Thread: Best CoC Book

So my group and I played our first CoC session and had a blast. I have the CoC rulebook, 6th edition. And am looking at buying a few books. thinking on getting the Investigators Companion, The Keepers Companion Vol 1. Looking at maybe getting one more book (set in the 20"s). Any suggestions? Should I maybe not bother w/ the Keepers Companion, or go w/ vol 2? Any advice would be appreciated.

With all things in life, cheapest is the best.

Originally Posted by kdlugger

So my group and I played our first CoC session and had a blast. I have the CoC rulebook, 6th edition. And am looking at buying a few books. thinking on getting the Investigators Companion, The Keepers Companion Vol 1. Looking at maybe getting one more book (set in the 20"s). Any suggestions? Should I maybe not bother w/ the Keepers Companion, or go w/ vol 2? Any advice would be appreciated.

With all things in life, cheapest is the best.

I'm not a huge fan of the Investigators Companion (the professions are ok but the special abilities don't seem right to me), but have found both Keepers books useful. Malleus Monstrorum is a very useful reference work for a Keepervirrespective of the period they run in... But other suggestions do rather depend on weather you have a favoured period (Gaslight, 1920's) or location (Lovecraft country; the Severn valley etc) or prefer campaigns or standalone scenarios...

Cheers,

Nick

Originally Posted by kdlugger

With all things in life, cheapest is the best.

Open to debate I'd say Seriously though are you going to write your own scenarios ? In which case Nick's suggestions are good: both keepers books and the Malleus gives you loads of source material. If on t'other hand you want campaigns/ scenarios, then gaslight ( 1890's ish ) classic ( 1920's ) modern ? I don't play CoC very often ( though I've got loads of the books ) but I tend to play in Britain in the 1880's and 90's ( gaslight era ) when I do. So certain books will automatically be more useful than others immediately on that basis. In the words of the quiz show: Give us a clue...

Thank you all. Will definitely be writing my own campaign's but want some ideas to go off of (read steal from blatantly). I like the 20's era.

The Investigators Companion is really good for the lists of Professions, although I'ld ignore the Special Abilities, they are inconsistent and seem out of context with the rest of the system. I'ld definitely get the list of critters (the Malleus Monstrorum, and possibly the Basic Creatures book for BRP). For period setting I'ld just scavenge what you can from the internet, its a great resource.

If you like campaigns then the Lovecraft Country campaigns (Arkham, Dunwhich, Kingsport, etc) are pretty good for the 1920s New England horror feel. If you like 1920s pulpy investigation/adventure you can't go wrong with Masks of Nylarthotep. These are good purchases even if you don't run them, as they'll provide some great ideas.

Use the scenarios in the rule book as well, they are pretty good for starters. The core book is a wealth of information, you will be surprised how much you can run from it. But, as I said, the internet is a great resource for period setting

In all honesty, Call of Cthulhu is about the greatest single-volume RPG ever created. Seriously when I run CoC, I only use the material in the core book. There's enough in that one book to keep you gaming for years.

Yeah I sold off all but the 4e core book and Dark Ages a few years ago.
I picked up Malleus Monstrorum at GenCon a little while later, and it's great. The art in the book alone is more inspiring than some entire game books that I have owned over the years. Granted, it's pretty much just a monster manual, but one of my favorite examples of that type of book.
I get way more inspiration for CoC from random news articles, real world science, Fortean goofiness, pretty much any and all fiction/films and things I see in the real world than I do from any of the sourcebooks I've owned over the years.

Seconding Malleus, Dark Ages and I'm also now kinda partial to Cthulhu Britannica Folklore - that is kinda interesting I have to say.

The Dreamlands book is probably my favorite. I own both the second and the fourth edition, and I love both with their slight differences in tone and presentation. The fourth edition packs more content and is great for Dunsanian dark fantasy adventures in the Dreamlands, but the second has more charm with a truly beautiful map (fourth edition map is OK) and great scenarios such the Land of Lost Dreams. I hear that 5th edition has the scenarios back in and is a hardback. Get it.

'Secrets' of Kenya is a great book as well. You can use it also as a non CoC BRP sourcebook for adventure in East Africa. Great stuff.

Alone on Halloween from Pagan publishing is also worth getting. Not much for the big solo adventure (which is good). But for the 'Old Dark House' mini-scenario which is simply one of the best scenarios ever written for any RPG. I've used it several times to generate exilarating one shots (typically culminating in TPK).

Smiorgan