# GUMSHOE tags: #game/rpg/gumshoe **GUMSHOE** (yes, it's a pun, no, the hobby is not sorry) is Robin D. Laws's investigative engine, published by Pelgrane Press, built around one stubbornly sensible idea: *investigative scenarios are not about finding clues, they are about interpreting the clues you do find.* It exists to kill the classic mystery-RPG failure mode where the party fails a die roll, misses the crucial clue, and the whole adventure grinds to a halt while everyone stares at the GM. So it simply takes the finding out of the dice's hands. If it's a core clue and you have the right investigative ability, you find it — full stop. GUMSHOE is a meta-container in the same sense as **[[Basic Role Playing|BRP]]** or **[[Powered by the Apocalypse]]**: there's no single required book, just a family of games ([[Trail of Cthulhu]], [[Night's Black Agents]], [[Ashen Stars]], [[Fear Itself]], Swords of the Serpentine, and more) sharing one chassis. ## The Big Idea: Clues You Can't Miss The premise is that role-playing mysteries tend to fail for the wrong reasons. With most systems, a failed roll can hide an essential plot point behind a wall of bad luck, so the players don't *find* a clue they need to advance. GUMSHOE's answer is to split abilities into two kinds. **Investigative abilities** — things like Architecture, Cop Talk, or Forensic Accounting — *always work*: if a scene contains a core clue and a character uses a relevant investigative ability, they get the clue, no roll required. The Keeper then freely hands out "core clues" that advance the story, and the actual drama is in what the players *do* with them. (Kenneth Hite's Trail of Cthulhu states the thesis outright, and players of horror are still quoting it.) ## Mechanics Characters are built by spending **build points** one-for-one on ability ratings, which double as **pools**. There are no attributes — traits *are* the pools. - **Investigative abilities** never need a roll for a core clue. A **spend** (1–2 pool points) buys *bonus* clues — extra, non-essential but useful flavor and side-information. Investigative spends refresh between scenarios. - **General abilities** (Athletics, Health, Shooting, and so on) are for when an outcome is genuinely uncertain. You roll **1d6 against a difficulty** — usually **4**, adjustable from 2 to 8 — and can **spend pool points** to add +1 per point to your roll. General spends refresh between scenarios. - **Health and Stability** are the special general abilities that keep the horror honest: they can drop *below zero*, and if either reaches **−12**, the character dies or is permanently insane. Both are the load-bearing "are you still a person" meters. - Spent Investigative and General ability points **refresh**, while Health needs rest and Stability refreshes between scenarios. The line is deliberately **player-centric** — dice are placed in the players' hands whenever possible, and the system is modular enough that each game ("Trail of Cthulhu's magic, Night's Black Agents' conspiracy sandbox, Ashen Stars' investigative sci-fi") grafts its own genre furniture onto the same investigative trunk. ## Games in the Family - **The Esoterrorists** *(2006)* — the original, by Robin D. Laws: elite investigators of the Ordo Veritatis battle occult terrorists tearing at the fabric of reality. *Not in the library.* - **[[Fear Itself]]** *(2007)* — ordinary people dragged into the same Outer Black mess; personal horror, great for one-shots, and the first to bolt psychic powers onto the engine. *In the library.* - **[[Trail of Cthulhu]]** *(2008)* — Kenneth Hite's Lovecraftian take, with its Purist and Pulp modes and a proper 1930s Mythos. *Players Guide in the library.* - **[[Ashen Stars]]** *(2011)* — Robin D. Laws's gritty space opera of freelance troubleshooters in the wounded Bleed. *In the library.* - **[[Night's Black Agents]]** *(2012)* — Ken Hite's vampire-spy thriller, with the Dracula Dossier supplement line. *Core + supplements in the library.* - **Swords of the Serpentine** *(2020)* — the fantasy swords-and-sorcery variant by Kevin Kulp & Emily Dresner. *In the library.* - Elsewhere in the extended family: **Mutant City Blues** (superpowers police procedural), **TimeWatch** (time police), **Bubblegumshoe** (teen detectives; Evil Hat), **Cthulhu Confidential** (GUMSHOE One-2-One solo), **Fall of Delta Green**, **Lorefinder**, and the **Yellow King RPG**'s sibling design space. ## The SRD The **GUMSHOE System Reference Document** was released under the Open Game License and Creative Commons Attribution licensing (made available during the *Hillfolk* Kickstarter), so the engine has spawned third-party and fan material beyond Pelgrane's own catalog. ## References - [GUMSHOE System — Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumshoe_System) - [The GUMSHOE System SRD — Pelgrane Press](https://pelgranepress.com/index.php?p=13319) - [GUMSHOE Rules Summary — Pelgrane Press](https://pelgranepress.com/2017/09/29/gumshoe-rules-summary/) - [GUMSHOE — Pelgrane Press](https://pelgranepress.com/site/?tag=gumshoe)