The Trail of Cthulhu

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 HP Lovecraft. The game uses an adapted and enlarged version of GUMSHOE system which offers a laser-like focus on investigation, with characters driven to explore and investigate, even at the expense of their own health and sanity.

Using the revolutionary GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying system, this game features:

• Sanity which measures your blissful ignorance of the true nature of reality, and Stability which defines how robust your mental health is.
• Investigative abilities such as Cop Talk, Interrogation and Occult which help you find the awful crypt, and maybe even tell you what you might find there.
• Drives such as In the Blood and Arrogance to get your character into that crypt at night.
• General skills such as Sense Trouble, Filch and Scuffling to get you out again.

Keepers are offered:

• Rules you can tune to Purist cosmic despair, or to lurid two-gun Pulp
• Comprehensive support for adventure and campaign creation, as well as suggestions for improvisation.
• Three exciting campaign frames, for tweedy academics, jut-jawed G-men, or grimy traffickers in the eldritch, plus "The Kingsbury Horror," a complete introductory adventure.
• Techniques to run the game and maintain the atmosphere of mystery and malice.

And we reveal a new view of the Mythos:

• Gods, tomes, and magic, presented with mystery and drama in mind, and including Cthulhoid lore never before revealed in any game
• Alien races, including their spoor, their killing techniques, and the forensic clues their victims reveal.
• The original grim horror setting - the 1930s - set against depression, looming war and totalitarianism.

Related Links

• Download a completed character sheet.
• Download a blank character sheet and other forms as a small PDF.
• Read the development blog.
• See interviews