Best Version of Call of Cthulhu

[jdrakeh]

Do you feel that you actually end up telling a story using Arkham Horror?

Yes, but it's very limited in scope. It feels like a Story Game to me, as such games tend to have a heavy mechanical focus on building a very specific kind of story but little (if any) mechanical focus on governing actual in-character social interaction (leaving that to the best discretion of the players).

 

[talien]

I have run and played in CoC based games that used d20 Modern with rules form CoCd20 - it kinda hammers home the idea that no matter how great you are there is something out there bigger and scarier than you are.

Ditto!

Story hour here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/story-...een-beginning-end-updated-daily-nov-29-a.html

 

[tylermalan]

Well, my gaming group recently decided to take a break around the holidays from the game I run, which is 4E D&D, to play a few sessions of something else. I'm going to try my best to convince them to go with Cthulhu Something, but because we won't be playing that many sessions, we want something that's easy to learn, as most of us have never played CoC before, and don't want to spend a bunch of time learning the rules that we could be spending playing.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

Its very quick to learn, it's percentile based and most of the rulebook is simply support material. Download the Quickstart Guide and browse through it.

You could probably boil down the basics of Call of Cthulhu onto 1 sheet (1 side) of paper for roleplayers new to the system.

 

[darjr]

Chaosium.com: News - Call of Cthulhu Quickstart Rules

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Something worth mentioning is that CoC shares with Basic Role Play what is quite possibly the most organic skill and experience system. You get better in the skills that you use, and the better you are with the skill the slower it advances. BRP CoC, any edition, is my preferred rules set for the setting.

As has been mentioned, editions are forward and backwards compatible - any edition rules can be used to run any edition scenario with no change. (I tend to think of BRP as Corel Word Perfect, while D&D is closer to Microsoft Word.... Both do the job, but one has difficulty with earlier and later versions.)

I have not used Trail of Cthulhu, nor Shadows of Cthulhu, but I have used both the BRP and D20 CoC rules. Currently I am running Delta Green using Spycraft, the Fragile Minds supplement, and the magic rules from CoC D20. (Not for those who want less than heroic investigators! While still fragile the PCs are pretty darned cinematic. On the other hand a Dark Young still managed to take a PC down in a single round.)

And while I would not say that Arkham Horror is good for running an RPG I will say that is a heck of a lot of fun! I need to get some of the expansions.

The Auld Grump

 

[tylermalan]

So, my nefarious scheme worked! My group is going to play Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium. I downloaded and checked out the quick start rules, and it seems like a great system. I won't be running the game, which is another bonus!

However, none of us have ever played CoC before, and I have, by far, the most experience with horror games (running them). The guy who is going to be the Keeper has no experience with CoC, either.

So here's my question: other than "The Haunting" adventure contained in the quick start rules, what would be the best adventure to try to get our hands on for a group of brand new players to CoC, and a brand new Keeper? We don't want to run that one because most of us have read through it already to get an idea of what the game is like and how it differs from D&D, which is our staple game. Or, if there really isn't an adventure out there that suits those needs other than "The Haunting", let me know that, too.

 

[Obryn]

Glad to hear it!

Others may disagree, but I think you're best off running CoC in the modern era. Unless, that is, you know enough about the 20's and 30's to make it realistic. (For example - were there stoplights?)

It works just fine, and the players will have an easier time getting into it.

In my ongoing game, I got most of my inspiration from Google Earth, Wikipedia, History Channel, and Discovery Channel. I threw in a liberal dose of my background (setting the game in Chicago, since I basically grew up there), and let it go.

You need to deal with cell phones and the like, sure, but it's far from impossible to isolate the characters from the rest of the world. Just build it into the plot. The modern era also opens up new possibilities.... In my game, someone had put up a website with several Mythos tomes. The PCs raided an apartment full of gamers, one of whom had cast a summoning ritual and gone insane.

-O

 

[tylermalan]

So no ideas on a good scenario for beginning players?

 

[Darkwolf71]

Yog-Sothoth is a great forum and souce site for all things CoC. I'm currently having a similar disscussion here: New Keeper, New Investigators.

I think I'm going to start with Edge of Darkness which is in the full rule book.