The Kickstarter for the long-awaited Seventh Edition of Call of Cthulhu, one of the greatest role playing games of all time, was one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in gaming history, pulling in over $560,000 on a $40,000 goal. The PDF versions were released back in 2014, but the promised print edition took a lot longer to arrive. But it is now here — officially announced on the website on August 26, and already offered for sale at various online outlets.

The 7th Edition, based on the original rules by Sandy Peterson and Lynn Willis, was significantly revised by Paul Fricker and Mike Mason. It weighs in at 448 pages in hardcover, with an eye-catching cover by Sam Lamont and some color interiors. A significant amount of supporting material is already available, including the Call of Cthulhu Keepers Screen, a hardcover Investigator Handbook, the S.Petersen’s Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors, and the first 7th Edition adventure collection, Nameless Horrors.

If you’re new to Call of Cthulhu, or just curious, great! CoC is one of the most innovative and creative role playing games ever made, and — almost uniquely in the industry — its supplements and adventures make great reading, even if you never have the chance to sit down at a table with fellow players. It was the first semi-contemporary RPG, and also the first to feature ordinary folks as protagonists. But don’t just take my word for it… here’s a dead-on quote from Ed Grabianowski’s io9 article, “Call Of Cthulhu Was The First Role-Playing Game To Drive People Insane.”

[Click the covers for bigger versions.]

No swords. No wizards. Just regular humans, in way over their heads as they work to uncover the mind-shattering horrors of the Lovecraftian mythos. That’s the promise of the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and over 30 years later we’re still coming back for more.

You can’t really overstate how influential Call of Cthulhu is in the world of tabletop role-playing games. First released in 1981 by Chaosium, the game has gone through seven editions and inspired a writhing horde of variations and homages. It turned the heroic fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons on its head, making investigation the focus of each adventure instead of combat, using weak human characters completely outclassed by any threat they might face, and more or less ensuring that, instead of a long campaign where you eventually become a mighty wizard or knight, you were probably going to die or go insane. Tonight. And again next week.

Read Ed’s complete article here.

Here’s a sample from the interior of the 7th Edition.

And a look at part of the introductory section.

We’ve covered several excellent Call of Cthulhu and Trail of Cthulhu adventures and supplements over the past few years, including:

Shadows of Yog-Sothoth from Chaosium (1982)
Cthulhu By Gaslight from Chaosium (2012)
Achtung! Cthulhu from Modiphius Entertainment (2012)
The House of R’lyeh from Chaosium (2013)
Out of Space from Pelgrane Press (2013)
Eternal Lies from Pelgrane Press (2013)
Cthulhu Britannica: Shadows Over Scotland from Cubicle Seven (2014)
Horror on the Orient Express (second edition) from Chaosium (2014)
Mythos Expeditions from Pelgrane Press (2014)
Punktown from Miskatonic River Press (forthcoming)
Trail of Cthulhu: Mythos Expeditions from Pelgrane Press

Call of Cthulhu, 7th Edition was published by Chaosium in August 2016. It is 448 pages, priced at $54.95 in hardcover; a PDF version is also available, but there’s no info on it anywhere I can find. The cover is by Sam Lamont.

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