Call of Cthulhu.
By Fishy
A Little Introductory Preamble.
Alright, this is hardly a new product. The Call of Cthulhu RPG has been around a long time (my own copy is a UK reprint of the 3rd Edition and claims 1981 as the original publication date of the material within) and already has a large following. I'm writing this now because I've just played in a Halloween game of CoC and so it's on my mind. For those benighted souls who have never encountered the game I shall give a few thoughts...
What is Call of Cthulhu?
Call of Cthulhu, commonly known as "CoC", is the brainchild of one Sandy Petersen, a man also associated with the early outing in the Doom series of videogames. It is a roleplaying game inspired by the works of Howard Phillip Lovecraft, arguably the most influencial horror-writer of the 20th century. HPL's works were, and are, unusual in that they existed within a fairly well-developed and consistent universe and through his own works and those of later writers this universe has been peopled with creatures, cultists, factions and pantheons that add a wonderful depth to the setting. It is, as has been intimated, a game concerned with Horror, but you will not find anything very reminiscent of modern horror films in this one. It deals not with blood, guts and mayhem but instead with the unutterable wrongness of things beyond human understanding. This is a game where the most commonly used part of the rulebook is not the combat rules, but the rules dealing with fear and madness.
First Impressions.
The first thing that I thought when I saw CoC was "Oh look! Runequest!" and indeed the guts of the system are based on that venerable RPG. This is not the swish, slick and modern Mongoose edition of RQ but the old edition much beloved by fans. As with CoC, my own edition of Runequest is the 3rd and it is close enough to the core of 3rd edition Cthulhu that the two can act as optional rules and setting material for each other. Much to the dismay of many a RQ player.
The system shares the 3-18 Stat range of most early RPGs and presents us with six attributes with which to define our characters. In some games I would be inclined to lament the lack of detail in my PC when using such a system, but in CoC it doesn't matter. Those attributes won't see much use in real terms.
To back up the attributes each character has a selection of skills and the provided character sheets list all of the available skills along with their default (starting) values. This is very useful since you will often find yourself attempting tasks for which you are not really trained. The skills are based on a percentile scale, with a roll of 1D100 used to determine success. If the dice come up less than the skill rating then you made it, if not then you didn't. It's not rocket science but it works, and it keeps the game clipping along at a good pace without bogging down in too many rules.
The Meat: Reading The Book.
The mechanics of character creation and play are well laid out and easy to read in most edition of CoC, only really accounting for a fairly small portion of the book. A larger portion of the rulebook is taken up by information on the Cthulhu Mythos, HPL's legacy to the world of horror. This includes a large number of creatures and "Gods", with stats that are rarely if ever going to get used for anything more than persuading a GM not to make his PCs fight one of these things. Most of them can't be killed without magic and magic is in short supply, at least for the Player Characters. The NPCs are another matter and there is plenty of magic available for them in the later editions, though my 3rd edition has precious little. Magic is an area where a lot of improvement has occurred over the years.
To help the GM, or "Keeper" as he's known in CoC, get started there are scenarios provided in each edition but, as with Chaosium's other published CoC scenarios, the quality of these is a bit variable and the GM is required to pick and choose carefully.
Overall the game is easy to learn and well presented, with the editions that I have seen all featuring some suitable evocative artwork.
The Game.
The rules in Call of Cthulhu are simple enough that they need little beyond the common "How to roleplay" notes found in most games. This is a good thing. In my experience, CoC tends not to run to campaigns but to individual adventures, although these sometimes feature the same characters from scenario to scenario. The game is easily understood and even a roleplaying virgin can roll the dice, allocate some skill points and be terrified out of their wits within twenty minutes.
A GM, in the meantime, can learn the rules in about half an hour, though they are likely to spend the rest of their lives trying to learn the game. Call of Cthulhu isn't about mechanics, not even the infamous SAN Loss mechanic that is used to drive the adventurers slowly (or not so slowly) mad; this game is about atmosphere, about storytelling, and I have never known another game which used the dice less than CoC.
There is probably no genre that is harder to run than horror, since the pressure is on the GM to keep the players on edge at all times. In a dungeon crawl you can throw in another room of Orcs and everyone is happy, but in a horror game the GM needs to tailor his performance to the individual players. As a result CoC has been involved in some of the most disastrous game fails that I have ever played in. It has also, however, been involved in some of the best games that I have ever experienced. With a good GM this game is a marvel.
Conclusions.
As has already been said, this is not a game for everyone. Players need to be able to immerse themselves in the world of the Mythos and GMs need to aid and encourage them in this. If you can find a group that wants to be scared and a GM who knows how to do it then this is one of the best games you will ever play. Not bogged down with artifical horror like many later RPGs, nor too "back to basics" simple like other recent games. In CoC, Petersen found just the right balance and a great set of source material. It is no wonder that the game continues to lead the field, and I can only hope that it will continue to do so for a long, long time. After all: "That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even death may die."
EDIT: Since writing this I have peeked at a friend's copy of the 30th Anniversary Edition of CoC. I can say without reservation that this is a lovely book. The artwork is moody and not too intrusive, the contents have been tweaked to perfection and the binding is nice. In short: this book is a keeper. Well done Chaosium.