The game has a strong literary background, being based around the writings of H P Lovecraft. His work detailed a world beyond our own inhabited by alien creatures and supernatural beings beyond our understanding. Anyone wanting to play the Call of Cthulhu RPG is strongly advised to read some of his work in order to get a feel for the games origins and its unique atmosphere.
Call of Cthulhu is set ostensibly in the real world and the rules try where possible to be realistic and accurate in detail. The classic setting bases the game in the 1920's, the time during which most of H P Lovecrafts stories were based. However the rules also allow for the game to be set in Victorian times, or modern day, or indeed any time period with little change to the basic rules system. In the background is always the Cthulhu Mythos, the collection of alien gods and creatures from Lovecraft's stories whose contact with mankind is often malevolent and harmful.
The characters you play in the game are referred to as investigators. This term is carefully chosen, as unlike many roleplaying games they are not heroes or adventurers but everyday people who happen to become involved with something supernatural. As the authorities often don't believe them they find themselves relying on friends and experts to help solve whatever mystery they face. Typically an adventure will begin as a simple investigation and lead deeper, revealing the strange cults and individuals who dabble in the supernatural and worship these alien powers.
The system used in this game has been termed by Chaosium as the Basic Roleplaying System or BRP. Its a simple, fast paced system which relies mainly on percentages of skills. Characters are represented by a series of basic ability scores ( strength, constitution, size, intelligence, power, dexterity and appearance ) and percentage skills. All rolls made during the game are on percentages determined either from an ability score or from a straight roll on a percentage skill. What skills you can choose are determined from your profession, and may increase slowly with experience. The professions reflect the type of characters found in Lovecrafts stories and represent common occupations of whatever time period you choose ( eg. doctors, lawyers or archaeologists ). Unlike many other games there are no special abilities connected to your profession, it merely determines your initial selection of skills.
In addition to these scores each investigator has a Hit Point score ( determined as an average of size and strength )which could never be higher than 18. These HP remain the same throughout your investigators career and although it makes a character quite vulnerable it is more realistic. A persons ability to endure physical injury is determined by their body, not any other ability.
The other humanising factor, which I think is unique to Call of Cthulhu is the idea of Sanity. Each character has a sanity score which is a measure of mental health. Rather than assuming you can face endless horrors without batting an eyelid the game measures sanity so that you can tell when an investigator has seen too much. A good example of this might be the kind of shell shock or post traumatic stress people suffer during a war or a horrific accident. Survivors may be physically unharmed but suffer any number of psychological symptoms after the event. The Call of Cthulhu sanity score is a way to measure the effects of this type of trauma. Witnessing too many horrifying and grotesque sights may lead to your investigator going temporarily or permanantly insane.
The physical and mental weaknesses of investigators is one thing that may put some people off Call of Cthulhu, but to many these are two of its strongest attributes. Many roleplaying games can be played solely relying on the physical abilities of the characters to complete the adventure with very little thinking involved. In Call of Cthulhu the abilities of the investigators are much more realistic, and in order to complete an adventure the player must rely more upon his or her own investigations and planning. The game has been criticised for having a high mortality rate but this is often among less experienced players who have not yet realised that the human investigators are almost always weaker than the monsters they face. This is a complete reversal from games like D&D and can take some time for players to learn.
One great thing about Call of Cthulhu is that everything you need to run the game is presented in the basic rulebook. There is no need to buy endless supplements and additional rules unless you really want to. As such the game is great value for money, depending on which edition you buy the price is usually around £20. There are now six editions of this game but the revisions of the rules are often minor and long term players of the game often use older editions without any problem. The rules themselves are beautifully presented, with some lovely atmospheric artwork and are easy to read and understand. Plenty of examples throughout allow you to grasp the tone of the game, and recent editions have even included the original H P Lovecraft short story entitled "The Call of Cthulhu" which is the basis of so much of the game.
The advantage of the BRP system is that it allows you to concentrate on roleplaying and atmosphere rather than any strategic tactical planning or powergaming. As such Call of Cthulhu is often a favourite with gamers who prefer roleplaying to roll-playing. The players section especially is very short and concentrates mainly on character creation and how the percentage system works. The GM has a more difficult job ahead of them as the rest of the book is mainly for their reference. Chapters on the creatures of the Mythos, on ritual magic and sanity help expand on the basic rules and provide background for adventures. Much of this material is for reference only and is not expected to be read page by page. Guidelines are given for writing and running adventures and several sample adventures are given near the back for a GM to run.
So after all that why should you buy Call of Cthulhu ? Simply put I'd say that it is the best roleplaying game on the market. It is simple to learn and play, but with a highly detailed and ever expanding background. Rather than relying on statistics and abilities to complete adventures it is a game which challenges the players to think. Any fan of detective stories, mysteries and who dunnit's will love this game. If you want the best experience roleplaying has to offer try Call of Cthulhu.
