Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
So, I've just run my first game of Trail of Cthulhu tonight - and it went well!
I've played in just one Gumshoe-based game before (Nights Black Agents) and I own and have read Ashen Stars, but Trail of Cthulhu is the first Gumshoe game I've run.
Now, given that I was running the adventure from the back of the rulebook (which I don't believe is particularly highly regarded), and only had 30 mins prep, and only one player... it still went really well.
The single character, a journalist, lost a lot of sanity and bucketloads of stability along the way. One of his pillars of sanity - the essential humanity of man - crumbled away in the process of what he learned, and eventually led to him leading a hobo gang to their death as a deliberate ploy to foil the earth-shaking plot. I think his stability ended up at about -9, but along the way the investigation parts of the adventure, and the gradually increasing supernatural element worked well.
There was also a nice rhythm between moving around the seedy side of town and research in the library and museums.
My player got thoroughly involved, and really enjoyed the experience - the investigation, the mounting tension, a real sense of desperate horror and fighting against inevitability.
I'll certainly run adventures with Trail of Cthulhu again, and I'm starting to get some ideas together for potentials.
Have you had any experiences of Trail of Cthulhu as Keeper or Player that you'd like to share?
I've played in just one Gumshoe-based game before (Nights Black Agents) and I own and have read Ashen Stars, but Trail of Cthulhu is the first Gumshoe game I've run.
Now, given that I was running the adventure from the back of the rulebook (which I don't believe is particularly highly regarded), and only had 30 mins prep, and only one player... it still went really well.
The single character, a journalist, lost a lot of sanity and bucketloads of stability along the way. One of his pillars of sanity - the essential humanity of man - crumbled away in the process of what he learned, and eventually led to him leading a hobo gang to their death as a deliberate ploy to foil the earth-shaking plot. I think his stability ended up at about -9, but along the way the investigation parts of the adventure, and the gradually increasing supernatural element worked well.
There was also a nice rhythm between moving around the seedy side of town and research in the library and museums.
My player got thoroughly involved, and really enjoyed the experience - the investigation, the mounting tension, a real sense of desperate horror and fighting against inevitability.
I'll certainly run adventures with Trail of Cthulhu again, and I'm starting to get some ideas together for potentials.
Have you had any experiences of Trail of Cthulhu as Keeper or Player that you'd like to share?