The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Reviewing Call of Cthulhu isn't exactly easy, because what can you say that hasn't been said before? Page after page has been written about this game, all of it calling it the best game ever written, the paragon of the hobby, a work of simple genius.

And, in general, everything that has been said is correct. It is probably the best RPG ever written, and if the world was being wiped out and only one RPG could be preserved to show future generations what we accomplished, CoC would be the first and only choice.

But such praise doesn't really help you, the consumer. I know this, because it didn't help me much. I kept hearing how good it was, but never why it was so good, and whether I would enjoy it. I mean, I had no idea who this Lovecraft person was, I hated horror stories and my group and I tend to play hack and slash gaming most of the time. I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the setting. So what possible use was this game to me?

Now, however, I know all about Lovecraft, I love horror stories and I will do anything to get a game going. That's the kind of game this is. No matter who you are and what you play, you will fall in love with Call of Cthulhu.

Because even if you never get into the setting, CoC is one of the best RPGs ever designed. You might not want to play, but you'll be prepared to frame some sections of this rulebook as examples of how to do things right. Just reading the rules alone is impressive enough. They're quick. They're easy. They're really quite clever. They handle everything in detail when they're needed, and disappear when they aren't. They are easily fudged and altered, but are rigid enough to handle rules lawyers. But the real beauty of the rules of CoC is that for once, they do exactly what they should.

Roleplaying games are, to me, about creating dramatic scenes, generally with narrative flow. The rulebook, thus, should provide tools to create narrative dramas. And that's what these rules feel like - tools for roleplaying, perfectly honed to set up a framework within which drama can take place. Characters in this game for once are NOT multi-layered 3D living personalities with life histories longer than your arm, which inevitably fail to be easily manipulated into the needs of the drama taking place. No, here PCs are merely 2D literary figures, whose lives never extend beyond the needs of the story. For once, this is a rules system that realises that overly complex character creation can be just as destructive to good roleplay as simplistic ones.

Moreover, the tools are perfectly attuned to the source material. If the character sheet includes a skill, it's not because it seems logical, or because other games have it, but because it is important in the kind of dramas you are trying to create. And that's the feeling you get with every single rule in CoC - that it's there precisely because it played a key role somewhere in the source material. And, what is more, the rules also feel like they are the absolute minimum of complexity - anything that doesn't appear in the source material, doesn't appear in the rules.

That might sound easy, but it isn't. Not at the level of perfection Cthulhu achieves. There has never been nor never likely will be a game that recreates its source material with this level of depth, passion and life.

If you've ever read a game related novel, you'll know that wonderful feeling of recognition you get when you can see rules underlying the action. But it never quite works the other way around - while you might speculate that Han Solo spent a Force point to navigate that asteroid field, it never feels like the RPG could have inspired the movie. It's almost ridiculous to think a RPG ever could be that true to the source material. And yet this is what CoC achieves. After reading the rules, I turned to the short story at the front of the book, and I could have sworn it was written after the game. As I further explored Lovecraft's works, I found this kept happening. Obviously, some of his more esoteric works don't quite mesh, but for most of his stories, the simple addition of stats would be all they require to turn them into adventures.

This is why it does not matter one iota if you don't like horror, or have never heard of Lovecraft. By the time you finish the RPG, you will love the world of Cthulhu, and be a fount of information on the man. This book inspires you to go out and read his stories, study his life, learn all you can about Cthulhiana. It is quickly apparent why people devote themselves to this subculture with an almost Star Wars-esque zeal.

But to cover the details for those who don't know: the world of Cthulhu comes from a series of deeply horrifying short stories written by the genius H.P. Lovecraft at the beginning of this century. These stories center around the Old Ones, ancient and god-like aliens (of which Cthulhu is one) who lurk and wait just beyond the scientific world of post-Victorian New England. Woven subtly into real world mythology, most do not know of the existence of the Old Ones, and those who discover their existence quickly go mad from the shock. Lovecraft developed his ideas into a detailed and frighteningly realistic universe, now called the Cthulhu Mythos. But trust me, you don't need to know this to enjoy the game.

