Help me understand Call of Cthulhu

[500 Toads]

Relevant quote from the Keeper's Rulebook ( p195, specifically ):

If you feel that a task is so easy that it would be routine, you can either not call for a roll (the task is simply accomplished) or you may ask for a roll at Regular difficulty (or give a Bonus die), but make the consequence of failure be very mild.

A routine task that relates directly to an investigator’s occupation should be achieved automatically; remember, only roll dice for important and dramatic reasons.

It's explicitly not meant to be a system where you're rolling for every little thing. Having some competence should often be considered enough for an automatic success.

It's also noted that skills ranging from 50-74% are considered professional-level, equivalent to a bachelor's degree in that specific subject; while 75-89% is advanced expertise, while 90% would put you at among the world's best (page 54 of the Keeper's Rulebook, and page 96 of the Investigator's Handbook).

 

[John Dallman]

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

Ah, you are missing part of the point of CoC. The "power of the monsters" is frequently such that the PCs cannot defeat them. Some of the weaker ones can be defeated, with planning and preparation. But a "boss fight" is not worth trying: death for all the PCs is the best outcome, and worse fates are frequently on the table.

One has to try to find a way to prevent the incursion of inhuman horrors without being able to defeat them in a confrontation. Preventing the cultists summoning them; sacrificing yourself to work the ritual that sends the lesser horrors away before they summon the greater ones; persuading the authorities to fumigate the steam tunnels really thoroughly even they don't know about the ghouls; solutions like that.

It's a game where you're usually fairly normal people, not mighty heroes, trying to protect normal society from threats which would wreck it, rather than pursuing wealth and personal power. It's a very different set of ideas and style of game.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It's explicitly not meant to be a system where you're rolling for every little thing. Having some competence should often be considered enough for an automatic success.

Yeah, I think one issue is that it sort of varies by skill. If I were designing the character sheet I'd probably separate out the more specialist skills (say, Archaeology) which you should probably be rolling for a lot of the time when they come up in game, away from the more general skills, (say, Swim) which cover things most people do frequently without incident in day to day life and only get rolled if you are doing something unusually difficult with them.

It's not a big problem once the Keeper gets a hang of things, but I think it throws a lot of newbies off in character creation if they think they need a lot of Drive Auto to not crash their car on a normal drive, a lot of Swim to not drown in a swimming pool, a lot of Climb to successfully get up a ladder, etc. and maybe the game could be more obvious about this.

 

[Minion X]

Don't miss this simple trick that your game master doesn't want you to know about.

 

[chuckdee]

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.

The PCs fail statistically when under pressure. Not because they are incompetent. Under normal circumstances, i.e. during the investigation, you shouldn't be rolling that much. Your score will tell the extent that you are able to uncover clues- not that you are are rolling to find them. Your competence is reinforced by the table that talks about skill bands.

Having a Bachelor's degree in a subject wouldn't make you 50% likely to fail at mundane, rote or situations that you are likely to encounter day to day, or you'd be really naughty word at your job. However, that competence wasn't trained at having to try to translate a ritual in text in the Etruscan language while the gibbering monster is bearing down on the party.

 

[Talltomwright]

The PCs fail statistically when under pressure. Not because they are incompetent. Under normal circumstances, i.e. during the investigation, you shouldn't be rolling that much. Your score will tell the extent that you are able to uncover clues- not that you are are rolling to find them. Your competence is reinforced by the table that talks about skill bands.

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Having a Bachelor's degree in a subject wouldn't make you 50% likely to fail at mundane, rote or situations that you are likely to encounter day to day, or you'd be really naughty word at your job. However, that competence wasn't trained at having to try to translate a ritual in text in the Etruscan language while the gibbering monster is bearing down on the party.

I 100% agree with this. I'm also going to add that when it comes to that one make or break roll that can change the finale of a scenario, if you have 25 luck, you can succeed in your 50% skill roll 75% of the time.

No luck left and are prepared to gamble for worse consequences if you fail? Push the roll. The chance of making one of two 50% rolls is 75%. So the mechanics reward you for going for it for those really clutch rolls in your highest skills, even if 50% initially doesn't seem high. As a player I find having the agency to decide if a roll is important enough to burn luck, or to gamble with a pushed roll, really adds to the drama of every failed roll. (Note there are exceptions - can't luck your way out of a fumble and can't push a roll in combat.)

 

[Thierry-Advent]

I've played CoC since 1980. The only time I felt incompetent and died was the first game, because the GM didn't know what he was doing and was more interested in his horror story than our characters.

Since then, I've never felt incompetent and never had a character death.

 

[billd91]

It's a game where you're usually fairly normal people, not mighty heroes, trying to protect normal society from threats which would wreck it, rather than pursuing wealth and personal power. It's a very different set of ideas and style of game.

I like to think of CoC investigators as being like Frodo Baggins - no super powers, carrying a heavy burden (of knowledge), and trying to save the world but, because of lingering maladies and trauma, probably not for themselves.

 

[bluecatreddog]

I like to think of CoC investigators as being like Frodo Baggins - no super powers, carrying a heavy burden (of knowledge), and trying to save the world but, because of lingering maladies and trauma, probably not for themselves.

Also they tend to be highly rich socialites who have increasingly hard times socializing with peers after what they've endured.

 

[amethal]

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.

Trail of Cthulhu uses Gumshoe; it has some great adventures, in my opinion, but my group didn't like the Gumshoe system.

There's also Fate of Cthulhu, which uses Fate and has themes very similar to Terminator (time travel to prevent the apocalypse, but with the Mythos rather than Skynet).

Into the Shadows is a more "traditional" Fate version of Call of Cthulhu.

If you want a more bureaucratic, British version of Delta Green there's the Laundry RPG.

World War Cthulhu is an alternative to Achtung Cthulhu.

Cthulhutech is a science fiction version, but I'm not familiar with it.