Help me understand Call of Cthulhu

[Talltomwright]

Maybe I did misread the rules (latest, 7th, I think? Dark blue cover).

My GM explained the critical success on a 1 and failure on 95-100, made worse if your skill is below 50. So my character is written down to getting a critical fail on some of his checks of a range of 94 or 93 to 100. Which makes their low skills literally dangerous to use. Which I guess makes sense, the worse you are at something, not only are you less likely to accomplish your goal, you’re more likely to fail spectacularly.

It’s just jarring after Dark Heresy, Mythras and Unknown Armies. Games that are very “gritty” but your characters are at least a bit less prone to messing up horribly. The odds of the setting are already against them, but at least the dice system isn’t inherently punishing.

Maybe I did misread the rules (latest, 7th, I think? Dark blue cover).

My GM explained the critical success on a 1 and failure on 95-100, made worse if your skill is below 50. So my character is written down to getting a critical fail on some of his checks of a range of 94 or 93 to 100. Which makes their low skills literally dangerous to use. Which I guess makes sense, the worse you are at something, not only are you less likely to accomplish your goal, you’re more likely to fail spectacularly.

It’s just jarring after Dark Heresy, Mythras and Unknown Armies. Games that are very “gritty” but your characters are at least a bit less prone to messing up horribly. The odds of the setting are already against them, but at least the dice system isn’t inherently punishing.

With respect to your GM I’m afraid they’ve misread the rules! Fumbles are explained on the top of p90 ‘if the number required for success is 50 or over and the dice read 100, a fumble has occurred. If the dice roll required for success is below 50 and the dice read 96 - 100 a fumble has occurred.

The explanation of ‘Extremes’ doing more damage (which other games call critical) is on page 103.

The combat dice modifiers for aiming etc are on p113. I was wrong earlier - most of them are esential rules, not optional.

 

[VashVet]

Okay, I don’t think this game is for you.

 

[Retreater]

The good news is that if you want similar Lovecraftian themes but different mechanics, there are numerous games available with different approaches because Lovecraft is in the public domain.
Actung Cthulhu
Pulp Cthulhu
Cthulhu d20
A Daggerheart variant that just funded on KS
And probably others I'm forgetting about.

 

[payn]

Maybe I did misread the rules (latest, 7th, I think? Dark blue cover).

My GM explained the critical success on a 1 and failure on 95-100, made worse if your skill is below 50. So my character is written down to getting a critical fail on some of his checks of a range of 94 or 93 to 100. Which makes their low skills literally dangerous to use. Which I guess makes sense, the worse you are at something, not only are you less likely to accomplish your goal, you’re more likely to fail spectacularly.

It’s just jarring after Dark Heresy, Mythras and Unknown Armies. Games that are very “gritty” but your characters are at least a bit less prone to messing up horribly. The odds of the setting are already against them, but at least the dice system isn’t inherently punishing.

I wouldn't compare Call of Cthulhu to Dark Heresy or Mythras they have very different purposes and playstyles. There is a lot more going on than a dark tone with CoC.

@Retreater made a great point about not looking at the binary nature of the skills as failed outcomes. They drive narrative, investigation, and open new paths for players and GM alike. Its nothing like a character power fantasy RPG.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Character advancement in CoC is also about a lot more than just improving skills. Your sanity status is highly relevant, and the additional pages of your character sheet are actually crucial, as it's where you document what your character experiences, finds, encounters, reads and maybe survives that dictate your character's growth and advancement within their story. That story ends when they get eaten, go insane or maybe just occasionally retire somewhere quiet and safe and maybe far away from haunted coastlines, but for me CoC has always been about the journey, and the mechanical element is the smallest and least interesting element of it.

 

[overgeeked]

I think I explained myself badly. I’m not averse to grim dark rpgs where the narrative odds are against the PCs.

I’m at odds with game mechanics that are at odds with the PCs. The game seems stuck in making the game grim dark by favoring the PCs failing, statistically.

So you don’t like game mechanics that reinforce the narrative. Okay. Sorry, this is one of those games. Did it decades before the others.

CoC reads to me as “nintendo-hard”.

That’s a big leap to take from being 4% more likely to fumble than crit.

I’ve run and played in plenty of grim dark RPGs with less punishing game mechanics that were still oppressively dark and hopeless because of the setting itself, not because the rules decide to make it harder to succeed.

In short, I prefer grim dark because of the setting itself, the power of the monsters, rather than hard mode through punishing mechanics.

Lovecraftian horror to me, is the PCs failing despite their talents and skills, not because they fail at most of their tasks. The Shoggoth is difficult to defeat because it is supernaturally resilient and other worldly, not because the PCs keep missing, tripping over themselves and unable to tie their shoes.

