Heya,

Took me a while to get the time to write this up.  Life is really busy at the moment.  Anyway, I got a chance to give my Game Chef entry another playtest.  It went great.

Players: Dave, Mike, Rob (same as before).
Rank of Villain: 2
Time Elapsed: 2hr 5min

I handed out the character sheets from last time and went over the rule changes.  It took a little while for everyone to get on the same page.  Not surprising since this is a new game and no one is really ready for it.

I started the Initial Encounter with a young lady named Bailey who had her fiancé kidnapped.  Fairly typical story, IMO.  The PCs ask a few questions and learned that he was a stock clerk.  He kept track of shipping manifests for one of the companies in London.  They assure her that they will catch the kidnappers and begin the case.

They go to one of the warehouses near the London Docks.  They search on the warehouses owned by the company the fiancé worked for.  Inside, someone makes an Investigation roll and they find him murdered (whoa guys! sweet).  They discover some footprints in blood that lead outside and the fiancé’s boots are covered in red mud.  Dave uses his “Medical Knowledge” Ability to make a check.  He rolls a 2, 3, 6 and 8.  It’s a tie, so he loses a Case Point.  Anyway, he learns that the fiancé (Tim) was stabbed to death several times with a serrated blade, and a very exotic one at that.  They send a message to Scotland Yard to come and pick up the body.  Then they decide to split up.

Dave goes to talk to the fiancé’s employer.  At this point we name the fiancé Tim.  Dave decides that according to the manager at the shipping company, Tim has been a lazy worker far more interested in talking about horse races and cockfights.  He also says that Tim and the uncle whom Bailey lived with didn't get along. (apparently now her parents had been dead for some time.  I love how these guys just add in stuff like this).

Mike goes to see his sister.  Remember, she works that the brothel.  I as the GM get to make up this clue.  I tell Mike that Tim used to be a regular customer, but stopped coming about a month ago.  Mike decides he'd been engaged to Bailey for six months, so his sudden aversion to "working ladies" was weird.

Rob goes to the taxi service.  The fiancé was snatched out of a cab on his way to the church.  He spends a Case Point and finds a playing card under one of the seats.  He then passes back to Dave. 

Dave decides to go visit the uncle.  Dave tells me his name is Chester.  He finds the house in a middle class district of London.  The man invites Dave in, but is wary.  Dave uses his “Talk to People” Ability and rolls more successes than failures.  Bonus Case Point.  He finds out that Chester didn’t like the fiancé because the young man had a gambling problem.  Dave spends his new point to add that Bailey received a large sum of money when her parents died and the uncle was afraid Tim would squander it all.  Dave decides that’s enough for now and returns to 221b Baker Street.

Meanwhile, Mike goes to St Paul’s to talk to the priest who would have performed the marriage ceremony.  Mike spends a point to have the priest tell him that he noticed a very suspicious and nervous looking man leave the sanctuary just before the wedding was supposed to begin.  He got a good look at him, so the priest gives Mike a description.  Mike then goes back to 221b Baker Street.

Rob doesn’t know much about cards or gambling, so he visits his Ally: Willy “Two-toes”.  He asks if he had ever seen Tim at one of the illegal gambling establishments in town.  Willy, being a shady character, knows all about gambling.  He tells Rob that Tim has been seen many times at an underground casino on Carren Street.  Rob decides the name of the place is Puggly’s.  We laugh for a bit.  Then he returns home to 221b.

Once they all return home, the maid serves them tea and they discuss their plans.  It’s pretty obvious that Tim had a gambling problem and his murder may be tied to that.  The guys don’t trust the uncle 100%, so they want to look into him some more.  They agree to split up again.  Dave will go by himself, while Mike and Rob go to Puggly’s.

Dave decides to go to Scotland Yard to check out the Police Report on Tim’s death.  These are clues the GM makes up so I tell Dave that Tim was indeed stabbed with a serrated blade, an obsidian dagger in fact.  He also put up a pretty good fight.  His left hand was very bruised, as if he had punched someone many times.  Lastly, his feet had been chained and shackled.  There was a lot of bruising around the ankles.  Dave needs to think for a bit, so he passes on to Mike and Rob.

Mike and Rob end up at Puggly’s.  They’re let in because Mike spends a Case Point to say he knows the guy at the front door.  They go inside and look around while pretending to gamble.  Rob rolls and Investigation check and gets all successes.  He notices a guy at a bar whose face it pretty roughed up, especially on the right side.  As if someone who was left handed had punched him a bunch of times.  Mike notices another man with him who has a bizarre looking dagger strapped to his belt.  They decide to go outside and wait for the two to leave.

Meanwhile Dave goes to visit one of the friendly knife shops in town that deals in Indian antiques.  He asks about obsidian knives and finds out that they are pretty rare (I make him spend a point).  He also learns that the shopkeeper sold such a knife two months ago to a man named Henry James and gives Dave a description(requires an Investigation roll, which he makes).  He decides to go meet the others at Puggly’s.

