Call of Cthulhu Starter Set - RPG Review

[@pferdebert]

I just got my Starter Set and apparently this is a newer version where pretty much even all your nitpicks are addressed: * the back of the box does *not* show a picture of the dice anymore - so we cannot complain that we didn't got the Q Workshop dice * the handouts and maps are now a *loose* collection of *single-sided* papers. Well done, Chaosium!

[@timd4524]

They seem to listen to Seth pretty well. Very glad I got the set with all the seperate handouts. And the Q dice are somewhat unreadable.

[@dwylaw]

I came here to comment the exact same thing. Great to see them taking the feedback to heart. Now please excuse me while I go summon some unspeakable horrors.

[@trequor]

@@timd4524 I suspect that Seth probably contributed a non-trivial amount to 7th edition sales. And it wouldn't surprise me if his reach and audience was a sizable minority of Chaosium's total reach/audience on social media.

[@arno5108]

Just opened the comments to say the same. I recently bought the (updated) Starter Set because our group wants to one-shot some CoC adventures. And I really like the one-sided handouts. Also, you can get them digitally.

[@epsilonhalbe]

and if you have purchased this starter set from chaosium in the old version - the link to the pdf gives you the UPDATED version.

[@BradleyRogstad]

Good news for those getting the starter set now is that the handouts are now one sided single sheets. I just got the starter set after about a 30 year break in playing. I recently saw the solo scenarios and decided to get back into CoC. Great videos Seth, even though I am commenting on one of your older ones.

[@RPGImaginings]

Congrats on the shout out, Seth! Great review too.

[@felipeopazomusic]

you were the first one reviewing this box, thank you!

[@Astronaut_FX]

Just as an update to anyone still considering this set...apparently, Chaosium is listening. I just received my set, and all of the handout materials are now unbound. They're still printed on the same high quality, glossy paper as the bound materials in the book, but they are now on loose pages, single sided, one handout per page. This will make it easier to make copies and/or distribute to players. Very nice adjustment on Chaosium's part.

[@roarkthehalf-orc6598]

I call it the percentile dice

[@SSkorkowsky]

I call them that as a pair, kinda like the Wonder Twins, but individually they were "The D-Ten" and "The Tens D-Ten... not that one The other one. The one with double digits. Yeah, that one. Roll that one, Todd," which was a mouthful.

[@chriswilder9719]

I believe wizards refers to the one with the 10-00 a d100

[@cowboy_dogg2124]

me too

[@ARedMongoose]

@@SSkorkowsky - that was a hilarious.

[@mr.berardine1694]

Same here.

[@azathoth7587]

Man, I can't believe chaosium gave you a shoutout like that. Really speaks to the quality of your work.

[@GKiernan01]

I just wanted to say, thanks for all of the reviews. I personally don’t play CoC, but these reviews are entertaining on their own. However, it has made me think about being a keeper for my group of friends. Especially since I have a friend that knows the Cuthulu Mythos like the back of his hand And Jack is an amazing character. Watching some of your older reviews, they feel like they’re missing something without him. Which I feel just goes to show how much of an amazing persona he is. And congratulations on getting the shoutout. You deserve it.

[@thechevyferrari9559]

Nice job getting mentioned in the booklet, man! You deserve it, your series hooked me hard and I can’t wait to start my first campaign with my friends.

[@skirk248]

I mean they have the right guy to point people too. You're why I play CoC

[@Natakupl]

boy sure wish White Wolf was treating the players as good as chaosium

[@codypatton2859]

True dat.

[@Skullkan6]

What's white Wolf been screwing up with?

[@otaku4225]

I just got the Starter Kit today, I can confirm that the handouts are now printed on single sheets of paper, one on eage 1 sided page. They fixed that issue!

[@pskovca]

The only issue with this starter set is that it should have been the first product they released after the KS not 2-3 years after the fact. The price point is excellent and will hopefully contribute to the growth of new players giving CoC a try. Great review Seth.

[@novaiscool1]

I would tend to agree with you, but it might not have been a good plan at the time depending on the projected sales. Given that were in the middle of a TTRPG boom the odds of these selling well is a lot higher than it was a few years ago. Hopefully whenever 8e comes around they release a starter set early on in its life cycle.

