Dress Rehearsal, I'm looking for clues

Awhile back my good friend Mr Vagabond owner of the ryval Penny Farthing  studios asked "How does a studio go about making a good detective movie ?"

Now he's just released his first one which can been seen here http://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/a-detective-game-retrieving-grimoire-of.htm.

I hope after watching the movie (Good wasn't it ?) you've returned, I'll assume you have & carry on as good detective movie is something that N&D have also been striving to produce if a some what different kind, now we've released a couple in the pasted with Chip Spud & Tasha Stripvo & while happy with them they haven't quite been as I'd have liked, so were doing some dress rehearsals trying some new things.

Now after a lot of investment in time & money we've some new ideas in the pipeline to try & make things better, now the script team come up with all sort of wonderful idea's (reads different rule sets) & then it's up to our chief script writer Doug Mitten to pick what he things will work best.

 As it happens we're trying out some of the ideas right now, in a case involving Chip & Tasha, Chip has got a phone call from a wealthy lady who's husband has gone missing while carrying out what she calls his indiscretions & has gone out to her house to get more details.

Designer note, I'm trying out a few new things which when needed will be explained in captions below the pictures.

While at the house Chip learns from the chauffeur that he dropped the Master off at Queen Square las night.

Chip is talking to the Chauffeur, normally when interaction with someone to get information it would require a question test, but at this is the start of the case & we need to give Chip a lead as to where to start no test is required.

As he's talking to the Lady of the house he notices the remains of a piece of paper in the dying amber's of the fire, could this be a clue ?

To try to get this clue Chip takes a Brains test set against a difficulty rating, how this works is to set the difficultly I roll 2d6 & pick the lowest, if you wanted to try make the test harder you could pick the highest or you could just per set the test if you wanted,  then roll 3d10 for the person using their brains stat, each dice score which together with the brains stat that is 10 or more is a success, then roll 3d10  for the difficulty with any roll  when added to the difficulty rating that is 10 or more been a success, to solve the clue you have to get more brains successes then difficulties successes.

 Reaching in he plucks out the paper' on it he can make out some of the letters  from two words, igh
& Ros.

Given that Queen Square is a well known red light area & the missing person has a liken for what his wife calls indiscretions plus what was on the paper Chip deducts that the missing person went to meet someone last night in the area possible called Rose, his next call will be Queen Square but its to early to go there, so he'll return to his office & make a few phone calls.

Chip arrives at Queen square & as he thought the girls are about.

He heads over to the closest & shows her a picture of the missing man, but gets nothing more from her then a look at her credentials.

Here Chip takes a brains test trying to get information from the women, Chip is a grade 3 character & rolls 3d10 for the test, his brains is 5 so he will be looking for 5+ on each roll, the woman is grade 1 NCP so will roll 1 d10 , her brains is 2 so she'll need 8+, if Chip win the test by 2 or more she'll give him some information, so Chip would need to roll at least 2 5+ & hope the woman doesn't roll a 8+, if she did then Chip would  need all of his dice to be 5+ , if he wins by 1 or if it a draw nothings happens,  if the woman should win she'll attack him, in this test Chip won by 1.

He bids her goodnight & moves toward the next girl,

In this case the man is a PEF, how this works is at the start of the scene there will be given the day time & the location a set number of PEF's  that might or might not come into play, the area is divided into 9 equal parts & as Chip move from one part to another I roll a d8, if the d8 score is less then the area number then a PEF will come into play.

but before he reaches her a man approaches him from across the street.
Man " Chip Spud ? Chip nods as the man continues " Tony the book sent me, he's noticed your account is heavily in the red & wants to know when your going to paid up ?"

Right a PEF has turned up now what ? to decide what it is I role 3d10 using Chips grade 3 as the the base number, if Chip rolls 2 or more 7'+ its an enemy if not its a NCP who Chip may or may not interact with, in this case the men turned out to be a NCP, so the next time a PEF turns up I'll add 1 to Chip's base score  and will keep doing so until a PEF turns out to be an enemy.

Chip "Things have been a bit quite lately but I've got a case now so tell him I should be able to fix up in the next few days"
Man "Ok I'll tell him that but don't have me to come looking for your again" & with that he turns & walks away.
Chip shrugs his shoulders & walks on. 

The next girl has nothing to offer, apart from something he neither wants or can afford, so he carries on down the other side of the square, as he reaches the parked car two man get out, one has a knife the other a baseball bat.

Here the PEF turns out to be an enemy so a brains test is taken by all characters to see in what order they will act., for this test they all roll 1d10 & add the score to  their brains stat, with the highest score going first followed by the next highest, with any draws been rolled off.

