Trail of Cthulhu – Clues on the Fly

The nature of Trail lends itself to carefully planned, highly detailed adventures. The investigators analyse each clue, each location and object in forensic detail, deploying their highly specialised investigative abilities to ferret out the tell-tale clue.  Trail scenarios support this by providing lots of suggested nuggets of information the players can pick up.

However, the game can also be played in a highly improvisational, unscripted fashion (I see you, Armitage Files), which requires the GM to figure out clues on the fly. And even a preplanned adventure benefits from agility and flexibility when it comes to giving out information. Some tips on coming up with clues on the fly:

Remember Your Leads-Out: In a pre-written scenario, each scene lists potential follow-on encounters. Even in an improvised scenario, you need to know where the players might go next – the promise of GUMSHOE is that the players always have a lead to follow. So, always keep in mind where the story goes next. If you’re not sure what information to give, give a clue that leads to the next scene.

Other Vital Information: The trick with clues-on-the-fly is not being too generous. A published scenario deals out clues carefully, hinting at and orbiting the final mystery without giving it away early. Keep track of where you are in the scenario – if you’re still in the early scenes, then you want to foreshadow and hint and suggest. Don’t give away too much early on. Later, you can be more forthcoming.

Say you’re running a scenario where the final revelation is that the villain has been dead for some time, and is keeping themselves alive through scientific necromancy, Cool Air style. Early in the scenario, you might drop in clues that hint at odd temperature changes (the metal handle’s weirdly cold to the touch) or that bolster the reputation of the villain (everyone in the speakeasy’s too scared to talk about Boss McGruder) or hint at medical weirdness (Library Use: there’s a bunch of medical textbooks on a shelf). Later, be more explicit (Chemistry: those are jars of liquid nitrogen! Criminology: you find a police report where McGruder’s car drove off the East River bridge! No body was ever recovered, but the water was freezing cold – nothing could have survived!)

Unsettling Details: If you’re stuck, you can always drop in moments of disconcerting weirdness that don’t lead anywhere, but feel weirdly significant. These should be thematically linked to the central mystery, but don’t need to be logically linked to it. In the case of our cryo-zombie mob boss, then you might drop in clues like:

• Oral History: You question the only guy on the street – a delivery-man delivering blocks of ice – but he hasn’t seen anything out of the ordinary.
• Accounting: Going through McGruder’s books, he’s got some very large recent expenses – but you can’t find out where the money’s going.
• Forensics: The corpse shows signs of being brutally pummelled to death. Whoever did this must have really injured themselves if they did it with their bare hands.

Red Herrings: It’s always a danger when coming up with clues on the fly that you accidentally misdirect the players. You drop what you think is a minor bit of unsettling flavour, and suddenly the players are chasing after the ice-delivery guy with murderous intent. If the players go off-piste like this, then ask yourself: is there a way to get them back on track quickly in the NEXT scene? If you can see a neat way to turn the red herring into an alternate route through the scenario, do it (under Interrogation, the ice delivery guy admits that he was told to say nothing; there’s a guy who lives nearby, a really tough guy, who orders tons and tons of ice, and then you move McGruber’s lair from under the speakeasy to a suburban house).

Otherwise, use Assess Honesty and other investigative abilities to confirm to the players that they’ve followed this lead as far as it can go. (Assess Honesty: The delivery guy says he knows nothing, and you’re sure he’s telling the truth. It’s a dead end.)