So post-HDBZ: Champ's Build launch, I have a brief lull in assignments. Additionally, I feel I've been not active on the forums outside of the game's development, so how about some fun??? After seeing some posts in Random Topic regarding RPGs, I had an idea.

Introducing...

What is Call of Cthulhu?
Call of Cthulhu was originally a story written by H.P. Lovecraft in 1926 about the titular monster (which you can read for free online here due to it being public domain), but for OUR purposes, Call of Cthulhu is a tabletop RPG created by Chaosium that strives to emulate the feel of Lovecraft's stories. While there are rules and dice being rolled, the emphasis is on storytelling, character development, and a looming sense of dread knowing that you're only prolonging the destruction of mankind as we know it. In other words, it's fun for the whole family!

Why Call of Cthulhu? Why not, say, Dungeons and Dragons?
I think Call of Cthulhu is easier to get started on versus other RPGs. Gameplay-wise, character setup can be done very, very quickly, and rolling for skills is very straightforward and makes a lot of sense. Most dice rolls are handled by D100, with the others only coming in to calculate sanity loss or attack damage.

Second, due to how barebones the system is, it is VERY possible to create a large number of scenarios set in various time periods. The most (and my personal favorite) is the 1920s, but there are games that can be played in medieval times, the Cold War, the present day, the future... the sky's the limit! We don't even have to be limited to Lovecraftian horror, as there are a wide variety of existing scenarios in the formula including drama, noir, even... romance???

Third, the ease of the system means that you have more room to develop your character! A character sheet in this game is only two pages long, and the second page is ENTIRELY for you to develop personality traits, special belongings, phobias, etc etc. And yes, I've had some ridiculously jokey characters generated before, but they ended up being the most fleshed out before the game is over.

Finally, it's the only RPG I've actually GM'ed before so I'm more familiar with how it works lol.

Why 7th edition?
There are a lot of hardcore Cthulhu players that HATE 7th edition, but I choose to run it. Why? Because 7th edition basically takes the already easy rules and makes them even easier. In addition, 7th edition adds "Quick-Start" rules that make it easy to set up a character if you don't want to spend a lot of time setting up stats and abilities.

Basically, it's easier for both me and the players.

How do you intend to make this game work?
Obviously we can't do the spontaneity of the table, so we have to make adjustments for a board, so here's my proposal.

First of all, I can't have the ENTIRE forum joining, so whoever's interested would apply and I would choose if they're available (the max is six players, because that's the standard for rules and more than that makes my head hurt lol). However, I might find other ways to let outsiders participate in other ways, even if just to leave comments.

With that established, here's how I'd go about doing it:

• Scene Phase: I'll present the scenario and anything that might be happening at the moment.
• Investigator Discussion Phase: This is where you're allowed to discuss things with your fellow team members or NPCs played by me. You would use spoiler tags whenever you're speaking meta (ie: you have a question about the game ie: "Is my character insane?" or "Where am I in relation to the window?"). Whenever you want to address someone directly, you can use the forum's tag feature to notify them.
• Investigator Action Phase: Use bold to declare your action. If it's simple enough, you'll be allowed to do it, no questions asked. Otherwise, I'll ask you to roll for a specific skill.
• Result Phase: I'll discuss the results of all of your actions. After which, another Scene Phase starts and we loop around again.

Again, this is just a proposal, if anyone has a better format, go ahead and let me know.

What will I need to play?

• The Quick Start Guide so you know the basic rules.
• A 1920's Character Sheet. There's a blank and an autocalc version, so choose whichever you like better or whatever your computer can handle. Instructions for setting them up are in the aforementioned Quick Start Guide
• A set of RPG dice OR this site to handle dice rolls.
• The ability to read/respond to notifications or PMs. Can't have the game hanging because one dude is loafing around (players that take too long might get penalized in some way)! Additionally, as GM, I will PM some users from time to time to tell them information only their specific character has access to.

So ummm, yeah, any questions or ideas before I do a formal thread for this?