A simple question for a Sunday, before I head out to do some chores and then settle in for the late afternoon football game. D&D was the primary fantasy game I played in my youth, but we messed around with Gamma World, Traveller, and Call of Cthulhu. Besides D&D, I kept up with Call of Cthulhu, and played a fair number of campaigns in the 90's and early 2000's.
There's a significant intersection between Weird Horror D&D and Call of Cthulhu, so it's natural I've been thinking a lot lately about Call of Cthulhu and its relations (Trail of Cthulhu, Realms of Cthulhu). What kind of experience do you have with Cthulhu gaming? There's a new poll over to the right, and feel free to drop a comment.
I'm off to chainsaw some logs and split wood with a wedge and maul - fun stuff.
My favorite RPG overall (WFRP 1E is my favorite FRPG.), I've pretty much stuck with the 5th edition (Chaosium).
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a gaming group in over 15 years, so I didn't vote. Back in the day it was one of my staple games to GM. Perhaps I'll play an adventure with the Mythic GM Emulator and come back and vote "I actively play". CoC is my favorite setting among many good ones.
ReplyDeletePlayed CoC a fair bit, but that was years ago. Closest I've come recently was a con game with a 70s styled CoC with characters from various 70s TV shows (I played Purdey, my friend played Steed).
ReplyDeleteI usually play one-shot CoC games at cons. Playing a campaign does not seem "rewarding" because of the heavy casualties, but one-shot games are perfect, they also allow you to explore various eras.
ReplyDeleteI adore Call of Cthulhu and it is probably my favourite rpg. I am trying to run Tatters of the King with my group, battling against Chaosium's poor editing all the while, and I'm loving it.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite edition is the fifth, with the brown cover. Trail of Cthulhu and the d20 version both have some good ideas and are worth reading, but can't replace Call of Cthulhu in my affections.
All the times I have played CoC have been highly entertaining one-shot adventures where pretty much everyone at the table ended with a character that was either dead or insane. This is only partly due to the game setting because I have found that Chaosium games (while fun for a session or two) are also very deadly. Thus, I have never really actively played; however, I borrow heavily from the game because its source material is a favorite.
ReplyDeleteI've been a CofC Keeper almost exclusively since 2007, though currently taking a break in favor of some fantasy (Pathfinder).
ReplyDeleteI take some issue with the stereotype of CofC being ludicrously lethal -- it certainly can be, if the players and Keeper are not in the CofC mindset. I ran a campaign in 2007 (heavily modified version of Chaosium's Shadows of Yog-Sothoth campaign) that went for over 20 sessions with a total of six regular players. We had a total of eight characters die; three of those belonging to one player, who was convinced that he just needed bigger and bigger guns in order to "beat" the monsters and cultists. His actions almost led to total party kills multiple times.
Voted 'sometimes play' -I do like it a lot, but I last played it with my then fiancee some 15 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI tend to run Cthulhu at parties, conventions and the like. Haven't run a long-term campaign in a few years, mostly 'cause I've been on an extended yen for more conventional heroics. Have run several versions of the Chaosium rules and a bodged-up rules-light OD&D hacky version very recently, that went better than I was expecting. Default time period's the 1890s 'cause I know the history better than the 1920s and I don't find roleplaying within my own lifetime to be all that exotic or interesting.
ReplyDeleteI take some issue with the stereotype of CofC being ludicrously lethal
ReplyDeleteMe too. It can be a dangerous game, and a TPK in Call of Cthulhu is a whole different order of fun to the equivalent in other games, but it's not the only way to play, nor is it the default, as has often been claimed.
CoC lends itself well to one-shots, but it is also great for campaign play; there is a reason why so many -- most, even -- of the great published rpg campaigns are for CoC.
I haven't played CoC in like 20 years. Still love it. Best horror game I've ever played with.
ReplyDeleteOn lethality - IME cultists with shotguns waiting in ambush are a lot deadlier than any Cthulhoid monster! >:)
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I used CoC for an Aliens game, for which it worked beautifully. The Colonial Marines' body armour reduced damage by 5 as I recall, but if hit by Alien blood had to be removed quickly before the acid ate through it. The lethality level felt just right.
AIR it ended in the death of the solo PC to during a jailbreak at the hands of Weyland-Yutani corporate police, but not before he had got to the Satellite broadcast uplink on the orbital L5 space station (the one in Aliens, can't recall its name) and broadcast a global warning to Earth about the Alien threat and Weyland-Yutani's corruption.
AIR he died in the arms of his paramour Ellen Ripley, sharing a final kiss in the Sat-Uplink chamber as thirty Weyland-Yutani black-helmeted stormtroopers broke in and opened fire on them a la the finale of 'Blake's 7'.
Hm, wonderful game, one of my best ever. :)
I love me some CoC. Between inconsistent gaming groups and gamer ADD, though, I haven't played it in a while.
ReplyDeleteI've always played the Chaosium rules. Neither d20 Cthulhu nor Trail of Cthulhu appeal to me as rules sets. I would like to play with Cthulhu Dark, though.