Tell me more about GUMSHOE

[arscott]

So, I'm considering reviving the Dark•Matter game that I ran a few years ago. (for those that don't know, Dark•Matter is an occult/sci-fi/conspiracy RPG). While I used d20Modern rules for the old campaign, I want to use a ruleset with less combat emphasis this time around.

The GUMSHOE system (from Esoterrorists, Trail of Cthulhu, etc) seems really promising. I downloaded the Esoterrorists PDF and liked what I saw.

Unfortunately, the book doesn't have any rules for magic, psionics, or other special abilities, and it lacks guidance for creating your own monsters. Can anyone familiar with the rest of the gumshoe line recommend a product that would cover these deficiencies?

 

[jaerdaph]

Well, Pelgrane Press also has Trail of Cthulhu which uses the GUMSHOE system, and it might be worth looking at. I don't own it, so I can't comment.

A few years ago, I bought Pelgrane Press's d20 Modern monster collection, The Book of Unremitting Horror, which I used for a d20 Modern Dark•Matter game and recommend it highly for that purpose. It's one of the coolest, creepiest collection of monsters I've ever owned. They even have a GUMSHOE version of it now too.

 

[jdrakeh]

Fear Itself and Esoterrorists are both tightly focused games that only contain rules for their default premise. If something falls outside of thats cope, it's not in the book. Trail of Cthulhu is the only really 'complete' GUMSHOE role-playing game released to date, in the sense that it has a much more broad scope than either Fear Itself or Esoterrorists.

Having mentioned the above, even though Trail of Cthulhu has a larger scope than the other GUMSHOE games, it's still limited when compared to generic systems. For instance, it does contain rules for magic, but (for obvious reaons) they're focused on Mythos-eqsue magic.

I haven't seen the GUMSHOE version of The Book of Unremitting Horror, though the d20 Modern version is excellent.

 

[jaerdaph]

I haven't seen the GUMSHOE version of The Book of Unremitting Horror, though the d20 Modern version is excellent.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that it's near perfect in design and execution. Each entry is crafted with such detail and brought to life by the equally impressive artwork. Every monster within could be the basis of not just an adventure but an entire campaign.

 

[Vigilance]

GUMSHOE has some interesting rules for investigation games.

Mostly though, I found its attitude for how to run investigations a real eye opener that has helped me run better games of that type, no matter what system I'm using.