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Hard Helix has been released. It's a set of four adventures for Mutant City Blues, and you can get it in the Pelgrane Press Store. It'll soon be available on IPR, rpgnow.com and your local game store.
THERE’S MURDER AND MAYHEM IN MUTANT CITY......and you’ve got four tough new cases to clear. 
Mutant City Blues creator Robin D Laws brings you four ready-to-play case
files to puzzle and challenge your local Heightened Crimes Investigative
Unit.
- The Hard Helix: A controversial researcher into mutant
powers Sidney Dorris is found murdered the evening before his scheduled
announcement of a stunning scientific breakthrough. What was his secret, and
who was willing to kill him for it?
- The Vanishers: The squad’s intervention in a jewelry
store robbery leads them into an operation against the new school,
mutant-bolstered forces of organized crime.
- Super Squad: A sudden death at a mutant-related riot
leads the unit into the twisted world of the Super Squad, an elite policing
group who work the city’s toughest streets—and have, in the process, gotten
more than a little dirty.
- Cell Division: The detectives confront a homegrown
terrorist threat from a previously unknown group of mutant supremacists. Can
they uncover the truth behind the Mutant Revolutionary Front — one that
remains shrouded even from its own suicidally indoctrinated followers?
Grab your coffee, scarf down a donut, and unpop your six-inch claws... it’s
time for the squad to hit the streets!
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A review of Mutant City Blues on rpg.net by L J Steele. Incidentally, Hard Helix will be out in the couple of days.
A great combination of superheros and dramatically-realistic policing highlighting the flexiblity of the GUMSHOE line and giving good advice on mystery-oriented games
Style: 4 (Classy & Well Done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!) PS: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) viktor_haag pointed out that the author, Lisa Steele wrote GURPS Cops, and she's a criminal defense attorney in Massachusetts, so she knows her stuff!
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Two podcasts of interest.
Robin talks to Mostlyjoe in a long interview about Mutant City Blues. The MCB stuff starts at about 23 minutes in.
April 2009 -- Suitors review and Chad Underkoffler interview - 0:29 - As usual, Brennan shares with us what's new on IPR.
- 5:31 - Suitors, by Firestorm Ink, is a trick-taking card game about romance.
- 9:32 - Chad Underkoffler talks about his newest game from Evil Hat Productions, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
- 18:03- Finally, Paul & Brennan talk about what's going on At Our Tables,discussing the desire for long-term campaign play.
Runtime: 29:11 / File size: 26.7M
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At last, the results of the Mutant City Blues competition. It was a big success for us, and we will be doing more competitions.
Of the 36 contestants, six correctly identified the killer, Eryssa Henry. No one got everything right — but no HCIU officer’s initial take on the case turns out to be 100% on the money, either.
The contest winner is Michael Ostrokol, whose reconstruction of the killing and the mutant powers used to commit it was correct—albeit with one power use too many. Eryssa has the powers Concussion Beam, Light Control, and Invisibility; Michael guessed those powers correctly but then added Illusion and Alter Form for good measure. He wins the contest even though he then makes one leap too many by concluding that Eryssa is actually Karen Das. There’s also a bit of confusion in his answer between Betsy (who is in the sauna when the killing occurs and does have the Alter Form ability) and Eryssa. Even with these incorrect elements, Michael’s answer comes closest to our secret description of the crime.
Other contestants were closer to the truth on Eryssa’s motive for the killings without getting the modus operandi and list of powers used.
Michael wasn’t the only contestant to add Impersonate and Alter Form to the mix: Kyle Miller made the opposite leap, concluding that the Karen Das who appeared on a previous season of Stir Crazy was really Eryssa.
Honorable mention for creativity above and beyond the call of duty goes to Patricia Kassiday, who submitted her answer in the form of an in-character document admitting to the crime.
So the prizes, which will be distributed in a couple of weeks' time, when the new Pelgrane Press store is up and running.
Michael Ostrokol
Runners Up ($30 vouchers)
Patricia Kassiday
Lyndsey Anderson
akomagami
Chris Harnish
Kyle Miller
Winner of the rpg.net draw for a free MCB
James Newman
( The Solution )
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robin_d_laws pointed me at a review of the Mutant City Blues hard cover here.
Physically, the book is well put-together, with fairly high production values. Pelgrane opted to print it as a duotone hard-back, litho-printed on nice, heavy stock. The binding creaks a little, but I'm ill concerned about it actually falling apart. Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked to see the book end up as a murder weapon in one of the HCIU's cases. (For those of you who own ToC, print quality is exactly the same. Just swap blue for sepia.)
and
I'll be honest, folks: I haven't been this excited about a new game since Unhallowed Metropolis. It's strongly themed, with a system that backs up the premise without getting in the way.
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We had a flurry of last-minute entries to the MCB competition and I've just got back from holiday, so it will take a while for me to get to a winner. I've got to say it's been more successful than I thought. I think the documents really highlight the differences between MCB and more traditional superhero games.
I'll announce the solution and the winners later in the week.
