Have you played BRP Call of Cthulhu?

[Olive]

Played it a few times. Maybe 3? I've also played d20 CoC once, and noticed very little difference between the two. Psion, any reason why you hate it so in 3 paras or less?

I'd love to play more, but I don't think I'm the rigth DM for it, and so I think I'll just ait it out till I find a group who want to play. Anyone in MeElbourne?

 

[Cyberhawk]

BRP Cthulhu is my favorite hard-core Horror rpg. It's a classic and Chaosium did a great job on the books (one of the editions had "weird things" timelines for both historical and fictional events...great appendix).

The only problem I have with Cthulhu is that it requires a skillfull Game Master. The high-degree of wierdness you have to impart plus the sheer lethality of the monsters means you have to have a good deal of skill to keep the players from getting bored or lost.

For lighter 'fun' horror I tend to pick up Deadlands or WoD. I have the d20 CoC, which is a good read but I haven't run or played it.

 

[zcthu3]

I have keepered a large number of BRP games over the years- I grew up playing RuneQuest with my elder brother which sold me on the system - and it remains one of my favourite games. I am infact kicking myself as I just purchased the 5.6th edition as I didn't realise 6th was coming out at the time!

I also have d20 CoC - I have played it once as is (and it ran pretty much like BRP atmosphere wise) but if I was running a campagn with it it would probably use it as a more 'pulp' game (in fact I am working on a CoC - Adventure! crossover at the moment and have rewritten the firearms and combat rules to use VP/WP) - I prefer BRP for true horror.

Someone early stated that they hated the character generation system - personally I think it's great, it's one of the reasons I'm converting d20 Adventure! to use it - while not truely classless it does generally define characters by their skills rather than "classes" - ie. no class abilities etc. which I like.

 

[Psion]

Played it a few times. Maybe 3? I've also played d20 CoC once, and noticed very little difference between the two. Psion, any reason why you hate it so in 3 paras or less?

I don't hate it in toto. I don't like the chargen.

To repeat my answer to the same question on RPGnet:

But, to elaborate (and perhaps a little, introspect) I don't think it does a good enough job to model the variety of characters that might exist.

As I mentioned earier, looking at BRP characters I have had in the past, I see some as fitting the options pretty well, but some of them rather poorly.

The fundamental problem as I see it is that the only tradeoff you are allowed to make is offense vs. defense. Everyone gets the same amount of skill points. I can't, as I do in BRP, make a character who focuses on combat capability (which in BRP is represented by skills, but in d20 CoC is represented by BAB, hp, and the like) at the expense of non-combat skills (which are actually pretty important in the CoC style of campaign.)

In BRP, I think this works fairly well. It's just a matter of where you put your skill points and what profession package you select.

In d20 modern, I think it works fairly well too. It's a matter of your class and starting occupation.

d20 CoC, by way of comparison, is fairly inflexible. You can chose your skill set, you can choose offense or defense, but that's pretty much it. And I don't think some scientist archetypes played in CoC really fit either too well.

 

[snarfoogle]

I'd love to, but I haven't. I need to buy a copy of the rules, and I'd love to play Beyond the Mountains of Madness and Masks of Nyarlathotep.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Played it a ton of times (before I got really into DnD 2e, COC was my game of choice) and, while I really dig COC d20, the old Chaosium version's still my "first love", as it were. When I played, it was mostly in the 1920s (well all of it was). My friend Nick, his two brothers, and I (my first gaming group) would play virtually any adventure I could get my hands on. I'd like to try out some modern/Delta Green adventures, too.

I have a thread on the Talking the Talk boards about a possible game of Chaosium COC, if anyone here's interested.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

BRP Call of Cthulhu was my main game for many years, especially during the bulk of the Second Edition AD&D period, which I never really liked. I didn't start playing D&D again until 3rd ed. Anyhow, during that time BRP was my main game. I think I've either played or run just about every CoC supplement that was put out before 1998 or so.

I prefer the BRP system to the D20 version, and mainly got the latter for the stats in case I wanted to throw any CoC stuff in other D20 games. I really don't like the chargen for D20 CoC; like Psion says it's way too limiting. Really the only problem I have with BRP is how lethal things are. I like the skill system in that I don't have a problem with percentiles (many people seem to hate them for some reason) and I like the way the skills improve through use. It has the potential for some cheesy abuse, but as long as the Keeper sets reasonable limits I think it makes perfect sense.

 

[Thanee]

Played Call of Cthulhu quite a few times, but not enough to call it extensively (that could be said about Shadowrun, D&D and Midgard mostly).

It's really a great system that captures the spirit of the Lovecraftian horror.

Also the supplements are so well done and with so much research and care.

I have only taken a few brief looks at the D20 Cthulhu, it quickly became obvious, that it cannot compete. Not even close.

What the designers of the D20 system would love to see, simply is not. D20 is not generic. It's still like D&D, regardless how far you twist it. It's a heroic game system and a great system as that, but it's completely inappropriate for realistic gaming, which Cthulhu requires.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ron]

Call of Cthulhu is the best rpg I ever played. I think that the design is short of genial in many aspects. I've never even read CoC d20 as I thought it was an unnecessary version. I would say that CoC, along with D&D, Traveller, and GURPS, is one of my default games, i.e., games in which I first think when I have an idea for some sort of campaign.

 

[dead]

What does BRP mean?

Chaosium CoC rules! (Even though I am told it's based on RuneQuest it still works exceedingly well.)

I haven't played d20 CoC extensively enough to pass judgement but, I think, if you posted the question, "Which CoC do you like best: Chaosium or d20?", on a neutral forum, that most people would say the Chaosium version.