That said, I get it, and I’ll be playing with the expectation that out PCs will more than likely fail when things get heated. On top of the inherent power and resilience of the enemy, the PCs are mostly incompetent too. By game design.

LOL. No, you really don’t get it.

 

[dragoner]

That said, I get it, and I’ll be playing with the expectation that out PCs will more than likely fail when things get heated. On top of the inherent power and resilience of the enemy, the PCs are mostly incompetent too. By game design.

There is a certain amount of comedic relief in the ineptitude of the PC's. However also try to get a few main skills you are good at, and don't spread them out.

 

[Marc Radle]

Here's a general thread on Call of Cthulhu.

Call of Cthulhu General Thread [+]

Seth Skorkowsky's YouTube channel is practically dedicated to Call of Cthulhu. If you're new to the game, check out the Common Myths chapter of this introduction video.


#

As others have said, Call of Cthulhu is an investigative-horror game. While your characters aren't expected to die constantly, you're not going to have to worry about most of them for too long, so the character advancement rules are not that robust. Your skills increase slowly, your HP basically never go up. You're not leveling up like a D&D character.

If you want to have a good chance of using a skill successfully, buy it north of 50% during character creation and use it regularly. Your best bet is buying the few skills you want to be good at up to 75% or more during creation. The other route is don't do that, have low skills, and spam them constantly. Eventually you'll get a success and a check and almost guaranteed advancement...

"Succeeding at something you are not good at is difficult; however, successfully using the skill probably means that the investigator learns from the experience. Conversely, being expert at something guarantees success most of the time, yet that high skill means the investigator is unlikely to learn further." --Keeper, p94

And, as others have said, this isn't a game for constantly rolling dice. You roll when there's a narrative sticking point, not all the time. Roll drive when there's a car of cultists trying to force you off the road, not when you're going across town to the library.

Most concerns about the skills being "low" stem from wrongly assuming you'll be rolling constantly. The dice come out only when they matter. So if your drive is 75%, you have a 75% chance to avoid being forced off the road by the car of cultists. Your baseline skills are your chance to succeed while under duress. Only if there are other relevant circumstances involved do you bust out the bonus/penalty dice or levels of difficulty.

Bonuses in almost all games are at referee discretion. That's not unique to Call of Cthulhu.

It's an absolute blast to play if you're looking for an investigative-horror game with mostly normal people as the protagonists. If you're not down for that, you're not going to have a good time. The Pulp Cthulhu supplement exists and ratchets up the PCs by a fair amount, but that's at the expense of the horror. Far better to play a game specifically designed for pulp action-adventure with a dash of horror like Savage Worlds.

Call of Cthulhu has evolved a fair amount since launch. Gone are the days of having to multiply your stats by 2, 3, 4, or 5 to make certain rolls. Gone are the resistance tables. Gone are the days of hunting for +5 or +10% bonuses, replaced with the bonus die. It's definitely an old-school game. I wouldn't say stuck. It does what it was designed to do quite well. What it does isn't for everyone.

If you're looking for more empowered PCs hunting monsters, try Monster of the Week.

If you're looking for more pulpy action-adventure, try Savage Worlds.

If you're looking for even more deadly horror, try Dread.

Cannot recommend Seth Skorkowsky's YouTube channel highly enough!

In general it’s excellent, but it’s particularly fantastic for Call of Cthulhu content, reviews, advice, etc.!

 

[VashVet]

Cannot recommend Seth Skorkowsky's YouTube channel highly enough!

In general it’s excellent, but it’s particularly fantastic for Call of Cthulhu content, reviews, advice, etc.!

Ditto this recommendation. Easily the most enjoyable TTRPG related YT channel I subscribe to.

 

[FrozenNorth]

Although I don’t play it very often, I’m a fan of CoC. One of the reasons I enjoy it is that unlike many other games, you are an ordinary person with ordinary skills being confronted with an extraordinary situation.

With respect, it feels like you are approaching this from an incorrect perspective. Last time I was Keeper, the PCs were 1) a corrupt judge, 2) a union organizer who had run a motor pool in the Great War, 3) a flapper journalist; and 4) her photographer friend/chauffeur. They ended up stuck in a little place called the Overlook hotel during a snowstorm…. The judge enjoyed hunting and the union organiser was a veteran, but they were the only characters with any training in any martial skill.

They didn’t suck at shooting things because they were incompetent, they sucked at shooting things because normal people aren’t trained to fire weapons under pressure. On the contrary, despite the fact that they were confronted with frankly unbelievable s***, they did what countless people in the past have done: knuckled down and dealt with it as best as possible.

Also, as someone pointed out, luck points and refilling means that the situation for the heroes isn’t as bless as k as it appears, at least for things they are decently trained at.