I love that the rules are almost non-existent and don't get into the way of the roleplaying and story that much. If you like complex, tactical combats, GUMSHOE is not the right game for you.

Ok the hard question: What is the worst part of the game?
.-= Canageek´s last blog ..Advantages for BRP and Call of Cthulhu =-.

I also like ToC's Sanity/Stability system which is much more detailed and "realistic" than CoC's Sanity system.

In Trail of Cthulhu, Sanity is separate from the GUMSHOE trait Stability. Sanity measures your ability to believe in limited human reality; Stability is a mental health rating. (Dr. Armitage, from"Dunwich Horror," has a very low Sanity, but a fairly high Stability,for example.) Using your Cthulhu Mythos skill helps with an investigation, but such "piecing together of dissociated knowledge"costs Sanity, and potentially Stability as well. (Quote by Kenneth Hite, author of ToC, from an interview posted on See Page XX)

Do you prefer the gumshoe system? What attracted you to it over the d100?
.-= Misterecho´s last blog ..Character Generation by email, impossible? =-.

@Chatty – Stargazer's follow-up explains the mechanics pretty well; they're there, it's just that you don't rely on chance to find core clues, but instead let the characters' specialties determine what they find. How they interpret those clues is up to them which is really where the fun of the game lies IMO.

@Canageek – Trust me, buy the game. Converting CoC adventures is almost effortless because there are only minimal stat blocks in ToC. Most of the effort involves simply identifying the various clues in the CoC adventure, determining which ones are core and which ones are auxiliary, and determining what investigative skills could be used to find them. The Pelgrane Press website even has some sample conversions on it IIRC. I have a lot of CoC material which I plan on using with ToC once I actually get the opportunity to start running a regular campaign of it (versus the single games I've played with it so far).
.-= MJ Harnish´s last blog ..RPGNow’s 20 for 10 sale =-.

When you are looking for clues as a player and if you mention the skill you're using you get the appropiate clue (if the clue is available in that particular scene). You can spend a few of you skill's ranks to get additional information. This information is never vital to solve the mystery but may help to speed up things or add some flavor.

General skills work a bit differently. You have to make skill checks to see if a general skill use succeeded. You roll 1d6 and you have to beat a certain difficulty to make a successful test. You may spend ranks to raise your roll result.

Usually investigative skill spends recover between adventures, while general skills may recover more often.