In fact, you don't even have to use it. The rules are robust enough to be easily transferred to other games and genres. They might buckle a bit at high God-like fantasy or furious Hong Kong action, but otherwise, they will do nicely. This is because these rules are just unbeatably good. They were pretty polished when they first appeared, and now, 18 years later, they are phenomenally sharp.

The basis is a simple percentage skill system, which is easy to learn yet it never models anything unsatisfactorily or messily. Attributes add 3D6 rolls to the mix, a slight hiccup in these uni-sided times, but one that works well. The rules are then split into the core rules - the very simple rolls you will use all the time - and spot rules. Spot rules are rules you only need on occasion, and thus aren't particularly important. This layering encourages fudging for complex things, and thus eliminates totally the need to go scrounging for the necessary rule. If it is a spot rule, you know that it won't matter to game balance if you get it wrong, but if you do want it, all the spot rules you could want are there, clean and totally workable. Pure genius. You will never read a rules system this clever or clean in your life.

You'd also be unlikely to read a rulebook this well written, either. Like Lovecraft at his best, the prose is brilliantly economical, charmingly matter-of-fact, and refreshingly intelligent. For the first time since the mid-eighties, this is a book that doesn't talk down to you; you might even have to look up some of the trickier words. The book is well designed too. Although in the first reading of character creation and combat I had to flip around a bit too much, most of the time everything is clearly documented and clarified with plenty of examples, and everything important is collated at the back as well. What's really impressive though is that the core rules fit in about 30 pages, including Combat. In fact, everything you need to play the game fits in the first 70 pages of this slender and light-weight 300 page volume.

The rest is pure source material. This includes facts on Lovecraft, his world and inspirations, the Mythos, the stories and their characters. This is fantastic inspiration, as it helps you see how to draw out plots from his stories. They also provide one such story at the front, which is perfectly captures the mood and spirit of the game. But wait - there's more. There's also a complete guide to life in 1920's New England, complete with equipment and cost guides. There's a list of spells numbering in the hundreds, which your players will generally encounter one at a time. Then there's also the gigantic beastiary that covers every creature, horror or God ever mention in a Cthulhu story. Not to mention a detailed guide to mental illness, an introduction to the occult, a almanac of useful world facts, plus a bucket full of GM tips on how to bring all the above information into running a successful game.

This titanic amount of source material provides practically every piece of information and inspiration you could ever need to run CoC for the rest of your life. Unlike so many games nowadays, once you buy the core rulebook, you are set for life. The only real tricky part is clever adventures, which is why Chaosium concentrate on this, producing a constant stream of exquisitely good scenarios.

Not that the core book disappoints here, providing four adventures, three of which are astoundingly well written (the fourth is rather crap, an anomaly best ignored). They are all around the same length - to be finished in one decent session of about four or five hours - but cover a range of topics and difficulties. They prove great introductions as well as appealing to old hands. And let me tell you, they scared the living hell out of my players.

And that was the real acid test of this game. My bunch of hack and slashing pun-meisters were immediately enthralled in the game, and not just because of the sheer quality of the adventures. These rules are not only cerebral and subtle in design, but they actively foster cerebral and subtle play. One way it ensures this is by having the players be normal people, their enemies effectively omnipotent, and the combat system way lethal. The game points out on many occasions that power gamers and tough guys will DIE in this game, without a doubt.

In fact, characters in general will die in this game. Most games make a big deal about this, but not Cthulhu. Not that death isn't a force to be reckoned with…but it happens a fair bit when you chase monsters. And this imminent threat of death keeps your players thinking and humble, and gives the GM the control he needs to run an effective game. So if you're sick of players who think that their 25th level Trothgar the Mighty is immortal, nay, a very God among men, if you're sick of players dealing with every problem with their swords, if you're sick of never quite getting away from the hack and slash mentality, no matter how deep or "mature" your setting is, if indeed, you are sick of playing mediocre games that never really actually immerse you and make you FEEL what your player feels, then I suggest you try Cthulhu.

