Call of Chicago: Postmodern Occupations

“Had his work … been the start of his imaginative flights, or was the tendency innate, so that his choice of occupation was merely one of its manifestations? At any rate, the man’s work was very closely linked with his notions.”

—“The Horror in the Museum”

 

In our previous column (“Trail of Cthulhu Today”), we began to unfold the delights and devices adapted for Trail of Cthulhu games set in the 2020s, our contemporary milieu. After all, Lovecraft himself wrote gripping contemporary techno-thrillers (“The Temple,” At the Mountains of Madness), not period pieces.

In this outing, we complete character creation with Occupations for 21st-century Investigators of the dire realities of the Cthulhu Mythos. Much like their 1930s versions, these Occupations reflect the heroines and protagonists of occult investigation stories as much as they do the quotidian reality of your own neighbors and co-workers.

For details on the new abilities Computers and Electronic Surveillance, see “Trail of Cthulhu Today.”

Corebook Occupations Today

Most of the Occupations in the Trail of Cthulhu corebook still work for 2020s games, with a few tweaks.

Alienist is renamed to Therapist, and doesn’t have to take those (or any) Languages.

There are even fewer Antiquarians now than there were in the 1930s, but spin it into “Collector” and it’s basically the same template, with no included Architecture or Law.

The Archaeologist and Cowhand can replace Riding with Driving as a template ability if they wish.

Add Survival 1 (most likely urban) to the optional Investigative ability list for all Criminals. Add Computers 1 and Electronic Surveillance 1 to the template list for the Burglar specialty.

Add Computers 2 to the list of Dilettante optional abilities.

Add Computers 1 to the list of Journalist optional abilities.

The Parapsychologist probably has a YouTube channel or cable program; in any case, they travel the convention circuit. Add Art 1 (which might be public speaking in a 1930s game) to the template.

The Police Detective can swap their Streetwise 1 for Computers 1 if they wish, modeling a cop focused on cyber, tech, or white-collar crimes.

The Private Investigator adds Computers 1 and Electronic Surveillance 1 to their template.

A Professor with Computer Science as their academic specialty adds Computers 2 and Cryptography 2.

The Hobo has vanished under a tide of fentanyl and general social decay.

New Specialties

Two corebook Occupations have flourished in the current era, and added new characteristic specialties as a result.

New Criminal Specialties

Designer Chemist

Not just a coke or Molly middleman, but a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, possibly with a clientele of party aristocrats or local drug lords. For a regular drug dealer specialty, just take the Pharmacy 1 option in the basic Criminal writeup, and add more Conceal and Fleeing.

+6 Investigative: Anthropology 1, Biology 1, Chemistry 1, High Society 1, Pharmacy 2

+6 General: First Aid 3, Preparedness 3

Hacker

Hacking in the real world mostly depends on either social engineering (Reassurance) or buying exploits from anonymous servers in Moldova (Streetwise). However, sometimes you have to physically penetrate the target, or hit the keyboard for an all-night duel against a stubborn database, just like in old movies.

+5 Investigative: Computers 2, Languages 1 (Ukrainian or Korean), Locksmith 1, Reassurance 1

+8 General: Filch 2, Mechanics 2, Stealth 4

New Military Specialty

Drone Operator

In addition to your skill at manipulating remote vehicles, your commanders value your ability to interpret often fuzzy video or still images, for purposes of target acquisition or post-hoc rationalization.

+4 Investigative: Architecture 1, Electronic Surveillance 1, Notice 1, Photography 1

+10 General: divided between Driving and Piloting

New Occupations

Many of these Occupations, or their clear precursors, existed in the 1930s as well. Retro-fitting them to a traditional Trail of Cthulhu game should be fairly straightforward.

Not every job is an Occupation, especially now: baristas or other counter retail types might only have a customer service Interpersonal cocktail (Assess Honesty 1, Flattery 1, Reassurance 1) with the rest of their sheet depending on hobbies, side hustles, one-off training, and general aptitude. A laptop professional with an “email job” might not even have that much.

Activist

Working behind the scenes or out in the streets, you seek to remake society to better match your ideals. Something only visible at street level, something even worse than feds and cops, also seeks to remake society—and reality.

