the eye in the sky wrote:hey yall
does any one a lot about the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game made Chausuim? A friend and I would really like to play it but we were wondering how many people we would need, edtions, other stuff we would need and Mainly is it any fun. I have found in thee people on these forums know all about al kinds of things hope some one can bust out some good info
Thanks

Hi ya. I've played quite a lot of CoC and have the 1st to I think 5th Editions lying around the house somewhere. It's in it's sixth
http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?cPath=41&products_id=359 edition now - but I haven't seen the most recent incarnation.
You can play with one 'keeper' (GM/DM) and one player but it would be dull. IMHO 4 players and one keeper is a good group size. With more than 4 players things start to become increasingly difficult to manage as the GM, but hey opinions vary.
I'll dredge up my copies from their dusty lair and re-acquaint myself with them. Supplement wise we found Cthulhu in the 1890's an excellent setting package. Green and Pleasant Land which provides info on adventuring in the UK is also useful. The modules are largely pretty easy to run, or you can write your own stuff which we branched out into after a couple of years of playing the published material. Avoid the Orient Express modules - very difficult to run. Most of the bigger modules require some thorough reading and planning before running - so the GM/keeper has to do some work. Having a good grip on timelines of events and keeping track of the passage of time in a CoC game is a must have for many modules as often events occur along a timeline basis.
The rule-book (3rd-5th) provides some scenarios ranging in depth. Start with the smaller ones and build on up. There is lots of scope for campaign style play - a group of investigators, recurring mysteries, advancing historical timelines etc which makes for a compelling long-term game.
The game mechanics are kinda RuneQuesty but cut-down in complexity. Combat can be nasty brutish and short if there are decent firearms in the game so pick your time period carefully. Using spells which involves checking to save sanity tends to lead to such investigators going off the deep end rapidly. It helps to have a psychoanalyst/psychologist type character in the group. Having someone with some medical/first-aid experience is also a must have. Arguably 'Library Use' is one of the most important skills in the game.
That's all I can come up with off the bat. As ever all of the above is subject to differing opinions. But I've played CoC in various incarnations for about 10-15 years or so, so hopefully I'm not being too controversial there. If you have any more specific questions - fire away!
Is it fun? Hell yeah. There you are armed only with a pepperpot and a stout stick, with deep-ones emerging from the waves or nearby lake. Your best pal has gone stark staring mad from seeing the things in the first place and is of no use to you, and you've ill-advisedly split the group up to let the brains of the pack rummage through the local library for clues. What you gonna do? And that's just a pretty minor servitor race. Insert a more major mythos beasty into that equation and you can ramp up the fear big stylee. Plus I always liked being able to mix genres with it - very easy to customize. Loads of potential. We have some fond memories of our games and COC games in particular.
Dr.B.