We usually do our perennial GUMSHOE panel, the Investigative Roleplaying Masterclass, at conventions ranging from Gen Con to Dragonmeet to the Kraken. With the convention circuit suspended indefinitely, we thought it was time to do a virtual version of it, as part of our lockdown-inspired ramp-up of our YouTube channel. The live stream has now […]
Tag Archives: Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”, to quote Lovecraft. However, when it comes to translating his fiction into games, unknown monsters can be tricky to handle. In a roleplaying game, the players need to be able to make meaningful […]
In the first installment of their new Play By Clip series, Robin and Gar invent a new flavor of GUMSHOE—and an ancient city of galactic mystery. Check out Mother of Cities. GUMSHOE is the groundbreaking investigative roleplaying system by Robin D. Laws that shifts the focus of play away from finding clues (or worse, not […]
While digging through old boxes, I came across a copy of long-vanished British gaming Roleplayer Independent magazine from the hoary ancient days of December 1992. It took me a few minutes to work out why I’d kept it – there’s a random Cthulhu scenario generator in there by Jim Johnston. (In fact, that article must have […]
In our third Pelgrane Video Dispatch, Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan reveals his favorite GUMSHOE ability. Robin’s was obvious. Many guessed Ken’s. But can you predict Gar’s answer? Only a click on the video will tell the tale! Night’s Black Agents by Kenneth Hite puts you in the role of a skilled intelligence operative fighting a shadow war […]
I’ve been running impromptu games for my two boys since they were four or five (they’re now seven), and I’ve been thinking about a GUMSHOE Kids framework that I’m going to develop as a priority now. In the meantime, though, I’m aware that there are suddenly a lot of people working from home with kids […]
One stretch goal we didn’t get to in the DRACULA DOSSIER Kickstarter was the Plague capstone, where Dracula weaponises a new virus and takes over the world. I rather wish we’d hit that one – all that research and preparation would have been handy right about now. Anyway. Like the rest of the world, the Pelgranes are […]
St. Patrick. Your only man, really. Taken as a slave to Ireland, escaped, then went back to bring Christianity to the heathens of Ireland. A grasp of both theology and vegetation, by all accounts. Got rid of the snakes, so he did, so he did. Best known now for being a really effective marketing campaign […]
One of the Things I Always Say is that a GUMSHOE investigative ability list is basically a list of questions the players can ask the GM – but it’s also a useful list of questions to ask yourself when writing an adventure. Certainly, when I initially conceive of an adventure, I’ll come up with three […]
A cruel lover who refashions her prey. A bioengineered warrior on the run. An internet mapping service with a stalker’s eye. A carjacker with a conscience. A Victorian thespian turned super-criminal. A murderer of video game characters. All these and more meet in the poison-soaked pages of Schemers, a genre-spanning short fiction exploration of grand […]