Cathulhu

[SpicyDinosaur]

So I noticed Cathulhu mentions being based off of CoC, with some modifications to stats etc. Is there, does there need to be for that matter, a way to convert Cathulhu to 7th ed CoC equivalent? Modifications to basic starts stats etc?

[SpicyDinosaur]

Also the dreamlands sourcebook, which is useful for cathulhu, is 3rd ed!

 

Has anyone translated any of this stuff, any advice on doing it quickly, what would change for cathulhu between 6th and 7th ed?

[dce]

3 hours ago, SpicyDinosaur said:

So I noticed Cathulhu mentions being based off of CoC, with some modifications to stats etc. Is there, does there need to be for that matter, a way to convert Cathulhu to 7th ed CoC equivalent? Modifications to basic starts stats etc?

The short answer is that the Cathulhu book (the BRP-based one from Sixtystone Press, not the similarly titled RPG by Joel Sparks) does contain a small rules section which is based off Call of Cthulhu 6th Edition. So, for example it still refers to stats like INT, POW, DEX, etc as though they are on a 3-18 scale rather than the 1-100 scale used in CoC 7th Ed. But, realistically, "converting it" to be usable with 7e would not be very hard -- mostly just remembering to multiply stat modifiers by 5. As an example of the sort of thing you'd need to do: one of the "tricks" you can purchase for your cat during character generation is "Fence Runner" which adds +2 to your DEX; for use with the 7e rules that would need to be +10 to DEX. Pretty much everything would fall into that kind of category ..

So: yes, it would need some kind of effort to use the material with 7th Edition, but not much.

 

Dean (from Adelaide)

 

 

[dce]

1 hour ago, SpicyDinosaur said:

Also the dreamlands sourcebook, which is useful for cathulhu, is 3rd ed!

I'm not what you're basing that off ... Over the years the Dreamlands book has been published in five editions; the most recent one was released in 2004 -- although it doesn't state it anywhere in the book itself, it is written to be compatible with the 5.6th Edition Call of Cthulhu rules (the current one at the time it was released).

Converting the full-book material from CoC 5.6th Edition to CoC 7th Edition would theoretically not be too hard from a mechanical point of view -- the hardest part would be translating the mechanics for each of the spells in the Dreamlands grimoire.

One thing that would help a little in running Dreamlands with 7th Edition is the few pages of 7e Dreamlands mechanics included in Chaosium's slim setting book "Cthulhu Through The Ages" which also includes a 7e Dreamlands character sheet (for humans, not cats :))

BTW: I believe there have been rumours lurking around on other forums (possibly based on things mentioned in convention panels) suggesting that Chaosium are planning to revisit the Dreamlands again in a new edition specifically targetting 7th Edition ...

 

Dean (from Adelaide)

Edited November 24, 2016 by dce

[Gundamentalist]

6 hours ago, SpicyDinosaur said:

So I noticed Cathulhu mentions being based off of CoC, with some modifications to stats etc. Is there, does there need to be for that matter, a way to convert Cathulhu to 7th ed CoC equivalent? Modifications to basic starts stats etc?

That's because it was released when 6e was current. To convert to 7e just follow the 7e rulebook guidelines.

The only other things to consider are tricks. These still work as written, modified as Dean says for 7e. The other thing 7e introduces is firm skill checks: Normal/Hard/Extreme, so use these instead for tricks.

And everything else Dean says is good too.

[SpicyDinosaur]

Thanks guys. The more I look at this, the more of a serious campaign (weighted heavily in the cats favor, because they are cats) I could make out of this. The adventure included should be good and I have an idea based off the movie the Cat's Eye for my own scenario. 

 

I mean yea your party is meowing and describing humans as can openers half the time, but if a new dreamlands supplement comes out that would be even better, because I could use that to intermingle serious play with light-hearted play of cats. I wonder how soon that supplement is coming, I would snatch that up in a heartbeat.

 

And yea, I am referring to the translated Cathulhu with some 6th ed rules. Are the other books not also given to 6th ed rules? I will need to see if those use a different system, I have the catherder's guide.I am starting to suspect I only needed one or the other, but maybe there will be some fluff in there to give me more to go on, or a scenario to convert.

 

My players are oddly stoked about this game, I've had more people rushing to join than the Derelict, accounting for people that just stopped responding before things were finalized.. 

[dce]

Spicy,

The game you have planned for your players sounds like it would be really fun.

Regarding the two different games with similar titles -- I will admit that it's pretty confusing, but here goes ... Sixtystone Press released a book called "Cathulhu" which is a translation of something that was originally written in German. That material was all based off Call of Cthulhu (6th Edition) and so has stats relating to Chaosium's system.

At about the same time, a fellow called Joel Sparks ran a Kickstarter to re-release a tiny independent RPG that he had published a year or so previously, which had a similar premise but uses its own rule system. Unfortunately that game had a very similar title -- it's "Call of Catthulhu" (note the two "T"s in Catthulhu compared to one "T" in the Sixtystone name). The Kickstarter for "Call of Catthulhu" went pretty well and not only did the book get re-released in greatly expanded form but a setting book got commissioned as a stretch goal. So ... when this *non*-Chaosium system book hit the streets it was as three volumes -- Vol 1: The Nekonomicon (player's book), Vol 2: Unaussprechlichen Katzen (cat herder's guide), and Vol 3: Worlds of Catthulhu (setting book). It sounds like you own the second of these ... and no, it has no relationship to the rules system in the Sixtystone book.

I hope this helps you wade through the confusion

 

Dean (from Adelaide)