The 'quick start' rules for the forthcoming 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu have been out for almost a year now.  Has anyone here tried them out?  If so, what are your impressions?  How does 7e compare to pre-7e CoC?

Also, any links to informative reviews of the 7e CoC QS rules would be appreciated.  Thanks!

Chaosium gave backers a free copy of the 7th Edition adventure Dead Light around Christmas, so I gave it a spin with the quickstart rules.

It's still essentially the CoC you know and love at heart, except all those attribute x5 rolls get precalculated. The most useful thing about the quickstart, to me, is that it gives parameters for quickly statting up a useful character who might not necessarily be 100% legal by the terms of the full character generation system, but isn't overwhelmingly competent or staggeringly incompetent compared to those who have gone through that. I'd certainly consider using it for pickup games or other circumstances where I'd want to slash back character generation time.

Quote from: Warthur;774322Chaosium gave backers a free copy of the 7th Edition adventure Dead Light around Christmas, so I gave it a spin with the quickstart rules.

L'Appel de Cthulhu does the same. Do they also replace the Luck and Idea rolls?

Here's hoping they cribbed more good things from it.

Quote from: Warthur;774322It's still essentially the CoC you know and love at heart, except all those attribute x5 rolls get precalculated. The most useful thing about the quickstart, to me, is that it gives parameters for quickly statting up a useful character who might not necessarily be 100% legal by the terms of the full character generation system, but isn't overwhelmingly competent or staggeringly incompetent compared to those who have gone through that. I'd certainly consider using it for pickup games or other circumstances where I'd want to slash back character generation time.

Now this is really interesting.

What about the whole iffy "roll again (or get a bonus, don't remember which) at the cost of more dire consequences if you fail"?

I explained the option to the players, they didn't actually take advantage of it as I recall.

I suspect the players in question would only go for that option if the result of simple failure is already unacceptable.

I'm currently playing in a CoC game that started before the Quickstart rules were released, so we're (mostly) playing by 6th ed rules. But even as brief as they are, the QS rules have been useful - they are by far the CLEAREST version of CoC rules that I've ever seen and I've played CoC for years. I look forward to the final version...

Nope. Read through them; was very disappointed by the design choices they made; didn't have any desire to run it for my group.

Having learned nothing from the failures of D&D4 and WFRP3, Chaosium decides to take the longest running stable RPG system and not only chase the New School into the Indie/Dramatic Logic design space even though there are already multiple Lovecraft games in that space, but also alter the core rules to limit full compatibility with BRP, the hallmark of all previous Chaosium games.

Just thought I'd help out Jon Peterson or whoever with their inquiry letter when they write the book Chaosium: Roadmap to Failure.

Quick guide to converting COC 7E to be compatible with the rest of BRP: Divide all attributes by 5. This is fast because you'll have already done so in order to work out your target number for especially difficult rolls.

Job done.

Less snarky reply: Pendragon deviates from BRP far more substantially than CoC 7E does, Prince Valiant even more so. So it ain't quite the universal hallmark of all preceding Chaosium games you think it is.

Quote from: CRKrueger;774367Having learned nothing from the failures of D&D4 and WFRP3, Chaosium decides to take the longest running stable RPG system and not only chase the New School into the Indie/Dramatic Logic design space even though there are already multiple Lovecraft games in that space

That's my impression of it as well. I've seen one of the designers speak of 'fixing' the game... so I think I'll just stick with the 'broken' version.

I've been running a Call of Cthulhu campaign using the 7th edition Quick-Start rules and using 6th edition where not otherwise specified.

I think making all of the stats percentile does help with clarity, but doesn't change much. There are definitely a few changes in combat - nothing too big. The quick-start didn't have much on Sanity, which I'm hoping will be clarified. Chaosium has always tended towards having tailored systems for their games rather than a generic system like GURPS, so that part is fine for me.

I was OK with the priority-pick-based character creation. It's nothing special but works fine.

The only story-gamish change is the option to "push" a failed roll and try again for success with very dangerous consequences if you fail. This is tempting and been used a few times in my campaign - once resulting in the death of a PC. This is a less immersive option, but it has been a fun one for us.

Quote from: Simlasa;774395That's my impression of it as well. I've seen one of the designers speak of 'fixing' the game... so I think I'll just stick with the 'broken' version.

Badda boom badda BINGO!

We already have a Cthulhu game that fixes a non-existent problem, no need for Chaosium to follow suit.

Quote from: CRKrueger;774367Having learned nothing from the failures of D&D4 and WFRP3, Chaosium decides to take the longest running stable RPG system and not only chase the New School into the Indie/Dramatic Logic design space even though there are already multiple Lovecraft games in that space, but also alter the core rules to limit full compatibility with BRP, the hallmark of all previous Chaosium games.

Don't forget the precedent set with the astonishing success of GURPS 4E when it decided to break compatibility with the vast library of high quality and compatible material that was the primary reason most people were interested in the game. (/s)

So, Dead Light has some conversion notes from CoC 7E to previous editions. You could fit them on a business card and many of them relate to the utterly minor modifications to the skill list that have accompanied every new edition.

I swear, you guys see "new edition" and immediately go into a D&D4/WFRP3 panic. Can't wait for the full rules to come out so we can have this discussion all over again with added facts.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;774456Don't forget the precedent set with the astonishing success of GURPS 4E when it decided to break compatibility with the vast library of high quality and compatible material that was the primary reason most people were interested in the game. (/s)

Steve Jackson still sells GURPS? :idunno: