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What's the use of a d20 in CoC (any edition)?


smiorgan

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This came to mind when I read about the CoC starter box containing dice... I was thinking that the box should rather contain two sets of percentile dice than, say, a d20 or d12. But, which dice are actually used in a CoC game? And, in particular, what's the use of the d20?

Huge damage done by mythos creatures?

Huge sanity loss?

Optional RQ-like hit locations (that was the case for older editions - I have it in "Cthulhu Now")

Is there any important use of a d20 in CoC7, that I have missed? I'm not an expert of the latest edition, having just skimmed through the rulebook and never played.

 

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In most editions of Call of Cthulhu, the purpose of the d20 die is to keep you from buying a different set of dice because you don't want an incomplete set and sometimes play other games.

Unless you are playing the D20 edition of Call of Cthulhu, jointly produced by WotC and Chaosium to demonstrate the versatility of the d20 system (and came in a beautiful hardback with great art) in which case it's VERY important.

 

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19 hours ago, KeeperXav said:

Unless you are playing the D20 edition of Call of Cthulhu, jointly produced by WotC and Chaosium to demonstrate the versatility of the d20 system (and came in a beautiful hardback with great art) in which case it's VERY important.

Missed! That version came out at my nadir of RPG buying and playing ... I had no interest in D&D at the time and looked in dismay at everything becoming d20.  

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On 8/25/2018 at 3:11 PM, smiorgan said:

Missed! That version came out at my nadir of RPG buying and playing ... I had no interest in D&D at the time and looked in dismay at everything becoming d20.  

Aside from the beauty of the book, its real strength was in giving D&D players a taste of what CoC is about. I'm not suggesting you hunt it down to play it. The 7th edition is a fantastic system that requires minimal rule checks. D20 was a very crunchy system, with lots of modifiers and tables. My favorite part though: the ad in the back for the upcoming "Pulp Cthulhu: Adventure in the 1930s"  which I think was targeted for the following year. They were only about 15 off!

 

as for Call of Cthulhu dice, I suppose my ideal set would drop the d20 and the d12 and double up on the d4, d6 and percentile. The extra d4 and d6 would be a d2 and d3.

Edited by KeeperXav
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/25/2018 at 3:11 PM, smiorgan said:

Missed! That version came out at my nadir of RPG buying and playing ... I had no interest in D&D at the time and looked in dismay at everything becoming d20.  

 

I picked this one up during the d20 explosion simply to increase the odds for finding a game. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the book and how well they made d20 work for a "modern" setting. That said it has never been used...   Still a nice addition to the library.

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