Call of Cthulhu (Role-Playing Game)

🔀 For the short story, see "The Call of Cthulhu"; for the 2005 film, see The Call of Cthulhu.

Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium. The game was first released in 1981, and eighteen editions (mostly fairly minor revisions) have been published to date.

The game makes use of Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system, first seen in the game RuneQuest, but with special rules for Sanity. It is notable among roleplaying games for its longevity and also for remaining largely unchanged for most of its history, with only the most recent seventh edition making significant changes to the rules.

In October 2024, Call of Cthulhu was inducted into the ENNIEs hall of fame, only the second inductee since the Hall was established the previous month.^[1]^[2] The award was presented to 7th edition co-authors Mike Mason and Paul Fricker at the 2025 Gen Con event in Indiana, USA.^[3]

Setting[]

The game takes place in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos, by default in 1920s Lovecraft Country. Supplements published by Chaosium and others supported other settings, such as 1890s England (Cthulhu by Gaslight), the modern day (Cthulhu Now), World War II (Achtung! Cthulhu), 11th century Europe (Cthulhu Dark Ages), Ancient Rome (Cthulhu Invictus), and the 23rd century (Cthulhu Rising).

Supplements[]

Main article: Call of Cthulhu Supplements

Miskatonic Repository[]

Main article: Miskatonic Repository

Video Games[]

Since its release, a number of video games carrying the Call of Cthulhu branding have been released. These games are of the horror survival, adventure and mystery-solving type.