Obryn
Hero
I had a good time kicking things off with the intro scenario in the CoC d20 book.
-O
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Best Version of Call of Cthulhu
- Thread starter tylermalan
- Start date
-O
Barendd Nobeard
Explorer
In the free downloads section of the afore-mentioned yog-sothoth.com there is a scenario called "Spirits Over Arkham" that is a lot of fun. It starts very "real world-ish" with mythos stuff appearing in the final (third) section, IIRC.
howandwhy99
Adventurer
I ran a couple of sessions of Call of Cthulhu rules I cribbed together from the 2nd Edition box mixing in Dread's Jenga tower rules. It worked very well. I find the best investigatory games are the ones that give the players more than just a mystery. It's like D&D in that way. Instead of just combat, you get powerful spells too. In CoC you try and solve a mystery, but you can cut corners by using spells. Of course, using spells also can cause sanity loss and attendant mental disorders. With a group full of crazies casting Cthulhu spells in hopes to stop other crazy Cthulhu spell-casting cultists fun can easily be had. Solving the mystery is now only part of it.
I think everyone had fun and it took two long sessions to arrive to a sort of conclusion. CoC always leads to a conclusion one way or another.
As Keeper you rely on that.
I think everyone had fun and it took two long sessions to arrive to a sort of conclusion. CoC always leads to a conclusion one way or another.
As Keeper you rely on that.
Wraith Form
Explorer
Here's the difference: Chaosium's rules are easy to learn--very intuitive and straightforward. The game's been around for this long (since the, what?...early '80's?) without substantial changes, so it must be doing something right! As some have mentioned, the combat rules can be annoying. Also, there is the "You failed a Library Use roll? Nope, you don't find the single, solitary, lone vital clue and the story screeches to a halt" syndrome. Wise referees can get around this.
Trail of Cthulhu is a little...brainier. I found the rules to be significantly less intuitive--I couldn't have a 100% inexperienced gamer playing a ToC investigator in 5 minutes flat, whereas I could with CoC. I also found Hite's writing to be vague, even a bit World-of-Darkness-y in places. On the other hand, the rules are crafted to allow for investigative play, so the PCs will always find the clues needed to move the story along...they have levels of success, from 'finding the clue (yawn)' to 'finding the clue and you pwnsauce everything on Earth!!!!111!oneone11 and Sherlock Holmes is jealous of yer madd skillz'.
Last edited:
Wraith Form
Explorer
This is arguably one of the best adventures to start with. (Assuming you're OK with gaming in the '20's....and if not, it's adaptable to the modern day.) It can be found in any copy of the full CoC rule book from the early 5th edition all the way to the most current version in print, so it's easy to find.
Another suggestion? It may seem obvious, but have everyone in the group read Lovecraft. Get a public domain copy of the actual short story The Call of Cthulhu, or pick up a inexpensive paperback of Lovecraft's work. Have everyone in the group read it. This will help them prepare for what to expect in a CoC game.
Those gamers familiar with the "kill everything in our path" mentality of D&D are in for an abrupt and rude awakening when the TPK happens against a few measly ghouls, for example. You'll want to make sure the players (and referee) all understand that you're playing mortal men and not action movie heroes. (Unless you want to have that type of pulp game, in which case ignore what I typed).
Last edited:
Desdichado
Hero
There used to be a free adventure floating around on the old WotC website written by Monte Cook that I liked. Used it twice as the kick-off to a Cthulhu campaign.
I know, I know... the ship has sailed... but I like talking about Cthulhu rules, so I'll weigh in anyway, in spite of the lateness of the post. I have the 3rd edition of the BRP rules, a British printing (so it sits kinda funny on my shelf since the British A4 standard is a bit different than the American 8½" X 11" standard), and I'm in a game right now that uses, I believe, the 6th edition rules. There's little noticeable difference other than presentation. The rules aren't "familiar" but they're intuitive and simple, and in that sense they tend to disappear fairly easily which in my opinion is pretty key in this genre; you don't want to be constantly reminded that you're playing a game.
However, the d20 Call of Cthulhu book is probably my favorite RPG book of any system, any line, any time. Great presentation, great fluff text, and a pretty good interpretation of the d20 rules into the genre. It works so well largely because the rules are already familiar, they have been simplified in many cases to make chargen and combat easier and less reliant on tactical combat (you can easily---and I recommend doing so---run CoC d20 combat "cinematically" rather than tactically, which I think greatly eases immersion and is important for this particular genre). It's also got a great magic system; I actually strongly prefer the d20 Magic system to the BRP one.
