This just in, the famous (or infamous) Call of Cthulhu (D20)
rulebook is now available for pre-order from Amazon.com. Typically, Shoggoth.net boycotts
this vender due to thier unscrupulous patenting policies, but as
they are currently the only ones offering it and this is a major release, we’re telling you about it
here. The new book is available on pre-order and is set to come out March 2002. Credited with its creation are Monte
Cook and John Tynes.
John Tynes, as many of you already know, is editor-in-chief and
graphic designer for Pagan Publishing. Pagan
Publishing has brought us Delta Green, The
Hills Rise Wild, and a host of both fiction and non-fiction books, the majority of which is
licensed to them by Chaosium,
makers of the Call of Cthulhu game we all know and love. John’s experience includes working with Wizards
of the Coast on their Magic: The Gathering game, Daedalus Entertainment, Steve
Jackson Games, Acclaim Entertainment, and of course The
Unspeakable Oath.
Monte Cook, worked for TSR/Wotc and his company Malhavoc
Press has brought us the the new D20 Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook.
As an old friend of Chaosium’s he along with John will be doing their best to
bring us a new system worthy of the tentacles adorning its pages. Good Luck Monte!!
The coming of this book has brought much comotion to the Mythos Community, between the rumors of “levels” in the CoC
D20 rules, a concept popular in other RPG’s such as Dungeons and Dragons (where D20 was first introduced) but unsupported in
previous versions of CoC due to the fact that the focus was more on role-playing
and that investigators seldom live or stay sane
long enough to gain any levels or experience. The fact that WotC (Wizards of the Coast), will be publishing this product, not
Chaosium, also troubles a great many, including your beloved author, as the creator and maintainer of the RPG for the last 25
years, is passing the reigns onto a noticeably much younger upstart. Personal experience has taught me that when role
playing Dungeons and Dragons, the focus is generally a tad more on rule mongering than actual role playing (we jokingly
referred to
it as “An accountants guide to the Dark Ages”) and the CCG by WotC is really just a collection of rules and creative
rule mongering.. thus the apprehension. However, the idea of having a gaming system compatible across all games as
well as a “open source” gaming system intrigues many, once again the author included. The official D20 page is located here.
The announcement from WotC is located here.
Editors note: This article modified after posting due to
comments by Simon Taylor. Thanks for keeping me on my toes Simon!
