For the upcoming Paths of the Behemoth sourcebook, I contributed a parade of scavengers and weird mystics who trek along in the wake of the behemoths. I’ve a weakness for eccentric little guys who’ve found some niche and stick with it until they become crazy magic/mutant hermits – and the Dragon Empire setting is full […]
Author Archives: Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
The nature of Trail lends itself to carefully planned, highly detailed adventures. The investigators analyse each clue, each location and object in forensic detail, deploying their highly specialised investigative abilities to ferret out the tell-tale clue. Trail scenarios support this by providing lots of suggested nuggets of information the players can pick up. However, the […]
When preparing to run a pre-written scenario, processing all the information can be overwhelming. A good scenario, after all, includes lots of alternate scenes, optional encounters, plots and subplots. (While your humble scenario writer tries to make everything as clear as possible, the scenario also needs to be entertaining to read, detailed enough to be […]
I’ve talked before about adapting the Engine of the Ages from The Book of Ages into a collaborative tool for building sandboxes – but my favourite sandbox is the weird fantasy city. So, let’s talk about collaboratively building weird fantasy settlements. To recap the basics of the Engine of the Ages (for the full version, […]
The Borellus Connection’s designed as a relatively linear set of adventures. The player characters have a supervisor (Boiler o’Riordan, aka CARSTAIRS) who gives them assignments; these assignments are all part of DELTA GREEN’s ongoing investigation into the Unione Corse’s ties to the Unnatural. The campaign can be played as a series of missions of the […]
In Episode 621 of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, at the request of beloved Patreon backer Ryan McCelland, Ken and Robin brainstorm some extra Trail occupations. As they’ve done the fun bit of coming up with the concepts, it falls to Gar to do the numbers bit. Explorer Also works for guide, big game […]
A few backers have asked why Trail 2nd Edition sticks to the old GUMSHOE method of having point Spends for each individual investigative ability, instead of switching to the Pushes used in the Yellow King/GUMSHOE One-2-One and Mutant City Blues. There’s no standalone GUMSHOE rules engine – each game takes the precepts and techniques and […]
Bottom Line Up Front: Santa Claus is Dracula. Oh, you want proof? Let’s briefly look at the life of St. Nicholas. (Start with Earth, says Ken. Start with Wikipedia, says I.) Nicholas of Myra, aka Nicholas the Wonderworker – and, as we all know, Dracula was a sorcerer as well as a vampire. He was […]
Triangulate the impossible. Correlate a spate of disappearances, ELINT chatter, rumours you picked up from an old spy in a Viennese bar, and the nightmares of children to find where monsters make their lair. Take all the skills you honed investigating terrorists and serial killers, and use them to hunt vampires. This sourcebook for Night’s […]
In a hole in the ground… they found a body. I know! Here we are, in the middle of the beautiful, bucolic Riding, with its neat hedgerows and picturesque taverns and delightful crumpet shops and little village greens, and we’ve got a murder to solve! It’d be unthinkable if this wasn’t the third murder this […]