Happy Anniversary of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's Death! Morbid, I know, but I really feel the now-esteemed writer of cosmic horror would enjoy us celebrating his eventual demise as much as his birth. So much of his work centers on the end of his protagonists, straight jacketed or daisy-pushing. To that end I shall spend the day by reviewing
Trail of Cthulhu, a role-playing game which pays loving homage to the horror writer's works and the body of Mythos fiction which he inspired.
Trail of Cthulhu was written by Kenneth Hite, a devotee of H.P.L. in his own right, and published by Pelgrane Press. The book has been around since 2008, and has been faithfully and consistently supported by a slew of adventures, campaign frameworks, and supplements.
Trail of Cthulhu does not pretend that it has no relation to Call of Cthulhu. The opposite actually, it seeks to update the classic for a slightly different audience, to the point that Chaosium, the original publisher, has officially licensed it.
The core of the game is based around the Robin Laws' Gumshoe system. The main tenet of this system is
