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Investigative gaming can rub people the wrong way. Many roleplayers who place a high value on personal freedom - certainly a number approaching all of us - view solving mysteries as merely following a trail of breadcrumbs that the GM has laid out. The trail may be long, wind through interesting places, and even branch out before taking us to the conclusion, but in the back of our minds, we understand that the distance to railroading is perilously close.

The Armitage Files campaign chucks these truths out the window.

Simply put, it is a sandbox investigation for Trail of Cthulhu. It would work especially well with the Armitage Inquiry, one of the campaign frameworks listed in the core book, where a group of Miskatonic University students and faculty confront the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. However, its near-generic utility and marvelous novelty make it an example of how to run a improvisational game for nearly any system.

The Props

The campaign is structured around a collection of ten documents evidently written by Professor Henry Armitage, beginning in some point in the future and proceeding through a Lovecraftian apocalypse. In the course of examining the leads contained in each one, the group seeks to prevent these events from unfolding. However, the book is silent as to the motives and truths behind the people and groups involved. Based on the concepts that appeal most to the investigators, and the whims of the Keeper, each campaign will take a different course.

The book itself is printed in glossy paper, and the handouts are a majority of the book. They are presented in basic text form as well as suitably unnerving graphical format, replete with shaky handwriting, corrections and errors, and odd doodles here and there. As warnings set back to the past, they reference several locations, personalities and groups which Armitage encountered on the way to armageddon.

About the only thing that is scripted is the arrival of the first document. The party can establish that it is genuine, and glean a little bit about the upcoming danger. The opinions of other scholars at Miskatonic are noted, and can be used to sow conflict among the party's benefactors if desired. After reading the first document, the group will have three potential avenues of investigation, and it it up to them to decide where to start.

Whenever the Keeper deems it prudent, a new document turns up, leading to a new set of potential leads. This is a nice way to maintain interest between gaming sessions, while saving face time for actual play, as players can digest their contents and decide what to investigate between meetings. And player input is vital, since there is no definitive explanation of what leads to the future Armitage has suffered through. The Keeper has complete freedom to follow her own instincts, or those of the players, with whatever amount of planning desired (including none). One game may have the plots and actors completely mapped out beforehand, while another can simply unfold with each session.

The Support

This sounds incredibly daunting - I don't feel I have the chops to run it without more experience (making this a capsule review, I suppose). To aid Keepers like me, the first half of the book references all of the leads mentioned in the files. Organizations and people get the stats they need and a short description for using them as heroes, villains, or neutral parties. Stock locations have similarly unaffiliated or sinister writeups, dependent on the mood a Keeper wants. Mythos implements can be major, minor, or completely fraudulent as well. Given the freeform nature of GUMSHOE stats, it would be trivial to adapt this material to another game system, as well as to use the materials here in a Trail of Cthulhu campaign not specifically designed around the files.

There is also advice for players and keepers on how to wing these sessions, as well as some actual play examples to get the ball rolling. A number of excellent campaign writeups appear in this site's forums as well as in other places on the web. It's important to note that this will be a more collaborative process than most other campaigns, especially in the realm of traditional rpgs. Fortunately, there is plenty of assistance towards this goal.

Problems?

It's hard to fault a book this ambitious. About the only criticism I have heard is that non-native readers of English will have difficulty puzzling through some of the handwritten props (plain text versions are available for the props, but they are nowhere as cool-looking). Really, the only thing which might give a buyer pause is whether he would want to play or run an improvisational game. For one thing, there are no actual clues that link scenes and actors - GMs who like to construct their mysteries might feel compelled to do more work than will be necessary. Another potential issue is be the possibility of too many red herrings, owing to the potential number of suspects in the campaign.

Conclusion

I know of no other books like this one. I hope this is not the case for long.

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