Question regarding Call of Cthulhu and different versions

[Ulfgeir]

Given that we here in Sweden will soon get the translated and localized version of Call of Cthulhu 7e (with lots of extra materials in the forms of adventures and so on),

One question is how well does the material from one version work with stuff from other versions? Have only been a player in the game earlier, but I am thinking of starting to buy the classical adventures etc. I backed the project at a rather high level so I will get all the Swedish stuff.

And if they do work well together, what are the Must-Have stuff (I have played the classic campaigns: Masks of Nyarlathotep, and Horror on the Orient Express)?

 

[Nebulous]

It's not difficult to adapt the old stuff, it's quite similar. I would also recommend getting Pulp Cthuhu as an add-on to 7e if you like to run action packed games where your PCs don't die quite as much. It's a great supplement and there's adventures like The Two Headed Serpent made specifically for pulp heroes.

 

[JeffB]

The system has remained mainly unchanged since 2nd edition through 6th. They are more like "printings"- Some rules may been tightened up or some supplemental things added into the core book- more monsters, a new skill or three , a short story, more GM advice, more adventures, etc. But if you play 6th and pick up say .."The Asylum" for 2E, you will be fine. I still use a 3rd edition hardcover since it basically is just the 2E boxed set and the Cthulhu Companion in one book.

7th edition has cleaned up some things in the rules, like basing everything on % instead of having to (e.g.) multiply POW score x 5- Now your POW score is a percentage. And they added an "advantage/disadvantage" mechanic.

But basically the game is the same between the first six editions, and materials from older editions remain easily used with 7th. It is in no way like D&D edition changes say from 2 to 3 or 3 to 4 or 4 to 5 where are all very different games and a PITA to convert.

 

[Retreater]

I regularly run older edition campaign adventures in 7th edition. They are easy to adapt on the fly. I think you pretty much just have to multiply attributes by 5 to get a percentage, and you're good to go. (A few spells and skills might not be there, but you can improvise.)

 

[Nebulous]

7th edition has cleaned up some things in the rules, like basing everything on % instead of having to (e.g.) multiply POW score x 5- Now your POW score is a percentage. And they added an "advantage/disadvantage" mechanic.

But basically the game is the same between the first six editions, and materials from older editions remain easily used with 7th. It is in no way like D&D edition changes say from 2 to 3 or 3 to 4 or 4 to 5 where are all very different games and a PITA to convert.

Oh right, there's a d10s Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic that is like 5e. It's called Bonus/Penalty but effectively is the same, except you can stack up to two. That will probably come up more often than trying to hit a "Hard" or "Extreme" difficulty. And like JeffB said, the CoC editions are so similar, even when 7e is probably the biggest changes, it is nothing at all like D&D editions. It's really the same old game just tweaked. And the core books are full color, they look fantastic.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Ah, so that explains the Bonus/penalty stuff I have sen in the stuff I have proofread so far (so far chapter 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 13) and a 295 pages long campaign (written in Swedish) ... Waiting for more material from the translator(s).

 

[Michael O'Brien]

Free conversion guidelines here. As noted above, the differences between 7th and earlier editions are minimal and if you know your 5x tables you're pretty much good to go.