Merryshire Detective Club's blend of Hobbit and Midsomer is incoming

Pelgrane Press has been teasing Merryshire Detective Club for months now--and finally this cozy fantasy mystery game is here!

Well, the crowdfunder is, and it's three weeks away, but Pelgrane has started sharing a few more details about the game. We already knew that it was a blend of Hobbit-like villages (it was previously known as 'Shires Out') and mysteries powered by the GUMSHOE system; and we knew it was being designed by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan.

The game is set in a halfling village known as the Riding, and you play amateur detectives. The local Constable is incompetent, so it's up to your plucky band of investigators to solve local mysteries which can range from missing swans to downright murder.

Pelgrane has a publicity campaign underway, starting with a social media based 'Name the Local Pub' contest. More previews and community activities will be shared on the crowdfunding page over the coming weeks.

 

[Sossij]

Oh, it happens. I’m in a TTRPG club which has non-D&D tables which rotate through games which aren’t D&D.

Yeah, my friend has a "One-Shot Club" and they do a lot of not-D&D.

My dream is to do the starter kits for everything I can as a regular rotation but it is very much a dream.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, it happens. I’m in a TTRPG club which has non-D&D tables which rotate through games which aren’t D&D.

And I was just asked to extend my run of running Pirate Borg games at my local FLGS.

 

[Giantrollorc]

Then may I suggest either Night's Black Agents or Trail of Cthulhu! These are versions of Gumshoe which can be played with or without eldritch horrors/vampires respectively, perfect for an old timey murder mystery (Trail) or a very modern one (Night).

Ooohh. Thank you very much, I will definitely check these products out.

 

[TheSword]

This is what she does for fun. She's placid because she's in her zone. See: Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher.

Erm Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher didn’t have whimsical smiles on their faces when discovering murder evidence. They had looks of intense concentration and gravity.

… someone was murdered! Who smiles about it?

 

[Sossij]

Erm Miss Marple and Jessica Fletcher didn’t have whimsical smiles on their faces when discovering murder evidence. They had looks of intense concentration and gravity.

… someone was murdered! Who smiles about it?

As someone who has watched a lot of Murder she wrote and Marple, I would argue that they frequently do. They are smiling about finding the evidence, not about the murder.

 

[TheSword]

As someone who has watched a lot of Murder she wrote and Marple, I would argue that they frequently do. They are smiling about finding the evidence, not about the murder.

I suspect she wasn’t hanging from a tree branch over a river at the time.

The more I look at it the more I think it’s the same artist.

 

[EternalDungeonMaster]

That sounds like a dream come true. Where I live, there isn't even a game store. My group of local friends is what I have available to me, and as much as I wish it there is no way I'm going to be able to talk them into playing Merryshire. Maybe I'll be able to get involved with it online at some point.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Yeah, that. Maybe I'm going cynical but it really feels like anything not D&D is mostly selling the hope and dream of maybe playing someday. Wouldn't it be neat if. But it almost never happens.

Oh, it happens. I’m in a TTRPG club which has non-D&D tables which rotate through games which aren’t D&D.

I have two main TTRPG groups -- one has been ongoing since the 90s and never played anything except current or most-recent previous edition D&D; the other has played at least two dozen different systems (or 50+ if you count convention games or our annual zombi-para-thulu-noia weekend) in the 20-25 years I've been involved with it. Yes, D&D is the big man on campus; and yes, there are plenty of groups that play nothing-but. However, playing other systems is hardly rare (finding a group that wants to play that one specific non-D&D system you want to play right now, on the other hand...).

 

[ProfessorDetective]

I've been keeping an eye on this since it's initial announcement quite a while ago.

I'm always stoked to see a new flavor of GUMSHOE come out. Finally Cozy Mysteries GUMSHOE! Closest we had to this was from Evil Hat (kids/all-ages/teen GUMSHOE, running on a spectrum of Encyclopedia Brown to Veronica Mars). I highly recommend that one, probably the best GUMSHOE game not by Pelgrane, themselves.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/185435/

 

[Morrus]

That sounds like a dream come true. Where I live, there isn't even a game store. My group of local friends is what I have available to me, and as much as I wish it there is no way I'm going to be able to talk them into playing Merryshire. Maybe I'll be able to get involved with it online at some point.

Oh, we don't have a game store. I have a long term 'friend' group, but separately the game club in town I go to isn't linked to a store or anything. It was organised/promoted, IIRC, with Facebook and Discord initially, a few years ago. Rents space weekly, charges people a small fee to attend (GMs don't have to pay). It has about 50 members now I think (about 20-30 of which are there any given week).

I'm visiting CERN later this year. They have an RPG club, too! Scientists, it turns out, are nerds. Who knew?