The scenario can be run by a Keeper of Arcane Lore (Keeper for short) or if you are playing a solo adventure the narration of the adventure acts as your Keeper. In game terms an Investigator is a character a player controls in a scenario. The difference between a normal person and an Investigator is that they know the truth and plan to do something about it. And while they may not understand exactly what that is, they know it’s malevolent and hungry. They have pierced the veil of our ordered world and can see there is something lurking in the background. What ties all these people together in this game is that they have seen or will soon see a peek into the unknown. In short, people from all walks of life can be an Investigator in Call of Cthulhu. They have different personalities and occupations, hopes, interests and dreams. Investigators come from a huge variety of backgrounds. While these types of characters can inhabit the world of Call of Cthulhu, Investigators are not limited to police and detectives. Maybe it makes you think of a police procedural show such as CSI or Wallender. In most contexts the word Investigator brings to mind the image of a sleuthing detective such as Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot trying to find the answer to a mystery. We’ll start by defining exactly what an Investigator is and what that means in Call of Cthulhu. I’ll also provide you with some links and resources to help you get started with your own character. A lot of them are self-explanatory but we’ll go through everything so you have a thorough understanding of what each term and step means. In order to go through the process of character creation we’ll also need to define a few terms on the way. I’ll also give you a guided tour of the character sheet and go over a couple of alternate methods people use for creating their characters. There will be a little bit of math involved but most of the steps are fairly understandable. In this post we’ll go over how to make an investigator for the game in five steps.
If you missed that post check it out right here. Last time I gave you a brief introduction on getting started with the horror themed tabletop role playing game Call of Cthulhu.