Investigator Archetypes - LunarNeil/Call-of-Cthulhu-Campaign GitHub Wiki

The following is a list and brief description of the default Investigator Archetypes. The archetypal characters in Lovecraft's work can be divided into three rough categories: The Explorers, who uncover terrible secrets while on expedition to the strange corners of the world, The Inventors, who peel back the blinders of human perception to discover truths in science and magic, and The Victims, who try to oppose or ignore the threats against them and are doomed for their hubris.

In our Campaign, each Archetype can be seen to fit "best" into one of these three categories. Explorers have skills for getting to places and finding things. Inventors have technical skills that allow them to manipulate things. Victims have combat and social skills that allow them to serve as valuable decoys when the rest of the group runs away. If you choose to play a Victim, know that you're certainly not any more doomed than everyone else in the group.

Everyone is Doomed.

The Adventuring Archaeologist

Do you know what archaeologists love to find? Trash and household waste buried under a small layer of dry dirt. They love that stuff so much they'll spend ten years digging up some dumb Roman citizen's leftovers and broken pottery. But not you! No. You're not just an archeologist, you're an adventuring archeologist, and the kinds of artifacts you like best are the ones you need to tear from the cold dead hands of some member of a beautiful tribal civilization, or dig out of a sheer cliff face of ice, fifty feet above the ground.

-Character Hooks

Archaeologists are good Archetypes for describing physically fit intellectuals of all stripes, so long as they alternate between investigating ancient cultures and punching the now-living native descendants. Archaeologists are similar to Explorers in that both want to go to far off places, kill their native inhabitants, and bring their relics back. But where an Explorer comes packing a rifle and is prepared to kill everything he meets, Archaeologists come packing history books and are prepared to do a lot of research and maybe publish a paper or two.

Archaeologists are often associated with a University, and will have good relationships with professors, and might be one themselves. When they head out they usually go as a member of a large expedition that would include other intellectuals, guides, maybe a plucky boat captain or even some hired muscle if they're heading somewhere dangerous.

Archaeologists may also be asked to come along on a government sponsored mission, to assist the agents. Criminal organizations can capture them and demand their assistance, or else. Cultists can also assault homes and exhibits to recover artifacts that the Archaeologist never knew was of importance, until now.

The Hard-Nosed Detective

It was a cold night. A black night. The kind of night where the rain stops about a foot off the pavement and waits so it can run right down into your shoes where its warmer. Yeah, it was just another one of a long series of nights I've had since the day that dame walked into my office and unzippered her face to reveal something that looked like a starfish and tried to bite off my head. Why I'm still working that case for her I don't know. Maybe the money's just that good. Maybe this statuette in my hand really will kill me if I don't do what it asks. Maybe I'm just a man who isn't ready for the big f'tagn just yet.

-Character Hooks

Detectives are good Archetypes when you're looking for a character that has a focus on clue-finding and detection skills, with a bit of rough-and-tumble to go with their wits. Detectives have a rational bent and a desire for self-preservation that makes Investigator life an uneasy fit, despite their natural talent for it. It is often only the nightmares and voices in their head that convince them to work with those crazy occult types.

Detectives of the 1900's are different from the Film Noir types that would be giving the speech above, but they do share some similarities. Pinkertons would be hired to protect valuable cargo, important persons, or go undercover to investigate labor movements. Government Agents, like the FBI or the Police, often have many Detective-like skills that allow them to do their job. Detectives don't often work with a lot of people, but they have tons of contacts, especially in the criminal and law enforcement realms.

Detectives are also easily added to a group as a bit of hired help. If the money is right they'll help you track down the missing thing you're looking for, or do a bit of legwork to see if that Professor friend of yours really did end up sleeping with the fishes. He'll want to get out once he knows he's gotten in, but by then it may be too late.

The Intrepid Explorer

Have you heard? There's going to be an expedition to scale the slopes of Mount Killadeklymers, the most treacherous and inhospitable mount yet unmounted! Well, if someone's going to do it, by golly, it'll be you. That is, if you can manage to land this Hot Air balloon a little further down the river, these cannibals seem to be a bit angry now that you've escaped their clutches. Or is it hungry? Or maybe they're worried that their loathsome Frog Idol will be angry that you haven't been sacrificed as planned? Best not to think about it. Tally ho!

-Character Hooks

Explorers are good Archetypes for turn of the century adventurers that aren't intellectuals or book-smart in more than a technical sense or two. They are often independently wealthy, charismatic, and overly confident. They also have a fascination with geography and will display unexpected intelligence when planning world travel. They want the challenge, but most often their motivations are fame and money, with the adventure itself just a way of showing how truly impressive they are.

