Cthulhu Confidential

by Robin D. Laws, Chris Spivey, Ruth Tillman

Cthulhu Confidential is a roleplaying game designed for one player and one game master. Its powered by the GUMSHOE One-2-One game system which retunes, rebuilds and reimagines the acclaimed GUMSHOE investigative rules set, as seen in such hit roleplaying games as Trail of Cthulhu and Nights Black Agents, for one player and one GM. Together, you create a story that evokes the classic solo protagonist mystery format. Cthulhu Confidential drops your hero into the noir nightscape of hardboiled-era Los Angeles, New York or Washington, DC. Meet powerbrokers and politicians, rub shoulders with Hollywood studio bosses and fiery evangelists. Face narrow-eyed G-Men, bent cops and dangerous crime lords. But beneath it all, under the scrim of all this human endeavor, lives corruption so old and inhuman youll need all your courage and resourcefulness to face it. Choose one of three heroes with their own settings and adventures: Langston Wright is an African-American war veteran and scholar in WW2-era DC with a keen intellect. Dex Raymond is a hard-boiled private detective in 1930s Los Angeles with a nose for trouble. And Vivian Sinclair is The New York Heralds most determined scoop-hound. Each is a lone investigator, equipped with smarts, fists, and just maybe a code of honor, uncovering their towns secret truths. But what happens when you scratch the veneer of human malfeasance to reveal an eternal evilthe malign, cosmic indifference of HP Lovecrafts Cthulhu Mythos? Made in the U.S.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Horror

328 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2017

About the author

Writer and game designer Robin D. Laws brought you such roleplaying games as Ashen Stars, The Esoterrorists, The Dying Earth, Heroquest and Feng Shui. He is the author of seven novels, most recently The Worldwound Gambit from Paizo. For Robin's much-praised works of gaming history and analysis, see Hamlet's Hit Points, Robin's Laws of Game Mastering and 40 Years of Gen Con.

Reviews

[Benjamin]

A revision of Trail of Cthulhu (powered by the Gumshoe System where the PCs always get the clue to advance the mystery) focused on 1-on-1 play. This book gives the rules, with some focus on 1930s-40s investigations into Cthulhuesque horror, since that's what the three scenarios, settings, and adventures focus on:

* Dex Raymond, hard-boiled PI in LA
* Vivian Sinclair, investigative journalist in NY
* Langston Wright, Black PI in DC

Each of the settings is given a nice overview, including a lot of Mythos-related story hooks and capsule descriptions of the movers and shakers that your character might move and shake among.

The play notes are all interesting and, to my mind, smart, all about both dislodging a player from stasis when they are understandably worried about having no support; and also about how to support and protect them a bit.

Also interesting are some of the changes to the Gumshoe system, particularly in the card-based system of handing out edges (bonuses you get from doing something cool) and problems (anything from "falling for the client" to "scarred by Deep One attack"), which would make their way into Laws's Yellow King version of Gumshoe.

I will say that this, like Dracula Dossier, is a book that I started to skim early on because I knew I would want to return to it sometimes, maybe even as a player.

[Kevin L · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars.

This is an Interesting take on facilitating a one GM - one Player Gumshoe game. I'm not certain that it's successful in its attempt.

I haven't played this yet, or listened to an actual play of it, but the cases feel clunky. Perhaps some of this is due to my preference for improv running and play. I wasn't really grabbed by the cases or core mechanics.

There are several physical issues with the book itself. There are numerous typos and errors which is very surprising for a Pelgrane Press product. The biggest offender is The Fathomless Sleep in which cards are referenced by the wrong numbers.

Another issue is that there aren't free PDF handout pages to use for character sheets and especially the various edge and problem cards. I'm not a fan of having to copy/scan from a bound hardback.

Also, why in the world don't they just call NPCs NPCs? Every time I saw their term, GMC, I had to pause for a split second.

[Geiko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solo por las 3 aventuras que vienen merece la pena con un gran trabajo de documentación. El sistema Gumshoe para 2 muy interesante aunque requiere muchísimo trabajo por parte del máster.

[Hayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved the way that the authors speak, the connections helped me absorb more and understand why certain actions are important to take