Occupational Abilities

Investigative 9: Law 1, Streetwise 1

Pick two Interpersonal:

• Bargain 2
• Bureaucracy 2
• Flattery 2
• High Society 2
• Intimidation 2
• Reassurance 2

Pick three more Investigative:

• Anthropology 1
• Art 1
• Chemistry 1
• Computers 1
• History 1
• Law +1
• Pharmacy 1
• Photography 1
• Survival 1

General 12: Conceal 1, Fleeing 3, Preparedness 2

Pick two more General:

• Disguise 3
• Explosives 3
• First Aid 3
• Scuffling 3
• Sense Trouble 3
• Shadowing 3
• Stealth 3

Special: When you spend a point from an Investigative ability to create a new contact, roll a die. On a 5–6, instead of merely creating a contact, you activate someone similarly dedicated to your cause—your point spend is refunded.

Art Consultant

That’s what it says on your tax returns, anyway. You might be an authenticator, a dealer, an adviser, or a curator, or all those things depending on the client and the work under consideration. In a realistic campaign, you specialize heavily in one school or period, but that’s less fun. You spend more time than outsiders might think dealing with the shadow world of forgers, smugglers, and junkie wannabes—and perhaps with other things that speak through artists.

Investigative 13: Accounting 1, Archaeology 1, Art History 2, Chemistry 1, Languages 2, Library Use 1, Notice 1

Pick two Interpersonal:

• Assess Honesty 2
• Bargain 2
• Flattery 2
• High Society 2
• Reassurance 2

Special: You can get access to both the open and art storage areas of museums, galleries, and even private collections by using Art History as an Interpersonal ability. The ones that don’t let you in clearly have something to hide, about which you can gather jealous insider gossip with any other Interpersonal ability.

Athlete

Probably not a professional athlete, but possibly a former pro or college all-star now marking time in a sales job. Alternatively, you might be a personal trainer, a martial arts instructor, or a tennis pro, or just really focused on marathon running or mountain climbing to the detriment of your on-paper career.

Investigative 3: Intimidation 1, Pharmacy 1, Survival 1

General 27: Athletics 8, First Aid 2, Fleeing 8, Health +3, Scuffling 3, Weapons 3

Special: Once per session, you can refresh 3 points of Athletics, Fleeing, Scuffling, or Weapons by invoking your special training and long practice, possibly in the form of an apposite flashback: “I choke up on the bat just like I did against the Huskers, and swing out at the thing’s head.”

Cleaner

You don’t clean crime scenes (at least not as your main gig), you clean up derelict or abandoned properties, industrial accidents, and vermin nests and dens. All of which sound a lot like “places monsters come from.”

For a straight-up animal control officer, add Law 1 and Scuffling 3 instead of one other Investigative and General ability.

Investigative 7: Architecture 1, Biology 1, Bureaucracy 1, Chemistry 1, Notice 1, Reassurance 1

Pick one:

• Biology +1
• Chemistry +1

General 18: Conceal 4, Driving 3, First Aid 4, Preparedness 3, Sense Trouble 4

Special: You have access to a hazmat suit, gas mask, chemical sprayer, animal tranquilizers (treat as fentanyl; see “Trail of Cthulhu Today”), and tranq guns (range is one increment less than the equivalent firearm), as well as any number of toxins and chemicals not generally available to civilians.

Courier

You may be a bike messenger or a bonded driver, but your job is to bring packages from sender to receiver with no interference along the way, as rapidly as possible. Your job—and sometimes more—depends on knowing the streets, and knowing the word on them.

Investigative 7: Architecture 1, Assess Honesty 1, Languages 1, Oral History 1, Survival 1

Pick one set depending on clientele:

• Pharmacy 1, Streetwise 1
• Accounting 1, High Society 1

General 10: Athletics 4, Conceal 2, Fleeing 2, Mechanics 2

+8 divided between: Driving and Riding

Special: In any chase or Shadowing contest on your normal route or in your area of the city, you have contest advantage. Once per session, you can refresh 3 points in either Driving or Riding when you start your chosen vehicle.

First Responder

You drive toward the sirens to save lives. You might be a firefighter, recovery vehicle driver, or an EMT—the skill set needed converges at the sharp and fiery end. Your job takes you to parts of the city or sides of the road that most people avoid, and at times most people are asleep.

