Best Gumshoe RPGs -

The GUMSHOE Roe-Playing Game system was designed by Robin D. Laws and is published by Pelgrane Press.

It’s a rule-light system created for game masters who want to run investigative RPG campaigns.

A number of excellent role-playing game settings and rules expansions have been published using the GUMSHOE system. Here’s a list of a few of the best.

Swords of the Serpentine

Swords of the Serpentine is the GUMSHOE RPG system set in a sword and sorcery setting.

From the product description:

“If you want to track down foul sorcerers in a corrupt and decadent city, clamber through underground ruins to sneak into an enemy’s home and rob them, or wage a secret war against a rival political faction, you’re in the right place.

Swords of the Serpentine offers:

A fantasy city of mystery and magic inspired by Lankhmar and Ankh-Morpork
Tools for fast and effective character creation
A customized combat system that opens the door for cinematic, heroic battles
Social combat that targets your enemy’s morale, letting you defeat some foes through wit, guile, and threats
Sorcery that allows you to rip apart a tower with the flick of a hand—but are you willing to pay the price in corruption to body and soul?
Powerful allegiances that give you influence in one or more factions across the city, but which can earn you equally powerful enemies…
Streamlined abilities that power four distinct types of heroes, and which you can mix-and-match across professions to customize your character further
Gameplay and rules mechanics that encourage players to help build the world they’re adventuring in
Rules for death curses, true names, alchemy, sorcerous items, ghostly possession, political manipulation, and more”

Night’s Black Agents

Night’s Black Agents is Jason Bourne meets Dracula in a high-tech thriller mashed up with supernatural horror RPG.

From the product description:

“Night’s Black Agents brings the GUMSHOE engine to the spy thriller genre, combining the propulsive paranoia of movies like Ronin and The Bourne Identity with supernatural horror straight out of Bram Stoker. Investigation is crucial, but it never slows down the action, which explodes with expanded options for bone-crunching combat, high-tech tradecraft, and adrenaline-fueled chases.

“Updating classic Gothic terrors for the postmodern age, Night’s Black Agents presents thoroughly modular monstrosity: GMs can build their own vampires, mashup their own minions, kitbash their own conspiracies to suit their personal sense of style and story. Rules options let you set the level of betrayal, grit, and action in your game. Riff from the worked examples or mix and match vampiric abilities, agendas, and assets for a completely custom sanguinary spy saga.“

The Yellow King

The Yellow King role-playing game takes the GUMSHOE system into strange and wried horror.

From the product description:

“Inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ influential cycle of short stories, The Yellow King RPG pits the characters against the reality-altering horror of The King in Yellow. This suppressed play, once read, invites madness. Or a visit from its titular character, an alien ruler intent on invading and remolding our world into a colony of their planet, Carcosa.

“Four books confront your players with an epic journey into reality horror:

Belle Époque Paris, where a printed version of the dread play is first published. Players portray American art students in its absinthe-soaked world, navigating the Parisian demimonde and investigating mysteries involving gargoyles, vampires, and decadent alien royalty. Includes the core rules.
The Wars, an alternate reality in which the players take on the role of soldiers bogged down in the great European conflict of 1947. While trying to stay alive on an eerie, shifting battlefield, they investigate supernatural mysteries generated by the occult machinations of the Yellow King and his rebellious daughters.
Aftermath, set later in the same reality, in 2017 North America. A bloody insurrection has toppled a dictatorial regime loyal to Carcosa. Players become former partisans adjusting to ordinary life, trying to build a just society from the ashes of civil war. But not all of the monsters have been thoroughly banished—and like it or not, they’re the ones with the skills to hunt them and finish them off.
This is Normal Now. In the 2017 we know, albeit one subtly permeated by supernatural beings and maddening reality shifts, ordinary people band together, slowly realizing that they are the key to ending a menace spanning eras and realities.”

Bubblegumshoe

Bubblegumshoe is a teen detective story game that uses GUMSHOE and builds on top of it.

From the product description:

“The world is full of mysteries. It’s up to your group of intrepid teen sleuths to solve them. In Bubblegumshoe, players step into the shoes of high-schoolers solving mysteries in a modern American small town. Discover clues, solve problems, and throw down with enemies in this streamlined RPG based on the GUMSHOE system.

“In this stand-alone game, you’ll find:

Rules to create your Sleuth’s web of relationships and make the most of GUMSHOE’s resource-management
A simple setting system designed for large scale town creation all the way down to scene locations, plus extensive information on Drewsbury, a ready-to-go setting
A variety of short mystery starters, including a full introductory mystery: Hey! That’s My Bike!
Extensive support to help GMs create their own mysteries using pre-established characters and settings
Rules for social Throwdowns as well as physical altercations to reflect the drama of high school noir
A slimmed-down list of investigative abilities vs GUMSHOE’s default to make for faster decision making”

Shanty Hunters

Shanty Hunters is a unique role-playing game based on the GUMSHOE system where players collect magical sea shanties.

From the product description:

“It’s 1880. You are sailors and scholars traveling the world’s sea lanes to document the dying art of the sea shanty. Commercial sail is obsolete in the face of steam technology, and its majesty is fading from the world. Shanties will surely vanish unless someone writes them down. But a wicked spirit doesn’t like shanties falling into the hands of landsmen. It manifests the imagery and events from each song to oppose you, threatening the very ships you sail aboard. Can you anticipate these dangers before they strike? Can you safeguard the ship and her crew? Sing shanties with your friends, then overcome the perils hidden in these wonderful old songs of the sea!”

More GUMSHOE RPGs

More RPGs by Pelgrane Press

Pelgrane Press publishes many other RPGs plus numerous supplements for the GUMSHOE RPG system. Check them out at DriveThruRPG.