labcats | It's New! It's Cthulhu! (Reply)

I picked up Trail of Cthulhu from the Compleat Strategist. It looks beautiful. I'm up to page 19. Thus far, I like the way Hite deals with the question of whether Trail makes CoC "obsolete", saying, basically, that it's a stupid question, only saying it in a very classy way.

I like the description of the "purist" and "pulp" modes, and the recognition that Lovecraft used both modes, and that he even blended them on occasion.

I'm just starting to hit the system. Now, as I understand it, the point of the GUMSHOE engine is that an adventure will not sputter and die because someone misses a Vital Clue. So, I was a little surprised to read, "Spend build points... on your abilities... making sure your party as a whole has as many abilities as possible covered." What if there's only one person in the "party"? And, isn't GUMSHOE supposed to avoid the problem of someone not having a given ability? If I'm playing an artist, the adventure had simply better not require my artist to be able to perform forensic analysis, right?

This may all become clearer once I see what the abilities are.