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 Call of Cthulhu |
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Call of Cthulhu role-playing game D20 system Wizards of the Coast, 2002 ISBN 0-7869-2639-2 The role-playing game (RPG) “Call of Cthulhu” (CoC) is based upon the world as designed by H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft, living in the early twentieth century, used a lot of atmosphere from the past century and combined this with a lot of Gothic Horror. The world he designed is our world, but whoever searches too deep, might find conspiracies and secret societies and above all, an alien society that rules ours. Before starting the game, it is advisable for the gamemaster to read one or more of Lovecraft’s stories or get to know his world. Lovecraft himself was not a really gifted author, and other writers have adopted his world to write their own stories in it - some with the help of Lovecraft himself. These stories should also get you in the right mood for the game, just as some background information from fan web sites. Lovecraft fans have made a perfect world for role-playing. There are some standard oddities, such as the infamous book “Necronomicon” and Cthulhu who dreams under the sea. Madness is not uncommon in this world. Some fans have even take it so far as designing Lego puppets of Cthulhu, started an action “Cthulhu for president”, have their own language, Cthuvian, there is a Pokethulhu role-playing game (crossover of Call of Cthulhu and Pokemon) and Cthulhupunk ( crossover of Cyberpunk and Call of Cthulhu), among others. Cthulhu is Cult. There are many other games for Cthulhu, most remarkable the Call of the Chtulhu game by Chaosium. In the obscure world of license trade, this is the more original game, not based on the D20 system, but overall the same. The full-colour RPG book is a complete game set; only the dice fail. It has information for both the players and the gamemaster. It also contains a monster manual and background information. The game is described from scratch, you don’t have to have any rpg experience to go out and play. But, as with many other rpgs it helps if you played before. The first chapters are about character generation. The usual stuff, except for the “sanity points”. The idea is that the game is so scary your character goes - in true Lovecraftian fashion- insane. This is the thing that makes CoC really interesting. Further chapters handle combat and magic and thus we enter the realms of the gamemaster. There is a large chapter on monsters and one about the Cthulhu Mythos, which is the very core of Lovecraftian role-playing. The latter part also handles creating secrets, mysteries and conspiracies. Much of the gamemaster part is dedicated to playing a horror-game. Even if you want to play another (self-designed?) horror- or mystery-game, this part might be very helpful. CoC is not a steampunk game, it’s just horror, Lovecraftian horror. But, because it is set in our world and that setting has a rich fictive background, it is possible to play CoC in various periods. The manual gives the 1920s and the year 2000 as examples, and some ideas for other decades. True steampunk/Victorian CoC can be found in the crossover game “Cthulhu by Gaslight” (out of print as far as I know). The book also gives some settings and alternate genre ideas. But in the end it is the gamemaster who decides where and when... and how... The artwork in the book is done very nice. The artist have especially put attention to the pictures of the monsters - true horror. In the Magic section there are some devices and artifacts that are shown as some kind of steampunk gear. A book as rich as this one can be inspiration to a really interesting steamcthulhu campaign. The possibilities are endless, combining a steampunk geared team fighting the monsters (and insanity) from CoC. The Nautilus meeting with the horrors from the deep oceans, spaceships finding relicts of the old Cult on Mars, you name it, you can play it. However, you need to do some history-research to get a feeling for the actual setting. The chapters for sanity points, magic, the monsters and the Cthulhu mythos can easily be adapted to use in other games. The best idea I found for playing CoC was starting the game as a completely different (innocent) game and then slowly introducing the horrors of a Lovecraftian world were characters or players would expect that - and get fully surprised... Hope you players have enough sanity points to withstand the shock  © Yaghish 2004 |
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A few links from the many sites for the Lovecraftian genre on the internet
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