The Pulp Cthulhu Character Sheet

[Elder Thing]

I’m wondering if it is possible we could get the standard character sheet for Pulp Cthulhu that is in the Pulp Cthulhu book, as a separate PDF for download.
 
The versions of the Pulp Cthulhu character sheets that are available on the Chaosium site have a different design and lack the classic layout for Hit Points, Sanity, Luck and Magic Points. I prefer the classic layout, where you can mark your current value, instead of having to erase the value every time. I feel that the versions available on the site at the moment are more for when you want to manage your character digitally.

There is a couple of problems with the character sheet included in the PDF of Pulp Cthulhu. The biggest problem is that there is a grey profile picture in the area where you are supposed to draw your character. Making that area pretty useless. I’m guessing that the grey profile picture wasn’t supposed to be there!?

Also the resolution of the sheet seem to be pretty low. This is probably since the whole character sheet is a picture in the PDF and not text.

And I would then also like to see the sheet centered, and not as now, where one page is aligned to the right and the other side is aligned to the left.

By the way, I just checked and the standard Modern Era character sheet included in the Keeper Rulebook isn’t available as a separate download as well. And the resolution of the sheet in the PDF doesn’t seem that good either. Perhaps this could be released as a seperate PDF as well?

Edited August 24, 2017 by Elder Thing

[dce]

Hey Elder,

As the guy who designed all the sheets you are speaking about ... I can safely say that fillable versions of all the different sheet versions you mention certainly exist and are with Chaosium. Which of them have been released via their website (and are currently downloadable), I can't really say.

I'm sure that, in the fullness of time, Chaosium will get everything up on their site ... but in the meantime if you want to get fillable PDF versions of the Pulp and Modern character sheets, you can use the links below. Each will give you a ZIP file containing both the full autocalc and simplifiied autocalc versions of the colour sheet. It's important to extract the PDFs from the ZIP file somewhere on your hard disk and then open them with Adobe Reader -- opening the full autocalc sheet in a cut-down PDF reader (such as browser plugins that show you PDFs inside your web browser or email reader window) can cause errors; opening the same files with the full version of Adobe Reader works fine.

• Fillable "Pulp" sheets: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nHQJNrXlp4Q0k4RUxlWmJ5dE0/view?usp=sharing
• Fillable "Modern" sheets: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nHQJNrXlp4NU10RzF4SnVIQ1k/view?usp=sharing

Of course, once official links from Chaosium become available you should use those in preference to my "home made" links.

And you are correct in pointing out the small error in the way that the character sheets are shown in the Pulp Cthulhu PDF -- in an ideal world the book layout should have used the high-res image-only version of the sheet which doesn't have the silhouette etc. It seems as though the layout incorporates the fillable PDF instead -- which has all the interactive fields (including the placeholder for the character portrait). It's a small error, but like you said it makes it less useful for anyone who wants to print the sheet and sketch their own portrait.

I hope these PDFs will give you what you need for now.

Thanks,

 

Dean (from Adelaide)

[Elder Thing]

Thanks dce, but those are the versions that are already available from Chaosiums site. The versions I'm looking for are with the classic layout for Hit Points, Sanity, Luck and Magic Points.

To see what I mean by classic layout you can look the following character sheet from Chaosiums site: https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/CoC/Character Sheets/Character Sheet - base - Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed.pdf

It is for the 1920s era, but I would like the same for Pulp Cthulhu (and the Modern era). It is that layout that is included in Pulp Cthulhu and the Keeper Rulebook. (Look at the "Hit Points, Sanity, Luck and Magic Points"-part of the sheet.)

As I mentioned in my original post, I prefer that layout as it is easier when you use the sheet in print. Because then you only need to circle your current value in either Hit Points, Sanity, Luck or Magic Points. No need to erase and replace the value every time, like in the fillable versions.

And just like the sheet I linked to above, the versions I'm looking for doesn't have to be fillable or anything.

Edited August 24, 2017 by Elder Thing

[dce]

Hey Elder Thing,

Well, it's easy enough to give you what you want -- but I also think that there's some confusion here as well (see below).

First, the links to some non-fillable PDFs which are *just* the base images for the Pulp and Modern sheets. BTW the former are probably what *should* have been included at the back of the Pulp Cthulhu book PDF.

• Non-Fillable Pulp Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nHQJNrXlp4S3ZvRW80UnRRbm8/view?usp=sharing
• Non-Fillable Modern Sheer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nHQJNrXlp4NjV6ejBIT3dJTWs/view?usp=sharing

As for the confusion: well, you mention a couple of times you don't like having to rub out the values for Sanity, Luck, etc and replace them (instead preferring to circle the current value). But only the *simplified* version of the autocalc sheets include boxes for writing in the current Sanity, Luck, etc -- the non-simplified autocalc sheets (just labelled "autocalc" in the filenames) actually include a traditional meter for Sanity Points, Luck Points etc -- the idea is that you can interactively just click on the current value and the sheet will automatically circle it for you and erase any circles already drawn on the same meter.

