Completely taken out and replaced with the simple Full-Half-Fifth approach to skills and characteristics. Getting into the core system, by far the biggest change is the Resistance Table. I am a huge fan of (1) anything that fleshes our the character a little bit more and (2) anything that adds to the story. The GM and/or player can then work with these Connections in game to help the story or bring new story in. These is an abstract concept where you write a short sentence about a person, place, thing or concept connected to the character. This saves a lot of past in-game math and is a very smart move.Īdditionally, one of the aspects I really liked in character generation was the concept of Connections. Although you are still rolling them, you are multiplying everything by 5 giving your Characteristics a percentile value right off the bat. Gone are the old-school 3 to 18 values for your ability scores or Characteristics. This is where some of the biggest changes occurred, although not THE biggest. They added a few steps to it to give you more ways to flesh out your character and have a lot more fun with it. Character generation was very smooth and simple, as well as enjoyable. I generated 6 characters for this adventure, converted from other characters I have used in the past for one-shot CoC. Although I did not concentrate on these areas (as I was running a one-shot and did not need to), I did see them through out the book. I have always felt that CoC was more attuned to on-shot or convention games and less about long term campaigns but these edition has mechanics and tools to help the GM maintain a longer term game of CoC. These guys put a lot of thought into ways to use what existed already, and it is a little refreshing to see that approach.Īlong with streamlining and simplifying the game, another design philosophy I see in the knew edition a stronger focus on long term campaigns. The essence of the game system is very well preserved while a lot of modern sensibility is injected into the existing core mechanic. The majority of the changes are either additions that you can just about add to any RPG system or streamlining of the existing system. What is amazing to me about the rule set is that it backwards compatible. But like I said we were close – like one major encounter away from finishing the adventure. It was a simple enough adventure with some interesting twists but unfortunately I think I spent too much time explaining the changes to the CoC rules set to finish the adventure. I ran Amidst the Ancient Trees, an adventure in CoC7e PDF material. We did not get to finish but we were close. The game I ran went well but we did not manage our time as well as we should have. Being the gaming coordinator for MACE, I really did not want to cancel that game. Chad had to cancel his appearance at MACE for understandable reason but he graciously allowed me to run his table for him as it already had 6 players preregistered. I do thank Chad for giving me this opportunity, although admittedly it was more out of necessity than anything else. I am writing in part as a n after-action-report for Chad as well as general review for all those at MACE that did not get a chance to play in it. Whatever is published could be completely different then what I write about here. Now, first off, I do not know how final this edition is. Paul Fricker (author of the monograph Gatsby and the Great Race and the scenario Dockside Dogs, contributor to Cthulhu Britannica) and Mike Mason (editor of Cthulhu Britannica and the defunct Whisperer magazine) have authored a considerable tome that updates, streamlines and modernizes the game I have loved for so long. Each book is slightly different with some slight changes to minor details but the game itself has not changed at its core in over 30 years. I have always found it funny that it has gone through 6 editions with very little change. I have been playing Call of Cthulhu since late 80s and enjoyed every session. When I first heard about the new edition, I dug deep using Google to find out what Chad said about significant changes to the system. He sent me the PDF of the August (GenCon?) version of the playtest rules, which I printed out and attempted to cram into my brain in the two weekend before the convention. At MACE 2012, I was given an opportunity by Chad Bowser to run Call of Cthulhu 7th edition.
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