Rating: 
Summary: Excellent d20 book
Review: This d20 Call of Cthulhu is probably not to the liking of purists since it presents, to begin with, a set of different rules. As you know, people don't like to change of game mechanics. So, if you really like the d20 / D&D 3rd rules, this d20 supplement is for you!! In fact it is an excellent product, with nice layout and illustrations, and well written. Just if you wanted to add the Mythos to D&D 3rd ed., this book is worth the purchase. Now, as much the purists want to see a Call of Cthulhu game as one where player characters are expected to die within a couple of sessions, some others don't!! There are also players who like games where the PCs survive and thrive. As such, a combat oriented d20 CoC is not necessarily a bad thing! Anyway, if you really would like to do a "pulp" Cthulhu, you would better add some d20 Modern to it, since d20 CoC nonetheless goes for characters who are weak and nearly hopeless.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: To be honest I don't know why people hold the original rules for the Call of Cthulhu game in such high regard. In my opinion the system has good points, and many extremely bad ones. The original game focused far to much on killing characters. Seriously, I have read many Call of Cthulhu adventures where one of the selling points was percentage of Player death (some of which were 80% plus). I'm sorry maybe I have been made soft by White Wolf, but I enjoy creating a character and watching him grow. Now I don't believe PC's shouldn't die, I just don't like when half the time I play, or more, I have to make up a new character. Maybe that doesn't fit the "Cthulhu Mythos," but almost ALL of Lovecraft's stories didn't feature reoccuring characters so he could kill them off as he saw fit it didn't matter. I enjoy having something of a fighting chance. Also I hated the old systems cuz a few of the stats were generated with a 3d6 roll, and others were a 4d6 roll. And I especially hated the Stat of Education. Say I wanted to make a doctor and I roll a 5 on Education. Well tough luck, I barely graduated high school. I think it is stupid that a stat determines my background (Like those history generators in some RPG's where your character can die in childhood... stupid).
D20 Call of Cthulhu works great if you are running a more "swashbuckling" game using the Cthulhu Mythos... such as Delta Green (which is what I'm using it for). Where you want characters who will on average survive more than three adventures. Also the book is of a better quality than Chaosium, in every department, organization, art, explanation of the rules. Frankly I love it, because now I can run the Call of Cthulhu I want to run. Where my players could survive (if they are smart)for most of the campaign (Which should run about 32 sessions). If I was running under the old rules, the players would make up about 16 characters EACH during the campaign, and that is silly.
Rating: 
Summary: Roleplaying or Combat?
Review: Very simple. If you want to roleplay, love character (personality) development, truly love the horror of Lovecraft's brilliant world and want a memorable experience, buy Chaosium's original, elegant game.
If you want a combat oriented game with a clumsy, ugly gaming system, go d20.
Your choice.
Rating:
Summary: A review for D&D players
Review: What is the core element of CofC? That's a hard question to answer, but one is certainly horror -- dreadful, overwhelming, ineffable terror. This terror leads to delightfully unhealthy doses of insanity and death! What could be more fun? Starting with the book's design itself, we start to get a feel for the Lovecraftian world. Some tentacled THING appears to be tearing its way through the front cover. The actual columns inside the book are skewed at a weird, jaunty angle. This might drive some readers crazy, and that's the idea. The creature illustrations I found excellent, but the scenes of people interacting in the world could have be scarier. The picture of the D&D group battling Cthulhu itself (if you can call it a battle) is my personal favorite.Then we have the conversion of old school CofC to d20 rules. I think the game designers did a good job of keeping the old feel of the game while "modernizing" it. This might be a difficult change for longtime CofC fans. To that point, all I can say is: As a D&D player of over 15 years now, I didn't really like the 3rd Edition d20 rules, at first... Now, after about a year of working with them, I like them more than the previous versions. Given some time, most (but not all) longtime CofC fans will grow to appreciate the simplicity and expandability of the d20 system. The (in)sanity system is still there, and it breaks from the standard d20 rules. For me, this helps to keep the special place it has always had in CofC. D&D 3E players will recognize skills, feats, and combat (explained even more clearly than in the Player's Handbook). There's tons of equipment with a price scale for the 1920's and modern times. You'll find rules for all manner of guns, explosives, body armor, etc. I found it cool to see modern weaponry done up with d20 rules. I enjoyed the chapter on how to integrate CofC into a D&D game. What skills, feats, and spells are appropriate? That's all spelled out. The Lovecraftian monsters are insanely tough (CR 21+), as they should be. Remember all those Star Trek Next Gen episodes where the crew used the holideck to travel to other times? Well DMs: Throw your D&D group for a loop one night by sending them to the 1920's or modern times. Or, give them a Ravenloft-like gaming experience by unleashing the Old Ones upon their world. In summary: Thumbs up. I'll definately be torturing my (D&D 3E) players with some things from this book. BTW, there are many (minor) errors in the book. Many of these are tracked on Monte Cook's website, but keep an eye out on WotC's website for the official erratas. Ftagn!
