More Tips On Clue Tokens

Using Clue Tokens (read about them here) sometimes feels like using a walkthrough, I'm sure. You get stuck. You used a Clue Token. Sometimes you get a solid hint. Or a common sense answer. Sometimes a new option opens up. Sometimes I give a short list of potential avenues of investigation. But in each instance someone else is intervening and using their brain instead of your own. Some players might love a casual walkthrough but mine are a bit leery of over-using it. There's another option to use it as well.

Last night, in Demon: the Fallen, my players released a Luciferan Devil called Nakreem out of the sword he'd been sealed inside by an Earthbound. It was quite convenient for them since they'd promised the Luciferans to summon one of their ilk. They'd gotten him a body (a corpse freshly arisen with Awakening) and then contacted their Luciferan contact in Tokyo to find out when he could come and get Nakreem. The Luciferan, Grifiel, told them that he'd get in touch within the next 24 hours when everything was set up.

They had to babysit him until then.

Of course, Nakreem had been out for a bit and was quite close to a Mage and didn't much want to go back to an Army he knew little about. They didn't realise that he'd been caught by the Earthbound at the same time as the Mage so didn't make the connection. So he champions for a chance to party (they put him in the body of an english punk rocker so it wasn't a surprise) but they took him to a jazz club instead. He picked up a girl (a supernatural, no less, who they ICly think may be some kinda vampire and OOCly believe might be a Changeling). They follow him, one of them watches the shenanigans to ensure he's safe, but eventually they all go home and leave him alone.

So he legs it.

The Malefactor Luciferan, Anaphriel, pretends to be his angry girlfriend to the supernatural the following morning (they don't know if vampires burn in the sun, so it's still ICly possible to them that she is one - or maybe some kind of nymph). The supernatural (Mira), tells her that he borrowed her phone the night before at about 2:00AM and spoke to an Englishman. They get the number he called from her phone and track it back to a motel. Arriving there, they find the two have already left.

My players were sitting around in Demon: the Fallen brainstorming possible methods of tracking down a Luciferan Devil and who he might know in Adelaide since they knew he was shoved in a sword over in Russia. My co-storyteller, who was getting to be a player in that session and knew nothing of the connections here, spent a Clue Token for assistance.

Since everyone was busy throwing out options in a group brainstorm, I basically just told him 'hotter' or 'colder' to people's ideas and underlined certain phrases they mentioned that seemed important to him. Things like 'someone he knew'. This worked out a charm because, to progress, they had to rely on suggestions the players made 100% but I gave them a little direction through a few nudges here and there as little intuitive nudges.

And it worked well!

So for all of you using Clue Tokens or a similar system, perhaps try using them that way on occasion.