Quote:
Originally Posted by sbca1995
Do you think ToC/Gumshoe would work well or horribly for sandbox-style gaming?
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I usually GM my mystery and horror games like this. I set up places to be, NPCs with agandas and horrible things that are happening, and let the players explore and interrogate at will. That's my style with Fudge and that's my style with Gumshoe.
Is the Gumshoe rules any help with that?
Well, they've got a tactical element in resource management, which can be a benefit or a distraction.
They're kind of weird in that the six-sided die decides so much.
I guess I should let the players decide. We had four players, three of whom I never GM:d before.
One just claimed to like all role-playing games (especially
Call of Cthulhu) and wishes to play more. She had no opinion either way and thinks the session went fine and the rules did their job.
One who's got LARP experience but has played only played table RPGs once before, in a
Stormbringer campaign (which he didn't like). He disliked the rules and thought we'd be better off freeforming. On the other hand, he said that this session changed his mind about table role-playing, which he's disliked before.
One who's roleplayed a couple of times before, who likes
Over the Edge, and who really liked the rules as written.
One whom I GM:d a lot before and who's GM:d me a couple of times. This is an experienced role-player and RPG writer who's met most of my game design heroes. He thought the rules were interesting and, after the session, came up with the hand signal system for spends.
If you take Laws's "spine"-structure (also seen in
Robin's Laws) too literally, you won't get a sandbox (if that's a goal in and of itself is open to debate, but sandboxes (or, as we used to say, "aquariums") is my style as a GM). My suggestion is this: Make multiple places that you can go to, not necessarily in sequence, leaving multiple clues or "hooks" between them that the players may follow or ignore at will.
On the other hand, if you do exaggerate the spine structure, you'll get a clean "trail" (that's the name of the game, after all) that might seem very movie like. This might be a benefit to some groups. It's not my style.
My experiments with "gamism" aren't over, but it's hard finding the right balance.
Thanks for your comments.