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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