The Last Poster Wins! [v21]

[Neo Emolga]

If you need help with serial killer psychology I can probably offer help there. Because at some point Stalkers got me interested in that and now I'm not an expert but definitely more knowledgeable than the average person.

I haven't quite crossed that bridge yet, but thanks for the offer! Right now, I'm working on the map. Usually that comes first because map = worldbuilding and everything else needs to fit into it. It's mainly just a matter of laying out the streets and drawing boxes of various shapes around them to represent the buildings while leaving a few empty areas for possible parks, ponds, or things like that.

After that, I decide what each little box building on the map actually is, make sure there's a balance of residential, commercial, and possible industrial zones (as per what Sim City has taught me). While I do that, I also create the civilian list and decide where they live, where they work, and go on from there. The Stalkers I make separately and then once their MO and theme is made, blend them in with the rest of the civilians. Best way to do that is sometimes give them family members that live with them or coworkers that work with them. As you guys know, that's not always the case 100% of the time. Mixing it up keeps the players guessing.

Each Stalker has, as you probably figured out by now, a Route that leads to evidence that makes it relatively obvious who it is, although sometimes there's that final step or puzzle to get it. However, it's always possible that the players may nail the Stalker before they reach the end of the Route. That's totally fine. That hasn't quite happened yet, but the game can easily still go on even if this happens.

Overall, I find the best way to do these is work backwards. Start at the solution, and then branch out the steps needed to get to that. But yeah, that's essentially the basics of my process in a nutshell. There's obviously more to it than that, but those extras get tacked on later.