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Voros

Doomed Investigator
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So the pitch for this game is pretty straight forward: Murder She Wrote Meets the Mythos.

PbtA and from what I've read very much based on TV tropes with a different, improv approach to mystery gaming. Knowing the designer Jason Cordova from the excellent Fear of a Black Dragon podcast I suspect this will be too genre-emulative, narrative and 'storygamey' for some but then a game where you play a group of elderly women solving murders and an occult conspiracy isn't likely to be too trad or conventional. I'm going to check this out once I'm back at work.

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Brindlewood Bay is a roleplaying game about a group of elderly women—members of the local Murder Mavens mystery book club—who frequently find themselves investigating (and solving!) real-life murder mysteries. They become increasingly aware that there are supernatural forces that connect the cases they are working on and, in particular, a cult dedicated to the dark, monstrous aspect of the goddess Persephone will come to vex them.


The game is directly inspired by the television show Murder, She Wrote, but also takes inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, “cozy” crime dramas, and American TV shows from the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s.



Included in the download:

Brindlewood Bay Rules

Brindlewood Bay Rules (booklet printing)

Character Sheet

Reference Sheet

Maven Moves Sheet

Dark Conspiracy Sheet

Mysteries (5)


  • Dad Overboard
  • All Hallow's Scream
  • The GBBBO (The Great Brindlewood Bay Bake-Off)
  • Jingle Bell Shock
  • A Murder Most Mucky
 
I think some of my players would like this. I don't see a link. Is it out yet?

- - - - -

EDIT: Nevermind. Found it. Apparently it's a PbtA product.
 
I don't really see this combo working. There is just such a disconnect between the cozy mystery genre, where murders are a puzzle to be solved with minimal evocation of tragedy and horror, and cosmic horror. It could be a cute idea for a satirical one-off, but as an actual ongoing game, one of the genres has to flatten the other or neither will work. I feel like this would have worked better with some other occult model.
 
The thing is that most cosmic horror has lost its cosmic. Cthulhu is now just a large guy with a tentacle face and wings whose power is physical.

If mythos threats were common in an area yet routinely defeated, then I could see characters becoming blase about it. "Oh, it wasn't a star vampire at all. It was just a MI-Go device that mimicked one to throw us off their trail. Great catch Emelda."

If anyone gets it, a brief review would be appreciated.
 
The thing is that most cosmic horror has lost its cosmic. Cthulhu is now just a large guy with a tentacle face and wings whose power is physical.

If mythos threats were common in an area yet routinely defeated, then I could see characters becoming blase about it. "Oh, it wasn't a star vampire at all. It was just a MI-Go device that mimicked one to throw us off their trail. Great catch Emelda."
As I was saying, the cozy mystery element completely flattens the cosmic horror into irrelevance.
 
A classic parlour room mystery concept with old lady protagonists would be fun, but I agree it doesn't go with the Mythos at all (and every year I'm increasingly burnt out on watered down Lovecraft elements being tossed into games with no rhyme or reason). OTOH, PbTA puts me off entirely.
 
You lost me at PbtA, but I also don't see the combo working and also think it would have to be so genre-conscious, this belongs under a Collaborative Storytelling Game category.

But like nearly every game like this, good for a fun one off if nothing else.
 
I'd be ok with that. Lovecraft has flooded the scene to the extent that it's about as scary as Abbot and Costello meet the Mummy.
I agree that Lovecraft is completely over-saturated at the moment. That's exactly why I'm not enthused by seeing it here. Old lady detectives vs. the occult could be a fun lark. This just seems the most shopworn way to do it.
 
Just to avoid being overly negative, it is possible the game is more creative and clever than I am giving it credit for. We are all just talking about a marketing blurb after all, and "Lovecraft" is an easy RPG marketing buzzword.
 
