call of cthulu

[thefinalbattle]

so, i've heard about this "call of cthulu" thing a couple of times here, so i wanna know, is it any good? also, where would one find miniatures and tiles?

[Kurald Galain]

Yes, it is good. And also, like most RPGs, it is not played using miniatures and tiles, ever.

There's the Chaosium version and the d20 modern version. Most people consider the former more fitting to the lethal Lovecraftian atmosphere.

[Tiki Snakes]

Yes, it is good. And also, like most RPGs, it is not played using miniatures and tiles, ever.

There's the Chaosium version and the d20 modern version. Most people consider the former more fitting to the lethal Lovecraftian atmosphere.

You can get them, however. I've seen them, in person. They looked pretty nifty, but I do suspect they'd only ever end up sitting around on the table as avatars of the player or more likely as examples of the gribbly horrors that will be eating your mind that particular game.

[jiriku]

Chaosium Call of Cthulhu is TONS better than the d20 version.

Also, if you're going to play a game based on his universe, please avail yourself of the complete works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/), especially the short novel The Call of Cthulhu (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecallofcthulhu.htm), from which the name of the game was taken.

[mikeejimbo]

Yes, it is good. And also, like most RPGs, it is not played using miniatures and tiles, ever.

There's the Chaosium version and the d20 modern version. Most people consider the former more fitting to the lethal Lovecraftian atmosphere.

Well, I suppose you could play the d20 version with miniatures and tiles.

Heck, nothing actually prevents you from using miniatures in the Chaosium version, just that there aren't any rules for dealing with them.

[Mongoose87]

Well, I suppose you could play the d20 version with miniatures and tiles.

Heck, nothing actually prevents you from using miniatures in the Chaosium version, just that there aren't any rules for dealing with them.

There aren't even specific rules for how far you go in a round - it's made to bend to the GM's will.

[Darrin]

so, i've heard about this "call of cthulu" thing a couple of times here, so i wanna know, is it any good? also, where would one find miniatures and tiles?

It is indeed quite good. The Chaosium BRP version is better than the D20 version, but even the D20 version can work fairly well in the hands of a good GM.

In Cthulhu, if things ever get to the point where you need miniatures and tiles (i.e., some type of large-scale combat has broken out), then something has gone horribly, horribly wrong, and marking off squares or putting down minis isn't going to help.

In the last Cthulhu-esque adventure I ran, when I actually pulled out a grid map, I informed the players that all movement was subject to non-Euclidian geometry. (They were stuck in Carcosa, trying to get past an avatar of the King in Yellow.)

Something else I could have thrown at them: "All of the diagonal squares have nine corners and are attacking you. Roll a sanity check, please."

[Tackyhillbillu]

Call of Cthulu can be awesome, but it takes a group of players who are ready for it, and a DM who knows how to make use of it.

If the players expect D&D where PC's are supposed to have the edge... yeah, that won't end well. Call of Cthulu... PC's will die. A lot.

The DM needs to be the kind who can build the atmosphere needed. Players need to feel that every single thing in this world is more powerful then they are, and that they are constantly on the edge of extinction.

Needless to say, switching from 3e, 3.5e, or 4e to CoC can be a shock. The more Gygaxian editions are a bit easier.

[thefinalbattle]

so what exactly do you DOin COC?

[mikeejimbo]

Die in a horrible and grotesque manner. If you're lucky.

[Project_Mayhem]

Traditionally, at a basic level games are broken up into investigation and action. A lot of the classic scenarios will have the players hear about say, a haunted house, research it's background and discover helpful information, and then actually go in and deal with it.

More recent scenarios tend to break this up and have a more organic story, such as Tatters of the King, one of the best campaigns written ever for anything.

However, the focus still tends to be about finding out more and more about the mythos and getting drawn into the action.

[Tackyhillbillu]

You don't want to know what happens if you are unlucky.

[ninja_penguin]

so what exactly do you DOin COC?

Go insane, and then suffer a TPK sans one as you all act on the whispers that have been telling you that the others are about to betray you.

