Hello fellow Game masters!

This is my first post on this forum, I think any RPG forum, and I have been playing and GM:ing for more then a decade. Mostly I have been GM:ing different World of Darkness game with relatively large groups(4-6players) and I have notice that a standard story(that I write or on occasion use already published adventure could go on for awhile. This isn’t the case with my Dark Heresy group…

First and foremost the group contains three players(Noble-born assassin posing as a guardsman, Tech-Priest and a Arbitrator). The characters get along great, they got after their first assignment the opportunity to pick a leader and they all nominated the Arbitrator and they really follow his input and advice while out in the field, without being will less drones. Thing is that my stories seems to be going fast, we play once a week between 4-6hours, and they seem to solve most of the cases in 2-3 sessions. So 12-18hours of play. I don’t think they mind or care, but feel that it takes some time but for me as a GM it can be a bit frustrating. I really want them to take time, do investigations and generally spend time on different planets. They do all this, but they do it effective and quickly.

So, to finally get to my dilemma. Is 12-18hours of play too little to really sort out a case and how do I increase the time it takes without bogging it down with irrelevant combat and playing stake-outs in real time to pass the time? They play their characters well, they argue sometimes, they split up, they are careful but they seem to shred investigations so quickly. Is this really a problem or I’m I searching for a problem where there isn’t one?

12-18 hours seems like a very reasonable amount of time to me.

If you're looking to make your investigations longer, them make them more complex. Onion-skin the threat. Once they peal back one layer, Holy Crapping Empra on the Throne! it was just a cover for the real heresy, which is only a diversion for another more insidious heresy, which is really just a puppet for another conspiracy...

Likewise, I don't know how you're structuring your mysteries, but if the players are being too efficient, perhaps you're not including any red herrings. Try one or two, they can really toss a fun monkey wrench into any efficient investigation, add complexity, and plenty of What a Tweest moments.

Thanks for the answers guys!

Yeah, I have tried to do some layered stuff but taking it a bit easy with all the complex stuff since all of them are kinda new to 40k and Dark Heresy. Most of the early adventures has been pretty straight forward, I have had some complex stuff that they solve with very simple and effective methods. It could be that my mystires are too simple, but they are also very effective and follow their leaders call all the time. But yeah, I'm writing a mini-campagin now and I will try and work some more twists and turns into it.