Rating: 
Summary: The best RPG I have ever played
Review: "Call of Cthulhu" is hands-down my favorite RPG. I have been playing it for about 15 years now, and have to yet to get bored with it. In a testament to it's quality, the core rule book has gone through 5 editions without any changes to the core rules. This version, the 5th edition, is improved by higher production value, nicer art, inclusion of spells/artifacts created for various adventures over the years, and the necessary addition of H.P. Lovecraft's signature story, "The Call of Cthulhu.""Call of Cthulhu's" strength is in it's simplicity. The basic d100 system allows for near instant character creation and absorption of the rules. As an RPG, it is a non-combat game that focuses more on roleplaying and atmosphere. (Indeed, investigators who are combat happy will be short lived. "Call of Cthulhu" is famous for it's high body count.) This system has won pretty much every RPG award available. It is the "system of choice" for my regular gaming group of 10 years. Possibly the best roleplaying game ever made.
Rating:
Summary: The best RPG I have ever played
Review: "Call of Cthulhu" is hands-down my favorite RPG. I have been playing it for about 15 years now, and have to yet to get bored with it. In a testament to it's quality, the core rule book has gone through 5 editions without any changes to the core rules. This version, the 5th edition, is improved by higher production value, nicer art, inclusion of spells/artifacts created for various adventures over the years, and the necessary addition of H.P. Lovecraft's signature story, "The Call of Cthulhu." "Call of Cthulhu's" strength is in it's simplicity. The basic d100 system allows for near instant character creation and absorption of the rules. As an RPG, it is a non-combat game that focuses more on roleplaying and atmosphere. (Indeed, investigators who are combat happy will be short lived. "Call of Cthulhu" is famous for it's high body count.) This system has won pretty much every RPG award available. It is the "system of choice" for my regular gaming group of 10 years. Possibly the best roleplaying game ever made.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Role playing book
Review: After Playing AD&D for 5 years , i yearned for a new challenge then after one day reading a review in a Dragon Magazine I found proof that there was something more challenging. CTHULHU. I went out and bought the 4th Edition and was hooked. This Book was the 3rd version of the rulebook that I bought and I was hooked yet again as they are written so well.
The amount of information and detail in this edition is outstanding and with the addition of the actual "call of cthulhu" story , many first time Mythos readers will understand some of the nuance behind what made HP Lovecraft the ultimate horror writer of our time.
Buy this book and create game sessions that will make your players, laugh, scream, cry and scream even more.
You will understand why it is the ultimate game when you kill 28 charcters in one session and your players are still lining up to get back into the game with a mad vengeance.
Rating:
Summary: PERFECTION!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: As a long time roleplayer I can tell you, without doubt, that this is the GREATEST RPG OF ALL TIME! The simple rules make it easy for first time RPGers to play, but the content is so perfect that it can entrance the most veteran of RPGers.
And it is the content that seperates this masterpiece from traditional RPGs. Whereas D&D (a great game) is full of Elves, mages, and dragons; Call of Cthulhu is home to blasphemous tomes, ancient monstousities, and ultrapowerful alien Gods (any one of whom could easily destroy the feeble Christian "god").
If you want a game that will at once make you think, scare the hell out of you, and immerse you so much in its universe that your simple mundane world seems like a distant shadow, this is the book to buy.
Rating:
Summary: PERFECTION!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: As a long time roleplayer I can tell you, without doubt, that this is the GREATEST RPG OF ALL TIME! The simple rules make it easy for first time RPGers to play, but the content is so perfect that it can entrance the most veteran of RPGers.
And it is the content that seperates this masterpiece from traditional RPGs. Whereas D&D (a great game) is full of Elves, mages, and dragons; Call of Cthulhu is home to blasphemous tomes, ancient monstousities, and ultrapowerful alien Gods (any one of whom could easily destroy the feeble Christian "god").
If you want a game that will at once make you think, scare the hell out of you, and immerse you so much in its universe that your simple mundane world seems like a distant shadow, this is the book to buy.
Rating:
Summary: In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming...
