He’s written several books and more than one chapter on the subject. In this Pelgrane Press video dispatch, GUMSHOE and DramaSystem designer Robin D. Laws distills it all down to his top game mastering tip.
The following article originally appeared on an earlier iteration of See Page XX in October 2007. A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Mixing and Matching With GUMSHOE In addition to its primary goal of rethinking the way we run investigative scenarios, GUMSHOE is also an ongoing experiment in rules modularity. Along with whatever […]
The following article originally appeared on an earlier iteration of See Page XX in October 2007. News from Pelgrane Press Since the last missive, we’ve attended GenCon, released three new books and playtested the first pass of Trail of Cthulhu. Three new manuscripts have been laid out and are queued for printing, one awaits layout […]
The Utility spell in 13th Age is a lovely way to cram all those spells that are great in the right situation, but useless most of the time into a single handy package. This article presents two variants on the regular Utility spell. Each one takes up a spell slot, as usual. Illusion Utility Spell 1st – disguise self Range: […]
The following article originally appeared on DyingEarth.com in August 2007. Mystic Moo’s Convention Guide By Paula Dempsey, alias Mystic Moo. Editor’s note: The introduction to this column is a little bit British-centric. We have included links for those not familiar with recent bovine news in the UK. I’m afraid I have no better idea than […]
In the latest episode of their cow-shaped podcast, Ken and Robin talk finding story in setting, Utopian architecture, a three-eyed Yellow King foe, and David Lynch’s Revenge of the Jedi.
The following article originally appeared on DyingEarth.com in September 2006. Recently, Monte Cook Games ran a Kickstarter for an updated version of Ptolus. You can sign up for ongoing news about that project here. Not Just Another d20 Product by Monte Cook [Editor’s note: The surtitle was mine, not Monte’s, in case he be accused of immodesty. […]
The following article originally appeared on DyingEarth.com in September 2006. Updates Gomoshan’s Tomb QuickStart Rules GUMSHOE and Esoterrorists Rhialto Update Corrections and Clarifications Gomoshan’s Tomb This month brings the release of Gomoshan’s Tomb, a scenario in the well respected tradition of exploring and looting ancient ruins – though with suitably distinctive Dying Earth twist to […]
The following article originally appeared on DyingEarth.com in June 2006. Alan Williams and James Mathe look at eBooks in the RPG Industry A few of you may be old enough to remember the End of Published Music. Suddenly, technology was available that would allow the home audio enthusiast to record music from many different sources […]
GUMSHOE divides abilities according to whether failure at that ability can drive narrative. Because it is never interesting to fail to get information, you never fail with your investigative abilities. General abilities, on the other hand, do offer the possibility of something interesting—if often horrible—happening when you fail a test. You can fail to run […]