Character Creation

Background, Notes, REF

Background, Notes, REF

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Apr 13, 2025 11:47 am

It’s good advice, esp the idea that having one point in a skill is a useful buy. i’ve never seen a player try to load up in a particular skill, but I guess it could happen if they have a min max mentality.

Dr_B

Apr 13, 2025 11:57 am

Character Creation

character submitted, pls check if anything seems off

Lemming23

Apr 13, 2025 12:16 pm

Character Creation

Trail of Cthulhu is one of those games where it behooves the group to take as many of the available investigative skills as possible between them, so might be an idea to let each other know what skills we're taking, and what type of character we're going for.

Dr_B

Apr 13, 2025 12:21 pm

Character Creation

Yep, makes sense:

[ +- ] Melody, dilettante

INVESTIGATOR DETAILS

Player Name Dr_B	Drive Ennui
Occupation Dilettante	Occupational Benefits
Hit Threshold 3	Build Points 65 general, 16 Investigation
Description Bored Upper Class Woman, aged 34

SANITY 10

STABILITY 10

HEALTH 10

SOURCES OF STABILITY -Roderick, old butler -Patricia, childhood friend -Jasper, younger brother

PILLARS OF SANITY -Privilege -Innate Goodness of Mankind -Beauty of Arts

Academic

Academic	Rating	Pool
Accounting
Anthropology
Archaeology
Architecture
Art History
Biology
Cryptography
Cthulhu Mythos
Geology
History
Languages	1	1
French



Law
**Library Use	2	2
Medicine
**Occult	5	5
Physics
Theology

Interpersonal

Interpersonal	Rating	Pool
**Assess Honesty	4	4
**Bargain	4	4
Bureaucracy
Cop Talk
*Credit Rating	6	6
*Flattery	6	6
Interrogation
Intimidation
Oral History
Reassurance
Streetwise

Technical

Technical	Rating	Pool
Art	1	1
Astronomy
Chemistry
Craft
Evidence Collection
Forensics
Locksmith
Outdoorsman
Pharmacy
Photography	1	1

General

General	Rating	Pool
Athletics	4	4
Conceal	3	3
Disguise	3	3
Driving	6	6
Electrical Repair
Explosives
Filch	4	4
Firearms	6	6
First Aid
Fleeing
Hypnosis
Magic
Mechanical Repair
Piloting
Preparedness
Psychoanalysis
*Riding	4	4
Scuffling
**Sense Trouble	10	10
Shadowing
Stealth	4	4
Weapons

CLUES

Description	Location	Leads to

CONTACT DETAILS

Name	Location	Notes

WEAPONS AND EXPLOSIVES

EQUIPMENT

Description	Cost	Notes
Bugatti type 30 luxury car		flaming red
small 'handbag gun'
photographic camera

MYTHOS TOMES, SPELLS, AND ARTEFACTS

Name	Effects	Notes

MADNESS AND SHOCK

SPECIAL BENEFITS AND DEDICATED POOLS

Melody and her younger brother Jasper are the sole heirs of the Fitzjohn-Barnes family fortune and estate. Born into money, Melody had private education and numerous tutors. Since the death of her parents, her old butler Roderick has been a father figure to her. Easily bored, her past hobbies have included Photography, Hunting, Painting. She is a fast driver, showing off her red Bugatti on the roads of New England. SHe speaks French, as all society girls should. Well travelled, she visited Europe, Egypt and South America. Currently on an Occult phase, after having witnessed an unsettling seance, in which some auditory and visual manifestations occurred, and the medium died of a stroke mid-session. Melody wants to know more.

[spoiler=REF rules]

[/spoiler]

OrangeTree

Apr 13, 2025 12:23 pm

Character Creation

Dr_B says:

character submitted, pls check if anything seems off

It looks good, it’s obv you’ve played before as the character is quite cannily built in terms of effectiveness.

i notice that health, sanity, stability aren’t also in the list of general abilities but this is probably to avoid repetition.

i can’t recall whether ‘sources of stability’ is a core element or an option.

i generally like to know about an investigator’s ‘look’ and more about personal gear but we can deal with this in the game thread.

but looks good.

