Object based story idea / Briefcase full of trouble

I've had this idea floating around in my head for a couple of years now. So long, in fact, that it's probably reached the point where i'll never use it, so you can have it for free. Please be good to my baby.

The idea is: One of the players, or an NPC associated with the players (preferably somebody they are bound to, like a younger sibling, best friend or lover), 'acquires' a briefcase. They don't know who it belongs to, they just have it now. They're not too keen to tell you how they got it, but they are keen to see what it is that's rattling inside it.

The briefcase is average size, clearly expensive, and locked. It's easy enough to jimmy the lock, though, with a little effort. It clicks open on the first or second attempt, leaving barely a scratch on the exterior faux leather.

Inside the briefcase is a whole load of trouble.
There's a gun with at least one bullet down.
There's a kilo of coke or smack.
Some money, about a grand, with specks of blood across the edges.
An envelope containing photos of a naked and unconscious high school girl.
A 2gig memory stick full of spreadsheets, names, dates and map references.
A diamond ring.
The keys to a fast, expensive car.

From this point onwards, any number of things could happen. The players could decide to dispose of the briefcase and its contents. They might want to keep or use some of the stuff inside. They might think the best course of action is to turn it into the proper authorities. They might seek advice from somebody more experienced, or more influential.

What will happen is they will become aware that they are being followed. Maybe by government suits, maybe by the Police, maybe by mobsters, maybe by all of them. Their houses and flats will get turned over. People they know will be intimidated, roughed up or even wake up dead.
Finally, the person who 'acquired' the briefcase will be arrested and charged with a string of heinous crimes - murder, drug trafficking, espionage, rape, fraud, kidnapping, robbery.
The evidence is overwhelming - witnesses placing the character at the scene of all crimes, video tapes, phone taps, forensics, legal documentation, motive, opportunity, means. It does not look good.

There are, however, at least two ways out of it.

1. Commit a crime, put something from that crime inside the briefcase, and then allow somebody else to steal the briefcase. This is the easy option.
2. Solve all the other crimes that have been covered up by the briefcase. This is the hard option.

So what is the briefcase? It's a magic item that diverts all suspicion and evidence of a crime from the actual perpetrator and onto an 'innocent' patsy instead. The unlucky patsy has to steal the briefcase and open it, and then suddenly becomes the chief suspect in multiple serious criminal investigations, and any 'unofficial' investigations that any wronged parties may be pursuing.

For example: Fingers Malone shoots Micky the Hat in the face after an argument about a card game. Fingers needs to lose the gun, fast, and needs to get himself an alibi faster. He puts the gun in the briefcase and leave the briefcase on the front seat of his unlocked car which he then parks in a bad part of town. Inevitably the briefcase is stolen by Sniffy Smith, a loser meth head looking for his next pipe. Within a week Sniffy is arrested for the murder of Micky the Hat after his DNA and finger prints are discovered at the crime scene, and Micky's mother recalls Micky arguing with somebody fitting Sniffy's description. A couple of days later, Sniffy is ganked with a shiv in the prison showers after Micky's gang pay another inmate to teach him a lesson.

Had Sniffy wanted to get out of the situation, he would either have had to prove that Fingers had shot Micky the Hat, or stash some evidence of his most serious crime to date in the briefcase and have it stolen.
Unfortunately Sniffy isn't smart enough to do either, so is sent down the river and dies of a perforated kidney shortly afterwards.
Poor Sniffy.

EDIT
The wireless keyboard on my desk top PC died the other night. Luckily shortly after completing a sentence. I was left with the dilemma of either a) publishing an incomplete post, or b) saving a draft until I sorted out my technical glitch.
I chose option a.

There are still a few points I wanted to cover with this post, and publishing them separately feels rather unsatisfying.

I tagged three games in the 'labels' field of this post: World of Darkness, The Esoterrorists and Fear Itself. Why? I'll tell you why...

For The World of Darkness, when running with the above story seed, I would try to play up the ethics involved. The player characters face a much harder road if they opt to travel the high road - i.e. not succumb to the 'get out of jail free' card the briefcase presents and either take the fall and become a scapegoat, or try to solve the other crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The players themselves may already have committed a serious felony or two between them, and may relish the opportunity to get away with it. It would be easy to just let them, and in many ways, this is what should happen.
However, if they do choose this course of action, then they should have to make a high penalty Morality check, even if they're a Werewolf following Harmony (I guess - The book is all the way over there on my shelf, and it's late...).
So, the character can dispose of a potentially sticky problem, but they have to deal with the consequences of that - Morality loss - as they doom another innocent soul to life in prison/the death sentence/a grisly murder etc.

