Brindlewood Bay - Murder She Wrote meets the Occult

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The hardback addition is coming to kickstarter. The pre-launch is up. I believe this one contains all the revised rules and a couple of supplements.
 
The only way I could ever see myself playing this would be to ratchet up the horror and dread to 11. However, the idea of playing that type of Agatha Christie trope is rather intriguing if done right, and assuming you want to mix the two genres (and one being that of cosmic horror).

But to play it as described might be better for a beer and pretzels one-night session, imo.
 
Rob Necronomicon said:
The only way I could ever see myself playing this would be to ratchet up the horror and dread to 11. However, the idea of playing that type of Agatha Christie trope is rather intriguing if done right, and assuming you want to mix the two genres (and one being that of cosmic horror).

But to play it as described might be better for a beer and pretzels one-night session, imo.
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I've not given it a go yet, but it's on my group's wish list. The Between evolved from Brindlewood and we've been playing that weekly since July 2021.
 
I believe the author has said he started the Between first but didn't have a suitable investigation mechanic, so wrote Brindlewood Bay to solve the issue. The Between is the end product, mechanics wise.
 
Picaroon Jack said:
I believe the author has said he started the Between first but didn't have a suitable investigation mechanic, so wrote Brindlewood Bay to solve the issue. The Between is the end product, mechanics wise.
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Ah, interesting...

I do love those British TV shows like Penny Dreadful. The Between is a great system for creating that whole vibe. :smile:
 
You know what actually be cool? Something that paired the Murder She Wrote formula with themes from the old "occult detective" stories that were common in the pulp era. Doctor Taverner etc. The characters are investigating an apparently-impossible murder at a haunted house and it turns out the ghost is... an actual ghost, summoned by the victim's jilted ex-lover.

Make one of the character options an elderly priest with a penchant for solving crimes, to mix in some Father Brown, and I think you'd actually have something fun.

Plenty of resources for occult mysteries without dragging Lovecraft into it.
 
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Jason also announced on Discord yesterday that they are going to be running a BB mystery writing contest to coincide with the new Kickstarter.
 
Has anyone run this?

I've volunteered to run this at an upcoming gameday. Can you give me your impressions:
1) Are the pre-written mysteries suitable for a 4 hour session?
2) Do you think chargen is quick and tidy enough to do at the table in a 4 hour session and still leave enough time for the game?
 
Caesar Slaad said:
Has anyone run this?

I've volunteered to run this at an upcoming gameday. Can you give me your impressions:
1) Are the pre-written mysteries suitable for a 4 hour session?
2) Do you think chargen is quick and tidy enough to do at the table in a 4 hour session and still leave enough time for the game?
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Not yet, but I do have an post up here on the Pub asking people if they are interested in one shots. In order to run this at an event I'd probably go with pregens and I'd choose a mystery that's on the lower end of the complexity scale, so a 6 maybe. I've seen the mystery that comes with the rules touted as a good choice for this kind of game. I'd think that with a group of engaged players you should be able to squeeze this into a four hour time slot.

On the pregen side I'd probably index them to popular characters or types from the cozy murder genre to make them easily accessible to the players. So a Jessica Fletcher, A Sister Agnes, etc. The games leans heavily into TV tropes so you might as swell use that to your advantage.
 
This is one I would rather play than run. I've been running it's sister game, the Between, and I've always wanted to play BB.
 
It's kicking ass and taking names. I have no doubt all the stretch goals will be met in short order. :thumbsup: I went with the Murder Maven tier to get the cookbook.
 
The game advertises itself as "Murder She Wrote" meets Cthulhu, with a clear emphasis on having a group of old ladies solving mysteries. Would the system work just as well with, say, a Scooby Doo mix of teenagers or some such? I assume the old lady thing is to emphasize the mysteries and lack of combat, but I've never actually read the rules. I'm just not sure if my group would be interested in playing old ladies. :sad:
 
finarvyn said:
The game advertises itself as "Murder She Wrote" meets Cthulhu, with a clear emphasis on having a group of old ladies solving mysteries. Would the system work just as well with, say, a Scooby Doo mix of teenagers or some such? I assume the old lady thing is to emphasize the mysteries and lack of combat, but I've never actually read the rules. I'm just not sure if my group would be interested in playing old ladies. :sad:
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Yeah, you could do Scooby Doo pretty easily, and the Mavens could also easily be men. For the Scooby Doo hack you might need to lay around with the Maven moves and some of the peripheral description and stuff, but probably not too much.
 
finarvyn said:
The game advertises itself as "Murder She Wrote" meets Cthulhu, with a clear emphasis on having a group of old ladies solving mysteries. Would the system work just as well with, say, a Scooby Doo mix of teenagers or some such? I assume the old lady thing is to emphasize the mysteries and lack of combat, but I've never actually read the rules. I'm just not sure if my group would be interested in playing old ladies. :sad:
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There are several reskins/hacks of Brindlewood Bay. There's Paranormal Inc and Beakwood Bay, but I've not checked out either one.
 
