Adept Play
Adept Play
Category: Detective/Mystery
This content includes “investigation,” “procedural,” “cozy,” “murder,” and “noir,” among others, many of them incompatible. Play procedures vary greatly regarding methods for asymmetrical information and prepared backstory.
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We Both Fail
This weekend I started a one-on-one Dirty World game with Robbie. Dirty World is a noir mystery/crime thriller game using an unusual variation of the One Roll Engine (ORE) created by Greg Stolze. I happen to like ORE quite a bit having played both Wild Talents and The Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor previously. The […]
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A Session of Squamous
So I got the chance to run a Lovecraftian-style scenario at this past weekend’s con, using the rules-light system Squamous. The scenario was inspired by some actual events around an oil company building a pipeline through indigenous land, but I changed the location, and changed the name of the tribe involved to something fictional, so […]
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Investigation Based Traits
I've recently started my first game of The Pool with a few friends in a tabletop Discord. The setting we all decided on was very mystery focused, with a supernatural influence in the background, and source of many colourful descriptions from people I've described the game to. One of my players made a detective kind of character, and […]
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Neck and neck
This is a joint post for the fourth and upcoming fifth sessions of both Väsen and Godsend Agenda. The first is being played very much rules-as-written with a published scenario, and the second is very much the GM’s personal version of the game, somewhat different from Jerry’s (the author; the game is in development). The […]
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Skräck i gamla Sverige
In English-phonetics, that’s “skreck ee gamlah svair-ee-eh.” The Spelens Hus group is playing Väsen, which is a great title. It doesn’t mean horror or monsters, but the entity, essential being, or the term I used in Sorcerer & Sword for the exact concept, imminent. Viewers will notice that Max is taking time off (work stuff), […]
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Cthulhu called – was the keeper happy?
This was at a small convention some years ago (between 3 and 6, I would say), in the middle of nowhere, Finland. The game master and the other players were all strangers to me. There was maybe three or four players. I went in to fill the table, anyways, as I did with Savage worlds […]
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Down here
I think you’ll find this one interesting. Jared and I have known each other a long time, and in a significant fashion affecting the history of role-playing design. We don’t explain when we talk, we say things and the other gets to process them internally and to decide what to say next. We just take […]
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Nothing is bleaker than a sunny day
Nate and I met for our second and final session for The Hour Between Dog and Wolf, each of us pretty motivated for the respective “side,” in the curious fashion associated with the better examples of this genre. We began by discussing three important things. 1. New finishing conditions review. I went through the rules […]
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Nordic Noir, role-playing style
Here’s a game I consider under-served. I would say “criminally” so except for the poor joke it entails, which is too bad, because yes, it’s criminal. Matt Gwinn’s The Hour Between Dog and Wolf is an excellent detective vs. serial killer role-playing game, and here I speak as someone who was heartily sick of the […]