The Lone Detective - how to build solution

Creating the solution

When you think you know what happened in the case you are working on, you can send your solution to the Game Master, who will review it. The solution must present the case as the user sees it and answer the basic questions, like: who, how, and why? Some cases may contain additional question that will cover a specific aspect of this case.

You will be notified via e-mail once your solution has been reviewed by a Game Master. If your solution is rejected, he can provide you with some clues that should push your investigation further, but he will not solve this case for you.

Unless your solution meets all the criteria (logical motive behind the murder, description of what happened, evidence with explanation) it will be rejected, but you can have as many goes at the same case as you want, there is no time limit or attempts limit as long as you put some effort into it.

Guidelines to create a complete solution

When preparing a solution, keep in mind that:

• every case has a logical, coherent story behind it,
• every case has a logical, coherent solution,
• every murder has a logical, coherent motive behind it,
• there are always evidence that can guide the user to the solution, but it might be given in a way that will require some effort or creative thinking to understand its importance.

Culprits

Although there are 3 slots to list the culprits, place there only those who were involved in the act of murder, not those who were in some way involved (like planning, hiring someone, instigating some events, etc). Remember that your evidence need to support every culprit's involvement in the murder (proving that they were there, proving they had the motive and opportunity).

Motive

Every case has a logical motive behind the crime, there are no "he went crazy and killed random people without any reason" cases. When putting down a motive, try to explain it, f.e. do not put just "revenge", explain revenge for what. Do not put "money", we all need money, explain why the culprit needed money at this particular moment, why he killed that particular person to get them.

How crime was committed

A common misconception is that in this part you should put a technical description of the act, f.e. "he was stabbed using knife". In most cases, the technical description is given in the coroner's report, that's why we changed the header to "describe events that took place when the crime was committed". What we are looking for is an explanation of how the killer got to the crime scene, what happened then, how he got inside, and how he left without being caught in the act.

Evidence

Just like in case of the motive, we are looking for explanation, not a list of keywords, f.e. do not put just "knife". There is more than one knife in the world, which one do you mean? What is so important about that knife? What does that knife prove? Do not put "suspicious phone call", explain which phone call, why was it suspicious, how does it support your solution.

Do not use AI to generate solution

Use your own words to fill the solution form, they don't need to be perfect, they just need to be yours. If you don't feel comfortable enough to write in English, write in your native language

I just wanna know the answer

The mystery is interesting only as long as it remains a mystery. That's why putting "I just wanna know the answer" or "if that's not correct, then give me the answer" in your solution is not going to work. All we can offer are the clues and guidance towards a solution if you are close to solving the case.