Stop reading now and go buy it.
Yes, it's a cliched way to start but it rings so true.
Call of Cthulhu was never a system I could approach. Yes the background was bizaare and excellent but the rules scheme had me stumped. Adding the D20 system to HP Lovecrafts world is a beautiful mesh of everything the Mythos needs.
Enough has been said about the D20 system. In Call of Cthulhu it presents a solid and proven system that is easy to take advantage of. The main addition are the Sanity rules. The Sanity Rules SHOULD become an integrated portion of every new D20 core book and they alone are worth most of the books price. They expand on character response and force the players to look more closely at their action. Of course in CoC itself insanity is inevitable but if adapted to other D20 productes, such as Weird Wars, they take on a new meaning. Suddenly the Gung Ho WWII grunt that has fearlessly charged the hill only to be confronted by a group of SS undead in a machinegun nest loses some grip on his mental state. Or if applied to D&D, that wizard that just cast a fireball managed to temporarily take a peek into the dimension that his magic Really comes from and comes back much worse for the wear. The Sanity rules are a must have for any D20 line.
The background is rich and meaty, filled with realms man was not meant to see and creatures with far more tentacles than they should have. The Lovecraft world is presented in a very complete and engrossing sense, bringing even relative neophytes such as myself deeply into it's folds. After reading CoC I had a much clearer understanding of the themes and ideas Lovecraft used throughout his writings. So while the writers were obviously making a game, their own views on the material are invaluable.
The only item the book falls flat on is usuable campaign material. While it does provide good formats for creating evil cults, families and artifacts it does not really provide any examples of these. Yes some do appear in the included adventures it would have been nice to have a ready made Cult of Cthulhu or a solid description of the Whately family. This lack of information is very easily made up if you have a solid read of any of Lovecrafts major Cthulhu works but for those of us with little exposure it presents a large hole in the writing. While I am sure this will be remedied in expansions, again it would have been nice to have more details on hand and available.
Enough writing. I must complete the campaign set in my home town (the evil rich car dealer who owns nearly everything is a perfect villain, especially since his constant commercials can be used as hidden chants to something dark). You, the reader, must go out and obtain this book, whether to run CoC yourself or use it's Sanity Rules in your own D20 game, it is fully worth your purchase.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)