Tag Archives: GUMSHOE

The Unbearable Lightness of an Empty Explosives Bag

When asked to explain GUMSHOE, a key part of my standard spiel goes like this: “GUMSHOE says that it is never interesting to fail to get information. When you use an Investigative ability, you never have to roll a die. If you have the right ability and use it in the right way, you simply […]

See Page XX: Verbal Conflict in GUMSHOE

The following article originally appeared on an earlier iteration of See Page XX in December 2007.  A column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws The GUMSHOE system focuses primarily on investigation and by default assumes that moments of interpersonal conflict will be handled through roleplaying. As such it lacks an equivalent of the Persuasion/Rebuff system that […]

A Gumshoe LARP by Graham Walmsley

The following article originally appeared on an earlier iteration of See Page XX in October 2007.  by Graham Walmsley At first sight, Gumshoe would make a perfect LARP. There’s little die-rolling, so it suits a game played standing up; and, as an investigative game, it’s about talking to people. It sounds ideal. Would it work? In this […]

Pelgrane News 2006-2009

The following news items and diary entries originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2006 and 2009. You can find the entries for 1998-2000 here. You can find the entries for 2001-2002 here. ☀ Editor’s note: A few of these news items were not categorized by month or year – I have done my best to approximate their […]

See Page XX: Mixing and Matching with GUMSHOE

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 […]

Pelgrane Press Update – September 2006

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 […]

Additional Reasons to Automatically Succeed

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 […]

Pelgrane Press Update – June 2006

The following article originally appeared on DyingEarth.com in June 2006. June brings us to the completion of work on our webstore. Substantial progress has also been made on all of our outstanding manuscripts, and what’s more, new roleplaying games in the pipeline – yes, that’s plural. And remember at the store, you may obtain a free […]

See Page XX: Pardon Me, I Must Be Going

This post originally appeared on DyingEarth.com between 2004 and 2007, but could prove useful for the many subsequent GUMSHOE systems. A column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws On a fundamental structural level, RPG sessions are their own beast, and are unlike movies, TV, and books. However, these related storytelling forms are always worth looking […]

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