The big advantage of the d20 book is the fact that its compatible with everything else d20. In my opinion, that is a feature that has a value that is difficult to overestimate. And it works both ways. You want to have byakhee or hounds of Tindalos in your D&D game? You can take them from here (I've done so.) You can also add anything into your Cthulhu game that you need to from any d20 source. You like that little glimmer imp that steals eyes from people from the Monsternomicon? Guess what? His stats are compatible with your Cthulhu game. All you need to do is add a Sanity cost for seeing him, and you're good to go. You like the Fiendish Codex version of Dagon? Well, why not use him? And if you need more Outer Gods type figures, guess what? Any of the demon lords fits in fairly well, as well as lots of other powerful demons, aberrations, or other D&D critters. Lots of them were directly inspired by Lovecraft in the first place, and for my money, D&D is one of the best sources for new Mythos out there, if you sift through it.
Much is made over the levelling issue. I agree that having a Cthulhu character go from 1st to 20th level sounds very bizarre. I'd certainly never do it. In my experience, very low level d20 characters are actually considerably more fragile and less capable than their BRP counterparts. BRP characters seem to be more or less equivalent to 4th or 5th level d20 characters. I'd never consider playing a CoC game that had PCs get out of the single digits in levels. Rather; I see the levels as a tool to adjust my campaign to my own needs. If I want very fragile characters, I'll start them at 1st level. If I want tougher ones, I'll start them at 3rd or 4th. If I want pulp characters, I may start them at 6th or 7th. I also would never have a CoC campaign; even a relatively long-running one, that changed more than three or four levels from the starting position, so if I start at 3rd level, you can expect that character leveling will cap at 6th or so, either arbitrarily, or by campaign design.
Anyway, like I said, I love to ramble on and on about Cthulhu and theory, strategies, and experiences I've had running it. I'd love to answer more specific questions, but I'm not sure that I have an answer to "which adventure to start with..." since I rarely (if ever) run published adventures. Like I said, I do like the Monte Cook freebie that used to be on the web, with the parking garage elevator, and I've also adapted the old Dark•Matter "Exit 23" to Cthulhu before with good results. I'll second obryn's recommendation to start things in the modern day; 20s is fun (my current game is a 1920's era BRP Cthulhu game, but I'm a player not the GM) but a bit more daunting of an experience. Modern day Cthulhu at least allows everyone to be on the same page, because presumably all your players are familiar with the modern age.
I know, I know... the ship has sailed... but I like talking about Cthulhu rules, so I'll weigh in anyway, in spite of the lateness of the post. I have the 3rd edition of the BRP rules, a British printing (so it sits kinda funny on my shelf since the British A4 standard is a bit different than the American 8½" X 11" standard), and I'm in a game right now that uses, I believe, the 6th edition rules. There's little noticeable difference other than presentation. The rules aren't "familiar" but they're intuitive and simple, and in that sense they tend to disappear fairly easily which in my opinion is pretty key in this genre; you don't want to be constantly reminded that you're playing a game.
However, the d20 Call of Cthulhu book is probably my favorite RPG book of any system, any line, any time. Great presentation, great fluff text, and a pretty good interpretation of the d20 rules into the genre. It works so well largely because the rules are already familiar, they have been simplified in many cases to make chargen and combat easier and less reliant on tactical combat (you can easily---and I recommend doing so---run CoC d20 combat "cinematically" rather than tactically, which I think greatly eases immersion and is important for this particular genre). It's also got a great magic system; I actually strongly prefer the d20 Magic system to the BRP one.
The big advantage of the d20 book is the fact that its compatible with everything else d20. In my opinion, that is a feature that has a value that is difficult to overestimate. And it works both ways. You want to have byakhee or hounds of Tindalos in your D&D game? You can take them from here (I've done so.) You can also add anything into your Cthulhu game that you need to from any d20 source. You like that little glimmer imp that steals eyes from people from the Monsternomicon? Guess what? His stats are compatible with your Cthulhu game. All you need to do is add a Sanity cost for seeing him, and you're good to go. You like the Fiendish Codex version of Dagon? Well, why not use him? And if you need more Outer Gods type figures, guess what? Any of the demon lords fits in fairly well, as well as lots of other powerful demons, aberrations, or other D&D critters. Lots of them were directly inspired by Lovecraft in the first place, and for my money, D&D is one of the best sources for new Mythos out there, if you sift through it.