Investigative 5: Bureaucracy 1, Pharmacy 1, Reassurance 2

Pick one Investigative:

• Chemistry 1
• Criminology 1
• Forensics 1
• Medicine 1

General 24: Athletics 3, Driving 6, First Aid 4, Mechanics 2, Preparedness 2, Psychoanalysis 2, Sense Trouble 3

Pick one General:

• Arson Lore: Explosives 3
• EMT: First Aid +3
• Fire Axe: Weapons 3
• Roadside Assist: Mechanics +3

Special: You have access to (and training with) thermal pens, Halligan bars, collapsible rams, and other breaching tools that get you into vehicles or buildings rapidly. Spend 1 point of Mechanics to bypass a locked or chained door on a car or building, leaving the lock (and usually the door) broken in your wake. This works against almost anything with hinges besides actual safes.

Influencer

While clearly descended from the magic-lantern showman and public speaker of the 1930s, this Occupation comes into its own in the age of video social media. You have a channel on YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, or some other place where people can make parasocial pilgrimages to you. Whether it’s showing off your bikini body or blowing the lid off the Pentagon’s Nephilim coverup, people gladly click to see you do it.

See Gar’s article on “New Occupations for Trail 2E” for a more generic Entertainer suitable for every “our band stumbles into Bad Things” scenario.

Investigative 5: Art (Video) 2, Craft (Editing, Sound) 2, Photography 1

+3 from your channel topic (for example)

• Ancient Aliens: Archaeology 1, Occult 2
• Cute Cats: Biology 1, Electronic Surveillance 2
• Mukbang: Anthropology 1, Craft (Cooking) 2
• My Beautiful Life: Bargain 1, Flattery 1, High Society 1
• Our Wonderful Politics: History 1, Oral History 1, Reassurance 1
• True Crime: Criminology 2, Forensics 1

General 6: Athletics 2, Health 2, Mechanics 2

+9 from your other channel topic (for example)

• Building Stuff: First Aid 3, Mechanics +6
• Do You Even Fitness: Athletics +6, Health +3
• It’s Fun to Shoot Things: Explosives 2, Firearms 7
• Let’s Use Makeup: Disguise 6, Health +3
• Sneak Into Theme Parks: Shadowing 3, Stealth 6
• Stage Magic: Conceal 3, Filch 6
• Yay Drones: split 9 points between Driving and Piloting

Special: Choose a special ability.

Implausibly Hot: When interacting with someone who might be sexually attracted to you, you don’t need to spend Bargain, Flattery, Oral History, or Reassurance to get the benefit of a 1-point spend. You do still need a rating in the ability.

Like and Subscribe: When you spend a point from an Investigative ability to create a new contact, roll a die. On a 5–6, instead of creating a contact, you meet a fan who is eager to help out—your point spend is refunded.

Security Specialist

You’re not a security guard, you’re the person who tells the client where to put the security guards. You may work site security for one building or fab, or freelance for any number of clients who value their privacy and their inventory.

Investigative 10: Assess Honesty 2, Electronic Surveillance 2, Locksmith 2, Notice 2

Pick two more Investigative:

• Architecture 1
• Computers 1
• Criminology 1
• Law 1

General 15: Conceal 3, Explosives 2, Preparedness 3, Sense Trouble 4, Shadowing 3

Special: You don’t only analyze your client’s buildings, but every built environment that you enter. If you have been inside a building or facility for an hour or so and spend 1 Notice while there, you have a +3 on Stealth tests to enter it again covertly, Conceal tests to spot cameras, Sense Trouble tests against its human and canine guards, and so forth.

Urban Explorer

You break into (mostly) abandoned buildings (mostly) for the thrill of it. You may post the shaky false-color video of your escapades for YouTube likes, or keep your exploits secret to feed your sense of power over your surroundings.

Investigative 9: Architecture 2, Electronic Surveillance 1, Locksmith 2, Survival 2

Pick one: Computers 1 or Library Use 1

Pick one Interpersonal:

• Bargain 1
• Bureaucracy 1
• Streetwise 1

General 12: Athletics 3, Fleeing 3, Preparedness 3, Stealth 3

Special: You know at least one abandoned building (and probably several) where you can hole up safely out of the eyes of the cops or other malicious strangers. You know how to approach it covertly: spend 1 point of Shadowing or Stealth (good for your whole party) and this place counts as a Haven unless you’ve drawn your pursuers to it by supernatural means. You may have even stashed gear there; you take a +2 to Preparedness tests while you’re holed up.

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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.