[@reaperofsouls2354]

You have an incredible channel. Love your videos, they're informative. Keep up the great work.

[@mistaecco]

Hope they make something like this for cyberpunk 2020 at some point!

[@Tony-dh7mz]

I’d buy that for a dollar

[@VerhoevenSimon]

They are for cyberpunk red

[@CaptMac42]

Lets hope they make another shout out

[@Mohaniker]

It was great seeing the shout out! Testament to the quality of the content you create! Great video as always.

[@delmonte4426]

Passed my credit rating roll. Totally picking up the pdf. What a bargain. I already own the keepers and pulp manuals and have run 1 game which went well. But because of the advice from the last video too will go back and check out alone those adventures. You are an inspiration, thanks seth.

[@blackxdog5491]

Congrats on getting the shout out man, that’s awesome.

[@randyman410]

Finally I can run Edge of Darkness without doing math

[@KoDaMoJo]

I have very fond memories of "Paper Chase" which remains, without a doubt, my most run scenario in some 34 years of playing CoC. In fact, it's my hook for players who know nothing about the game or investigative playing. Excellent series, cementing my resolve to upgrade to 7th edition.

[@terrybeal2252]

I just received my set today. Chaosium must have seen your review. My set came with blue dice and all the handouts are one sided ready to use. I'm so excited! I can't wait to play this game!! Thanks for the excellent review. 🐙😁

[@craftsmenMC]

Hold the hell up! You wrote a published scenario?! My players are gonna love this, you were a valuable resource for all of us

[@spiritconsumer]

SETH! Congrats on the shoutout man! So cool, and you totally deserve it! Love your work.

[@standingwavestudio]

Just found your videos. Really good stuff. It's funny I was doing TTRPG back in the Basic/AD&D days and after college kind of drifted out of it. Recently I got my daughter into Catan as a gateway drug and brought up D&D and she was interested so we got the starter set and ran through that. She loves horror and I was surprised to see that Chaosium was still around and the local game shop had the Call of Cthulhu starter set (I had always wanted to play back in the day but just never did). It's a really good contrast. Not that the D&D starter set is bad, but they way CoC takes the future keeper through a solo scenario that is specifically designed to show character creation and game mechanics in a nice incremental way before even getting to the rules is really amazing and surprising that other RPG games haven't picked up on that.

[@sleyas]

Congrats on being recognized. It is a nice but well earned gesture. Love the clip by the way.

[@neilfrier3754]

After not playing this game for 30 odd years I decided to try it out again and after watching your review I bought the starter set. Yesterday my group and I started paper chase had a really good time. Thanks for the review and ps the hand outs are now on individual sheets .

[@1stPCFerret]

One thing I'd like to see brought back was the one page comic called *You Know You're Playing Call of Cthulhu If....* It was in one of the boxed rule sets in the back of the rules book. Keep in mind that purchasing the boxed set from Chaosium grants you the PDF. If you are a little clever, you can do a "PDF extraction" using cheap or even free PDF software, and then either: 1. Print the extracted PDF to your own home color printer. 2. If you don't have a printer, ship the file containing the extracted pages off to your local Kinko's/FedEx for printing to paper, but have them print the pages single-sided and you have each page on its own sheet and cutting them up is EASY.

[@meatguyf1375]

"Hey, it's the Paper Chase guy." heh That's great about the shout out there. Congrats, man. 👏

[@wanderinghistorian]

Wow Seth, congratulations on the recognition by Chaosium! That must be very satisfying. :)

[@karlbaresic4091]

I've never been happier for someone who didn't even know I exist haha I'm all choked up for you, Seth. Congratulations on the shoutout man!

[@matthew_thefallen]

Wow, it must be amazing to see your own name printed in a product! :D This is why i always come here for tips and tricks 🤩

[@grimmliberty7447]

AWESOME AWARD granted! Great review, and congratulations on getting a mention, you DO deserve it.

[@trequor]

I'll be honest I got a big stupid grin when I saw that you were listed as a online resource (one of only TWO examples no less!) It's so cool to see good work recognized by the creators.

