Trail of Cthulhu - The Campaign Begins!

This weekend I kicked off my latest campaign. It's in the "Bookhounds of London" setting for "Trail of Cthulhu". This campaign takes place in London, 1935.

The session lasted roughly four hours and the first two and a half were spent on setting things up. First was character creation, something we didn't rush, especially with most of the group being totally new to this system. We have a great cast of characters...the Bookseller (owner of the bookshop and party leader), the Book Scout (dodgy acquirer of books), the Catalogue Agent (think of Johnny Depp in "The Ninth Gate"), the Occultist (enough said), the Antiquarian (museum contact and part-time employee), the Forger (again,enough said) and a Private Investigator (unusually the one with morals).

Next we created the Bookshop itself. This was a collaborative exercise for us all,with the Bookseller having final say on some decisions. We came up with a name ("Marlowe & Sons"), physical description of the store, its location (Soho), main lines of business, clientele and rivals. This was great fun and gave me,as a gamesmaster, lots of hooks and material to work into the sessions I already have outlined. It was also a pleasure to see how everyone contributed with great ideas. It's a very effective way to get the players invested in the setting itself, as they've created so much of it. This is definitely an exercise I'll embrace in future campaigns.

I then turned over the names of the investigation stories that I'd created loose frameworks for, along with a one-line intro. The group could choose which one to start with,and the order in which the others will be played.Again, a bit of a gimmick, but it gives the group some ownership and helps me plan things out and get a sense in advance of how the sessions may flow. They were offered "Dust to Dust","The Poe Ritual","Lot 666","When The Wind Blows" and "The Seance". They went for the Poe story which was a really good choice for a starter.

We managed to get a solid hour or so of gaming in so they could get a feel for their characters and I'd say we got halfway through "The Poe Ritual". I really enjoyed the system,setting and group dynamic. That being said, as usual, the system was really there as a backup for the story, something that I prefer and encourage. I like the feel of "Trail of Cthulhu" and look forward to using it in other settings. If you like Cthulhu games with more emphasis on the investigation and storyline side of things, do give it a try.