When he arrives, the other two are hiding.  They whistle for him and they all wait in a dark alley near the casino.  When the two hoodlums come out, the Detectives follow.  Dave makes another Investigation roll to tell me that one is the Henry James the shopkeeper described.  Mike spends a point and says the other is the man from the church.  They follow them to an old ramshackle house in the nastier part of town.
After they go in, the guys decide to sneak in and apprehend the two.  Dave will go in the front, and Mike and Rob will go in through two 1st story broken out windows.  I say that this house is old and dangerous.  I spend some of my points to make it a –1 Hazard.  I then say that they all have to make a Negotiate Hazard roll to get in.  They all do that without getting wounded or worse.  Rob says he hears voices up stairs, so they decide to go up.  I ask for another Negotiate Hazard roll to make sure they stay quiet.  Rob gets wounded, Mike rolls all failures and gets mutilation. He says he falls and knocks out a tooth.  Dave also rolls fine, gains another Case Point and makes it up the stairs first.  I say the two villains were out in the hall and spot Dave.  Roll for initiative!

Dave: 5
Mike: 6
Rob: 2
Bad Guy1: 7
Bad Guy2: 4

The Bad Guy #1 goes first and tackles Dave.  Mike jumps upstairs, and rolls a Subdue Foe Ability Check and wounds himself (again) but does manage to take down the guy who jumped on Dave.  It’s Dave’s turn and he spends a point and says he sees the other guy draw his knife, a long obsidian knife, so Dave draws his and lunges at him.  He rolls all successes and chooses Knife Fights as his new Passion.  He wounds the NPC.

Bad Guy 2’s turn.  He swipes at Dave, and wound both Dave and himself in the process (more failure rolls than successes).  Dave marks down his wound.  Rob, overreacting as he sometimes does, pulls out his pistol and says, “I shoot to kill!”  He rolls, but gets a 1 on one of his dice.  With the Hazard making things a –1 and then adding in his –1 from his wound.  It’s a loss.  Heh.  I say the gun flips out of his hand and the bullet goes wide.  Everybody roll initiative again.

Dave: 3
Mike: 7
Rob: 4
Bad Guy1: 1
Bad Guy2: 8

Bad Guy 2 goes again, and stabs Dave for a 3rd wound.  Mike makes another Subdue Foe roll and ties up Bad Guy #1 with a bit of rope he always carries around (that makes sense now).  Rob tries to get up the stairs to help.  He bum rushes the guy with the knife, and makes his Subdue Foe roll.  It’s a tie, so he’d normally lose a point.   But since he’s out, there’s no real consequence.  Dave gets a cloth full of ether from his medical kit and makes a Medical Knowledge roll and knocks the guy out. 

Mike spends his last Case point to find that both guys have boots covered in the same kind of mud that Tim the fiancé had.  Rob makes an Investigation roll to find a letter from Puggly telling these guys that Tim had actually fallen in love with Bailey and was now refusing to use her inheritance to pay off his debts.  The note also says for them to “use whatever methods you have to” to get him to change his mind.

They go over their evidence to see if they have enough.  They need 6 pieces.

1. The priest saw one of them at the church leave. (Identity)
2. The muddy boots. (Identity)
3. The wound made on Tim’s corpse. (Means)
4. The note from Puggly (Motive)
5. The knife on the belt of Henry James (Means)
6. The other guy’s busted up face (Identity)

They have enough, so they take the two guys down to Scotland Yard.  A few days later a thankful yet sorrowful Bailey shows up at 221b.  She thanks them for their work and pays them the fee.  The guys head off to Ignacio’s and buy a few artifacts to help them on the next case.  This is actually a lot of fun.   The Case closes just a few minutes after the 2 hour time limit.  And those last few minutes were just spent buying stuff at Ignacio’s.  Good game.

Reflection:

Making some of the changes from the first playtest and what Graham Walmsey said about the game made a huge difference.  This playtest actually took place about a week ago, but I took good notes on what went well.  Streamlining how GMs earn points, character creation, and adding in a few more mutilations made a big difference.  I love how simple the resolution and wound systems are.  I also learned that it doesn’t matter if they spend a point/roll first in order to get to narrate or narrate then roll/spend a point.  Sometimes it’s not cool to interrupt the flow of the story to take care of mechanical stuff.  In the end, the climax was satisfying for everybody, and the danger level was just what I wanted.  Without any fudging or finagling from me, the game went perfectly.  I really do think I’ve captured what is fun about InSpectres and added my own flair and Sherlock’s flavor into the mix.  I couldn’t be happier with this game.

Peace,

-Troy

BTW: you can dowload a copy of the game here: http://divine-games.org/holmswat10.pdf