Trail of Cthulhu - Occupations

Alienist

A specialist in mental illness, you may be a Vienna-trained psychoanalyst, a neurologist who studies brain function, or

a medical doctor with a strong interest in behavioral science. Although Freudian theories are coming to dominate the field,

they are far from universally understood or accepted. Occupational Abilities: Biology, Languages (German and Latin), Library Use, Medicine, Pharmacy, Psychoanalysis, Assess Honesty, and any other two Interpersonal abilities.

Credit Rating: 3-4

Special: By using Medicine or an Interpersonal ability, you have access to mental records and sanitarium wards generally off

limits to the public. If you are a licensed MD (a Medicine rating of 2 or more), you can do the same for medical records and hospital wards. You make Psychoanalysis tests for Psychological Triage (see p. 79) at a Difficulty of 3, instead of 4. It costs you only 1 Psychoanalysis point instead of 2 to stabilize an erratic character. You can recover your own Stability, but you only recover 1 point for each Psychoanalysis point you spend. You can use Assess Honesty as forensic psychology. From the details of a crime scene, you can, based on past case studies of similar offenses, assemble a profile detailing the perpetrator’s likely personal history, age, habits and attitudes. You will probably need to remind the Keeper of this use of the ability. You may put build points into, and use, the Hypnosis ability (see p. 43).

Antiquarian

As much a state of mind as a profession, you value the past and willingly immerse yourself in it. You may have a small independent income, you may be a resident scholar at a museum or gallery, or you may condescend to deal in antiques,

books, or the objets d’art of a more gracious era. Occupational Abilities: Architecture, Art History, Bargain, History, Languages, Law, Library Use, and any one Investigative ability as a personal specialty.

Credit Rating: 2-5

Special: Once per adventure, you may have an informative or suitable item for the current investigation “back at the shop.”

Antiquarian book dealers may have a relevant volume of lore (such as a memoir or the privately published ranting of

a crackpot dealers in silver may have ornamental daggers; importers may have a “queer tribal mask from the Congo.” To

remember and uncover such an item requires a use of the corresponding ability (e.g., Art History, Library Use). This item may either contain a core clue for solving the mystery, or it may provide a weapon or technique for resolving it. In the first instance, you might be able to avoid sneaking into the creepy abandoned church in search of their blasphemous hymnal –

you have a shellac pressing of the hymn in your used record albums bin. In the second case, you needn’t hunt down the

Enchant Flute spell to drive off the lloigor – you have a set of Pan-pipes used in Orphic rites in decadent Cyrene. (Also in the

second case, the effectiveness of the item may depend on the size of your spend.) If you leave the city where your collection or shop is stored, you may not necessarily be able to use this ability (and certainly not in a convenient fashion), unless you have an assistant you can trust to find the item and mail it to you … and you’re willing to wait a week for the mail to arrive while the cultists build their vortex of power. The Keeper is well within her rights to deny your possession of powerful Mythos artifacts, effective spell books, and so forth, or to deny anything that seems abusive or just makes no narrative sense. She is also well within her rights to add other side effects to your item.

Archaeologist

You travel to strange, far places to uncover the past. You may be a meticulous scholar, working in libraries and devoting your

career to a single dig, or you may be little better than a tomb robber, wielding a bullwhip and pistol to bring trophies back to

your museum. You may depend on such treasures to fund your expeditions, or you may get grants from universities and

foundations. Occupational Abilities: Archaeology, Athletics, Evidence Collection, First Aid, History, Languages, Library Use, Riding, and any two other Investigative abilities.

Credit Rating: 4-5

Special: By using Archaeology or a suitable Interpersonal ability, you can get access to museum storage areas or be allowed to handle artifacts. (You will likely not get to carry them away with you legally, regardless.) If you have academic credentials (both an Archaeology rating of 2+ and a Credit Rating of 3+), you can get access to closed stacks at a university library.

Artist

Whether you are a painter, a musician, a sculptor, an architect, or even a performer, you follow your Muse where she leads. Sensitive and temperamental, by reputation if not in fact, you already inhabit a demimonde that most never understand.

Occupational Abilities:Architecture, Art, Art History, Craft, Disguise, Flattery, Photography, Assess Honesty, and any two Academic or Interpersonal abilities as personal specialties.

