Have a friend who is running Cthulhu but he found the d20 version and Chaosium a little too heavy for his tastes as a GM. Any thoughts on the best rules light game for Cthulhu (doesn't have to be directly Lovecraftian, as long as the system is easy to use for that purpose)?

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1035381Have a friend who is running Cthulhu but he found the d20 version and Chaosium a little too heavy for his tastes as a GM. Any thoughts on the best rules light game for Cthulhu (doesn't have to be directly Lovecraftian, as long as the system is easy to use for that purpose)?

Cthulhu Dark is one example.

It is free and have like four pages of rules. My only nit-pick would be the rule that trying to fight anything will result into automatic death. So no resolution for combat included.
But easily changed by just judgeing if a combat is at least possible to win depending on opponent and general situation: Fight some cultists, some Mi-go or a Deep One while sufficiently armed I would totally ok with a general roll. Fight Yog-Sothoth and the standard rule apply.

The lightest game I know of is Cthulhu Dark but it's not really a roleplaying game as much as it is a storytelling game about how the Mythos drives your character insane (as the ignorant normal world would call you) as you grasp the true reality of existence.  If that's the experience you're looking for, Cthulhu Dark is quite effective at giving it to you.  Very cleverly designed.

Another self-described storytelling game is tremulus, a PbtA hack designed to create tales similar to Lovecraft.

If Call of Cthulhu is too heavy, I can't recommend Trail of Cthulhu with all its different pools and points.  If he's GMing for one person there's supposed to be a 2-person version of Gumshoe which people say works better than the original.  There's a Cthulhu Confidential game specifically for this 2-person version.

Realms of Cthulhu is a really good Savage Worlds game, intentionally on the lighter side when it comes to Edges, Skills, etc.

If D20 Cthulhu is too heavy, you could always try AD&D with the Cthulhu Mythos chapter from Deities and Demigods.  Stuff from the D20 game can probably be converted if needed.

Cthulhu Hack is super light, but nothing more than a cheap gimmick.  Take anything you could possibly do in a Cthulhu scenario and shoehorn it into either a Saving Throw or a Black Hack Resource Roll.  Every time there's a clue, you can find it through Investigation.  Any thing physical you have to do uses up the "Flashlights" resource, any social thing you have to do uses up the "Smokes" resource.  So bad it's comedic.

Leagues of Cthulhu is a Ubiquity system game.  Never read it, but it's by Paul Wade-Williams aka Wiggy from Savage Worlds/Hellfrost fame.

There's lots of cool d100 stuff by Modiphius, Cubicle 7 and especially Cakebread and Walton, but if baseline CoC is too heavy, I wouldn't recommend them.

Silent Legions is Kevin Crawford's Lovecraftian game.  It's really a toolbox that allow you to create your own Mythos-like setting and creatures.  No reason you couldn't use it to duplicate the Cthulhu Mythos.  Like all Crawford stuff, it's very light D&D based.

Realms of Cthulhu is probably your best bet followed by Silent Legions and then maybe Leagues of Cthulhu if Ubiquity is his thing.

If D20 Cthulhu is too heavy (it is for me too) I have written a little OSR version called Black Books: Tomes of the Outer Darkness that might be nearer to what you are looking for.

If not Shadows of Cthulhu uses the True 20 system to good effect making something that is a bit lighter than D20 Cthulhu.

I'd second the Realms of Cthulhu but it certainly seems more pulp than Chaosium.

I am surprised that he found Chaosium heavy, to be honest.

I will drop my own RATS IN THE WALLS, it got pretty good reviews so far. It's PWYW, so no big risk for him to try it.

Earlier editions of Call of Cthulhu. The basic system is pretty light.

Seriously? D100 is too heavy?? How does this friend play any of your games?

Sine Nomine's SILENT LEGIONS is a great toolbox and the system is B/X lite, however, I doubt that's much lighter than Chaosium's CoC system (at least pre-6th edition).

If your friend is a fan of Phantasm, Jared Sorensen did a fun little free game called Sphear. I've run it (modified) and it was extremely lite.
http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/sphear

Quote from: kobayashi;1035518I will drop my own RATS IN THE WALLS,

Pimp it! Tell us more about your RPG!

Quote from: Simon W;1035434I have written a little OSR version called Black Books: Tomes of the Outer Darkness.

See above. Get thee to the pimping!

Quote from: Spinachcat;1035771Pimp it! Tell us more about your RPG!

Ok:

Basically, I ran CoC for a long time (and I've been running a Laundry campaign for almost three years now) and as I got old, I looked for a simpler system (that doesn't rely that much on skills mainly).

But I didn't want a "one-shot" type of game either. I wanted to play long-term campaigns with it if I wanted too. I also wanted to share what years of GMing horror-style games and writing adventures for my players taught me, so you 'll find some advice in there as well.

I also wanted to keep CoC awesome flexibility, where you can go purist and pulp in the same campaign or even the same session.

RATS IN THE WALLS is the result. The game system is 2D6 + Attribute > 8. The default setting is the roaring 20s and there's an appendix for creating medieval characters. A Sci-Fi setting is in the works as well (with no derelict station/ship and xenomorphs in sight).

That's it !

Quote from: RPGPundit;1035765Seriously? D100 is too heavy?? How does this friend play any of your games?

I was oversimplifying in my OP. As a player, he is up for any system. But he doesn't run many games and decided to run Cthulhu. That said, I don't think he ever stated he found Chaosium too complicated, I just didn't get the impression that he had any interest running the system and was looking for more recent suggestions. I did recommend some Chaosium modules to him though.

I sent the suggestions along. Krueger, he particular liked your breakdown. Apparently I misunderstood his initial complaint about d20. His main concern was speed of play (so complex isn't a problem unless the complexity leads to things like slow combat that bogs down play).

I like Cthulhu Abides.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;1035790I was oversimplifying in my OP. As a player, he is up for any system. But he doesn't run many games and decided to run Cthulhu. That said, I don't think he ever stated he found Chaosium too complicated, I just didn't get the impression that he had any interest running the system and was looking for more recent suggestions. I did recommend some Chaosium modules to him though.

Ah, fair enough.

Another +1 for Silent Legions. Also will help with running something on short notice.