a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws We’ve all seen the stock scene in a detective drama where the investigator breaks down the resistance of a reluctant informant in stages, finally eliciting the nugget of info she’s looking for. The informant starts with a stonewall. The investigator counters this deflection. The informant gives a […]
Tag Archives: robin d laws
A scenario premise for 13th Age A while ago a news item about a pharaoh’s sarcophagus shuttled off to a lesser tomb inspired thoughts of a Trail of Cthulhu scenario hook featuring Nitokris, as naturally it would. As need not be said, Mythos Investigators aren’t the only PCs who adventure in tombs. F20 heroes have […]
Page Turners, my game of dramatic interaction for one player and one GM, enables you to create stories resembling the character-driven narratives of films and literary fiction. Unlike the GUMSHOE One-2-One line of one player one GM games, it doesn’t focus on solving external problems. Instead it centers the protagonist’s journey from one emotional state […]
Roses are red Violets are blue The Great Pelgrane is hungry And so are you …for tidings of the newly bustling Pelgrane production line. While the Great Pelgrane flaps lazily over unsuspecting cities and towns looking for chocolates to snatch from the grasp of unsuspecting Valentine’s celebrants, we can once again rifle his nest for […]
a column about roleplaying by Robin D. Laws As teased in a previous View from the Pelgrane’s Nest, for the Pelgrane gang’s annual game on Dragonmeet Eve, I ran “Ragnarok at the OK Corral.” While creating this DramaSystem pitch for THE KRAKEN back in the spring of ‘25, I noticed, uh, certain elements that would […]
You might think that the horrendous rhythmic buzzing you hear emanating from our humble crag foretells doom, but never fear, it’s only the Great Pelgrane, snoring. The big fella slumbers deeply in his nest, hung over and sated from holiday feasting. Shall we all tell ourselves it was only cheese and crackers he was devouring […]
Thanks to the existence of Paul StJohn Mackintosh’s Casting the Runes, I don’t have to answer the question of how to do M. R. James in GUMSHOE. Still, as the holiday season rolls nearer, reminding me of the Jamesian tradition of ghost stories told in the yule log’s glow, I can’t help but hear a […]
A chill pervades the air here in Toronto, but our production pipeline is hot, hot, hot with fresh developments. Projects moving closer to you this month come swinging swords, waggling tentacles, or creeping their way through cozy parlors on sturdy, fur-topped feet. In our biggest bit of news, 13th Age 2nd Edition print copies are […]
If you’re curious to see Page Turners, the upcoming game of dramatic interaction for one player and one GM, in action, Guy and Jag of Unconventional GMs are here for you. In this video they tackle “The Beacon,” my F. Scott Fitzgerald pastiche. Of the many scenarios offered in the book, I steered Guy toward […]
As a company that makes horror games, Pelgrane looks forward to the Halloweeny month of October. From tentacled gods of cosmic indifference to cognitively dissonant demons to pallid-faced Carcosan aristocracy, we celebrate many terrors. One fear I don’t care to truck with, however, is a frozen production schedule. Let’s head down into the basement […]