The greatest evils are never truly slain, they simply bide their time before their inevitable return. So it is that January's Call of Cthulhu deal on Humble Bundle has made a chilling return in time for Halloween—and it's still a fantastic way to pick up a whole library of spine-tingling adventures for cheap if you missed out last time.
Call of Cthulhu is one of the most venerable tabletop RPGs in the hobby, tracing its history all the way back to 1981. As you might expect from the name, it gives you the tools you need to tell stories of brave investigators getting tangled up with Lovecraftian horrors beyond their understanding.
This bundle includes everything you need to get started with it, and much more. The full collection is $25 / £18.76 for 26 items—that gets you everything from the core book, to various settings including Pulp and Dark Ages, to more adventures than you'll ever have time to run, and a Lovecraftian colouring book, for some reason. There's even a couple of solo adventures thrown in if you fancy heading into the dark alone…
The 11 item bundle at $15 / £11.25 is still a great introduction to the game, and probably the one to go for if you're curious but unsure. Though there's less adventures and supplements, it still includes the core book and a solo adventure, and easily enough content for multiple campaigns.
Less appealing is the four item bundle at $5 / £3.75—it's cheap enough to be a guilt-free impulse buy, and it does include the starter set so you can at least get a session together off the back of it, but it doesn't include the actual core book. Without that you're going to be very limited when it comes to running a full campaign, and I'm not sure you'd even have the tools to run the five included Doors to Darkness adventures.
I will say, these days Call of Cthulhu is showing its age. Its d100-based system does the job, but it's clunky and full of unnecessary detail, and lacks many of the innovative tools developed by more modern horror TTRPG titles such as Mothership and Alien: The Roleplaying Game. If you asked me for my favourite Lovecraftian games to play right now, I'd point you towards the mystery-focused Trail of Cthulhu or super light Cthulhu Dark over Call of Cthulhu at this point.
But that doesn't mean I wouldn't recommend this bundle. What Call of Cthulhu does have in its favour is a wonderfully rich understanding of the Mythos and a fantastic wealth of accumulated experience in what makes a Lovecraftian adventure work. Even if you don't intend to use the core system, this is still a ton of great content to use with other games—and honestly if you're as drawn to the eldritch as me, you'll probably enjoy just reading about all the horrible monsters the folks at publisher Chaosium have come up with over the years, whether you plan to unleash them on your table or not.
The bundle runs until November 2, by my count, so if you're drawn to its dark temptations, make sure to pick it up before then.
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