[@Fallingtower969]

I use the d12 for Colt .45 damage in lieu of the 1d10 +2. A .45 should be able to make a graze.

[@midshipman8654]

always heard the 10’s dice being called percentile dice.

[@SSkorkowsky]

We always called the two dice together as percentile.

[@midshipman8654]

@@SSkorkowsky that too, but we usually refer to it in the singular, like “can you pass the percentile die” or “do you have a percentile die?”, since we only really use them for percentile roles.

[@zeehond23]

Couldn't help but smile when I saw you mentioned in the starter box. You absolutely deserve all the glory.

[@hobbes4011]

I love that you promote single player/duo based games on here. Some of the most fun I've had running DnD were adventures with only one or two players at the table. I wouldn't say I like it more or less than larger groups, but it offers a quite different and very fun experience. Too many channels tend to dimiss or (more often) outright ignore this playstyle, but I will stand behind small intimate campaigns til the end.

[@markmedinabattletrix781]

Congratulations & thanks to Chaosium in recognizing your contributions to the hobby. I only saw the movie back on VSH and watching your reviews got me intrigued. This starter is a great stepping stone to dive in for a spin.

[@Ragnvaldr89]

Well deserved plug in from Chaosium. You're videos are incredibly informative.

[@TheHowlingOpinion]

Congratulations, you deserve it, I wanted to jump to CoC and you were the first option to learn.

[@WeOnlyEatSoup]

Just home from work to find the starter set I ordered waiting! Can't wait to dive In, thanks for the recommendation!

[@Darksummerswind]

Congrats on getting your name in the book, Seth! Can't wait for your scenario in the Kickstarter too!

[@infectedactual2190]

Nice review dude! Great job!!! What a great shout-out by the creators!!! How freaking badass!!!!!!! I have recently been making my way through the complete (mostly complete) collection of HPL and want this game bad!!! You have yourself a new subscriber, sir.

[@RPM2501]

Picked this up over the weekend and noticed the shoutout. Pretty rad!

[@nolgroth]

I recently ordered this starter set. Getting it was a rather more complicated affair. That story, while greatly amusing to me, would probably not be so entertaining to anybody else. The takeaway from it is that Chaosium's Customer Service rocks. I collect Starter Sets, Quickstarts, etc. I've had some good ones and I've had some bad ones. The Call of Cthulhu is one of the better ones. I agree with everything Seth said. The one standout is "Alone Against the Flames." As a story, it is serviceable. What makes it shine is the guided character creation. Even for an old gamer like me, it smoothed over getting a character up and running. For a brand new player, the target audience as it were, I consider that an invaluable resource. I would love to use the materials to kick off a full campaign. If the 7th Edition CoC core rulebook has the same kind of layout/presentation, I might even fully upgrade that too.

[@delmonte4426]

So I bought the pdf based on your recommendation, and am running the edge of darkness this weekend. Time to get spooky!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Hope you have as much fun with it as we did.

[@delmonte4426]

@@SSkorkowsky thanks! I'll report back 👍

[@delmonte4426]

Well what a session! We all had a blast, only my 2nd keeper ing. Everybody felt the weirdness, isolation and alieness. The players were roaring with laughter with the Latin chant. They smashed their pow rolls and resisted the bargains and threats of 'it'. That was untill 'it' went back into the amber in the pentagram, red Jake came out of hiding, bolted up the stairs and reached for the Amber... Disappearing from sight and opening a dimensional hole in the floor... Where we are treated to a vision of the pyramids... where the missing family of Ross corners have been taken to, agreeing to the devil's bargain gave their souls for 'riches' and we are treated to their screams... Just as the sessions ends one of the characters jumps in! Only in Cthulhu. Thanks seth, you're an inspiration! (wrote this all in A&E!)

[@SSkorkowsky]

That sounds awesome. Glad you all had fun with it. Edge of Darkness is a simple game, but I love the hell out of it.

[@justinjoyner1134]

Just picked it up. I love the solo adventure; I’ve played it thrice with different outcomes- well written and highly entertaining!

[@lovecraftianguy9555]

Nice can't believe that you got a mention in the book

[@auldcrow1461]

Congrats on the name drop Seth, you seriously deserve it!

