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What is Detective Board Maker?
Detective Board Maker is a browser-based tool for building digital evidence boards: you pin notes, photos and articles to a corkboard, link clues with red string, and can publish the board publicly so others can view it. It is positioned for true-crime research, fiction and story planning, tabletop campaigns and study, and the site shows a browsable gallery of public boards (examples include game lore maps, heist plans, case files and role-playing campaign notes) alongside a “recent boards” area for your own work.
What you actually do with it
- Collect: drop in notes, images and article clippings as pinned items on one canvas.
- Connect: draw string-style links between items to show relationships, motives or timelines.
- Publish or keep private: boards can be shared as public pages, which is why the discovery gallery exists.
Who gets the most from it
Writers outlining a mystery, game masters tracking factions and clues, students mapping sources for a research topic, and hobbyist true-crime researchers who want a visual timeline rather than a document. The public gallery is also useful as a low-effort starting point: seeing how others structure a case board is often faster than designing a layout from scratch.
Trade-offs to weigh
A single visual canvas is excellent for seeing relationships at a glance but weak for long-form writing, citations or structured data — expect to keep source notes elsewhere. Public sharing is convenient for collaboration and feedback, but it also means anything you pin can be seen by others, so avoid real personal or sensitive case material on public boards.
As a next step, open the discovery gallery and find one board in a category close to your own use case (fiction, true crime, study), then copy its structure — clusters for people, places and evidence, with string only where a relationship is actually established — before adding your own material.
How do I create my first detective board with pins, photos, and red string connections?
Start a free board, add your evidence as pins, and connect related pins with red string. On Detective Board Maker, the core workflow is: create a board, pin notes, photos and articles to a corkboard, then draw red string between clues. Boards can also be shared publicly, so you can show the case to others or keep it for your own use.
A practical first-board sequence
- Create the board and name the case. Use a specific title so you can find it later in Recent Boards.
- Pin your starting material. Add one pin per person, place, object or event. Photos work well for suspects and locations; notes suit alibis, timestamps and loose facts.
- Connect only what you can explain. Draw red string between pins where a relationship exists, and keep the reason in the pin text (for example, "same phone number" or "seen together at 9pm").
- Add new evidence around the edges. Place fresh pins near related clusters instead of scattering them, so the board stays readable as it grows.
- Review before sharing. If you make the board public, check that names and sensitive details are appropriate for an audience.
Choosing what to pin first
Match the pin type to your purpose:
- Story planning: pin characters, factions and locations; string connections show who knows whom and where conflict can start.
- True-crime or historical research: pin sources, people and dates; string lines make timelines and repeated names easier to spot.
- Tabletop campaigns: pin NPCs, clues and quest locations; connections map the party's options.
- Study: pin concepts, authors and themes; string lines show how ideas relate.
A useful rule: if two pins are connected, you should be able to state the connection in one sentence. If you can't, the string may be adding clutter rather than insight.
A concrete example
For a mystery story, pin the victim, three suspects, the crime scene and two key objects. String the victim to the scene, each suspect to the scene, and each object to the suspect who could have used it. The gaps in the strings then show you which relationships still need a scene or clue.
Can I share my investigation board publicly or keep it private?
Yes. Detective Board Maker supports both sharing and keeping boards to yourself. The page describes pinning notes, photos and articles to a corkboard, connecting clues with red string, and sharing a case as a public board. It also shows a "Recent Boards" area, suggesting your own boards stay listed for you, and a "Discover Boards" feed of public examples (the page cites 938 public boards, including true-crime, fiction, game and study boards). That structure implies a public/private choice exists, but the page does not spell out exactly who can view a board you have not published, or whether you can later switch a public board back to private.
How to choose
- Keep it private when the board contains real personal data, active case details, unpublished research, or spoilers for a game or story you are running.
- Share publicly when you want feedback, a portfolio piece, a teaching example, or a collaborative fan-theory board. The public examples on the page are mostly finished or presentable boards, which is a reasonable model: publish when the board is coherent enough for strangers to follow.
- Check before publishing anything involving other people. A public board is effectively a publication, and red-string boards often combine names, locations and photos that are sensitive in aggregate even when each item is harmless.
A practical test
Build the board privately, then ask: would I be comfortable if this appeared in a public gallery tomorrow? If the answer is no, keep it private, or make a separate public version with names and images removed. If you are unsure how visibility works for a specific board, test with a throwaway board containing no real information before committing your actual case notes.
