Welcome to Call of Cthulhu

Welcome to Call of Cthulhu!

The year is 1926. The world is changing—cities grow, technology advances, and the future seems brighter than ever. But beneath the surface of modern progress, shadows stir. Secrets lie buried in ancient tomes, whispered in forgotten corners of the world. Strange occurrences defy reason. And some who dig too deep into these mysteries never return… or return changed.

In Call of Cthulhu, you are not heroes in shining armor or untouchable adventurers. You are ordinary people—academics, detectives, journalists, explorers—thrust into the unknown. You will investigate, uncover hidden truths, and face things beyond human comprehension. Your greatest weapons are your mind, your courage… and your ability to know when to run.

This is a game of tension, atmosphere, and discovery. The choices you make will shape your fate. Will you be a skeptic, dismissing the unexplainable? A seeker of knowledge, willing to risk everything for the truth? Or a survivor, doing whatever it takes to make it through the night?

Your journey begins on a dark and stormy night off the coast of New England. A lighthouse stands as a beacon against the raging sea… but tonight, the light has gone out.

What happens next is up to you.

Are you ready to step into the unknown?

You Begin on the SS Essex County

You set sail aboard the SS Essex County, bound for Rockport, Massachusetts. The voyage was meant to be routine, just another journey along the rugged New England coast. Each of you has your own reasons for making the trip—some urgent, some mundane. Perhaps you barely noticed your fellow passengers, mere strangers passing through the same night.

But tonight is no ordinary night.

The sky is an endless black, the storm howling like a living thing. The ship lurches beneath your feet, battered by waves that rise like walls of water. Rain lashes against the decks, and the wind howls through the rigging, carrying with it an eerie, unshakable sense of foreboding.

Before this night is over, your journey will take an unexpected turn. The course of your life—if you survive—will be changed forever.

And in the darkness beyond the storm, something waits.

Your Character in the World         

Character creation can seem quite daunting at first look. It's the most difficult part of this game. Unlike D&D, you don't necessarily create your character with a specific class/occupation in mind. It's not a case of min/maxing certain attributes.

At the end of the day the character is human and we're not going to be choosing where we apply the rolls. If you roll a low score for strength, that score can’t be assigned elsewhere. That’s why it's recommended to think about your character's occupation afterwards.

This video is very good at explaining the process in line with the Player Manual. I'd recommend watching it through first and then watch again as you go through your rolling step by step. As you'll see, you roll your character's attributes first before selecting your occupation.

Before we touch Roll20, I'd really recommend using this Character sheet to create your character (as per the video above). Once your character has been created, we can the stats into the Roll20 sheet  directly.

The Roll20 Character creator does work well to help build your character but can be daunting initially. If you want to jump straight in, feel free, but you do lose some of the context as it does a lot of auto rolling

As far as using the Roll20 character sheet (once completed) is concerned, this video explains it well.

Here’s the link to join the Roll20 game https://app.roll20.net/join/19327471/WUefTQ

If you have any questions, as always, reach out and ask. We can either jump on a call or spend the first hour going through the character options. I’m expecting this first scenario to take 1.5 to 2 hours, so we should have time for setting up initially.