Turn uncertain clues into a case the table can actually test.

Move from lead to pattern to case

Evidence is a recorded observation or supported clue. Suspicion is the conclusion a player draws from evidence, behavior, timing, and motive. Keeping those categories separate prevents a useful lead from becoming an invented fact simply because the table repeats it.

Public facts and private leads have different jobs

Public outcomes, visible declarations, open trial statements, and released evidence can be examined by the whole table. Private investigations, whispers, anonymous rumors, and seat-scoped notices can guide the recipient's next legal action, but they do not become public proof merely because the recipient says they exist.

This rule protects fair play and also strengthens arguments. A theory that survives without “trust my secret result” is easier for neutral jurors to adopt and harder for an opponent to dismiss.

The Crime Map establishes opportunity, not identity

Map cells, districts, movement, action locations, encounters, and relocation trails create a timeline. Proximity can describe an actor, investigator, protector, witness, or unlucky bystander. Use it to ask who could reach the event and whether the declared route fits—not to assign a role from one location.

Compare route claims across cycles. A single unusual stop is weak; a repeated pattern near compatible incidents can become meaningful when it matches timing and motive. Relocation can lower immediate exposure, yet the route itself may still create questions if it contradicts a public story.

Witnesses and suspect profiles narrow a description

A bystander observation or profile can describe traits, direction, timing, or another limited signal. It should narrow the candidate set, not reveal an exact hidden identity. Ask which visible players match, what portion of the profile is still missing, and whether the witness could have observed arrival after the event rather than the event itself.

Residue and financial trails connect means to opportunity

Scene residue, body evidence, traces, dossiers, and financial records answer different questions. A compatible tool or purchase may establish means, while the map establishes opportunity. Neither automatically proves the buyer used the item at the scene.

Treat market behavior as context. Helpful, hostile, and independent roles can all buy equipment. The useful question is whether the purchase supports the player's declared plan, whether the item could legally reach the event, and whether another source places the buyer in the necessary window.

Signals the city records, and what each one cannot say

Several systems add structured signals to the public record. Each is built to narrow a question without answering it, so each comes with a limit that matters as much as the signal.

Successive forensic reports tend to describe different traits, so a suspect sketch fills in over several deaths rather than repeating one fact. Treat each detail as one piece of a profile: it removes the seats it rules out and confirms nobody by itself.

Case files reward coherence and integrity

A case file is stronger when its material is consistent, independently supported, and relevant to the theory being tested. Raw quantity can hide contradictions. Record the cycle, source, confidence, and what alternative explanation remains alive for every important item.

Evidence may be disputed, stale, incomplete, or tampered with under the applicable mechanics. Preserve provenance: who observed it, when it entered the record, which portions became public, and what later event confirmed or weakened it. Integrity is part of evidentiary value.

Corroboration is strongest across independent channels

Independence matters because one corrupted premise can contaminate every conclusion built from it. When two channels disagree, preserve the disagreement and design the next action to separate the timelines.

Your Suspect Board holds only what you save

Reading a report and keeping it are separate acts. When a scene, witness, autopsy or tavern rumor reaches your Outcome Feed, it sits there as information; nothing moves onto your Suspect Board until you press Save Evidence on that report. Computer players make the same choice through the same rules, so a rival investigator is also deciding which leads deserve a place in their file.

Before you save, the report tells you what it would add: a high-value lead, a detail that corroborates something you already kept, a contradiction worth comparing, a weak rumor, a cold trail, or a repeat of a source you filed. After you save, it says what actually changed. The magnifier beside the button opens where the report came from: the kind of source, whether it shares an incident with something you kept, how firm the observation is and when it was recorded. None of that says who did it. Saving a public scene, your private copy of it and the collector's note about it still counts as one source, because all three describe one incident. A report stays open for saving while the next five messages arrive in your Outcome Feed, and once newer messages start landing the note under it counts down how many it has left. After the fifth, or when the Outcome phase ends, its button reads Missed: scrolling back to it or opening the board later will not bring it back.

A saved clue is a claim, not a verdict. You may write down which known face you suspect behind an anonymous profile, and the board will flag two saved reports that place one profile in two places on the same night, but neither the hypothesis nor the flag proves anything. That is still your job, and the court's.

Evil keeps a network, not a board

An Evil seat does not build cases. Its reports come from street contacts, watch posts, paid sources, pressure and intercepted badge traffic, and each one lands with its immediate effect whether you keep it or not. To make a report part of your Shadow Network, press Pin Lead on it. Anything you leave unpinned waits under Operations, so a lead from an earlier night can still be kept until it goes cold three nights on.

Each contact reads three ways. Trust says how they treated your side: unknown, standing off, leveraged or hostile. Reliability says how far your own kept reports agree: one source, corroborated by independent ones, contested when two reports from the same night disagree, or gone cold. Reputation counts the rough work, weapons and hunting your sources saw. None of them names a role or a faction: a paid contact who never touched your people can still be on the Common Good, and a careful Evil seat can look spotless. A pinned lead is never trial evidence and never reaches a Suspect Board.

Worked case: from tavern rumor to courtroom question

A private tavern rumor suggests unusual activity near the station. The recipient does not publish the rumor as proof. Instead, they compare public declarations and notice that one player claimed a distant route. A later outcome places compatible activity near the station, and a witness profile narrows the possible visitors to two seats.

The courtroom-ready claim is not “the rumor named this player.” It is: “The public route claim conflicts with the station outcome, and the witness profile leaves two candidates. Explain the route and identify which public event separates you from the other candidate.” The private lead found the question; public evidence carries the case.

Evidence mistakes that manufacture false certainty

1. Equating proximity with action. Opportunity is not authorship.
2. Counting copies as corroboration. Trace claims back to their original sources.
3. Discarding failed actions. A failure can still reveal defense, timing, or an incorrect assumption.
4. Publishing private details carelessly. Share only what the seat may legitimately reveal.
5. Ignoring evidence integrity. A disputed or stale clue needs support before it anchors a verdict.

Evidence FAQ

Revision history

Dated changes to this guide, newest first.

1. November 2, 2026 — Saving a report now stays open for five newer Outcome Feed messages instead of closing as soon as the next report appears.
2. November 1, 2026 — Added how saving evidence builds the Suspect Board, how saved reports are weighed as sources, and where missed reports can still be saved; and Evil's Shadow Network, where pinned leads build contacts read for trust, reliability and reputation.
3. October 18, 2026 — Explained that a report whose act shifts district control now carries the district's new colour, which reveals the acting side.
4. October 13, 2026 — Full editorial review. Added the signals the city now records and their limits: anonymous-actor hints and decoys, street conditions, Look back, posthumous forensics, and market trails.
5. July 22, 2026 — First published.