Tag Archives: RDL

Dreamhounds of the Pop Art Sixties

Officially, the Delta Green setting never indicates that the Dreamlands underwent a radical transformation at the hands of Parisian surrealists in the 1920s and 30s. However, in the privacy of their own Gaming Huts, GMs who ran a Dreamhounds of Paris series and want to connect it to their current Fall of Delta Green games […]

See P. XX: 5 Tips to Sharpen Your RPG Prose

See P. XX a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws   As the field of roleplaying expands its audience, and new platforms appear to provide an ever wider array of ways to get material into the hands of gamers, more folks than ever have jumped in to try their hand at writing. Whether you’re […]

The No-BS Guide to a Key GUMSHOE Ability

GMs sometimes fear that certain RPG abilities give away too much to the players. In GUMSHOE the abilities that most trigger these fears are the ones that actually act as the GM’s best friend. Intuition in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game is one of these. We can get to that one later. The classic example […]

See P. XX: Bar the Gates!

See P. XX a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Buffy’s hometown had one. You fall into one when you open a Hellraiser cube. The Stranger Things gang can’t seem to stay out of them. Like any basic horror trope, the sinister portal to another world fits any GUMSHOE game that journeys into fear. […]

Building Bombs Into Your DramaSystem Relationships

When seeking structural inspiration for DramaSystem play, you’ll find the purest sources in literary fiction and realistic drama. With no genre conventions to process, the bones of relationship-based storytelling clearly show through. The satirical literary novel Startup, by Doree Shafrir, features an interconnected group struggling to stay afloat in NYC’s tech world. You could easily […]

See P. XX: Using a Game’s Core Activity to Sharpen Your Creature Design

See P. XX a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws A well-designed modular element for an RPG, whether we’re talking about a GMC, location, conspiracy, or occult tome, does more than extrapolate from an evocative premise. The text you write, explicitly or otherwise, indicates to the GM how it will be used in play. […]

Injury and GMCs in QuickShock

Standard GUMSHOE already treats Game Master Characters somewhat differently than player characters. Most notably, it advises that, in a fight, they drop at 0 Health, rather than going through the impairment thresholds that allow some PCs to keep going after hitting negative points. The QuickShock GUMSHOE system, which debuts in The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, […]

See P. XX: Converting QuickShock Foes to Baseline GUMSHOE

See P. XX a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws Should you decide to play The Yellow King Roleplaying Game using the baseline version of GUMSHOE found in previous games, such as Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, or The Esoterrorists, you’ll want to translate its Foe stats. You might also decide to snag […]

The Phone

A plot hook for The Yellow King RPG (This is Normal Now) One or more investigators have a connection to teenager, Ayda, who comes to them for help. Her friend Carlos has retreated to his room and won’t come out. Last night his parents called a therapist to come over and coax him into seeking […]

A Very Pelgrane Solstice

Olingo the Sedulous had studied the creature’s routine, and was thus surprised to see the pelgrane flapping back to its nest a good hour before its projected time of arrival. The scholar, no longer as young as he wished to appear, attempted to clamber from the collection of firmly packed branches comprising the monster’s home. […]

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