where do i start with Call of Cthulhu?

[Circusfreak]

Hello Escapists.
I recently got into proper roleplaying via DnD(first a very loose spin on 4ed and then a more serious 3.5 adventure)
I would really like to start GMing something and i really like horror. so i did some research and found out that call of Cthulhu is concidered a very good game. however i could not really find where to start chewing on this big delicious cake of awesome.

so what books do i need, should i get the d20 verision or the regular one? which one IS the regular one? should i read any of the Lovecraft novels first?

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Chaosiums percentile die system (currently in its' sixth edition) is far, far superior to the disastrous d20 system. As for a place to start, I'd suggest picking up some Lovecraft novels, most notably the Shadow over Innsmouth and Beyond the Mountains of Madness. The actual Call of Cthulhu novel is included within the main rulebook itself, but is a definite must read too.

As for actually running a game within CoC, make sure your players actually are ready for a very slow paced game. "Proper" CoC sessions usually involve 70-80% of research, preparation and planning and the rest being actual roleplay within the "hotspot" of the session (like the haunted house, abandoned mine or whatever). The horror part in Call of Cthulhu stems largely from the players slowly realizing just how far into the deep end they are about to throw themselves and then going through with it.

Naturally, you could run a CoC game in a more "hands on" kind of way, with more adventurous exploration but by doing so you miss out on the good parts of the CoC system. If that's the kind of game you are looking for, I'd personally go for the new World of Darkness (without any of the "monster"-games, such as vampire or werewolf). It offers a simpler but more moddable system and has some really great splat books (Mysterious places, ghost stories, asylum and antagonists all spring to mind) for getting you started with horror roleplaying. Personally, I've used WoD far more then CoC for my horror roleplaying needs, simply because the WoD system is so easily moddable and it doesn't have the mechanical, narrative or expectation limitations that comes with Call of Cthulhu.

 

[DoPo]

Well, I haven't played CoC but I'll try to give you tips.

First, it's not required to read Lovecraft but it would certainly help. Keep in mind that he has short stories mainly, not novels, so it would be easy to read a couple and understand the general atmosphere. But read more than a couple, since you like horror, you should like Lovecraft.

Second, I'd suggest getting the original version. I didn't know there was a d20 one but I looked it up now - it's no longer supported and besides it's d20. I don't really like the system, however, I've heard good things about the original, which uses a d100, so it's percentage based.

Last (but not least), books - 6th edition came out in 2004, which is the latest, so why not go for that. Try to get an anniversary edition - those are usually better, with with text cleared up and small changes made - there is a 25th anniversary edition from 2006 and 30th anniversary edition from 2011. There is a 20th anniversary edition from 2001 which uses 5.5th edition and might still be a good buy.

 

[Circusfreak]

Thank you, I have done some reseach and decided to get the World of Darkness core book. ( already writing my first adventure )
Since you seem to have played a lot of WoD then perhaps you can answer a rule question for me?:

how many dots can a player spend on skills/attributes upon creating that character? Does everyone start with 1 in each? how do I award them more points to spend? how does exp translate to dots?

i have read ahead in a PDF of the rulebook(fair, since I'm gonna buy it anyways) and I did not find an explanation to this anywhere.

[EDIT!]: nevermind the questions, i found all the answer as soon as i posted that.