Call of Cthulhu vs Monster of the Week
Compare Call of Cthulhu and Monster of the Week side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | Monster of the Week | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror, Modern |
| Play Style | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Horror, Corruption, Skill-Based | Narrative, Beginner-Friendly, Investigation, Playbook-Driven, Fiction-First, Character-Driven, 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 2d6 + stat. 10+ full success, 7–9 success with a cost, 6 or less the Keeper makes a move. Playbook moves trigger from fictional actions. Luck points turn failures into successes but never come back. |
| Dice | d100 | 2d6 |
| Complexity | Medium | Low |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | Generic Games Third Party License |
| Cost | $$ | $$ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Evil Hat Productions |
| Year | 2014 | 2023 |
| Best For | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. | Groups who want episodic monster-hunting adventures inspired by Buffy, Supernatural, and The X-Files: investigating mysteries, confronting creatures, and dealing with hunter drama. |
| 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. | Very easy to learn, mystery countdown gives the Keeper a clear prep framework, playbooks map directly to genre archetypes |
| 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. | No pre-written mysteries in the core book, limited mechanical depth for long campaigns, custom move design requires GM experience, monster creation guidelines are loose |