Trail of Cthulhu - my first experiences

[Plane Sailing]

One thing that I found hard to get my head around the first time I played gumshoe system as a player (so I made a special effort to explain it clearly to my new player) was the difference between the investigative abilities and the general abilities. They look pretty much the same on the character sheet, but are used in dramatically different ways.

The investigative abilities are there to enable you to pick up clues. You don't roll anything, and you can often make an extra spend of points to get extra clues.

The general abilities are a resource pot to improve your chance of making general skill rolls (and they nearly always are a case of improving a roll). They improve your chance of making a roll, but they WILL run out.

The nice thing about general skills running out is that resources are getting tighter as you near the climax of the adventure, which works well from a drama point of view.

But it is important for characters to grasp that although they look the same on the sheet the general and investigative abilities have different purposes, different usages and different mechanisms.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

I think I will be getting this. After checking it out a bit more and reading here. It sounds awesome.

There are so many rpgs I wish I had time and money to try. This rather seems like one of them.

I really can't recommend it highly enough - its a pleasure to read and a blast to play!

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another element about this game which distances it from D&D and BRP is that there are no attributes for the character - no strength, intelligence etc. just your skills.

Although it seemed odd at first, it has actually proved very natural in play (and has removed a whole category of power gamer optimisations along the way!)

Cheers

 

[Crothian]

It is a very good game, I played at Gen Con with Keeper of Secrets as GM. I really like the fit with the themes of Cthulhu and they make some great adventures and books for the game.

 

[Plane Sailing]

It is a very good game, I played at Gen Con with Keeper of Secrets as GM. I really like the fit with the themes of Cthulhu and they make some great adventures and books for the game.

I've been thinking of picking up one or two adventures designed for the system - are there any which you can particularly recommend from experience?

Cheers

 

[Crothian]

At Gen Con we did Castle Bravo and it was great. I do have a weakness though for historical gaming.

"It’s March 1954. The Investigators are sailors and scientists deployed aboard the USS Bairoko to the South Pacific as part of Joint Task Force One to participate in a series of secret thermonuclear test shots in the Bikini atoll called Operation Castle. After the first detonation, the PCs will have more than just radiation to fear…"

They also have a cool book called Bookhounds of London that is just so full of flavor and detail. It is one of those books that I had four different people at different times tell me if I bought one book at Gen Con it should be Bookhounds of London. They were not wrong.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Castle Bravo sounds particularly interesting (I've also been tempted by The Armitage Files). I do like tales which are interwoven with real events. I've heard great things of a game devised and run by KidCthulhu simply called 'Kursk'.

 

[Crothian]

Shadows over Filmland is also pretty amazing if you happen to be a fan of the old monster movies like I am. Each adventure in there is heavily inspired by or can even be played as a sequel to some of those great old films. I've been tempted to prep one and then have people over to watch a movie and then have an adventure that picks up after the credits.

 

[Eryndur]

Can those who've played ToC tell me their opinion on running classic CoC adventures using the new rule set? I've had a yen to run Masks of Nyarlathotep and/or Horror on the Orient Express, but I was never a huge BRP fan. Would conversion to Gumshoe be a chore?

 

[Crothian]

It would take some work but it wouldn't surprise if people are already doing it on line somewhere. The biggest thing a GM needs to do with Gumshoe is make sure there are clues and always more then just the basic clue as character can spend points to learn more.