Looking for a game that’s a little more grounded than most fantasy games, but has a great twist and will give you chills deep in your soul? Yeah, Call of Cthulhu can do that for you. The first step, besides finding a game and a Keeper to collaborate with, is to get your investigator created, so let’s take a look and see if we can simplify it so you can get playing!
Call of Cthulhu plays quite differently than the more heroic RPGs out there. Themes of horror and madness are throughout, and the main conflicts are going to be more about investigating, uncovering mysteries, and simply surviving than they are about fighting. When the fighting starts, think about running or heroic sacrifice!
Right off the bat, I’m going to recommend that when you’re creating your investigator that you tie them to the setting and story being told, which means working with your Keeper of Arcane Secrets (the person running the game). Create an investigator who has passions and is willing to follow them to the extremes of mental and physical danger! My other recommendation is to specialize, and embrace flaws. You’ll be playing as part of a team, and the way Call of Cthulhu works, having a bunch of skills at 50% is far less useful than having a few at 70% or higher.
We’re going to be going over the standard method of character creation here, but definitely check in with your Keeper to see if you’re going to be playing with any optional rules. Then the first thing to do is grab the character sheet from Chaosium, which will save us a lot of math and give us a place to write everything down! You’ll also need three 6-sided dice.
There are a few variations on setting for Call of Cthulhu, but the main one is the 1920s, so put on some Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong and let’s get you an investigator on (digital) paper!
Roll Your Characteristics
We’ll start by rolling our characteristics. These are the numbers that tell us about the fundamental abilities of our investigator. We’re going to roll your three dice, add them up, and multiply the result by 5 for each of the boxes that say Reg(regular) beside STR(Strength), CON(Constitution), DEX(Dexterity), APP(Appearance), POW(Power), and Luck. The sheet should fill out the other two boxes in each section for you.
Now we’re going to roll two of those 6-sided dice, add them together, add 6, then multiply the result by 5 for each of the SIZ(Size), INT(Intelligence), and EDU(Education) boxes. Because of adding 6 instead of rolling the third dice, these could be a bit higher, and that’s intentional! Intelligence and Education are highly valued in Call of Cthulhu, although it definitely can still be fun to play a knucklehead!
So we’ve got the characteristics filled out! Now we can start taking numbers and using them to figure out who your investigator is going to be. Did you roll up a character strong and highly educated, but has a low constitution? Maybe they’re a former high ranking military officer who was injured during their career and now gets sick frequently. High Appearance and Education? That could mean a privileged upbringing where you learned to be charming alongside attending university, or it could mean a tricky con artist who’s learned a little of everything as they’ve swindled their way across the country.
Once you’ve got an idea who this investigator might be, it’s time to decide how old they are. This will modify your characteristics slightly, as age gets to us all! There’s a chart for this in the Investigator Handbook, or your Keeper can help you with it. When that’s done and filled out, fill out your Starting Sanity score, which is the same as your Power score. Hit Points, Magic Points, Build, and Movement should have been taken care of by the character sheet automatically.
Occupation and Skills
Alright, let’s step away from numbers for just a second. Hopefully by now you’re getting an idea who this Investigator is, so now it’s time to choose an Occupation. Occupations give a list of skills your investigator is going to potentially specialize in, sometimes including free choices, and determines which characteristics are used to figure out how many points you can assign there. It also gives you the range for your Credit Rating, which determines how wealthy your investigator is. A list of Occupations is available in the Investigator Handbook.
Next do the occupation skill points math, usually EDU times 4. That will give you a number of skill points to be assigned, so take that number and look at your investigator sheet. Choosing skills from the occupation skills list, distribute those points around to those skills. There’s a number beside each skill on the sheet, and that’s your starting point, so if you choose Accounting, it starts at 5% and if you add 50 points, you’re now at 55%. Fill that in, and don’t forget to add some points to your Credit Rating, and decide your Own(Native) Language then set it to equal your EDU!
Quick note, some skills have specializations, like Art/Craft and Language. You can’t choose the category itself, but you can choose things under each of those umbrella categories. Acting, for example, is a specialization under Art/Craft.
Okay! Now we’re getting skilled up. With occupation skill points distributed, it’s time to do interest points. Multiply your INT score by 2, and distribute that to any skills you like, excluding the Cthulhu Mythos skill. This represents your investigator’s interests outside work!
Backstory
Sweet. Done with numbers. Now let’s get to the juice that gives those numbers life; backstory.
Definitely work with your Keeper here, but on your sheet there’s 10 entries under the Backstory heading. Try to make sure the first 6 have information in them before playing, although it’s not strictly necessary.
Pick things here that are passionate, intense, things that fire emotions and give motivations to your investigator, keep in mind the genre and setting, and try to use the language that entails. Does your investigator dislike their hometown? No, they despise it! Was your investigator orphaned mysteriously? Then maybe you're willing to sacrifice everything to find out what happened to your parents, or crushed under the feeling of debt to the aunt that took you in afterward.
Once you’ve got those filled out, choose one to be a keystone for your character, called a Key Backstory Connection. This is a big backstory item that gives your investigator their primary motivation, and can be used to recover Sanity points between adventures.
The Keeper can and likely will mess with items from your backstory, but your key connection can't be touched without your investigator having at least some small chance to affect the outcome and potentially save it/them!
These items give you an outline for roleplaying your investigator and making decisions in their head, for caring about what happens in the game and fictional world you'll be inhabiting!
Last Steps
With all that done, all that’s left is to choose a name, write up a description of your investigator's physique, appearance, manner, then spend some cash to equip your investigator!
And that’s it! You should be ready to jump in, at least after talking with your Keeper and learning about the story you’ll be playing in!
One last resource I’d like to mention is The Dhole’s House, an official online toolkit for Call of Cthulhu. If you’re going to be playing online or just want a place to create investigators, it’s a great resource!
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StenBjorn has been playing RPGs for over 30 years and they’re only getting better with time!
