I started running the 1984 archetypal Call of Cthulhu campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep. The version we’re playing is the 2014 “remaster”, the fifth edition, written for the current 7th edition ruleset, which adds a whole introductory adventure and generally tidies up things.
Call of Cthulhu, 7th edition
We have played a lot of Call of Cthulhu, 5.1 edition, from 1993. The game system has changed remarkably little since the 1981 original, with the seventh edition bringing the most sweeping changes, if we ignore the d20 version in 2002. I was curious to see how my group and myself would take to it, as we’re now very used to story games, and this sort of “how would it work in real life”, simulationist approach feels decidedly yesteryear.
Getting into character creation, we were frankly shocked. Aside from the archaic, very cumbersome and out of place automatic gunfire rules, the character creation is where the age of the underlying system shows the most. You’ll be juggling several very large point pools and buying dozens of skills, percentage point by percentage point. There is multiplication, cross referencing tables, calculating half and fifth values of skills, and so forth – it’s a lot, and for a contemporary player without a history of these games from the 80s-90s, will seem odd.
Once you get through the character creation, the rules do not get in the way. The percentage based system is easy to understand for anyone, and doesn’t really feel that old. The only concession to more recent developments in tabletop roleplaying game design is the concept of pushing your rolls (adding risk, getting to roll again).
Compared to my beloved 5.1 edition, there are much more comprehensive rules for studying arcane tomes. I like this a lot as it gives playable detail to something that used to be handwaved. There are also rules for running chases both on foot and in vehicles, which read usable.
The new character options are very welcome – you can start characters as already meddling with knowledge they shouldn’t have, and the just concluded world war is noted in character options and traumas they begin the game with.
All the historical detail in the player’s guide is useful for getting ready to play in the early 1900s, though, and very well presented. The details are things you can use at the table. I’m still not quite sure this needed to be two separate books: with a tight edit, I think it would’ve worked better as one big book.
