The Inside Scoop on Gaming

In a relatively short life span (1890-1937), Howard Philips Lovecraft managed to create some of the finest examples of horror writing. His best known work, the Cthulhu Mythos, describes an Earth formerly populated by hideous, demon like entities that enslaved all that walked on its surface. Those creatures are temporarily gone and lone individuals seek out the truth of their existence and usually pay a terrible price.

Roughly 20 years ago the fine folks at Chaosium Inc. brought Lovecraft's work to the RPG world with their Call of Cthulhu (CoC) game. Since that time CoC has gone on to become one of the most popular games of all times and in 1996, was chosen for the Origins Hall of Fame. The latest edition, v.5.6, is a testimony to the strength of the game system, the richness of the campaign world and the devotion that Chaosium brings to the game.

Physically the book is gorgeous. The hardcover feels rock solid and the cover is eye catching. Inside the artwork does a good job at conveying the bizarre world that Lovecraft tried to describe. On the downside I found the font to be a bit small which caused some eyestrain.

The presentation of material is also wonderful. Flavor fiction is a popular manner for publishers to deliver the desired atmosphere to the reader. Sadly, more often than not, the flavor fiction can be pretty bad. Chaosium decided to go straight to the source and used Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu" as the flavor fiction. Now who is going to argue the writing talent of the man who brought this stuff to the public in the first place?

The book is laid out in a logical manner. First comes character creation and then the system rules. Following that is the reference material including descriptions of arcane tomes, monsters and spells. There are four scenarios following the reference material and then comes world information that includes charts describing tragic, revolutionary and bizarre events in a timeline.

Character generation is quite simple. Random dice rolls determine the main attributes - Strength, Constitution, Power, Dexterity, Appearance, Size, Intelligence and Education. Secondary attributes - Sanity, Idea Roll, Luck Roll, Know Roll, Hit Points and Magic Points - are derived from the main attributes. Next the player chooses an occupation and determines how many points are to be spent on skills. Skills are percentage based with each one percent costing one point. That is pretty much it and the entire process is succinctly explained on two pages!

To determine if a character successfully completes an action is also simple. If the character is using one of his attributes against a target's attribute (e.g. a character struggling to wrench a knife away from an NPC) they roll against a resistance table. If the action is a skill (e.g. the character pulls out a gun and shoots at the NPC) then it is a straight percentage roll against that skill.

One of the hallmarks of the CoC game is the secondary attribute Sanity. In CoC it is quite easy not only to be eaten by the "Great Ugly from Beyond the Stars," but also to go nuts having seen it in the first place. Lovecraft believed that humanity is rooted in "normalcy" and that any deviation from the normal (like Grandmother sitting up in her casket) is likely to cause some psychological damage. Therefore, every supernatural or Lovecraftian creature is bound to cause the character to lose sanity the first time they lay eyes on it. Fortunately lost sanity can be regained, but be warned that your character may end up gibbering in a padded room if he tries to uncover secrets man was not meant to know.

The mechanics of the system - including character generation, combat, magic and treatment of insanity - run for roughly 60 pages (pp. 34-94). The rest of the book is basically source material. And at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, that alone is what makes the book worth it. The rest of the roughly 200 pages are devoted to source material (such as descriptions of occult books and creatures), sample characters, scenarios and game master hints. Virtually everything that a GM would need to run a CoC game can be found in this book alone. In the day of multiple supplements this product stands out as a shining example of what a gamebook can deliver to the consumer.

CoC is not for everyone. If your idea of horror is to play a creature preying on humanity you may want to try another system. This game, like the stories, plays on horror that is best imagined in the minds of the players and not in describing the pleasure in sating a lust for blood. CoC requires players to be willing to have their characters be victims of their own curiosity or bad luck.