[Lycan 01]

I gave one of my players a temporary fear of the dark which lasted for several days. Not the character, the player. :smallamused:


In Call of Cthulhu, you are a simple human who must foil the plans of gods. But if you knew it, your mind would shatter.


Would you like some examples of games I've ran? :smallbiggrin:

I can also provide you a list of casualties from my games. Like the guy who got blown in half with a shotgun when his friend's PTSD got triggered. Or the man who was mind controlled by a Lich and ripped out his own femur. :smalleek:

[mikeejimbo]

Go insane, and then suffer a TPK sans one as you all act on the whispers that have been telling you that the others are about to betray you.

Are you sure you're not thinking of Paranoia?

Wait, in that one, everyone is about to betray you.

[Project_Mayhem]

I should also add that the whole 'inevitably-go-insane-and-or-die' think is, depending on the DM of course, a near certainty in a one shot, and less likely in a protracted campaign. Unless your playing anything that Sandy Petersen was directly involved in writing. Man's like the CoC version of Gygax.

[Lycan 01]

I should also add that the whole 'inevitably-go-insane-and-or-die' think is, depending on the DM of course, a near certainty in a one shot, and less likely in a protracted campaign.


I did one of those once. It was a special Friday the 13th game, involving a haunted mansion. I'm sure you've all heard me tell the story, which can be summarized in one sentence:

"HIS FACE IS IN MY MUTTON CHOPS?!" :eek:

[Project_Mayhem]

I did one of those once. It was a special Friday the 13th game, involving a haunted mansion. I'm sure you've all heard me tell the story, which can be summarized in one sentence:

"HIS FACE IS IN MY MUTTON CHOPS?!" :eek:

The worst are con games. Then you know your boned. I've never ran, played, or read a Con game that doesn't end in a TPK. The last game I ran had the one remaining character shot to pieces, along with the villain, by a regiment of soldiers

[Lycan 01]

A con game? :smallconfused: What is that, exactly?


Oh, there was also the time I ran a game that was secretly a dream. Nyarlathotep paid the PCs a visit in their detective agency. He backhanded one guys face off - I didn't even roll a dice, I just told the guy he was suddenly missing the front of his skull. Secretly, he was in on it, and we'd made a copy of his character sheet. To make everyone believe what was happening was real, the fake character sheet was destroyed upon his characters death.

One player quit right then and there, and another began to swear at me. :smalleek: I finally had to tell them it was all a dream when one of them actually put his shoes on and tried to walk out of the house...

[Starbuck_II]

Wield Shotguns and punch Cthulhu in the face.
Note that this can result in a dead PC, but damn if it isn't awesome.

[Project_Mayhem]

A con game? :smallconfused: What is that, exactly?

A convention game - designed for players who don't know each other with an unfamiliar DM in a short time slot. They all kill you. Without fail.

[chiasaur11]

In Call of Cthulhu, you are a simple human who must foil the plans of gods.



And in case you're wondering:

You aren't a Batman style human. You aren't a Conan style human. You aren't Patrick McGoohan in the Prisoner with an unbreakable will. And you sure aren't a Sam Vimes style human.

Start with a bog standard BPRD agent. Remove the training, armament, backup, and supernatural backup. Drop a couple of notches in competency.

Leave the casualty rate and occasional demonic possession.

That's you. Have fun.

[Ostien]

Something else I could have thrown at them: "All of the diagonal squares have nine corners and are attacking you. Roll a sanity check, please."

Hahaha. Nice!

I have run a bit of the Chaosium version and really liked it. Ran a one shot and a few sessions with a group. There were outside circumstances that made the game fold.

CoC is on the extreme end of story and role-play orientation, and the best I have found is if you want to make your own story is to start from a central concept and then throw in as many interconnected plot hooks as you can. You never know where your players investigation is going to take them. Think of your game as a spiderweb when planing would be a good way to go about it.

