Action Movie World vs Call of Cthulhu
Compare Action Movie World and Call of Cthulhu side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Action Movie World | Call of Cthulhu | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | Playbook-Driven, Cinematic, Fiction-First, Fast Sessions, Comedy, Martial Arts, Player-Only Rolls, Pulp Action | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based |
| Core Mechanic | Roll 2d6 + stat. On a 10+ the move succeeds completely, on 7–9 it succeeds with a catch, on 6 or less it fails and the Director makes a move. Players choose an Actor Playbook (their star persona across all films) and a temporary Script Playbook (the genre of the current movie), gaining moves from both. Only players roll dice: the Director never rolls. | Roll d100 equal to or under your skill percentage. Success tiers at half (Hard) and one-fifth (Extreme) of the skill value. Bonus and penalty dice adjust the tens digit. Failed rolls can be pushed for a second attempt at greater risk. |
| Dice | 2d6 | d100 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Accessibility | Medium | High |
| Runnability | Medium | Very High |
| License | Powered by the Apocalypse | Chaosium Fan Material Policy |
| Cost | $ | $$ |
| Publisher | Flatland Games | Chaosium |
| Year | 2015 | 2014 |
| Best For | Groups who want short, high-energy sessions that celebrate the cheesy action movies of the 1970s through 1990s, playing actors whose careers span multiple genres of film. | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. |
| Highlights | Dual-layer playbook system: Actor Playbooks define a star's brand while Script Playbooks define the genre of each movie, so campaigns shift between kung fu, cop, barbarian, and other action subgenres. Lead actor mechanic grants one character plot immunity per movie, mirroring action film conventions. Star Power and experience track an actor's career across multiple films. Movies run in 2–4 sessions, making each one a self-contained arc within a longer campaign. | Tracking Sanity as a depletable score ties mental erosion to the fiction, so confronting cosmic horror mechanically wears characters down. The percentile skills resolve on a d100 roll-under, with Hard and Extreme bands at half and one-fifth of the rating. Bouts of Madness convert failed Sanity checks into temporary phobias, manias, or loss of character control. |
| Considerations | Meta-narrative framing (playing actors playing characters) requires buy-in and may confuse groups expecting straightforward genre play. No free rules or quickstart available. Script Playbooks in the core book cover six subgenres: groups wanting genres outside those six must create custom scripts. | The chase rules add a detailed positioning subsystem whose complexity outweighs how often it sees use. Character creation allocates points across a long list of skills, a slow first step for new players. In long campaigns the sanity spiral can strip a character of player control as madness accumulates. |