Man with the knife" We'd like a word with you"
Not liking the look of the men or their manner, Chip lashes out with the lead-sock he carries in his pocket for such occasions & drops the man with the knife.

Chip wins the roll off so goes first & hits the guy on the left knocking him to the ground, this means his mate will have to take a guts test.

Seen his mate go down like a ton of bricks, the tug with the club decides he wants no part of this & takes to his heels.

Having failed his guts test the tug move 2d6 away from Chip & will keep doing so until he either passes the test or leaves the table.

As Chips watches him tear off down the street he hears a groan from the guy laying on the pavement, he reaches down, grabs him up & slams him against the car.
Chip" Who sent you & what does he want ?"
Man "Nobody sent us we ju...
Chip" Don't give me that, now talk unless you want more of the sock"
Man "Ok Diamond John sent us, he said we were to have a word to stop you asking questions"
Chip giving the guy a couple of slaps across the face,"Why"
Man "I don't know, he just said to stop you he didn't say why"

With the other guy gone Chip is free to try to interrogate the man, had his mate stuck around & hit Chip he would have been able to join in the fight this turn, the interrogation test works like the question test except that its brains stat against willpower  stat.

Chip" Right, well tell him he to send a better messenger next time, now scram  before I lose my temper"
As the guy jumps into the car & takes off Chip walks down to the next girl & taking out the picture asks " Did you having to see this guy around here last night ?"
Girl looking at the picture "Maybe"
Handing her a five note Chip " Do you want to tell me who he was maybe with ?"
Girl" He was with Jessie"
Chip" Is Jessie around tonight ?
Girl" I an't seen her' but she's a good friend of Molly's who over by the statue, maybe she can tell you where she is"

This time Chip wins the question test by 2 so gets some information from the woman.

                                                                                                                                                                    Chip thanks her for the help & goes over to Molly. taking out another five he asks " Any idea  were Jessie might be tonight ?" Molly I'll be your Jessie if you want"

Chip" Thanks but that not what I'm looking for" & handing her the five " I just want to ask her some questions"

Molly" You the law ?"

Chip "If I was would I have giving you the five ?"

Molly " Guess not, she's over the road in the Blue Rossi"

If you remember the piece of paper Chip pulled out of the fireplace ? written on it was igh & Ros which Chip thought might be Rose.

Chip Thanks her & heads across the road to the bar.

In order for Chip to get to the Blue Rossi he need 3 pieces of information, having solved the clue in the fireplace it meant he only needed another 2 from the 5 women at the square or from any NCP's that might turn up & yes it is possible that he might not have done so.

Inside its not to busy & as Chip looks around this stunningly attractive woman ( well at least she would be if I was any good at painting ) walks over to him.
Chip"Jessie I take it ?"

Here we have the last test of the piece the seduction test, which again is a brains test against willpower, 

Jessie" Yes, but how did you know ?"
Chip" I've been looking for you & Molly told me you were in here, I'd like to talk to you about the man you were with last night ?
Jessie"I see but not here follow me"
She leads Chip over to a room off the bar &

 been A Femme Fatale Jessie has the upper hand in the test by way of abilities.

`as he steps inside his whole world goes dark.
Cut.

Designer note again, any of you that ever played a THW game will notices a similarity between the above  & their rules & that's because a lot of it was based around their rules but modified to suit what I want, first to go had to be the Rep system as I'm not a fan of it, as it means a character who good at one thing is good at most everything & like wise if their bad.

Now as I mentioned at the start of this post John over on his wonderful blog had just done his first detective game & it was in every sense of the word a detecting game a classic who done it, that is not what I was after here, what I wanted was more your hard boiled pulp P.I in the shape of a Sam Spade or Phil Marlowe & by & large I think I got more or less what I was trying for, not perfect yet but getting there, time to do a full movie to know for sure.

Another thing I want to talk about is sets, now as I'm sure a lot of you might know I'm not your normal gamer as I'm more interested in the story then the game, I'll explain that a bit more as it also help give insight to the use of sets, now most people will set up a gaming table & play out their games on it, if there are say building they may or may not use the inside of the building, but everything will take place on that table.

While yes in the above I had a table set up I also had to the side of it two sets, one for the inside of the house at the start & another for the inside of the Blue Rossi, if I was doing this in full it might well have started inside of Chip's office & might even have involved some one trailing him in a car as he drove out to the house or on his way back depending on the two PP's that was covered in the last movie tone news.

This type of gaming is very similar to RPG gaming & would not be for everyone as most people just want to set up their table & get on with their game, but as you most likely figured out from all the clues by now I'm not everyone :)


That's a wrap for this post as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.