Call of Chicago: Trail of Cthulhu Today

“The more Zamacona studied these things, the more apprehensive about the future he became; because he saw that the omnipresent moral and intellectual disintegration was a tremendously deep-seated and ominously accelerating movement.”

—“The Mound”

 

Outside his early Dunsanian works, and the anomalous “The Tree,” Lovecraft sets his stories in his own time, his own milieu. His horrors were resolutely contemporary, drawing on cutting-edge science, current political trends (from eugenics to “fascistic socialism”), and the inhuman rise of Modernist architecture. They occur against backdrops of urbanization, economic depression, and exploration familiar to his readers from their own lives and from that day’s headlines. And yet, our Lovecraftian games (for the most part) flinch from such decisions, setting them in Lovecraft’s lifetime instead of our own times.

But that aesthetic choice is just that: a choice. The threats and horrors of the Mythos have not diminished as our species continues to piece together dissociated knowledges, a task increasingly performed by inhuman semi-intelligences that we fear as much as the Elder Things ever did their shoggoth sub-creations. People who loudly claim that the sight of Cthulhu or the knowledge of Yog-Sothoth would not unhinge them seem to drive themselves into frothing insanity over a lost election or a cancelled superhero movie. The end times grow ever closer, seen in fragments in weather reports and in social media posts. Every day we become more and more like unto the Great Old Ones, free and wild and beyond good and evil.

Which makes this a great time in which to set Trail of Cthulhu games!

Trail of Cthulhu Today: Character Creation

2020s Investigators begin with the same points budget as regular Trail of Cthulhu characters, including 4 free points in each of Health, Sanity, and Stability. Ignore Credit Rating; social class has eroded between bands even as it has stratified between the extremes. Simply decide your character’s appropriate wealth level for the fiction: contract coder living hand-to-mouth or billionaire software founder? As in regular Trail games, characters in parlous economic straits are easier to threaten, and thus make for richer horror play: consider capping resources at “middle class precariat” for Purist games.

New Occupations tuned for 2020s investigative horror adventure play appear in another Call of Chicago column, “Postmodern Occupations.” That column also covers 2020s modifications to corebook Occupations. 

Abilities Today

Some Trail of Cthulhu abilities have shifted in application in the intervening nine decades. GMs particularly insistent that the same ability shouldn’t cover both installing plumbing and building motherboards may want to split Mechanics into Mechanics and Electronics. Or not: the question isn’t “do real people have such broad abilities” but “do characters in contemporary investigative fiction have such broad abilities.”

Library Use still applies only to physical archives. The default for any Investigative ability is to check the Internet for information, so there’s no Internet Research ability or the like. To pull up a building plan online, use Architecture. To assemble a social media profile, use Oral History (gossip, but make it tech).

Photography includes basic videography and video editing, but for anything punchy or persuasive, use Art (Video). It also covers photo-interpretation, making sense out of a satellite or surveillance image.

Outdoor Survival is now just Survival. When you take your first point in Survival, choose whether this represents traditional outdoor survival or urban survival, the ability to stay (mostly) fed and (somewhat) warm on the streets of a large city. Investigators with Survival 2 can survive in either environment (or the player can double down on their initial pick).

Psychoanalysis keeps its name but it has moved ever farther from Freudian practice. As always, no formal licensing is required to take this ability, only to charge for it in an office environment.

Riding includes bicycling, and in most campaigns only includes horses and other animal mounts after Riding 4.

This setting adds two new Investigative abilities.

Computers (Technical)

You can use modern computer technology comfortably and adeptly. You can:

• spot signs of hacking, malware, and viruses and trace them to their source
• identify the purpose of computer code and the distinctive choices of particular software engineers
• gain access to systems and information that security systems are meant to keep you out of
• distinguish genuine social media communications from content created by bots and troll farms
• build a tailored social media profile, website, etc., or conceal your own
• code a given program or subroutine for a specific purpose (data analysis, ad hoc security, etc.)
• understand the practices of Internet and computer firms
• stay familiar with all Internet memes

Like Locksmithing, this ability exists to get Investigators through barriers to waiting clues. If your campaign involves testing cybernetic wits against the NSA or Mossad, or takes place in a competitive tech environment, you probably need Digital Intrusion (Night’s Black Agents, p. 28) as well. But it probably doesn’t.

Electronic Surveillance (Technical)

You’re adept at the use of sound and video recording equipment to gather intelligence. Given proper gear, you can:

• trace phone calls and GPS signals
• plant secret listening devices or hidden cameras
• create ad hoc listening devices using cell phones or other street technology
• locate secret listening devices, sensors, or cameras planted by others
• make high-quality audio and video recordings
• enhance the quality of audio and video recordings, isolating chosen sounds or images

Discovering a bug on someone else is often a free core clue; discovering a bug planted on yourself or your fellow agents usually requires a 1-point spend of Electronic Surveillance or a Conceal test.

Trail of Cthulhu Today: Wonderful Toys

By far the biggest change to horror gaming in the 2020s centers on the smart phone. Almost every Investigator has, in their pocket, a surprisingly good camera (still and video), a detailed map (and aerial photo) of the area, communications with everyone from Intimate Correspondents to the cops, a useful flashlight, and possible answers to anything from “what constellation is overhead right now” to “what does that sign say.” (Characters with Astronomy still get the clue faster than those who have to look a star map up on their phone, if only because they’re better at using in-the-sky.org than their fellows.) Let the players feel smart and flexible for as long as you can: many Mythos phenomena surely disrupt phones, but that’s a crutch not a solution. Save “your phone is out” for final confrontations, not investigative scenes.