Explorer Archetypes can be used to depict a young Adventuring Archaeologist, maybe a grad student on a University expedition, who is more guts than brains. The upper class creates many Explorer types that go on safari or set up businesses in some foreign land, much to the dismay of the locals. Explorers are also common as officers in the military, or gutsy pilots in the air mail service, or boat captains that ply deadly jungles.

Explorers can fit into any group that needs someone to rouse the other Investigators to action. Explorers are often the ones starting an expedition to some unreachable location, or to set off on a hunting expedition when there's some legendary creature rumored to be around. They will fund academic pursuits or invest in strange inventions so long as it has some personal attraction to them.

The Weird Artist

Why yes, my work is a bit... unusual, you might say. I do try to experiment with different media. This here is a strange pigment I found in... what? No, it's not a landscape, it's a portrait. A portrait of who? You mean of what, I believe it was pronounced Yog-Sogoth. Mad? Me, mad? Don't be ridiculous! If you could see the things I see, you'd paint nothing but Dreams!

-Character Hooks

Artists are good Archetypes for those strange characters that seem to include in the strange and macabre, people much like H. P. Lovecraft himself. They can be painters, musicians, writers, sculptors, or they can be collectors and antiquarians who do not do the art themselves, but just have a passion for collecting and enjoying it. Their desire to experience the strange drives them towards more and more unusual pieces, until they are inevitably drawn into a dangerous brush with the Mythos that they may or may not want to repeat.

Artists rub elbows with the wealthy Explorers and Lords when producing their work, and may even be a member of the wealthy classes if their work is well received. They also act as a genesis for Investigatorial work by seeking to bring forth visions of reality that man has yet glimpsed, which is dangerous and can lead to seals being broken and men knowing things they were not meant to know.

In their scholarly capacity they may be attached to a University and sent hither and tither. Adding an Artist to a group off in the middle of nowhere can be difficult to justify, but they can be found in nearly any urban environment, and sometimes an individual becomes one of these mad artists after their first introduction to the Mythos, which becomes their all-consuming passion.

The Manor Dandy

What ho! So my Aunt Agatha has finally slipped the ol' mortal coil, eh Jeeves? And apparently deeded me her family Manor up in old gloomy Arhkam? Well! I suppose we'll want to move in right away. Have all my things sent off to Bleakwitch Manor, care of Arkham City Postal Service. While we're on our way we should stop off at one of those charming little fishing hamlets that dot the coast-side. Here's one I've never heard of, Innsmouth, is it? I bet they've got sea-food that's to die for. Put it on the schedule. Pip pip!

-Character Hooks

The Dandy is a good Archetype to model all manner of idle rich that so often come inherit a manor, or family estate, or a collection of some relative's valuable things and must take possession of them right away, particularly in person. These are often cursed, haunted, or just bad in some way or another, and they are individuals entirely unqualified for taking care of their own affairs, let along battling against the cosmic horrors of the universe. If you wish to emulate a classic Lovecraft style Victim character, in over their head and just trying to stay sane, the Manor Dandy is it.

Dandies will help kick off adventures any time they show up, either because they own something which is terrible or because someone in their past owned or was something terrible. These unwitting mooks are not without their own motivations though, they want to get back to normal and are willing to tap every resource, contact every contact, and run from every fight until they figure out what normal is.

Slipping a Dandy into a campaign is easy when you change locations, for Dandies control most of what the world is, in one way or another. The Manor of a Manor Dandy will often include ancient farmlands, old churches, strange residents, and maybe even small towns that they must care for in some fashion. They can own a hospital or local museum, perhaps just a private gallery, or may have some stake in a business venture they need to come check up on. When things start to go wrong and things get demolished by the Investigators, the Manor Dandy may want to go find out why a band of lunatics had to burn down his farmer's barn.

The Man of Faith

Oh faith and begorrah, Christ save us! That... that thing! "...And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him!" Cthulhu wakes!

-Character Hooks

The Man of Faith is a good Archetype for religious figures of all types, which never have a good end in Lovecraft's work. They also serve as a worthy basis for a Cultist or anyone else that has a firm belief, a degree of charisma, and a relationship with the Occult.

Men and Women of Faith can represent many characters that have a strong religious or faith-based psychology, not just leaders of religious communities. They are easy to find, most Investigators will know one personally, and in many groups at least one individual can be expected to fall back on faith this way when confronted with a mind-shattering revelation. Men of Faith, while depicted as helpless in the face of the universe's true masters, can sometimes have knowledge the occult that gives, especially in areas where they lead a spiritual war against forces of darkness.

Men of Faith can show up to aid the Investigators if they're being harried by townsfolk aligned with dark forces, and they can be valuable sources of information. They can also provide places of shelter or comfort to those suffering from psychological damage, as many Investigators are.