Thread: ETA on Call of Cthulhu 7E?

I remember hearing that their is a new edition of COC in the works. It's not a major overhaul of the system just minor tweaks. Is this true? Any date for the release if it is? You figure they would want to advertise it all over the place.

Originally Posted by sureshot

I remember hearing that their is a new edition of COC in the works. It's not a major overhaul of the system just minor tweaks. Is this true?

My understanding is that it's currently with several groups invited privately by Chaosium to test / develop, so unknown. But from hints I've heard, it's a bigger step than 5th to 6th or 3rd to 4th, and also pays more attention to the existence of the "BGB" edition of BRP... But it's still obsoletely a BRP game and fully compatible with the back catalogue.

Any date for the release if it is?

Nope - an with no completed ms in house, why would we expect one?

You figure they would want to advertise it all over the place.

One advertises a product one has for sale: advertising the possibility of a product that one MAY, at some undetermined point in the future, be able to sell, is a recipe for disaster: as Chaosium have found to their own cost before with various projects (Pulp Cthulhu being the current big example). I wouldn't expect to hear official confirmation of it's existence until it's in house and art assignment / final layout is under way or indeed nearly completed.

Cheers,

Nick

Originally Posted by sureshot

You figure they would want to advertise it all over the place.

It is as Nick said Chaosium have come a cropper on this before....back in the 80's they advertised a Runequest product called Dorastor.......14 years later it finally turned up

It was pretty good though

I'm not thrilled to hear that a seventh edition may have significant changes in it. The thing that has kept me a loyal consumer of CoC merchandise on a regular basis has been that unlike a lot of other rpg systems, Cthulhu has remained essentially the same. Ah well, it's not on the shelf yet, so I'll just wait and see what they come up with.

It makes sense to have a new CoC edition reasonably consistent with the BGB. Rules amendments and even new rules are fine with me, just as long as it is backward compatible with the preexisting scenarios and setting material.

One of the strengths with this system (and setting) is that the entire back catalogue is still current. I love the fact that I just bought the reissue of 'Masks of Nylathotep', originally published in the early '80s, and I can use it with my current edition of CoC, about 30 years later.

Not many games on the market that you can do that with straight out of the box.

I'm going to disagree, in that I think it should go the other way around. BGB is a compilation of various options from various BRP gamesets from over the years. To me, it makes quite a bit of sense to present in such a collection the system used in the longest-running, unchanged version of BRP that's out there; CoC. Then present various other options, if you like, to allow people to layer on the variants they may prefer.

Why would you take an extent, popular system and then revise *it* to fit better with a hodgepodge of various versions of games that are no longer in print?

Just my opinion, of course.

Originally Posted by Agentorange

It is as Nick said Chaosium have come a cropper on this before....back in the 80's they advertised a Runequest product called Dorastor.......14 years later it finally turned up

Actually, they also advertised a product called HeroQuest. It came out in 2002.

Originally Posted by Baron

Why would you take an extent, popular system and then revise *it* to fit better with a hodgepodge of various versions of games that are no longer in print?

In order to provide people with the most stable, playtested way of incorporating all the good bits and pieces from those games, of course.

Originally Posted by NickMiddleton

My understanding is that it's currently with several groups invited privately by Chaosium to test / develop, so unknown. But from hints I've heard, it's a bigger step than 5th to 6th or 3rd to 4th, and also pays more attention to the existence of the "BGB" edition of BRP... But it's still obsoletely a BRP game and fully compatible with the back catalogue.

Good to know. I'm hoping that it's different enough yet compitable with the previous editions of CoC. With 6 editions it makes no sense imo to release another rehash. At worst even if it is different enough they include an a conversion appendix at the back for those who prefer the older system

Originally Posted by NickMiddleton

Nope - an with no completed ms in house, why would we expect one?

I could have sworn it was slated for a Gencon 2012 release. I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by NickMiddleton

One advertises a product one has for sale: advertising the possibility of a product that one MAY, at some undetermined point in the future, be able to sell, is a recipe for disaster: as Chaosium have found to their own cost before with various projects (Pulp Cthulhu being the current big example). I wouldn't expect to hear official confirmation of it's existence until it's in house and art assignment / final layout is under way or indeed nearly completed.

True enough yet when I mean by advertising something along the lines of "CoC 7E in the works! Stay tuned!" or something along those lines

Originally Posted by Baron

Why would you take an extent, popular system and then revise *it* to fit better with a hodgepodge of various versions of games that are no longer in print?

As much as some might disagree you can only sell the same version of an rpg so many times without any changes before no one buys it. If 7E is a rehash of 6E why would I buy the same rules a second time around. I like that the older sourcebooks are still compitable yet in the current market it needs to offer more than backwards compitabliltiy. It needs to address rules that need to changed or altered. With rpgs costing 40-60$ CoC needs more than "buys me i havent't changed much since 1E" to get older fans to buy imo. From what I read on the net already some fans who have either 5E or ^e want nothing to do what a 7E if it's more of the same. I don't blame them either.

Originally Posted by Agentorange

It is as Nick said Chaosium have come a cropper on this before....back in the 80's they advertised a Runequest product called Dorastor.......14 years later it finally turned up

It was pretty good though

And lets not forget Heroquest!

SDLeary

Rosen beat me to it!

Originally Posted by Baron

I'm not thrilled to hear that a seventh edition may have significant changes in it. The thing that has kept me a loyal consumer of CoC merchandise on a regular basis has been that unlike a lot of other rpg systems, Cthulhu has remained essentially the same. Ah well, it's not on the shelf yet, so I'll just wait and see what they come up with.

Easy enough to ignore it. That's what I plan on doing.