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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alex D" data-source="post: 7714881" data-attributes="member: 6878669">Proselytize Call of Cthulhu, you say? Don’t mind if I do!For any new, starry-eyed gamers out there who are curious about Call of Cthulhu, I’d first direct them to the short stories of H.P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries (known collectively as the “Lovecraft Circle”). This circle includes authors like Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, and Robert Bloch.Lovecraft wrote during the late 1920’s and early 1930’s for pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Amazing Stories, and established what would later be called the Cthulhu Mythos— a cosmic pantheon of gods, aliens, monsters, and demons who have it out for humanity in a bad way. His short stories often feature woefully unprepared protagonists who stumble, almost accidentally, upon these malignant beings. They generally go insane soon after, but not before destroying all evidence of what transpired in order to protect humanity from the horrible truth they uncovered. Fun stuff.The Call of Cthulhu RPG is set in the 1920’s in this Mythos-infused world. The players take the role of Lovecraft’s favored protagonists— college professors, private investigators, dilettantes, artists, and of course writers. Things start off nice and normal until you get a telephone call from a desperate friend, or a letter from a long-lost relative, or are mailed a mysterious artifact from an old colleague. Then things go downhill fast.There's a lot of positive stuff to say about the Call of Cthulhu rules (which are a mod of Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying System— BRP for short), but one of the “intangible” things that makes Call of Cthulhu so fun is the interplay between player knowledge and character knowledge. As a player you know that these evil, inhuman beings exist. And you are aware that your poor investigator doesn’t stand a chance against them. And you are further aware that one of these beings is probably behind the door you’re about to open. But your investigator doesn’t know any of this. So you open the door anyway.These situations happen all the time in Call of Cthulhu. Telling yourself “I really shouldn’t be doing this!”, and then doing it anyway, is a lot fun and can result in some truly memorable, and scary, moments.So my recommendation for you Call of Cthulhu newbies is to first read some H.P. Lovecraft. Everyone has their favorite stories, but The Shadow over Innsmouth, The Dunwich Horror, and The Call of Cthulhu are good ones to start with. Then play a game of Call of Cthulhu. Don’t worry about “winning” the scenario, or even surviving— neither of these are likely to happen. Instead try to immerse yourself in the ambiance of the setting and the mindset of your character. Dim the lights and put on a mood-setting soundtrack while you play. And if after the game you find that you’re having a bit of trouble falling asleep, you know you’re on the right track.</blockquote>

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