Whether you’ve played or not, it’s no secret that “Dungeons & Dragons”, or D&D, has recently seen an explosion in popularity, due at least in part to its appearances in several pieces of media that quickly rose to pop culture infamy. The release of Baldur’s Gate III, a game based in the world of D&D that uses the mechanics of the most recent edition, certainly played a role in thrusting it into the limelight.
I’ll admit, it deserves its popularity. It’s versatile, intuitive and fun. But, its giant audience seems to cause other tabletop roleplaying games, or TTRPGs, to get overlooked by the masses—some that may be even more exciting for its potential playerbase.
A while ago, one of the groups I regularly play D&D with decided we should try out “Call of Cthulhu”, a TTRPG based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
Unlike D&D, which uses a 20-sided die, “Call of Cthulhu” uses a 100-sided die (also referred to as a d100 or d%) for all of its skill checks. Each of the skills available to players are assigned a number from one to 99, and every roll requires a lower number than your score for the skill in order to be considered successful.
This also means rolling a one would be called a critical success, which is directly opposite to D&D’s critical failure upon rolling a one and critical success with a 20. Because there are significantly more sides, it’s also much more difficult to roll a critical success, which makes the experience significantly more satisfying.
D&D, especially in more recent editions, is also focused on giving the players the experience of being heroes. You’re a party of adventurers with magic or incredible skill with a blade. But the same can’t be said for “Call of Cthulhu”.
The player characters in “Call of Cthulhu” are shockingly average, with the classes more like regular jobs than anything else. For example, since I wanted to be the party’s healer, I opted for making a character that happened to be a nurse. Another player chose to be a police officer.
In D&D, you might fight giant beasts and powerful wizards, but if you’re a high enough level and use the power of teamwork, even the most daunting fights are winnable. “Call of Cthulhu”, on the other hand, doesn’t want you to engage in combat. You’re a regular person going against eldritch horrors beyond your imagination. You’re not going to win.
As a result, “Call of Cthulhu” places more emphasis on the roleplaying, as the players begin to investigate strange happenings that will eventually lead to them uncovering more and more knowledge about the Lovecraftian mythos that surrounds them. In fact, the players are called “Investigators” in the rules of the game.
The leader of the game, usually referred to as a “Game Master” or “Dungeon Master” in D&D, is called the “Keeper.” In my group, the Keeper had experience as a Dungeon Master, is an incredible storyteller and was able to describe the settings and events in a way that created amazingly tense scenes.
The game also introduces unique mechanics, like sanity and luck. After witnessing something terrible, a character can lose sanity, causing negative consequences. Luck points can be expended on successful rolls in the hopes that a small, fortunate event might occur, such as there being a gallon of gas left in the abandoned car you found.
Although I love D&D, “Call of Cthulhu” offered an original experience that was a lot of fun. If you’re a fan of horror or other TTRPGs, I highly suggest giving this one a go!
