The GUMSHOE system by Robin D. Laws revolutionized the investigative roleplaying game, and is the basis for RPGs that will appeal to fans of many genres: space opera, spy thriller, Lovecraftian horror and two-fisted pulp adventure — with more to come.

Its central premise, though, can be challenging for newcomers to wrap their heads around. What do you mean investigative skills automatically work? If we don’t roll dice to find clues, what do we do?

One of the best ways to introduce new players to GUMSHOE is to run one of our 20-minute GUMSHOE demo adventures for them. These scenarios have been tested through convention play, and provide a solid intro to the rules as well as to individual games based on the system. If you are running something else with your game group, 20 minutes isn’t a hard sell to run at the beginning of a session.

Currently you can download three short GUMSHOE demos:

• Stowaway, an Ashen Stars demo by Kevin Kulp
• Excess Baggage, a new Night’s Black Agents demo by Kevin Kulp
• Ritual Pursuits, a Trail of Cthulhu demo by Steve Dempsey

20-minute demos for Esoterrorists, Fear Itself and Mutant City Blues will be up next. Give these scenarios a try, and let us know how your session went in the forum.

Nominated for Best Adventure in the 2012 ENnie awards

The kids all say Our Lady’s Hospital is haunted. You can see why, when you look at it, that big gloomy pile of staring windows and rusting beds. They should have torn the place down years ago, instead of letting it linger on like this. I’d hate to be a patient there. They send you there to die.

You are a patient in an old, rambling hospital. Part of it is shut down, part of it lies in decay. The equipment is out of date, the staff are unmotivated and the whole place reeks of disinfectant, death and seventy years of despair. The hospital has ghosts and spirits walking the halls but they are the least of your worries. You should be afraid of what comes out at night. You should be afraid of what makes the ghosts flee.

Dr Drake, the resident surgeon is a genius and like all genuises, he has his secrets, his obsessions and his madness. One such obsession has taken root in the hospital. You can’t stop it, all you can do is try to get out alive.

Invasive Procedures is the new Fear Itself adventure from Gareth Hanrahan, author of Arkham Detective Tales, three Skulduggery settings and the forthcoming Brief Cases: Three Adventures for Mutant City Blues. Invasive Procedures includes an extract from The Book of Unremitting Horror.

Invasive Procedures now includes conversion information so you can run this adventure with the Trail of Cthulhu system.

You can download a layout map of Our Lady’s Hospital in the Resources section.

Buy

http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=8559

We are $375 from a free Esoterrorists and Fear Itself, thanks to the wonders of crowdfunding. Why not take a look at all the perks still available here.

A new five star review by William Graham of Fear Itself is on rpgnow.com.

This product sets itself apart from other Horror Rules because of the way everything interacts with the entire GUMSHOE system in a meaningful and immersive manner. The Risk Factors provide believable, character driven motivations for adventuring; Stability Sources provide opportunities for backgrounds that have meaning to the characters and affect them in a very real way; and the Psychic rules bring my first experience with a subtle use of “powers” that enhances creepiness and provides players with alternative avenues of information gathering and action (perfect for real world settings).

Over on OgreCave, Lee Valentine reviews Fear Itself. It’s a balanced and positive review.

“A good read…great for running a mystery horror game”.