Customer Reviews

Call of Cthulhu: Fantasy Role-Playing in the Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have always loved CoC and always will.

I think that this little gem is what the later editions tried for and some missed.

the art was great the organization good, and it truly is a complete rpg.

It just has the look and feel of a quality rpg.

You can take this book and run a campaign right out the gate (we did every saturday for a year).

So if you want a great nostalgia rpg that is complete, come here and enjoy the adventure,

for as long as your sanity holds out.

Ps

Also as a hardcover this is a version that I want on a shelf next to all my

Lovecraftian goodness.

This book was originally published by Games Workshop and represents great value (if you don't get silly and pay what some are asking for it). It is the version I played most in my 29 years of running the game.

The covers are glossy, heavy card with the artwork originally used for the 3rd ed boxed set. The binding will withstand years of game use. I speak from experience here. Mine got reasonably hard use for a decade and is still in great condition.

Inside there are sections for the Player Book, which details character generation, skills and the small number of rules that to be honest I never asked players to learn. BRP is a very simple system to run for a GM (aka "Keeper" in Call of Cthulhu), The Keeper Book which has all the secret stuff in it like the bestiary and madnesses players will eventually suffer if they continue on their quest for Mythos knowledge, and the Sourcebook for the 1920s, a grab bag of facts that is more fun than indispensable.

There is also bound in a copy of the Cthulhu Companion, which gives you an additional six scenarios, including one for a Keeper and a single player (a very rare beast indeed).

Six color plates are bound into the middle of the book, all on glossy paper. Very nice they are too.

The game as represented in this version of the rules is very, very easy for a would-be Keeper to learn and I recommend it as a beginning GM's introduction on Gothic Horror gaming above any of the others. Earlier versions are too expensive and incomplete, later ones are not bound to this degree of hardiness.

The rules have changed in detail since this edition was in print. The major differences boil down to "Orate" and "Debate" being combined as "Persuade", and the skill point allocation multiplier having 5 added to it in each case.

But this edition of the game is playable, very much so, as it stands.