Cthulhu Architect designs modern maps suitable for various RPGs, including Call of Cthulhu. Their maps are versatile and can be used in multiple settings, providing detailed environments for investigators to explore.

Cthulhu Architect

Lovemaps creates unique, detailed maps specifically for Call of Cthulhu RPGs. Their maps are designed to immerse players in a Lovecraftian atmosphere, enhancing the horror experience.

Lovemaps

Jason Thompson, known as Mockman, is a comic artist and illustrator who has created walkthrough maps for classic Call of Cthulhu scenarios, such as 'The Haunting.' His detailed maps help players navigate complex environments.

Jason Thompson (Mockman)

Miska's Maps offers high-quality sci-fi and fantasy battlemaps and props for tabletop RPGs, including Call of Cthulhu. Their work is designed for both print and virtual tabletops, providing a range of maps suitable for various settings.

Miska's Maps

Jason Thompson, known as Mockman, is a comic artist and illustrator renowned for his detailed walkthrough maps of classic Call of Cthulhu scenarios. His work, such as the 'The Haunting' walkthrough map, provides players with intricate visual guides to navigate complex environments.

John T. Snyder is an American artist whose work has appeared in role-playing games, including Call of Cthulhu. He is known for his fantasy art, contributing to the game's atmosphere with his illustrations.

John T. Snyder

Marion Anderson is a designer and illustrator who has worked on various Call of Cthulhu publications. She contributed to the 'Cairo Guidebook,' providing over thirty maps and building plans of temples and other popular tourist sites, enhancing the game's immersive experience.

Marion Anderson

Matt Ryan is a cartographer who has contributed to Call of Cthulhu publications, including the 'Terror Australis' supplement. His work includes detailed maps that enrich the game's settings and adventures.

Matt Ryan

Call of Cthulhu is a tabletop roleplaying game of eldritch horror. At its core, it’s about ordinary human investigators gradually uncovering knowledge mankind was never meant to comprehend. Frequently, this takes the form of monsters and phenomena of the Cthulhu mythos, but may also include cults, magic, demons, and cosmic truths or mysteries of the universe. This exposure to the supernatural wears down the investigators’ sanity and leaves them almost inevitably mad or dead—but playing a character who cannot resist their own curiosity, even if it dooms them, is the name of the game!

The default setting for Call of Cthulhu is 1920s America, but the system is flexible enough to be set anywhere with a little editing of the skills. Victorian England, the Middle Ages, and the modern day (among others) are all officially supported by the publishers, but there is nothing to stop a creative Keeper from setting their game anytime, anywhere!

The most commonly used dice in Call of Cthulhu are the d100, or d%, a set of two ten-sided dice that, when rolled together, produce results from 1–100. Some circumstantial rolls in the system, however, may also require dice with 4, 6, 8, and 20 sides, so a full set of seven roleplaying dice is recommended (though your d12 may feel a bit left out).

What dice do you need for Call of Cthulhu?

Obviously this will vary from table to table, but here are some good places to start! If your game is played in person, most likely you will want to get a set of dice, something to write with, and paper to take notes. 
If your game is hosted online instead, you will probably need to make accounts on a few sites for things like character sheets, access to the Virtual Tabletop for maps and tokens, and sites like Discord or Zoom for video/voice calls during the session. 
You won't always need to have the rulebooks to start, but if you want to read through them to make sure you know all the rules, this might also be a good option.

What supplies do I need to play Call of Cthulhu?

Call of Cthulhu covers an impressive range of topics and styles, including violence, horror, romance, and many many more! However, if there are specific themes or content that you’re uncomfortable with, let your group and GM know before the game, and have an open conversation about these topics. 
Any group worth playing with should be respectful and understanding of your concerns and the game can be adjusted so everyone is having fun. Many tables also use “Safety Tools” which help ensure that these conversations are handled easily, and everyone has a voice at the table.

What if I'm not comfortable with certain themes or content in Call of Cthulhu?

Call of Cthulhu uses a percentile-based skill system, where players roll two ten-sided dice to produce a number 1–100, trying to roll under their skill level, which is rated as a percentage chance to succeed on an average task in that skill. Famously, it also has a Sanity stat which wears down as investigators delve deeper into forbidden knowledge and encounter mind-bending evidence of the Cthulhu Mythos in their world. Player characters’ fates frequently include descent into madness or death.

How to play Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu is a TTRPG about humans, often in the 1920s, navigating a world where weird, if not eldritch, creatures seem in. Usually to the player character's mental or physical detrament. But saying so undervalues the breadth of what Call of Cthulhu adventures are and can be. For example, E.T. would have little trouble fitting into Call of Cthulhu's ruleset or themes. So does Friday the 13th. (And, yes, Call of Cthulhu often leans into Lovecraftian horror.)   

