The Inside Scoop on Gaming

For years I had been told how great Call of Cthulhu was. All the gamers whose advice I valued swore that CoC was the best game in the world. Lovecraft's writing had never appealed much to me. Giant slimy monsters had struck me as silly and corny. When Arcane magazine declared it the best role-playing game of all time, I finally capitulated. Since then, Call of Cthulhu is the gauge by which I judge all new games.

What single element turned me? It wasn't the artwork. There isn't much and what is there doesn't exactly inspire me to write adventures that leave players stunned. The quality and amount of material sway my opinion. A picture may normally be worth a thousand words, but in Call of Cthulhu, the folks at Chaosium changed the exchange rate to finally favor words. The content is so succinct, complete and well organized that the book is a genuine pleasure to read. Space spent on extraneous art would have only kept the word count down; fortunately that is a trade-off that wasn't made here.

If the book was a TSR game it would have been split up into at least half a dozen separate supplements. An illustrated compendium of Mythos beasts is complemented by a separate section of non-Mythos nasties including mundane critters like rats and the standard monstrous fare such as vampires, ghouls, and mummies.

Four short but complete adventures are included, as are grimoires, data on forensic pathology, civil authority, sanity, and travel times. There are timelines of weirdness, crime, disasters and other events worth knowing. There is even a bit of humor in the timelines. The charts of equipment, travel times and distances were very complete and well done. And their placement didn't interupt the flow of readable material the book, since they were left to the end.

The artwork wasn't badly done. Color was sorely missed. From what I have read, though, the fourth edition had it and the fifth and a half edition will as well. It might have just been my copy, but the book's cover seemed more prone to taking damage than a trailer park in a tornado. We didn't even play keep-away from the rules lawyer with this book. Most of the 240 pages are packed with double column smallish text. The printing isn't as small as that of DP9's Jovian Chronicles rulebook. The margins in CoC are roughly the standard one inch whereas those of the Jovian Chronicles were big enough to hold another copy of that book. To sum up, Call of Cthulhu is good information and well written text. It is the best 22 bucks I've ever spent.

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

Call of Cthulhu: 5th Edition
Author: Sandy Petersen & Lynn Willis Category: game Company/Publisher: Chaosium Cost: $21.95 Page count: 240 ISBN: 0-933635-86-9 Capsule Review by C.H. Gallant on 03/05/98. Genre tags: none	For years I had been told how great Call of Cthulhu was. All the gamers whose advice I valued swore that CoC was the best game in the world. Lovecraft's writing had never appealed much to me. Giant slimy monsters had struck me as silly and corny. When Arcane magazine declared it the best role-playing game of all time, I finally capitulated. Since then, Call of Cthulhu is the gauge by which I judge all new games. What single element turned me? It wasn't the artwork. There isn't much and what is there doesn't exactly inspire me to write adventures that leave players stunned. The quality and amount of material sway my opinion. A picture may normally be worth a thousand words, but in Call of Cthulhu, the folks at Chaosium changed the exchange rate to finally favor words. The content is so succinct, complete and well organized that the book is a genuine pleasure to read. Space spent on extraneous art would have only kept the word count down; fortunately that is a trade-off that wasn't made here. If the book was a TSR game it would have been split up into at least half a dozen separate supplements. An illustrated compendium of Mythos beasts is complemented by a separate section of non-Mythos nasties including mundane critters like rats and the standard monstrous fare such as vampires, ghouls, and mummies. Four short but complete adventures are included, as are grimoires, data on forensic pathology, civil authority, sanity, and travel times. There are timelines of weirdness, crime, disasters and other events worth knowing. There is even a bit of humor in the timelines. The charts of equipment, travel times and distances were very complete and well done. And their placement didn't interupt the flow of readable material the book, since they were left to the end. The artwork wasn't badly done. Color was sorely missed. From what I have read, though, the fourth edition had it and the fifth and a half edition will as well. It might have just been my copy, but the book's cover seemed more prone to taking damage than a trailer park in a tornado. We didn't even play keep-away from the rules lawyer with this book. Most of the 240 pages are packed with double column smallish text. The printing isn't as small as that of DP9's Jovian Chronicles rulebook. The margins in CoC are roughly the standard one inch whereas those of the Jovian Chronicles were big enough to hold another copy of that book. To sum up, Call of Cthulhu is good information and well written text. It is the best 22 bucks I've ever spent. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Call of Cthulhu: 5th Edition