He very kindly agreed to answer my questions about his early experiences in the hobby, his career, and his current activities.ġ. Since writing Call of Cthulhu, Mr Petersen has gone from strength to strength, producing not just RPG materials but also video games and, most recently, boardgames.

Lovecraft into pop culture than anything.

It's probably done more to introduce the works of H.P. One of his first RPG designs, Call of Cthulhu, remains one of the most successful and widely known roleplaying games of all time, played by several generations of gamers. One prime example is the big mural in Hotel Hell, central to the story, and so ridiculously inappropriately represented that it is entirely unusable.Īt any rate, most GMs should find something they could enjoy running in here, if you're not totally opposed to modern day CoC.Sandy Petersen scarcely needs an introduction. This works for some of the more 'technical' handouts, but other art, not intended as literal handouts, is just, well, bad I'm sad to say. As a GM, I expect two things from the art in RPG products: That it sets a mood/shows something hard to describe in text AND/OR (preferably AND!) it can be shown to the players. The art is really variable throughout, sadly mostly it seems to REALLY lack art direction. Most of the other adventures are plagued by an enormous cast of NPCs (Panacea, Mohole, Voice on the Phone) that the GM needs to handle. The Derelict turns out best for my purposes because it also features exactly 0 NPCs (beyond the Monster). The big advantage of these two (and Hotel Hell, which I considered) is that they isolate the characters in an inhospitable environment. So keep in mind that you can get the gem of the hoard for a very low price. The best adventure of the bunch is (IMHO) The Derelict, which was recently given away for free as a Free RPG Day 2016 treat. Which is to say, you might want to adjust some of the more over the top silliness if you want stuff to actually be scary.

The stories all basically work like late 80's/early 90's cult action/horror movies. The ones I ran took about 6-8 hours each I believe, and I did pad them out a bit. When I say 'short' and 'one-shot', they are indeed intended to be played in a single setting (originally at Cons). So, well, this is an anthology of short, modern-day, one-shot adventures for Call of Cthulhu 7e, created by CoC's grand old man, Sandy Petersen himself. Think it's time to mark this one down as 'read' now: I've skimmed through all the 5 adventures and have actually played through (GM'ed) 2 of them.

Call of cthulhu petersen's abominations