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Unlike my previous article for a Chaosium product, namely the excellent RuneQuest Starter Set, the universe of Lovecraft and his Lore have been historically far more part of my own life’s narrative having discovered an obsession with horror in my early teens. This familiarity with Lovecraftian lore also extend a couple of years ago to a flirtation with the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and while I loved many aspects of the mechanics I in truth found immersing myself in this richly textured world slightly overwhelming. So when the fine people at Chaosium produced the starter set a couple of years ago it immediately found itself on my wanted list, though thanks to the many effects of Covid lockdowns those plans took a backseat for a good while……..until now.
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The fine people at Chaosium agreed to send me the aforementioned Call of Cthulhu Starter Set in exchange for an honest by-the-book review…….so how could i say no?
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Call of Cthulhu is Chaosium’s classic roleplaying game of mystery and horror in which ordinary people are confronted by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos.
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Call of Cthulhu is a game about secrets, mysteries, and horror. Playing the role of steadfast investigators, teams of characters travel to strange and dangerous places, uncover foul plots, and stand against the terrors of the night. On the way, they will encounter sanity-blasting entities from beyond space and time, hideous monsters, and insane cultists; while within strange and forgotten tomes of lore they will discover secrets that man was not meant to know. These ordinary people will face many challenges, but their heroic stand may very well decide the fate of the world.
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Created by Sandy Petersen, and first published in 1981, Call of Cthulhu has for over 35 years defined the genre and is consistently regarded as being one of the best games available to play. For those brave enough to uncover its secrets, the rewards are beyond comprehension!
In the game, each player takes on the role of a character, while one player is the referee—the Keeper of Arcane Lore (“Keeper”) who moderates the game and presents the plot and setting to the other players. Using dice and the rules of the game, you determine the success and failure of the characters’ actions, while they are propelled into dramatic and dangerous situations.
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What This Set Contains and what we think….
• Book One: introduces the game as you play through Alone Against the Flames, a solo adventure. This is the perfect way to essentially ‘learn as you play’ and in many ways avoiding that first dive down into the rabbit hole of rule reading that many of us have invariably fallen into to our detriment. By employing just a basic use of the rule book at this early stage means that feeling of overwhelming confusion that I experienced previously when attempting to explore the Cthulhu word was avoided.
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• Book Two: contains all of the basic rules for the game. As you play through Alone Against the Flames, you will be asked to read certain parts of the rules, helping you to learn the system as you face the dangers of Emberhead. Once you have played the solo adventure, you can read through Book Two to familiarize yourself with the game’s rules before playing it with friends.
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• Book Three: a selection of special starter adventures to play with your friends. Each adventure is designed to ease you into running Call of Cthulhu, with plenty of advice provided. Beautifully laid out and perfectly clear writing makes the adventures both accessible and hugely enjoyable.
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• Roleplaying Dice: a set of dice used to play Call of Cthulhu. The one trick that may have been missed is not including the specially made Call of Cthulhu dice that are available in some of the pictures. It’s not that the dice provided are sub-standard, they are perfectly serviceable……but man I want the Cthulhu dice! See the Roleplaying Dice section in this book, which explains how to read the differing types of dice.
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• Ready-Made Investigators: a selection of pre-made characters for use in any of the adventures. The starter box set comes with five premade characters each with lovingly created drawn portraits. The characters provided have a nice variation of backgrounds and careers and should have more than enough information for any newbie to the game. I’ve mentioned before that one of the joys for me in any game preparation is diving dep, deep, deep into character creation complete with layered back-stories – but to begin with having these pre-generated characters is a real boon. My once concern is that the paper may not last very long in my, or my fellow players, eager grubby hands…….so get that laminator out baby!
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• Blank Investigator Sheets: can be used for creating (copying) more blank sheets, or you can download a writeable PDF version from the website www.chaosium. com/cthulhu-character-sheets
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Chaosium have tapped into a veritable goldmine of genius when it comes to these starter sets, because just as they did for RuneQuest afterwards, they have provided the perfect starting point for new Call of Cthulhu obsessives. It’s relatively cheap price to start your adventures in this crazy Lovecraftian world and more importantly….it’s so much fun!
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Chaosium was founded by visionary game designer Greg Stafford in 1975. For more than forty years, Chaosium has captivated gamers, readers and mythic adventurers worldwide. Its award-winning roleplaying games, board games and fiction have been acclaimed as some of the most engaging and innovative of all time.
www.chaosium.com
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