Merryshire Detective Club

In a hole in the ground… they found a body.

I know! Here in our beautiful, bucolic village, with its neat hedgerows and picturesque taverns and delightful crumpet shops, we’ve got a murder to solve! It’d be unthinkable if this wasn’t the third murder this week. The bodies are just piling up. Better get cracking on this mystery – after a quick snack, of course. No detecting on an empty tummy!

In Merryshire Detective Club, an upcoming core GUMSHOE game from the brilliantly comforting mind of superstar writer-designer Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, you play amateur detectives in a cosy-fantasy setting. Your band of plucky investigators solves mysteries (quite often, murder mysteries) that crop up with remarkable regularity in the lovely little village you’ll design together. Gameplay mixes deduction and investigation with comic absurdity and plenty of cakes. (No giant tentacle monsters or vampiric conspiracies, we’ve quite enough of those, thank you.)

Powered by an adaptation of the GUMSHOE system to the ah, idiosyncratic methodologies of Halfling detectives, abilities like Nosiness and Gossip take centre stage. Deploy all the tools at your disposal, from conveniently well-positioned Cousins to Eavesdropping to Constable Talk, to solve the mysteries and save the day!

• Play as a Halfling, a stout Dwarf, a sneaky Goblin, or a magical Pooka!
• Form your own little club of amateur detectives – and work out why the village constable needs your help so desperately
• Fill our your Village Roster with a supporting cast of delightful neighbours, kinsfolk, squires – and the occasional suspicious visitor not from around here.
• Investigate genuinely tricky mysteries in a cosy-fantasy setting
• Employ our extensive expert advice on creating your own mysteries
• Or jump in with the included sample scenario, The Case of the Great Ring!

Coming hot on the hairy heels of Merryshire Detective Club is the scenario anthology The Dreadful Hare and Other Tales.

• Investigate the fearsome spectral hare of Underfoot Hall in The Hair of the Hare of the Heir!
• Solve the murder mystery of Two Corpses In A Trenchcoat!
• Track down the villain known only as The Riddleton Reaver!
• Unravel a pastry-stealing conspiracy in Orc and Pie!
• And more!

Status: Writing and Design

Cover illustrations by Amy Nagi.