Credit Rating: 1-4

Special: You may refresh one pool point in an ability representing your chosen art form (Art, Architecture, Craft, Photography, etc) during any significant downtime in an adventure, up to a maximum of four times per session. This

represents time spent rehearsing, sketching, or what have you; Keepers should resist allowing this when the artist would not have the time or resources to polish their skill.

Author You use words to capture existence, to conceal yourself, to reveal the truth, or to sell fantasy to Depression-stricken readers. Perhaps all of the above. Your labors are solitary and your rewards sporadic; you may have too much time to think. With discipline and a modicum of skill, though, even a pulp writer can still keep his head above water. Occupational Abilities: Art, History, Languages, Library Use, Oral History, Assess Honesty, and three other abilities as personal specialties or left over from previous jobs. Credit Rating: 1-3

Special: You may use any downtime in an adventure to refresh one Academic pool point, up to a maximum of four times

per session. This represents time spent reading, checking notes and files, and so forth; Keepers should resist allowing this when the Investigator would not have the time or resources to do the necessary reading. That said, Trail of Cthulhu adventures will likely be rife with libraries that invite any author worth her salt to say “You guys check the rest of the house, I’m going to hit the books here for an hour or two.”


Clergy

Itinerant revival preacher, trusted neighborhood priest, scholarly rabbi, or eager missionary, the varieties of clerical life present many of the same challenges to those who listen most intently for God’s call. You may be predisposed to believe in the supernatural, but you are peculiarly vulnerable to the maltheistic revelations of the Mythos. Occupational Abilities: History, Languages (Latin, Greek, Aramaic, or Hebrew), Library Use, Psychoanalysis, Assess Honesty, Reassurance, Theology, and one other Interpersonal ability.

Credit Rating: 2-5

Special: By using Theology or Reassurance you can gain access to church records not generally or easily available to the public. Mere clerical status does not guarantee you access to the “Z” Collection in the Vatican Library or similarly secret archives, of course, although a sufficiently grandiose spend and a kindly Keeper might make such a thing possible. If you identify yourself as a member of the clergy (or are wearing your traditional garb), once per game session you may freely refresh any Interpersonal ability pool by talking to one of your co-religionists (though not a fellow Investigator).

Psychoanalysis is not one of your Occupational abilities.

Criminal

Those who live on the other side of the law are already aware of a secret world of degeneracy, desperation, and evil beneath

the normal ways of civilization. Some criminals have built their own codes and laws to shield themselves from the realization

that all human order is breakable by acts of will. Others revel in this discovery. Occupational Abilities: Bargain, Intimidation, Locksmith, Scuffling, Sense Trouble, Shadowing, Stealth, Streetwise, and one other Interpersonal or Technical ability

as a personal specialty.

Credit Rating: 0-4

Special: Criminals with point pools in Conceal, Filch, or Shadowing may spend points after rolling the die for a test. For every 2 points you spend after rolling the die, you increase the die result by 1. This only applies if you are undistracted and not

directly observed. It never applies during a contest. You must describe the thing that almost went wrong, and how you caught it barely in time or succeeded through sheer luck. Members of the Mafia may take one free rating point in Languages to know Italian. Members of similar criminal organizations may have similar ratings at the Keeper’s discretion.

Dilettante

You are self-supporting, living off an inheritance, trust fund, or other source of independent income. Free from the pressures

of forced employment, you may dedicate yourself to any pursuit you choose. Occupational Abilities: Credit Rating, Flattery, Riding, and any five abilities you choose. Credit Rating: 3+

Special: You may use your Credit Rating pool to call on personal connections in any field of endeavor. These contacts will generally be relatives, old schoolfellows, and similar people of your social class.
Doctor

You see your work as emblematic of the best in society: rational, humane, clean, and selfless. If only society could be cured or cut free of its diseases the way the body can be purged by treatment or surgery! The wealthier and more successful doctors can avoid the blood and filth that their noble aims are built upon. Occupational Abilities: Accounting, Biology, First Aid, Forensics, Languages (Latin), Medicine, Pharmacy, Assess Honesty, Reassurance. Credit Rating: 4-6

