Just read people talking about it on the boards.

So it's... GUMSHOE and Kenneth Hite. Got it. What else? What is it about? Is it a full game, etc.? Can't search on Google right now.

Quoted from Pelgrane's site:

The Cold War is over. Bush's War is winding down.

You were a shadowy soldier in those fights, trained to move through the secret world: deniable and deadly.

Then you got out, or you got shut out, or you got burned out. You didn't come in from the cold. Instead, you found your own entrances into Europe's clandestine networks of power and crime. You did a few ops, and you asked even fewer questions. Who gave you that job in Prague? Who paid for your silence in that Swiss account? You told yourself it didn't matter.

It turned out to matter a lot. Because it turned out you were working for vampires.

Vampires exist. What can they do? Who do they own? Where is safe? You don't know those answers yet. So you'd better start asking questions. You have to trace the bloodsuckers' operations, penetrate their networks, follow their trail, and target their weak points. Because if you don't hunt them, they will hunt you. And they will kill you.

Or worse.

Night's Black Agents brings the GUMSHOE engine to the spy thriller genre, combining the propulsive paranoia of movies like Ronin and The Bourne Identity with supernatural horror straight out of Bram Stoker. Investigation is crucial, but it never slows down the action, which explodes with expanded options for bone-crunching combat, high-tech tradecraft, and adrenaline-fueled chases.

Updating classic Gothic terrors for the postmodern age, Night's Black Agents presents thoroughly modular monstrosity: GMs can build their own vampires, mashup their own minions, kitbash their own conspiracies to suit their personal sense of style and story. Rules options let you set the level of betrayal, grit, and action in your game. Riff from the worked examples or mix and match vampiric abilities, agendas, and assets for a completely custom sanguinary spy saga.

The included hook adventure gets the campaign going; the included city setting shows you what might be clotting in Marseilles' veins even now. Rack silver bullets in your Glock, twist a UV bulb into your Maglite, and keep watching the mirrors ... and pray you've got your vampire stories straight.

Most importantly

1) Guidelines for more interesting chases/fights are supposed to be there

2) Also guidelines how to construct a vampire mechanically in GUMSHOE.

Setting is interesting as well, IMO - much better then the Esoterrorists.

And, well, it's Kenneth Hite - the guy who took Pretentiousness out from GUMSHOE, and instead focused on, well, awesome products .

Seriously, Esoterrorists is almost borderline "Role, not Roll" stuff in it's writing.

See, that's the thing, not being a GUMSHOE convert (never read it or played it), the above blurb does absolutely nothing for me.  I get the whole espionage-vampire-conspiracy mashup and could be on board for that, but because I've no GUMSHOE time under my belt, my kneejerk reaction is "why do I need a whole game for that".  But that's also kind of my standard response lately.

I presume many GUMSHOE-folk are psyched because this will expand the system they already love and will be doing Trail/Agents mashups before long.

Quote from: VectorSigma;508803See, that's the thing, not being a GUMSHOE convert (never read it or played it), the above blurb does absolutely nothing for me.  I get the whole espionage-vampire-conspiracy mashup and could be on board for that, but because I've no GUMSHOE time under my belt, my kneejerk reaction is "why do I need a whole game for that".  But that's also kind of my standard response lately.

I presume many GUMSHOE-folk are psyched because this will expand the system they already love and will be doing Trail/Agents mashups before long.

Well, I have my own Chase/Fight rules already, which work more then well for me. I guess the rest is just a new setting .

And guidelines on rules regarding PCs of races different then human are always welcome.

I'd suggest giving GUMSHOE a try - it's no perfect thing, the problem it claims to solve never was really a problem, but it's still a good mechanic.

From what I heard, the major changes to GUMSHOE will be  about Combat & Chase mechanics (which Gumshoe really handled badly - outright sucked at it).

Is it a complete game or a supplement?

Complete game.

Ken Hite's pitch went something like... "you remember Ronin? All those shadowy figures behind all the action, that never actually appear on the film; the ones calling the missions, contracting the hits... yeah. Vampires."

The game supposedly includes a build-your-own-vampires system that's comprehensive enough that "vampires" can mean anything from the usual Hammer Horror fare, to sparkly emos, to tentacle-ringed eldricht abominations that feed on raw human emotion.

Sold, gentlemen.

I guess that makes three rpg products I'm buying this year.

Quote from: misterguignol;508810Sold, gentlemen.

I guess that makes three rpg products I'm buying this year.

Admittedly, GUMSHOE has two problems (if you are new to it):

1) It's design may be used for railroading, if handled poorly - but that's potential for many systems. They try to give some advice how to avoid railroading.

2) The spends system, which, when it comes to Investigative Abilities, relies on a bit narration - based mechanic, and is a bit metagaming. However, there is a method detailed in GUMSHOE's articles, suggesting that GM handles all spends, depending on just players' declarations. I myself use half - half - let the players do spends, but sometimes mark off the points myself, if they are doing something that's clearly a spend, but they aren't declaring one.

Quote from: Rincewind1;508813Admittedly, GUMSHOE has two problems (if you are new to it):

1) It's design may be used for railroading, if handled poorly - but that's potential for many systems. They try to give some advice how to avoid railroading.

2) The spends system, which, when it comes to Investigative Abilities, relies on a bit narration - based mechanic, and is a bit metagaming. However, there is a method detailed in GUMSHOE's articles, suggesting that GM handles all spends, depending on just players' declarations. I myself use half - half - let the players do spends, but sometimes mark off the points myself, if they are doing something that's clearly a spend, but they aren't declaring one.

Good things to be aware of, thanks!  I'll probably just end up mining it for ideas, to be honest!

Quote from: misterguignol;508814Good things to be aware of, thanks!  I'll probably just end up mining it for ideas, to be honest!

Np - just being honest about system's cons. I had found quite many pros to an investigation - focused mechanic in my games. I guess I just prefer house - ruled ToC over to CoC, because I like a bit of hardcoded narration - based mechanic from time to time in my games, and ToC's relatively not as invasive as some other games.

And yes - if you want to get a feel of really good GUMSHOE game, give ToC a try. Always a good idea mine for CoC, if nothing else. Especially liked the chapter where they detailed the most common interpretations/rumours/ideas for each Mythos Entity, so you can do a really interesting Pick & Mix for your Mythos.

As I said - I tried the system, and fell in love with it. I'd not recommend it for a newbie GM, as it may give a bit mistaken perception about railroading and such, but if you have a handle about investigative play already - it's good transition. At least it was for me. Powerful tool, but make sure you can use it right, so to speak.

Man, I just did a search for Night's Black Agents on Amazon...they really should have gone with a different name 'cause there are a bunch of books with that title already.

Quote from: misterguignol;508817Man, I just did a search for Night's Black Agents on Amazon...they really should have gone with a different name 'cause there are a bunch of books with that title already.

Might be a reference to this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night's_Black_Agents

Or, well, Macbeth's chapter that this one references .

Quote from: Rincewind1;508818Might be a reference to this one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night's_Black_Agents

Or, well, Macbeth's chapter that this one references .

Heh, I got the Macbeth reference straight away!