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 […]
Tag Archives: GUMSHOE
See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws With Kevin Kulp’s TimeWatch RPG blasting through Kickstarter as only a chronoton can, you may be asking yourself if you can put time travel in other GUMSHOE games. We at Pelgrane are not in the business of telling you not what not to do […]
With the dying of the year, it’s time to read “The Festival” and to think of 2014. In this space, specifically, about the next year’s Ken Writes About Stuff installments. To get the good, or rather the known, stuff out of the way: January 2014: GUMSHOE Zoom: Mind Control. This is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful […]
As a result of the Hillfolk Kickstarter, 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 […]
In the celluloid-addled latest edition of their star-studded podcast, Ken and Robin talk Toronto film fest, GUMSHOE tips, and the Oklahoma Azathoth monument.
Technical Difficulties by Andrew Brehaut Modern technologies, such as cellphones and the internet, are often a thorn in the side of the horror or thriller GM. Typical responses involve negating the use of this technology, be it through remote locations (no signal), dead batteries, villainous forethought (the cell towers have been damaged), the people contacted […]
See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws For a pivotal feature of the roleplaying experience, the ability of players to make choices that alter the course of events can be awfully easy to lose track of. The way in which an adventure is devised and delivered tends to alter both the […]
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 […]
See P. XX A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws SRD or SDD? With editorial for Hillfolk and Blood on the Snow completed, it’s time to take a break from DramaSystem to work on another of the obligations arising from our November Kickstarter. That would be the System Reference Document for Open GUMSHOE. On […]
CONFIDENTIAL//SI-NBA//ORCON We have learned that last year’s operation in Morristown, New Jersey failed to end the vampire threat. Kenneth Hite and John Adamus urgently request assistance at DEXCON 16 from 10:00AM – 6:00PM, Saturday, July 6, 2013 to counter yet another assault by the undead… …or to participate in it. The Operation: The 2013 World Night’s Black […]