The Kingsbury Horror Play Report Session #1
This is a play report for the Gumshoe RPG game Trail of Cthulhu. I ran this as a one-shot, it's my first gumshoe game as a Keeper and the players Johny "Ace" Calhoun (J-P), Charles Edward Withers MD (Andy), Deputy Joel "Knuckles" Dunn (Steve) and never played a gumshoe game before.
We ran the one-shot in three 2 hour chunks, maybe could have ran it in two if we'd had a bit more experience with Gumshoe. We used Roll20 for maps, dice rolls and character sheets. With google sheets for tracking health, sanity, stability and as a clues reference.
Whereby the intrepid three; pulp author extraordinaire Johny "Ace" Calhoun, oddball genius and Alienist Charles Edward Withers MD and grizzled, "take-no-prisoners", "I-ain't-no-babysitter", Deputy Joel "Knuckles" Dunn, took up a hush-hush case for Sheriff O'Donnell. The skinny? Solve the Kingsbury torso murders, a two-year reign of terror in downtown Cleveland and embarrass the no good republican shill, Eliott Ness. Their only clue, a dive bar where some of the victims drowned their sorrows and hung out with the mysterious "Frank".
After the regulars had their lips loosened with a few judicious drinks, it seemed that a mysterious "Hobo Doctor" could be connected to one of the victims, or at least, be the last to have seen them. They also found some less than flattering assessments of "Frank" aka Frank Dolezal - he had a "hair-trigger", he was "mad, crazy", he "could have done it!".
Feeling that all roads now pointed to Frank, they set out for his apartment on East 22nd Avenue, preferring the more brazen approach they went straight up and knocked on Frank's door, no answer, at least from this apartment. Ms. Edith M. answered from across the hall, Frank "smelt of drink", "he was up to no good", "kept strange hours".
Deciding to wait it out, the gang slunk back to "knuckles" car, with a few choice "dogs" to fill their stomachs. Later that afternoon, Frank stumbled into view. lurching down the pavement, still intoxicated from the night before, he made his way up the stairs to his lodgings. Johny spotted the opportunity for some much-needed excitement and filler for his next novel, he stealthily followed Frank inside, waiting until he had opened the door. "Hello there friend?", he inquired. "Whaaat"? What you sneaking about at!?", snarled Frank, drawing a long, shiny butcher's knife. Johny beat a quick retreat to his comrades... "I think this one is for you Mr Knuckles", he looked excitedly at Joel.
Keeper Thoughts:
I fully own up to not knowing what I was doing, lots of long pauses as I consulted the rules, the group are fairly experienced RPG players but they were very supportive and really embraced the investigative elements and slower pace than previous RPG sessions.
A lot of fun was had with the hard-boiled genre, especially the banter between Johny/Charles with Joel. I did my best to prep the group with handouts on the basic rules of Gumshoe and took the time to handhold them through investigative processes and general ability checks.
It was a nice gentle introduction to Gumshoe and this one-shot, with a peak of excitement as Johny encountered the mean, moody, and maleficent Frank.
There are some super resources on the Pelgrane Press site for running this, especially maps, see here and search for Cleveland. I also did quite a lot of research on Cleveland in the time period, pulling out some nice street maps, portraits, the geography of the Cuyahoga River, and revisiting my classical Greek stories!
We ran the one-shot in three 2 hour chunks, maybe could have ran it in two if we'd had a bit more experience with Gumshoe. We used Roll20 for maps, dice rolls and character sheets. With google sheets for tracking health, sanity, stability and as a clues reference.
...Here be spoilers...
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| Johny |
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| Charles |
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| "Knuckles" |
After the regulars had their lips loosened with a few judicious drinks, it seemed that a mysterious "Hobo Doctor" could be connected to one of the victims, or at least, be the last to have seen them. They also found some less than flattering assessments of "Frank" aka Frank Dolezal - he had a "hair-trigger", he was "mad, crazy", he "could have done it!".
Feeling that all roads now pointed to Frank, they set out for his apartment on East 22nd Avenue, preferring the more brazen approach they went straight up and knocked on Frank's door, no answer, at least from this apartment. Ms. Edith M. answered from across the hall, Frank "smelt of drink", "he was up to no good", "kept strange hours".
 |
| Proxy for East 22nd Avenue |
Deciding to wait it out, the gang slunk back to "knuckles" car, with a few choice "dogs" to fill their stomachs. Later that afternoon, Frank stumbled into view. lurching down the pavement, still intoxicated from the night before, he made his way up the stairs to his lodgings. Johny spotted the opportunity for some much-needed excitement and filler for his next novel, he stealthily followed Frank inside, waiting until he had opened the door. "Hello there friend?", he inquired. "Whaaat"? What you sneaking about at!?", snarled Frank, drawing a long, shiny butcher's knife. Johny beat a quick retreat to his comrades... "I think this one is for you Mr Knuckles", he looked excitedly at Joel.
Keeper Thoughts:
I fully own up to not knowing what I was doing, lots of long pauses as I consulted the rules, the group are fairly experienced RPG players but they were very supportive and really embraced the investigative elements and slower pace than previous RPG sessions.
A lot of fun was had with the hard-boiled genre, especially the banter between Johny/Charles with Joel. I did my best to prep the group with handouts on the basic rules of Gumshoe and took the time to handhold them through investigative processes and general ability checks.
It was a nice gentle introduction to Gumshoe and this one-shot, with a peak of excitement as Johny encountered the mean, moody, and maleficent Frank.
There are some super resources on the Pelgrane Press site for running this, especially maps, see here and search for Cleveland. I also did quite a lot of research on Cleveland in the time period, pulling out some nice street maps, portraits, the geography of the Cuyahoga River, and revisiting my classical Greek stories!
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