Theorize (Brindlewood Bay via Oli Jeffrey) with Victor Lane

Transcript

This week, Sam talks with Victor Lane about the Theorize move, originally from an idea by Oli Jeffrey and popularized in Brindlewood Bay by Jason Cordova. Some topics discussed include:

The history of solving mysteries in RPGs

The Three Clue Rule

Jason Cordova’s blogpost discussing Oli Jeffrey’s original Theorize move

Writing mystery stories VS reading or watching mystery stories VS playing a mystery RPG

Bullshit

Quantum villains

Victor’s advice on running Brindlewood Bay (he’s got great tips)

Structured surprise vs emergent surprise

Mechanical clues, as distinct from diegetic clues

The butler did it

Complexity (the mechanic)

Games mentioned:

Brindlewood Bay

GUMSHOE

Extreme Meatpunks Forever

Apocalypse Keys

The Between

Fedora Noir

Sleepaway

Blades in the Dark

Avatar Legends

Thirsty Sword Lesbians

Movies and TV mentioned: Knives Out, Glass Onion, Murder She Wrote, Fedora Noir, Speed, Father Brown, Columbo, Poker Face, Agatha Christie

You can find Victor on TikTok and itch.io at ThisIsVictor. His website is thisisvictor.com.

You can find Sam @sdunnewold on Twitter, dice.camp, and itch.io

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