Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) - Review

 

I tried The Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) in 2019 and finally got through all 4 books, mainly because I've been playtesting Cassilda's Song, a campaign for YKRPG.

I did a review of the Paris book here: QuickShock and Paris.

Chambers wrote The King in Yellow in 1895. He introduced the ideas of the two act play, The King in Yellow, the Yellow Sign, masks, and connections to Carcosa, spawning the a whole mythology about The King in Yellow. Since then, The King in Yellow has been associated with the themes of mental viral memes (not called that at that time), surrealism, and dreams.

Paris is set in 1895 Paris with the PCs being American art students studying abroad. It's the Belle Époque period with Absinthe, Cezanne, Debussy, Rodin, etc. In this golden age, Impressionism flourished. Could the mind bending effects of The King in Yellow intruding into Paris at this time be the cause? I love the setting.

The Wars is set in 1947 Europe during a delayed WWI. The PCs are French soldiers fighting with HG Wells-ian and Jules Verne-ian weapons. Trench warfare, tripod tanks, poisonous gas, ornithopters, wireless typewriters, and strange creatures from Carcosa stalk the PCs. It is a war between the daughters of The King in Yellow. Europe is their chessboard.

Aftermath is set in modern day America (with stunted growth, a mid-1970s feel) after one of the two daughters of The King in Yellow has won their war, but finally overthrown. Various factions fight for control of a new free America. Remnants of the previous rule dot the land such as Suicide Booths, leftover Carcosan entities and artifacts. The PCs are members of the resistance who suddenly found themselves part of the new world order. This setting is based on Chamber's short story: The Repairer of Reputations.

This is Normal Now is set in a parallel modern day America where The Wars and Aftermath didn't happen. But The King in Yellow is slowly permeating reality using modern technology such as memes, the internet, the dark web, Instagram influencers, killer apps, and SRIs (Safety-Related Incidents). SRIs are Carcosan creature attacks which people don't talk about. Facing the SRIs causes mental instability, so there are apps for dealing with this cognitive dissonance. PCs are normal people pulled into the weirdness.

I did find it odd that in This is Normal Now there is advice for running the other time periods and how to run a interwoven campaign. The chapters: The Alien Truth, GM Masterclass, and Entanglement should have been in the Paris book. I strongly recommend reading these before running any of the books. There is also recommendations for linking various PCs from each time period, I'm not sure that's really necessary. As a Player, I would prefer to choose which Investigative Kit (occupation) to take in each book vs having it be dictated based on my choice in Paris, but Aftermath and This is Normal Now are connected as parallel universes, and it does add a dimension to the game if the two PCs have the same name and similar occupations.

In trying to link all 4 books into one campaign, there's a time travel thread that can be used, but I didn't quite like it. Having time travelers go to 1895 Paris just seems really odd to me. A very 12 Monkeys thing. They do recommend other ways to link the four settings. I personally prefer odd historical coincidences and dream connections instead.

Each book gives you a different game. Paris feels like Trail of Cthulhu for the Belle Époque period. The Wars is for those who want war stories. Aftermath is for those who are interested in struggling political factions. This is Normal Now feels like Trail of Cthulhu for the internet age.

There are some design philosophy clunkiness that I have issues with, mainly the Fight system (p.54 Paris). The roleplaying comes to a screeching halt every time I bring out the Fight Tracker (p.241 Paris). I do like the Relative Challenge Table (p.47 Paris, p.24 The Wars, p.19 Aftermath, p.12 This is Normal Now) and the QuickShock cards (though there are too many of them and are unwieldy to use).

The main strengths of the game are the various settings (time period, location, equipment, creatures). They easily engage my imagination on how to bring elements in an interesting fashion to my Players.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the game and do recommend it.

The Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) - Review of GUMSHOE QuickShock

Slip case turns into GM screen. Actual product.

Inside of slipcase as GM screen. Paris book and Shock and Injury Cards. Actual products.

Slipcase on the right is not the actual product, but a mockup, real slipcase is a bit narrower and has no printing or embossing on the side.
This shows the 4 setting books in YKRPG.

GUMSHOE QuickShock

I play tested (as a Player) The Yellow King RPG (YKRPG) and enjoyed it, but I didn't really understand the streamlined aspects of GUMSHOE QuickShock until I ran it as a GM.

Instead of managing resources for Investigative Abilities, Players are just given 2 Pushes, floating points that can be used with any Investigative Ability. This got rid of a lot of unnecessary resource management that happens with GUMSHOE 1.0. So, instead of having various Investigative Ability points and having Players trying to decide if they want to spend any, that is all gone. They just have 2 floating points to spend. Much easier to keep track of and it ups the importance of the two points. I handed out physical tokens for the points which have to be turned in when spent.

In the game I ran, 3 Pushes were spent. One to make an exceptional sculpture of a tuberculosis patient, just because the PC had "some people I sculpt die suddenly" as That Deuced Peculiar Business. Another spent a Push on convincing a NPC to tell more about a Blackmail that was happening. Another spent a Push after the scenario to author (spoiler, hover over green fairy box to display):

The Phantom of the Opera.

The new single round Fight system also streamlined combat into one round and makes it more narrative. A great improvement to the old lackluster combat from Trail of Cthulhu. What is impressive is that Night's Black Agents added complexity to combat to spice it up, but YKRPG went in the opposite direction and simplified it even more. My mind is blown that you can do that and succeed.