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 Mutant City Blues is now out as a PDF at rpgnow.com.
As of this post, we've had eight entries into the MCB competition, so your odds are still pretty good of winning $350 worth of Pelgrane Press products.
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John Kahane (jkahane) has reported some MCB actual play - character creation and a first session. Let him know if you'd like to read more!
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Mutant City Blues is available for mail order from the Pelgrane Press webstore and Indie Press Revolution. It will be in the stores on Monday or Tuesday next week. Existing mail orders have shipped.
The remaining clues for the Mutant City Blues competition have been posted, some hosted very kindly by rpg.net.
The first supplement for Mutant City Blues, Hard Helix, is complete and is now being illustrated. Pascal Quidault is supplementing Jerome's work:
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New Mutant City Blues competition clues have been posted.
Just guess the perpetrator, let us know why and get $150 worth of print products, plus a Trail of Cthulhu leather bound, plus all our PDFs. I don't suppose a huge number of people will enter, so your odds are pretty good.
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Stir Crazy Contestant Found Dead In Hotel Room January 3, 2015 by Lauren Greco Las Vegas Star The lifeless body of Karen Das was found at 10:30 this morning by hotel cleaning staff at the Fiesta Holiday Casino on Dean Martin Drive. Das, 27, appeared as a contestant on this summer’s GBC television reality series, Stir Crazy. She was removed from the series in its third-to-last episode. Like other contestants on the show, Das was required to divulge a secret—in her case, that she’d undergone electro-convulsive therapy for depression. Das’ secret was revealed on the show’s fourth episode. She was removed from the show after a competitor, Carol Godsey, survived a vote-off following the revelation of her own secret. Das was found in a bathtub and was unresponsive to medical intervention. She was pronounced dead on the scene by medical examiner Dr. Catherine Nilsen. Although foul play has not at this time been ruled out, sources close to the investigation believe that Das died of a self-administered dose of prescription medication. The victim’s family resides in Dobb’s Ferry, New York. Immediate family members refused comment to the media. A cousin, Rodney Kapur, reported that Das’ psychological recovery had reversed itself after her appearance on the show. Stir Crazy producer Benjamin Sheldon disavowed responsibility for Das’ suicide. "All of the contestants go into the show with their eyes open. We have fully signed releases for everyone. I’m sorry that she did this to herself. Despite her problems, she was a vibrant personality who scored well with viewers." Funeral arrangements have yet to be announced, pending release of the body by the Las Vegas medical examiner’s office.
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I'm adding one of the last three Trail of Cthulhu leather bound version and all the Pelgrane PDFs to the prize for the Mutant City Blues Competition. I'd be surprised if there were a lot of entries, so it's really worth a go.
More clues.
( Witness Statements behind the cut )
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Why am I excited?
Mutant City Blues is on sale, and the latest issue of our new webzine Page XX is out, too. It includes two new columns by Robin D Laws, some advice on CCG design, a cartoon, a Mutant City Blues competition, and new Trail of Cthulhu hand-outs. Mutant City Blues is stand-alone GUMSHOE game of contemporary superpowers by Robin D Laws, out now from Pelgrane Press store, and Indie Press Revolution. Solve the mutant murder mystery and win $150 worth of Pelgrane Press vouchers. See Page XX this month is a bumper edition, and includes:
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The first review of Mutant City Blues is up on rpg.net. It gets a 4/5.
For the first time in months I’m excited about running a new game. I can’t wait for the new season at my local games club so I can get stuck in. And I think this is because Mutant City Blues is one of the more original settings I’ve seen in a while. It adds a decidedly grown up spin to the superhero genre, getting away from Spandex and silly names of X-men and other similar comics, as well as their save-the-cheerleader-save-the-world plots. I can’t wait to get my hands on a hard-copy. There is also a review of Fear Itself over on Game Cryer. As a GM I enjoyed Fear Itself and the GUMSHOE system. It does a good job of supporting horror while giving players the control to shape scenes with their skill uses. Character generation is fast, and a GM could easily rip off nearly any horror movie for quick inspiration if needed. It is a rules light game that does a good job of focusing on the characters.
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Tough interview? Sometimes only caffeine will do.
This image (by Jerome, of course) will be the front cover of Hard Helix, the first set of adventures for Mutant City Blues by Robin D Laws.
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Here's a review of the pre-release review of Mutant City Blues.
For the first time in months I’m excited about running a new game. I can’t wait for the new season at my local games club so I can get stuck in. And I think this is because Mutant City Blues is one of the more original settings I’ve seen in a while. It adds a decidedly grown up spin to the superhero genre, getting away from Spandex and silly names of X-men and other similar comics, as well as their save-the-cheerleader-save-the-world plots.
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Mutant City Blues is all about ordinary people with mutant powers. Not Superman-level, but nonetheless, some pretty crazy stuff. Jérome shows here what a real person might use powers for. Take a look at the Quade Diagram and pick one or more adjacent powers. What would you do if you woke up one day with such power?
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