In the latest episode of their ENnie-winning podcast, Ken and Robin talk holy ashes, Mary Sues, a GUMSHOE fallacy and Immanuel Velikovsky.
Category Archives: Gumshoe
GUMSHOE general category
Continuing Ken’s theme of looting 13th Age for GUMSHOE twists, let’s talk about monsters. In 13th Age, monsters have a sort of rudimentary AI – instead of the GM deciding to use their special abilities in advance, they’re triggered by the result of the attack roll. So, for example, if a ghoul gets a natural […]
Have you ever noticed that having one really beautiful set of mechanics next to another really beautiful set of mechanics leads to lots and lots of friction and unforeseen attraction between them? It’s like the set of a CW show up in this Pelgrane design space, sometimes. Here’s how to take the wonderful Relationship rules […]
NASA’s Cassini probe has detected any icy object in Saturn’s rings that may be a nascent moon. The small object may already be falling apart, making for a story less less impressive than the “baby moon” headlines suggest. So let’s fix that by ripping it from the science headlines for Ashen Stars. The lasers snag […]
A Calgary dentist who bought John Lennon’s tooth at auction says that he looks forward to cloning him in the near future. After finding a jurisdiction with loose bio-ethical regulation, he intends to raise the child in a music-friendly environment—though without exposure to drugs and cigarettes. Rip this story from the headlines for Mutant City […]
In the various mystery sub-genres, suspects shadow, spy upon and track the detectives at least as often as the investigators stake them out. Yet roleplayers react to being watched with less sang froid than do their fictional counterparts. Like imprisonment, enemy surveillance falls into the category of plot elements that players resist, because they seem […]
By now Looking Glass: Mumbai has dropped, in the Ken Writes About Stuff series. We’re right on top of things here. We’re so on top of things that it might still be called Secrets of Mumbai, even though it doesn’t really give away any secrets. I like Looking Glass as a series title for city […]
As a result of the Hillfolk Kickstarter, the GUMSHOE is now available under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported License. The document is a reference for game designers, and is not tuned to teach the game, or provide a playable game experience. If you’re looking for a playable game, seek out such Pelgrane Press titles […]
As I begin planning future Ken Writes About Stuff pieces, a number of solid GUMSHOE campaign frames occur to me. Longer than the frames in the corebooks, but not super complex, such settings make good KWAS PDFs. They might not support a whole book (although then again they might, if sales of the basic PDF […]
Bubblegumshoe, developed by Kenneth Hite, Emily Care Boss, and Lisa Steele is the Evil Hat’s first delve into the GUMSHOE system. The design doc has been drafted and now they’re looking for Alpha playtesters to give it a spin! Interested? Great! Here is what they’re looking for: – Familiarity with GUMSHOE (have run it, played […]