Overcoming Investigative Assumptions

[Ronnie Sanford]

This is kind sick but it might be useful for people playing Delta Green or other highly investigative games. I post this partially also because I find it morbidly curious... WARNING MATURE CONTENT - From the FBI...

Overcoming Investigative Assumptions | FBI: Law Enforcement Bulletin

A case study illustrates how assumptions can create bias at the beginning of a death investigation and then shows how initial assumptions can, and sometimes should, be reexamined to resolve an investigation.

leb.fbi.gov

 

[Simlasa]

It's an interesting read... the gist of it being that investigators should maintain an open mind and build a hypothesis that includes ALL the evidence. But real-life investigations are often limited on time and other resources.
I worked in a toxicology lab for several years and we did testing for the police... but there was always some degree of politics and business interest that limited the sort of tests we ran, what substances were looked for. To the point that doctors and other clients would sometimes be angry if we reported substances not normally requested in a test but were routinely revealed anyway (things like acetominophen and nicotine).

 

[Ralph Dula]

But real-life investigations are often limited on time and other resources.

When my former gaming group got into 3.5 one of the first adventures I ran was an investigative scenario involved a time constraint that PCs weren’t aware of. Despite being a scenario set in a town the author apparently thought the PCs would handle the investigation by busting into places in broad daylight and killing their suspects as soon as possible.

My players decided to gather evidence and wait for the wee hours to infiltrate a potential lair, resulting inn an overpowered monsters showing up and destroying the town.

 

[Simlasa]

When my former gaming group got into 3.5 one of the first adventures I ran was an investigative scenario involved a time constraint that PCs weren’t aware of. Despite being a scenario set in a town the author apparently thought the PCs would handle the investigation by busting into places in broad daylight and killing their suspects as soon as possible.

My players decided to gather evidence and wait for the wee hours to infiltrate a potential lair, resulting inn an overpowered monsters showing up and destroying the town.

I ran a short Call of Cthulhu adventure last year.
I'd initially planned it for our local group, with our GM specifically in mind because he likes to say that 'all problems in CoC can be solved with dynamite'. So I made sure there was plenty of dynamite available, as well as a cache of surplus WWI armaments... and a situation, with a time-clock, where relying on those things would not lead to a happy ending.
But the folks I ended up running it for (not our local group) took an entirely different approach... no dynamite, barely any combat... and subsequentally the clock DID run out and they got the (kindasorta) happy ending.

 

[CRKrueger]

This is kind sick but it might be useful for people playing Delta Green or other highly investigative games. I post this partially also because I find it morbidly curious... WARNING MATURE CONTENT - From the FBI...

Overcoming Investigative Assumptions | FBI: Law Enforcement Bulletin

A case study illustrates how assumptions can create bias at the beginning of a death investigation and then shows how initial assumptions can, and sometimes should, be reexamined to resolve an investigation.

leb.fbi.gov

In True Detective, when they first see the body, Rust goes into Profiler Mode and starts listing off facts based on his study of Homicide Psychology and experience. The first thing Marty does is try to reel him back, citing Confirmation Bias. Since they were new partners, I thought that was cool.

In any case, the detectives were completely wrong. The woman was obviously killed by a Voudoun practitioner, probably a Bokor of the Petro rite.

 

[Ralph Dula]

I ran a short Call of Cthulhu adventure last year.
I'd initially planned it for our local group, with our GM specifically in mind because he likes to say that 'all problems in CoC can be solved with dynamite'. So I made sure there was plenty of dynamite available, as well as a cache of surplus WWI armaments...

I had two unique experiences with dynamite and CoC. One involved the only time a munchkin player decided to roleplay his investigator (who had an Intelligence of 3) and resulted in a TPK.

Another involved a near-TPK, the only survivor being the would-be girlfriend of the Keeper. Amazing coincidence, that.

 

[Dyrnwyn]

And if dynamite doesn't solve the problem in Call of Cthulhu, naval artillery will!

 

[Ralph Dula]

And if dynamite doesn't solve the problem in Call of Cthulhu, naval artillery will!

We did decide that if Phantasm II had a quad-barreled shotgun we could have them as well.

16d6 at one shot is a great deterrent to many Mythos creatures.