The main problem with Call of Cthulhu games is everyone is already expecting the weird inhuman horror. Plus there should be nothing cutesy and cozy about it. This would work best if the players thought they were playing The Jessica Fletcher/Father Dowling/Dr. Mark Sloan Roleplaying Game* and didn't know what they were actually in for. That'd be pretty fun as a player or a Keeper. You'd need to have the players describe their PCs and the Keeper generate their scores accordingly so the players don't know what game they're really playing.

* Murder She Wrote, Father Dowling Mysteries, and Diagnosis: Murder, respectively
 
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I've mentioned this before, but often in my Mythos campaign I'll throw in mysteries that turn out to be completely mundane, I find that it keeps things surprising and also tends to steer players to act more like actual investigators rather than playing to Lovecraftian monster-hunter tropes
 
I'd be ok with that. Lovecraft has flooded the scene to the extent that it's about as scary as Abbot and Costello meet the Mummy.
Except that the Lovecraft flood is of the lazy or cutesy/plush variety... or Chaosium's watered down action/adventure sort (just like what happened with all those classic Universal monsters).

Meanwhile, Delta Green still successfully aims for the horror.

But yeah, I don't see the clash between the genres mixing well. I'd see Murder She Wrote mixing better with something like Dark Shadows... sleepy fishing village plagued by (relatively mild) curses, murders, ghosts, vampires, witches and werewolves... supported by a solid cast of local NPCs and various non-horror mysteries to solve (along with some Scooby Doo 'old man Withers' stuff).
 
Remember that time Magnum PI and Murder She Wrote had a crossover?

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I don't really see this combo working. There is just such a disconnect between the cozy mystery genre, where murders are a puzzle to be solved with minimal evocation of tragedy and horror, and cosmic horror. It could be a cute idea for a satirical one-off, but as an actual ongoing game, one of the genres has to flatten the other or neither will work. I feel like this would have worked better with some other occult model.

It is made for a short, escalating series of sessions where the murders at first appear to be mundane. So yeah not really built for an extended ongoing campaign.

Not sure this goes into Mythos per se, it name checks Lovecraft but as you say that may just be used here for ease of reference. I note the cult seems to be worshipping Persephone so it may go in a folk horror direction which would be more interesting.

Either way I'm sure it would be easy enough to tweak. I don't mind odd tonal genre mashups (thinking of Kim Newman here) or games built for short term play.

If well constructed enough and with the right players one could even strip the occult out of it and play it straight.
 
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It is made for a short, escalating series of sessions where the murders at first appear to be mundane. So yeah not really built for an extended ongoing campaign.
My first thought when I heard about this is that it would work better as a convention one-shot. Hearing this, it sounds like it could actually work for at least a dozen sessions or so. Maybe not that much more?

It's a really cute idea, but I have to admit Baulderstone Baulderstone has a good point. Now that I think about it, an unmashed take on elderly ladies solving mysteries could work very nicely with no Mythos whatsoever.
 
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My first thought when I heard about this is that it would work better as a convention one-shot. Hearing this, it sounds like it could actually work for at least a dozen sessions or so. Maybe not that much more?

It's a really cute idea, but I have to admit Baulderstone Baulderstone has a good point. Now that I think about it, and unmashed take on elderly ladies solving mysteries could work very nicely with no Mythos whatsoever.
Unfortunately, games without some fantasy/sci-fi element are hard to sell. On their podcast, Robin Laws and Ken Hite talk about how it helps to add a "nerd trope" to any genre to get it to sell. As an example. Hite's Nights Black Agents actually works just fine as a straight spy thriller game, but it adds vampire conspiracies in order to make it more appealing to gamers.
 
The main problem with Call of Cthulhu games is everyone is already expecting the weird inhuman horror.
I used to post to a site called Terror Tales, which was for CoC adventure seeds with three possible explanations. I always made sure one was completely mundane. Investigators shouldn't expect squat, other that madness and death.
 
I used to post to a site called Terror Tales, which was for CoC adventure seeds with three possible explanations. I always made sure one was completely mundane. Investigators shouldn't expect squat, other that madness and death.
I remember that. That was a good resource.
 
