I think the system itself is great, just enough rules to help a GM but not enough to get in the way of a fun time.

I only docked a star because it seems they released a PDF that's been compressed almost TOO much and I wish there was a highres and lowres version instead.

It's a shame to have such a beautiful package compressed so much it hurts the art quality. Please reconsider

My favorite mystery game! Brindlewood Bay is an incredibly elegant system and a great introduction to Jason Cordova's emergent mystery mechanism. As a Keeper, I love how little prep is required and how the worldbuilding is collaborative. During a campaign, the mavens go through amazing character arcs that feel 100% natural. The mysteries are all full of rich details and witty cultural references. And the Dark Conspiracy simmering in the background adds just the right amount of creepy.

Brindlewood Bay

Brindlewood Bay is the name of a picturesque coastal town in Massachusetts that began as a whaling port and has evolved into a cozy town for tourists. Brindlewood Bay residents include a mystery book club of older ladies, the Murder Mavens. They are fans of the Gold Crown Mysteries series featuring super sleuth Amanda Delacourt. But the Mavens are not just passionate mystery fans who appreciate a good book; they also emulate their great role model and investigate as amateur detectives – with real success and to the chagrin of the local police force. And their cases are not just petty crimes, but mostly murder cases the Murder Mavens run into. And for a seemingly innocuous small town, Brindlewood Bay has a terrifying murder record – almost as if sinister forces are at play...

Brindlewood Bay is an unusual detective role-playing game that uses the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) rules concepts. All characters are older, single ladies with a murderous hobby. The characters are defined by five traits, which are used in moves typical of PbtA. As an additional mechanism, rolls can be made easier or harder by rolling three dice instead of the usual two and using the two best or worst results. The moves are boiled down to the essentials: There is one move each for risky situations by day and by night, an investigation move, and the Cozy Move. The interesting concept is that hazards at night carry greater risks, while one standard move (fittingly called the Meddling Move) represents all types of investigative work. The Cozy Move is used to eliminate negative effects, conditions, in a cozy scene. Therefore, each character is also defined by her favored cozy activity. Furthermore, there are two special moves: the Gold Crown Mysteries Move generates a perfect success once per story by inventing a reference to one of Amanda Delacourt's adventures. And through the Occult Move, new supernatural moves can be developed.

In addition, each Maven is not only described by her background but chooses a unique Maven Move based on allusions to movie characters of the 80s/90s or well-known fictional detective characters. Eventually, the group has to select one of the two sets, but has a wide range of choices in both. For example, the Angus MacGyver move allows improvising something helpful with just three random items. In contrast, the Jane Marple move allows entering anywhere during the day and moving (and snooping) around undisturbed.

However, the most fascinating feature of Brindlewood Bay is the approach to the criminal cases: Each case provides a starting situation, clues and hints, and suspects – but no predetermined solution. Instead, the players must develop a solution with their evidence at the end of the case. Then a single move decides whether their solution is correct. The more evidence is collected and incorporated into the theory, the easier the move is. This approach allows the game master to improvise with the given information during the game. The reason for this mechanism is simple: this way, players can never get completely stuck because they fail to find a crucial clue or make some other mistake. And the solution to the case – whether correct or not – is the players' creative solution, which will probably often surprise the game master as well. With this approach, a case can be presented in 5-6 pages and played without much preparation.

But Brindlewood Bay has an additional twist: The fact that murder abounds in the small town is due to the activities of a cult, which the Mavens must unmask in the end. And even though its background refers to Greek mythology, there is a hint of Cthulhu drifting through Brindlewood Bay. In addition to concrete suggestions, the game master gets various ideas to shape this cult – and again, he should not prepare everything in advance but develop this central threat based on the player's interactions during the game. A mixture of Murder, She wrote and Call of Cthulhu as a role-playing game would already be an unusual idea. However, combined with the mechanism that the cases are not predefined and spiced up with many intriguing approaches that capture the genre and the flair of TV series, Brindlewood Bay is not only a surprising but, above all, extremely fascinating game. Even though the layout and illustrations are relatively simple, the role-playing game is designed with great attention to detail. The book guides the game master perfectly through rules and setting – up to a complete case series ready to start the game immediately. If the cozy-crime/cosmic-horror crossover appeals to you, Brindlewood Bay can be highly recommended as an original highlight regarding both setting and rules.

(Björn Lippold)