Hi folks, I’ve been hard at work on the full version of Midnight of the Century, so here’s a taste of what I’ve been doing! I wanted to share my current progress on the random Investigation Generator. It’s essentially a series of random tables to roll on, so it’s not in the best format at the moment, but it should give you an idea of how things work and allow you to roll up some random killers, victims, and investigation timelines.

Here’s the Investigation Generator procedure:

1. Roll up the Killer.

2. Roll up the primary Victim, considering the Killer’s victim preferences (ethnicity/gender).

3. If the Killer has previous Victims, roll those (as above).

4. Roll for Doom tick 1 (the initial incident), including the Shift. Initial incidents have at least one witness. If the incident is a murder, use the Killer’s preferences (motive, pattern, method, and trophies).

5. Populate the Timeline. For each event, roll on the Shift Event table according to Doom Phase. For each result, roll on the corresponding table (except for Nothing), including whether the Doom Tick was witnessed. If Witnessed, add the Inject to the Timeline after the specified number of Shifts. Keep rolling for Shift Events until you reach Doom Tick 5, Investigator Doom Tick 5, or night on the seventh day.

6. For each Doom Tick on the timeline, roll a new Victim.

7. Roll up the base locations. At minimum, you should have an initial crime scene, the Victim’s home, the Killer’s home, the Victim’s work, the Killer’s work, and any other crime scenes. Each location should have at least 3 Clues.

   1. Initial crime scene: Roll on the Victim’s Location table to determine where the initial incident happened—this is where the investigation typically begins. Roll d3 for number of witnesses, using the Shared tables to generate each one. Roll on the Clues table.

   2. Victim’s and Killer’s home: The home type determines the number of rooms, habitation determines any other home residents. Roll on the Clues table.

   3. Victim’s and Killer’s work: Place of work determines the type of location (office building, work site, etc.). Roll d3 for number of co-workers, using the Shared tables to generate each one. Roll on the Clues table.

   4. For every subsequent location, roll Clues when visiting the location for the first time.

8. You should now have the Dossier, with details of the Killer, previous Victims, initial incident, primary and subsequent Victims, and full timeline complete with Doom Ticks and Injects. You should also have the starting locations, witnesses, and clues.

I’ve included the generator as a Markdown file (which is essentially a text file with specific formatting) and a PDF, since it’ll take some work to get it laid out nicely in the hardcover.

Please have a play with the generator and let me know if you run into any issues!