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The game of Lovecraftian horror. Everybody who's a real dicechucker has heard of it, but not enough have played it.

Why is it so great?
1. The setting. The "Cthulhu Mythos" allow the Keeper (GM) to make a lot of personal choices as to how things go.
2. The character system is the best. Forget class/level systems where you gain XP through fighting and spend it on your oratory abilities, or whatever, this system advances skills through use, and leaves it at that. Your character's HP won't go up due to experience. It makes it all more convincing.
3. The system is incredibly easy to fiddle with. I've come up with skill point changes, ammunition damage tables, etc, all easily. And if it's unbalanced, that's where #4 comes in:
4. It doesn't have to be balanced, necessarily. While it helps a lot, there are situations where balance wouldn't be appropriate: No matter what you do, you won't be taking down Cthulhu, or as some call him, Big C.
5. You get to use d100s. Either the 2 d10 kind, or the big ones where it's hard to tell what number they land on.

I love Call of Cthulhu. It's the only game I've ever played where I couldn't find something inherently wrong with the character system, and that's saying something.

I love this game! It's one of the best ever! You can always tell who has read the mythos before and who hasn't when it comes to character creation..

Never-read: guns, hand to hand, high strength score.. "I'm gunna kill monsters"

Read mythos: Occultism, ancient languages, RUNNING.. "Oh my god! Don't let it eat me!"

[QUOTE=jopperm2]Never-read: guns, hand to hand, high strength score.. "I'm gunna kill monsters"[/QUOTE]

Average lifespan: 15 minutes.

[QUOTE=jopperm2]Read mythos: Occultism, ancient languages, RUNNING.. "Oh my god! Don't let it eat me!"[/QUOTE]

Average lifespan: 30 minutes.

Besides that, it is a great game. Although I have had games ruined by incompetent GMs. You *need* a good GM for this game.

Cheers,
TGHO

Cthulhu kicks butt! I play it at school, and my English teacher is the GM. He's been Cthulhu'ing (Like that's a word!) since he was my age, and he's an awesome GM. I know what you mean about the character selection, but in my first roleplay I was a horror writer (I just wanted to be one!) and now we got the chance to be anything we wanted throughout history, and despite the lack of fighting being a good thing, I am a medieval soldier. I also love the way that characters relate to one another - it's not like D&D, where you all work together. In my last roleplay I got shot by a personal enemy of mine, and before my ghost could drive him insane, we all died. Oh well...

Sounds like a great campaign. Where are you from? Most places would seriously frown on teachers playing RPGs with students..

Sounds like the ideal Keeper though.

The one thing I know...

I've never played Cthulhu before (never had the chance) but one of my friends has played a little. The only thing I know about it is that a successful PC is one that survives more than 5 sessions. Maybe he was just playing a rough campaign, but he made it sound like the rate of attrition is ridiculously high.

That's an easy campaign. 5 sessions of Cthulhu is like playing the same DnD character for 15 years real time.

My GM also has a sense of humour. I used 2 be a horror writer, and an Elder God told me my work didn't quite 'cut deeply enough'... My current campaign is scary...