Pelgrane's Robin Laws: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Gumshoes

Veteran TTRPG author and Gumshoe inventor Robin Laws hopes to use his latest role to inspire and train new game developers and writers to create the next generation of TTRPGs for Pelgrane Press.

Robin Laws is an iconic name for fans of Pelgrane Press, the UK-based TTRPG publisher best known for 13th Age. Laws has been writing for the company for several decades, even creating the Gumshoe system (which is Pelgrane’s bread and butter) several years ago and translating it into new games year after year. Yet, Laws has remained a freelancer for Pelgrane throughout the game’s run, avoiding any role within the company. That hesitancy changed last week when Pelgrane announced that Laws was the new Creative Director of Pelgrane Press.

When asked why he went from freelancer to full-time staff, Laws said that stability convinced him to accept the position with the publisher.

“I've resisted going on staff with companies going back many, many years,” Laws told TTRPG Insider. “As a freelancer, I've always preferred to keep my eggs in different baskets. But over the years, Pelgrane is undoubtedly the company that I have had the most significant impact on. I was the first writer [Pelgrane founder] Simon Rogers ever hired, after all.”

The 60-year-old Laws has been in this industry for a while and is looking for an opportunity to retire. “I’ve worked hard at this job for many, many years. But the question eventually comes around where we ask ‘What happens to Pelgrane when we all go off to sit on our porches and drink lemonade?’” The answer, Laws argued, is to find a new generation of writers. That goal also influenced his decision to become creative director, which will allow him to form those writers and show them how to work within Pelgrane’s particular structure and hopefully find those who will continue the company’s work after Law, Rogers, and the others at the company have to step back after retirement.

Laws’s new role at the company doesn’t mean he is done writing. He hopes to help move things that have sat on Pelgrane’s shelves into production so they can reach fans sooner. He also hopes to break the company’s year-long cycle of only releasing games around the summer and then going quiet the rest of the year so that more games can come out sooner.

Laws’ Legacy

Laws has been involved in game design since the 1990s, when he first helped to publish Over the Edge in 1992. His fingerprints have been all over the gaming industry since then, including writing source material for GURPs, Vampire: The Dark Ages and even the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons. However, Gumshoe is the system that I believe has been most integral to Laws’ work over the years. Created for the SCP-esque Esoterrorists in 2007, Gumshoe is a system designed to help empower investigative RP. Now, it’s the core system used in Pelgrane games like Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, and Fear Itself.

Gumshoe differentiates itself from other investigative systems by offering a wide range of investigative role-play tools that allow storytellers to adapt wherever players wish to go when seeking insights on whatever mystery stands before them.

“It is never interesting to fail to get information,” Laws noted, pointing out how it’s not fun to not provide a player with information just because a player failed a roll (and likely slowed down gameplay. Gumshoe instead tries to find an assortment of methods for delivering information by expanding the viable skill checks available to players. “Police cases are about sifting through massive quantities of clues until they find the ones that matter,” Laws added. “And so [Gumshoe] is the fun, stripped down version.”

According to Laws, the system also requires a different approach to storytelling. “People are used to thinking that the essential thing about a mystery is to keep information away from the characters. A successful mystery's core is finding ways to give information.” Whether it is a hidden clue or a suspect who won’t talk, it’s essential to provide several ways to make that source of information reveal itself, Laws argued. “It is all about structuring a scenario so that they are packages of information that the players slowly collect throughout the scenario,” Laws concluded.

Pelgrane’s Future

Where is Pelgrane going next? The company recently funded the Second Edition of Trail of Cthulhu, its particular take on the Lovecraftian genre. The company also successfully funded Fear Itself—Shattered Veil, which provided a new version of the horror-focused TTRPG built around Gumshoe. However, Laws's most exciting project was Page Turners. This one-player-one-GM game model allows players to explore several settings in smaller yet more personal experiences. Pelgrane is no stranger to this model, but it is one that Pelgrane how to create more content for in the future; especially now that they have Gumshoe One-to-One as its own system.

When asked what he was most excited about with this new role, Laws emphasized his role in organizing and orchestrating the company’s future projects.

“[My favorite part of my job is] about taking all of the disparate creative parts required for a new game,” Laws said, “and ensuring that they all work together. So it's about working with a whole bunch of creative people and inspiring them to work together, be happy doing it but not overworking themselves.”

Thanks to Robin Laws for sitting down to chat with us! You can learn more about Pelgrane Press on their website.

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