# SCENARIO TEMPLATE — this is not a playable scenario

Copy this file as "scenario-NN-name.md", fill it in, and add it to the Custom GPT's knowledge files. The engine picks it up and lists it after the START command. Leave this template out of the list you offer a player: it is a skeleton, not a case.

Design notes (learned the hard way, over several iterations):
- Four witnesses and four to six root causes is the sweet spot for a budget of 25 questions. Three and four for an introductory case; five and six for an expert one, with a larger budget.
- Every cause should be hidden with a particular witness and carry a clear unlock condition.
- Design at least two cross-confrontation pairs: witness A volunteers, unprompted, the evidence that breaks witness B. That is the engine of the game.
- Every witness must be right about something. Without it they become a caricature and the player stops believing in the world.
- Write the false leads so that they sound like sensible causes. Each one should be a consequence or a half-truth, never a plain lie.
- Put nothing from the hidden truth into the BACKGROUND section.

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# SCENARIO NN — "NAME" (one line on the kind of failure)

Difficulty: introductory / standard / advanced / expert · 4 witnesses · 5 root causes · budget: 25 questions

## BACKGROUND (known to the player)

[Who, what, for whom, plan versus reality in figures, who hired the player and why. Three to five sentences. Public facts only.]

## THE HIDDEN TRUTH (never volunteer any of this)

1. [CAUSE-LABEL] [The root cause: who did or failed to do what, when, and to what effect. Concrete figures and dates are what make the world credible.]
2. [LABEL] [...]
3. [LABEL] [...]
4. [LABEL] [...]
5. [LABEL] [...]

## FALSE LEADS (offered to the player as "causes")

- "[A tidy narrative]" (witness X's version) — [why it is untrue, or only half true; what it is really a consequence of].
- "[...]" (witness Y's version) — [...]
- "[...]" (witness Z's version) — [...]

## THE WITNESSES

### 1. [First name Surname] — [role, organisation]
- Tone: [how they speak, characteristic phrases, defence mechanism].
- Narrative: [the version of events they serve up to a general question].
- Hides: [which causes from the list, and why — interest, fear, loyalty].
- Volunteers in passing (optional): [the evidence or thread that gives the player ammunition against another witness — the cross-confrontation piece].
- Unlock conditions: [admits it ONLY when… — a specific question, a request for a document, or a confrontation with another witness's account; describe the first defensive reaction too, before they give ground].
- Partly right: [where this witness is telling the truth].

### 2. [First name Surname] — [role]
[as above]

### 3. [First name Surname] — [role]
[as above]

### 4. [First name Surname] — [role]
[as above]

## NOTES FOR THE DEBRIEF (optional)

- [The commonest error you expect from a player, and how to comment on it.]
- [Sample recommendations that address causes — the yardstick for marking the recommendations section of the report.]