Today, longtime tabletop RPG Publisher Chaosium announced they will be released a 30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition of the Call of Cthulhu handbook. Below is the press release, followed by some thoughts from yours truly:
CALL OF CTHULHU
30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition
Item # CHA23126
SRP $64.95
ISBN10: 1568823541
ISBN13: 9781568823546
Sandy Petersen & Lynn Willis
2011 MARKS THE THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY of the release of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. To celebrate this important and rare occasion in our Adventure Gaming industry, Chaosium is proud to offer a special binding of the current edition (6th edition) of the Call of Cthulhu rulebook. This 320-page book features thick (3 mm) leatherette hard-covers with the front cover and spine stamped with luxurious gold foil. The interior pages are printed in black ink, on 90 gsm matte art paper. The binding is thread sewn, square backed. Each book is individually shrink-wrapped, with the barcode stickered onto the wrapping so as to not mar the book cover.
Chaosium will offer a one-time printing of this Collector’s Edition.
Call of Cthulhu is Chaosium’s classic roleplaying game of Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary people are confronted by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. Call of Cthulhu uses ChaosiumÀ’s Basic Roleplaying System, easy to learn and quick to play. This bestseller has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide and has won dozens of game-industry awards. In 1996 Call of Cthulhu was elected to the Academy of Adventure Game Design Hall of Fame. In 2003 Call of Cthulhu was voted the #1 Gothic/Horror RPG of all time by the Gaming Report.com community. Call of Cthulhu is well-supported by an ever-growing line of high quality game supplements. This version is completely compatible with all of our previous supplements for Call of Cthulhu.
Call of Cthulhu wasn’t my first RPG as a kid, but it quickly became my favorite when I picked up 5th edition back in the fall of 1992. I still have most of my old stuff from the Horror on the Orient Express boxed set to the green leatherbound 20th Anniversary Edition of the game that I picked up ten years ago (because it was perhaps the best looking tabletop gaming book I had ever seen in my life).
The 30th Anniversary Collector’s Edition will be a one time printing and it will be in stock at Chaosium around July 15th. With the announcement being made today on Chaosium’s website, this kind of threw me for a loop and doesn’t give gamers that much time to preorder. Still, if you missed out on the 20th Anniversary Edition of CoC, this is probably the best version of the game to pick up. Material-wise, the book sounds like it will be the same quality as the last anniversary edition (Although I do prefer the one from ten years ago, cover-wise). However, the 20th Anniversary edition used 5.5 rules, and the 30th Anniversary uses 6.0, so it’ll be interesting to see what has changed in the last decade.
You can pre-order the 30th Anniversary edition of Call of Cthulhu by going to Chaosium’s website, or by clicking on the link provided here in this sentence. If you have never played Call of Cthulhu or you are brand new to tabletop gaming, this will be a great edition to pick up. It’s about $30 more than the regular 6th edition version, but you are paying for high quality materials and a far superior cover.
Keep checking Diehard GameFAN for 20th Anniversary Call of Cthulhu coverage as we hope to have a preview of the book, along with an eventual full review, later this month.
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