Have you played BRP Call of Cthulhu?

[Herpes Cineplex]

CoC was the staple of our college gaming experience, and I still think it's one of the best games I've ever played. It has such simple, elegant mechanics that match up so well with the tasks expected of PCs, and good lord, their published adventures are so damn good.

We did pretty much all of the 1990s-era adventures (starting with "At Your Door" and moving through most of the ones in "The Stars Are Right"), and we still tell war stories about that game. Then there was the '20s-era King in Yellow one, which was actually the first CoC game I ever played in and still creepy as all hell. More recently, we had a fantastic time one Saturday playing through the '20s-era raid on Innsmouth.

It's just that the Chaosium supplements are so heavily detailed (ones set in towns often do things like tell you who lives at every address, for example) that they almost qualify as mini-setting books in their own right. It's a rare adventure book that doesn't allow the PCs a huge amount of freedom in how they pursue their ultimate goal; not all of them, sure, but so many more than normal that I'm still shocked by it.

And that's even before you get to third-party books like Delta Green (and DG: Countdown), which are just beautiful gaming supplements all the way around. In fact, whenever I'm looking for government agency information in any game, I tend to reach for Delta Green first.

That said, the d20 version is serviceable enough; it's just one of those cases where the original system is so good and well-suited to the task that d20 doesn't have many areas in which it can really stand alone. Probably if I was going to run a game of CoC, I'd go with the original BRP rules...but I wouldn't turn up my nose at playing in a d20 CoC game. (I also think it's cool that the latest supplements have a very well-indexed set of d20 stats at the back, which makes it very easy to run them using either system.)

--
one of our group has 'at the mountains of madness' and is jonesing to run it
ryan

 

[sjmiller]

I have played in CoC a number of times (lost count, actually) and I have run it a few times. I love the game for a number of reasons, but I think the biggest reason is it gives me a perfect excuse to make props as handouts for the players. Nothing like holding a copy of the journal of a madman, or seeing the large specimen jar with some creature inside it.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Love BRP, love Cthulhu, is my longest running favorite with D&D being on-and-off. Though, every game I got in was an "off" time period...WWII, 1930's Kansas, tiny islands in the Pacific in the Korean war, etc...I've only been in one 1920's game, and no modern ones!!

 

[Prothall]

I bought the BRP CoC not too long ago (for less than $5 with shipping!), and while I read through it, I have yet to play. I doubt I could convince my players to give it a shot, but I rather like the look of it. I've also looked at the d20 version, which does have that problem of slackening mortality at high levels, though I think that should be easy enough to remedy. Overall, I'd like to get in on any CoC game I can, regardless of system - even Pokethulhu, really. (Not that Pokethulhu's bad, mind you - it's an nifty little system, indeed.)

And I must confess to owning a Plush Santa Cthulhu. Really I must.

 

[Phineas Crow]

BRP all the way... I refuse to acknowledge the existance of d20 CoC.

 

[IceBear]

I have to ask, what does BRP stand for?

I have a lot of Chaosium's CoC material, but unfortunately I've never had a chance to play it. I also have the d20 CoC stuff and have also never played it.

 

[Phineas Crow]

I have to ask, what does BRP stand for?

I have a lot of Chaosium's CoC material, but unfortunately I've never had a chance to play it. I also have the d20 CoC stuff and have also never played it.

Basic Role-Playing, its the rule system of many of chaosium's games.

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

I picked "extensively" because I have played BRP much more often than d20 CoC, even though I have not played it nearly as much as D&D. Actually, I have played Synnibarr just as many times as d20 CoC--only twice.

 

[Majere]

Currently playing in my first every CoC game and I hve to say it is a really great system.
And yes I do have nightmares.
Fortunately our DM is an outstanding DM and has graped a very important principle.

Monthers are veryvery strong, and PC's are very vey week.
The campeign is based around DG material and we are a DG cell who are sent to investigate thing. While the NPCs die in droves abot us, the monsters never come directly for us until we go after them. And even then the game is base about frightening the crap out of you more than killing PCs.

Eg
While chasing down a "traveler" possessed apachie green beret in a helicopter the fugative fired from out helicopter. Now this guy had bee shooting people between the eyes from over a mile, I have no doubt that this guy hit our chopper pilot.
But the DM rule he blew out the glass screen.
We could have ended the session there with a TPK, but the DM correctly decided that it was much more effective to shake us up, let the fugative escape, AND continue the game.

That isnt to say he pulls all the blows, but ingeneral, the mosnter happily murder NPCs by the droves, and only confront us when we confront them.
And then we die

Majere

 

[Gothmog]

BRP CoC is one of the three games out there I consider to be pure genuis- mechanically, conceptually, and thematically. The other two are Ars Magica and original Deadlands. Unfortunately, these are also three games you usually have to drag most people kicking and screaming to try, but once they do try them, they love them!

I have played quite bit of BRP CoC over the years, and its definitely one of my favorite RPGs. Played through the Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep, most of the Cthulhu Casebook and Cthylhu Classics, and I have run a Cthulhu by Gaslight game for almost 2 years, as well as numerous Pagan adventures and Escape from Innsmouth as one-shots. I've tried playing and running Delta Green adventures, and while they have been ok, they haven't been as much fun as the 1890's and 1920's stuff- just too much high tech gadgetry and gunplay in most DG stuff- although its conceptually brilliant. Maybe with a group that didn't try to requisition high-power weaponry, body armor, and gadgets for EVERY mission it would be better.

Much like Majere's DM, I try to scare the hell out of my players rather than slaughter them. On average there is only 1-2 fights per adventure (an adventure in CoC being 8-12 hours usually), and the combats tend to be defensive in nature (get the hell away!). Players coming into CoC with the D&D mindset with be slaughtered inside an hour or two, tops. Its a great change of pace, and ends up being much more of a "thinking man's game".