[@JordanArthur14]

Congratulations on being put into the pages of Call of Cthulhu history! You deserve it and great work!

[@ratkinantics]

The starter set PDF is now $0.99 on Drive Thru RPG

[@johnf.kennedy5454]

I used to run a lot of CofC games in the 80s and early 90s, all 1st thru 3rd editions rules. (Mostly BC (Before Children)). Your channel has stirred the interest. Sparked my imagination and the call resounds in my dreams once again. So I'm now in the process of dusting off my cursed tomes of lore, reading the plots of the cults, etc., and will once again spin my tales of horror, raise the dead and yes, kill a few insane PCs. Thanks Seth!

[@GrahamAstles]

Just to confirm what @pferdebert wrote: I bought the Starter set, then came to your excellent videos. Anyways, the handouts are all single sided. On decent paper too, so easy to autofeed into my copier to produce handouts and cut up if necessary. Good to know the scenarios are previous classics. Very helpful info. Congrats on the shoutout btw. I got one in a Star Wars book, which feels pretty cool.

[@alexzilla5459]

Looking to start my play through of Alone Against The Flames! Love your work!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Hope you have fun with it.

[@alexzilla5459]

@@SSkorkowsky Maybe one day you can run me through your sequal through Innsmoth and I can meet Jack the NPC! :)

[@Arcboltkonrad13]

I watched this video a while back (love all your videos, by the way! I even own one of your shirts XD ) and my fiance has been super interested in Cthulhu stuff for a long while now. So after we got our stimulus checks I went to my local game store (gotta support my local shops) I bought the starter set. We're gonna play it in a few weeks and I have you to thank for finally lighting the fire under my butt to buy this.

[@markrussell1606]

Your reviews inspired me to buy this starter set. Will be buying the keeper and investigator guide as well. I'm gonna run Paper Chase tonight!!! Wish me luck. Fun fact. Since this review, they have made the handouts into individual sheets.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Good luck and hope you all have fun with it.

[@vanessaeve925]

Got this for Christmas and broke it out last night. I have a set of green dice with the blue extra percentile dice. I played Alone Against the Flames using a pre-built character, but I probably should have used a blank one. I survived, but just barely. I'm going to try it again when I get the chance. Lots of fun and a good intro for the game. I'm also looking into getting the other solo campaigns, since I had that much fun with this one.

[@paulofrota3958]

WOW!!! CONGRATS ON THE MENTION ON THE BOOK!

[@jay_cadiramen]

Thanks for the review. Its really great to see more solo modules for big RPGs like this and I'm really hoping for more. Solo is the only way that I ever play, so it's really giving me more play time.

[@chrisgerardy2877]

I'm sold! Getting ready to place my order,

[@thereluctanthireling]

That is awesome to get a shout out like that, well deserved!

[@johanneskaiser8188]

Congratulations on the shoutout in the book, you earned it. Although I doubt that many people will manually copy the provided link but rather use the searchbar, at least for print version users. :)

[@fractal_mind8191]

Awesome review Seth. Thanks! Just picked up my copy from Amazon.

[@BudsRPGreview]

The issue with the handouts never actually occurred to me until I saw it here - possibly coming from years of never ever cutting handouts out from books for fear of losing them. Glad you also agree that this is a top-notch bit of kit.

[@richmcgee434]

FWIW the earlier editions of the game certainly did use d12s, albeit rarely.

[@Starmada]

I love your channel, lose listening to you talk about all these different games, almost all of witch I've never played. Yesterday I was playing mansions of maddness at a friends house, and telling them how it was probably based on the call of Cthulhu games, so I asked them if any of them wanted to try out the game for real. They said yes, and now I'm about to run Alone Against the Flames for myself. (My first time playing Call.O.C.) The solo adventure from this kit. The starter set has been sitting on my shelf for about a year now unused since my online gaming group is normally 5e. But now I have an in person gaming group, I wanna try Call of Cthulhu on them. Now with D&D when I make a new character for a long running game, I like to pick out Dice for them, likewise I wanted to buy some dice for running Call.O.C. so t seemed like the perfect opportunity to buy your RPG Icons set. Or I guess... Jack's RPG Icons set. I'll tell ya how it goes :D

[@SSkorkowsky]

Hope you have a blast with Call of Cthulhu as much as we have.

