September 28, 2024: Check Please?

I know they're kind of old-fashioned nowadays, but if you need a piece of cool evidence in your game (especially a campaign featuring GURPS Mysteries), nothing quite beats a check. A single (fake, of course!) check provides lots of clues that players can follow up on: addresses, names to and from that might ring a bell elsewhere in the investigation, signatures that can be compared with other evidence, customized designs that might be significant, routing numbers that can be tied to banks . . .

Even something as trivial as (say) the check number can be an interesting clue: "We found checks 1027 and 1029, both written on the same day, that tie into the larger mystery. Who or what was check 1028 for?!"

They're also good opportunities for would-be papercrafters to show off their skills, since checks run the gamut from plain to ornate.

As ever, anyone using this idea is welcome to share their thoughts on the forums!

-- Steven Marsh