Brindlewood Bay came out today in The Gauntlet’s $6+ Patreon feed.
If you get a chance to read or play it and have some thoughts to share about the design, please do so here!
Brindlewood Bay Discussion
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This is such a great design! @jasoncordova, @Bryan_Lotz, may I add the keeper to the Play Aids folder?
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Yes, please do so. Thanks, Gerrit
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I am reading the game, definitelly I will run it at some time soon-ish.
I really like how it bridges between PbtA mechanics and the game session skeleton of a FitD game. Also, I like that some of your ideas that I have heard in the podcasts are finally printed in a book that I can point to (CATS, Paint the Scene, etc.).
I think that could be interesting to develop the idea of how to convert CoC, ToC adventures into BB scenarios.
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If you play it, let me know how it goes! I’m particularly glad you picked up on the techniques baked into it.
Finished reading it yesterday. It was great. I really like the tone and the vibe of the game. I will try to play it !
I really like how some mechanics are handled (Putting the crown and “rewinding” after a death scene).
I plan to write a blog post about it (in french cause my blog is in french).
A question : is there a reason for the Maven Moves to include only “male TV characters” ?
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Oh great! Let me know how it goes if you play it.
It was definitely intentional to only include male characters on the Maven Moves. The reason was mostly me being cheeky. The game very much centers the experience of playing an elderly woman, and spends a lot of time exploring the idea of these characters as women. I liked the idea of the big, macho detective man being subordinated to the role of a move on the character sheet.
All that said, I’m thinking there may be room for an expansion down the road that has Maven Moves with different themes. We’ll see…
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I’m about to run my first session, and wondering if there’s a reason it’s important for all the mavens to be widows? It seems like living exes would make for fun and interesting characters and fit the genre and tone well.
They don’t have to be, but one of the game’s major themes is that these women essentially started new lives in Brindlewood Bay. I think so long as that still comes through, you’re good.
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I’ve run 5 sessions of Brindlewood Bay so far, and everyone is having a great time! The GBBBO mystery in particular has been a hit. One problem I’ve been having is coming up with good complications for 7-9 on a Meddling Move. My Mavens are often investigating by questioning people for information, or occasionally rummaging through rooms, and I have trouble coming up with a way to give them a “clue with a complication”. Does anyone have any good ideas?
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Great question! When in doubt, Conditions. Have an NPC do or say something frustrating/insulting and then give the Maven a Condition based on it. Have the Maven bump her head while she’s poking around somewhere and then give her a “bumped noggin” Condition (or similar). For something a little more dangerous, have the lights go out and a shadowy figure threatens her in the darkness (although that might be better for a miss).
Glad you’re enjoying the game!
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I wasn’t clear on the widowed nature of the Mavens till we got underway but beyond the ‘new life in Brindlewood Bay’ setup, I think I like it thematically - a link to death and the world beyond. Plus it lets you seed possible links to the Dark Conspiracy in those significant life events (My crime writer husband accidentally overdosed on his medication whilst researching a book in the area… or did he).
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We had something like that happen two sessions ago in the online game I’m running right now: one of the Maven’s dead husband was hinted at in a Void Clue. It was a cool moment and will be very interesting if he turns out to be connected to the conspiracy in some way.
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I was jsut wondering…
…is there a chance anyone planning to run “Brindlewood Bay” at another time than 2am BST at some point?
I’d love to try it but the time zones are being mean to me when checking for opportunities on Hangout or Community Days. 
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I know that feeling Kalum! I leapt when I had the chance 
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Ah, thanks! I always forget about Conditions.
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I give out Conditions pretty liberally (even just during a vexing or emotional moment during which no roll took place) because it’s part of the gameplay loop that includes the Cozy Move
That makes a lot of sense. We actually haven’t had any Cozy Moves, and that’s probably why. Is the core gameplay loop written in the rules somewhere? I always find that helpful to have.
Also, for anyone interested in seeing how I run the game, I’m currently running a campaign online. The first two videos are linked below:
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Hello! I’m planning to run Brindlewood Bay with a group of players as an alternative to our normal D&D 5E sessions. They’re all very excited about creating their characters and playing something with much more roleplaying.
As I was reviewing the gameplay materials and prepping for our first session, I had a question about the Crown moves. Is there a limit on how many times the Crown moves can be used? With the Crown of the Void, the last use leads to the character’s “retirement,” so obviously there’s a built-in cap. But what about the Crown of the Queen move? Does the Crown of the Queen reset at the start of every session or every mystery?
Also, is there a limit on the number of items in a character’s “Cozy Little Place”? It seems like there could be a big disparity there if one player thinks of 20 plausible items and another only thinks of 5.
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