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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 7688852" data-attributes="member: 87792">The One True God of Roleplaying is the Holyhock God. But being less flippant the DM is more God in GUMSHOE than in most other systems because of the procedural nature of GUMSHOE. When the DM is encouraged to dictate the procedure, that's tying the PCs agency to the railroad tracks so to speak.And here's where we run into our first problem - one that amongst other things undermines the genre of detective fiction. If we read almost any detective series then we discover one thing. What the great fictional detectives consider to be clues are ones that bypass lesser mortals. Sherlock Holmes can make clues out of things Inspector Lestrade wouldn't think to question. And in order to set the number of clues in any situation short of a locked room mystery the GM needs to start from the position that they know more about the situation than both the players and the PCs - and will realise all the questions both players and PCs would think to ask. I've a smart, knowledgeable, and creative group of players and I know they are going to surprise me with what they ask for any mystery and where they discover clues.The limiting of clues and the limiting of detectives means that our detective isn't taking part in detective fiction at all. Drop the idea that Gumshoe is a detective game and pitch it as almost pure (and sometimes <a href="http://www.tor.com/2015/11/12/constantine-is-a-terrible-hellblazer-adaption-but-a-damned-good-modern-noir/" target="_blank">Constantine-style</a>) noir as opposed to dark detective and it works better, right to the more overwhelming power than normal of the DM.And we also have in Gumshoe to me the statement that cripples The Dying Earth RPG (also by Robin Laws) for me. "I'm going to stab that guy because I might need to use my banter later." "There are lines of reasoning leading from one to the other." In short the DM needs to either (a) predict the lines of reasoning that the players will use or (b) ban the players from using other lines of reasoning. Controling where PCs can walk is a whole lot less railroady than controlling how they can think. And that's even if you control where the PCs can walk by throwing them into a steam train, closing shutters over the windows, and welding the doors shut.Please don't say "No gamer ever..." Because there are some exceptions to almost every condition.</blockquote>

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