Cthulhu 7th Edition

[Skellan]

Hello Cthulhu people

I was just wondering if anyone had tested the 7th edition quick start rules yet and what their thoughts were on the changes? From a first look, I am not sure about the changes to combat, but the skill difficulties seem a good idea

[Bubo]

I've reviewed the quick start guide a bit, but I feel that it is just a slight glimpse at the changes coming in 7th Edition. If you take a look at the interview here, (https://theunspeakableoath.com/home/2012/07/inside-call-of-cthulhu-7th-edition/) then you'll see a lot more about what they have planned for 7th Edition.

I'm sad that I missed the Kickstarter for this edition, but reviewing the update news on the Kickstarter page shows that they are currently supplementing the artwork while working on Phase I of the book. There is also talk of deck involvement in game play now, which makes me want to talk to the author of the Savage Worlds deck extension to see if it can be adapted to CoC7.

[cscase]

They were going to release around Halloween this year, but the Kickstarter raised so much money that they decided to go to a full color layout and nicer book, which has pushed it back til early next year, last I heard. I have glanced over the quickstart rules but figured I'd wait until a little closer to the actual release to start seriously looking at the new edition.

I could be totally misinformed about this - and please correct me if that's the case - but the only talk of decks I have seen has been related to something that I think was a stretch goal, some decks of things like insanities. So, if, for example, your character is to go temporarily insane, instead of choosing how to RP that, you pull a card from this deck of various phobias and things. This wouldn't be a change to the mechanics of the game or anything, just an optional little extra accessory players could use at the table, or not.

[Trenloe]

As cscase says, I believe the decks were just an in game extra accessory (cool stretch goal) that are essentially detailing/summarising data that would be on tables in the book.

[leetsepeak]

Hey folks,

The 7th Edition has gone out in a Backer Proof to all the Kickstarter backers. While it doesn't have all the art or an index yet, it's got all the new mechanics and how they work. Any chance the ruleset could get a 7th Ed update?

As an edit, here's a link to the new character sheet: https://www.chaosium.com/call-of-cthulhu-7th-edition-character-sheet/

[Moon Wizard]

It's on our list to look at after Gencon and 5E release settles down.

Regards,
JPG

[ianmward]

Now realeased and availablr for purchase on the Chaosium web site... Just saying...

[callahan09]

I was thinking of buying the Call of Cthulhu ruleset during the Steam sale, but the description says it's 6th edition? Is this still worth buying? I'm not familiar with 6th edition... Is the ruleset itself going to ever be updated to 7th edition, or would it be a totally new ruleset product available for separate purchase if you ever make a FG rulset for 7th edition?

[damned]

7e will be a new purchase.
It will likely be priced the same as the PDF - eg approx $28.
6e is still a good purchase IMO. It comes with 4 adventures which will be usable in 7e.
It is also still a good system in its own right.
The 7e ruleset should be a more polished product all round though.

[callahan09]

7e will be a new purchase.
It will likely be priced the same as the PDF - eg approx $28.
6e is still a good purchase IMO. It comes with 4 adventures which will be usable in 7e.
It is also still a good system in its own right.
The 7e ruleset should be a more polished product all round though.

Out of curiosity, where does Call of Cthulhu's 6e ruleset fall on the spectrum of "automation" in terms of character creation? 5e being very automated with drag & drop classes & features, etc that populate the character sheet with the vast majority of relevant stuff, and Pathfinder (the only other ruleset I've used unfortunately) being fairly manual in comparison, where classes can't be dragged & dropped, and most things have to added up and tabulated manually. And then a tangent off from that question is, where is the future 7e ruleset being planned to fall within that spectrum? At $28, the most expensive ruleset, I would hope it takes a page from 5e's automation / drag-drop processes. But I'm not sure if it would, just because so much love was put into the 5e ruleset probably because it's expected to be the most popular ruleset, I think? Anyway, the ease of use of 5e vs Pathfinder in Fantasy Grounds makes me want to acquire rulesets that are closer to 5e than Pathfinder if at all possible.

