Trail of Cthulhu

Trail of Cthulhu

Trail of Cthulhu cover by Jérôme Huguenin
Designer(s)	Kenneth Hite, Robin Laws, Jérôme Huguenin, Simon J Rogers
Publisher(s)	Pelgrane Press
Publication date	March 2008
Genre(s)	Investigative horror
System(s)	GUMSHOE System

Trail of Cthulhu is an investigative horror role-playing game published by Pelgrane Press in which the players' characters investigate mysterious events related to the Cthulhu Mythos. It was designed by Kenneth Hite using the GUMSHOE System, which was created by Robin Laws. Trail of Cthulhu is based on the Call of Cthulhu role playing game under license from Chaosium.

Trail of Cthulhu featured the GUMSHOE System, which was previously used by Pelgrane Press in The Esoterrorists (2006) and Fear Itself (2007). The game was printed "by arrangement with Chaosium", the publishers of the earlier Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.Trail of Cthulhu has been supplemented by print supplements – mainly by Robin Laws and Ken Hite – plus a number of PDF adventures.

Trail of Cthulhu is based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. It is set during the historical 1930s of our own world, but with fictional characters and locations (such as Professor Armitage and Arkham), and the menacing Cthulhu Mythos present in the background. Horrid monsters lurk in dark and forgotten places, while fiendish cults worship Great Old Ones and Outer Gods through blasphemous rituals. Ordinary people that are drawn into and forced to confront this world of mystery and horror risk not only their physical well-being, but their mental health as well.