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

"I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from my slavery to morphine that I am a weakling or a degenerate. When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess, though never fully realise, why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death."

From Dagon by H. P. Lovecraft

To play Call of Cthulhu you need to create a character. Player Characters in the game are called "Investigators", as they primarily spend their time investigating the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. Creating your investigator is so fast and easy that you can literally grab a sheet when you arrive at the game and be ready to play before the Keeper has finished the opening scene narration.

Every Investigator in our Call of Cthulhu campaign begins as an Archetype, which is a kind of generic character concept used to describe one of many characters with similar back-stories. Once an Archetype has been chosen, the player is given a Starting Sanity budget (20 Sanity is standard) by their Keeper so that they may add some extra skills to their Investigator. Traits and Obsessions can be added too, but only those that cost 0 Sanity and only with Keeper Approval. Once this has been finished the Investigator is ready to be played.

The exact Investigator Creation rules are detailed below. If you have any questions during Investigator generation, or want to discuss special character options, talk to your Keeper.

Read the Scenario Handout

The first thing a player has to do is aquatint themselves with the scenario details, usually in the form of a detailed setting handout referred to as The Newspaper. Once you've read your Newspaper you should have a good idea what the theme is, the kinds of Archetypes and Skills the Keeper is planning to get the most use out of and what (if any) optional restrictions will be in place. You may even discover some foreshadowing that can reveal a clue about the Keeper's plans for the campaign and provide in-character plot hooks for your Investigators right at the start!

If your Keeper has not yet decided on the details of the campaign, you may want to wait before generating your Investigator.

Select an Investigator Archetype

Archetypes are generic character concepts which are used in our Call of Cthulhu campaign as a way to describe a character in a broad-strokes manner. Players pick from the available Archetypes not only as a way to save them time when designing a character (which is important in a game that treats human heroes as disposable) but as a way to encourage players to develop a character's personality and story through the act of play. This is in keeping with the Lovecraftian narrative convention of self discovery amidst a chaos that challenges the value of human life, and encourages players to take from the events around them when crafting their own terrible histories.

--The Rules of Archetype Selection are as follows:

You may only choose one Archetype.
You may not add any equipment to the Gear Section.
You may not modify any aspect of the Attribute Section without Keeper approval.
You may fill in the Identification Section of the sheet.
When you have chosen an Archetype, move to the next phase.

Spend all Starting Sanity on Additional Skills

Once the Player has decided on an Archetype, they will be able to give their Investigator a little personal touch by purchasing a few extra Skills for them. These new Skills represent the unusual knowledge your Investigator possesses, and are bought using Starting Sanity in just the same manner as an active Investigator uses Sanity Points to purchase new skills. The exact amount of Starting Sanity that a new Investigator is given depends on the Keeper's specific intentions, but the average amount for a "Purist Campaign" that seeks to replicate Lovecraft's tone and lethality would be 50 Starting Sanity, or about as much as 10 average game sessions.

--The Rules of Starting Sanity Spending are as follows:

You may not keep any unspent Starting Sanity once character generation is complete.
You may not use Starting Sanity to upgrade existing Skills.
You may use Starting Sanity to upgrade newly purchased Skills.
You may not use Starting Sanity to add additional Traits and Obsessions.
You may request the Keeper to consider granting an additional Trait and Obsession if it has a cost of 0 Sanity.
When you have spent all Starting Sanity, give your sheet to your Keeper for approval.

Get Approval for your Investigator

Players need to get final approval from their Keeper before their Investigator can enter the game. This is a chance for the Keeper to talk with the Player about their character concept, negotiate how they want to fit into the game, listen to the player's ideas for the campaign, and provide the Keeper with a chance to mention any problems or concerns with the Investigator concept.

This is also an opportunity for the Keeper to reveal a Terrible Secret about the Investigator, with the player's approval of course. Terrible Secrets are like other kinds of secrets and clues that the Investigators collect as they play the game, except that they are often much more Terrible and Secret. Having a Deep One for an aunt is a good example. The Terrible Secret card explains what terrible fact you are concealing from the group, and should be kept with the Investigator's Journal (their character sheet) and noted in the Secrets section, but only cryptically! Writing "I have a terrible secret" is uninventive but sufficient.

Obviously, don't let anyone else at the group know what your secret is! Guard it jealously.

That's it! You now have an Investigator who is ready to test the limits of their own psyche in a struggle against the worst abominations in the cosmos. If you have any problems with this process or just want to clarify some of the rules, ask your Keeper and fellow players.