[Trenloe]

For the 6th Edition ruleset you get basic drag and drop - weapons mostly (and spells if/when you get them) and the ability to drag/drop equipment in the FG item format.

The way Call of Cthulhu characters are built you really don't need much drag/drop functionality. Add an occupation and that's about it as far as base drag/drop functionality that might even possibly be "needed" (when thinking about other more class based RPG systems) - occupation is really just a name as far as the character sheet is concerned (plus which skills you can spend your occupation skill points on).

These are the steps listed in the CoC 6E rules to creating a character:

Determine characteristics. Roll those dice and add them to the character sheet.
Determine Characteristic rolls - this is done for you automatically based off the characteristics entered in step 1.
Determine Derived Characteristic Points. Enter the relevant values manually. These aren't auto calculated as they can change throughout the game.
Determine occupation and skills. Type the name of the chosen occupation in the field on the "Personal" tab. Spend your occupation skill points and then personal interest skill points on the "Skills" tab. FG will track the total points you've spent.
Determine Weapons - drag any weapons you have from the hand weapons or firearms tables to the character sheet. It will fill in the weapon info.
Determine additional background - type in the background info you have developed for your character.


That's it (for the steps as listed in the rulebook). This whole process really doesn't benefit from drag and drop (IMHO) - except adding weapons, which is there in the ruleset. Call of Cthulhu isn't a traditional class based RPG system - you don't have levels, you don't have abilities/feats, etc. so you're not needing to enter a bunch of things that have a direct impact on your character sheet like: class, background, abilities/feats, race, etc. that you would in d20 based systems.

[callahan09]

For the 6th Edition ruleset you get basic drag and drop - weapons mostly (and spells if/when you get them) and the ability to drag/drop equipment in the FG item format.

The way Call of Cthulhu characters are built you really don't need much drag/drop functionality. Add an occupation and that's about it as far as base drag/drop functionality that might even possibly be "needed" (when thinking about other more class based RPG systems) - occupation is really just a name as far as the character sheet is concerned (plus which skills you can spend your occupation skill points on).

These are the steps listed in the CoC 6E rules to creating a character:

Determine characteristics. Roll those dice and add them to the character sheet.
Determine Characteristic rolls - this is done for you automatically based off the characteristics entered in step 1.
Determine Derived Characteristic Points. Enter the relevant values manually. These aren't auto calculated as they can change throughout the game.
Determine occupation and skills. Type the name of the chosen occupation in the field on the "Personal" tab. Spend your occupation skill points and then personal interest skill points on the "Skills" tab. FG will track the total points you've spent.
Determine Weapons - drag any weapons you have from the hand weapons or firearms tables to the character sheet. It will fill in the weapon info.
Determine additional background - type in the background info you have developed for your character.


That's it (for the steps as listed in the rulebook). This whole process really doesn't benefit from drag and drop (IMHO) - except adding weapons, which is there in the ruleset. Call of Cthulhu isn't a traditional class based RPG system - you don't have levels, you don't have abilities/feats, etc. so you're not needing to enter a bunch of things that have a direct impact on your character sheet like: class, background, abilities/feats, race, etc. that you would in d20 based systems.

Thanks for the info! As someone who loves the Cthulhu stories and movies based on and inspired by the mythos, but who has never played the game, I'm very interested in getting into it. What would be the pros & cons of buying into 6th Edition vs waiting for 7th Edition? I am relatively new to RPGing in general and my experience is limited to a little D&D 2e from childhood followed by two decades of nothing and then I played a little 4e just before 5e came out, and I'm playing 5e and Pathfinder right now (and haven't yet figured out which one I like better, I enjoy them both greatly and they are quite different in so many ways). But the Cthulhu and horror stuff is something I'd really like to get into so Call of Cthulhu interests me. But the edition thing is tough for me to figure out and I'm not sure how much I want to invest in an old edition when a new one is maybe around the corner? Or if the editions are more compatible than say D&D editions are, which aren't really that compatible at all without having to do conversions, etc/ Any advice or opinions would be appreciated!

