Fully known as CASTING THE RUNES: Occult Investigations in the World of M.R. James. It’s a GUMSHOE game, for doing ghost story investigations. I think a ghost story might not be a bad idea for a con game, especially if I do WashingCon next year…
The full title is Casting the Runes: Occult Investigation in the World of M. R. James; and the title really does say it all. “Casting the Runes is a roleplaying game based on the works of M.R. James, the father of the modern British ghost story, and uses the GUMSHOE system for investigative RPGs. The unique character of James’s stories, and his own personality, inspire the game.” It’s Edwardian-Era intangible horror, in other words. I picked it up because ghost stories sound like they’d work well in GUMSHOE’s system, and because they’re throwing in the PDF along with the print book for free. I’m down with that.
I’m looking forward to running this at a convention at some point. Dunno when it’ll be, but I didn’t buy Swords of the Serpentine just for looking at.
Pirate adventures for GUMSHOE! And the Between the Devil & the Deep Kickstarter is being done by the people who got their print run once pulped by the PRC, so I’m reasonably certain they’ll be able to avoid using slave labor to print their books. I think I got burned once or twice in that regard lately, so I’m trying to be more careful. Check it out!
I have most of the GUMSHOE games in this Bundle of Holding. TIMEWATCH and THE FALL OF DELTA GREEN in particular are fun; if you haven’t picked them up yet… well, there’s a Bundle of Holding, hey? Sort of convenient, that.
Moe Lane
PS: I have a playtest credit for TFODG, by the way. Dunno if that’s a selling point for others or not.
Details for the Pelgrane Press GUMSHOE Community Contest here. Interestingly, I have something already in mind for both Ashen Stars (gritty reboot of 1960s science fiction series) and Timewatch (time travel). One of them is even already written down! So, no reason why I can’t put them both together for this…
Both a group that has familiarity with GUMSHOE, and one that does not would be acceptable; or, indeed, both. I’d learn different things from each. Either way, if people are interested I’d need them to grab the rules and play the game in August, and get back to me with feedback by the end of August. Hopefully by then I’ll have an editor to go through the text so I can get it to the layout artist and then get it back to be sold. And maybe the print run Kickstarted.
Either way: if you’re interested, feel free to apply via comments here or email me via Backerkit. If you backed the Kickstarter then you should already have the playtest version in your mailbox already; if you did not, well, it comes free with FROZEN DREAMS in certain pre-orders and I’ve reopened the store.
What I’ve been working on tonight, among other things. GUMSHOE tries pretty hard to keep the players on track to play, and Drives are a helpful way to do that. As the below notes:
Continue reading Drives for the FERMI RESOLUTION RPG setting.Drives
Each PC follows a drive, a personal motivation giving him, her or it good reason to act heroically and curiously. By following your drive, you keep the story moving and ensure that your behavior is in keeping with the adventuring-investigative genre.
I helped playtest Swords of the Serpentine…
…and when I clicked on the order link I was helpfully reminded that Past Me had pre-ordered it, too. Which was smart of Past Me. I mean, yeah, this would be on the list.
Link here. I think mostly what I need to do with this project is duplicate the stuff that you’d need to generate a character* and equipment lists, then just direct them to use the main rules in Trail of Cthulhu or whatever. This is supposed to be a campaign world for the Kickstarter, not a standalone game. It’s also supposed to be something besides a ten year project.
Moe Lane
*And sample characters. Hmm…