[@Starmada]

@@SSkorkowsky Well it felt like my heart was racing, edge of my seat, and almost burned to death. But I survived. A part of me wants to go back to figure out what the screeches were. I guess that is the cost of playing it safe.

[@Ethaknyl]

Hey Seth, thanks to you I picked up CoC. The Starterbox came for me without stapled handouts. They are even onsided!

[@Ethaknyl]

What drives me nuts though is: It's letter format, not DIN4... and there are no DIN4 charakter sheets to download on chaosium.

[@omidtutakhil9252]

Thank you for your review, I just ordered the starter kit after seeing this. Can't wait to try it out!

[@academyofgeekartsandsciences]

I just picked up the latest printing of the starter set. It looks like they took some of your suggestions to heart, Seth. The back of the box no longer pictures the dice included, so there is no surprise for the buyer when the dice are different than depicted. The dice I received were a green color with a dark blue extra percentile die. The handouts are also on separate, single-sided sheets. This is definitely a high quality product, well worth the cover price.

[@MrDeman40]

New Subscriber here !! I am going to be playing in my first Call of Cthulhu game this upcoming July 6th ! Pretty excited about it , I picked up the starter set(just reading the introductory rules) and the Investigator's handbook.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Welcome to Call of Cthulhu! Hope you all have a blast on the 6th.

[@daves955]

Thanks for reviewing this! I'm trying to branch out into other RPGs and this is the one me and our other DM were thinking about. Seems to be worth the buy to get a taste of it, before buying anything super costly that the group won't like. Would love your take on any other starter boxes for RPGs you play!

[@WongCharoen]

Awesome luck. Just finished watching your last vid and this one popped up.

[@diddyp_real]

I appreciate the new art, but I kind of like the original art more, especially in the case of Paper Chase.

[@BTsMusicChannel]

Congrats on living your dream!!! I liked the review and ordered a copy. I have never played Call of Cthulhu but I have read just about all of Lovecraft's stuff at least once and own a copy of the 7th ed. core book that I have been using as a game mechanic mine. Maybe I will actually try the game now! Thanks. :D

[@TheWallsofDis]

I bought this today. I don’t know a single person that plays this. But you do such a GD good job of selling the fun of it; I had to pick it up. ...once I figure it out it’s only a matter of time before I pull my friends down with me

[@scottfranklin7739]

Hey Seth I recently found your channel and am loving it and all your content. I've never played CoC but because of you I've now got the books and am avidly reading and can't wait to introduce my game group to this awesome game. I wanted to tell you about an idea I had that I plan on using when we play. This idea is hopefully going to give us a lot more options above the 10 entries on the Bouts of Madness chart AND allow us to use that discarded D12! The board game At the Mountains of Madness has 3 decks of insanity cards in 3 progressively harder forms of insanity. I'm going to divide these decks up into 2 equal decks (designating one of the decks #11 and the other #12) and rather than roll a D10 on the madness chart I'll roll a D12 (or choose randomly). If I roll an 11 or 12 or choose to I'll simply let my player pull a random card from the appropriate deck. Then they'll have to incorporate whatever the card says into their roll play. There will be so many more options and we can use that never used D12🤣.

[@JuanRodriguez-rb6zm]

Congrats on the mention dude and thanks for the review over been looking for a,way to get into this without spending 100+ bucks and this looks tremendous

[@jamesmoore9422]

Not to sound like a jerk, but it seems to me that most of this stuff is available through chaosium's website for free. Character sheets, alone against the flames, quick start rules... all free online. That being said, I'm glad they went with some of the older stuff. I've certainly been enjoying reading through a lot of the older stuff, and i'm very much looking forward to running some of the adventures.

[@SSkorkowsky]

Yeah, the sheets, Alone Against the Flames PDF, and Quickstart PDF are free. If you want the old version of Paper Chase you can score one on Drivethru RPG for $3.95. If you want Dead Man Stomp and Edge of Darkness, the 6th Edition rules in PDF will run you $17. $21 for the PDFs for those scenarios in the older editions, which brand new players can then convert themselves. Hence the whole part where I said it was worth the $10 for the PDF of the scenarios alone.

