Call of Cthulhu Games

Call of Cthulhu

Richard Cowen:

   The universe is a lie. Our understanding of space, time, all physical laws, are just our own self-preserving rationalisations placed over a cosmos far greater, and far colder, than we could bear to imagine. There are beings infinitely more powerful than any god conceived of by man, and some of them are already amongst us, either sleeping in the depths of the earth, or forever formulating schemes far too intricate for mortal minds to even partially comprehend. Cthulhu is just one of these, dreaming in his sunken city beneath the Pacific Ocean, but served by a global cult that he may not even realise (or care) exists.

   Call of Cthulhu is based on the Cthulhu Mythos created by the early 20th Century horror author, H. P. Lovecraft, and expanded upon by countless other authors over the years. The most notable features of Mythos tales are the sheer bleakness and fragility of human existence amongst the hellishly alien deities and monsters, and the inevitable descent into madness of those who encounter them.

   Call of Cthulhu represents both of these particularly well, to the extent that characters can go incurably insane simply from seeing the more terrifying Mythos monstrosities, or by reading the very spell books that can help them banish them. Often, the only way to survive an encounter with the Mythos is to run away. You might stand a chance against deranged human cultists, but an eldritch thing with no perceivable shape?

   In addition to the three settings described in the main rulebook, there are many others, such as Cthulhu Invictus, which shifts the action to Ancient Rome, and Cthulhu Rising and End Times, which both take the horrors of the Mythos into the future. Another, Cthulhupunk, was written for the GURPS system, rather than Call of Cthulhu, and posited a closer future and the effects of the Mythos on a cyberpunk setting. Two alternate settings that have seen light at LURPS, Cthulhu Dark Ages and Delta Green, are detailed below.

   A d20 System edition of Call of Cthulhu exists as well, although this apparently sacrifices part of the game's doom-laden nature by making combat less deadly.

Jez Green:

   Dealing with complex themes in a well-researched and generally mature manner, Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu has been the clear market leader in the thinking man's (and woman's) roleplaying arena for well over twenty years. Virtually all horror RPGs owe some sort of debt to CoC, and without it we would not have White Wolf's World of Darkness, Target Games' Kult or Atlas Games' Unknown Armies.

   CoC is inspired by the so-called Cthulhu Mythos tales of HP Lovecraft (1890-1937) and his circle of fellow writers. The early tales in the cycle are pure horror, whereas the latter edge closer to science fiction, but the genre is generally known to aficionados as weird fiction.

   The main premise of the mythos is simple - that humans have a limited knowledge of the universe, and that we share it with other, older sentient creatures, many of whom are currently dormant. The most famous of these is Great Cthulhu, a vast alien intelligence who came to Earth from another star system millions of years ago. He and his spawn were defeated in an ancient war, and their island city of R'lyeh sunk beneath the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Cthulhu is not dead, but dreaming, and on occasion he stirs in his sleep and sends psychic shockwaves around the world that are felt in the dreams of sensitive people. The last documented occasion for this to happen was during the spring of 1925.

   Player characters in CoC are real and believable people from the world we know, and the game is generally played in a contemporary setting, or in historical eras such as the 1920s or 1890s. Storylines tend to focus around investigation, during which player characters discover hidden secrets about the world. The emotional impact of the game is one of horror and wonder, as a wider universe opens up.

   Unlike many games CoC is less about developing the powers of your character, and more about working with the referee and other players to create an atmosphere. It is an easy game to run, as the system is fairly simple (and designed to slide into the background) but it is a challenging game to run well!

Cthulhu Dark Ages

Richard Cowen:

   The Necronomicon, one of the most well known* books featured in Cthulhu Mythos stories, was translated into Greek in 950 AD. One hundred years later, it was banned by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Cthulhu Dark Ages is set within that century where the greatest tome of magic was available to any of those with the ability to read.

   Dark Ages Europe is presented as a post-apocalyptic world where warlords and kings strive for power amongst the ruins of the Roman Empire, while the common folk, protected only by their faith in God and his holy church, struggle to survive each day. Players in Cthulhu Dark Ages can take on the roles of English peasants, French monks, Viking traders, Arabic scholars and many more besides, but all have in common the sheer hardship of their existence, and the realisation that the devils and spirits that they have always known to live in the woods are far, far worse than they ever imagined.

Delta Green

Richard Cowen:

   Written on the back of the conspiracy theories of the 1990s (remember the X-Files craze?), Delta Green is a sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu that sheds a distinctly Mythos light over the mysteries of Roswell, flying saucers, the Majestic-12 conspiracy, and the occult obsessions of the Third Reich.

   Delta Green was founded after the Innsmouth Raid of 1929 (as described in Lovecraft's Shadows Over Innsmouth), to covertly combat the sea-dwelling Deep Ones that posed an apparent threat to U.S. national security. They soon discovered that there was far more threatening the world than mere Deep Ones. During World War II, Delta Green fought against the occult machinations of the SS-Karotechia, saving the world on at least one occasion, yet never once breaking cover.

   In 1945, the U.S. detonated the first atomic weapons, and a certain breed of Mythos-worshipping aliens noticed that primitive mankind was far more dangerous than it had first appeared. They made plans, which swung into motion in Roswell, in 1947...

   PCs in Delta Green are normally from one US federal agency or another (Delta Green was officially disbanded at the end of the Vietnam War, but still operates undercover amongst federal circles), or are 'friendlies' trusted by the group. Together, they manipulate government and law enforcement resources to protect humanity from the nightmares of the Mythos.

Jez Green:

   In the 1990s the Call of Cthulhu supplements produced by Chaosium were outpaced by those from Pagan Publishing, a small band of talented writers whose first foray was a fanzine, The Unspeakable Oath. Their greatest achievement is clearly the Delta Green background, a contemporary setting seamlessly blending material from the Cthulhu Mythos with the feel of the popular X-Files television series. Conceived as a whole, Delta Green is a far more coherent and structured piece than the X-Files, and its philosophy is deeper.

   Delta Green is not a bug-hunt, it is an investigation into the horrors of which humans are capable, a mirror held up to our world. As such it is suitable for lengthy campaigns as well as one-off games, and I have been running my current campaign (mostly with LURPS members!) for the last four years. In essence Delta Green details those people and organisations who attempt to use the alien intelligences of the Mythos to their own benefit, and to the detriment of their fellow humans.

   Delta Green, and its own supplement, Delta Green: Countdown, provide around 800 large format pages of background material that is a joy to read. Two short story collections, and two novels round out the DG universe, and if you enjoy your alternate history detailed and inspirational, then it is highly recommended.

*Webmonkey's Note: The Necronomicon, as Lovecraft devised it, is fictional. Anyone who tells you different is either mistaken or a delusional idiot. Since Lovecraft, several authors have written books called The Necronomicon, either as hoaxes, cash-ins, genuine spellbooks or, in the case of the Chaosium version, a roleplaying aid. Most have apparently been so dense and dry as to be unreadable, and one consisted of the same twenty pages repeated over and over again, as the authors and publishers didn't think anyone would have the determination to read that far...