Review: Doesn't it tell you something, that *every* review for this edition of this book gives it 5 stars? (Some of the out-of-print editions have reviews here too.) And let's face it, us RPG enthusiasts are not the sort of folks to shy away from criticizing. Some people will say the Basic Roleplaying rule-set is outdated. It's true that games like Unknown Armies and Godlike are pretty cool, and I know people who are using those rules for their CoC games. But just try introducing a newcomer to those rules, or getting someone who's only played D&D before to convert. They get dizzy, I tell you. Nope, for a simple, elegant rule-set that just about anyone can grasp right off the bat, Call of Cthulhu's Basic Roleplaying has still got it, after more than 20 years. The rules fade into the background, where they belong. And unlike other games with their multivolume core rulebooks and endless splatbooks that you *need* if you want a fully fleshed-out campaign, everything you really need is right there in this one rulebook. Heck, every time Chaosium does a new edition, they comb all the supplements for spells, monsters, skills, and so on, and add them into the new edition--to save you time and money! Chaosium even printed the entire short story, "The Call of Cthulhu," in this edition, so newbies can get a taste of what it's all about. If you've got an older edition of CoC, you don't need to buy this one--the rule changes are quite minor. Unlike D&D, a new edition doesn't make everything you already know obsolete--"editions" of CoC are back-compatible with older editions and old supplements. Chaosium does new editions to keep the book in print and to make it a little better every time, not to force the fans to spend money. I bought it because my old book was getting worn out, and I wanted a more durable hardcover edition. Now I can loan out the old book to players. But I'm really happy with the little changes, and it's nice to have some of the information that used to be in adventures and supplements all gathered together in one book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best RPG's ever
Review: I am rather new to the "Call of Cthulhu" RPG. As of this writing I am prepairing for my first "Delta Green" adventure. But everything I have read so far has impressed me greatly. The rule book, while not perfect, is very well thought out and writen VERY well. The system is easy to learn, the monsters and critters are scary, and the art work is really really good. This is a top notch RPG which is a great addition to anybodies game shelf. So if you are tired of slaying dragons, or rebeling against evil galatic empries, give Cthulthu and his minions a try.
Rating:
Summary: An Unforgetable Experience
Review: Like all Chaosium games, Call of Cthulhu (or "Call", as it is referred to by initiates) is based on litterature. In this case, its Litterature with a big L: that of mr. H. P. Lovecrafts "Cthulhu Mythos". It explores such things as sleepy old new england towns, dreams, cats, terrible ancient books, ancestral secrets, insanity, and the wonderfully inhuman nature of the universe. It uses pulp melodrama to reveal the boiling terror under the world.
You also end up using a lot of percentile and 6 - sided dice.
The system is very smooth, indeed to such a degree that one does not even notice how much it supports the games world - view: you just end up playing that way: its one of the few systems i have never felt the need to customize.
Most impressivly, the game suceeds where countless horror writers (often of great abillity) failed: it is a worthy continuation of mr. H. P. Lovecrafts stories. It has had the good sense to ignore the well - meant travisties of august derleth (though recently there has been worrying signs of degenerate sympathy towards his "ideas"), and though one could quibble about the need for stats in cases such as Azathoth, it has suceeded in bringing Lovecrafts darkly holy world to life.
Simply put, this is one of the two best role - playing games in the world.
Pleasant nightmares.
Rating:
Summary: In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming...
Review: The works of master horror writer H.P. Lovecraft of the 1920s have influenced almost every single good horror writer to date, from Ann Rice to Stephen King. COC is likely the best RPG ever put to print, and the publisher Chaosium just makes things easier for players by adding content from their various supplements with each new edition. A typical game session has your characters snooping around for clues, and interrogating various NPCs (non player characters), and then implementing a course of action. The climax of a campaign also often (unfortunately for players) includes one of the hideous deities of the Cthulhu Mythos, such as Azathoth, Cthulhu himself, Dagon, or, possibly the worst, Nyarlathotep, trickster god with a thousand avatars or "masks". COC is the only game that has ever given me, as the gamemaster, chills reading a supplement in the middle of the day. I also recommend picking up one of the numerous Cthulhu Mythos anthologies of short stories. Prepare to be scared
Rating:
Summary: The Best RPG of them all
Review: This is a very unusual role playing game. There are no happy el ves dancing in the forest c start with, and characters hardly gain in abilities. The bad dudes you are fighting are impossible to kill. Your character can go nutty, and become a non player character. One shot can kill your character. You dont fight much, becuase if you do, you die. This is role playing with a difference. Call of Cthulhu is set in the dark worlds of H P Lovecraft. Characters (or better "investigators") are ordinary people- journalists, doctors, reporters, police- drawn into discovering that there is more to the world than meets the eye and the hand of ancient dieties is behind supernatural goings on. That haunted house down the street may be a result of more than a mere ghost- it could be an an anchient deity trying to re enter the earth. Sounds a bit dull huh? And, if you are a "hack and slash" RPG player it may well be. Where Cthulhu shines is its remarkable ability to create real feelings of fear and dread as you sneak around haunted houses. The mythos is wonderfully sketched, and the rules are readily understandable. You should be ready to play in about one hour. Combat is straightforward, although quite deadly. The game can be set in any era, such is its flexibility. We played in 1860's London, it can just as easily be 1880 Auckland, 1920's Chicargo ( that is the "typical" era) or if you are hankering for a "X Files" experince, in the modern day. This rule book is VERY high quality. Thick cover, OK illustrations, nicely laid out. It even has a reprint of the title story. I can honestly say that in the hands of good experinced players and referees you will have one of the best role playing experinces ever. In one game I played a few years back it got so creepy one of players had to stop as she was getting too "freaked out". and how often can you say that you have had that experince playing D & D?
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