Some of Lovecraft's stories are much less than cosmic level. Probably the game needs to present antagonists who can be defeated by revealing their secret machinations rather than things that require heavy weapons and major combat to deal with; family curses, conspiracies and dark secrets. Typically in that sort of murder mysteries the authorities can deal with the issue easily except that they are not perceptive enough to identify the actual culprit.

While pitting little old ladies against sanity-destroying horrors might seem unfair, I'm not really interested in being fair to sanity-destroying horrors. (Note that Jessica Fletcher dealt with hundreds of murders in a small town without ever seeming to lose her cheerful demeanor.)
 
Voros Voros , did you ever give this one a go? I'm wondering if you actually got to play Brindlewood Bay. It's the precursor to the Between which I am all about these days.
 
One of the 'zines' I backed as part of the last Zinequest is a reskin/hack of Brindlewood Bay for Duck Tales. Not quite sure how that will work but I'm intrigued enough to check it out.
 
I get that Lovecraft is popular with gamers (although I've never gotten the appeal myself), but I can't help but think that a more classical/gothic horror approach would have given a game like that wider appeal.
 
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I get that Lovecraft is popular with gamers (although I've never gotten the appeal myself), but I can't help but think that a more classical/gothic horror approach would have given a game like that a lot more appeal.
Yeah, but it's based on elderly women in a murder mystery book club solving mysteries. :smile:
 
Yeah, but it's based on elderly women in a murder mystery book club solving mysteries.
Elderly women can't shoot a gun or wield a club to weaken a vampire or kill a werewolf? In my campaign this summer, a 60 year old former Olympic javelin thrower NPC dispatched a vampire pretty effectively with a staff carved into a weapon. One of my PC characters is a woman pushing 60, and I remember thinking at the time that the whole episode was like "Murder She Wrote With Vampires." I get it, people in retirement communities typically run on the older end, but I think you can get away with at least some battle.
 
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A classic parlor room mystery concept with old lady protagonists would be fun, but I agree it doesn't go with the Mythos at all.
Sounds like f-ing elderly abuse! :smile:

I'm guessing that PBTA isn't taking things in a really dark direction. But if it is following closely to Mythos themes, that's some pretty dark stuff for elderly book club members. Straight-jacket time for Jessica Fletcher and her friends...

patient.jpg
 
Not sure this goes into Mythos per se, it name checks Lovecraft but as you say that may just be used here for ease of reference. I note the cult seems to be worshipping Persephone so it may go in a folk horror direction which would be more interesting.
Thinking back, it seems like every British TV cozy mystery show has an episode with a pagan cult. (also eps with cricket, a carnival, and other standards.) Having the cult be real instead of people using it as an excuse to wear flowing clothing would be a simple twist.

Maybe I'll pick up the main book.
 
Elderly women can't shoot a gun or wield a club to weaken a vampire or kill a werewolf? In my campaign this summer, a 60 year old former Olympic javelin thrower NPC dispatched a vampire pretty effectively with a staff carved into a weapon. One of my PC characters is a woman pushing 60, and I remember thinking at the time that the whole episode was like "Murder She Wrote With Vampires." I get it, people in retirement communities typically run on the older end, but I think you can get away with at least some battle.
Oh, I agree, but it doesn't really have a combat system. It's straight up investigation. It has a couple investigation moves, then the closest thing to combat would be "risky moves" when they face something they fear.

It is straight up based on 80s/90s murder mystery TV shows but with an occult twist.
 
Elderly women can't shoot a gun or wield a club to weaken a vampire or kill a werewolf? In my campaign this summer, a 60 year old former Olympic javelin thrower NPC dispatched a vampire pretty effectively with a staff carved into a weapon. One of my PC characters is a woman pushing 60, and I remember thinking at the time that the whole episode was like "Murder She Wrote With Vampires." I get it, people in retirement communities typically run on the older end, but I think you can get away with at least some battle.
Sounds like you've already solved the problem by using a different system.
 
