Gumshoe System Question

[Remus Lupin]

Greetings,

For anyone who has used or has some knowledge of the gumshoe RPG system, I have a question:

Where can I find information on Flashbacks and Directed Scenes? I've got the Trail of Cthulhu book and I've been reading around in it, as well as the GM's supplement, and I've come across at least one reference to players being able to "Call for a Flashback Scene," which suggests a rule that the players can utilize, but I'l be snookered if I can find the rule!

Am I just not looking in the right place, or is it buried, or is the book poorly organized, or what? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Crothian]

I have no idea. I've used Trail, Fear Itself, and Esoterrirists and I don't recall anything like that in them. What is the GM book? I've not seen that.

 

[Remus Lupin]

The book is called the "Keeper's Resource Book" and it comes with the Keeper's screen. I got it with the book. Let me quote the specific passage I have in mind. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting it:

Under the Anthropologist profession description (in the GM book):

"You encountered similar glyphs during your fieldwork among the Yanomamo tribe in the Amazon. You ay call for a flashback scene, in which you learn more useful information."

I find this description very intriguing. I suppose it's really not too hard to do it on the fly. The player calls for a flashback, and we simply roleplay a scene from the investigator's early career. As a way of supplying information to the players, I like it a lot. What I want to know is, beyond the straightforward idea, are there mechanics in Gumshoe to allow you to pull this off more effectively?

 

[ProFantasy]

The flashback scene comes from Fear Itself, and this example slipped into Trail of Cthulhu. It's not really mechanics heavy, in fact you should go easy on the mechanics altogether. You just set the scene in the past and go for it. For example, instead of just giving the player the information, you flashback to the time the PC went in to Professor Legato's comfortable study as an undergraduate, and deliver the clue in their conversation. If it's your thing, give the player some control over the colour and setting for the flashback, and even assign other players NPC roles.