All in all this is an outstanding product that is deserving of every award it has ever won.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Call of Cthulhu
Author: Sandy Petersen & Lynn Willis Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium, Inc. Line: Call of Cthulhu Cost: 37.95 Page count: 288 ISBN: 1-56882-148-4 Capsule Review by Tomas J Skucas on 03/27/00. Genre tags: Modern_day Historical Horror Gothic	In a relatively short life span (1890-1937), Howard Philips Lovecraft managed to create some of the finest examples of horror writing. His best known work, the Cthulhu Mythos, describes an Earth formerly populated by hideous, demon like entities that enslaved all that walked on its surface. Those creatures are temporarily gone and lone individuals seek out the truth of their existence and usually pay a terrible price. Roughly 20 years ago the fine folks at Chaosium Inc. brought Lovecraft's work to the RPG world with their Call of Cthulhu (CoC) game. Since that time CoC has gone on to become one of the most popular games of all times and in 1996, was chosen for the Origins Hall of Fame. The latest edition, v.5.6, is a testimony to the strength of the game system, the richness of the campaign world and the devotion that Chaosium brings to the game. Physically the book is gorgeous. The hardcover feels rock solid and the cover is eye catching. Inside the artwork does a good job at conveying the bizarre world that Lovecraft tried to describe. On the downside I found the font to be a bit small which caused some eyestrain. The presentation of material is also wonderful. Flavor fiction is a popular manner for publishers to deliver the desired atmosphere to the reader. Sadly, more often than not, the flavor fiction can be pretty bad. Chaosium decided to go straight to the source and used Lovecraft's "Call of Cthulhu" as the flavor fiction. Now who is going to argue the writing talent of the man who brought this stuff to the public in the first place? The book is laid out in a logical manner. First comes character creation and then the system rules. Following that is the reference material including descriptions of arcane tomes, monsters and spells. There are four scenarios following the reference material and then comes world information that includes charts describing tragic, revolutionary and bizarre events in a timeline. Character generation is quite simple. Random dice rolls determine the main attributes - Strength, Constitution, Power, Dexterity, Appearance, Size, Intelligence and Education. Secondary attributes - Sanity, Idea Roll, Luck Roll, Know Roll, Hit Points and Magic Points - are derived from the main attributes. Next the player chooses an occupation and determines how many points are to be spent on skills. Skills are percentage based with each one percent costing one point. That is pretty much it and the entire process is succinctly explained on two pages! To determine if a character successfully completes an action is also simple. If the character is using one of his attributes against a target's attribute (e.g. a character struggling to wrench a knife away from an NPC) they roll against a resistance table. If the action is a skill (e.g. the character pulls out a gun and shoots at the NPC) then it is a straight percentage roll against that skill. One of the hallmarks of the CoC game is the secondary attribute Sanity. In CoC it is quite easy not only to be eaten by the "Great Ugly from Beyond the Stars," but also to go nuts having seen it in the first place. Lovecraft believed that humanity is rooted in "normalcy" and that any deviation from the normal (like Grandmother sitting up in her casket) is likely to cause some psychological damage. Therefore, every supernatural or Lovecraftian creature is bound to cause the character to lose sanity the first time they lay eyes on it. Fortunately lost sanity can be regained, but be warned that your character may end up gibbering in a padded room if he tries to uncover secrets man was not meant to know. The mechanics of the system - including character generation, combat, magic and treatment of insanity - run for roughly 60 pages (pp. 34-94). The rest of the book is basically source material. And at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, that alone is what makes the book worth it. The rest of the roughly 200 pages are devoted to source material (such as descriptions of occult books and creatures), sample characters, scenarios and game master hints. Virtually everything that a GM would need to run a CoC game can be found in this book alone. In the day of multiple supplements this product stands out as a shining example of what a gamebook can deliver to the consumer. CoC is not for everyone. If your idea of horror is to play a creature preying on humanity you may want to try another system. This game, like the stories, plays on horror that is best imagined in the minds of the players and not in describing the pleasure in sating a lust for blood. CoC requires players to be willing to have their characters be victims of their own curiosity or bad luck. All in all this is an outstanding product that is deserving of every award it has ever won. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)