[@jamesmoore9422]

@@SSkorkowsky I certainly agree with that. I have a bunch of older scenarios I want to run and making sure all the necessary conversions are made is kind of a pain. And the upgrades to the artwork make them even better. Love the videos, keep up the great work! The GM toolkit series has been very helpful!

[@Nerdbloggers]

Stumbled onto this nearly a year later, but just want to say I picked up the new edition of this set (Chaosium donated it to our Extra Life event) and the handouts are no longer a book. They are single-sided and loose-leaf, so perfectly ready to use as handouts. Edge of Darkness and Dead Man's Stomp are two of my all-time favorites. Great to have definitive versions of both.

[@JoanieDoeShadow]

Congratulations Seth! I am looking forward to the book you wrote cenarios for.

[@MaxWriter]

Nice. I personally don't have a problem with back-to-back handouts. I never cut the ones up from any of my books or supplements. I print them out from the PDFs. But if that's your only complaint ...

[@GrillChillDavis]

I buy directly from Chaosium to receive the .pdf files. Awesome! Great review Seth. Thanks!

[@haroldkeearns3497]

Once again great video Seth. Keep up the great work

[@Jeffrywith1e]

I'm sold. Getting ready to head over to The Source: Comics & Games to pick up a copy RIGHT NOW.

[@Raddlesby]

@13:16 Take heart. Chaosium took your recommendation seriously. I bought this set two weeks ago (Feb. 2020). The handouts now come loose as a stack of single-sided sheets.

[@Skullkan6]

Can we get that full list of six older adventures?

[@AdventuresHobbies]

Thanks for the back story on the 3 adventures, quickly thrown together stories would have been my hang-up on whether or not to buy this. Really want to try out Cthulhu. Great review.

[@terrybeal2252]

I just recently ordered the starter set. I can't wait!!! 🐙😁

[@NightWatchersPet]

Thanks for telling us about it, I'll be picking this up sometime soon

[@Digger318]

just got this package on Amazon, the dice are green and 1 blue the handouts are individual sheets now.

[@Dr_Dorian]

I am here because of D&D 1.1 ogl and VTT leaks.... its time to switch :D

[@sergentharker7182]

Hey Seth, congrats on getting in the starter set!

[@BrunoSantosTDL]

Well Seth, I have been following your reviews for quite some time now, absolutely love your content but haven't played any CoC yet. This video finally convinced me, I'll give the Starter set a try. Thankfully Chaosium actually has an European warehouse so I don't have to worry about the bloody customs! \o/

[@AndrewRybkin]

I liked rules in Starter Set. They are better composed then in Quick Start Rules and have more interesting options. However, one thing is still strange for me. Why did they forget to mention an Intimidate skill in the skill description chart? Since they stated about obvious skills like Drive Auto, I think such useful skill like Intimidate should be mentioned instead of Drive Auto.

[@AndrewRybkin]

@@UrsuxRex Indeed. Since I'm new Keeper, I didn't face such questions. Yet)

[@lebendigesgespenst7669]

My household just recently bought this and we did have to buy those pictured dice separately, but that being said the dice it came with were somehow green rather than white

[@jackleg2007]

Another great review!

[@xavianstarsider9654]

Even better than buying direct from Chaosium. Get your FLGS to sign up with Bits & Mortar. I got mine to. Now I can support my local store with my Chaosium purchases AND get the free PDF. Everyone wins.

[@kevinphair8113]

Just a heads up to anyone interested in buying this direct from Chaosium. I ordered this early Friday morning and as of Wednesday night my order still is awaiting shipment. Glad they included the PDF version to tide me over until it ships.

[@midnightprince30]

Great review. That was me, going i don't need this. But them modules with the new art. Very savvy. Gonna give them a whirl and hey, the box will look nice on display. 👾

[@CamelotGaming]

I thankfully got a set of green dice with my box. Fits the game more personally.

[@rickeymariu1]

Congrats on the shoutout