So you want to get started playing Call of Cthulhu? Maybe you’ve been playing D&D a few years and want a new experience, or maybe you have just been interested in tabletop roleplaying, and horror is more your thing. Regardless of the reason, Chaosium, the publisher of Call of Cthulhu has made getting into the game so very simple.

So where do you start?

Well, if you don’t have any money to spend and want to learn the basics, you start with Chaosium’s own website, where they provide a downloadable ruleset called the “Quickstart Rules”, the beauty of this beyond being free is that not only have Chaosium given you, the potential player/Keeper enough rules to get started, but they have also included one of the most classic scenarios in all of Cthulhu to show you the way, “The Haunting.”.

Now, let’s say you have a few bucks to spend. Chaosium has created a starter set for Call of Cthulhu, and though Call of Cthulhu, is my favorite tabletop RPG, I won’t let my bias get in the way of saying that this might be the most perfect starter set of any tabletop RPG ever. The Call of Cthulhu starter set has an expanded version of the rules included in the Quickstart Rules, and it includes 4 scenarios. The first scenario “Alone Against The Flames” allows you to play solo, so you can learn the feel of Call of Cthulhu by yourself without having to get a gaming party together. The second scenario in the box set is the Paper Chase a classic scenario that allows you to test your Keeper skills with 1 or 2 additional players. The other 2 scenarios Edge of Darkness and Dead Man’s Stomp increase the player count and complexity, but also include guiding tips to help you as you learn to be a Keeper of Arcane Lore.

So now you’ve gone, and potentially run 5 scenarios if you include the Haunting, and Alone Against the Flames, and you have decided this game is definitely for me. Where should I go from here? Well, if you consider yourself a fully fledged Keeper of Arcane Lore, you might as well by the Keeper’s Rulebook, and the Keeper’s Screen Pack. The Keeper’s Rulebook is pretty much every single rule you will need to run Call of Cthulhu straight (not including Pulp or other variations), and the Keeper Screen is a very nicely designed screen that will help organize all the information you need for your play sessions, PLUS, they will give you an additional FOUR scenarios. The Rulebook contains Crimson Letters, and Amidst the Ancient Trees, while the Keeper Screen Pack include Blackwater Creek and Missed Dues (a favorite of my party).

Beyond that, there are other beginner books that Chaosium publishes such as the Doors to Darkness and Gateways to Terror. These offer a lot of fun scenarios, and the ones in the Gateways to Terror collection have the benefit of being short 1-2 scenarios if you don’t have a long play session available. Of course, if you ended up running all of these, you would pretty much know how to play Call of Cthulhu, wouldn’t you?