Nice and obviously inspired by Venice. I don't know how well the Gumshoe system fits with fantasy, though.
It fits incredibly well. GUMshoe may have started as investigative-focused rulesets with ho-hum rules for everything else, but various iterations have evolved dramatically.
Timewatch was streamlined and pulpy, as is Serpentine (itself an evolution of Timewatch). Both have, by Gumshoe standards, stripped down skill lists.
Like the cherries used in Nights Black Agents to add spy type high action, Serpentine has basically expanded Skill point expenditures to become little grenades of awesome.
It has a freeform but simple (and oh so corrupting) sorcery system, beautifully elegant maneuvers system designed to emulate Conan-style combat, flavourful character creation, sway rules for verbal sparring/insulting, etc. that work just as smoothly as combat and sorcery, and a superb setting (especially if you love Lies of Locke Lamora or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser).
It is, to be frank, insanely likely to be one of the front-runners for multiple RPG awards this year, and I say that as a veteran freelancer and nominee for Best Rules ENnie in 2010.
I honestly wish I had written it, it's just that good.
There's a big thread on it with lots of details on RPG.net too.
Cheers,
Colin
