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The Good: The clue system results in every player getting interesting, character appropriate pieces of the overall puzzle. The tone of the product is incredible, with excellent writing alongside fresh, new interpretations of the Mythos to play with.
The Bad: For non-investigative aspects of a game the system is very bare bones, with nothing more than a die roll + purchased modifier to resolve everything. My group found the hardcore character option to still be too powerful for the setting. At its core, the idea of providing clues based on investigative Abilities may be unnecessary for many groups or easy to include in more robust systems using existing character stats.
The Physical Thing
At $39.95 this 248 page high quality hardcover showcases top notch production values for the cost. While it isn't full color, the mix of black and white photos with subtle use of green and gold result in an extremely atmospheric work that constantly pushes the reader's mind into the setting. The artwork is evocative of the Mythos, with a mix of era-specific scenes and otherworldly monsters decorating the interior. The solid index proved to be a useful tool in play.Under the Cover
Lovecraft's Mythos, a loosely connected group of stories created by Lovecraft and other authors, has been featured in RPGs for a long time now. Those interested in the setting should look to my review of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, or to another website, for more information on the setting. In short, it's one of horror where the frightening elements tend to come from things humanity isn't prepared to understand. The setting assumes the universe operates using rules we simply haven't divined, often involving strange mathematics and a system seemingly equivalent to magic. Often protagonists do not survive discoveries of what is really going on, due to injury or madness, though this isn't as common as popular commentary makes it out to be.The book is broadly split into system and setting, so let's dive into the mechanics of this game before discussing its innovative approach to the Mythos. The system is best considered two different systems that have largely been married, with some overlap. Abilities have a rating, typically anywhere from 1 to 15, and an Ability's rating becomes a pool of points that may be used to aid in play. For General Abilities, including those used in combat and other complex tasks, these are spent to add directly to a 1d6 die roll in order to beat a set difficulty number (typically 2 to 8). For Investigative Abilities these points are spent to buy clues, typically 1 or 2 points at a time, though some Abilities will overlap the two pools.
To an extent, this is the whole of the system. There are a variety of other smaller bells and whistles, but ultimately it comes down to players deciding when their characters succeed at something and when it isn't worth pouring points out of a pool. Pools are refreshed in play due to various events, such as rest or research, and some actions can result in specialty pools meant for certain tasks. For example, a helpful history reference book might have its own pool of 2 points of History to aid the characters in solving a mystery. One point should be clearly stated here, which is that if you prefer games with a moderate to high degree of complexity then you will not enjoy Trail of Cthulhu. This game shines in more of a parlor atmosphere where more focus is being placed on in-character dialogue and less on active use of the rules.
To better illustrate the system as a whole let's walk through character creation. I'm building Dr. Giles Walker, a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Virginia (1931) who was used in my short campaign. I begin by choosing an Occupation from a lengthy and helpful list, in this case that of Professor. Two campaign options, pulp and purist, are offered and various optional rules for each are included throughout character generation and the rest of the book. I note that Professor is considered particularly appropriate for a purist game, which is great since that's exactly the type of game being run.
Professor sets the Credit Rating range for the character at 3 to 5, so it will begin at 3 and can be cheaply purchased up to 5 with points. Professor also establishes the benefits a Professor investigator has access to, in this case closed library stacks, private archives, and research labs. Finally, Professor also establishes Occupational Abilities for the character which are predominantly Investigative Abilities which a character may purchase at a 2 for 1 rate. In this case the Professor receives Bureaucracy, Languages, Library Use, any Interpersonal Ability (Flattery), and any three Academic Abilities (Astronomy, Chemistry, and Physics).
Among Investigative Abilities the Professor spends 16 points (determined because this is a 4 player game, smaller groups receive more points to cover all areas) and ends up with Astronomy 5, Chemistry 3, Physics 3, Flattery 3, Library Use 3, Bureaucracy 2, German 3, Latin 2. That's 24 points spent on Occupational Abilities, and therefore is only 12 of my 16 points spent. I drop the last four into Photography 1, Geology 1, Biology 1, and Reassurance 1. This results in a character who is clearly focused on the sciences, but has a little bit of flexibility outside of that role.
