Noir Investigations…

Strange things happen in dark places. Your task—whether official or not—is to shed light on the dark and probe the strange. Usually, what you find is terrible in some way. You are nonetheless drawn to follow tremulous trails, face eldritch entities, and uncover terrifying truths.

Through your actions in scenes, you collect Clues used to answer questions and solve mysteries. There are a number of ways to obtain and spend Clues, detailed later.

…in Lynchian Realities

Surreal, macabre, and disconcerting. Those aforementioned dark places are dreamlike amalgamations of reality, inhabitated by the strange and off-putting. Things often don’t make sense—you’d do well to remember that.

The Other is that otherworldly feeling, supernatural quality, or pervasive strangeness which is inherently indescribable, and yet unavoidable within Lynchian realities. Some characters witness the Other as a pseudophysical location or conscious being, some merely have a vague sense of its void-like existence, but most barely notice its presence at the edges of everyday life.

Characters

Attributes

There are five primary Attributes, rated with a number added to relevant rolls:

• Focus: emotional depth and balance, intuition, preparedness, calmness
• Grit: power, physical strength and toughness, endurance, determination
• Presence: persuasiveness, seduction, verbal agility, social skill
• Reason: intellect, knowledge, rationality, insight, and understanding
• Weird: awareness of the Other

Conditions

Characters have five slots of persistent Conditions, physical or mental, that correspond to sources of harm rated by Severity:

• Slight: lingering short-term annoyances (e.g., headaches, stress)
• Minor: scrapes, scratches, and injuries that heal in days (e.g., damage from fists, improvised weapons)
• Major: wounds that heal in weeks (e.g., damage from melee weapons, handguns)
• Severe: serious injuries that heal in months (e.g., damage from rifles, shotguns)
• Critical: emergency injuries that require attention and heal in years, if at all

If a character suffers a Condition of an already taken Severity, the Severity is increased to the first available slot. If a character cannot place a Condition in any slot, they fall unconscious.

Resisting a Condition means you lower the Severity by one level. Likewise, having a weakness means you raise the Severity.

Skills

Skills are specific benefits and special actions that a character can take to affect scenes and the story.

A Move is a Skill with a trigger and outcomes. When a Move is triggered, you’ll roll two d6 and add the rating mentioned to the result. The outcomes dictate what happens based on the result. Failing any Move roll grants you 1 XP.

Advantage and Disadvantage

In certain circumstances, you’ll gain Advantage or suffer Disadvantage. In these cases, you’ll instead roll three d6, and sum the highest two (for Advantage) or lowest two (for Disadvantage) dice.

Helping another character can grant them Advantage. Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other out.

Playbooks

Each character has two playbooks: an Occupation and an Archetype. These determine your attribute ratings, your background, and abilities.

Experience

XP is a measure of a character’s experience, pending tidbits of learning that can be spent on enhancing one’s odds and improving oneself. XP can be spent at any time to:

• 2 XP: Add +1 to any Move result (only one).
• 3 XP: Roll a Move with a fleeting Advantage that you describe.
• 5 XP: Reroll a Move.
• 8 XP: Learn a Skill from your Archetype.
• 13 XP: Swap two Attribute ratings.
• 21 XP: Change your Occupation.

Core Moves

All characters have the following Moves.

Connect the Dots

When you discuss theories with others to arrive at some truth, roll +Clues—the number of which you’re incorporating into the discussion.

On 13+, your theory is airtight. Describe the inevitable conclusion.
On 10–12, you’re on the right track, but identify the most problematic Clue.
On 7–9, you’re off base. At least one of the Clues leads to new trouble.
On a 6-, you’re way off. Your meddling only leads to more trouble.

Overcome

When you act to overcome a difficult obstacle using…

• calm intuition, roll +Focus.
• sheer determination, roll +Grit.
• social acumen, roll +Presence.
• cold rationality, roll +Reason.
• the Other’s influence, roll +Weird.

On 10+, describe the immediate outcome.
On 7–9, you face a difficult choice.
On 6-, the obstacle prevents your action.

Convince Someone

When you speak with someone to alter their action or change their mind, roll +Presence.

On 10+, describe their reaction and what they’re convinced of doing (or not doing).
On 7–9, they are mostly convinced, but keep something to themselves.

Oppose Danger

When you attempt to harm a target or defend yourself physically, describe your approach and weapon (if applicable), then roll +Grit.

On 10+, you avoid harm, and deal harm equal to your weapon’s damage. Describe the outcome.
On 7–9, you deal harm based on your weapon, but must choose a consequence from below.
On 6-, your action fails, and you suffer a consequence.

• You suffer a Condition based on the opposer’s weapon.
• You cause a scene, drawing attention to the conflict.
• Your weapon breaks, malfunctions, or is otherwise unusable.

Read Person

When you empathize with someone or observe their demeanor, describe what subjective details you’re looking for, and roll +Focus.

On 10+, you get a good sense of their emotional state, and gain subjective insights.
On 7–9, their emotions are vague or contradictory, and you only pick up on surface-level details.

Study Something

When you study a person, place, or thing for objective details, roll +Reason.

On 10+, ask two questions that could be concluded about the subject.
On 7–9, ask one question that could be concluded about the subject.
On 6-, you’re given an unfortunate truth about the subject.

Time Periods

Each day is divided into six periods:

• Early Morning, between dawn and sunrise.
• Morning, between sunrise and noon.
• Afternoon, between noon and sunset.
• Evening, between sunset and dusk.
• Night, between dusk and midnight.
• Late Night, between midnight and dawn.

Skills that mention spending time will take up the remainder of the current time period. Certain Skills also reference or are triggered at certain periods. Skills that mention once a day effectively reset at Early Morning.

Sleeping typically takes two periods, and can otherwise lead to stress conditions if disrupted for too long.

Sessions

Each session should, on average, play out over a week of in-game time.

End of Session

• Gain 1 XP for each true statement:
  • You attended the session.
  • Someone discovered a Clue.
  • You suffered a Condition.
• Reduce any Conditions that have been treated and in recovery for long enough.