Someone said that the 6th edition ruleset comes with adventures which will be compatible with 7th edition? Is every adventure and add-on for CoC currently on FG going to be fully playable with 7e? Oh and given relative compatibility, is it actually somehow possible to "play 7th edition rules" (if I studied the PDF for instance) using the FG 6th Edition ruleset?

[Trenloe]

The CoC 7E RPG system is very similar to 6E. Chaosium (the publishers of Call of Cthulhu) have not made any major changes throughout the versions - you can still use CoC 1st edition scenarios with CoC 7th ed rules with very little change. They've changed the stats to be % based (basically multiply by 5) and added functionality that is a little like 5E advantage/disadvantage. There's a few other minor changes, but that's really about it. It's super easy to convert a 6E adventure to 7E on the fly. The plan is for the FG 7E ruleset to do the conversions from 6E products for you.

You can use the current 6E ruleset to play 7E using Ian's great extension: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?23483-CoC-7e-Rules-Extension-Release&p=229630#post229630 This won't do conversions of 6E products or anything like that, but it does provide the main 7E differences to allow you to play 7E now with the FG 6E ruleset.

With the inclusion of the 4 adventures, and the ability to play CoC immediately, the 6E ruleset is worth picking up.

[damned]

The pricing of the ruleset is based on the PDF price of the product. So you get all the PDF content and you get it all in FG Format and you get the ruleset designed around it. So for the same price as the PDF you also get the several hundred hours of work that go into producing the ruleset and reference material.
There will be some nice features in the 7e ruleset that will make it quite worthwhile.

So is 6e worth it? I think so. Its less than $12. It contains 4 adventures which will still be usable with 7e. As Trenloe says the editions in CoC are not really like the editions in D&D. The game stays close to the original with a few rule tweaks and modifications. 7e will hopefully be ready in 3 months. So if you want to play now play 6e. And like many game systems many people will have their favourite versions.

[Newf]

7e will hopefully be ready in 3 months.

Is this the official timeline for the release?

I've been flip flopping on buying 6e and using the extension for 7e for a few weeks now (just recently starting playing CoC and love it). I'm pretty well just going off the Quickstart Rules for things until the 7th ed books come out in print as well. If it'll be a while for the 7e ruleset, I might as well just get 6e for now.

[damned]

Is this the official timeline for the release?

I've been flip flopping on buying 6e and using the extension for 7e for a few weeks now (just recently starting playing CoC and love it). I'm pretty well just going off the Quickstart Rules for things until the 7th ed books come out in print as well. If it'll be a while for the 7e ruleset, I might as well just get 6e for now.

Newf we are certainly aiming for that yes. However - it will be ready when its ready...!
6e depends on your budget and how soon you want to start. At $11.50 I think its great value but your budget may be different to mine and you might prefer to save that and put it towards 7e. Its really up to you.

[Newf]

Newf we are certainly aiming for that yes. However - it will be ready when its ready...!
6e depends on your budget and how soon you want to start. At $11.50 I think its great value but your budget may be different to mine and you might prefer to save that and put it towards 7e. Its really up to you.

Thanks! I went ahead and grabbed it, and the extension for 7th ed, so that will hold me over for the time being.

[damned]

Thanks! I went ahead and grabbed it, and the extension for 7th ed, so that will hold me over for the time being.

Nice one Newf! That will work fine.
You might like this little extension too - its called Gary Keeper and it was inspired by a couple of other threads... I hope it gives you a laugh :)

[Newf]

Nice one Newf! That will work fine.
You might like this little extension too - its called Gary Keeper and it was inspired by a couple of other threads... I hope it gives you a laugh :)

I will give that one a shot, thanks!

[Leonor]

Hi devs!
Will we become a new ruleset for the 7th edition?

[Trenloe]

Will we become a new ruleset for the 7th edition?
Yes, it will be a new ruleset. Discussed here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?31807-a-couple-of-questions-about-official-7th-ed-release