I failed my save and made the purchase. I'm severely disappointed by the lack of sex moves.

There's a lot to like even though some of it isn't my style. The core complaint for me is it's the sort of storytelling game that directs you to have scenes of a certain type at various points. That feels artificial to me, despite its appropriateness here. It could also stand to be about 20 pages longer (it's only 40 pages) to flesh out ideas for the final mystery and a few other things. The mysteries could stand to be 4 pages long instead of 2 to provide more meat instead of bring your own ideas - unless the gm and all players are very inventive and active in following plots, the whole game will grind down and become a slog. You're pretty much on your own how the individual mysteries are connected.

There are things to like. The PBTA aspects work here even though they don't always for me. The types of moves for different scene types are nice - I like how operating at night is inherently more dangerous. Seeing doom/death then paying for a do over is cool. Players get to pick unique moves named after famous male characters (these old women are thirsty) like MacGyver or Magnum. Advancement looks well done. The crown aspects where you have to describe something or sink lower into the darkness to pay for things is cool. It doesn't have tricky mysteries - players to things to get clues; when they have enough, they can solve the mystery - mostly making it up.

I wish it had pregens available as the cocreation process might take a couple of hours, which is a fair amount for a game designed for maybe 3-6 sessions.

Despite the ad copy mentioning Lovecraft it's not a Mythos game. It's about characters solving mysteries and slowly uncovering a deeper mystery underlying everything else. It gives you almost no info on the underlying mystery other than suggesting that villains are trying to summon a dark god.
 
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I failed my save and made the purchase. I'm severely disappointed by the lack of sex moves.

There's a lot to like even though some of it isn't my style. The core complaint for me is it's the sort of storytelling game that directs you to have scenes of a certain type at various points. That feels artificial to me, despite its appropriateness here. It could also stand to be about 20 pages longer (it's only 40 pages) to flesh out ideas for the final mystery and a few other things. The mysteries could stand to be 4 pages long instead of 2 to provide more meat instead of bring your own ideas - unless the gm and all players are very inventive and active in following plots, the whole game will grind down and become a slog. You're pretty much on your own how the individual mysteries are connected.

There are things to like. The PBTA aspects work here even though they don't always for me. The types of moves for different scene types in a how are nice - I like how operating at night is inherently more dangerous. Seeing doom/death then paying for a do over is cool. Players get to pick unique moves named after famous male characters (these old women are thirsty) like MacGyver or Magnum. Advancement looks well done. The crown aspects where you have to describe something or sink lower into the darkness to pay for things is cool. It doesn't have tricky mysteries - players to things to get clues; when they have enough, they can solve the mystery - mostly making it up.

I wish it had pregens available as the cocreation process might take a couple of hours, which is a fair amount for a game designed for maybe 3-6 sessions.

Despite the ad copy mentioning Lovecraft it's not a Mythos game. It's about characters solving mysteries and slowly uncovering a deeper mystery underlying everything else. It gives you almost no info on the underlying mystery other than suggesting that villains are trying to summon a dark god.
I've not played it, but I've ran the Between, the victorian London supernatural horror developed from Brindlewood and feel like the author stepped it up a few notches. Knowing all this, my players are interested in playing Brindlewood Bay next. The investigative mechanic is about the same and they really like it.
 
Thinking back, it seems like every British TV cozy mystery show has an episode with a pagan cult. (also eps with cricket, a carnival, and other standards.)

Up until the mid-80s I firmly believed that every non-genre American TV was allowed one UFO episode and one ghost episode (though as I type this I realize “supernatural” might have been a better term for the latter). I used to be able to rattle off a list of dozens of such examples from American TV shows from the 60s to the 80s.

Come to think of it, I had a BBC adaption of Sherlock Holmes on that list as well.
 
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