Toxins Today

Fentanyl: Onset: injected or inhaled, 2d6 minutes; Test: Difficulty 5 Health; Minor: –5 Athletics, Hurt, lasts 2 hours; Severe: d+0 damage, unconsciousness, lasts 6 hours

LSD or MDMA: Onset: usually ingested, 30-90 minutes; Test: Difficulty 6 Stability; Minor: –3 Athletics, Shaken, lasts 10 mins (or 3 rounds); Severe: sensory distortion and distraction, Shaken, +3 to all Difficulties, lasts d+5 hours.

Tear Gas: Onset: inhaled or eye contact, one round; Test: Difficulty 5 Health; Minor: –2 Athletics, all tasks requiring vision take 1 extra spend, lasts until exposure ends; Severe: –4 Athletics, Hurt, all physical spends only half as effective (e.g., spend 2 Hand-to-Hand, get +1 on the die), blindness (all visual Difficulties, including combat, increase by +2), lasts until 5 minutes after exposure ends.

Gear Today

These items only scratch the surface of what’s available to even normie civilian Investigators in the age of Amazon. Duct tape, road flares, bike locks, chemlight glow sticks, Makita power drills, and even chainsaws don’t necessarily rise to the level of requiring a Preparedness test if you’ve got the trunk of your car handy.

Bulletproof Vest: Modern ballistic cloth materials that can be worn under jackets or other loose clothing reduce each instance of damage from bullets by 2 points. Light but obvious body armor, such as the tactical Kevlar vests worn by police officers, reduces each instance of damage from bullets by 3 points and from cutting and stabbing weapons (knives, swords, talons) by 2 points. If a gunshot to either type of armor would drop the wearer to Seriously Wounded, re-roll damage and take the lower result.

Drone: Flying or driving a UAV or RPV uses a slot from Piloting or Driving, just like any other type of vehicle. Modern civilian drones generally have a flight/drive time of around half an hour depending on weight, giving an effective range of 10-15 miles there and back. Even a basic drone has a GoPro or similar light Wi-Fi camera on board. Other drones can carry (or be modified to carry with a Mechanics test) specialized sensors, electronic jammers, incendiaries, or anything else player creativity can think up.

Fiberoptic Scope: This fiberoptic cable connects to a tiny (2.5mm) passive video camera at one end, and plugs into a transmitter or video display at the other. Any Investigator with Electronic Surveillance (or Medicine) can snake the cable under doors, through pipes or conduits, etc., and observe the interior space. Spotting a fiberscope uses Notice (if its presence is a core clue) or Sense Trouble (if not).

GPS Tracker: These quarter-sized discs send a GPS location signal through the local cellular net to a receiver, usually an app on the tracking smart phone. Using them doesn’t require even Computers, much less Electronic Surveillance. Hiding them on a target uses Filch (if you’re slipping it into their bag) or Conceal (if you’re sticking it to their car).

Laser Sight: A low-powered targeting laser attached to your gun projects an ominous red dot onto a target at ranges up to 750 yards (250 yards in daylight). If you can see it, you can spend 1 point of Firearms to hit targets past Long range (for rifles) or Near range (for pistols). Using a laser sight lowers the Hit Threshold you need to nail your enemy by 1; if your foe can see it, you lose surprise. But your partner, if you have one, gets a free point or two of Intimidation to spend on the target. In fog or smoke, the laser beam becomes visible, and makes an excellent pointer to your position; your Hit Threshold decreases by 1 against ranged enemy fire.

Night Vision Optics: Using NVOs removes the user’s penalty for darkness in all but pitch blackness; against an enemy that can’t see in the dark, it gives the user contest advantage. NVOs that include an infrared illuminator work in pitch blackness, but not against foes with no body heat; creatures that see in infrared attack the wearer at –1 to Hit Threshold.

Pepper Spray: The capsaicin liquid does the equivalent of Severe tear gas damage, but requires a face shot (+2 to Weapons or Firearms Difficulty) at Point-Blank range. A miss by 1 does Minor tear gas damage (lasting 4 rounds), as the spray hits the edge of the eyes.

TASERs and Stun Guns: Both deal moderate electric shock damage (2 Health and 1 round of stun; spend 2 Athletics per round to act for the next three rounds after the stun round). Firing a TASER (at Point-Blank or Close range) uses Firearms, hitting someone with a stun gun (at Point-Blank range) uses Weapons. TASERs take two rounds to reload; stun guns carry dozens of jolts in their battery. Not all Mythos creatures are susceptible to stun or even to electrical shock, but TASERing a Deep One just emerged from the ocean is probably pretty satisfying.

Meds Today

21st-century Investigators may find themselves put on medication, or begin that way. In rules terms, brain meds have one of two effects. Investigators with Pharmacy (or Streetwise) can compound or source these drugs even without a therapist’s prescription.

Benzodiazepines and Anti-Psychotics: Prescribed to prevent sudden onset of extreme anxiety, manic or schizophrenic episodes, and other debilitating conditions. Can give you either 1 or 2 points (Investigator chooses) to spend on a Stability test to resist a shock. They raise the Difficulty for all other actions (except Stability tests) in this scene and the next by +1 or +2, respectively.

SSRIs: Prescribed to counteract depression, generalized anxiety, and other ongoing conditions, these drugs flatten your mood across the board. While on SSRIs, you must re-roll results of 1 or 6 on Stability tests. (A second result of 1 or 6 stands.) Your Stability rating remains capped at 6.

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Trail of Cthulhu is an award-winning 1930s horror roleplaying game by Kenneth Hite, produced under license from Chaosium. Whether you’re playing in two-fisted Pulp mode or sanity-shredding Purist mode, its GUMSHOE system enables taut, thrilling investigative adventures where the challenge is in interpreting clues, not finding them. Purchase Trail of Cthulhu and its many supplements and adventures in the Pelgrane Shop.