Rating:
Summary: Cashing In on the Works of Others
Review: Wizards of the Coast has produced d20 rules for Call of Cthulhu for one reason and one reason only: to capitalize on the competition's ability to put out a better quality product than they themselves are capable. Evidence follows, but first, a brief dissertation on capitalism: Tradition obliged Wizards to produce the Greyhawk gazetteer, but they have gleefully ignored the "official" setting in favor of a gazillion "supplements" to an otherwise generic fantasy world. It seems ridiculous to me to not only have to buy three separate books at over [money] a piece to get all the rules, but to have those rules superceded by a dizzying multitude of "additional" rules books after-the-fact. Forgotten Realms is the second "official" setting, with another host of books that one must buy in addition to the three core rules books in order to logically play in that world. The sheer enormity of reproducing 2nd Edition FR should have been daunting, but Wizards is giving it their best shot (as are they in reproducing 2nd edition books like the Fiend Folio and Manual of the Planes...and each subsequent book continues to pile on new feats, skills, prestige classes, etc. that makes it virtually impossible to have access to them all). Now a third fantasy setting has been made "official"...
Kingdoms of Kalamar is produced by Kenzer & Company, not Wizards of the Coast. However, because the Kalamar products were taking up valuable shelf space and capital from the Wizards line, the d20 originators bought them out. Kenzer & Company still produces Kalamar, but now they're fettered in producing it only in the d20 System. If White Wolf were a smaller company, their Sword and Sorcery line would be a serious target for the Wizards conglomerate, as Wizards would undoubtedly seek to buy their license so they could continue to profit from other peoples' work. However, White Wolf is guilty of the same market saturation that Wizards is, both with their World of Darkness line and with the ever-growing Sword and Sorcery/Scarred Lands setting. In contrast, Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu has remained virtually unchanged for 20 years. There remains only one book to buy that gives you everything...EVERYTHING...you need to play Call of Cthulhu: player information, game-master (Keeper) information, gods, monsters, a few adventures to get you started, and ideas to keep you going afterward-all under one cover. Also Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu rules remain applicable no matter which adventure you buy. There's no uncountable list of "new feats" and "new prestige classes" and "new spells" to keep you buying and buying and buying. With Chaosium, you buy for the quality of the product, not the quantity. With Wizards' and White Wolf's products, you buy because you need to keep up with the Joneses. Cthulhu was licensed by Wizards for the same reason Kalamar was: to cash in on the competition. Anyone who has played Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu KNOWS that it is the best RPG on the market. Their loyal fanbase has kept them alive for nearly as long as Dungeons and Dragons has been around (in its many incarnations). That loyalty was a threat to the Wizards regime, so they have attempted to cash in Chaosium's success under the guise of "bringing Call of Cthulhu to a wider audience". NEWSFLASH: Chaosium has been successfully publishing Cthulhu adventures and supplements for over 20 years. **They didn't need a wider audience!** Chaosium continues to produce books for the original Call of Cthulhu system, publishing their stats side-by-side with the d20 rules. Because they were smart enough not to sell their Cthulhu line outright, and therefore are not fettered exclusively to the d20 System, they can continue to support their loyal fans for the next 20 years (gods willing). Since the d20 version of the book was published and put on the shelves, Wizards have ignored it; not an update to their Call of Cthulhu page in over 6 months. Their goal of capitalizing on others' work was accomplished the moment the d20 book hit the shelves, and subsequently their interest has gone away. There is one good thing about the d20 System CoC book that outshines all the other d20 books on the market: you do not need to purchase the other D&D core books to use it. In that respect, it has accomplished what the original Call of Cthulhu rpg produced by Chaosium had accomplished over 20 years ago. Still, the book is sadly lacking in the mood that Chaosium's product creates. It's frivolous and, like all of the other Wizards D&D products, combat heavy. The best use for the jumped-up combat rules from the Wizards' version could be in a campy X-Files/Cthulhu crossover. (...)
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