Sleuth

Sleuth is an open-ended detective RPG where you solve mysteries by searching for clues, questioning suspects and interviewing witnesses. Every mystery is unique, with different victims, suspects and clues. All mysteries are solvable, in fact there are always two ways to solve any single mystery, but player skill and a small amount of luck are necessary to nab the guilty suspect.


Contents
Creating a New Detective
Skills
Equipment
Starting a New Case
Working on a Case
Clients
Solving a Case
Tips for Solving Cases
False Accusations and Retirement
Favors and Contacts
Real Estate and Detective Agencies
Traveling between Cities



Creating a new Detective
Your detective is your personification in the world of Sleuth. A detective has certain statistics, skills and equipment that make it easier to solve cases.

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Choosing a Name and Password
Name your detective and choose a password. You cannot choose the same name as a detective that already exists in the game, so you might not get your first choice. Email is an optional field, but it is recommended that you provide an email address, so you can recover your password, if you should ever forget it.

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Detective Gender and Appearance
The gender of your detective affects how other characters deal with you. Certain skills aid you when speaking to suspects and witnesses of the opposite sex. Your appearance has no bearing on the game, just choose the one you like best.

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Detective Statistics
Detectives have three statistics: Toughness, Smarts and Charm. It costs less skill points to learn a skill that is based on a statistic your detective has a high value in. For instance, if a Very Charming detective wants to learn Interrogation, it will cost them 7 skill points to learn it, however, it would cost a Very Tough detective only 3 skill points. Your statistics never change through the life of your detective, so choose well.

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Detective Skills
Solving crimes can be tough. Evidence is hard to analyze. Suspects and witnesses are rarely very cooperative. Skills give sleuths a chance to do their job. Some skills help you convince unwilling witnesses to answer a few extra questions. Other skills aid you in finding and analysing physical evidence. Skills are purchased with Skill Points. You start with a certain number of Skill Points and earn more for solving crimes. Every skill is associated with a statistic and the higher you are in that statistic, the easier it is for you to learn the skill. For instance, if a Very Charming detective wants to learn Interrogation, it will cost them 7 skill points to learn it, however, it would cost a Very Tough detective only 4 skill points.


Toughness Skills Base Price  
Interrogation 7 Gives you a chance to convince an uncooperative suspect to answer more questions
Intermediate Interrogation 11 Increases chance to convince an uncooperative suspect to answer more questions
Advanced Interrogation 11 Increases chance to convince an uncooperative suspect to answer more questions
Intimidation 11 Gives you a chance to convince an uncooperative witness to answer more questions
Advanced Intimidation 13 Increases chance to convince an uncooperative witness to answer more questions
Stress Detection 7 Detect when a suspect is about to stop answering questions
Lock Picking 12 Pick Locks Find Stuff
Pick Pocketing* 12 The secret art of the pilferer is useful when other people are less than forthcoming with things that are rightfully yours
Pugilism* 14 Increases likelihood of success when using Interrogation or Intimidation
Trap Detection* 12 Alerts you to the presence of natural and man-made dangers.
* Faction Skills

Smarts Skills Base Price  
Hair Analysis 8 Allows you to spot out of place hairs at the crime scene
Advanced Hair Analysis 9 Gives you a chance to determine whether hair found is curly or straight
Thread Analysis 7 Lets you find suspicious threads at the crime scene
Advanced Thread Analysis 10 Gives you a chance to determine if thread is from men's or women's clothes
Hand Writing Analysis 13 Gives you a chance to tell if hand writing was written by a left or right handed person
Footprint Analysis 12 Gives you a chance to determine if a footprint came from a heavy person or a slim one
Research 13 You can find useful information about cases in the Hall of Records, located in City Hall
Safe Cracking* 12 There is more than one way into a locked safe
Surveillance* 15 Allows detective to discretely follow and observe a subject
* Faction Skills

Charm Skills Base Price  
Sweet Talking 9 Gives you a chance to convince an uncooperative suspect to answer more questions
Intermediate Sweet Talking 12 Increases chance to convince an uncooperative suspect to answer more questions
Advanced Sweet Talking 12 Increases chance to convince an uncooperative suspect to answer more questions
Rule Bending 9 Gives you a chance to convince an uncooperative witness to answer more questions
Advanced Rule Bending 10 Increases chance to convince an uncooperative witness to answer more questions
Flirting 7 Increases likelihood of success when using Sweet Talking or Rule Bending on a member of the opposite sex
Judge of Character 10 Tell whether a suspect or witness is more likely to respond well to Charm or Toughness
Hypnotism* 12 The deep subconscious often holds secrets veiled from the waking mind
Underworld Connections* 17 Gain the connections necessary to track down somebody who has gone into hiding
Hostage Negotiation* 12 Allows negotiation with pirates
* Faction Skills


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Equipment
Your detective can carry up to five different pieces of equipment: a hat, a coat, a pair of shoes and two accessories. Equipment can be purchased at various locations throughout the game, and you can also be awarded equipment by successfully completing favors for the various citizens of the city. Equipment adjusts the chances of succesfully using certain types of skills. Equipment that gives you a toughness bonus increases the effectiveness of using Intimidation and Interrogation. Smarts enhancing gear makes you more likely to find out useful information about physical evidence, assuming you have Handwriting Analysis, Footprint Analysis, Advanced Thread Analysis or Advanced Hair Analysis. Charming equipment makes it easier to Sweet Talk or convince people to Bend The Rules. It is only useful to have gear that compliments skills you already posess. So, don't bother with equipment that gives you Charm bonus, if you don't have Sweet Talking or Rule Bending.