Picaroon Jack said:
There are several reskins/hacks of Brindlewood Bay. There's Paranormal Inc and Beakwood Bay, but I've not checked out either one.
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Paranormal Inc might not be the best bet. It's GM-less and has some more mature overtones than you might want for Scooby-Doo hijinks. Beakwood Bay would be closer as it's essentially the Duck Tales hack of BB.
 
It will probably reach $100K by the end of the day. I am a big fan of Gauntlet Publishing, but I did not see that coming. This should help propel their other games and projects. I bet they are celebrating in Texas!

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EDIT: Correction. It made it to 100K in less than 24 hours.
 
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:heart: I kinda wanna play a Gilmore Girls meets Final Girls or Ash & the Evil Dead mashup where us players all gotta make our PCs talk in quippy Whedon-speak while running for their lives and die horribly to monster critters. Less mystery, more meta-textual witty banter as we get slaughtered. :kiss: Saving the world as less important than clever one-liners in the face of death... and then grisly deaths... and then GM pun-tastic Dad jokes. :skeleton: Like CW channel does Paranoia rpg does Elvira cheesy monster flicks.
 
opaopajr said:
:heart: I kinda wanna play a Gilmore Girls meets Final Girls or Ash & the Evil Dead mashup where us players all gotta make our PCs talk in quippy Whedon-speak while running for their lives and die horribly to monster critters. Less mystery, more meta-textual witty banter as we get slaughtered. :kiss: Saving the world as less important than clever one-liners in the face of death... and then grisly deaths... and then GM pun-tastic Dad jokes. :skeleton: Like CW channel does Paranoia rpg does Elvira cheesy monster flicks.
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It's funny you should mention the Gilmore Girls, Jason Burns wrote a BB mystery based on them. It's on DriveThru.

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Picaroon Jack said:
It will probably reach $100K by the end of the day. I am a big fan of Gauntlet Publishing, but I did not see that coming. This should help propel their other games and projects. I bet they are celebrating in Texas!
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It’s good to see how well it’s doing. I love Hearts of Wulin by the Gauntlet. It’s probably my favourite RPG of all time and, though it has different designers, Brindlewood Bay seems to share a very similar design ethic. They both a couple of very simple yet powerful rules that propel the narrative forward in an effortless manner.
 
Backed the hardcover as I kinda regret not backing the hardcopy of Trophy. I assume The Between will be next on the docket?

Up to just over $152,000 USD.

Brindlewood Bay: Cozy Murder Mystery RPG, via @Kickstarter
 
Voros said:
Backed the hardcover as I kinda regret not backing the hardcopy of Trophy. I assume The Between will be next on the docket?

Up to just over $152,000 USD.

Brindlewood Bay: Cozy Murder Mystery RPG, via @Kickstarter
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I asked one of the Gauntlet's publishers if the Between would be worked into a stretch goal and he said the Between was hopefully going to get its own kickstarter treatment.

They are pretty active over in their discord server: LINK
 
I think I checked out the forums the same time you did, discord is where it is at.
 
Caesar Slaad said:
Has anyone run this?

I've volunteered to run this at an upcoming gameday. Can you give me your impressions:
1) Are the pre-written mysteries suitable for a 4 hour session?
2) Do you think chargen is quick and tidy enough to do at the table in a 4 hour session and still leave enough time for the game?
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Having now run this as a one-shot I will say:
1) You can absolutely make characters at the table. And as character relationships are a big part of the flavor of the game, you probably should.
2) I would, however, keep the groups small (3-4 PCs) to make the relationships and clues more manageable.
 
One of the things about Brindlewood I like is the age group. I'm less struck on the gender thing. I would enjoy a mixed group just as much (but then I've already got the PDFs and the hardbacks will be fulfilled in the Kickstarter)

This would be my ideal gaming group.

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BBay is designed to work best at 3-4 players anyway.
 
I just backed this Brindlewood Bay kickstarter for the two hard cover books - if I really want I can grab the 'cookbook' later on as an add-on (I suspect the pdf version may be part of the digital awards at some stage, I don't think I will need it beyond pdf)

This is not my normal thing, but I do like the creativity here.
Unsure if I will use it, but I do want to have this in my collection for some reason. Perhaps novelty value, I'm not sure, but it does stand out.
It's almost unique in the fact that older adults are presented as viable central characters in this rpg - it may be something some rpg companies need to consider as we all get older, heh heh.

I would likely adapt this to be for both genders, but basic the concept of 'Murder She Wrote vs Cthulhu' does sound kinda fun.

I particularly want to see how the 'clue system' works, because I read that even the GM initially has no firm idea on the explanation for the mysteries presented, it is something that comes from the PC's brain-storming, so this may be quite an interesting game mechanic if it is done well.

My troupe has some well-loved recurring Pulp Adventure characters from the 1920s/1930s era (two men, one woman), and we have portrayed them across three separate systems so far (Pulp Cthulhu, Fate Core, and Tricube Tales).

I figure this could be the kind of thing they get up to in their later years, heh heh :grin:
 
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