[Lycan 01]

Oh, and make sure you get the D100 Chaosium edition. Its the one I play, and I can't think of single thing to complain about with it. :smallbiggrin:

[Squidmaster]

I've never played it, but I've wanted to for a while. Unfortunately, I doubt any of my friends would make for good players or DMs. Most of them are of the "think with your sword" mindset.
Also:
How many Call of Cthulu players does it take to screw in a light bulb?
All of them, because you never split up the party.

[Lycan 01]

8.

1 to go out and find a ladder so they can change lightbulbs.
1 to research the technique so they don't do it wrong and die.
1 to go out and brave the dangers of finding a new lightbulb.
1 to climb a ladder and unscrew the dead bulb.
1 to catch the unscrewer when he has an acrophobia attack.
1 to have PTSD and snap upon hearing the bulb break upon the floor.
1 to wrestle with the PTSD victim for control of the shotgun.
1 to secretly be a lava lamp cultist and sacrifice them all to his dark lord.


Did I get it right? :smallbiggrin:

[BobVosh]

8.

1 to go out and find a ladder so they can change lightbulbs.
1 to research the technique so they don't do it wrong and die.
1 to go out and brave the dangers of finding a new lightbulb.
1 to climb a ladder and unscrew the dead bulb.
1 to catch the unscrewer when he has an acrophobia attack.
1 to have PTSD and snap upon hearing the bulb break upon the floor.
1 to wrestle with the PTSD victim for control of the shotgun.
1 to secretly be a lava lamp cultist and sacrifice them all to his dark lord.


Did I get it right? :smallbiggrin:

No. He white texted it: All of them, because you never split up the party.

All of them. You did get how it normally goes down though.

The only problem I had with the D100 version is in order to level a skill you have to have used it that session. Therefore you always try to use every skill you care about each session. Beyond that: works pretty well.

[sambo.]

http://www.purplepawn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Hello_Cthulhu.gif

Call Of Cthulhu is awesome.

however, it's a game best played by semi-experienced RPG'ers.

[Kurald Galain]

Something else I could have thrown at them: "All of the diagonal squares have nine corners and are attacking you. Roll a sanity check, please."

That is awesome :smallbiggrin:

[sambo.]

Are you sure you're not thinking of Paranoia?

Wait, in that one, everyone is about to betray you.
no, in Paranoia you are trying to get your fellow troubleshooters convicted of, then executed for, treason against The Computer and the good citizens of Alpha Complex.

or, if you're a little more canny, you're trying to orchestrate plausibly deniable "accidents".

in Call of Cthulhu, you're merely hoping to not die too soon.


Wield Shotguns and punch Cthulhu in the face.
Note that this can result in a dead PC, but damn if it isn't awesome.
dude, even if you manage to get inside shotgun range of Cthulhu, you'll be a dribbling, moaning, insane wreck of a character before pulling the trigger even comes to mind.

actually finding Cthulhu is the last thing you want to do. coz if you do find him, it's the last thing you'll ever do.

[hamishspence]

I see D20 Cthulhu as an interesting source for exotic D&D monsters- and epic-level bosses, more than as a viable alternative to Chaosium Cthulhu.

A way of giving your D&D (and maybe D20 modern games) a bit of Cthulhu-ish flavour.

Punching out Cthulhu might be an interesting change of pace for epic-level D&D characters.

But not so much, for "ordinary 20th century characters".

[Tackyhillbillu]

The goal of evey Call of Cthulhu character should be to get as far away from everything in the game as possible.

[hamishspence]

Mostly.

With the suggested "insanity resistance" rules- it might be a bit more of a "fight the threat" rather than "hide from the threat"

a few (but not many) Lovecraft characters, in some of the stories, might be more "fighters" than "runners".

[Volkov]

You punch out Cthulhu, only to get royally owned by Nyarlathotep, and if you beat him, Azathoth comes and then you all just die. That's how at least a few games end.

[wormwood]

actually finding Cthulhu is the last thing you want to do. coz if you do find him, it's the last thing you'll ever do.

