Narrating General Ability Spends

Although the rules don’t call for it, some GUMSHOE groups add a narrative wrinkle to the spending of pool points from general abilities. They call on players to justify why they’re spending the number of points they’ve chosen to add to their die rolls.

“I really want to get over this fence so I’m going to give it all I’ve got.”

“Tivonge has waited three missions to use his fake beard and he’s not going to blow it now. So that’s a four point Disguise spend.”

“Tays is pretty sure that those fungal knobs aren’t toxic, and there’s lots of driving ahead, so she’s only gonna spend 2 points of Ground Craft on her swerve to avoid them.”

Adding a spot of internal monologue to this otherwise mechanical event keeps the focus on characterization. It will work at your table and particularly shines in actual play. You can hear it used to brilliant effect in The Nature of My Game podcast’s ongoing Yellow King series.

One caveat, though. As a player, be careful not to let this device talk you out of the high spend that you would otherwise make in a tough situation. You’re not likely to run into this with physical abilities like Athletics or First Aid. However, with mental or emotional resistances like Composure, Stability, or Sense Trouble, you may unconsciously find yourself inverting your decision by asking how prepared your character is to deal with the awfulness at hand, and choosing your spend accordingly.

“This isn’t Pan-gon’s first go-round with blood dogs, so I’ll spend 6 Stability.”

“An eerie organ playing in the distance? Pshaw! Edwina spends 4 Composure.”

“The grisliest murder scene in the history of Seoul? Pan-gon can’t handle that. 1 point.”

“I’m suddenly in a party in Carcosa and the king has arrived? Should I spend anything for something so colossal?”

The horrible lure of this is that it makes sense on surface story logic terms but runs counter to what the rules balance expects players to do.

Spending low in bad situations and high when you meet trouble that doesn’t faze you is of course an express ticket to having the character leave play.

As you would without the in-character justification, spend high when you really need a boost and skimp when dealing with less mind-bending monstrosities.

Having decided as a player to protect your character, work backwards to the verbal justification.

“This alien landscape has every molecule in Edwina’s body on high alert. I spend 6 points to look the King in the Yellow in his skull-like face.”

“Faced with the sight of the non-Euclidean ruins and the upending of the geographical timeline Lester knows, his mind shuts itself down, refusing to correlate the contents. I spend 4 p0ints.”

“Pan-gon needs every shred of denial he can muster to prevent this murder scene from forever haunting his dreams. 5 points.”

Your characters will not only enjoy the chance to reveal their thoughts, but thank you for keeping them intact.

GUMSHOE is the groundbreaking investigative roleplaying system by Robin D. Laws that shifts the focus of play away from finding clues (or worse, not finding them), and toward interpreting clues, solving mysteries and moving the action forward. GUMSHOE powers many Pelgrane Press games, including The Yellow King Roleplaying Game, Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, Esoterrorists, Ashen Stars, and Mutant City Blues. Learn more about how to run GUMSHOE games, and download the GUMSHOE System Reference Document to make your own GUMSHOE products under the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported License.