It combines the best of everything the industry has produced so far: as intelligent and methodical as first addition D&D, but as slick and inventive as Deadlands, as simple and fun to use as Ghostbusters but as intricate and deep as Vampire: The Masquerade and better designed than all of them put together. Unbeatable; it must be read to be believed. A masterpiece.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Call of Cthulhu
Author: Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Line: Cthulhu Cost: approx $50 Page count: 288 ISBN: 1-56882-134-4 Playtest Review by Steve Darlington on 06/20/99. Genre tags: Historical Horror	Reviewing Call of Cthulhu isn't exactly easy, because what can you say that hasn't been said before? Page after page has been written about this game, all of it calling it the best game ever written, the paragon of the hobby, a work of simple genius. And, in general, everything that has been said is correct. It is probably the best RPG ever written, and if the world was being wiped out and only one RPG could be preserved to show future generations what we accomplished, CoC would be the first and only choice. But such praise doesn't really help you, the consumer. I know this, because it didn't help me much. I kept hearing how good it was, but never why it was so good, and whether I would enjoy it. I mean, I had no idea who this Lovecraft person was, I hated horror stories and my group and I tend to play hack and slash gaming most of the time. I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the setting. So what possible use was this game to me? Now, however, I know all about Lovecraft, I love horror stories and I will do anything to get a game going. That's the kind of game this is. No matter who you are and what you play, you will fall in love with Call of Cthulhu. Because even if you never get into the setting, CoC is one of the best RPGs ever designed. You might not want to play, but you'll be prepared to frame some sections of this rulebook as examples of how to do things right. Just reading the rules alone is impressive enough. They're quick. They're easy. They're really quite clever. They handle everything in detail when they're needed, and disappear when they aren't. They are easily fudged and altered, but are rigid enough to handle rules lawyers. But the real beauty of the rules of CoC is that for once, they do exactly what they should. Roleplaying games are, to me, about creating dramatic scenes, generally with narrative flow. The rulebook, thus, should provide tools to create narrative dramas. And that's what these rules feel like - tools for roleplaying, perfectly honed to set up a framework within which drama can take place. Characters in this game for once are NOT multi-layered 3D living personalities with life histories longer than your arm, which inevitably fail to be easily manipulated into the needs of the drama taking place. No, here PCs are merely 2D literary figures, whose lives never extend beyond the needs of the story. For once, this is a rules system that realises that overly complex character creation can be just as destructive to good roleplay as simplistic ones. Moreover, the tools are perfectly attuned to the source material. If the character sheet includes a skill, it's not because it seems logical, or because other games have it, but because it is important in the kind of dramas you are trying to create. And that's the feeling you get with every single rule in CoC - that it's there precisely because it played a key role somewhere in the source material. And, what is more, the rules also feel like they are the absolute minimum of complexity - anything that doesn't appear in the source material, doesn't appear in the rules. That might sound easy, but it isn't. Not at the level of perfection Cthulhu achieves. There has never been nor never likely will be a game that recreates its source material with this level of depth, passion and life. If you've ever read a game related novel, you'll know that wonderful feeling of recognition you get when you can see rules underlying the action. But it never quite works the other way around - while you might speculate that Han Solo spent a Force point to navigate that asteroid field, it never feels like the RPG could have inspired the movie. It's almost ridiculous to think a RPG ever could be that true to the source material. And yet this is what CoC achieves. After reading the rules, I turned to the short story at the front of the book, and I could have sworn it was written after the game. As I further explored Lovecraft's works, I found this kept happening. Obviously, some of his more esoteric works don't quite mesh, but for most of his stories, the simple addition of stats would be all they require to turn them into adventures. This is why it does not matter one iota if you don't like horror, or have never heard of Lovecraft. By the time you finish the RPG, you will love the world of Cthulhu, and be a fount of information on the man. This book inspires you to go out and read his stories, study his life, learn all you can about Cthulhiana. It is quickly apparent why people devote themselves to this subculture with an almost Star Wars-esque zeal. But to cover the details for those who don't know: the world of Cthulhu comes from a series of deeply horrifying short stories written by the genius H.P. Lovecraft at the beginning of this century. These stories center around the Old Ones, ancient and god-like aliens (of which Cthulhu is one) who lurk and wait just beyond the scientific world of post-Victorian New England. Woven subtly into real world mythology, most do not know of the existence of the Old Ones, and those who discover their existence quickly go mad from the shock. Lovecraft