By Kevin Kulp I’ve now run fourteen Merryshire Detective Club mysteries (using three scenarios and a whole lot of playtesters) in preparation for writing several mysteries in The Dreadful Hare, MSDC’s accompanying book of adventures by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan, with additional scenarios by Robin D. Laws and myself. I can’t yet show the actual character sheets […]
Category Archives: Merryshire Detective Club
With July comes the sultry summer heat that leads the Great Pelgrane to fly away to bask on one of his favorite rocks. Though distressing to the villagers dwelling below that lofty perch, it gives me the opportunity to creep into the nest to review the progress of various projects here at Pelgrane Press. This […]
by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan Mysteries are undeniably tricky things. They’re closely related to crosswords. When you’re doing a crossword, bits of the solution come early and easy. 1 Across, six letters, “the crime of killing another person”. MURDER 3 Across, eight letters, “figure of speech, not unlike a simile”. METAPHOR Other bits are a little more […]
by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan Back in the day at Irish cons, we had a system where multiple tables would play the same scenario at the same time, tournament-style. One of the joys of this setup came after the game, when the players and GMs met up to compare notes. “We killed the dragon in two rounds […]
by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan There are game designers who quail at the sight of a lengthy skill list, who argue that brevity and simplicity is the goal of game design. Such game designers are, of course, cowards. Merryshire’s ability list is enthusiastically baroque. Here’s the very first list, from 2023. And the current list. See, […]
by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan Whence came Merryshire Detective Club? If we wish to be exceedingly nice and accurate, we can date it to after lunch on November 29th, 2023. Dragonmeet in London is one of the few times when all the far-flung Pelgranes return to the nest, and it’s become a tradition for one of us […]
You might think that the horrendous rhythmic buzzing you hear emanating from our humble crag foretells doom, but never fear, it’s only the Great Pelgrane, snoring. The big fella slumbers deeply in his nest, hung over and sated from holiday feasting. Shall we all tell ourselves it was only cheese and crackers he was devouring […]
Pelgrane Press invites you to playtest Merryshire Detective Club, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan’s cozy and delightful GUMSHOE game of halfling investigation. If you are a Game Moderator with an active group and are able to play and report back by the end of February 2026, please contact us at gamemasters@pelgranepress.com. For this phase we are asking you […]
When egg nog appears on store shelves and the strains of Wham’s Last Christmas play on their public address systems, that means two things in the Pelgrane nest. One, the Great Pelgrane flaps from his nest on his annual flight to the North Pole to offer old Saint Nick his sleigh-pulling services should the reindeer […]
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 […]
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