Sample File TRAIL of CTHULHU

Sample file TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Credits

Publisher: Simon Rogers Written by: Kenneth Hite GUMSHOE System: Robin D Laws

Layout: Jérôme Huguenin

Art: Jérôme Huguenin

GUMSHOE Guru: Robin D Laws

Editing and Additional Material: Simon Rogers

Based on: Call of Cthulhu by Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis

Special thanks : Effie and Julia Huguenin, Léo and Pascal Quidault, Leonard Balsera Sample file

Playtesting: Adrian Price, Steve Dempsey, Wai Kien, Adrian Smith, Graham Walmsley, Alex Fradera, Dave, Polymancer Studios, Simon Rogers, Daniel Bayn, Danni Bayn, Chris Malone, Mark DiPasquale, Matthew Pook, Tim Barker, Louise Hayes, David Lai, Mike Shepard, Carla Jane Miller, Elizabeth Rees, Robert Mills, Donald F. Taylor III, Richard Hardy, Lynne Hardy, Frederic Moll, Fredrik Hansson, Jeff Campbel Jamie Michael, Joshua Ford, Marcus Ogawa, Lisa Marie Ogawa, Gil Trevizo, Henry de Veuve, Ronald Abitz, Steve Bartalamay, Alan Fountain, Peter Kessler, Wojciech “Alter” Kobza, Laurent Mollicone, Olivier Noël, Wayne O’Connor, Ghislain Morel, James Semple, Gabriella Semple, Dan Pusceddu, Olive Pusceddu, Axel Eble, Stefan Ohrmann, Martin Schrammm, Onno Tasler, Ralf Achenbach, William C Bargo Jr, Jacques Maurice Mallah, Donald F. Taylor III, Keith A Callison, Doug

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Contents

CREDITS...... 3 Cop Talk (Interpersonal)...... 32 Piggybacking...... 57 Craft (Technical)...... 32 Cooperation...... 58 Credit Rating (Interpersonal) ...... 32 Contests, Chases, and Combat ...... 58 CONTENTS ...... 4 Cryptography (Academic)...... 34 Fighting...... 60 Cthulhu Mythos (Academic)...... 34 Other Dangers...... 68 Evidence Collection (Technical)...35 Stability, Sanity, and Madness...... 69 Flattery (Interpersonal)...... 35 Losing Stability...... 69 INTRODUCTION...... 6 Forensics (Technical) ...... 35 Losing Sanity...... 74 Why This Game Exists ...... 6 Geology (Academic) ...... 35 Mental Illness...... 77 Purist or Pulp or Both?...... 7 History (Academic)...... 37 Refreshing Stability During A Interrogation (Interpersonal) ...... 37 Session ...... 79 THE INVESTIGATOR ...... 9 Intimidation (Interpersonal)...... 37 Recovery...... 80 OCCUPATIONS...... 9 Languages (Academic)...... 37 Refreshing Investigative Ability Alienist...... 9 Law (Academic)...... 37 Pools...... 80 Antiquarian...... 10 Library Use (Academic)...... 38 Refreshing General Ability Pools80 Archaeologist...... 11 Locksmith (Technical)...... 38 Refreshing Health...... 81 Artist ...... 11 Medicine (Academic)...... 38 Refreshing Stability Between Author...... 12 Occult (Academic) ...... 38 Adventures...... 81 Clergy ...... 12 Oral History (Interpersonal)...... 39 Recovering Sanity...... 81 Criminal...... 13 Outdoorsman (Technical)...... 39 Improving Your Investigator...... 82 Dilettante...... 13 Pharmacy (Technical) ...... 39 Doctor...... 13 Photography (Technical) ...... 39 Hobo...... 14 Physics (Academic) ...... 39 TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONS, Journalist...... 14 Reassurance (Interpersonal)...... 40 AND EQUIPMENT...... 83 Military ...... 15 Streetwise (Interpersonal)...... 40 Vehicles...... 83 Nurse ...... 15 Theology (Academic)...... 40 Vehicle Table ...... 86 Parapsychologist ...... 17 GENERAL ABILITIES ...... 40 Aircraft Table ...... 87 Pilot ...... 17 Athletics ...... 40 Weapons...... 88 Police Detective...... 17 Conceal...... 40 Hardware and Sundries...... 89 Private Investigator...... 17 Disguise...... 41 Professor...... 18 Driving...... 41 PUTTING IT Electrical Repair...... 41 Scientist...... 18 ...... 92 Explosives...... 41 ALL TOGETHER DRIVES ...... 19 ...... 92 Filch...... 42 TIPS FOR PLAYERS Adventure ...... 19 Believe You Might Succeed...... 92 Firearms...... 42 Antiquarianism...... 19 Justify Your Casting...... 92 First AidSample ...... 42 file Arrogance...... 20 Drives Drive You Forward...... 92 Fleeing ...... 42 Artistic Sensitivity ...... 20 When Stuck, Look For More Health...... 43 Bad Luck...... 20 Information...... 93 Hypnosis...... 43 Curiosity ...... 21 Talk To People...... 93 Mechanical Repair ...... 44 Duty...... 21 Keep Moving Forward...... 93 Piloting ...... 44 Ennui...... 21 Deputize Yourself...... 93 Follower...... 21 Preparedness ...... 45 In the Blood ...... 22 Psychoanalysis ...... 45 Revenge...... 22 Riding...... 45 Scholarship...... 22 Sanity ...... 46 APPENDICES ...... 94 Sudden Shock...... 22 Scuffling...... 47 Character Sheet...... 94 Thirst for Knowledge...... 23 Sense Trouble ...... 47 BUYING ABILITIES...... 23 Shadowing...... 47 INDICES ...... 97 Occupational Abilities...... 23 Stability ...... 48 How Many Points Should I Buy? .26 Sources of Stability ...... 48 Ratings and Skill ...... 27 Stealth...... 48 INVESTIGATIVE ABILITIES...... 28 Weapons...... 48 Accounting (Academic)...... 28 SAMPLE CHARACTER ...... 49 Anthropology (Academic)...... 28 Trail of Cthulhu Character Sheet49 Archaeology (Academic) ...... 28 Architecture (Academic)...... 28 Art (Technical)...... 30 CLUES, TESTS AND Art History (Academic)...... 30 CONTESTS...... 51 Assess Honesty (Interpersonal)....30 Clues...... 51 Astronomy (Technical)...... 30 Gathering Clues ...... 52 Bargain (Interpersonal)...... 30 Spends and Benefits ...... 54 Biology (Academic)...... 31 Inconspicuous Clues...... 55 Bureaucracy (Interpersonal) ...... 31 Tests ...... 56 Chemistry (Technical) ...... 31 Simple Tests ...... 56

