Call of Cthulhu Classic Box Collection Announced

Chaosium has announced plans to publish a collection of classic Call of Cthulhu rulebooks and supplements as part of a new boxed set to celebrate the game’s 40th anniversary. Last week, Chaosium launched the Kickstarter for the Call of Cthulhu Classic box set collection. Backers of the campaign can choose between two different boxed sets that contain reprints of the popular Second Edition Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG rulebooks and supplements. Chaosium is producing two boxed sets – a 1-inch set that contains the Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, A Sourcebook for the 1920s, and a World Map, and a 2-inch boxed set that contains all the contents of the smaller box plus the Shadows of Yog Sothoth, The Asylum & Other Tales, Cthulhu Companion, Trail of the Tsathogghua, and Fragments of Fear supplements. Also included in both boxed sets are character sheets, character silhouettes, a keeper screen, and a ruby dice set.

Call of Cthulhu was one of the first horror RPGs and focuses more on survival and mystery rather than combat against monsters. The game is set in the world of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and typically features investigators stumbling upon a horrifying plot or scheme with disastrous consequences. As players encounter the true terror of the world, they struggle to maintain their sanity. The game uses a modified version of the Basic Role-Playing rules developed by Chaosium for its RuneQuest game, which focuses mainly on using percentile dice to determine the success or failure of various actions. Call of Cthulhu remains a popular tabletop roleplaying game even after 40 years, with the game’s current Seventh Edition considered one of the more popular game systems after Dungeons & Dragons and Vampire: The Masquerade.

Chaosium noted that their reprints can be considered “director’s cuts,” as they contain designer notes and updated layouts. Notably, the scenarios included in the boxed sets can be easily adapted for the current Seventh Edition rules without much modification.

The Kickstarter for the Call of Cthulhu Classic boxed sets has already exceeded $300,000 in pledges. A $20 pledge comes with PDFs of the material in the box, while a physical 1-inch box will be sent to those who pledge $40 or more. A physical 2-inch boxed set will go to those who pledge $99 or more. You can check out the full Kickstarter here.