You uncover mysteries in dusty libraries and bloody crime scenes. You walk the mean streets of Chicago or hack through the jungles of the South Pacific. You battle vile cults, or recoil in terror at the alien enormities they worship. You follow the clues wherever they lead, whatever the cost in life or sanity. But do you dare to follow – the Trail of Cthulhu?
Trail of Cthulhu is a complete game of investigative horror set in the 1930s based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. The game uses an adapted and enlarged version of GUMSHOE, a rules system that offers a laser-like focus on investigation, and encourages characters driven to explore and investigate, even at the expense of their own health and sanity.
- Sanity measures your blissful ignorance of the true nature of reality, and Stability defines your mental health.
- Investigative abilities such as Cop Talk, Interrogation, and Occult help you find the awful crypt and maybe even tell you what you might find there; Drives such as In the Blood and Arrogance compel your character into that crypt at night; and General abilities such as Sense Trouble, Filch, and Scuffling get you out again.
- Tune the rules for Purist cosmic despair or lurid two-gun Pulp.
- This core rulebook includes three exciting campaign frames (tweedy academics, jut-jawed G-Men, and grimy traffickers in the eldritch) plus "The Kingsbury Horror," a complete introductory adventure.
(Note: In October 2024 Pelgrane Press crowdfunded Trail of Cthulhu Second Edition, which rises inexorably in 2026. All First Edition supplements and scenarios are wholly compatible with the 2E rulebook. The new edition adds character creation templates, new ability spends, new campaign frames and introductory adventures, and an expanded guide to the Mythos. As a convenience to customers, we include the free Second Edition Quickstart.)
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