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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8165145" data-attributes="member: 86653">Go for it. It's a lot of fun. If you like the idea of horror gaming.Yeah, it's a typical RPG in that it can handle groups that big, though it feels more in-genre if you have fewer players. Around 3-4 seems to work best. For me at least. The Starter Set has four scenarios. One solo, a one-on-one, and two designed for 2-5 players. With the Starter Set, the Keeper Rulebook (two more scenarios for 2-5 players), and the Keeper Screen (two more scenarios for 2-5 players) you have a lot to work with as a new Keeper. There's also the free Quick-Start Rules which includes a classic scenario, The Haunting (again designed for 2-5 players). Call of Cthulhu has also changed less over the years as editions pile up, so everything ever published for CoC is compatible with the current edition. There's a conversion guide in the back of the Keeper Rulebook. It comes down to taking pre-7th Edition stuff and multiplying the stats by 5 and consolidating a few skills. That's it. Everything else is basically the same, so you have about 40 years of modules to pull from. Seth Skorkowsky does a lot of great module reviews for CoC.It's an odd one. It does seem to click for non-gamers a bit easier than hardcore gamers, but that's mostly down to the hardcore gamers needing to unlearn a lot of stuff to grok Call of Cthulhu. Parts seem more intuitive, here's your skill as a percentage, roll that or lower on these dice...vs roll this die, add that, meet or beat that number. But pure mechanics, CoC is heavier than D&D.CoC is a horror game. It's about isolation and disempowerment. Paranoia, insanity, and strange vistas. Whereas D&D is a game of zero-to-hero (killing things, taking their stuff, gaining power, killing bigger stuff, repeat), Call of Cthulhu is a game of attrition. Self-described in the Keeper Rulebook. You lose Sanity. You lose Luck. You lose POW. You gain a few skill points, you regain a bit of Luck, and you regain a bit of Sanity...but the trajectory is downward. You can gain a few magic spells (but they cost you Sanity to learn and cast). Characters deteriorate over time. While D&D is very much a power fantasy, Call of Cthulhu is cosmic horror. It's a nihilistic and pessimistic horror & mystery game.</blockquote>

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