Roadhouse Patrons, I need your help

Roadhouse Patrons, I need your help

Roadhouse Patrons, I need your help,

As you may know Michael Sand’s wonderful Monster-of-the-Week expansion More Weirdness is nearing publication. Later in production a decision was made to possibly include a playbook I authored: The Gumshoe. To try to keep this project moving forward as quickly as possible would you please share your feedback on my playbook?

I would very much appreciate…

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nLHR10G0gloKYhs_H9IqV79pcJ3HFCzU

12 thoughts on “Roadhouse Patrons, I need your help”

  1. It’s a pretty cool one – shades of noir detective/Jessica Jones for your hunter group. Mark & me have been working on it pretty intensively over the last week or so, but it could use a few more eyes (or even, dare I hope, someone playtesting it!)

  6. 1) I think the intro text would benefit if you added some self-deprecating meta-commentary about the “Gumshoe code” itself. “A dumb code, you say? Chances are you are right, but it brought me this far and I’m too stubborn to turn back now” or something along those lines.

    2) Why did you go for “body type” rather than “eyes” or something else? For me, the gumshoe is all about the face, but YMMV.

    3) Not entirely convinced by the stat lines. In average, your gumshoe is more weird than tough, which is quite the divergence from the source material, where a right hook usually was an option. I’d also be fine with shifting some points from Charm to Cool. I’d rank the five stats like so: Sharp>Cool>Charm>Tough>Weird.

    4) “Occult confidential”: The phrasing seems off : “You may successfully ask” – is that the standard template?

    5) “The Naked City” really ties the Gumshoe to one place. Could this maybe be handled more flexibly, so that they could also be useful during a road movie-type game?

    6) “It’s Chinatown, Jake” – in general, I strongly dislike the stat-substitution moves, but nevermind my grumbling on that (I HATE YOU, THE MONSTROUS!). I still think the title is weirdly chosen, as the quote comes from a point in the film where it’s clear that there is no more point in fighting. I don’t see how that fits.

    7) “The Long Goodbye” – is “an open case” a mechanical thing? It doesn’t seem to be, and that makes this a bit too soft. “OF COURSE I’VE GOT AN OPEN CASE! I GOT A MANILA FOLDER FULL OF OPEN CASES! I WILL NEVER DIE!” I’m exaggerating, of course, but this brings me back to the somewhat unsatisfactory “Naked City”. Maybe you could modify that and kick it back to an optional move, and instead have a new mandatory move, maybe like “Open a case”, which could be a “beginning of mystery” move with all sorts of weird and wonderful ramifications. And then this “long goodbye” might actually work.

    8) “JJE” – on a 6-, I’d still give them 1. 🙂

    9) The wording on “Asphalt Jungle” isn’t pitch-perfect yet. It first emphasizes the healing factor, but the second part of the move isn’t even about healing. It also encourages the keeper to think up nasty harm move consequences for the Gumshoe all the time, whereas other investigators might have it easier. How about you simplify it and say “you don’t suffer harm move consequences”. Boom! Suddenly, you have an attractive move that doesn’t require book-keeping and says “hard-boiled” like little else. “I never drop my gun.”

    10) “Pulp ink” is very evocative, but comes out of nowhere a bit. Whence the sudden magic? I’d prefer, again, something about the Code instead. Maybe that if you manipulate somebody, reference to your code counts as leverage? That’s just a first idea, though.

    11) Finally, I think the History stuff could pack more of a punch; they are descriptive rather than evocative or suggestive. Some suggestions: “You are on rivaling bowling teams.” – “You know a secret about them. They tell you what it is, and you tell them how you found out.” – “You know they consider you a total failure. Ask them why.” – “If you would ever work with a partner, they would be perfect for it. Tell them why.” – “They would never make a good Gumshoe because they don’t get the Code. When did you realize that?” – “You consider them most likely of all the hunters to ever go over to the dark side. Why?” Stuff like that.

    That was a lot of what I hope was constructive criticism; but it comes from a place of appreciation for the idea of the playbook and the source material.

  8. Felix Girke Thanks you. That was exactly the type of feedback we were looking for. I will consider everything, but please note any flaws in the final product are my responsibility, I will do the best I can.

  9. Felix has summed up the notes that came to mind for me on reading better than I could. I think Pulp Ink is the least fitting part and agree on the Weird v All Other Stats fit. A little more from me however –

    Asphalt Jungle – “Heal faster” I would replace with “You bounce back from hard knocks faster than others”. Just to flavour it as Noirish determination than wolverine 🙂

    Suggestion:”Just one more thing…” – Columbo may not be a noir gumshoe but by god, he is gumshoe personified. Roll +Charm to manipulate someone into revealing an answer to the questions under Investigate a Mystery.

  10. William H Thank you. I can promise you your comments are having an impact, but for any flaws in the final product I am responsible if it is published.

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