Best GUMSHOE rules?

[PirateLawyer]

So, I'll be running Trail of Cthulhu for the first time in a couple of weeks. But I own Night's Black Agents and a few other GUMSHOE games because of the awesome Pelgrane Press bundle of holding a while back. I've heard that later iterations of the GUMSHOE rules have incrementally improved the core mechanics; what do GUMSHOE veterans suggest be added back into the Trail ruleset for the best possible game?

[clockworkjoe]

I'm running Masks of Nyarlathotep with Trail but I've added some rules from Night's Black Agents (like some of the skill cherries, especially the one for preparedness) and the cinematic chase rules.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

I like NBA the best.  It is GUMSHOE with superb combat.  Haven't played Timewatch yet, but NBA is probably the best version out now (at least until Ross finishes ruin lolamirite)

[Tadanori Oyama]

Esoterrorist Second Edition did more or less nothing to change the system (I think they changed initiative) but since Esoterrorist had one of the tightest systems I think it worked out well. I've run games Esoterrorist, Mutant City Blues, and Night's Black Agents. I've used Fear Itself rules in part and I have read Ashen Stars.

For Trail I don't think there's much to add. If you want more action then just grab rules out of NBA. As for the core mechanics? Unless you want to borrow specific Investigative Skills (Vampirology?) from other games I think you are pretty much set using Trail as written.

If you want to have a more direct spell type or give monsters weird powers you could also borrow from Mutant City Blues. I ran a game based on the vidego game Prototype not long ago using this approach.

[Daegan]

My recommendation would be to add cherries for every skill and the critical hit rules from NBA.

I've seen some fights feel like they drag in base gumshoe due to the way they scale damage.  Unarmed is d6-2 and swords/chair legs/knives are d6-1, so it's entirely possible to go round upon round of doing 1 or NO  damage, even if you spent points to make sure the hit lands.  With critical hit rules there's less of an annoying sense of waste that you spent your precious points for no reason.

Cherries are golden because they give an incentive to put 8 points in things besides athletics.  Ken Hite wrote a bunch of cherries for Trail of Cthulhu that you can find for free on the Pelgrane site.

[Cordyceps]

For Trail I don't think there is that much to add to it.  It kind of depends on what you want for your game then find something in NBA or Esoterrorists to add.  Is the game set in the modern day with normal people? Add some of the more modern NBA abilities like Data Recovery and Digital Intrusion.  Are the Delta Green agents? Give them Tradecraft.  Want to add an awesome car chase? Then use the NBA chase rules.  But unless it's going to be a special kind of adventure/campaign rather than the normal investigation that leads to typical death or insanity, you really don't need to add anything.  It's also pretty easy to modify GUMSHOE that if you can't really find something from the other games or scenarios to steal from then you can probably just make it up. It works pretty well.  Especially if you want to add custom Occupations.   

[KwamrusukKonmodJai]

I believe that this is happening. That's cool
For this, I never know if you do not post it, I would not know.
And then I learned the most about it.

[D6xD6 - Chris]

Oh Christ, Project Hedgerow got through the defenses.