If you go back and look at the ZIP files linked above, you'll see that they include both the simplified and non-simplified PDFs. So, if you opened up the non-simplified version and printed it out you would have *almost* exactly what you want: the only problem would be the silhouette head and shoulders included as a placeholder. You could easily remove that by clicking on it and telling Adobe Reader to load a blank JPG into the portrait box, e.g., https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Blank.JPG

Anyway, if you grab the PDFs linked at the top of this post you should have pretty much what you're after (I hope :)).

 

Dean

[Elder Thing]

Thanks again Dean.

I forgot to mention that I wasn’t able to open the Autocalc-versions, cause I wasn’t at home and didn’t have access to Adobe Reader then (and I’m sick with a bit of fever). So I’m sorry about that.

I have tried out the Fillable versions now and they look and work great, but I’m too old-fashioned and just want the basic version. So these new Non-Fillable versions are great. Especially if I’m not at home, and don’t have access to Adobe Reader. Also I don’t have to mess around with the portrait part of the sheet with these.

However I have one last request if possible, I’m wondering if there is a Non-Fillable version of the Pulp Cthulhu sheet like the one included in the Pulp Cthulhu? Hopefully I can explain what I mean by this… a version that doesn’t have the “decorations” on the edges of the sheet. On the first page there is a decoration on the right edge of the page, and on the second page of the sheet there is a decoration on the left edge of the page. These "decorations" seem to be other "pages" under the sheet. I would just like it to be the nice papertexture as the background for the sheet, just as in the Pulp Cthulhu PDF.

However looking in the Pulp Cthulhu PDF again, it just seems like the "decorations" have been cut off there. But there is still the problems of the Portrait picture, the resolution quality and the sheet not being centered.

[dce]

Hi Elder, it's probably too hard to make a version which has the paper texture but not the ornaments at the side (since they're all part of one background texture image).

But if you'd like a version with no background texture at all, I can certainly do that: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nHQJNrXlp4THVzRFRLZHhfV0k/view?usp=sharing

 

Dean (from Adelaide)

[Elder Thing]

Thank you Dean!

Either I go with that new version or I go with the one with the background image, I can just cut the sheet if I don’t want the ornaments on there I guess. :-)

I wondering though, do you have the latest versions of the sheets for the 1920s era, the ones that are included in the back of the Keeper Rulebook? Because all the sheets (except the Pulp Cthulhu ones) on Chaosium’s site lack the “Know” under EDU. And the base (non fillable) sheet I linked to earlier also has a slightly different order to the characteristics as well as lacking the “Know” under EDU.

So if you got a Non Fillable version of the 1920s era sheet that is on pages 430-431 of the Keeper Rulebook that would be great. And if you have them done, the Simplified and Autocalc versions would be nice too.

[dce]

Hey Elder,

All the things you ask about do certainly exist (and would be in Chaosium's coffers somewhere). Here's a ZIP file with the most recent versions of the 1920s sheets: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5nHQJNrXlp4emI3dThFMnlDb1k/view?usp=sharing

I hope that these are useful to you

 

Dean (from Adelaide

[Elder Thing]

These are really great, just what I wanted. Thank you very much for all your help.

Just to let you know, the Simplified Fillable version of your Modern era sheet in the zip-file in your first post, does not have the “Know” under EDU, in case that is something you want to fix.

[realfinney]

Thank You for these Dean, for those printing at home with our own Unicorn Tears ink, it's great to have such a clean version :D

[Penknight]

I realize that this is an old thread, but does a Pulp Modern sheet exist at all?

I just got into Call of Cthulhu at GenCon this year, and a week later found out that Pulp Cthulhu is what my players and I are after, but we prefer playing in the Modern Era. Is there any way I could respectfully request such a fillable sheet, please? 

Thank you for your time and all of your hard work! 

[Mankcam]

Pulp Cthulhu rules could easily be reskinned as Action Flick rules, then you pretty much have the same thing in a modern setting. 

You could easily make a character sheet in Excel and import a 'contemporary' feel to it.

(I have a sheet that I used, so I'll send you that to see if it is of any use)

Edited August 19, 2019 by Mankcam

[soltakss]

50 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

You could easily make a character sheet in Excel and import a 'contemporry' feel to it.

This, a hundred times.

In my opinion, official Character Sheets that come with games are, generally, a waste of time. They have too much white space, too many fussy graphics and don't group things in sensible ways.

It is much better to do something in Excel, or your Spreadsheet software of choice, but Excel is clearly best for this. That way, you can highlight what counts for more in your game, move things about and get a clearer and better character sheet.

[Sumher]

Ok so i know im like really late to the party with this thread but i just sort of found myself looking through some CoC stuff and was curious why the power stat is limited to a max of 99 the same as the other stats since even the rules allow for it to be the only stat that can reach 100+ also noticed that the pulp sheet is missing Anthropology as a skill.