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Contents

FOREWORD This Player’s Guide for Trail of Cthulhu includes everything you need to play, Trail of Cthulhu. You have what you need to create an investigator, the GUMSHOE system, equipment lists, and player tips. All the secrets of the Mythos, the gods, creatures, historical background and other GM- specific information have been removed with all the skill of an Elder Thing performing an autopsy.

LICENSE You may print a copy of this document for your personal use, and replace that copy if it is damaged. You may not reproduce or resdistribute this PDF to anyone. You may transfer you license to another person. You must notify Pelgrane Press of this license transfer and include Sample file the details (name and email address) of the person to whom you are transferring the license. If you transfer the license for this PDF, you must destroy your printed copy of the PDF, and delete the PDF from your system.

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Introduction

In the mists of prehistory, alien gods and monsters fell to Earth and Why This Game Exists on investigation, on gathering warred over our planet, unleashing This game exists in order to adapt clues instead of treasure. We cosmic science and inconceivable the greatest RPG of all time, Call designed GUMSHOE to make that powers until continents sank of Cthulhu, to a different rules easier, clearer, and more direct. and seas boiled. Exhausted or set, the GUMSHOE engine. Why GUMSHOE exists to solve a problem defeated, They fell into an aeons- on Earth would we do a thing that many people found with long slumber, and the human race like that? First of all, part of what running Call of Cthulhu – one bad goes about its unknowing business makes Call of Cthulhu so great is die roll can derail an adventure. over Their graves and tombs. But its theme, taken from the cosmic You didn’t find the diary, so you there are those who want to seek despair of the greatest horror didn’t get the spell, so either out the fragments of the lore They writer of the 20th century, HP Arkham is destroyed or the Keeper left behind. Those who want to Lovecraft. We kept that. Second, has to scuttle ‘round and plant the learn the secrets of the stars, and part of what makes Call of diary somewhere else. In Trail the true names of the dimensions. Cthulhu so great is its deliberate of Cthulhu, the GUMSHOE rules Those who want the dead gods’ decision to make characters guarantee that you will find that powers. Those want to wake Them increasingly vulnerable to the diary. (We don’t promise not to up. horrors they face, to give their destroy Arkham.) This is not the bravery real meaning and force entirety of what GUMSHOE offers, You are among the few who real mechanical consequences in but it was the starting point for suspect the truth – about the mad the game. We kept that, too. GUMSHOE’s laser-like focus on gods at the center of the universe, Sample file investigation. about the Great Old Ones who So what did we change? Let me dream of clearing off the Earth, change the subject. The greatest Some Keepers, and even some about the extra-terrestrials who playwright ever is William players, enjoyed seeing everything use mankind in their experiments, Shakespeare. His greatest play go pear-shaped, and reveled about the ancient legends of is King Lear. Why would Akira in the creative destruction of undying evil that are all coming Kurosawa make that play into the adventure. Some didn’t, and true. You have to make sure nobody a movie? And why would he set worked out their own ways else ever finds out — or the world that movie, Ran, in samurai-era around the problem, ways they will wake up screaming. Japan instead of quasi-ancient are perfectly happy with; their Britain? Because more people want own crib sheets to King Lear, if You have to keep the doors to the to – or can — see a movie than you will. We hope there is enough Outside from swinging open – no a play, and because transferring other good stuff in here for them, matter what the cost in life or the story to Japan makes its but Trail of Cthulhu is first and sanity. You have to piece together themes paradoxically clearer than foremost for the Keepers and the clues from books bound in leaving them in the “familiar” players who privilege investigation, human skin, from eviscerated world Shakespeare wrote. Did Ran and who want mechanics that do corpses covered in ichor, and from improve on King Lear, or make it likewise. It’s for fans of procedural inscriptions carved on walls built obsolete? Don’t be ridiculous. Did shows like House or CSI, in which before humanity evolved. You have it do something worth doing by the mystery isn’t “will the lab test to go wherever the answers are, changing King Lear? Absolutely. come back,” but “what do the and do what needs to be done. results mean”? That’s not to say To return to our topic, then: things won’t go wrong for the But do you dare to follow ... the trail Another part of what makes Call players, merely that the wrongness of Cthulhu? of Cthulhu so great is its emphasis won’t be caused by an absence of

