Customer Reviews

Trail of Cthulhu

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Trail of Cthulhu is an exciting new way of playing games in the Cthulhu Mythos. This is made possible by the Gumshoe system, which was created by Robin D. Laws, which is focused heavily on investigation. The players are investigators who are looking in to some matter determined by the Keeper (GM). The system is built around the idea of 'Clues' that the players must find in order to progress. The Keeper feeds the players the Clues one by one as they try and piece together the puzzle that they have constructed. The interesting thing about this system is that no roll is necessary to get a clue, instead the player need only have the correct investigative skill and say that he or she is using it in order to get the clue. This removes the random element of needing to make a roll to find the ancient tome that is necessary to progress the plot, instead you find it but what you do with it from there is up to you. This system requires quite a bit of Keeper planning but when it is used well it works wonderfully.

The other part of the game (i.e. combat and chase scenes and the like) works differently. You have a pool of points in given skills and when you want to use them you spend a certain number of points and add them to a d6 roll. You then compare your total against a target number and see if you succeed. This system is simple and yet has quite a bit of depth. Since your points only refresh periodically you have to be careful how many you use at any given time.

The sanity system, the staple of any good Cthulhu game, is also done in an interesting way. Sanity is broken into two stats, Sanity and Stability. Sanity is how much you believe that the world works as we are taught it does (i.e. that the laws of physics explain everything and that there aren't evil monsters living on Pluto). You can put points into your Sanity during character creation, but after that it never goes up so you have to watch it carefully. Stability measures how well you appear to function. An evil sorcerer can have a Sanity of 0 but still seem perfectly normal at first glance if he has high enough Stability. Stability works in a manner similar to Health does, only it is damaged by things that are mentally damaging rather than physically. These two skills work very well in tandem during the game.

The book also comes packed full of information about monsters and gods in the Cthulhu Mythos as well as a decent amount of information about the 1930s and a very cool system for giving your players Mental Illnesses in games. If you're interested in a Call of Cthulhu RPG or just a good investigative game I highly recommend picking this book up, it is excellent.

This is both my favorite iteration of the Gumshoe System, as well as my favorite version of any Cthulhu RPG.

The mechanics are light enough they never get in the way of the story (or the gaming). PCs have a high level of competence, never failing at something that supposed to be their area of expertise, yet can still be easily devoured or driven mad by various eldritch abominations. It's not diceless, but the dice come out only when something really dangerous is afoot. It really captures the feel of the source material quite well.

The GM's section on the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods is hands-down the best Cthulhu brainstorming I've ever seen in print. Too many other gaming products have focused on the game stats of Cthulhu and his ilk; Trail of Cthulhu understands that what's interesting is the cosmic truths, the symbolism and metaphor, not how many bullets Nyarlethotep can soak up before he runs out of hit points. Fans of Cthulhu will be blown away by this game's GMing advice.

For fans of Gumshoe, this is also a treat, regardless of what you think of Lovecraft. Trail of Cthulhu does a great job of porting Gumshoe to a less-CSI setting. It has a simplified skill list that's less crime-scene oriented than Esoterrorists, yet not as stripped down or oversimplified as Fear Itself. Optional "Pulp" and "Purist" rules allow you to customize the system to whatever style of game you prefer to run. Breaking Stability out into two stats (Stability and Sanity) allows for greater control (and variation) of player's decent into madness, and NPC Pillars of Sanity and Sources of Stability give you ways to pull them back from the brink. There's tons of useful stuff here for GMs to steal for their own campaigns.

Don't miss the "Idiosyncratic Magic" rules hidden away on pgs 212-213. Though brief, they are the usable framework for a magic system that's playable yet retains a sense that it is creepy and supernatural... as magic should be.