Trail of Cthulhu: Seminar

Friday, I got a quick seminar from Steve Dempsey in running Trail of Cthulhu. I'm not sure I can do it yet, but it makes a little more sense. Here is what I can decipher from my notes:

There's a difference between General and Investigative skills. General skills are used for action. Calibration varies, but figure about 65 points for General skills and 12 for Investigative skills.

_Always_ spend a point if you are offered the opportunity to spend on investigative skills. The GM is offering you a chance to have the limelight.

For GMs: If you're offering a chance to spend, then there must be something cool to find with the spend.

1 point in Bio means a degree in Bio. This means that you are competent even without a Spend.

So, having one point means your PC is good in that skill. Having more than one point is a signal to the GM, saying, "I want my PC to do a lot of this."

Use the chart on page 234 of Trail of Cthulhu (Keeper's Investigator Matrix) to keep track of what players want, what skills are covered by the players. This also helps to spot Schtick Dilution.

Investigative points = SPOTLIGHT TIME. What, How Often. Make it interesting! If it is not interesting, then say there is nothing interesting. In that case, a player can't spend a point here.

A card with "SCENE" written on it: Hold it up to indicate it is the end of the scene. Some players need this.

For General skills, you should have at least 8 points in each of Health, Sanity, and Stability to start with.

Stability varies a lot. It, rather than Sanity, is often under threat. Stress -- give a speech, et cetera -- you _need_ to make people lose their Stability. It's about going mad, and they won't if you don't push it.

• Good investigation
• But the fun of insanity

• Psychoanalysis = Mental First Aid, but must make roll first
• (*)'d (i) = General skills that can be used as investigative skills

For example, one could use Riding and ask, "Who owns these horses?"

Drive = _Why_ your PC doesn't run away.

• Hard vs Soft Drive:
• Hard: Tell player if you don't do X, you lose 4 points of Stability.
• Soft: If they _do_ follow the Drive, 2 points back. Can go over any total.

Pacing: Lets things slow a bit. Time to rest, time for PCs to do other things. Some players would keep investigating if the GM doesn't specify it's time to go to bed!

Sources of Stability:

• These are not essential to the game
• If a person, the PC can talk with him or her to calm down.
• GM can target the person who is the source of stability.
• Ranging over many countries makes it harder to use a person as a source of Stability. But, one still can do this. E.g., PCs can send telegraphs home in a globe-spanning campaign, such as Masks of Nyarlathotep. One can set things up for replacement PCs in this way.

• Pillars of Sanity can also be Ideas.
• For example, one could use the Hippocratic Oath. This is a message to the GM, saying "Challenge me here."
• Are there Shades of Gray?
• These pillars can be destroyed, causing a loss of Sanity.

An idea like "I hate everybody" is not particularly appropriate, but one could still work with it.

• One can say a pillar is destroyed if a PC loses 3 SAN.
• Purist: Sanity never goes up.
• Pulp: It can go up.

General Abilities: a die roll provides excitement because there's some level of uncertainty. If a skill is 4 or more, players rarely spend to make it a certainty

• Refreshes:
• For Investigative skills, this happens at the end of the Adventure, for three pools
  • NOT Health, Stability, or Sanity.
• For General skills, it varies:
  • pays 24 hours after last use
  • after rest or time with source of stability

• What if the pools get too low too soon? Get the PCs to rest, change pace a bit, get them to do something else.
• E.g. watch the pacing. Curb the enthusiasm.

GMs should not kill the PCs via not allowing a rest without unfortunate consequences. Use your knowledge of what is coming to pace. 24 hours for a Refresh? Be as strict -- or as lenient -- as necessary. It's okay if it isn't exactly 24 hours.

General Abilities -- piggyback cooperation Stealth Roll -> Piggy back 1 point per. If 0, then the roller pays extra point. Maybe do rolls less often than in CoC, E.g., 1 stealth roll per _long_ sequence.

[This is essential, as the sort of thing one might as well try in a CoC game, like, say, a Bargain roll, costs a Spend in Trail of Cthulhu, changing one's strategy.]

What is the conflict _really_ about? For example, if a PC decides to shoot himself, it may really be about whether the other PCs stop him. In that case, one wants to use Athletics, not shooting.

Trail is all about player pacing. Make the _players_ do the die rolls. This is why monsters don't have much in the way of stats.

A contest of skills is different, but _players_ roll to Sneak / Detection, which is why NPCs don't have much in these skills.

An Interesting Core Clue is not necessarily what is going on, but a _lead_ -- a pointer. This is not a reveal, often supplementing clue is the extra info. What to spend on?

Core Clue is what will get you to the End of the Adventure. But this could be: "They are going to summon Dagon! Now, what?"

• Newer players hold onto points. Experienced players spend when given opportunity and are more inventive. For example, a PC finds an Arabic book, but spent everything in the language, so now spends Credit Rating to hire a translator.
• E.g., Graham Walmsley gives several different ways X clue can be revealed.

Remember, it is okay to give guidance for Core Clues. E.g., "You know a translator from your last trip to Egypt."

• Tell players: Don't be afraid to spend points.
• No dud results. They paid the point, so there must be something worth it.

• Benefits - player driven to spend points
• E.g., Book X gives 2 points occult, just for protections spells only

• Supplemental clues - partial info for 1 point. A lot for 2.
• What if one only puts one point into it?
• It's Supplemental, sure, but one wants it to come out? Alternate means, use contacts.
• When a contact is used, the player must give a name to the contact.
• This way, the GM can say, "X, your contact, comes to _you_ for information, because she helped you get away with Y."

Madness: his players have a copy of table of Stability losses. Let _them_ choose when to lose Stability. But sometimes players get wrapped up and forget, though they are honest.

If you have a long scenario, break it into chunks, and do a refresh before each chunk. E.g., after the London section in Masks. There won't be enough points otherwise.

A reveal costs. There is no way out of the cost, but one is getting the information, so the reveal should be good.

• Cthulhu Mythos generally shouldn't be used as core clue. Not everyone has it.
• Seeing a deity, p. 86 -- Mythos Entity Table.