Saturday Morning Mysteries

.

So my playtest this morning fell victim to scheduling issues, but I'm pretty excited by how this is shaping up. The first draft was inspired by a combination of Roseville Beach, My Chivalric Bromance, my own twist on 24XX, and Lumen. I love all those systems (I wrote two of 'em), but the rules kept bouncing up awkwardly to remind me they were there and never shutting up and getting out of the way.
The first draft was inspired by a combination of Roseville Beach, My Chivalric Bromance, my own twist on 24XX, and Lumen. I love all those systems (I wrote two of 'em), but the rules kept bouncing up awkwardly to remind me they were there and never shutting up and getting out of the way.

The first early, unplayed draft of Saturday Morning Mysteries was called Highway '13. It was drafted for (but never submitted to) Lucian Kahn's VIsigoths vs Mall Goths jam back in 2020. VVMG is one of my favorite games out there, but somewhere along the way, Saturday Morning Mysteries got tangled up with too many other ideas. So this redraft was about getting back to those roots.

What I ended up with for this version is essentially two games (with a minigame for the equipment):

Humans

The humans are playing a minimalist, player-agency focused mashup of Liminal Horror, Troika!, and Visigoths vs Mall Goths. They's got three core stats they roll for at character creation (currently Action, Gumption, and Moxy, though semantics may chance), and they have Escape Points that they roll each session. When they're out of Escape Points, they're either at the opponent's mercy or they Freak Out. Humans have a Troika-style 2d6 action resolution, rolling high for contests and low for saving throws.

Escape Points will look like a storygame mechanic at first, but they're really inspired by the Hit Protection of the NSRish Cairn, ItO, and Liminal Horror games.

Fuzzy Friends

The fuzzy friends are playing a d6-pool based storygame. At character creation, they choose the type of fuzzy friend they are (big dog, cat, small dog, or parrot) and each session they choose three of six skills: Chaos & Confusion, Sneaky Sneaky, Unlikely Hiding Places, Old Switcheroo, Nose for Trouble, Old Black Magic. Each session they also choose two people in their band: one to be their best pal for the session (they add a die to their pool whenever they're rescuing or working with their best pal) and one who's not their best pal but who always has a Treat for them (they get an extra die if they have a Treat before rolling).

Equipment and Vans

Every party has a van and they don't have to be near the van to draw on its store of supplies. Previously, I gave them 7 points to distribute among the categories (e.g., tools, power tools, camping supplies, beach gear, costumes, etc.) and we used 1d6 supply checks. I'm toying with that now, and experimenting with having them roll the van's supply rating each session then making supply checks.
Up Next

Since this is still an early draft, I'm still finalizing a few player rules. I'm thinking of having some roll/pick tables for look, style, and maybe 1 or 2 signature pieces of equipment. I'm also still playing around with downtime/recovery.

Then GM stuff. I'm testing the system with Goblin Archives The Mall right now, and have a couple of maps from Abigail LaLonde for developing two short sample mysteries.