Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook - Revised Seventh Edition: Horror Roleplaying in the Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft (Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying)

A very nice book indeed (and a great game!).

Order late on a Thursday, arrived, well packed on the Friday. Wow, what wonderful piece of Art and Literature. The print quality is excellent, solid hardback too. Also the pages and illustrations are beautiful. The info is well laid out with lots of handy tables and extensive Appendices. I had downloaded quick start and was reluctant to pay pay for a rule book, however, I am glad I did. On offer at £30 it was good value.

Between 1st and 6th edition the Call of Cthulhu rules hardly changed, but 7th edition introduces some real changes.Changes include: Characteristic values have been multiplied by five placing human values in the percentile range and saving the need for mental arithmetic during play. Occupational skill points are no longer derived solely from EDU. It depends on your occupation. For example an actor derives half his points from EDU and have from APP. Luck has been divorced from POW and is now a discrete Characteristic. Optional rules enable players to spend Luck points to turn failed Skill rolls into successes, and to increase Luck in the same way as Skills. The Skill list has been overhauled and new rules allow for varying degrees of success, which replace the Resistance Table in previous editions.So an Extreme Success beats a Hard Success, and a Hard Success beats a Regular Success. The weapon proficiency skill list has been streamlined so a competent fighter needs fewer skills. For example all unarmed attacks and attacks with simple weapons use the same skill (Brawling). And characters now have the option to fight back instead of dodging, which makes combat more of a two-way process. And these are just some of the changes. I haven't even mentioned rules like Pushing and Bonus/Penalty Dice. All the changes are for the better. 7th edition is just as simple as previous versions but it's far more dynamic. At last the game has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. And despite the numerous changes it's easy to convert previous editions to 7th editions. Finally the rule book comes with two adventures, both of which are new. 7th edition is however rather expensive. Chaosium is selling it for about $85 and many UK distributors are selling it for about £85, and despite the improvements and glossy hardback format it's not worth £85. So shop around. I got mine for £45 including postage. You may also want to check out the Quick Start Rules before you part with your cash. They're available as a free download on the Chaosium site and cover many of the new rules.

The product was in stellar condition when it arrived, and the contents do not disappoint. Within is an explanation of the Mythos, some background on Lovecraft’s writing, and then detailed explanations of character creation, combat, chases, gameplay, and magic, as well as a full list of magic items and stat blocks for more monsters than you could ever need for a good game. In a world were RPG producers seem to feel a need to split content between dozens of books, trying to force you to buy as many as possible, this volume is a breath of fresh air. Would definitely recommend.

I was actually really blown away by the quality of the rulebook. Well laid out, with lots of excellent illustrations and also well bound (some rule books for RPGs are shockingly put together). I also like the 7th edition - some nice builds on the older version we have been playing to date. I would certainly recommend the book - CoC is a great game I have been playing for (ahem) 30 years or so.

I have yet to play 7th edition. The quality of the publication, including presentation, content and some wonderful colour images, is vastly improved from the 6th edition.

Well I have everything except the first edition and have to say that most of the changes have been sensible. Artwork had improved greatly and something as simple as the bookmarks have been useful. If only every game changed things to improve the game rather than change because the new project manager wishes to make their mark.

It went down a treat…

Entrega muito rápida, produto em perfeito estado. É um pouco caro, sim, mas vale muito a pena. As ilustrações muito bem feitas, qualidade do produto muito boa. O livro é maior do que eu esperava! Fora que ter um livro físico numa mesa de rpg é outro nível. Muito mais fácil e rápido.

Call of Cthulhu (CoC) es un juego de rol "papel y lápiz" (RPG) publicado en 1981 por Chaosium y que sigue siendo muy popular. CoC ha sido inspirado en los libros de H. P. Lovecraft. Siguiendo el tema de los mismos es un juego de rol de investigación-terror-suspense con un ambiente clásico “gótico” de finales del siglo XIX o principios del siglo XX. Sin embargo, con el paso del tiempo la mayoría de las otras eras de la historia humana (futuras inclusive) se han adaptado al juego, que cuenta con hoy una enorme colección de libros de consulta, suplementos, periplos y aventuras que van desde experiencias de varios meses: largas epopeyas elaboradas hasta misiones cortas de menos de una hora de duración. Ahora, en su séptima edición, CoC presenta un conjunto de reglas muy simple pero realista basado en habilidades y probabilidades porcentuales opuestas decididas por dados. Basado en las reglas "Basic Roleplaying" de la misma editora Chaosium, también llamado de D100, tiene una orgánica muy similar a las probabilidades reales a las que estamos acostumbrados en el mundo real y permite una experiencia de juego muy rápida e sencilla sin las múltiplas tablas, estadísticas y cálculos que complican y ralentizan la mayoría de los otros juegos de rol (D & D ¿alguien?). Además, las estadísticas de jugadores y personajes humanos son en general compatibles con personas reales con habilidades y capacidades reales. La magia existe pero es limitada y cuasi siempre con efectos nefastos. Para el uso de las armas se necesita experiencia y estas tienen los efectos y defectos del mundo real. Normalmente los jugadores no benefician de poderes sobrehumanos (como se encuentra en otros juegos de rol): los jugadores imprudentes pueden “morir” rápidamente en CoC! Lo sobrehumano está reservado para los villanos y monstruos enemigos de los jugadores... Una característica importante es la cordura que se gasta cada vez que un jugador tiene una experiencia terrible o tiene un contacto con lo Oculto, directo o por textos, objetos o rituales. La pérdida de cordura causa picos psicóticos y, en última instancia, leva a la demencia definitiva. Un beneficio estupendo para el coleccionador de CoC es la continua compatibilidad de sus reglas básicas que permite jugar TODAS las aventuras que se han publicado para el juego utilizando cualquiera de las diferentes ediciones de CoC: facto infelizmente inédito en los juegos de rol! El juego es muy fácil de aprender y las aventuras son relativamente rápidas de preparar. Las reglas sencillas y intuitivas y una gran cantidad de opciones inteligentes y escenarios permiten un juego fluido y animado y una experiencia de juego única y suspensiva. Los libros de la séptima edición (este es el principal) tienen muy buena calidad con ilustraciones y texto muy agradables. El juego "per se" es excelente como siempre. Ha ocurrido una grande evolución conceptual y gráfica desde la sexta edición del juego que era poco legible con su texto muy elaborado y paginas oscuras! Esta edición de CoC es la primera resultante del moderno sistema "kickstarter" que permite utilizar la web para financiar adecuadamente proyectos.de calidad cobrando la aprobación de sus subscriptores.

Livre dans un état impeccable, de grande qualité.

É stato un regalo per mio marito, che aveva l'edizione vecchia in italiano. Questo, in inglese, è fatto molto meglio, sempre con carta di ottimo livello e disegni ben curati.

As a Grognard I hesitated, questioned and stalled updating to 7th edition. As a player since the 80's Cthulhu is my favourite game and I loved 1st through 6th edition and I wasn't happy about the changes until I bought it and realised I was being a luddite. Great new rules with the same horror feel. Some of the new rules increase the tension which is what Cthulhu is about. Excellent!