developed his ideas into a detailed and frighteningly realistic universe, now called the Cthulhu Mythos. But trust me, you don't need to know this to enjoy the game. In fact, you don't even have to use it. The rules are robust enough to be easily transferred to other games and genres. They might buckle a bit at high God-like fantasy or furious Hong Kong action, but otherwise, they will do nicely. This is because these rules are just unbeatably good. They were pretty polished when they first appeared, and now, 18 years later, they are phenomenally sharp. The basis is a simple percentage skill system, which is easy to learn yet it never models anything unsatisfactorily or messily. Attributes add 3D6 rolls to the mix, a slight hiccup in these uni-sided times, but one that works well. The rules are then split into the core rules - the very simple rolls you will use all the time - and spot rules. Spot rules are rules you only need on occasion, and thus aren't particularly important. This layering encourages fudging for complex things, and thus eliminates totally the need to go scrounging for the necessary rule. If it is a spot rule, you know that it won't matter to game balance if you get it wrong, but if you do want it, all the spot rules you could want are there, clean and totally workable. Pure genius. You will never read a rules system this clever or clean in your life. You'd also be unlikely to read a rulebook this well written, either. Like Lovecraft at his best, the prose is brilliantly economical, charmingly matter-of-fact, and refreshingly intelligent. For the first time since the mid-eighties, this is a book that doesn't talk down to you; you might even have to look up some of the trickier words. The book is well designed too. Although in the first reading of character creation and combat I had to flip around a bit too much, most of the time everything is clearly documented and clarified with plenty of examples, and everything important is collated at the back as well. What's really impressive though is that the core rules fit in about 30 pages, including Combat. In fact, everything you need to play the game fits in the first 70 pages of this slender and light-weight 300 page volume. The rest is pure source material. This includes facts on Lovecraft, his world and inspirations, the Mythos, the stories and their characters. This is fantastic inspiration, as it helps you see how to draw out plots from his stories. They also provide one such story at the front, which is perfectly captures the mood and spirit of the game. But wait - there's more. There's also a complete guide to life in 1920's New England, complete with equipment and cost guides. There's a list of spells numbering in the hundreds, which your players will generally encounter one at a time. Then there's also the gigantic beastiary that covers every creature, horror or God ever mention in a Cthulhu story. Not to mention a detailed guide to mental illness, an introduction to the occult, a almanac of useful world facts, plus a bucket full of GM tips on how to bring all the above information into running a successful game. This titanic amount of source material provides practically every piece of information and inspiration you could ever need to run CoC for the rest of your life. Unlike so many games nowadays, once you buy the core rulebook, you are set for life. The only real tricky part is clever adventures, which is why Chaosium concentrate on this, producing a constant stream of exquisitely good scenarios. Not that the core book disappoints here, providing four adventures, three of which are astoundingly well written (the fourth is rather crap, an anomaly best ignored). They are all around the same length - to be finished in one decent session of about four or five hours - but cover a range of topics and difficulties. They prove great introductions as well as appealing to old hands. And let me tell you, they scared the living hell out of my players. And that was the real acid test of this game. My bunch of hack and slashing pun-meisters were immediately enthralled in the game, and not just because of the sheer quality of the adventures. These rules are not only cerebral and subtle in design, but they actively foster cerebral and subtle play. One way it ensures this is by having the players be normal people, their enemies effectively omnipotent, and the combat system way lethal. The game points out on many occasions that power gamers and tough guys will DIE in this game, without a doubt. In fact, characters in general will die in this game. Most games make a big deal about this, but not Cthulhu. Not that death isn't a force to be reckoned with…but it happens a fair bit when you chase monsters. And this imminent threat of death keeps your players thinking and humble, and gives the GM the control he needs to run an effective game. So if you're sick of players who think that their 25th level Trothgar the Mighty is immortal, nay, a very God among men, if you're sick of players dealing with every problem with their swords, if you're sick of never quite getting away from the hack and slash mentality, no matter how deep or "mature" your setting is, if indeed, you are sick of playing mediocre games that never really actually immerse you and make you FEEL what your player feels, then I suggest you try Cthulhu. It combines the best of everything the industry has produced so far: as intelligent and methodical as first addition D&D, but as slick and inventive as Deadlands, as simple and fun to use as Ghostbusters but as intricate and deep as Vampire: The Masquerade and better designed than all of them put together. Unbeatable; it must be read to be believed. A masterpiece. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)