The Inside Scoop on Gaming

As Call of Cthulhu (commonly referred to as CoC) has been reviewed extensively elsewhere on this site (e.g., here, here, and here), I won't bore you with the details; suffice it to say, the game itself is excellent, a classic, and fully deserving of your vote for its induction into Inquest's Hall of Fame.

The reason I'm writing this is to take special note of the fact that, at long last (for the first time since the game was in its third edition, back in 1986), the main CoC rulebook has been published in hardcover. Now, I admit it--I'm one of those gamers who just adores his hardcover game books. I rail at the heavens that Atlas never reprinted Ars Magica in hardback after the first batch sold out; I yearn for the day when I can justify shelling out the cash to acquire one of the few remaining hardback copies of Castle Falkenstein sitting forlorn and neglected on my local gameshop shelf. So how does Chaosium's latest offering stack up? In a word, it's excellent. It's glossy, sturdy, weighty, rugged, and hard. No worries about the cover getting munged in a bookbag, or the spine cracking, or pages falling out (to this day I'm still mad about the shoddy quality of the binding of my copy of Unearthed Arcana, at least half of the pages of which have long since come free of their moorings). With a hardback rulebook on your lap, you don't need an actual table for "tabletop" gaming (unless you're into miniatures, of course), and CoC 5.6 does as well as any in this regard. Further, its glossy finish (similar to that found on hardbound White Wolf product) makes it more spill-, stain-, and scuff-resistant than many rulebooks on the market (not that I'm advocating its use as a beverage coaster or food trivet, by any means).

So what's actually included in between these oh-so-hardy covers? In short, you get everything that came in the softback 5.5 rulebook, practically verbatim (I put a question mark after the page count, above, because I don't have my copy in front of me to check, but that's the page count of the 5.5 edition). Before passing along my 5.5 to a friend to make room on my game shelf for 5.6, I set the two side-by-side and did a page-by-page flip-through comparison. Here's what caught my eye:

Some (as in, maybe half a dozen pieces, tops) of the interior art been changed (I particularly like the new full-page illustration of the slavering Gug), but CoC's never been touted for its artwork (still no color, for example, aside from the cover painting, and many of these illustrations have actually been around since at least the fourth edition). However, virtually all of the artwork recycled from the previous edition is now murkier, darker, less distinct--as if someone laid it on a photocopier and cranked the toner up a notch or two. A bit of a disappointment, but not a fatal one, to be sure. (On a side note, I found it odd that one of the border illustrations accompanying the actual Call of Cthulhu short story by H.P. Lovecraft has disappeared, with the one that preceded it in the 5.5 edition now replicated in its place.) Otherwise, the physical appearance of the interior (layout, etc.) is nigh-identical, so much so that the Table of Contents is completely unchanged--right down to the pagination.

As for what's different in this latest "upgrade" to the actual CoC ruleset--well, there's not much, actually. While the Chaosium website proclaims that "some sections of the book have been revised and clarified," I couldn't spot anything of significance. (As previously noted, the Table of Contents of the two are identical, so whatever changes may've been instilled weren't big enough to cause even a single page break.) Among the minor changes that I did observe: all of the timelines, which previously covered events up to 1998, have now been updated through 1999.

So is any of the above a criticism? Actually, no. Chaosium have had almost two decades to tinker with the CoC rules; consequently, they're remarkably stable and just don't need anything like a major overhaul (hence the new numeric designators reminiscent of software revision numbering schemes--5.5 and 5.6 serve to underscore the fact that these books are fundamentally compatible with the 5th edition rulebook published a few years back (and more to the point, all of the supplements that have come out since then)). It's actually refreshing to see Chaosium adhering to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, and not introducing big changes into their rulebook simply for the sake of introducing big changes into their rulebook.

So my bottom line is this: if you don't own any edition of CoC at all, then certainly you should buy it. If you own an older copy (prior to 5th ed.), you can't ask for a better excuse to upgrade. If, however, you already own CoC 5th or 5.5 ed., then the only real reason to retire it in favor of this new offering is the hard cover. For me, this was enough to make the sale; your mileage, as they say, may well vary. $37.95 isn't horrendously expensive in comparison to other hardbound game books on the market, but it isn't exactly cheap, either (previous columns here at RPGnet notwithstanding). One solution might be to patronize a gameshop that buys used gaming material, so that you can unload your older CoC rulebook and use the proceeds to defray the cost of its successor. Now if only I'd thought of that sooner.

