GUMSHOE is a system for designing and playing investigative roleplaying games and adventures, emulating stories where investigators uncover a series of clues, and interpret them to solve a mystery. In a GUMSHOE game, the player characters discover something which triggers their investigation, and then the Game Moderator (GM) narrates them through a number of scenes, […]
Category Archives: Gumshoe
GUMSHOE general category
a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws As reported in November, Polish archaeologists recently found a spiked iron tool establishing that druids local to the area, as they did elsewhere, once practiced trepanation. Until around the 19th century, cultures spanning historical and geographical boundaries did what they could to treat apparent brain ailments, by […]
In the latest episode of their smoothly informative podcast, Ken and Robin talk providing clues to players, the saint with the highest body count, and Ken’s previously undocumented raid on NYC’s Strand Books.
It feels like a mere month since I last peered out from the nest to let you know what’s up with Pelgrane Press. That’s because it was a month. Among our efforts to ramp up our activities with my coming on board as Creative Director, we’re endeavoring to return to regular publication for this very […]
by Tristan Zimmerman ‘My boy was scarcely ten years oldWhen he went to an eerie landWhere wind never blew, nor cocks ever crewWoe for my son, Leesome Brand!’– Leesome Brand, Child Ballad 15 Britain, 1813. You are amateur folklorists working as agents of the Crown. Across the island, the folk ballads of the common people […]
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Jun
Jun
A column about roleplaying By Robin D. Laws When asked what one can do to be a better player, the first thing I always say is: the mere fact that you’re concerned about this suggests that you’re probably already most of the way there. The second thing I say is: see where the ball is, […]
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Jun
Jun
A column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The GUMSHOE moment when you decide how many pool points to spend on a general ability test is meant to put players on the spot. They weigh their desire to hang on to a finite resource with the need to succeed. The rule makes them decide how […]
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May
May
A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws GUMSHOE players sometimes clutch when they realize that one of them has to go talk to someone. Break through that moment of indecision by following these simple steps. Interpersonal abilities exist to help make this decision. Start by asking yourself what you know about this person, and […]
Although the rules don’t call for it, some GUMSHOE groups add a narrative wrinkle to the spending of pool points from general abilities. They call on players to justify why they’re spending the number of points they’ve chosen to add to their die rolls. “I really want to get over this fence so I’m going […]
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 […]
In the latest episode of their bibliomaniacal podcast, Ken and Robin talk making the reveal as fun as the mystery, genres with and without structures, and Ken’s Maryland book haul.