In combat, Players first decide their desired outcome: kill, escape, other (subdue, take an item, etc.). Depending on their desired outcome, the difficulty level is adjusted. Non-lethal is easier than lethal outcomes. Then each PC spends Fighting points and add 1d6. If the total equals or beats the secret target number, it is a success and the margin of success is recorded. If the total is below the target number, it is a setback and the margin of success (failure) is adjusted. In the end, a negative margin of success means the PCs failed (and the GM narrates what happens); otherwise they succeed in their declared outcome. As each PC spends points, they must describe what action they're taking, their 1d6 + Fighting spend determines how successful they are. This is how the narrative part kicks in. After every PC describes their action and each action is either a success or setback, we get the final resolution.

In combat, any failure results in an Injury represented by an Injury card. A -1 margin of success results in a Minor Injury. A -2 (or worse) margin of success is a Major Injury. The Injury cards have flavor text, mechanical penalties, and rules on how to get rid of the card. This also adds a narrative twist to combat.

For other tests, there are either physical Injury cards or mental Shock cards.

In the game I ran, a NPC had a gun and was going to shoot at a PC. The goal: take the gun away. One PC wanted to restrain the NPC; one PC wanted to slap the NPC's gun hand away, so it can't aim at the other PC; the last PC wanted to wrestle the gun out of the NPC's hand. They all succeeded and dog piled the NPC and took the gun away. This turned out to be a lot more cinematic than "Ok, each of you roll combat skills; roll 1d6-2 for damage; he's still up; roll attacks again; he finally goes unconscious; you take his gun." And this new Fight system only took one round of dice rolling.

For tougher creatures, a fight always takes a Toll. Some creatures automatically costs points in Athletics, Fighting, and/or Health (combination determined by Player). This mainly just wears down the PC and may result in an Injury if the PC can't pay the Toll.

In the new QuickShock system, the Injury and Shock cards describe the physical and mental health of the PC. When the PC receives their 3rd Injury or 3rd Shock card, the PC is either dead or insane (this is for Horror mode; in Occult Adventure mode, it's the 4th card instead of the 3rd that knocks you out).

Overall, I really like this new streamlined GUMSHOE QuickShock. It's more narrative and more cinematic. Gone are the dull multiple rounds of rolling a single d6 and wearing down an opponent.

QuickShock Injury and Shock Cards

I ordered the cards and they came in handy. Of note, the cards came in a weird unsorted order. The first thing that I did was to sort all the cards alphabetically. Having the cards is really useful for face-to-face games. If you're just running your game online, then the PDFs work great and you don't need to spend extra money for the cards.

PARIS - Character Generation

Character generation is quick and simple with the selection of an Investigator kit (Investigative Abilities where you can spend Pushes) and a General kit (General Abilities with points such as Athletics and Fighting). The 7 Investigative kits are based on area of study such as Sculptor, Painter, Poet. The 9 General kits are based on background or previous training such as Farm kid, Factory worker, Former med student, Former cadet.

Players then choose Drives and Relationships between PCs. That's to add flavor and to prevent PCs from turtling and avoiding investigations.

The best innovation is That Deuced Peculiar Business, a strange eerie event that has touched the PC. The Player picks or invents one for their PC. It became easy to weave this Peculiar Business into the start of a scenario. I took elements for each PC's Peculiar Business and inserted it into a poster for an upcoming event. That really kicked the PCs into gear.

PARIS - 1895 Setting

The Paris Exhibition (World's Fair) was in 1889 and the controversial Eiffel Tower was built for it. Famous authors, composers, scientists, and artists flocked to Paris. This was a golden age where you can run into Cezanne, Degas, Debussy, Gauguin, Proust, Renoir, Rodin, Mme Curie, Louis Pasteur at your local cafe, bookshop, theater, or bar. The book lists pages and pages of NPCs. Unfortunately there were no photographs or examples of their work in the book, so I went crazy Googling everything that was mentioned.

Maps of Paris:

Period Map of Paris 1889

Website of Old Maps of Paris, all time periods

Website of Old Maps (including Paris)

The setting is amazingly rich and I'm learning a lot about the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune.

YKRPG - Product Quality

The slipcase that turns into a GM screen is amaze-balls. It's held together with hidden magnets and works really well. It's a really beautiful product. See above pictures.

Due to having a new print house, there were issues in having the product delivered in time, but the wait was worth it. A minor issue was that the non-native English speaking printers had a typo on the spine of the Aftermath book ("Aftremath"). But I haven't spotted any typos in the Paris book.

I rushed getting my Shock and Injury cards from DriveThruRPG and that was a mistake. There were a few typos and errors found, but the PDFs have been corrected and if you order these cards now, they've been corrected. But be wary of secondary market cards (eBay) and make sure you're receiving the corrected ones. The incorrect cards can easily be spotted. The Shock cards have the word "Injury" on the detail side of the card instead of the word "Shock."

Conclusion

I really love this new iteration of GUMSHOE and the Paris setting is wonderful and perfect for The King in Yellow. Absinthe, Impressionistic Art, the Can-can, Moving pictures, Cafes, all make an interesting soup of science and art.

p.s. I haven't gotten to the other 3 books yet: The Wars, Aftermath, This is Normal Now.

p.s.s. I've finally gotten to the other 3 books. Review blog post is here.