Depends on how many friends you bring with you and how quickly you can flee when insane. If i recall correctly, he only kills 1d3 people per round. That d100 San loss can cause quirky behavior, though.

On a side note, one of my favorite character deaths was in a CoC game. We were playing Beyond the Mountains of Madness (I think). Spoiler alert! If you might ever play the scenario, don't read any further. We had encountered a bunch of elder things in a cave. They didn't spot us, as they were busy tending to hundreds of young. Most of the party said, "Oh, hells no!" just prior to their departure from said cave. Two of us, however, disobeyed the cardinal rule and decided to split the party and deal with the beasts.

We were armed with shotguns, rifles, pistols, and most importantly, dynamite. While attempting to plant the dynamite to cause a cave-in and trap, if not kill, all the elder beasts, we were spotted. A fight ensued. In a couple of rounds, we were both being held and crushed to death by the adult elder beasts. My companion went unconscious and would surely die in the next round. I was badly hurt and would likely also die the following round. I had one action left... so I screamed like a little girl, struck the flare I was carrying, and stuck it into the dynamite.

The GM graciously said that the resulting BOOM managed to kill the elder things we were fighting and seal off the tunnel to the young ones.

[GolemsVoice]

Now now, I think you're frightening him. Good.
But seriously, what is CoC about? It's about investigating, mainly. But you don't just investigate a normal case, or even a supernatural lke you would do in WoD, for example. In CoC, you come in contact with the Mythos. The Mythos, and most of the mindset that permeates CoC, is based on the ideas of H.P.Lovecraft.
The Mythos is a (very) loosely connected cosmology that says that there are, have been, and will be, other forces just outside of human view, ranging from terrestrian fishmen to a time-travelling race of cone-shaped-beings. Additionally, certain powerful entities, in human terms, gods, inhabit the universe and influence it. Most of these beings are far superior to humanity in nearly all areas, and most are so fundamentally alien that few men would bear to comprehend their true nature, or sometimes even look at them, without becoming unstrung. Most aliens and "gods" however, ar also alien enough to really not care about mankind, often, reckless individuals or crazy cultists try to call forth what they believe to be a god, who then accidentially wreaks havoc.

So, yes, your character is likely doomed. In the end, he can do littly to stop what's going on, if he even is able to comprehend it. Every step he takes drives him closer to darkness and insanity, as he struggles to adjust his worldview accordingly. There are things the character just WONT BE ABLE to understand. Most of the game is quite grim, and character mortality is high. Unlike D&D, or Vampire, I personally find that the joy doesn't come from posessing and using supernatural powers, or from "being" something special, but from excellent roleplaying and a love for puzzling and detective work. If your players are as good as mine, you will soon have a group that both individually and as a team try to hold of madness as long as possible, while trying to deal with what they encounter, and on top of that, still interacting with one another. It makes for great roleplaying, and I as a DM try to preserve my player's characters as long as possible, to enjoy a gruoup of characters that already know each other. (provided they don't do stupid things, or sacrifice themselves willingly.)

There is also a pulp style of playing CoC, where fights are not as deadly, and bravery, a quick mind and a ready Tommygun can still save the day.

[sambo.]

Depends on how many friends you bring with you and how quickly you can flee when insane. If i recall correctly, he only kills 1d3 people per round.
i can't remember how many people he kills per round but....


That d100 San loss can cause quirky behavior, though.
unless you get REALLY lucky, that d100 sanity loss is going to turn you into the aforementioned gibbering idiot, depending on how insane you were by the time you got within sight of him.

iirc, that's d100 sanity loss PER ROUND that you are in his presence (but my memory could be a little shaky on that).

good luck on that one.

Call Of Cthulhu is actually an excellent convention game. it's a convention, so you don't expect to survive anyways and it's Cthulhu, so you don't expect to survive anyways.




On a side note, one of my favorite character deaths was in a CoC game. We were playing Beyond the Mountains of Madness (I think). Spoiler alert! If you might ever play the scenario, don't read any further. We had encountered a bunch of elder things in a cave. They didn't spot us, as they were busy tending to hundreds of young. Most of the party said, "Oh, hells no!" just prior to their departure from said cave. Two of us, however, disobeyed the cardinal rule and decided to split the party and deal with the beasts.

