I remember seeing this advertisement – or one very like it –
somewhere in 1981. I also remember being quite excited by it, since I'd long wanted to play a horror-based RPG and, from the ad,
Call of Cthulhu looked like it would fit the bill. My copy of the game was not the one depicted here, but one with a shallower box, even though it held the same contents. I played the heck out of that boxed set over the course of the first or two I owned it, cementing
CoC as one of my all-time favorite games. Strangely, I haven't actually played it in a very long time, but its influence on my imagination and play style remains powerful nonetheless.
CoC is one of the few games I have played a bunch but never GMed. We gamed with a guy and CoC was his thing. While we all took turns running D&D only he ran CoC. And I haven't played CoC with anyone since.
ReplyDeleteThat's a shame because I have such great memories of the game and it did shape my RPG style.
I cannot believe that Ad sold games. Really! I mean, I love CoC, it is all I run now, but still, who bought the game based on that? there must have really been a market for any RPG at that time.
ReplyDeleteok maybe.
My 2e box looks exactly the same but is not as deep, that might be what you have. I have no idea other than that, what the difference is.
From what I understand, Chaosium regularly produced sets that came in two versions, one with a "deep" box and one with a "shallow" one. They definitely did this with Stormbringer.
DeleteThat ad looks good to me.
DeleteDitto. It says exactly what it needs to to describe the game, without hyperbole or obfuscation. What the heck would you put in a CoC ad that isn't there?
DeleteI had the "deep box" versions of both CoC and Strmbringer, and it was maybe a year before I saw "shallow box" versions come out. Actually would have preferred to have the shallow ones, they kept the contents in place better if you shelved the box on end like an Avalon Hill bookcase game. Of course the solution was to jam them full of supplements so there was no room for stuff to slop around inside. :)
People expecting a FANTASY roleplaying game were in for a rough surprise.
ReplyDeleteWhat's Lovecraft supposed to be if not fantasy? Horror RPGs weren't really a thing at that point (given that CoC was arguably the first of them, with Ravenloft two years off and Chill a year beyond that) and the scifi elements in the Mythos are paper thin and decidedly not predictive of future scientific developments. The ad clearly states the game is set in the 1920s - no one reading that was expecting swords and fire-breathing reptiles.
DeleteIf your set had BRP (the 16-ish page intro document), and then the rulebook just added on to that- you had 1st edition. There was a thin version of this and thick box (I had the thin box which was a transition set apparently as not all collecting sites are savvy to it). The second edition had the entire rulebook self contained with no need for BRP
ReplyDeleteYes, my boxed set included a BRP booklet separate from the blue rulebook.
Deletethanks! that is very useful!
DeleteMy pleasure!
DeleteI think at one point I had six copies of the little BRP booklet from various boxed sets. Bought a lot of Chaosium in my youth. :)
DeleteI wish Chromium would put out a release of the original 81'box set, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteI think that might be happening. Rick Meints said something that sounded like they are working on a re-release of classic Call of Cthulhu.
DeleteIf you can find a link or reference confirming that I would be ever so grateful. I'm not a fan of the current edition of the game, but would gladly buy a reprint of the original.
DeleteJames, try here: https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-14-helping-stamp-out-the-mythos/
DeleteThere are other posts on the same blog that mention it as well. Apparently imminent, that post mentions a couple of weeks and that was about two weeks ago.
Thanks. That's very good news indeed.
DeleteIt was such a game changer for my friends and I back in the early 80s after mainly playing games like AD&D or Gamma World. Really opened our eyes to new ways of playing
ReplyDeleteSo true for many of us.
DeletePretty sure CoC established a whole new genre of roleplaying. Can't think of an earlier one that was explicitly aimed at the horror genre, and precious few that were openly based on what we'd call an existing IP at that stage of things. Heritage's Star Trek game, maybe?
DeleteIn addition to maybe being the first horror game, it was also perhaps the first investigative RPG (though I think Traveller leant itself to that kind of play in some ways). One of the eye-opening things with COC back in the '80s was the entire concept of a game where trying to whack the monster and steal its stuff was all kinds of oh no, that's a very, very, very bad idea.
DeleteThe old joke was that COC was the game where the only treasure the PCs find is a book none of them wants that drives them all insane just by looking at the cover too long, but the truth underlying that joke was absolutely game-changing for so many of us who hadn't previously realized you could have an entire game where a TPK was a good outcome and the whole point could be the metagame experience of players solving a mystery that didn't help their characters improve one whit.
I don't know if others had the same experience playing and running it, but I know for myself and many of my friends it was a subtle revolution in how we approached the hobby from there on out.
Can anyone please recommend a CoC adventure that was location-based instead of plot-based?
ReplyDeleteI love Lovecraft but most of the CoC adventures, while very well done, were pretty railroady to me.
It's hard, because COC is basically an investigation game, and an investigation by its nature has a solution and getting to that solution involves picking up clues, and the simplest way to get those clues in front of those players often involves some kind if track or path through the adventure. You can mitigate this in play as a Keeper by being flexible about how clues get doled out during the actual session (e.g. a hint about a relic is found in Bob's coat pocket instead of by interrogating Alice as written in the scenario because the players never question Alice but they do mug Bob in an alleyway). But a lot of this pathing is baked into the way scenarios are written (especially if they're not as well-written) and to a Keeper's experience/competence (i.e. the Keeper's ability to improvise when players get "off-track").
DeleteThere are, however, some sand-boxier supplements in the form of setting books like Berlin: The Wicked City, Harlem Unbound, etc. They usually will have a handful of scenarios (sometimes linked as a mini-campaign) towards the end, but the bulk of the book will be historical information, maps, adventure hooks, etc. It's not quite a location-based scenario, but it may be as close as you can get with this style of game.
(Hope that helps.)
It does. Thank you. Will check them out.
DeleteAnd I agree that good Keeper needs to improvise when the players get "off-track." But to be clear, the track they've gotten off of is a railroad track. :)