Call of Cthulhu vs World of Darkness

[darkseraphim]

I guess it depends on what type of horror you're going for.

I don't consider WoD horror, because the players play the monsters or slayers, and they progress in power. I think of it as more of a wish fulfillment game of role reversal, kind of a Dungeon Keeper type of thing.

CoC is definitely a great horror game. Character anti-progression through sanity loss, serious stakes with "gods" vs. "level 0" mortals, and and a deep campaign world to work with.

I will grant that WoD has better mechanics, and CoC does suffer from over-exposure to the meta-elements; this can be patched a bit with Delta Green. Dread is a flash of brilliance.

More than any other genre though, horror is reliant on a DM feeling comfortable with the system and feeling confident in its atmosphere (fear is contagious), so the best one is the one you like the most.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I much prefer call of cthulu. WoD is cool at times, but nothing beats cthulu.

 

[Hand of Evil]

CHILL the old Pacesetter box one!

 

[Pilgrim]

CoC / Trail of Cthulhu for 1920s era horror. If I were going to do modern horror, it's either the base setting for nWoD (players playing normal humans vs supernatural elements), Supernatural RPG or Esoterrorists.

 

[Umbran]

I've had a lot of fun working with the horror end of Deadlands.

 

[Mournblade94]

I don't see World of Darkness as a horror game, anymore than Twilight is a horror film. World of Darkness seems to be exploring humanities darker side, (Regardless if you play Vamp, Werewolf, mage, changeling) we are still exploring that side of our psyche since all the players are human if their characters aren't.

Call of Cthulhu if done right can be a good horror game, but often in poorly run Cthulhu games the 'good part' is when your character's psyche is devoured to insanity, so it is not so much horror as "I can't wait to see the Great Old One and go insane."

I do not run call of Cthulhu correctly. I love the game, I love the mythos, but I have not found someone to run it well. I certainly do not run it well. My players had fun but I did not get the fear across, I got the Cthulhu is so cool across.

I started Running Carrion Crown AP as well, but I am really reflecting if I am doing that correctly.

I am not the best horror guy.
For example I watch Hellraiser and think. My Ranger would kick pinhead's arse, he is not that scary.

 

[ShadowDenizen]

While I have been on a "Dread" kick recently, I think Call of Cthulhu is hands-down the best horror RPG on the market. (I also dig all the Cthulhu variants, such as "Realms of Cthulhu", "Trails of Cthulhu", etc.)

I can't speak to NWoD, since I haven't been collecting it. (I have nearly everyting produced for OWoD, and couldn't bring myself to upgrade.)

That said, It's unfortunate that Chaosium has been overshadowed lately by it's licensees (Pelgrane Press and Miskatonic River have been putting out spectacular stuff recently, in the form of the "Cthulhu Apocalypse" set,the "Purist Adventures" colelction, the "Legacy of Arrius Lurco" for Invictus, and "Our Lady of Sorrows" for Cthulhu now.)

In contrast, sadly, the Chaosium re-release of "Curse of the Cthonians" was underwheling; I would have hoped that they'd re-playtest the scenarios under the new rules, maybe do some copy-editing and adjusting, but it seems to be [to my admittedly untrained eye] an exact reprint of the original, albeit in larger font with a larger cover price.

Actually, the most fun we had recently was a Dread game I ran, in which I translated a CoC scenario ("Agony at Sea", a Cthulhu D20 timed-scenario set aboard the Titanic.); it worked shockingly well, especially with the timer running…. There was some combat sequences that I was able to adjust to the Dread format, but everything else gelled nicely, IMO.

 

[MortonStromgal]

WOD can be a horror game, but its more along the lines of "what have I done" than "ack zombies". Your Jack in the Shinning as opposed to playing his family. Its about fighting your own nature less you fall into darkness. I think mostly its not played that way though.

 

[SSquirrel]

I'm a big fan of both CoC and OWoD. NWoD can go bite me. I've played OWoD where we were focusing on a game about our humanities and you saw people's characters losing control and the regret they experienced at the things they had done. There were some pretty horrible things going on and it was a pretty satisfying experience. CoC was something I played extensively in college and had a lot of fun with. We were playing it as Cthulhutech years prior to that GURPS supplement. Having a great keeper meant we had plenty of around the table laughs, but there was also some pretty horrific changes happening to the group and it's CoC, someone went crazy pretty often

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I GM both games and they both provide different approaches to the horror gaming genre. WoD is about playing monsters, and CoC is about investigative horror. Of the two, CoC is by far the best though once players know anything of it the game does lose something.

People in this thread keep using "WoD" wrong. If you are playing just World of Darkness, you're not any sort of monster: You're a human in a world full of terrifying, unknowable crap. In other words, pretty comparable to CoC, minus the plushies.

Most of the add-ons to WoD do have you playing monsters, but arguably the best one, Hunter: The Vigil is human beings taking up baseball bats, shotguns and crucifixes to take back the night from the monsters. And given the moral and sanity degeneration built into the game, it's even more comparable to CoC, albeit with the possibility of higher-powered play at Tier 3 (worldwide hunter conspiracies, one of three default levels supported by the game).