Call of Cthulhu vs City of Amber
Compare Call of Cthulhu and City of Amber side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | City of Amber | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Fantasy, Horror |
| Play Style | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based | Urban Fantasy, Rules-Light, Career-Based, Investigation, Mystery, Noir, Atmospheric, Roll to Cast, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly |
| Core Mechanic | 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. | Roll d100 (2d10 — one die chosen as the tens, the other as the ones) and try to roll under one of four Stats: Vitality, Willpower, Agility, or Cunning. Skills, situational advantages, or assists let the player roll twice and take the better result; disadvantages take the worse. Three Saves (Fear, Magic, Body) resolve the same way. Failed rolls, entering combat, and casting spells each add Stress; reaching 10+ Stress drains Vitality or Willpower and adds a Consequence, and a critical Save failure forces a Panic check against current Stress. |
| Dice | d100 | d100 |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Accessibility | Medium | Medium |
| Community | High | Very Low |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | All rights reserved |
| Cost | $$ | $ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Chrome Dog Games |
| Year | 2014 | 2026 |
| Best For | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. | Groups who want a 1940s urban fantasy with horror undertones, where ordinary New Yorkers awaken to a hidden city of orcs, fey, and shades and pierce the illusion that keeps everyone else asleep. Built for one-shots and short campaigns driven by investigation, magical awakening, and dread. |
| Highlights | Sanity system mechanically reinforces horror tone. Intuitive percentile skill system with tiered success levels. One of the largest published scenario libraries in the hobby. | Amber level (1–10) is a double-edged progression: rising levels unlock new perceptions and career abilities — eventually including the power to command Grays — but falling to 0 reverts a character to a mindless Gray and hitting 10 retires them from play permanently. The Stress/Panic/Consequence cascade is the mechanical heart of the horror: failed rolls and entering combat each add Stress, hitting 10+ drains Stats and locks in a long-term Consequence (Haunted, Catatonic, Amber Dread, and nine others), and a critical Save failure forces a Panic check against current Stress. Career-gated magic means the same 20-spell list works differently across Careers: Street Wizards cast directly from randomly rolled spells, Artists bake spell effects into physical objects anyone can trigger, and Vagabonds redistribute Amber at personal cost. The Anchor — a mundane personal object worth two starting Amber points — makes every character's connection to the ordinary world a mechanical vulnerability. |
| Considerations | Chase rules add complexity with limited payoff, 46-skill list requires point allocation across multiple categories, sanity spiral can remove player agency in extended campaigns | Setting is locked to the City — characters cannot leave, and the GM improvises everything beyond its borders. Career and Kindred lists are fixed with no guidance for homebrew options. Magic is heavily gated to Street Wizards; other Careers receive one or two minor spell-like abilities at most. The 49-page rulebook is rules-light by design and leaves substantial setting detail, adventure structure, and faction development to the GM. |