Call of Cthulhu vs Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying
Compare Call of Cthulhu and Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | Invincible – Superhero Roleplaying | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Modern, Scifi, Superhero |
| Play Style | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based | Superhero, Licensed IP, High-Power, Tactical, Character Building, Character-Driven, Solo-Friendly, Theater of the Mind |
| 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 a pool of d6s equal to an attribute and count each 6 as a success. Extra successes buy stunts. After a failed roll or when seeking more successes, push once by rerolling dice that show neither 6 nor 1; each 1 remaining after the push causes stress. |
| Dice | d100 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | High | High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | All Rights Reserved |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Free League Publishing |
| Year | 2014 | 2026 |
| Best For | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. | Groups who want custom superheroes to alternate between destructive team fights and relationship-driven scenes about responsibility, stress, and ordinary life. It suits campaigns ranging from young street heroes to cosmic champions, with a separate solo crisis mode. |
| 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. | Extra successes buy comic-book stunts such as knockback and collateral destruction, while players can propose GM-approved improvised stunts. Action scenes threaten Health and generate stress against Resolve, while relationship-centered social scenes restore Resolve and tie personal life to the campaign loop. Crisis Mode supplies response engines and escalating timers for solo superhero play without a Gamemaster. |
| 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. | The large power catalog, reaction-heavy zone combat, and critical-injury procedures create a steeper learning curve than the simple dice pool suggests. Brutal injuries, permanent death, and collateral damage are deliberate parts of play, so groups should align on graphic superhero violence. The setting chapter, campaign material, and character profiles draw heavily on Invincible, so groups seeking a generic superhero toolkit may choose to replace them. |