February, 1935 With the bloody corpse of the murdered local still steaming at their feet in the trampled snow, the investigators take control of the situation. John uses his military bearing to ward off the gawping onlookers until the owner and ringmaster, Benjamin Hancock, comes to investigate, strappy roustabouts trailing in his wake. Jeremy spots … Continue reading Armitage Files 02 – The Fortune Teller
Category: GUMSHOE
Armitage Files 01 – The Circus
February, 1935 The Inquiry Group, led by Dr Armitage of Miskatonic University, discovers two mysterious documents, apparently written in Armitage’s own hand, that point to a failed investigation that leads to the apocalypse. Associates to the Inquiry Group are summoned by Prof. Albert Wilmarth to the Orne Library: Lt. John Dewey (Paul StJohn Mackintosh), of … Continue reading Armitage Files 01 – The Circus
The Bone Orchard – Kill your darlings
Previous posts in this series Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 Last time I listed the various lessons learned from the best OSR modules. Now I want to talk about using them for other games, specifically horror investigation scenarios. Like the mysteries in the scenarios, there are various pieces to this puzzle. The … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Kill your darlings
The Bone Orchard – Lessons learned
Previous posts in this series Part 1 / Part 2 Last time I talked about what some small-press D&D publishers1 are doing to make their modules easy to use at the table for the GMs. I believe publishers of other games – my focus is largely on investigation horror games, such as Call and Trail … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Lessons learned
The Bone Orchard – Leaders of the pack
Previous posts in this seriesPart 1 Last time I talked about how most published scenarios and campaigns aren’t laid out and designed in the best way for GMs to use at the table. Some of the best examples for how to do this properly are in small-press D&D products1. These tend to be focused on … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Leaders of the pack
The Bone Orchard – Introduction
Juggling rules, setting and scenario information, and roleplaying can make GMing a daunting activity. There are plenty of potentially great GMs either put off by the challenge entirely or from crashing and burning in their first couple of sessions. Published scenarios and campaigns are supposed to do a lot of the heavy lifting to making … Continue reading The Bone Orchard – Introduction
Casting the Runes
If you haven't seen Casting the Runes, by Paul StJohn Mackintosh, you're in for a treat. A GUMSHOE take on the extremely influential ghost and supernatural tales of M.R. James. I'll have more to say on it eventually, but for now, I just wanted to link to some form-fillable character sheets, all the more important … Continue reading Casting the Runes