[Other][Online][EST] Case-Books of the Whitechapel Detective Agency - A game of Troubleshooters that is based on late 18th century and early 20th century detective fiction (Bi-Weekly Fridays at 6pm EST to 9pm EST)

^(“I am a brain, Watson. The rest of me is a mere appendix.”)

^(—Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone)

The Premise

Somewhere seated within the poverty stricken ghettos of Whitechapel where Jack the Ripper had committed his murders and where the poor immigrants thrive is a detective agency. The fairly basically named “Whitechapel Detective Agency”. While not fondly looked upon by the police due to being what can best be described as “Well Dressed Vigilantes” the Whitechapel Detective Agency has been operating for a few years now. Their goal is to solve the crimes that London’s Finest seem to be unable to deal with. Most of their work comes down to helping the poor of London but they have been known to nose around any crime that pops up. World War 1 has come to an end and the world has come to a fairly uneasy peace as much of the soldiers have come home to roost. In this time of uneasy peace it seems that the Whitechapel Detective Agency has some slight problems as a lot of crimes have been popping up. Jewels have been disappearing, people have been dropping like flies, and other such issues have been coming up as it’s clear there is a conspiracy afoot…

As of January the 20th you have been brought to the birthday of their good friend Sir Miles Sainburry who is starting to reach his 50s. However something is off as during the party a gun goes off in the back as Sainburry’s wife is found shot dead in the pool with Sainburry’s hunting rifle nearby. With a mystery afoot they must find out which rich bastard ruined your friends life.

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What is this?

So... Where to start with Case-Books? Lets start with the system. Troubleshooters has been a game that I have had a very VERY hard time selling to people. People like their edgy grimdark games nowadays so it’s always been hard to sell something more classical as “60s cold war era pulp adventures a la Tintin or 007” So I’ve been trying to think of a way to really play it since it never causes anyone to bite. Usually due to how problematic they or the worries of “historical accuracy” or just that old school “large then life problem solving, bad guy punching adventurer” not having much of a sway in the world as it did nowadays if it isn’t DnD or a superheroes game. Which is why I have been trying to figure out how to really run and sell Troubleshooters since it’s one of my favorites.

This attempt to run Troubleshooters is to roll back the clock to focus on a different type of “retro romantic eurocentric adventure fluff” by focusing on the Murder Mysteries and Sleuth Fiction of the 1800s-1940s, the stuff that Noir would take its cues from. The works of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle but also other more odder works. More specifically this game is inspired by more “tongue in cheek” and slapstick works like Pink Panther, Ace Attorney, and Clue the Movie. The PCs are detectives but in a strange hyperreality that can fall into slapstick and farcical situations. This game is “serious” in the same way a Turnabout from Ace Attorney is “serious”. Murders happen, valuables are stolen, and bad things occur… But there is also sillies like having a NPC named “Sir Winslow Doe Paynesworth” or having villains who are overly campy. This game is serious but with its camp and presentation it should be a wee goofy in its tone. It’s no Naked Gun by any means but it sure is closer to Peter Seller’s Pink Panther movies, the Clue movie or Ace Attorney in that there are silly moments but the PCs are taking everything at face value. But it’s also a little moody too! After all this is a London lit by gaslight and choked in fog.

The setting of this game is deeply anachronistic. It’s set around the late 1910s and early 1920s but the aesthetics and vibes are a lot more Victorian. The world also has a lot of liberties taken in that Weird Science, via how the system works, exists. After all you just need high amounts of Science and Engineering along with the Mad Inventor ability and already you can create strange but wondrous machines of science. This is “Ye Olde Britain” that is seen in old penny dreadful, H.G. Wells novels, and other things of the like. While I am iffy on Monsters like Dracula or Frankenstien’s Monster existing there are still strange steampunk machines that are rare and seen as newly created wonders. London itself is a city that is choked in smog, lit by gaslight, and new fangled cars run down the streets with horses. But London isn’t the only place the PCs may go to. After all Troubleshooters is a globetrotting game so our investigators could travel to the Swiss Alps, the “dying west” of America or a post-reform Japan.

My aim for this game is to do sorta a “Mystery of the Week” style campaign. Each session is a new mystery that the PCs have to solve. Mysteries are agreed upon due to the lovely session 0 activity called “Episode Planning” as we will get to create elevator pitches for some of the adventures we want with me staking out the First, Middle, and Last ones to create an overarching story that the PCs can fill in. Luckily investigations aren’t set in stone as we can do downtime sessions where there is no real mission and the PCs can hang out around the city or reflect on things. Due to this being a mystery and investigation focused game all I have to say is that you don’t need to be smart or intelligent to solve it as I will be taking some queues from Brindlewood and old Point and Clicks by letting PCs not only interpret the PCs in any way they want but they aren’t necessarily wrong about their theories… If they “fail” its more like there is a hole and a complication comes to bare instead of “Uh oh you failed”. The murderer is who they thought it were but either there is a motivation they missed or another accomplice to add a twist into things. After all this isn’t a puzzle, more building a story based on what the gm gives.

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Now you may be says "Woah hey didn't I see this ad before?" and I'd say "yes, yes you did". I tried to recruit and sadly only got 5 requests and I wanna make sure to milk as much as I can before I close the form tomorrow. So please sign up and don't be scared!

The Important Stuff

1. This is a Troubleshooters game. Not any other game
2. This game runs Bi-Weekly on Saturdays at 6pm EST. So Session 0 is on Saturday, February 3, 6PM EST and Session 1 is on Saturday, February 17 6PM EST.
3. This is a Voice Game. We are playing over voice on Discord and we will be using Roll20 for sheets and dice rolling.
4. New players are welcome!!

To get in please fill the form out! Form will close around January 21 at 12pm EST and I need 6 pcs so many may enter but few will win!

https://forms.gle/iuLaiejnVuZhuTxc6

Also if the link doesn't work then please shoot me a DM because a few people had problems with it.