We were armed with shotguns, rifles, pistols, and most importantly, dynamite. While attempting to plant the dynamite to cause a cave-in and trap, if not kill, all the elder beasts, we were spotted. A fight ensued. In a couple of rounds, we were both being held and crushed to death by the adult elder beasts. My companion went unconscious and would surely die in the next round. I was badly hurt and would likely also die the following round. I had one action left... so I screamed like a little girl, struck the flare I was carrying, and stuck it into the dynamite.

The GM graciously said that the resulting BOOM managed to kill the elder things we were fighting and seal off the tunnel to the young ones.

hehe, awesome!:smallsmile:

[Jan Mattys]

Standard Cthulhu adventure:

1- Something weird and possibly gory happens. Investigators are called to investigate. Go to point 2.

2- Investigators find clues about something even worse hiding in the dark corners of society. Go to point 3.

3- Some NPC contacts the investigators for a talk about a secret and dangerous cult. Cultists come out of the shadows and kill the NPC. If the investigators take precautions not to be seen and manage to talk to the guy before he gets killed, go to point 5. If the investigators don't care about being seen and manage to talk to the guy before he gets killed, go to point 4. If the investigators don't manage to talk to the guy before he kicks the bucket, go to point 2.

4- Cultists come out of the shadows *again* and try to kill the investigators. If the investigators die, go to END 3. If they survive, go to point 6.

5- Investigators follow the hints given by the *now dead* NPC, investigate further and find more evidence that something really dangerous is about to happen in day X. If they manage to to put their hands over something important for the cultists go to point 6. If they don't, go to point 7.

6- Cultists decide it's time to get serious to protect their cult before the investigators can mess up the day X ceremony. They attack the investigators en masse and repeatedly. If the investigators are smart and have decided to take precautions and/or hide, go to point 7. If the investigators are just very lucky and survive the assaults, go to point 4. If they investigators die, go to END 3.

7- In day X the cultists perform their unspeakable ritual. If the investigators decide to solve the problem by themselves, go to point 8. If the investigators find enough evidence to justify Police intervention, go to END 2. If the investigators miss the deadline, go to END 3.

8- Investigators have managed to stay out of reach of the cult while gathering evidence and clues. Well done, guys! ...And they have decided they can save the world by themselves. That's quite stupid, guys! If the investigators waste time and/or get delayed by significant resistance, go to point 9. If they act as a commando, and their quick and lethal striking force manages to stop the ritual from being completed, go to END 1.

9- The investigators have managed to stay out of reach, they have managed to gather evidence, and they have managed to storm the HQ of the bad guys. Being late, they have the honor of witnessing firsts-hand the Awakening of the Elder Horror / God / Thing. They meet a quick but horrible and far-from-merciful death, and go to END 3.


Endings:

END 1- Some investigators may have died, some may be ready for a one-way trip to the sanitarium, but the world lives to see another day. Yay!

END 2 - Police intervention makes the whole place a mess. Cultists defend the place with their life, but meet tommy-guns levels of resistance. In the end, many cops die and many lose their sanity, but almost all cultists die as well. The cultist cell is destroyed before it can complete the ritual. This is often considered the best possible scenario for the investigators, but it costs an awfully high price in terms of human lives.

END 3- In day X, the world is invaded by some Elder Horror / God / Thing. Armageddon ensues. Epic fail.

:smallbiggrin:

[Mongoose87]

It seems like a lot of those knobs go to 11.

[Jan Mattys]

It seems like a lot of those knobs go to 11.

Does it? :smallbiggrin:

[hamlet]

so, i've heard about this "call of cthulu" thing a couple of times here, so i wanna know, is it any good? also, where would one find miniatures and tiles?