Characters then receive 65 points to spend on General Abilities. For my game we took the book's advice to drop the points down to 60 for a harsher game, though after some play I can say that I will drop it down further for any future games. The Professor begins with 1 point for free in Stability and Health (mental and physical hit points) as well as 4 points of Sanity. Sanity is capped by Cthulhu Mythos knowledge, but starting out Dr. Walker has no such knowledge. He invests heavily into Stability, taking it to the cap of 12 placed on purist games. Health is increased to 8 to represent a fit but aging man, and Sanity is bought up to 8 as well to reflect a person with a strong mind but who has lived through plenty of tragedies. 22 of 60 points are gone.
Athletics, a key Ability in avoiding being hurt, is completely ignored in favor of Fleeing which is purchased at a 2 for 1 rate so long as it's higher than Athletics. Fleeing is bought at 20 for 10 points, leaving 28 points. Scuffling 2, Sense Trouble 8, Preparedness 12, Mechanical Repair 2, Electrical Repair 3, and Explosives 1 round out Dr. Walker's Ability set. He's excellent at running away, generally well prepared for the problems he notices, and has had some opportunity to put his scientific knowledge to practice in the field.
The only remaining factor in character creation is to choose a Drive for Dr. Walker. Drives are both a stick and a carrot for the GM, as they can take away or reward small amounts of Stability depending on whether or not a character is in correspondence with their Drive. For Dr. Walker we choose In The Blood, a Drive that reflects his family's dark history with the Mythos. In this case, his father was his inspiration to become an astronomer but also disappeared under mysterious circumstances after the meteor shower of '08.
There are plenty of subsystems to complement the simple resolution system, but I find them to be intuitive enough that little reference is necessary even in the first session of play. Combat amounts to opposed rolls, damage modified based on weapon, and injury in the form of lost Health. Some may find that damage from combat along with the healing power of First Aid to be a little unfrightening, as even average characters can survive several gunshots with little disadvantage. Fortunately, Trail of Cthulhu acknowledges that the system is meant to be tweaked for a given group and feel and offers plenty of advice to make the game harsher for those who want it. I admire this aspect of the game, as instead of insisting on what “reality” is truly like it simply offers alternatives for those that don't approve of the system as written. This is especially appropriate in light of the fact that some people will be running this with more of a pulp feel while others are running it with a purist feel.
What's incredible about Trail of Cthulhu is the large amount of good content found here. While we have equipment lists, a very descriptive sample adventure, and an excellent mix of plot hooks, Trail of Cthulhu also offers a detailed bestiary along with lots of suggestions of different ways to incorporate Mythos entities into a Trail of Cthulhu game. I was particularly drawn in by some of the interpretations of these entities. Each of the big names, such as Cthulhu, receives a variety of different interpretations one of which is that they're an aspect of the known forces of the universe. Cthulhu, for example, may be the embodiment of gravity. Seen in this light, these entities could be presented in a campaign as part of the natural (if sanity destroying) order of things.
Even for those that want to use Elder Gods in all their purity, there's a lot to love in the Bestiary here. Each Mythos entity is presented alongside a solid list of different Abilities and the clues characters are likely to receive when using them. This is an excellent GM aid and serves to make adventure creation much easier, especially given how intimidating the clue system can be at first.
In play I was concerned that my traditional style of low prep freeform gaming would have trouble with the GUMSHOE clue system included here, as making certain there are clues for different characters at first seemed challenging. I quickly discovered that this was not an obstacle at all, and so long as I had a good idea of how the incident being investigated went down it was very easy to constantly push new clues through different Investigative Abilities. In fact, I found that the game worked spectacularly well with this style as the nature of these Abilities encouraged me to constantly engage each of the players thereby resulting in a mystery that was continuously moving forward to its PC driven conclusion. My play experiences have been far more satisfying than I would have expected, though my group has largely avoided physical conflict whenever possible.
My Take
While I felt Esoterrorists, the first presentation of the GUMSHOE system, had some issues I can comfortably say that Trail of Cthulhu is an excellent evolution of the ideas present in Esoterrorists. In particular, this incarnation is very flexible with GM desires, has a clear play goal in mind, and benefits from even more play and thought on this interesting system. While some of my gaming group members expressed a lack of interest in the system, as they felt like FATE or PDQ could already offer a similar experience, everyone had a great time with Trail and would happily play it again.This is a good option for a group that wants a very rules light framework around which to tell stories, wherein each character has a distinct role in the investigation process. Those who are already happy with a system that does something similar may not take a lot away from Trail in terms of system, but as an overall work it's hard to beat the quality found here.