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Introduction

Core Concepts Dexter Ward, The Dunwich Roleplaying Game: We assume you’ve already got this covered. If Horror, and The Shunned House not, see any other roleplaying game book for the mandatory “What is all feature more-or-less resolute Roleplaying” section, or ask your geek friends. monster-hunting Investigators Keeper: The Game Master, or GM. thwarting cosmic evil in Investigators: The Player Characters, or PCs. Howardian fashion. (Robert E Investigative Abilities: Include academic, interpersonal, and technical Howard also wrote at least one abilities. These abilities always work; they are designed to gather fine Purist Mythos tale, The Black clues. Stone.) Many of Lovecraft’s finest General Abilities: The rest of the abilities, including combat abilities tales, such as The Call of Cthulhu and “statistics” like Health, Sanity, and Stability. Using or testing them (which features both neurasthenic creates drama; they may fail. scholars uncovering the truth Stability: A short-term measure of your Investigator’s mental health. and police raids on vile cults) and It goes down rapidly during an adventure, but usually refreshes The Shadow Over Innsmouth afterward. (which features both a desperate Sanity: A long-term measure of your Investigator’s blissful ignorance chase through a ruined town of the horrible truths of the Mythos. It goes down slowly, and seldom and a narrative of psychological if ever goes up again. corruption) draw from both modes The Mythos: Short for Cthulhu Mythos, the body of lore created by for their power. While it is not our HP Lovecraft that underlies most, or all, of the horrific events in a job to tell you how to run your Trail of Cthulhu campaign or adventure. game (actually, it is, but we’ll get to HP Lovecraft: American horror writer (1890-1937). All quotes in this that in a later chapter), it seems to rulebook are from his stories and poetry. us that treating Cthulhoid horrors Clue: The point of each scene is to deliver a clue to the mystery, the way HP Lovecraft does would to the Investigator with the relevant investigative ability. When the be a good idea. clue has been delivered, the scene can end, unless there’s a really awesome fight going on. Clues are leads to other scenes; they don’t However, for those who wish to have to be “true.” emphasize one or another idiom, Sample file we have indicated those rules and game elements most suited for the Purist mode with the following clues, but how they use them. It’s model. It intends to recreate a symbol: for players who are curious about game of philosophical horror, in the Call, and who want to follow which the act of uncovering the the Trail all the way to the end. truth dooms both active seeker and unfortunate bystander alike.

The second is the Pulp idiom or and those most suited for the Pulp Purist or Pulp or Both? mode, which aims rather for the mode with this one: The game Trail of Cthulhu “desperate action” feel of Robert E is intended to tell stories of Howard’s Cthulhu Mythos stories uncovering the occult horror (The Thing on the Roof, The Fire mysteries of the Cthulhu Mythos. of Asshurbanipal, Skull-Face). It Traditionally, such games fall into intends to focus on the struggle one of two camps. (especially the physical struggle) The Keeper may rule that some against the Mythos, doomed or rules and elements are simply One is the Purist idiom or mode, noble as the case may be. It also not allowed in her games in which takes a subset of HP privileges character survival order to inculcate a specific Lovecraft’s later and starker somewhat more than does the flavor of horror, which is after all works (The Colour Out of Space, Purist idiom. the entire point. An index of Pulp At the Mountains of Madness, and Purist rules can be found on The Shadow Out of Time, The HP Lovecraft, of course, wrote in p 243. Whisperer in Darkness) as its both idioms: The Case of Charles