Watch Well Games #87
What is Merryshire Detective Club from Pelgrane Press? Play-Through Report #5 for Outgunned RPG and #2 for Vaesen Mythic Carpathia.
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Today:
Pelgrane Press’s new RPG Merryshire Detective Club quickly met its funding goal. What’s the fuss all about? Let’s find out together 🔎
Play-Through Report #5 for Outgunned RPG.
Play-Through Report #2 for Vaesen Mythic Carpathia.
✨Merryshire Detective Club from Pelgrane Press
At the time of writing this, I see over 450 folks on Backerkit have helped secure the base level of crowdfunding for Merryshire Detective Club by Pelgrane Press (award-winning TTRPG publisher and creator of the GUMSHOE investigative RPG system). With potential stretch goals now on the horizon, I decided to look further into this one as it sounds fun and different - two things I’m very much looking for with new acquisitions for my roleplaying game collection.
Pelgrane Press offers players and fans of investigative RPGs another in the same genre (with a few twists). Merryshire Detective Club will join the game company’s popular titles such as Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, The Yellow King RPG, TimeWatch, and Swords of the Serpentine.
The difference?
Cozy vibes. Like this village:
But what specifically got my attention was this quote from the preview:
“This isn’t a game about hard bitten vampire-hunting spies or nihilistic Lovecraftian investigators who’ve stared into one abyss too many. We’ve got quite enough of those, thank you.”
Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan designed Merryshire Detective Club, where players take on the roles of amateur sleuths in the peaceful location of Merryshire. The villages here are filled with relationships across the lush landscape. The PCs can chat up distrustful neighbors, humorously contentious relatives, or cousins who just happen to be sources of something that moves the plot forward.
The 225+ page core book will include everything needed to play, including the entire GUMSHOE system, various worldbuilding tools to help customize the game at your table, such as collaborative village creation tools, mystery design guidance, campaign resources. along with a few mystery adventures with pre-gens.
I’m liking the sound of all this so far.
MDC (let’s get to a first name basis or at least an abbreviation, shall we) focuses on players discovering clues to piece together as the adventure unfolds. No need to worry about dice rolls obscuring these necessary bits of information. PCs deduce and interpret the evidence and formulate theories, before naming suspects and proposing motives. This detective work in a fantasy realm filled with folklore oddness allows your gaming group a unique collaborative storytelling environment. Also, unlike some cozy investigative RPGs on the market, there is a pre-determined solution to the mystery. So no worries about dice rolls deciding the whodunnit details (something I'm personally not a fan of).
It’s refreshing to see something original here, as “tea, gossip, nosiness, and clever deduction matter far more than combat” in MDC.
During character creation, players work together to build out their village, filling out the map “with homes, landmarks, neighbors, rivalries, and local scandals.” Kins to select from currently appear to be halflings, dwarves, pooka, and boggarts. I appreciate the limited scope here personally, as it leaves plenty of breathing room for more gaming time (no more time-consuming analysis paralysis from too many options).
The 19-page preview on Backerkit doesn’t provide a short adventure, so I have no way yet of providing you all with the finer details on GM prep time, GM considerations for handling certain rules or adventures, specifics on how the game’s core loop plays out, or balance of play.
However, the material so far does seem to indicate that this is a traditional TTRPG where a GM will guide at least one player through at least one adventure (if not at least one campaign) using dice rolls when calling for skill rolls (a single d6 is all you need) or other standard RPG game mechanics (e.g. Sneaking along with unique skills like Common Sense). I’m under the impression that social intrigue, ample dialogue, and relationships will be the underpinning of many game sessions.
Further investigation of the ToC shows that there are many interesting components within the Merryshire realm and its characters (whether players or NPCs). There’s dark secrets, suspicious behavior, mischief, rumors, scuffling, an undertaker, a gambler, and probably most dangerous of all, a busybody.
All in all, I enjoyed the taste test from the preview of Merryshire Detective Club. It gives off vibes of cerebral-meets-playful-narrative, and I look forward to Pelgrane offering folks an introductory adventure to test-drive.
I’d like to know your thoughts. Is this something of interest to you? Do you plan to back it, or have you already? If I get access to an introductory adventure, would you like to see a play-through review?
Folks can follow the campaign to receive previews, updates, stretch goal reveals, and community events. Crowdfunding closes August 22, 2026, 2 PM Central US.
🎲Play-Through Report: Outgunned RPG Session 5 Summary
Catch up here with the previous reports, character creation cheat sheet I made, as well as homebrew material that expands on the Outgunned Old West section:
Starting Location: Buttercliff, Kansas - 1884
Ending Location: Buttercliff, Kansas (what remains of it) - 1884
NPCs met:
Grover Davis - sheriff of Buttercliff, Kansas
The townspeople of Buttercliff
Highlights:
The Heroes were treated to free room and board for the night, and an impromptu celebration was held in their honor for stopping the Red Rabble Gang from robbing the bank.
O.B. held numerous rounds of friendly arm-wrestling competitions, letting the children win (treating them to candies also). Flint arm-wrestled O.B. and allowed his friend to win, as it was all in good fun anyway. Pyotr also arm-wrestled O.B. After several minutes of struggling, the match ended in a draw.
