Call of Cthulhu vs The Whispering Vault
Compare Call of Cthulhu and The Whispering Vault side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Call of Cthulhu | The Whispering Vault | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Modern | Horror |
| Tags | Investigation, Deadly, One-Shot Friendly, Atmospheric, Roleplay-Heavy, Mystery, Fear & Stress Mechanics, Corruption, Skill-Based | Mission-Based, Mystery, Investigation, Superpowers, High-Power, Character-Driven, Atmospheric, Weird, One-Shot Friendly, Strong GM Support |
| 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 number of d6s equal to the relevant Attribute. Take the highest single die or the largest sum of matching dice, then add the applicable Skill Bonus. Meet or exceed the GM's Difficulty to succeed. Spend one Karma to reroll any chosen dice while keeping the others. |
| Dice | d100 | d6 dice pool |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | Very High | Low |
| License | Chaosium Fan Material Policy | All Rights Reserved |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | No verified route found |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | $ |
| Publisher | Chaosium | Philip Reed Games |
| Year | 2014 | 2003 |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish | English |
| Best For | Investigation-driven horror where combat is deadly and sanity is fragile. Great for one-shots. | Groups who want supernatural horror investigations with powerful, inhuman protagonists. It suits episodic hunts across different eras or campaigns protecting one recurring location. |
| 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. | Each Hunt gives the group a concrete objective of investigating and repairing a breach in reality. Mastered powers allow improvised effects paid for with Karma. Consistent portrayal of the Keys that preserve a Stalker's human identity earns one part of the Experience award. |
| 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 Forbiddance punishes interference with unrelated mortals or major historical events. Supernatural abilities can consume the same Vitality used to withstand injury. Power interpretations and unusual combat situations depend on GM judgment rather than detailed rules for every case. |