Trail of Cthulhu Momentum Builds

Momentum is building for the likely February release of Gumshoe's new Lovecraftian Role Playing Game, The Trail of Cthulhu. Made with the blessings of Chaosium, the investigative RPG champions a new play system that differs from the well worn Call of Cthulhu tradition. Development sites for the game also mention an unspecified "alternative" spin on Lovecraftian thematic elements, as well as the Gods and monstrosities we've all come to know. The latest piece of marketing for this game is a computer generated Flash preview released by Seventh Circle, a French venture dedicated to converting English RPGs and boardgames into French.

The Gumshoe people keep a well run development blog here, packed with further details and a chronicle of its creation thus far. The 246 hard cover game booklet is projected for a February 1st release, and is already available for pre-order on Indie Press, which contains a detailed breakdown of essential statistics on the game. It retails for a starting price of around $40 US, a mid-range rate compared to Chaosium's basic starters and many side quests for the Call of Cthulhu game.

Interestingly enough, the game shares its name with Derleth's major collection of Cthulhu Mythos tales, The Trail of Cthulhu, put out by Arkham house in 1962. Both loved and reviled as a major expansion of the good-evil Derleth interpretation of the Mythos, it was one of the earliest books of new stories by a major figure of the original Lovecraft circle. It's unclear whether or not Gumshoe intended this overlap of names intentionally.

-Grim Blogger