OrangeTree

Apr 13, 2025 12:26 pm

Character Creation

Lemming23 says:

Trail of Cthulhu is one of those games where it behooves the group to take as many of the available investigative skills as possible between them, so might be an idea to let each other know what skills we're taking, and what type of character we're going for.

[

which is why i think it’s good to start with some character concepts and see if we have a good party fit. But it was useful to have Dr_B’s character as a starting point and a trial run for the character sheet.

Melody Fitzjohn-Barnes

Dr_B

Apr 13, 2025 12:58 pm

Character Creation

Test

Dr_B

Apr 13, 2025 1:06 pm

Character Creation

I actually never played ToC (but I played/ran plenty of CoC over the years)

Happy to change anything, if Pillars of Stability is not in play, those npcs could go in the Contacts, maybe?

Last edited April 13, 2025 1:07 pm

nezzeraj

Apr 13, 2025 2:12 pm

Character Creation

I think I'll play an investigative journalist. Won't have time to make the character until mon or tues though.

OrangeTree

Apr 13, 2025 3:49 pm

Character Creation

Dr_B says:

I actually never played ToC (but I played/ran plenty of CoC over the years)

Happy to change anything, if Pillars of Stability is not in play, those npcs could go in the Contacts, maybe?

I think it’s fine to keep them. I probably won’t involve them in this adventure but they help build out the character :).

OrangeTree

Apr 13, 2025 3:52 pm

Character Creation

nezzeraj says:

I think I'll play an investigative journalist. Won't have time to make the character until mon or tues though.

Yes, classic staple. As long as you’re ok with the 3-5 posts /week post rate once we get going, that sounds reasonable. The character generation is a bit fiddly.

ctme2000

Apr 13, 2025 7:35 pm

Character Creation

Hey everyone! Thanks for the invite OrangeTree!

Looking over the roles, interested in trying out the Hobo. I'll look over the rules and hope to have a character submitted in the next few days.

OrangeTree

Apr 13, 2025 7:57 pm

Character Creation

Hobo would be very handy actually. Interesting choice.

Dr_B

Apr 14, 2025 9:56 am

Character Creation

OrangeTree says:

Dr_B says:

if Pillars of Stability is not in play, those npcs could go in the Contacts, maybe?

I think it’s fine to keep them. I probably won’t involve them in this adventure but they help build out the character :).

makes sense, sure

Lemming23

Apr 14, 2025 12:53 pm

Character Creation

Dr_B, something I'd suggest - ToC is a game where you generally only need 1-2 points in investigative skills; the corebook mentions that at most you'd want 3-4 points in an investigative skill to show that you're one of the world's foremost exemplars of that skill. A broader spread of skills is better - in most cases, simply having the skill allows you to pick up clues, without having to spend any from your pool - and allows the group as a whole ot cover more of them. Something you might want to consider.

nezzeraj

Apr 14, 2025 1:22 pm

Character Creation

Submitted. How do you want to do equipment?

Dr_B

Apr 14, 2025 1:25 pm

Character Creation

Lemming23 says:

Something you might want to consider.

Thanks for the heads up, I will take another look

OrangeTree

Apr 14, 2025 3:38 pm

Character Creation

I thought the loading up on Occult points was a deliberate strategy. To make your character unequivocally expert at occult stuff throughout the adventure. I have to say it might still be effective, but you might not be able to cover many other bases.

@nezzeraj there’s space on the sheet for key possessions. I suggest that we stick with those for now—a car, weapon, bag of tools, say. Assume the rest for this adventure which is very locally based. And provide more detail if we go on to a second adventure.

Lemming23

Apr 14, 2025 3:44 pm

Character Creation

Here's the relevant part from the corebook:

https://i.ibb.co/zhxqdCcM/Screenshot-2025-04-14-at-11-43-09-AM.png

OrangeTree

Apr 14, 2025 8:02 pm

Character Creation

Yes, I agree and I remember getting this advice when we first played the game (Dr-B, I should have commented on this in my review of your character, but since you posted this exact excerpt earlier in the thread I wondered if this was some expert strategy I wasn’t aware of :)).

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