Talk:Gumshoe System

Needs a lot of work if it's important enough to keep
This is poorly written, reads like a press release (which I suspect it is) and the title of the article is ALL CAPS and needs to be moved to "Gumshoe system" or similar. This is far beyond the level of work I'm willing to commit to, particularly for a system I am unfamiliar with.RayBarker (talk) 06:10, 19 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry, your suspicion is incorrect; it is not a press release. The crappy quality is instead explained by me throwing the article together very quickly. More importantly, it is the first wiki article I wrote, so... With that being said, thanks for that round of constructive criticism, very helpful for a beginner.
 * As for the title being ALL CAPS (50% actually) I’ll agree that I did have some trouble with that myself. On one hand, it does look kind of silly. On the other, both the designer and the publisher write it like that. Also, before posting the article, I checked a few other rpg-systems and noticed that quite a few of them went all caps. GURPS being one of them. Yes, I know, it’s an abbreviation. But it’s still all caps. So anyway, with two reasons for caps, and only one against, I decided to go caps. But if people are really so offended by a few caps, I don’t really see a problem in moving the article. OlderNick (talk) 08:45, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not the one to do it (I can't stand GUMSHOE personally) but a system that underlies half a dozen games (with Trail of Cthulu wining best game at Lucca 2010 and Ashen Stars winning an Origins Award in 2011) is definitely notable. Neonchameleon (talk) 12:20, 5 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Four years ago, I said this ″reads like a press release (which I suspect it is)", and this time I checked. - the "concept" section still reads like a press release, and is worded suspiciously similar to the Pelgrane Press product page and is therefore borderline copyright violation - so much so I nearly blanked it with a WP:COPYVIO tag. I have also changed every instance of "GUMSHOE System" to "Gumshoe System" as per MOS:TM, as this is how trademarks are handled on wikipedia; unless it's a legitimate acronym, it goes in lower case. compare the articles for the german company BASF and the band KISS, for example. Not kidding, despite this date: RayBarker (talk) 11:07, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

One Source
I know that RPGs usually have only one source, the RPG itself, but there are simply not enough sources for this article if it is going to be kept. More sources need to be cited to give this thing a bit of credibility.

Also, could someone please add a "criticisms" section to include something, in an NPOV way, that covers the game's silly "core clue" mechanic and the fact that the system basically promotes railroading? -- 65.94.21.40 (talk) 01:26, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The lack of cited sources can be blamed on one thing: Me. I have made attempts to read up on how this work, but must admit that I haven’t been successful. So, what would be a valid source to cite? Are reviews on www.rpg.net acceptable? What about interviews with the author? Also, I honestly haven’t been able to understand how exactly to get those nifty little quote numbers in there. But perhaps someone could add those if valid sources are found?
 * A criticism section would probably be a good idea. Obviously, it needs to cite some valid sources. I’ve already admitted to knowing very little about citing sources, but I assume that rabid forum rants by people who have never read nor played a Gumshoe product are ruled out? That being said, I’m probably too much of a fan to write NPOV criticism… OlderNick (talk) 09:02, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm trying to get a sense of how this system works, but the article really sucks. As far as I can tell from the article, it uses only a single d6. Actually I've been looking at a lot of RPG pages today; the criticism can be generalized: ALL RPG pages on Wikipedia should prominently feature the materials needed to play the game - even if it is obvious to someone who knows the game well, it is NOT obvious to someone who's never played. 98.16.128.194 (talk) 16:01, 31 July 2010 (UTC)
 * While I’m not against a short “what is a role-playing game” section, I generally disagree with this. This would mean hundreds of pages repeating the same information. If the same logic where to be applied to other articles, each article for NHL hockey teams would need a short “what is ice hockey” section. Instead we simply put in a link to role-playing game for people to follow if they need more info.
 * Could you expand on what is unclear with the game mechanics section? You got the part about only using a d6, and that’s about it really. Ok, technically you have a character sheet as well, and I suppose that could be added to the character creation section. OlderNick (talk) 09:02, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Don't be obtuse. "What is a role-playing game>" is a totally different question from "What do I need to play *this* RPG?".  Shadowrun and Champions, for instance, use only d6, while D&D use a full array of polyhedral dice.  D&D basically requires tactical maps to show where players are in relation to a dungeon and its critters, while this is not necessarily the case in Call of Cthulhu (which uses all kinds of dice but is primarily based on d10 skill checks).  Reading *THIS* article, I can see where somebody could get the impression that all you needed was a single d6, because that's all the article talks about in terms of game material. 98.23.149.130 (talk) 17:05, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I haven't actually read the sourcebooks for this system, but I have played in it a few times, and my experience is that a single d6 is, in fact, the only die you need. 66.31.201.182 (talk) 20:54, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Swords of the Serpentine
Swords of the Serpentine also uses this system but is missing in the article. 188.244.102.66 (talk) 13:40, 13 June 2023 (UTC)