If the players are predisposed to investigating mysteries and bringing people to justice, then a Gumshoe game like Fear Itself or The Esoterrorists would work well with this object. Each item within the briefcase should provide a solid enough clue to begin an investigation into the crime and who committed it.
Additionally, there's the investigation into the briefcase itself. It should have as exotic a backstory as you can muster - a cursed item, created by a tempting demon of wrath? An Esoterrorist tool pulled from the Outer Dark? A haunted item powered by a ghosts regret?
Extended research into the briefcase's past should pull up clues to it's powers and history - hints at when it may have surfaced before, possibly in other forms - a bag, a book, a cloth sack - and who may have benefited or suffered from it in the past. Characters can expect to have to pour over newspaper archives, police records, local history and interview key witnesses before they can piece together what it does.

The Esoterrorists / Rules lite proof of concept

I've been rehearsing this review in my head for days. A more forward thinking person would have made notes, but that's not me, so you'll have to manoeuvre your way past numerous half remembered jokes and observations to reach the core of this review. 

Sorry.

I think I started at the wrong end with Gumshoe. The Esoterrorists is a Gumshoe game, written by Robin Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. The Gumshoe system, as I have observed in other posts, is an investigative system designed to support procedural investigation games - CSI games, Mentalist games, Miss Marple games etc. 

The system has two mechanics - Investigation based skills and General skills. Investigation skills always work, never fail and exist to push the plot ever forward. General skills include most 'doing things' skills such as those used to fix a car or kill a man dead. General skills require a dice roll to use, and there is a chance of failure. 

So why did I start at the wrong end? What does that mean? 

I first read Trail of Cthulhu, which is 247 pages long and has a fairly fleshed out rules system. I then read Fear Itself, which is 90 pages long, and I was disappointed to see that a large chunk of the rules text was word for word the same as ToC. 

Now I own The Esoterrorists, which weighs in at a massive 87 pages, and features a bare bones setting and system. 

I looks as though each subsequent release of a Gumshoe powered game has expanded and developed the rules and presentation somewhat, adding value and discussion to the original framework. 

I see it as a proof of concept. The Esoterrorists gives you exactly the right amount of setting and system to springboard a game. All you need from there on in is some imagination and an eye for mystery construction. 

What I like about it:

• It's an easy system to learn
• It's a new idea
• The setting is simple, adaptable and universally understood - you investigate the paranormal for a secret society. You're like a more casual Men in Black or an X-Files team with better funding
• The drive is to solve the mystery, not necessarily blow shit up (although that option remains open)
• The book is cheap and short
• Everything is adaptable, given a basic level of imagination

You could do a lot with this game. A better GM than myself could tell a really gripping story using The Esoterrorists. I could run a fair to middling game, getting better with practice. 

What I don't like about it

• The system doesn't go into as much detail as later Gumshoe books
• It's short - Whilst this is also good, as it makes it an easy buy, the fact that you can get 2.5x the word count for 2x the cost if you buy ToC makes The Esoterrorists  a bad deal on word count
• The setting id a bit too sparse at times

Trail of Cthulhu, in addition to featuring more rules and setting material than The Esoterrorists, also goes into how to write a crime mystery, with hints, tips and discussions on how to construct a story based on clues and deductive reasoning. The Esoterrorists does not do this. It gives the GM some basic advice - keep the investigation moving. always keep moving forward etc. ToC tells you how to plot out the story, at which stages the larger clue should be discovered, how to shuffles scenes and clues around, stuff like that.

This is a terrible miss from the Esoterrorists, one which makes baby Jesus cry. 

As I said, though, The Esoterrorists is a 'proof of concept' game.  It's a new system and setting coming from a small publisher, and serves to test the waters before they dive in with further publications.

This, I think, is why it's such a light book. Why write, layout and publish 200+ pages if it's not going to sell? 

What this book gives you is a new way to run a game, and it is a new way. It's not a rework, or a hack, or 'inspired by', it's genuinely new, creative thinking. 

It gives you a setting framework that you can hang a good number of games on. It gives you a simple, effective rules system that allows for a story to flourish without bogging the session down searching pages and cross referencing source books. 

I would describe The Esoterrorists as 'Lean'. It's ready for action, which is a great thing for a new system - Up and running on the day of purchase. You definatly can't say that about D&D.