Call of Cthulhu

[Image:CoC6.jpg|right|thumb|Sixth Edition] [Image:CoC55.jpg|right|thumb|5.5-5.6 Edition] [Image:CoC5.jpg|right|thumb|Fifth Edition] [Image:CoC4.jpg|right|thumb|Fourth Edition] [Image:CoC3.jpg|right|thumb|GW Third Edition] [Image:CoC2.jpg|right|thumb|Second Edition] [Image:CoC1.jpg|right|thumb|First Edition] [Image:CoC20.jpg|right|thumb|D20 Edition] [Image:CoCJap.jpg|right|thumb|Japanese D20 Edition] Call of Cthulhu is a roleplaying game based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft in which the player characters are more or less normal guys who might be able to fire a pistol without killing themselves. They try to find the truth of all existence. In the course of their investigations, the players might find themselves fighting horrors from beyond space, such as Cthulhu, who eats 1d6 investigators per round and is generally cranky after being woken from millennia of slumber.

System

Call of Cthulhu uses the Basic Roleplaying System (BRS), first used in Runequest and also for Stormbringer, Elfquest and a variety of other games. It uses an array of D&D-style attributes (STR, DEX, INT, CON, POW, EDU, APP, SIZ) rated on the familiar 3-18 scale, plus around 60 skills rated as percentiles.

Basics

To perform any action roll d100 and try to get under your skill; rolling 1/5 of your skill is a critical success, or an 'impale' on an attack. Used skills are marked and at the end of the adventure may increase by 1-3 points if you succeed in rolling under the inverse of the skill. This leads to very gradual and organic character progression, and encourages players to use as many of their skills as possible at least once per adventure. Attributes can be tested by multiplying them by 5 or comparing them to an opposing score on a table. Damage is handled via hitpoints, which for PCs never advance beyond the region of 10-20.

Character Generation

Chargen is a relatively long process due to the number of skills and the percentile values, although the free program Byakhee is available to speed things up. You roll attributes, select a profession, gain a bunch of skill points to spend on your professional skills, (such as archeology or painting) then a bunch more to spend on your hobbies. For instance, firing tommyguns.

Gameplay

Investigators are unable to go toe-to-toe with the monsters in CoC, so most of the game consists of investigation, exploration and gathering clues. If you are lucky this will allow you to reach any sort of confrontation armed with magic, a list of the creature's weaknesses, or at least a lot of fucking dynamite. Spot Hidden and Library Use are two of the most commonly used skills.

Sanity

Sanity or SAN represents your mental stability. It is capped at the inverse of your Cthulhu Mythos skill; that is to say, you cannot know what is really going on and remain sane. When you experience something terrifying you make a SAN check; if you fail you lose a random amount of SAN, and often a small amount if you succeed as well. If you lose a substantial amount you can faint, freeze up, or go insane. If you run out entirely you become an NPC, who may go insane and gibber in a corner for the rest of his life, or he may go and join the bad guys.

Setting

CoC is set in the world of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, but incorporates many of the inventions of later writers and the revisions of August Derleth. The historical setting is the 1920s, the era when Lovecraft wrote most of his work, and although modern adventures are possible the pulp era has several advantages, such as the lack of communications and the fact that we hadn't yet explored all of the map.

The premise of Lovecraft's world is that we live in a small circle of firelight and sanity created be human civilisation, and beyond that circle the universe is dark, uncaring, and full of things with tentacles and too many eyes. Our science doesn't properly describe the universe, and to understand the true horror of reality is to go mad. Before the rise of our civilisation other, non-human things owned the world, and after we fall they will own it again.

CoC on /tg/

Call of Cthulhu is consistently popular among gamers, especially British ones who are cynical gits and love the GRIMDARK. 'Roll for SAN loss' has inevitably become a meme, used in place of 'ARGH, MY EYES' or sometimes 'MAN THE HARPOONS'.

See Also

Trail of Cthulhu, an updated version of the game using the GUMSHOE system.

External Links

• Byakhee Character Generator
• ...on Sourceforge
• Chaosium Inc, publishers of Call of Cthulhu