Special: By using Medicine or Reassurance, you have access to medical records and hospital wards generally off limits to the

public. If you are affiliated with a hospital, sanitarium, or other facility, you can automatically use Reassurance to talk your way into any part of your institution from the drugs locker to the deep freeze. When you use First Aid, each point spent heals 3 Health points, rather than 2. (You gain 2 Health points rather than 1 for each First Aid point you spend to heal yourself.) You can stabilize the condition of a seriously wounded victim by spending only 1 First Aid point, rather than 2. (See p. 63)

Hobo

You are not merely one of the millions out of work in the Depression. You are one of a breed apart, a king of the road. You ride the rails to avoid society, looking for handouts and working only when necessary. You may be a thief on occasion, but you would no more become a professional thief than you would take any other job. Occupational Abilities: Athletics, Bargain, Filch, Outdoorsman, Sense Trouble, Stealth, Streetwise.

Credit Rating: 0. Unless the Keeper allows you to permanently change your Occupation (if you get married, or drafted, for

example), you may never put any points into Credit Rating.

Special: In addition to their normal functions, you can use Sense Trouble or Streetwise to read hobo signs and find out the

lay of the land in a strange town. You can use Streetwise to activate fellow hobo contacts. Other contacts available to you might include Communists (such as itinerant IWW labor organizers), friendly railroad guards, charity workers, or a local lady known to be a soft touch.

Journalist

Whether for newspapers, magazines, or radio, you piece together the patterns of life and build them into a story, revealing

the truth about the world around you. You may try to keep yourself separated from the story, especially if it is one of corruption and selfishness, but how can you avoid your own words? Occupational Abilities: Cop Talk, Disguise, Evidence Collection, Languages (for foreign correspondents), Oral History, Photography, Assess Honesty, Reassurance, Shadowing, and one other Interpersonal ability. Credit Rating: 2-4

Special: By using Reassurance, you have access to newspaper morgues. At your own paper, you do the same to get the records clerks to fetch relevant articles. Similarly, fellow journalists may confide “off the record” rumors and stories to you, unless you’re a direct competitor.

Military

You place yourself between others and danger, for a paycheck, for your flag, for your mates, or because you have no other good options. Your life is rote and routine, boredom and bureaucracy, dust and drill. And sometimes, of course, madness, death, blood, and nightmares. Occupational Abilities: Athletics, Firearms, Intimidation, Outdoorsman, Scuffling, Weapons.

Army/Marines: add Conceal, Driving, Stealth.
Corpsman/Medic: add First Aid, Medicine, Reassurance.
Engineers/Heavy Weapons: add Driving, Explosives, Mechanical Repair.
Navy: add Astronomy, Mechanical Repair, Piloting.

Officer (any branch) add Bureaucracy, Riding or Piloting, Reassurance.

Credit Rating: 2-5 (officers 2-4 (enlisted)

Special: You can spend 2 points from your Reassurance pool to steady panicking or erratic characters (see p. 79) as long as

your own Stability is above 0. If you are still serving, you can use any Interpersonal ability to gain entry to a military facility of your nation, except for explicitly topsecret bases. Unnoticed entry may require other plans. If you are a combat veteran, the Difficulty Numbers (including opponents’ Hit Thresholds) of your combat abilities (Athletics, Firearms, Scuffling, Weapons) do not increase by 1 until either your Stability or your Health drops below -5. If you are a combat veteran, your Stability is capped at 10, but some threats to your Stability may be made at a lower Difficulty number (see Experience and Stability on p. 72)

Nurse

A nurse is a trained medical assistant, sometimes male, more often female. Nurses are usually less comprehensively trained,

always less well paid, and often less distant and callous than medical doctors. Occupational Abilities: Biology, First Aid, Medicine, Pharmacy, Assess Honesty, Reassurance. At the Keeper’s discretion, a nurse who has to deal with hospital paperwork might have Bureaucracy; one who has to deal with arrogant doctors might have Flattery. Credit Rating: 2-4

Special: By using Medicine or Reassurance, you have access to medical records and hospital wards generally off limits to the

public. If you are affiliated with a hospital, sanitarium, or other facility, you can automatically use Reassurance to talk your way into any part of your institution from the drugs locker to the deep freeze. When you use First Aid, each point spent heals 3 Health points, rather than 2. (You gain 2 Health points rather than 1 for each First Aid point you spend to heal yourself.) You can stabilize the condition of a seriously wounded victim by spending only 1 First Aid point, rather than 2. (See p. 63)

Parapsychologist

Academics hold you in dubious regard, while true believers doubt your sincerity. You straddle – perhaps uncomfortably – the line between reason and superstition, between faith and proof. You believe that the supernatural is merely the natural we have not yet studied, or perhaps that the methods of science can uncover or confirm the truths of theology. Occupational Abilities: Anthropology, Electrical Repair, Library Use, Mechanical Repair, Occult, Photography, Assess Honesty, Sense Trouble.

