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Message: <blockquote data-quote="InzeladunMaster" data-source="post: 1559359" data-attributes="member: 9774">It is my turn to get off track again.  Here are my thoughts on some of the main differences between Call of Cthulhu, Conan the Role Playing Game, and Dungeons and Dragons:  First, we have the primary focus of the games.  Cthulhu focuses on the slow build-up of facts and inferences to the uncovering of some horrible "truth"; Conan focuses on explosive and immediate action; in DnD, the focus is on  powering yourself up in an escalating arms race.  Second, there is the focus on weirdness.  In Cthulhu, the weird element is the focus; if there is an elf in the game, it will be the focus of the game, it will be weird and it will drive the character insane.  In Conan, the weird element is secondary, an element added by Howard in order to get published by Weird Tales.  If there is an elf in Conan, he is a monster to be overcome to prove humanity can overcome everything outside of its chosen philosophies, and is likely added simply to provide a weird element. In DnD the focus is on obtaining power, and no source of power is seen as weird or strange, as seen by the plethora of prestige classes, new races, new spells and new magic items continually presented in supplements and magazines.  If an elf appears in DnD, he is likely to be a good guy, may even be a fellow adventurer, and is accepted with grace and aplomb.The same situation exists if you replace 'elf' with 'wizard'.  In Cthulhu, the wizard is the focus, the proof that there are elements out there man was not meant to know.  In Conan, the wizard is there to add a touch of the weird and the horrific.  In DnD, the wizard is just another adventurer, balanced for play, accepted as a normal part of society, and his magic treated as we treat technology - good if put to good use, bad if not.Third, there is the attitude one has toward humanity in general.  In Cthulhu, another focus is on human's inability to cope with realities outside his own experience and his ultimate submission to his circumstances.  Humans cannot, under any circumstances, influence the world in any real way. In Conan, the focus is on the human's will, his refusal to submit to his circumstances.  Humanity has an inherent strength, a barbaric essence that will come to the fore in extreme circumstances.  Humans cannot easily change the world, however, as individuals.  It takes groups of people to do that, as evidenced in Howard's essay, The Hyborian Age, or an extremely long period of time. In DnD, humans are to become gods, paragons, and archetypes, littered with prophecies and promises of domination over others (or being able to change the world) by acquiring power and wealth, all done without consequence beyond simply powering the character up.  Humans can easily change the world as individuals if they acquire enough spells and magic items.That is how I see the main differences.  None of the differences prove one system is better than another, just that they are different.  We each have our preference (and that preference may change with our moods), but that just proves we are all different too.It would be interesting to add superhero/Star Wars/Science Fiction games to the comparisons above, but I have played too few of them to do them proper justice.</blockquote>

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