Post by Vadomar The Sorcerer on Jun 4, 2018 21:45:59 GMT
I have tried -with some friends- Cthulhu Abides and I am going to make a quick review:
In general terms, the game is good if you like:
* Do not waste time generating characters.* Easy rules for players
* Few (or one single) dice rolls to solve problems
* Fluid narrative
You will don’t like it if:
* You like more realistic and detailed combat systems
* You are not interested in games oriented to mystery and research (although it has rules for pulp-actions)
* You do not want many decisions to fall on the master.
What I think is a bit difficult, is to decide -by certain specific tests- what attributes to use and what bonus to apply. The problem in this game is that you have different bonuses and different attributes, and depending the situation you can combine any attribute with any bonus depending on the problem you want to solve. For example:
"Jeremy tries to find the Necronomicon that is hidden inside the great Library of Buenos Aires"
Here is clearly that you must use the attribute called "Perception" and the bonus that could be applied to a research roll in which you are searching or tracking something is "Investigate", BUT we’re searching something related to the occult, so the "Occult" bonus could be applied.
My quick way of resolving without resorting too much to the rules book is to apply common sense and define quickly without losing time for the one I find most convenient.
The truth is that the group enjoyed the game very much even though it was my first time directing Cthulhu Abides, the players had never played it and two of them were novices in the RPG games (in general).
One very good point in my opinion, is the dynamic of madness, in the different levels of madness you gain penalties but you gain bonuses in certain situations. For example: if you need to kill someone and you are very sane, so you have a penalty trying to kill, but if you are in a advanced level of madness you gain a bonus. BUT, What if you only want to stun a guy? if you are sane you have no penalties, but if you are insane your character may try to kill instead only stun.
Salut!