Session Zero: Character & World Building [TEST]

Occupations

Archaeologist

Author

Cat Burglar

Dilettante

Explorer

Investigative Journalist

Nurse

Private Investigator

menu_book How to Play Call of Cthulhu

Learn how to create a character and play Call of Cthulhu in less than fifteen minutes! Creating an investigator starts with their characteristics: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Appearance, Intelligence, Power, Size, Education, and Movement. From these, you can also derive characters' hit points, as well as their starting sanity and occupational and personal skill points. Next, you'll assign those skill points to the skills your character would have based on their age, their job, and their level of education and intelligence. Skills are generally rated from 0-100, with a higher rating being more likely to succeed at that skill. To round out your character, you'll create a backstory for them, determine their wealth, and use that wealth to equip them. Then your investigator is ready to plumb the depths of mysteries mortals were never meant to know! In play, the core mechanic uses a d100, or percentile dice. When using a skill or making a check, players roll a d100 against their rating in the relevant skill. If the result is equal to the skill rating or below, the action succeeds. In significantly difficult situations, the game master (or Keeper) may require the character to roll half their skill rating or below, or in even more extreme cases, one-fifth their rating or below. Players can also "push" a failed roll, giving them a chance to re-roll, but with worse consequences if they fail. Combat is quite lethal in Call of Cthulhu, as a horror game about normal human beings, and failing to evade attacks or fight back in a fight can lead to debilitating injuries or a swift end. Additionally, horrific experiences like extreme violence and brushes with the horrors of the Cthulhu mythos threaten investigators' sanity. When this happens, character make a sanity roll. Failure causes them to lose points of sanity and take involuntary action in a panic. Even success might still stick with them, depending on the threat. After all, mere humans uncovering cosmic mysteries in Lovecraftian horror are nearly always doomed to be victims of their own insatiable curiosity.