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GM Tools · 04

Clue webs

Three routes to every truth, so failure changes cost, not the campaign.

Tap the plate to zoom. From the Mar de Oro GM Tools Booklet.

What it is

When a single piece of evidence gates a whole plotline, one bad roll or one missed conversation stops the game. A clue web builds three independent paths to the same truth: an obvious route, a professional route, and a costly route. Any one of them, alone, is enough to reveal the fact.

Each route has its own difficulty, its own price, and its own tell. The party may find the same truth through a taproom rumour, a bribed ledger, or a corpse pulled from the harbour, but they will find it.

What varies is what the truth costs them by the time it arrives.

When to use it

  • Any time a single fact is required for the party to proceed.
  • When you notice yourself planning 'they roll Investigate, then…', stop and web it.
  • When a session hinges on a mystery and you cannot afford a stall.
  • For campaign-critical truths (a traitor's identity, the target of an operation, the source of a bloom).

Worked example

Truth · The refinery foreman is on the Justicariat payroll
Obvious route, free to notice
A dockworker mentions the foreman was seen leaving the Justicar's transport at dawn last week. Anyone asking the right bar the right question hears it.
Professional route, costs a favour
The Heller consul's clerk can be persuaded to show a manifest where the foreman signs for "consulting fees" from Valdegracia. The favour is now owed.
Costly route, burns cover or risks a scene
Breaking into the foreman's office turns up the payment ledger , but the break-in itself advances the Albion identifies the asset clock by one segment.

Pairs with

Faction moves
The costly route often triggers the next faction move.
Hard choices
Which route to take is itself a hard choice.
Session Prep Builder
The builder generates three clue routes for any hook.
Previous · Tool 03
Faction moves
Next · Tool 05
Hard choices
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Every tool in the toolkit, plus worked examples, in printable form.

For the Game Master's eyes

Tales of Mar de Oro · Game Master's Guide · Johnny Crown · 7202 Post Sundering

Restricted · For the Game Master

Mar de Oro GM Tools

This is the Game Master tool area for Tales of Mar de Oro: session preparation aids, pacing and consequence helpers, clocks, and reference generators you can use at the table. The tools themselves are system-neutral utilities, and they sit alongside campaign material written for the person behind the screen.

Campaign spoiler warning: the material past this point includes faction secrets, hidden truths, and the sequence of events behind the campaign. Reading it as a player will hollow out surprises the setting depends on.

Spoiler-free GM resources you can open without entering: Mar de Oro GM Tables and new Game Master onboarding.

Return to player material

7202 Post Sundering · Johnny Crown