Pyramid Pick
Trail of Cthulhu: A Horror Game Powered By the GUMSHOE System
Published by Pelgrane Press
Written by Kenneth Hite
Cover & Illustrations by Jérôme Huguenin
240-page two-color hardcover; $39.95
Trail of Cthulhu is several things. First it is a licensed adaptation of Call of Cthulhu for the GUMSHOE System first seen in Robin D. Laws' The Esoterroists. Second, just as it is the third GUMSHOE System RPG, Trail of Cthulhu is also the third RPG to do Lovecraftian investigative horror. Third, rather than being set in Call of Cthulhu's Classic Era of the 1920s, Trail of Cthulhu is set in the following decade, thus preempting the publication of Pulp Cthulhu by several years. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, it is the first and only RPG to be written by Ken Hite. And if ever there was a games writer spawned to author a game of Lovecraftian horror, it is surely Kenneth Hite.
What the GUMSHOE System does is force the players to concentrate on clue discovery and analysis in investigative scenarios rather than on rolling for them. If an investigator possesses the relevant Ability, he gains relevant clues, but extra information can be gained by spending further points from the applicable Ability pool. Investigators are defined by two Ability types -- Investigative (divided into Academic, Interpersonal, and Technical) and General. Both Ability types work as pools of points, but while Investigative Ability points are spent to acquire clues, General Ability points are spent to modify . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: March 28, 2008
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