A rules option for GUMSHOE horror games In situations where a Sense Trouble test might reveal the presence of danger from an otherworldly or eerie source, offer the players a chance to pay a price later in exchange for a benefit now. One player gets an automatic success at a Sense Trouble test by agreeing […]
Tag Archives: GUMSHOE
A column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Over the years I’ve occasionally been asked, most often by Simon, how GUMSHOE and player narrative control might work together. My answer has always been the same—uh, they kinda mostly don’t. GUMSHOE assumes that the solution to the mysteries the PCs investigate remains fixed once established in […]
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of GUMSHOE we invited fans and Pelgrane pros all over the world to play their favorite Pelgrane Press games today! Here’s a sampling of the day’s goings-on and shenanigans thus far. Games were streamed: Upcoming books were playtested: Designers shared their work: Monstrous Dramaturgy: Kostroma Adventures were had: Campaigns launched: Heroes made (and their […]
I’ve been binge-watching last year’s seasons of “Arrow” and “The Flash.” One moment both shows frequently resort to, in keeping with their balance of superhero action and emotive interactions, is the inspirational exhortation. One character, the figure everyone else needs to save the day, succumbs to doubt. Another cast member then breaks the self-doubter from […]
See P. XX a Column About Roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Was it a whole ten years ago that Simon Rogers and I sat by ourselves at a small table on the far fringes of the Gen Con exhibit hall? It feels like only yesterday, that forlorn time when we had nothing to lure […]
GUMSHOE is the rules engine used in many of Evil Pelgrane’s products, from The Esoterrorists to Trail of Cthulhu to our newest (evil) release, Timewatch. (GUMSHOE is capitalised because it’s an acronym – Generic Universal Mechanic Serving Henchmen Of Evil Why else would it be all-caps?). It’s 10 years old this year, so let’s take […]
Somewhere in the beautiful jungles of social media, or perhaps in the dappled glen that was Origins, some unheralded genius-slash-troublemaker asked me “so how would you drift Bubblegumshoe and Night’s Black Agents to play Buffy: the Vampire Slayer?” How, indeed, blithe spirit. A couple of informational footnotes before we launch ourselves into that glorious void: […]
See Page XX A column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws During a session GUMSHOE players sometimes wonder if they can use their interpersonal investigative abilities on each others’ characters. I’m not sure this special case needs to be heavily featured in any of our core rule sets but here’s how you might handle it […]
See Page XX A column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws On a recent episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, Ken and I talked about ways players can organize the information they gather over the course of a GUMSHOE investigation. And now I’m going to organize some of those thoughts into this column […]
Giving Out Clues This is an excerpt from the most recent version of GUMSHOE – The Esoterrorists 2nd Edition. It is GM-facing advice on the most central element of the game – how the characters interact with the scene in the game’s fiction, and how the players and GM use GUMSHOE to handle the delivery […]