Call of Cthulhu

 

I've ordered myself a copy of the 7th edition of the venerable Call of Cthulhu game by Chaosium, because everyone should have at least one version of this game in their RPG collection.

I ordered it from MightyApe, but it will take a while for it to get here, since they list it as "available" but not "in stock". So presumably it will have to come from Foreign parts. I'm expecting something on the order of six weeks, but there's really no urgency.

Note: It arrived today, March 24th 2023. Quite a lot quicker than I expected.

If I desperately wanted to run a CoC game, I could do it with material I have at hand, since I now have my home-made copy of Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying, which has all the necessary rules information, and I have plenty of 1920s Cthulhoid resource material that I've collected over the years.

However, I'm in no particular hurry, though I confess I do like Call of Cthulhu thematically. My personal preference though is that the roleplaying game be considerably less racist than H.P. Lovecraft's actual writings.

I also have a copy of the D20 version of Call of Cthulhu that I bought years and years ago. But of all the rules systems in existence, I think that D20 is one of the least appropriate for gaming in a Lovecraftian milieu.

Investigators should be puny creatures who would be driven mad before being crushed and consumed by a shoggoth, not superheroes who can confidently expect that they can just open up with their shotguns and tommy-guns and blow that shoggoth to smithereens, after which they say something like "Oof, I took nearly twenty hit-points damage from that obscene horror from beyond. Owie!"

Update: 2023-03-30

I've ordered a copy of Pulp Cthulhu for some Indiana Jonesish gaming, should that float our collective boat.

Apparently it allows for some sturdier Investigators and more pulpish rip-roaring derring-do, which might or might not be a good thing.

We shall see. That's the sort thing that I thought made CoCd20 so un-CoC-like, but if we use it primary for Pulpish action rather than Cthulhoid horror, it'll probably be okay.

Update 2023-05-12

In my idle poking around things CoC-ish, I find that Chaosium has updated the massive "Masks of Nyarlathotep" campaign to a shiny three-volume full colour hardback edition for 7th edition.

That's all very nice, but the down-side is that it costs a bit over $200, plus whatever they'll add for P&P.

Fortunately, CoC being as it is, the old version is easily playable with the latest edition of the rules if I ever feel the urge to commit to literally years of game play.

(I would like the new and shiny version, but maybe not $200-300 worth.)