Is Detective Board Maker free to use, and are there paid plans?
Detective Board Maker presents itself as free to start: you can create a board in the browser, pin notes, photos and articles to a corkboard, connect clues with red string, and share the case as a public board. The site's own wording is "Free to start," which signals a free entry point rather than a promise that every feature stays free forever.
What the page does and doesn't say about paid plans
The available page information does not list any paid tiers, subscription prices, or payment options. It also does not describe limits on free boards, storage, or private sharing. So there is no confirmed answer on whether paid plans exist; the only concrete signal is that starting a board costs nothing.
Practical reading
"Free to start" is common phrasing for a tool with a free core and possible optional extras later. For a casual user—say, a writer mapping suspects for a mystery draft or a tabletop group tracking a campaign's clues—the free browser-based board is likely enough to test the workflow before worrying about cost. Someone planning to store sensitive true-crime research should check whether boards can be kept private, since the page emphasizes sharing cases as public boards.
Next step
Open the site and create a small test board with a few notes and one string connection, then look for account, upgrade, or billing options in the menu. That will show directly whether any paid plan applies to your use.
How do writers and tabletop game masters use evidence boards for story planning and campaigns?
Writers and game masters use an evidence board as a visual outline: pin characters, clues, locations and events, then connect them with string to see cause and effect at a glance. The point is not decoration but catching gaps—an unexplained motive, a clue that never pays off, a faction with no visible link to the plot.
For writers
A board turns a linear outline into a relationship map. You can lay out suspects, alibis and physical evidence, then trace which threads actually converge on the solution. When a red string runs to a dead end, that is usually a scene that needs rewriting or a subplot to cut. It also helps with mysteries specifically: pin every clue the reader sees, then check each one has a payoff and that the culprit is reachable from the evidence.
For tabletop game masters
Campaign boards work best as a living record of factions, NPCs and unresolved hooks. Pin each faction and the NPCs tied to it, then connect them to the places and events the players have touched. Between sessions you can see which threads the party ignored and which are ready to escalate. Sharing a board publicly also gives players a recap they can browse themselves.
Where the tool fits
Detective Board Maker is a browser-based corkboard where you pin notes, photos and articles and connect them with red string, with public boards you can browse for examples. Its discover section shows how varied the use is: fiction lore maps, heist plans, true-crime research and game notes. That public browsing is useful early on—seeing a finished board makes the format click faster than reading instructions.
A practical trade-off: a visual board rewards spatial thinking and is easy to share, but it is weaker than a spreadsheet for tracking many clues with dates, sources and status. If your case has dozens of items, keep the board for relationships and a separate list for the raw evidence.
Getting started
Pick one concrete question your board must answer—"who could have been at the scene?" or "which faction benefits if the party fails?"—and pin only what bears on it. Add connections as you go, and revisit after each chapter or session to prune dead threads.
What types of boards are popular on the Discover Boards page, and how can I browse them for inspiration?
On the Discover Boards page, the visible public boards cluster around a few recognizable uses: fiction and story planning (character relationships, lore, heist plans, campaign notes), true-crime and amateur "case" boards, mystery and game-based investigation (including tabletop and video-game notes), and academic or study-style boards. The sample shown includes tags like fiction, true_crime, mystery, conspiracy, historical and investigation, with titles ranging from game lore and D&D notes to a "cat mafia" joke case and a formal-looking investigative report.
How to browse for inspiration
- Use the sort tabs first. "Hot," "New" and "Top" let you switch between currently active boards, freshly created ones and the most-viewed examples — a quick way to see both polished layouts and raw working boards.
- Filter by tag. Tags are the fastest route to boards similar to your own project: pick
fictionfor narrative planning,true_crimefor research-style timelines, ormystery/investigationfor puzzle and game setups. - Open boards with a clear structure. Titles that state the subject (a character web, a heist plan, a case file) tend to show reusable layouts, whereas joke or personal boards are better for tone than for method.
- Note the engagement counts. The small numbers beside each board (views and likes) help you judge which examples others found useful, though low counts don't mean a weak layout.
A practical next step: choose one tag matching your project, open two or three boards with different structures, and copy one layout idea — for example, a central suspect or character with radiating evidence notes — into your own free board before adding detail.
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