Kenko declined multiple offers from dance partners and turned in for the night earlier than normal. One particular courter didn’t take a hint and had to be shown the door.
Lazarus strolled down to the town’s main road, stopping in the check in on the undertaker and doctor both. He then made his way to the church. Just as he stepped onto its porch, a tornado touched down at the other end of the road.
What will happen to Buttercliff, the fictional town the PCs are in? Scrambling to safety, Flint grabbed Diego and secured him before the tornado touched down. Pyotr protected a frightened child that had gotten separated from their parents. Kenko woke up and fled downstairs with her belongings. With lightning-fast reflexes, O.B. assisted Kenko to safety as a precaution.
As the tornado loomed overhead, Lazarus, empowered by his faith, walked back from the church to the hotel and dance hall. As he did, he retrieved a young lamb from a nearby field and carried it to safety.
In the aftermath, everyone began to assess the damage and checked for injuries - or worse. The group quickly discovered that Diego had been snatched away amidst the chaos. A man on a horse was already some distance away from the dance hall and began to flee with the adolescent.
During this game session, the PCs faced Dangerous Rolls (pg 80-81 of the Outgunned Cinematic Action Roleplaying book.) The levels of success are the same (Basic, Critical, Extreme, Impossible - but no Jackpot). Failing this kind of roll means that characters lose Grit, and losing all 12 Grit means facing the Death Roulette. There’s more to it, but that’s the basics for now. In short, the Heroes may be running the risk of being Left for Dead, a game mechanic I believe we’ll see play out in a future session!
🎲Play-Through Report: Vaesen Mythic Carpathia Session 2 Summary
Like other play-through reports, I have included footnotes to detail some rules, mechanics, or other bits about this RPG to help you learn. Enjoy!
New Organizations & NPCs
Constable Yuri Bursak
New Locations
The Prague police station
The city’s art district
Highlights
The group worked on base building as they got more access to other areas within the Powder Gate. They spent their 5 Development Points1 to gain the Annals, the Secret Library, and the Warehouse2. (It’s important for GMs to know that the PCs start with Library and Butler Albert Frisk; see page 87). The PCs noted these Upgrades on the Vaesen Headquarters Sheet, which looks like this:
Vaesen Headquarters Sheet Soon I will be sharing the free introductory adventure with maps for the Pravda Society’s Headquarters based on the real-life location known as the Powder Gate in Prague, so watch this space!
As a gift, Mr. Armin gave the PCs full access to all the rare books within the Secret Library. He suggested they read these soon (player-characters can’t really read anything, and I think someone smarter than me should create supplements that allow for a more immersive experience).
Some custom GMing/homebrewing: To change things up from players always rolling, I allowed the PCs to each gain access to one additional rare book of their choice. This meant that I would allow at any one time during a mission the PCs could consume their books and freely gain knowledge about a vaesen, person, or location (GM’s discretion on what subject). I asked players to mark this on their inventory. Once they used it, it went away for the remainder of that mystery. I also ruled that this consumable rare book would reset at the start of the next mystery (Mythic Carpathia has three adventures, so this felt like a fair ruling).
As a quick side note, I enjoy homebrewing consumables for players to utilize. I find this alleviates any potential frustration from failing rolls too much or taking a condition in order to push a roll.
Have you ever made a consumable like this in a game you’ve GM’d? I’d like to know:
The group checked on Miss Sofia Orvo, who has now taken on the life of an artisan. All of her paintings were amazing, as her paintings were flawless and breathtaking. Some players asked to roll to see if some dark force was behind all of Sofia’s instant brilliance. Since they failed their Observation and Investigation skill tests3, they have no idea.
Dorofei went to the police station to speak with Sergeant Luka Mizinski. Unfortunately, the officer seemed troubled by the visit, and the conversation took a negative turn before abruptly ending. This sudden change in attitude was quite frustrating to the faith healer. On his way out, however, he met the very friendly and helpful Constable Yuri Bursak.
After their half day out in Prague, the PCs crossed paths (rather serendipitously, it seemed) with Mr. Armin at a cafe and quickly learned that a important letter arrived at HQ. A certain Knez Vlad requested the Pravda Society’s assistance.
Vaječný trh v Praze (The Egg Market in Prague). Luděk Marold, 1888.
New here? I wrote part 1 of my Vaesen Mythic Carpathia review here:
Stay tuned for Part 2 and a free introductory adventure with maps.
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Development Points are earned by answering the eight questions from page 87 in the Vaesen core rulebook. These Points are used to purchase Upgrades for the Society’s HQ. Notes: Upgrades can generate the risk of an unexpected threat arising some time during or after the adventure (even immediately after the upgrading of HQ); learn more about this on pages 87-88 of the core rulebook. Unspent points can be saved for further use.
Be aware that Upgrades are in the expansion books, not just the Vaesen core rulebook. Otherwise, your players may miss out on some bespoke customizations that could benefit them or simply make the game more enjoyable.
In Vaesen, rolling against a Skill is called a skill test. These are made using a pool of six-sided dice. Usually one success (a six on the die result) is all that’s needed, unless stated otherwise. Observation is a Skill under the Empathy Attribute, while Investigation is the Skill under the Logic Attribute. The PCs used Investigation to look about the room while talking to Sofia, while they used Observation to better understand what she was thinking of feeling.