Well, you've got a lot of answers so far, but none as best as I can see have touched on one of the core concepts of Call of Cthulhu. It is not horror in the standard "monster leaps out of the darkness" type. It's Cosmic Horror, a different animal. In the stories and in the game, the scariest thing is not about fearing the monster that's going to leap at you and devour your soul, it's about realizing your insignificance in the grand scheme of, well, anything.

Best example of that is, I think, in one of the more or less cannon bits of the Mythos: the entirety of reality exists because a blind idiot "god" is lost in delusion and simply hasn't come to its senses yet. The universe itself is an accident and humanity, in all its history, splendor, and potential, doesn't even register as a blip on the radar of the lowest of these beings and your only hope, as players, is not to prevent the destruction of the world, but only to postpone it.

What is call of Cthulhu and what will players do in it? Well, they'll spend a great deal of time learning things that man was not meant to know, things that will break their minds and send them screaming to the asylum if they're lucky, or straight into the welcoming arms of the cultists if they aren't.

If, while playing/running this game, you find yourself embroiled in an epic battle between the players and some eldritch horror, then your doing it wrong.

[Jan Mattys]

Well, you've got a lot of answers so far, but none as best as I can see have touched on one of the core concepts of Call of Cthulhu. It is not horror in the standard "monster leaps out of the darkness" type. It's Cosmic Horror, a different animal. In the stories and in the game, the scariest thing is not about fearing the monster that's going to leap at you and devour your soul, it's about realizing your insignificance in the grand scheme of, well, anything.

Best example of that is, I think, in one of the more or less cannon bits of the Mythos: the entirety of reality exists because a blind idiot "god" is lost in delusion and simply hasn't come to its senses yet. The universe itself is an accident and humanity, in all its history, splendor, and potential, doesn't even register as a blip on the radar of the lowest of these beings and your only hope, as players, is not to prevent the destruction of the world, but only to postpone it.

What is call of Cthulhu and what will players do in it? Well, they'll spend a great deal of time learning things that man was not meant to know, things that will break their minds and send them screaming to the asylum if they're lucky, or straight into the welcoming arms of the cultists if they aren't.

If, while playing/running this game, you find yourself embroiled in an epic battle between the players and some eldritch horror, then your doing it wrong.

...and die a horrible, horrible death.

Good post. I think the reason why he didn't get the right info till the late page 2 is that CoC is sufficiently known to cause people go ironic about it.

I'll add another point: in Call of Cthulhu game atmosphere is EVERYTHING. You lose it, and there's no point in playing the game at all. You can't scare your players, you are not a good CoC DM. Your players can't be scared and just care about skills and fighting prowess, they are not good CoC players.

Take this as a good example in another medium: CALL OF CTHULHU - DARK CORNERS OF EARTH is a First Person Shooter based on the Call of Cthulhu setting. The first chapter and a half (out of six) you go around WITHOUT any weapon at all. Your goal is to survive. And yes, it's awesome. :-)

[hamlet]

...and die a horrible, horrible death.

Good post. I think the reason why he didn't get the right info till the late page 2 is that CoC is sufficiently known to cause people go ironic about it.



Which is kind of a shame, really. Every time I pick up Lovecraft, it still scares the snot out of me even though I know exactly what to expect by now. It's powerful stuff, really.

And yes, good points. The first chapter of Dark Corners of the Earth is pretty darn unsettling even before you find your way into the basement of that house.

[Mongoose87]

Take this as a good example in another medium: CALL OF CTHULHU - DARK CORNERS OF EARTH is a First Person Shooter based on the Call of Cthulhu setting. The first chapter and a half (out of six) you go around WITHOUT any weapon at all. Your goal is to survive. And yes, it's awesome. :-)

Now, if only it wasn't broken so you couldn't get past the part on the Coast Guard clipper.

[GolemsVoice]

If you want to know how a typical CoC campaign/game could look, read Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" for a long, exploration-based campaign, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" for a "destroy the monster"-one shot which focuses on investigation, or "Call of Cthulhu", for a combination of long-term exploration and researching. Those stories should give you a good outline of what can happen in a CoC game.

