Combat in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition

We have a new episode out today as a Christmas present to the world. Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill towards all men, which can only mean that it’s time for us to talk about violence.

All the colours of Christmas

This episode is our discussion of combat in Call of Cthulhu, especially some of the changes in 7th edition. We also talk about our preferences for how to handle combat, and how important we think it is in our games. You will be shocked to hear that we disagree with each other.

Happily, we have developed ways of resolving our differences

This also marks the start of our move to fortnightly releases. Yes, that means that the episode should have been out yesterday, but since Matt forced Paul to reintroduce Attract Fish to Call of Cthulhu, Paul’s Dropbox account has been clogged up with sprat and whiting.

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2 comments on “Combat in Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition”

RogerBW Dec 28, 2013

The classic CoC combat system is an interesting compromise: by the standards of its day it was terribly lightweight, but by now it looks like a relic that gets in the way of the story. There are still clunky bits (like the way dodging works), but if change is needed at all I’m inclined to agree with the Cthulhu Dark approach. (Unfortunately most of my regular players don’t go for nihilistic games.)

If you use a more detailed system — I tend to run most things under GURPS — then you can bring body horror into the effects of combat, which I find quite handy. It’s not just loss of hit points, it’s your arm getting broken, or you getting dazed for a few seconds.

Paul Fricker Dec 30, 2013

Combat has been significantly revised for 7th ed – I’d be interested to hear what you make of the new version!

RogerBW Dec 28, 2013
The classic CoC combat system is an interesting compromise: by the standards of its day it was terribly lightweight, but by now it looks like a relic that gets in the way of the story. There are still clunky bits (like the way dodging works), but if change is needed at all I’m inclined to agree with the Cthulhu Dark approach. (Unfortunately most of my regular players don’t go for nihilistic games.)
If you use a more detailed system — I tend to run most things under GURPS — then you can bring body horror into the effects of combat, which I find quite handy. It’s not just loss of hit points, it’s your arm getting broken, or you getting dazed for a few seconds.
Paul Fricker Dec 30, 2013
Combat has been significantly revised for 7th ed – I’d be interested to hear what you make of the new version!