Call of Cthulhu vs Horse Majeure
Compare Call of Cthulhu and Horse Majeure side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | Horse Majeure | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Modern |
| Play Style | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based | Comedy, Beginner-Friendly, Rules-Light, One-Shot Friendly, Fast Sessions, Collaborative, Fast-Paced, Low-Prep |
| 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. | Two players form one horse: Player 1 (front) and Player 2 (back). Each player rolls one d6 simultaneously. The dice must be within one value of each other to succeed. Matching dice is a perfect result. Increasing differences produce mixed success, failure, or critical failure. A 5-off result is a catastrophic failure that rips the costume in half. A Horse Tolerance Meter tracks how suspicious NPCs are: reaching level 5 loses the game. A bonus racing mode uses the same dice mechanic on a track board for up to 4 teams. |
| Dice | d100 | d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Very Low |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Medium |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | Standard commercial |
| Cost | $$ | $ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Tom Lavery |
| Year | 2014 | 2025 |
| Best For | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. | Groups looking for a quick, absurd party game where two players physically coordinate as the front and back halves of a horse costume, hunting for an apple in places horses should not be. |
| Highlights | 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. | Unique two-player-per-character mechanic forces coordination between the front and back of a horse costume. Horse Tolerance Meter creates escalating tension as NPCs grow suspicious. Includes three detailed color-coded maps with story hooks: a hospital, a space station, and a haunted house. Includes a separate racing board game mode for even player counts. Print-and-play zine format with standee cutouts included. |
| Considerations | 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. | Single-page ruleset with no character advancement, inventory, or campaign structure. Requires exactly even player counts plus a GM. One expansion zine (Stable Conditions) adds items and a bingo board. Humor depends heavily on the group's willingness to commit to the premise. |