As a TTRPG, Call of Cthulhu has two primary strengths. (1) It's comparatively an easy system to learn and (2) it has a massive backlog of adventures to explore. Really too many to list here, but Missed Dues is a great place to start. Or, for a chill, if heartwarming investigation, there's Paper Chase.

On the flip side, Call of Cthulhu isn't for everyone. There's a common emphasis on horror, investigation, and the specter of character death. And your character isn't a hero, they're a person trying to make their way.

In short, I recommend giving Call of Cthulhu a try through one of its many excellent one-shot adventures. See if it clicks for you. Then explore more, the Great Old Ones are waiting.

Golvin

You don't have to be the fastest investigator in Call of Cthulhu, you just don't want to be the slowest. Elder gods and non-Euclidean math hang heavy over the heads of the players, daring them to dive deep into their curiosity and cross the line that separates insanity and good decisions. The Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system originated in CoC and gives players all the skills to investigate what goes bump in the night and to cling to their Sanity Points for as long as they can before madness takes over. If you're looking for a serious Scooby Doo mystery where there is no cranky caretaker under the mask, get down to Arkham, Massachusetts.

Andrew M. "Fish" Popowich

One of the longer-running published games, Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, has not just 50 years of lore and game mechanics but a trove of inspiration for H.P. Lovecraft and other Cthulhu mythos authors. It's more about keeping your sanity than your hitpoints. This is a go-to game for me and my friends when we want to play something other than a dungeon crawler.

DM Greg

DM DethStruck

Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition is a great base system for any period of history, and brings a gritty, chilling edge to the Wild West with the Down Darker Trails supplement. 

The vast, lonely frontier becomes a perfect backdrop for cosmic horror, where ghost towns hide cults, mines uncover ancient evils, and the promise of Manifest Destiny leads straight to madness. 

Out there, a six-shooter won’t save you from what’s lurking in the shadows, and survival means facing unspeakable horrors. 

It’s a raw, haunting take on the West that’ll stick with you long after the game ends.

DuChampion (JJ)

I LOVE! Call of Cthulhu it's in my top 5 games of TTRPG's to play.  You create an investigative type character with just some type of regular person expertise.  Then you investigate strange phenomena. That gets weirder and darker and more dangerous.  Perhaps your body dies.  Perhaps your brain breaks.  Hopefully you investigate just enough to help others.  There's a chance you return fine.  But that's the least likely scenario. 

This heavy in the occult TTRPG has engaging stories and fun mechanics to help bring the disgust and creep factor.  

Highly Highly recommended

Adam

Call of Cthulhu is the game I would want to make if it didn't already exist. I was recently turned on to the horror genre by the award-winning HBO show Lovecraft Country. What I loved about it was how it dipped into so many subgenres of horror, all while keeping the political reality close at hand-- what's more horrifying: the murderous white supremacy of a local police station, or the folkloric monsters lurking in the woods. 
If you also loved that show, or if cosmic horror is your favorite brand of scare (fear of the unknown is the most intense, humanity is cosmically insignificant, knowledge comes with a steep cost to your sanity), then you gotta try this game. It's an old game, so there are a lot of pre-written adventures to choose from, but the most recent 7th edition has been around long enough that we are living through what feels like the renaissance of Cthulhu. 
The most memorable mechanics of Cthulhu are the vast array of skills you can spend points on (Anthropology, Diving, Hypnosis, Psychoanalysis, and Reading Lips made the list!), the Sanity Roll (like mental resilience against the horror of an ungraspable reality), and the beautiful d100 system, where you roll percentile dice and need to roll under a target number from your ability list to succeed, and can succeed by greater degrees the lower you roll.
If you can find a GM to run this one for you, give it a try! It's a blast.

Isaac

Call of Cthulhu is THE game for avid roleplayers. This game system forces players into a very realistic investigator where every encounter can prove to be lethal. Combat in Call of Cthulhu is resolved quickly and will not eat up much time during any session if the Keeper and players know what they are doing. My favorite aspect of this game system is how sanity is tracked and the drawbacks that they come with as your investigator slowly goes insane as they interact with the occult, eldritch abominations, and so many other gruesome sights.

Every game of Call of Cthulhu I've ever ran always makes my players think on their feet and plan their moves carefully. 

If you love mystery, horror, and lots of roleplay, this game system may just be for you!

Will

Call of Cthulhu is a horror TTRPG that has 3-5 investigators go from normal, everyday people to firsthand combatants of the horrors of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Fans of Locke and Key, Lovecraft Country, and Stranger Things, will love Call of Cthulhu. Everything from the space-traveling Byakhee, to the towering monstrosities known as the Great Race of Yith can be encountered in the tales the Keeper spins. Whether it is reality-bending gods or violent cultists enacting dark rituals; no matter the case: it’s up to the Investigators to stop these horrors and come out of it alive... If they are lucky.