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Starting a New Case
To start a new case, click on "case" in the toolbar. You'll be given an option of several difficulty levels to play. Start with the easier levels to learn the game, then move up. The very hardest levels should only be attempted after you have a lot of experience solving crimes, and your detective has learned a bunch of skills and has decent equipment too.

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Working on a Case
Once you're working on a case, You'll need to do a few things to figure out who the guilty suspect is. To visit the scene of the crime, click on Scene, to interview suspects and witnesses, click on Map, and to review what you've already learned, click on Case.

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Clients
A detective becomes involved in a case when they are hired by the Client. The client will automatically divulge any motives they know at the beginning of the case, so, it is not necessary to explicitly ask the client for that information.

Murderers have been known to hire detectives to work on the very murders they commit, perhaps to throw suspicion off themselves. A good detective will never assume that their client is not also the guilty suspect. If the client does turn out to be guilty, the unfortunate detective will not have anybody to collect their promised reward from, although they should still take it as a learning experience.

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Solving a Mystery
Once you think you've narrowed down the guilty suspect, you'll want to accuse them to see if you're right or not. You must know the suspect's motive before you are given the option of accusing them. The client will usually tell you a few of the suspects' motives, at the start of the case. You can also ask other suspects about motives. Once you have a suspect's motive, you will be given an option to accuse when talking to them. If you successfully solve a mystery, you will usually be awarded experience and money. The experience will earn you skill points, which can be spent to learn new skills. The money can be spent on lots of things, including helpful equipment from the detective shop.

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Tips on Solving Crimes



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False Accusations and Retirement

If your detective gets three False Accusations on their record, they will have their detective license revoked and will be forced into retirement. It is possible to reactivate a retired detective, but the costs are very high. It is not wise to guess when accusing suspects.

Retired detectives are assessed the following penalties when reactivated:

  1. Loss of 25% of their Experience Points
  2. Loss of 90% of their Money
  3. Loss of Skill Points commensurate to Experience Points lost. Since no skills are lost in the process, this usually means the detective will start with negative available skill points.
  4. Loss of one randomly selected piece of Equipment
  5. Loss of all Contacts
  6. Loss of most of your Political Standing Points


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Favors and Contacts
Favors are cases you work on at the request of one of the recurring characters in sleuth. If you want to work on a favor, talk to one of those characters when you aren't already working on another case. The reward for performing a favor is usually a piece of special equipment that can't be purchased in the detective shop. Occasionally, performing a favor will earn you a contact. When a given character becomes your contact, they can always be counted on to be cooperative in your future investigations. In other words, a contact will never refuse to answer one of your questions.

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Real Estate and Detective Agencies
Detective Agencies are teams that players can create and join. Members of an agency can help each other with cases, share equipment and cooperate on treasure hunts.

If you want to join an existing detective agency, take a look at the Detective Agency Recruiting message board in City Hall. You should find a few messages posted by Agency Directors or Officers looking to bring on new memebers.

If you want to start your own agency, save up some money and head to the Real Estate Office. Assuming you have enough cash for a down payment, you can rent headquarters and establish your agency. Another option is to pitch in with a few other detectives, to share the down payment cost.

Detective Agencies are ranked by Fame, which members accumulate by solving cases and finding treasures.

Agency Ranks:
Rookies Agents Officers Directors
Deposit Money in Safe Yes Yes Yes Yes
Access Case Files Yes Yes Yes Yes
Use Crime Lab Yes Yes Yes Yes
Use Item Locker No Yes Yes Yes
Invite New Members No No Yes Yes
Change Agency Description No No Yes Yes
Promote/Demote Members*No No Yes Yes
Read Clerk Audit Logs No No Yes Yes
Remove Money from Safe No No No Yes
Kick Out Member** No No No Yes
Hire/Fire Agency Clerk No No No Yes
Move Headquarters No No No Yes
* Officers cannot demote or promote other officers. Directors can demote themselves, but cannot demote other Directors.
** Directors cannot kick out other Directors.


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Traveling between Cities
There are four different cities in the Sleuth world: New York, London, Shanghai and Delhi. Detectives can travel between cities by visiting the Docks in New York or Shanghai, or the Train Station in London or Delhi. It costs both money and turns (daily mysteries) to travel from one city to another. The further apart two cities are, the more expensive the trip is, and the longer it takes (the more daily mysteries it consumes).

* Only paying subscribers can travel between cities.

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