[jiriku]

The typical Lovecraft story involves a protagonist stumbling across the barest thread of the tattered edge of the true horror that is the cosmos. He may take a wrong turn while motoring through New England and find himself in a backward village that barely maintains contact with civilization, or venture into an ancient abandoned church into a vault that's been sealed since the 1700's, or wander down the wrong back street in Cairo into a curio shop that shouldn't exist in a street he can never find again.

In this place, he finds something that should not be, a horror that shatters his conception of the world as a rational, sensible place. It might be a cannibal who wears the flesh of his victims, an old wizard who poisons his enemies with a poison that gradually turns them to stone, an alien race that lurks in the shadows and whispers to him with inhuman voices, or a books that hints that all of reality that he knows it is merely a facade over a different and horrible universe in which monsters abound and humankind isn't special, important, or even very likely to survive for much longer.

He tries to rationalize what he's encountered, tries to convince himself that he's misunderstood what he's seeing, but in the end he is forced to confront and acknowledge the reality of the horror. If he's lucky, the protagonist manages to escape with his life and sanity intact. If he has help from wise and benevolent scholars who study the mythos, they might even be capable of temporarily banishing the elder evil, although they're unlikely to have any means of killing it. However, forever after, he must live with the knowledge that the same, familiar world in which he grew up is a lie, that no one will ever believe him if he told the truth, and that the real truth is so terrible that the bulk of humanity is better off clinging to its illusions and ignorant of the universe in which it lives.

[thefinalbattle]

okay, golemsvoice, then what type of adventure is "the nameless city"?

[GolemsVoice]

It's about exploration, I'd say. Travelling to foreign, mystical and wondrous places (and remember, those are the twenties, travelling was an adventure back then) and then realizing a horrible truth. If I remember correctly, the character doesn't piece together knowledge, he just happens to stumble upon horrors he had better left alone.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Disclaimer: I have not played any CoC nor have I read any of the lovecraft novellas.

That said, the way I understand CoC is such: Take Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness, blend liberally, add the sanity mechanics from Unearthed Arcana, and frost with an appropriate campaign setting. Edit: a dash of Elder Evils to taste can't hurt.

@those who know: does that sound about right?

[Mongoose87]

Disclaimer: I have not played any CoC nor have I read any of the lovecraft novellas.

That said, the way I understand CoC is such: Take Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness, blend liberally, add the sanity mechanics from Unearthed Arcana, and frost with an appropriate campaign setting. Edit: a dash of Elder Evils to taste can't hurt.

@those who know: does that sound about right?

You're missing the 1920s setting and the utter futility.

[sambo.]

You're missing the 1920s setting and the utter futility.

with extra emphasis on the utter futility

[Volkov]

Not to mention, pretty much half of the gods can summon azathoth. Who can obliterate planets by just moving his (non-existent) rear end.

[Volkov]

with extra emphasis on the utter futility

Complete, total, sheer, and utter futility.

[Tackyhillbillu]

Complete, total, sheer, and utter futility.

Like, you will wear out your D6s rolling up new Characters futility.

CoC is a lot of fun, once the players realize that there is no way to 'win,' and thats not their fault. That their characters main goal isn't to beat the 'bad guy,' but staying alive and sane for the next couple of moments. If players don't empathize with their characters, CoC is pointless.

It's all about watching these characters realize how small and fragile they are in an uncaring universe, and watching these tiny fragments of life, desperate to keep going, gutter and burn out.

[Darrin]

That said, the way I understand CoC is such: Take Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness, blend liberally, add the sanity mechanics from Unearthed Arcana, and frost with an appropriate campaign setting. Edit: a dash of Elder Evils to taste can't hurt.


You've got it a bit backwards. Heroes of Horror, Lords of Madness, and Elder Evils were all inspired by Call of Cthulhu. The sanity rules are blatantly ripped off wholesale.

[Project_Mayhem]

CoC is a lot of fun, once the players realize that there is no way to 'win,' and thats not their fault. That their characters main goal isn't to beat the 'bad guy,' but staying alive and sane for the next couple of moments. If players don't empathize with their characters, CoC is pointless.

