Call of Cthulhu 7th edition

Playing Call of Cthulhu 7th edition

I am currently playing Call of Cthulhu 7th edition and I am liking it, a lot. I have played Call of Cthulhu before, and the last time I ventured into the realms of this horror fiction was sometime in the mid to late 1990's (which should make it Call of Cthulhu 5th edition). I have also played Call of Cthulhu before that, and if I recall correctly we played using a battered copy of the 2nd edition rules sometime back in the early 1990s. I like the Cthulhu mythos, and have read various works by H.P. Lovecraft who's writing the game is based on so playing Call of Cthulhu wasn't a step too far off the beaten track.

The reason Call of Cthulhu came about is one of the GMs from my local gaming group wanted to play Delta Green, a modern version of Call of Cthulhu. I played a couple of games of this and as feedback I attested that Delta Green was not for me; I just didn't feel comfortable in the game, especially as I felt with my background in science and engineering. Delta Green wasn't far enough displaced from my own life (where strange things do actually happen in my own world of science and engineering but which have nothing to do with horrors lurking in the background) and so I was reluctant to continue playing Delta Green. The GM then suggested playing Call of Cthulhu (1920's version) and this I jumped at.

The big difference for me between 1920's Call of Cthulhu and Modern Call of Cthulhu (such as Delta Green) is that I can believe my character might not have as deep a grasp of science and engineering and default to more superstition with regards to strange goings on. In today's modern world, especially with information at our fingertips it is easy for everyone to have some passing knowledge about things, and I feel this along with my own science and engineering background was my problem when we played Delta Green.

Free rules?

Chaosium the publishers of Call of Cthulhu have a set of quickstart rules, some character sheets and introductory adventures all for free and this is a great way to start in Call of Cthulhu. I picked up the quickstart rules and made a character off the cuff; I actually making my character the hour before we played our first game!!. For those more dedicated groups there is also the Starter Set for purchase from Chaosium. The introductory rules in the starter set fill in some of the gaps in the quickstart rules (like the list of skills and their descriptions).

Beyond the Starter Set

So far we have played Crimson Letters, a scenario based in Arkham and set in and around the Miskatonic University. This was the first scenario I have played using 7th edition rules, and although I was not very prepared (I rolled up my character using the Quickstart rules about an hour before the first session) this game was great. We didn't win, but we didn't lose our minds or die, so that was nice.

The next scenario we played was Blackwater Creek, set in a village of the same name. As our characters didn't die in the previous scenario, we brought them forward to this one and I tweaked the character using the proper rules (after getting my hands on the Investigator's Handbook). This scenario was more frustrating than anything else, as throughout the adventure you did feel like there was no way out (unless you decided to just get up and leave Blackwater Creek itself). That being said we, as a group, made good progress and managed to thwart the existential horror lurking in the hills, just before we all died; in a spectacular fashion; and just as we thought we had won. Absolutely amazing!

The most recent game we are playing now is the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. We are playing the revised edition and have just completed the seed adventure which brings the party together. New characters were put together for this and having a couple of adventures under my belt I am really enjoying playing Call of Cthulhu again. Maybe our characters will die, maybe they will go mad before the end of the campaign, either way it should be fun!

J