System Cross Pollination: GUMSHOE Core Clues

Originally published March 19, 2014

I'm always looking for ways to improve my games with new techniques to use and new mechanics to guide play. Lately I've been rather taken with design philosophy behind the various GUMSHOE lines like Trail of Cthulhu and Night's Black Agents.

For those unfamiliar with GUMSHOE, it is a game system designed by Robin Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. What distinguishes GUMSHOE from other games is that it is specifically designed to support investigative stories. The guiding philosophy is that the investigators should always find the necessary clues (called core clues) to get them to the next scene. Thus chance (i.e. die rolls) should not get in the way of the player characters (PCs) uncovering the mystery.

That's not to say that they get the story spoon-fed to them. There is a big difference between learning all secrets behind a murder and tracking down the killer. In the first case you might uncover such useful information like the killer is a vampire while in the second you learn it firsthand, likely to your detriment. PCs can get that additional information in GUMSHOE by spending points from their investigative skills (basically showing how skilled they are in that area). Those secondary clues are not necessary to bring the characters to the game's climatic scene but rather provide context and possibly aid in the overcoming the obstacles in their path. The usefulness is tied to the cost of the necessary spend: a 1 point spend provides useful context or minor help while a 2 point spend can reveal crucial weaknesses or allow the characters to avoid obstacles. Even with the spends these only give you the available fact, the full story still requires the PCs to put the pieces together. The important thing is even if they fail at that the story moves on.

This design, where core clues are freely given to PCs who search for them, clearly makes plotting easier. Without having to prepare extra clues in case the PCs miss the first ones, you can save preparation time. During play, PCs can quickly accumulate information without tedious amounts of rolling or trying to find those important clues.

Implementation: World of Darkness

I'm currently planning a possible Hunter: the Vigil or Demon: the Descent Chronicle. As I generally find my World of Darkness games focus on unraveling mysteries (as opposed to political struggles or straight combat), applying this philosophy to my game makes a lot of sense.

Here is how I've currently used the GUMSHOE philosophy in my World of Darkness games: there is no such thing as failure. Essentially I've shifted success up a level. A Failure on an investigative roll (which might be Academics, Investigation, or some other relevant skill) will automatically uncover the core clue of the scene (and nothing else). A Success on a roll is treated like a 1 point spend in GUMSHOE, it reveals the core clue and adds some additional information. An exceptional successes is then treated as a 2 point spend.

Going back to the vampire example, you might be investigating the mysterious stranger that moved into town. You roll Intelligence + Academics to dig into his finances and purchases. A Failure might only turn up he has bought several buildings in town including a small farm on the edge of town near where those bodies were found recently (a core clue that takes the characters to the farm). Success reveals he comes from old money, having moved here recently from London. An exceptional success, reveals that several large shipments were delivered to the farm recently. They were moving large boxes of earth. Time to sharpen your stakes.

On a Dramatic Failure, the character should still get the core clue but you should add some sort of personal downside to the investigation. Perhaps they contaminate the evidence, limiting any legal options against their target or maybe they just injure themselves snooping around. In the vampire example the obvious downside would be that in poking around at his finances, they attract attention. So they receive a letter from the stranger inviting them to his farm...

Implementation: Fate

Fate is some ways simpler than World of Darkness because it already has the idea of succeeding with cost. In this case succeeding with style is equivalent to a spend and a failed roll should be a Success with Cost.

Mapping GUMSHOE on to World of Darkness

If you wanted to go a step farther, you could map the skills from some of the GUMSHOE games onto the standard skills from World of Darkness. This could let you translate adventures for one of the GUMSHOE lines for use in World of Darkness (or vice versa).

Here I'm map the skill list from Night's Black Agents to that of the new World of Darkness:

Academics: Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Art History, Forensic Pathology, Linguistics, Natural History, Research, Textual Analysis

Computers: Cryptography, Data Retrieval, Electronic surveillance

Empathy: Reassurance

Intimidation: Interrogation, Intimidation

Investigation: Ballistics, Document Analysis, Evidence Collection, Fingerprinting, Forensic Accounting, Forensic Anthropology

Occult: Occult Studies

Persuasion: Negotiation

Politics: Bureaucracy, Cop Talk

Science: Astronomy, Chemistry, Explosive Devices, Forensic Entomology, Pathology

Socialize: Flirting

Subterfuge: Flattery, Impersonate

Streetwise: Streetwise

A couple investigative skills don't map well to the World of Darkness Skill list. These could be handled by Merits:

Encyclopedic Knowledge: Trivia

Language or Multilingual: Languages

Conclusion

I think the main thing to take away from this is that if you want your PCs to unravel your mystery you need to ensure they find the most basic clues. They must have enough information to get from the current scene to the next. And the dice should not be a factor in their success.