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

Call of Cthulhu RPG (Hardcover)
Author: Sandy Petersen & Lynn Willis Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Line: Call of Cthulhu Cost: $37.95 Page count: 287(?) ISBN: 1-56882-148-4 SKU: CHA 2386 Capsule Review by Chris Womack on 02/16/00. Genre tags: Modern_day Historical Horror	As Call of Cthulhu (commonly referred to as CoC) has been reviewed extensively elsewhere on this site (e.g., here, here, and here), I won't bore you with the details; suffice it to say, the game itself is excellent, a classic, and fully deserving of your vote for its induction into Inquest's Hall of Fame. The reason I'm writing this is to take special note of the fact that, at long last (for the first time since the game was in its third edition, back in 1986), the main CoC rulebook has been published in hardcover. Now, I admit it--I'm one of those gamers who just adores his hardcover game books. I rail at the heavens that Atlas never reprinted Ars Magica in hardback after the first batch sold out; I yearn for the day when I can justify shelling out the cash to acquire one of the few remaining hardback copies of Castle Falkenstein sitting forlorn and neglected on my local gameshop shelf. So how does Chaosium's latest offering stack up? In a word, it's excellent. It's glossy, sturdy, weighty, rugged, and hard. No worries about the cover getting munged in a bookbag, or the spine cracking, or pages falling out (to this day I'm still mad about the shoddy quality of the binding of my copy of Unearthed Arcana, at least half of the pages of which have long since come free of their moorings). With a hardback rulebook on your lap, you don't need an actual table for "tabletop" gaming (unless you're into miniatures, of course), and CoC 5.6 does as well as any in this regard. Further, its glossy finish (similar to that found on hardbound White Wolf product) makes it more spill-, stain-, and scuff-resistant than many rulebooks on the market (not that I'm advocating its use as a beverage coaster or food trivet, by any means). So what's actually included in between these oh-so-hardy covers? In short, you get everything that came in the softback 5.5 rulebook, practically verbatim (I put a question mark after the page count, above, because I don't have my copy in front of me to check, but that's the page count of the 5.5 edition). Before passing along my 5.5 to a friend to make room on my game shelf for 5.6, I set the two side-by-side and did a page-by-page flip-through comparison. Here's what caught my eye: Some (as in, maybe half a dozen pieces, tops) of the interior art been changed (I particularly like the new full-page illustration of the slavering Gug), but CoC's never been touted for its artwork (still no color, for example, aside from the cover painting, and many of these illustrations have actually been around since at least the fourth edition). However, virtually all of the artwork recycled from the previous edition is now murkier, darker, less distinct--as if someone laid it on a photocopier and cranked the toner up a notch or two. A bit of a disappointment, but not a fatal one, to be sure. (On a side note, I found it odd that one of the border illustrations accompanying the actual Call of Cthulhu short story by H.P. Lovecraft has disappeared, with the one that preceded it in the 5.5 edition now replicated in its place.) Otherwise, the physical appearance of the interior (layout, etc.) is nigh-identical, so much so that the Table of Contents is completely unchanged--right down to the pagination. As for what's different in this latest "upgrade" to the actual CoC ruleset--well, there's not much, actually. While the Chaosium website proclaims that "some sections of the book have been revised and clarified," I couldn't spot anything of significance. (As previously noted, the Table of Contents of the two are identical, so whatever changes may've been instilled weren't big enough to cause even a single page break.) Among the minor changes that I did observe: all of the timelines, which previously covered events up to 1998, have now been updated through 1999. So is any of the above a criticism? Actually, no. Chaosium have had almost two decades to tinker with the CoC rules; consequently, they're remarkably stable and just don't need anything like a major overhaul (hence the new numeric designators reminiscent of software revision numbering schemes--5.5 and 5.6 serve to underscore the fact that these books are fundamentally compatible with the 5th edition rulebook published a few years back (and more to the point, all of the supplements that have come out since then)). It's actually refreshing to see Chaosium adhering to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy, and not introducing big changes into their rulebook simply for the sake of introducing big changes into their rulebook. So my bottom line is this: if you don't own any edition of CoC at all, then certainly you should buy it. If you own an older copy (prior to 5th ed.), you can't ask for a better excuse to upgrade. If, however, you already own CoC 5th or 5.5 ed., then the only real reason to retire it in favor of this new offering is the hard cover. For me, this was enough to make the sale; your mileage, as they say, may well vary. $37.95 isn't horrendously expensive in comparison to other hardbound game books on the market, but it isn't exactly cheap, either (previous columns here at RPGnet notwithstanding). One solution might be to patronize a gameshop that buys used gaming material, so that you can unload your older CoC rulebook and use the proceeds to defray the cost of its successor. Now if only I'd thought of that sooner. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Call of Cthulhu RPG (Hardcover)