Chaosium cthulhu items

Posts: 377 · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:10 pm

Just picked up a large lot of Chaosium cthulhu and some of the items I'm unfamiliar with

The three oddest items are:

1) The Pastores Monograph #0313 This one doesn't look professionally published and I wonder if it is a bootleg copy.

2) Return of the Ripper Monograph #0339 This one is professionally published.

3) Call of Cthulhu 3rd edition Hardcover published by Games Workshop

anyone know anything about these monographs?

Posts: 1179 · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 2:57 pm

The early monographs had the appearance of being printed on a laser printer with black tape on the spine.

They changed that approximately 18 months or so ago and now issue them in perfect bound format.

Monographs are only sold through the Chaosium web site and are small print runs. They pay the author for the rights to publish up to 500 copies and have small batches of them done up as print-on-demand batches.

The author is paid $250.00 for the monograph and if the book sells well enough there is a chance that Chaosium will pick it up as a full book to be distributed through stores. That has happened with their Mysteries of Morocco which will be released shortly as a full version.

Secrets of Morocco

I have heard from Chaosium and others that there are a few more on the way.

Posts: 1179 · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:00 pm

3rd edition Games Workshop Call of Cthulhu.
Regarded as one of the better early versions of the game.
It incorporated much of the 1920's sourcebook and had several color plates.
1986 Games Day award for Best Contemporary Role Playing Game.
1987 Games Day award for Best Other Role Playing Game.
and H.G. Wells Best Roleplaying Game Award.
There was a ton of them printed so it is certainly not scarce but in near-mint it may sell on eBay for $25-$35 depending on the number of bidders it attracts.

Posts: 377 · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:20 pm

jasonw1239 wrote:

3rd edition Games Workshop Call of Cthulhu.
Regarded as one of the better early versions of the game.
It incorporated much of the 1920's sourcebook and had several color plates.
1986 Games Day award for Best Contemporary Role Playing Game.
1987 Games Day award for Best Other Role Playing Game.
and H.G. Wells Best Roleplaying Game Award.
There was a ton of them printed so it is certainly not scarce but in near-mint it may sell on eBay for $25-$35 depending on the number of bidders it attracts.

It is the best looking core book I've seen. The pages have the parchment feel, and in general it has the old style rulebook flavor while the newer ones are a trifle bland.

Posts: 1179 · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:39 pm

Appearance-wise the most recent iteration of the rules is a design based on the German release of the game.

I think the page edge decorations and black text on grey backgrounds make it more difficult to read in some places.

What I do like is the updated content which condenses information about tomes, skills, insanities, monsters and spells from many published adventures.

This effort has created some internal consistency with the system that had been lacking in earlier versions. It makes for a nice reference work when I am writing monographs. Very Happy