Call of Cthulhu vs Hunter: The Reckoning
Compare Call of Cthulhu and Hunter: The Reckoning side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | Hunter: The Reckoning | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Tags | Investigation, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Mystery, Deadly, Corruption, Skill-Based, Atmospheric, One-Shot Friendly, Character-Driven, Narrative | Investigation, Mystery, Character-Driven, Gritty, Deadly, Atmospheric, Social Combat, Strong GM Support, Lore-Heavy, Urban Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d100 equal to or below a skill or characteristic. Hard and Extreme tests use half and one-fifth of that rating. Bonus and penalty dice select a better or worse tens digit. Eligible failed skill rolls can be pushed by taking further action, risking a harsher consequence. | Roll a pool of d10s, usually an Attribute plus a Skill. Each 6 or higher is a success. Meeting the Storyteller's Difficulty wins. Each pair of 10s counts as four successes. On tests within their creed's Field, Hunters may choose to add Desperation Dice equal to the cell's shared Desperation rating. A 1 on any Desperation Die turns a win into a choice: keep it and raise the cell's Danger, or fail and enter Despair. A failed test with a Desperation 1 always causes Despair. |
| Dice | d100 | d10 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | Medium |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Community content program | Commercial publishing allowed — Storytellers Vault |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Renegade Game Studios |
| Year | 2014 | 2022 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Chinese | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Best For | Groups who want clue-driven horror with ordinary investigators and lasting consequences. Suits focused mysteries and campaigns where survival matters more than defeating every threat. | Groups who want investigation-heavy modern horror in which a cell of ordinary people researches, plans, and confronts a monster at real personal risk. |
| Highlights | Pushing a failed roll offers another chance at the goal with a more serious consequence if it fails. Learning Mythos lore reduces maximum Sanity, tying useful knowledge to lasting vulnerability. An Idea roll gets a stalled investigation moving again, with failure putting investigators into danger. | Desperation rises after the cell's setbacks, so mounting trouble adds both dice and risk to later Field tests. Overreach lets a player keep a win by raising the cell's Danger, which escalates the quarry's response against the whole cell. Monsters have weaknesses Hunters can discover, so research pays off as concrete advantages in the final confrontation. |
| Considerations | A major wound can leave an investigator dying, making direct confrontation dangerous. Bouts of madness temporarily place investigator actions under Keeper control. Foot and vehicle chases track relative speed and movement actions, adding a separate procedure to pursuit scenes. | Desperation Dice apply only to tests within a Hunter's creed Field, so a character's signature boost sits idle outside that specialty. The book recommends ending most conflicts after about three turns, which leaves little room for extended tactical combat. The content warning covers themes such as sexual violence and torture, so groups should calibrate boundaries before play. |