Eternal Lies - End of Season 1

The epic campaign for Trail of Cthulhu.

Since the start of the New Year, I've been fortunate to be playing in the first season of the Eternal Lies campaign for Trail of Cthulhu. This is the epic campaign that Pelgrane Press created as a counterpoint to Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu. It's been a campaign that I wanted to run or play for a long time, and I'm fortunate that Richard offered to bring it to the table. 

Richard has taken me and a number of others through a whole series of games using the Gumshoe engine, in particular all the major campaigns for The Esoterrorists. In doing this, he convinced me that Gumshoe's mechanics do add something unique to the game flavour. There's nothing quite like playing multiple takes on with the same engine to give you a good feel for it.

It's quite a commitment; as a crude estimate, we think we will be playing for perhaps 50 sessions. Each session typically takes two-and-a-half to three hours. In the end, there were only two of us who wanted to commit to this; the third player had to pull out for personal reasons. I'm joined by Dr Mitch, who is also playing in my Curse of Strahd campaign. Paul has been a long term fellow Esoterrorists player, and it's great to explore this with him. Like me, he's wanted to play or run Eternal Lies for quite some time.

Having two players is interesting. I think we've now got Gumshoe one-2-two. It is pretty intense and you get a lot of spotlight time in the session. It also means you're very aware of the other player's abilities, so you'll try and line up the narrative to pass the action between you. Gumshoe recommends that the investigative team is built with a pool that covers all the bases for investigative abilities. I know if I have a low (or non-existent) score in an ability then Dr Mitch's character will have points in it. We've also found ourselves making decisions that make sure the actions we take tie together and make a good story. The feel is great, and allows you to be much more focussed; we completed this section of the campaign in four sessions, which was faster than expected. We didn't feel rushed and we certainly didn't leave any lines of investigation unopened. 

The campaign is epic and globe-trotting, and I have read it. However, this was quite a while ago when it first came out. Fortunately, the details escape me and I only have the vaguest idea of where this is going. I do know that I introduced Rich to the Alexandrian Remix of the campaign, but I'm not sure how much he's using from that. It certainly had some great handouts and extras to use. The fun is in the finding out and making the connections.

 

Ever so many connections (mild spoilers).

As the devil is in the details, we've been using the mind mapping tools on Miro.com as a shared space for all three of us. Rich corrects any name or place errors, and Paul and I make the connections. It's working well so far, but as you can see, it's definitely sprawling!

The first part of the campaign has been in Savannah, and Rich has successfully evoked imagery from Angel Heart and True Detective in my head. The humidity and rain, and the whole feel of the South have made our city slicker New York-based characters feel very much out of place and on edge. Both characters are sceptics about the occult and are coming to be aware that there are people, dangerous people, who do believe in this kind of thing. They aren't in that space yet, but they definitely recognise that their patron's father may have left unfinished business more than a decade ago.

We flew out of Savannah to the respite of the Big Apple, our characters spending time with family and researching the next stage of our investigations; Los Angeles. When we restart, we will be heading to the West Coast and the city of sin. It will be interesting to see if that is as alien to my Berlin-born lady journalist and Mitch's New Yorker Antiquitarian (a bit of an American Lovejoy).

15 March 2021