It's all about watching these characters realize how small and fragile they are in an uncaring universe, and watching these tiny fragments of life, desperate to keep going, gutter and burn out.

Not entirely true - you can never stop Cthulhu, but you can delay him by stopping his cultists, for example. You can achieve stuff, it just inevitably cost you your sanity, life, or both.

[Asgardian]

Loved Coc and my group had a campaign that lasted throughout the bulk of the 1990's

I had one character go insane and return years later as a pawn of the cultist

another one went insane and attacked Chthulu with a chain gun andwas squashed like a bug while another got stepped on. (yeah... i lost 2 characters in about 5 minutes and we considered ourselves lucky as we stopped the ceremony before ALL of him could get through the portal)

[Stormthorn]

Chaosium Call of Cthulhu is TONS better than the d20 version.

Also, if you're going to play a game based on his universe, please avail yourself of the complete works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/), especially the short novel The Call of Cthulhu (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/thecallofcthulhu.htm), from which the name of the game was taken.

Those works are not complete. Its missing Nemesis.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You've got it a bit backwards. Heroes of Horror, Lords of Madness, and Elder Evils were all inspired by Call of Cthulhu. The sanity rules are blatantly ripped off wholesale.

Actually, I was aware that LoM and EE drew much inspiration from lovecraft. Heroes of Horror however could've been inspired by any of a number of works. Unearthed Arcana actually admitted in one of the side-bars that they took the sanity system from CoC. While I haven't actually read any lovecraft I am somewhat familiar.

[Stormthorn]

Actually, I was aware that LoM and EE drew much inspiration from lovecraft. Heroes of Horror however could've been inspired by any of a number of works. Unearthed Arcana actually admitted in one of the side-bars that they took the sanity system from CoC. While I haven't actually read any lovecraft I am somewhat familiar.

You cant argue that LoM was inspired by Call of Cthulhu.

Its clearly inspired by the Mythos, but you cant make a good argument that it draws from that other game.

[hamlet]

Disclaimer: I have not played any CoC nor have I read any of the lovecraft novellas.

That said, the way I understand CoC is such: Take Heroes of Horror and Lords of Madness, blend liberally, add the sanity mechanics from Unearthed Arcana, and frost with an appropriate campaign setting. Edit: a dash of Elder Evils to taste can't hurt.

@those who know: does that sound about right?

Not really.

You seem to be approaching it from too gamist a point of view. There is no real "winning" for the players in the same sense of those sources that you mentioned. Of course, you can still achieve things, such as preventing the insane cultists from summoning some eldritch horror that will drive men mad just by the sight of it, or discovering and stopping the murderer in the forest who eats the flesh of his victims and wears their skins for some unknowable purpose, or even, occasionally, kill some lesser Mythos Entity . . . but you can never, really win in the sense of unquallified success everybody goes home to have cake and cookies.

The luckiest thing that can happen to your character, in the end, is to die peacefully as an old man (or woman) in bed. That is the best thing you can hope for.

Utter, bleak hopelessness and the prayer that one never truly comprehends even a fraction of the true nature of the universe. These characters will NEVER be heroes. Ever. Most likely, if anybody even knows of anything they did, it will be the police and asylum doctors who imprison them for crimes and/or raving lunacy. If you, as a character, survive your adventure physically, chance are you will end your days gibbering incoherently in a dark cell, strapped into a straight jacket while incurious and uncaring doctors peer at you through the door while you rave about things only you can see or hear.

Actually, for a good taste of Lovecraftian-ness without actually reading the books (which you should read, by the by), you might want to grab a copy of Silent Hill the movie and John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. In the first, a woman finds herself in a realm where rationality and the familiar laws of nature simply hold no sway, but instead is governed by intent and symbolism. The second, well, is pretty much a Lovecraft story itself. It's quite well done if only vaguely campy at times, and avoids most of the pitfalls that Lovecraft's admirers usually fall for.