Credit Rating: 2-3

Pilot

You live to fly, and you fly to live. You might be a Great War veteran seeking leftover thrills on the barnstorm circuit, or a

private courier hoping to strike it rich and found your own air service. You might fly cuttingedge birds for a rich man, or

build your own ship out of whatever you can scrounge. Whatever your route to the sky, it’s the only place you want to be.

Occupational Abilities: Astronomy, Driving, Electrical Repair, Mechanical Repair, Piloting, Sense Trouble. Credit Rating: 2-3

Special: You own or have regular access to an airplane. Its size and quality depend on your Credit Rating pool.

Police Detective You live by the code of the cop, whether it’s the one they put on the wall at the academy, or the one you picked up on foot patrol in the bad neighborhoods. You draw lines between cops, perps, and civilians, and it’s best when nothing crosses them. When the law and justice disagree, that’s when you decide where the line runs. Occupational Abilities: Athletics, Cop Talk, Driving, Evidence Collection, Firearms, Interrogation, Law, Assess Honesty, Sense Trouble. Credit Rating: 3-4

Special: With judicious use of Cop Talk, you can not only put the police at ease, but gain access to case files, evidence rooms, and prisoners, among other things not accessible by normal civilians. If you’re far outside your jurisdiction, you may need Cop Talk and a really good plan. Within your own jurisdiction, any points at all in Cop Talk will get you access to, and use of, police laboratories (for forensics and ballistics tests, or for more abstruse purposes) and even the morgue.

Private Investigator

There are things that cops can’t do, and things that cops won’t do, and you’ll take money to do either. Sometimes you get

dragged into something the cops want you out of, but you gotta stay in it to keep the cops honest. What keeps you honest? Now, that’s the real mystery, ain’t it? Occupational Abilities: Accounting, Disguise, Driving, Law, Locksmith, Photography, Assess Honesty, Reassurance, Scuffling, Shadowing.

Credit Rating: 2-3

Special: Private eyes with point pools in Disguise or Shadowing may spend points after rolling the die for a test. For every 2

points you spend after rolling the die, you increase the die result by 1. This only applies if you are undistracted and not directly observed. It never applies during a contest. You must describe the thing that almost went wrong, and how you caught it barely in time or succeeded through sheer luck.

Professor

You might be a calm solon, dispensing the wisdom of the ages between puffs on your pipe. You might be a hapless child

in an adult’s body, incompetent in anything except Middle High German, and vainglorious and petty about that. You might be the second, and think you’re the first, to the great delight of all who behold you. Occupational Abilities: Bureaucracy, Languages, Library Use, any one Interpersonal ability, and any three Academic abilities (including, for these purposes, Astronomy and Chemistry).

Credit Rating: 3-5

Special: As long as your academic credentials are intact (a Credit Rating of 3+), using Bureaucracy lets you enjoy nearly unrestricted access to closed library stacks, research laboratories, and even many private and government archives. If you have a Credit Rating of 5 or better, you have tenure and cannot be removed from your professorship without clear, public evidence of moral turpitude on your part.

Scientist You seek to advance science, perhaps to improve the world, or perhaps to tease out some long-denied truth. You may consider yourself handy around the lab; that third fire could have happened to anyone. You just need more equipment,

more time, more samples, more understanding colleagues. Perhaps the fools laughed at you at the University. Well, you’ll show them. Occupational Abilities: Electrical Repair, Evidence Collection, Languages, Library Use, Photography, and any two

of the following: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Cryptography, Forensics, Geology, or Physics.

Credit Rating: 3-5

Special: You have access to a laboratory suitable for your researches, and can use Credit Rating to get tests and experiments performed in other laboratories by your peers or colleagues, or to get specialized equipment or machinery built. If you have academic credentials (Credit Rating of 3 or better and a rating of 2 or more in Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, or Physics), you can get access to closed stacks at a university library.