Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed. QuickStart

The Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules give players a taste of the game without having to fork out for the complete rules. It's available as a free download on the Chaosium website or you can buy a hard copy for a few quid.Although I've been playing CoC for over 30 years and have always been happy to stump up whenever a new edition of the rules came out, this time I decided to test the waters before parting with my hard-earned dough - the reason being that previous editions only ever tweaked the rules and the 7th edition complete rulebook is very expensive. It's a big, glossy hardback affair and I haven't seen it on sale for less than £50. And I'm not willing to pay £50 or more for just a few tweaks. So I decided to get a copy of the Quick-Start Rules to see whether it would be worth splashing out for the complete rules.As advertised there's enough information about the rules to generate characters and play the adventure that's included. As I expected the adventure is an updated version of the Haunting (aka The Haunted House), which has appeared in every edition of the rules, and is surely the most-played adventure in the game's history.But let's talk about the rules changes.They're fairly significant, far more so than in previous editions.For starters characteristic values have been multiplied by five, so you no longer have to do the mental arithmetic in game if the GM asks you to make e.g. a STR roll. And (in the Quick-Start Rules at least) a standard characteristic array (40, 50, 50, 50, 60, 60, 70, 80) is used in place of random generation. This is definitely an improvement. Players shouldn't be rolling dice in character generation. Random rolls are the bane of choice and equality. And character generation should be all about choice and equality.In addition Luck has now been divorced from POW, which has to be good for game balance. POW was always too powerful. You now roll your Luck randomly, and although I dislike dice in the generation process, it is somewhat appropriate and it is the only stat you do roll.And income and the Credit Rating have finally been unified, so random income is now a thing of the past.Whether making attribute rolls or skill rolls, there are now degrees of success. A Regular Success is <= your skill, a Hard Success is <= 1/2 your skill, and an Extreme Success is <= 1/5 your skill. When making opposed rolls a Hard Success beats a Regular Success and an Extreme Success beats a Hard Success.They've also introduced Bonus and Penalty Dice to opposed rolls when one opponent is at an advantage or disadvantage. If a bonus or penalty applies then you roll the tens more than once and take the best result if it's a bonus and the worst if it's a penalty.Melee combat is now more dynamic. Whenever you are attacked you may choose to dodge or fight back. If you choose to dodge and you get a better success than your attacker you take no damage. If you choose to fight back then if you get a better success with your fighting skill you take no damage and also damage your opponent in return. So a character who's good in melee combat can effectively get multiple attacks in a single round - one attack plus a number of ripostes.They've also introduced simple but effective rules for combat manoeuvres like trips and throws.And there are plenty more changes - but these are the ones I like the most.From what the Quick-Start Rules have shown me it looks like the CoC rules have been given a much-needed overhaul. They've removed the random aspects of character generation which I never liked, and which most other RPGs ditched years ago, and have made conflict more dynamic without making it complicated.I'll definitely be buying a copy of the complete rules.

For those looking to get into roleplaying this is a great place to start. Since buying this I have gone on to buy everything Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition! Warning this system is great and the books are a brilliant read.

Doesn't really improve upon 6th edition but retains most of its flaws.