
If you fail or run into hijinks, write about how you are hindered in your search.
Continue to the next location, or begin the Deduction phase.

For your first round, you begin at the LOCATION. Roll on the complications table to see what happens and potentially gather your first clue.

The Deduction

Piece Together the Clues

You can only perform The Deduction once per game! You cannot go back to The Investigation phase once you start making your deduction. Make sure you are ready to piece together your clues to find out what’s happening. Write a hypothesis of what has happened that uses as many of the clues you have found as possible. Mark which clues you used. Once done, you’ll make the Deduction Roll. Consider answering the questions:

3-5 questions to consider or answer while writing the hypothesis

The Deduction Roll

Start your Deduction Die at a d0, for each clue you used in your hypothesis of what happened, increase the Deduction Roll’s dice by one step: d0 → d2 → d4 → d6 → d8 → d10 → d12 After d12, add +1 to your roll for each additional clue you used. To see if you were correct in your deductions, roll the Deduction Die and add any modifiers.

1-2: you were wrong, and there is a bad consequence for your poor deductions.
3-4: you were wrong, and there is a hijinks consequence because of your deductions.
5+: you were right, and you are successful.

Finally, write a conclusion about what happened afterward based on the result of the Deduction Roll.

Locations

Build from the list below, or choose your own locations. Relate clues and complications back to the location you’re currently at. For each location, ask yourself:

4-5 questions to customize each location, or general guidance
Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
Location 4
Location 5
Location 6
Location 7
Location 8
Location 9
Location 10
Location 11
Location 12
Location 13