Call of Cthulhu or Traveler?

[Summer-Knight925]

I run a gaming club at my school (or at least I run the table top areas of it) and can afford to get 1 single game for $40.

Call of Cthulhu

or

Traveler

post reasons why for both.

Remember, it is to have a single game played in one 4-hour period, so that should be taken into account.

 

[malcolypse]

CoC without a doubt.

The system is simple, and it does it's job very well. You can teach everyone how it works as they're making up their characters. The setting is rich, and a well run game can really get under a player's skin and leave them itching for more.

If you're looking for cheap and horrifying (I never get tired of pimping this game) you should look into Dread. You can download it at RPGNow for $12 and get a Jenga tower for about the same, so for just over half of your budget you get a great roleplaying system and a whole other game to boot.

It would fit into your time frame, too. Give them 45 minutes to create their character, 15 minutes for potty breaks and such while you read over them, then three hours of game play.

You should track down the Dread thread here on Enworld. It makes me happy everytime I see it resurrected.

 

[Ron]

Those are two of my favourite games. Both have simple rules and offer near endless possibilities to adventures. I say you should choose based in either you want to play horror or space opera. If anything, some of the best adventures ever published were for Call of Ctulhu, whereas Traveller's adventures are usually adequate, at best. However, if you plan to create your own scenarios, both rules set offer excellent tools and there are great sourcebooks available to each game.

 

[Gilladian]

Which version of each are you contemplating?

CoC has a big, thick, tome called Basic Roleplay which enables you to run a wide variety of time periods and flavors of "cthulhuoid" games, from 1920's to sci-fi, with magic and mutations and psionics all on offer. You can buy expansions to cover Roman, Dark Ages, and other eras. I like CoC but I have to say if you use the combat system fully it can get a bit intricate. Roll to hit, roll to parry, remember to check for success, special success or critical success, compare rolls, roll on crit charts if needed, track weapon and armor damage, etc... it can take some getting used to, especially for DnD players. But it is fun and can be played quickly.

Traveler has several rule versions. The most familiar to me is the old black-book set, or the first revision. Rolling up characters is loads of fun, but I always found the lack of later advancement to get a little boring. For one-shots or adventures interspersed with other games, that may not be a drawback. However, the game really ONLY supports one genre of play - science fiction. And it was always BEST for us played as "travel in space - have an adventure on a planet and leave - travel to a new planet". We never seemed to do campaigns, just episodes...

 

[DragonLancer]

Call of Cthulhu for the win!

The system is very easy to get your head around for a start. Character creation is very simple and doesn't require anything more than the concept that each player has.
You just need players who will take it seriously and get into the mindset of a 1920's investigative horror.

 

[Vascant]

duh.. Traveler

Come on this is the classic of all space games here, have yet to find a person who didn't enjoy the originals of this game back in the day.

 

[prosfilaes]

Call of Cthulhu. Traveller as a setting is great. But if you buy the 6th edition of the Call of Cthulhu book (ISBN 1568821816), you get a version of the game that's been pretty much stable for a couple decades (very minor edition changes) and provides a complete game. On the other hand, the latest Traveller book, the Traveller Core Rulebook (ISBN 190610333X) is but one edition of a ruleset that has meandered all over the place historically. Not only that, what Traveller is famous for, its setting, isn't even included; this is a generic sci-fi rulebook.

 

[giant.robot]

Call of Cthulhu. Traveller as a setting is great. But if you buy the 6th edition of the Call of Cthulhu book (ISBN 1568821816), you get a version of the game that's been pretty much stable for a couple decades (very minor edition changes) and provides a complete game. On the other hand, the latest Traveller book, the Traveller Core Rulebook (ISBN 190610333X) is but one edition of a ruleset that has meandered all over the place historically. Not only that, what Traveller is famous for, its setting, isn't even included; this is a generic sci-fi rulebook.

Why would the game's history have any bearing on your descision to buy it today? That doesn't make any sense at all. Call of Cthulhu is a fine game but the fact the rules haven't changed for over a decade doesn't make it so.

I'd vote for Traveller in this situation. Character creation in Traveller lends itself to one-shot and pick up games. There's also no need to play a particular style of sci-fi game with it. It handles players wanting to be Han Solo, Captain Shepherd, or Captain Kirk. You have a huge world available to the players as well since they're jumping to different planets.

 

[prosfilaes]

Why would the game's history have any bearing on your descision to buy it today?

Because presumably this book was going to end up as part of a group library. For a library, The Call of Cthulhu rules beat one edition of Traveller rules any day.

You have a huge world available to the players as well since they're jumping to different planets.

Which you get from where? They're not in the basic book.

 

[Bluenose]

The two games are both excellent in their own ways. Both have capable rules systems that will do most of what you ask of them. Call of Cthulhu has some of the best adventures published for any RPG ever - even I, not a fan of horor games, have enjoyed them. Traveller has one of the most detailed settings for an RPG, yet one that's eminently recognisable from a short description. I'd suggest the most fundamental difference is what your character might be/do in the games. CoC is written around 20th century people investigating horrors, and if you don't want to do that then there's less useful support. Traveller is SF, has much more generic characters, and doesn't point you in any particular direction for what the characters might be doing. These approaches both have strengths and weaknesses. I would personally go for Traveller, but as I say above I'm not really a fan of horror and there's no doubt in my mind that CoC is one of the better RPGs in print.