The question of the day seems to be, “Can Cthulhu effectively rear its unsightly head under the guise of a d20, Wizards product?” I answer with a plain and resounding, “Hell yes!”
The product is beautiful and useful in multiple ways, namely: excellent layout and design, easy-to-learn rules and character creation, and a variety of options for different types of players, whether they are cautious, intellectual Cthulhu-purists, or mind-rotted, gun-totin’ romp-n-stompers. CoC d20 is really a nimble product. If you want to run long, drawn out, non-action oriented games, go for it. If you'd prefer a more heroic exploration of the mythos, it can handle that, too. It doesn't take sides between "Chaosium or die" folks or "DnD is my life" folks.
From what I understand, the original game product was not broken, and some people are under the impression that this is only a bastardization of a good thing. Their mindset is plainly shortsighted. Chaosium maintains the rights to all supplemental products; CoC d20 will only provide a larger audience for Chaosium's supplemental products, as well as those from companies such as Pagan. A larger fan base allows them to further the product lines by providing dual-stat products. Like it or not, there are many people that won't stray from DnD, or, by extension, d20, and they represent a large portion of the RPG-buying base. Chaosium gets some royalty dollars, a launching pad for some additional supplements, and a chance to grow a little bit. Good for them. If you have a huge problem with the d20 version, go out and buy the existing version. It’s not out of print, and I haven’t seen any indication it is going the way of the dodo. (And why do you care? You probably own the previous version already!)
But enough of this game-product-theory, already!
When I read that this new version of the game was coming out, in kicked my keen investigative skills and Jesuit education, immediately sending me back to the primary texts. I dredged out my Lovecraft anthology, revisited the few stories that I previously read, and pretty much devoured the remaining texts. I even went out and bought “At the Mountains of Madness,” to make sure that I was ready for Cthulhu.
The book itself is lovely, in a creepy, ugly way. The artwork is riveting, the writing is tight, easily understood and to the point. The cover looks like it’s bound in human leather, with some nasty tentacles twiddling their way out of the pages. The chapters are clear, ordered and well organized. The diagonal column guides are great, they set a good tone for the book! Anyone who complains about them isn’t really trying to read the book; I did not find them cumbersome or detrimental in any way.
I think the most important aspect of this book is that it introduces a different type of play and storytelling to many game tables. High points include the detailed sanity system, lifted right out of the Chaosium version of the game, an explanation of Lovecraft & friends’ Cthulhu mythos, and some important creatures, deities and other set pieces that populate the Cthulhu Mythos world. It modifies the core d20 rules just enough to run smoothly in a horror, non-fantasy setting, and provides enough charts, tables, and monster stats to make me lose 2d6 sanity points just thinking about them.
Sanity, and loss thereof, are key elements in Lovecraftian tales. The sanity system has twenty years of game play indicating that it works the way it should. The more exposure to blasphemous Cthulhu truths a character receives, the less of a grip he or she has on what we, as the uninitiated, would call “reality.” In short, characters will go batty if they continue to survive at all.
The Mythos is presented as the mythology that it is. It is not laid out like a second grade map of the solar system, with deities and their followers revolving in their own circles, but as a collection of texts that when taken as a whole hint at a reality that it beyond our own. It highlights some key aspects of the Mythos – more than enough with which to run a game – but doesn’t present itself as the end-all, beat all truth. I argue that feeling this creates in and of itself sets the tone of the game. You aren’t supposed to understand all that really is. Lovecraft’s philosophy was pretty bleak – and the game reflects it.
It was fun to see the artists’ renditions of Mythos antagonists. The stats are there, too, for folks that want to try to kill them, but I found the bestiary content almost as dreary as I find all monster manuals. I just wish they included more than one quote reference to Mythos texts where one can find the beasts or gods. I would have preferred a targeted listing of those texts. Monster listings / spell listings, I look at them in the same manner: when designing an adventure, read through them until finding one to use, and then forget about the rest of them. I stopped populating dungeons with all sorts of creepy-crawlies at age 13; give me one good bad-guy and I’ll scare the heebie-jeebies out of the group. Plus, since the monsters are so nasty in Cthulhu, I’d probably use their followers and mortal agents as the main source of direct antagonism to any character party.
Cthulhu d20 did away with the multiple class system from DnD, replacing it with one class that advances with offensive and defensive options. The magic system includes new spells that are pretty funky, and I think the weapon proficiency rules for firearms are workable. Most people don’t know how to use guns, and it works out that if a player doesn’t select the proficiency, the character will be dangerous and ineffective when armed.
There is an expansive amount of firearms and equipment information, so if the group has any gun nuts, they’ll be happy. (Regarding expansive gun lists, please see above remarks about monster lists and spell lists, and really just lists in general. I don’t care enough about guns to worry about what model 9mm handgun someone has.) I guess if someone were creating an Antarctic adventure, a detailed list of equipment on hand would be important. However, if they’re setting a campaign in the middle of a sleepy little modern town, the local hardware store and Wal-Mart will probably stock whatever it is they really stock.
A few souls in my game group are not pleased with some aspects of the game. Namely, they do not like the idea of level progression that includes a sanity gain or hit dice. I think the game addresses the progression of hit dice with its massive damage rule: if your character takes more than 10 hp damage in once attach, roll a fortitude save or the character perishes. Yes, most of the handguns do 1d6 or 1d8 damage, so a house rule of critical damage (a roll of 8 on a d8) causing death might fix it. As for sanity, don’t give them an opportunity to gain the sanity points. Negate the rule. (I am continually amazed at the rule-mongering that I see in game discussions; game masters need to use their imagination and their common sense in arbitrating the story.)
The same dissenters want the game to be really deadly, and resent that it can be played from a heroic or pulpy viewpoint. This rendition of the game gives game masters the ability to choose how they want to run the game. If the GM wants a slow moving, investigation-based game and the players are munchkins of the worst type, he or she needs to smack them around and tell them to stop being pantywaists. However, if the group wants to have the bullets flying and live a little longer, they can do that here, too. (Moreover, my group never plays one game long enough that we’ve ever advanced to a level where too many hit dice would matter. Our campaigns tell an arc of a story, and then we move on.) d20 is a fine system, and I think it works well here. In a more perfect world I would have preferred a Storyteller version of the game, because I think that the system works best for the way I play. However, this game is great.
Overall, I enjoy the game very much. I am a huge fan of Wizard’s Dark Matter setting, and this book reminded me strongly of that product. It is spooky, well put together, and will be fun to play. It also creates a great opportunity to introduce Cthulhu to new players and for Chaosium to grow an established game commodity. That’s good for everyone interested in role-playing games.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)