Much is made over the levelling issue. I agree that having a Cthulhu character go from 1st to 20th level sounds very bizarre. I'd certainly never do it. In my experience, very low level d20 characters are actually considerably more fragile and less capable than their BRP counterparts. BRP characters seem to be more or less equivalent to 4th or 5th level d20 characters. I'd never consider playing a CoC game that had PCs get out of the single digits in levels. Rather; I see the levels as a tool to adjust my campaign to my own needs. If I want very fragile characters, I'll start them at 1st level. If I want tougher ones, I'll start them at 3rd or 4th. If I want pulp characters, I may start them at 6th or 7th. I also would never have a CoC campaign; even a relatively long-running one, that changed more than three or four levels from the starting position, so if I start at 3rd level, you can expect that character leveling will cap at 6th or so, either arbitrarily, or by campaign design.
Anyway, like I said, I love to ramble on and on about Cthulhu and theory, strategies, and experiences I've had running it. I'd love to answer more specific questions, but I'm not sure that I have an answer to "which adventure to start with..." since I rarely (if ever) run published adventures. Like I said, I do like the Monte Cook freebie that used to be on the web, with the parking garage elevator, and I've also adapted the old Dark•Matter "Exit 23" to Cthulhu before with good results. I'll second obryn's recommendation to start things in the modern day; 20s is fun (my current game is a 1920's era BRP Cthulhu game, but I'm a player not the GM) but a bit more daunting of an experience. Modern day Cthulhu at least allows everyone to be on the same page, because presumably all your players are familiar with the modern age.
Obryn
Hero
I'll echo all of this. I never once used a battle map for my d20 CoC game, and never once felt the need. And, since I was running a more pulp-style game, we had more than a few shootouts with cultists.
And the d20 CoC book is mostly campaign advice. Really, it rocks. (It also has a gigantic section on firearms, with way more detail than I think was strictly necessary. It's a bit on the gun-fetishist side, IMHO, but it seems rather sensible from what I could glean.)
Yup. And it's not just for creatures - I incorporated the VP/WP rules from Unearthed Arcana directly into CoC. Thematically, it fits perfectly with CoC, and it made the characters both a bit more durable and a bit more scared to get into combat. (IMHO, increasing characters' durability is essential for anything approaching a long-running campaign. Gigantic body counts are fun in one-shots, but can completely trash continuity for campaign play. VP/WP hits a great balance, for this.)
Also, since all my players were old hands at D&D, the system completely disappeared during the game. It was high-roleplay, low-mechanics.
-O
LostSoul
Adventurer
Trail of Cthulhu has a neat set of mechanics to deal with madness. I forget exactly how it works, but when I played a few games it really brought out the Lovecraftian feel. I saw my PC just slipping further and further into madness.
Oh yeah, it also makes you pick a Drive, a reason for getting your mind blasted by all the crazy happening around you. The Drive was the reason my PC kept pushing on even though I could feel his sanity slipping away.
It was cool. Maybe someone with more experience or the rules can explain it. That was my favourite part of the Trail rules, the part that made it feel Lovecraftian.
Oh yeah, it also makes you pick a Drive, a reason for getting your mind blasted by all the crazy happening around you. The Drive was the reason my PC kept pushing on even though I could feel his sanity slipping away.
It was cool. Maybe someone with more experience or the rules can explain it. That was my favourite part of the Trail rules, the part that made it feel Lovecraftian.
Then I must be so wise I'm a mystic sitting atop some remote mountain peak... because I don't recall seeing this at all.
Now, I've seen situations where a clue might be missed due to a bad skill roll or an incorrect player choice ("No, we won't bother checking out X") that would have been helpful. In one case, in a session I ran (homebrew modern scenario), not thinking to check out a particular type of data that was hinted at meant that a complete victory was impossible... but the game by no means came to a halt! It simply meant that the end was bloody when it didn't need to be.
talien
Community Supporter
I think CoC has an undeserved reputation as being some sort of hazing for D&D players. Which is ironic, since the notion that you have to roll up lots of characters 'cause they're all gonna die anyway seems more reminiscent of AD&D games.Those gamers familiar with the "kill everything in our path" mentality of D&D are in for an abrupt and rude awakening when the TPK happens against a few measly ghouls, for example. You'll want to make sure the players (and referee) all understand that you're playing mortal men and not action movie heroes. (Unless you want to have that type of pulp game, in which case ignore what I typed).
The perspective that everybody is doomed and the game is all about hopeless, futile battles, really makes it difficult to bring new players into the game, and especially players of other games. Better to avoid the TPK and not play the game if they're not "getting it." As WF pointed out, CoC, like D&D, can be played with a variety of styles.
