I’ve been reading way too many recently published #CallOfCthulhu scenarios that feature a perfunctory investigation before the Investigators board a train to creepy town that is a one way exercise in hit point and SAN attrition. Sure, some of the imagery is very creepy, but something is definitely missing, that being real problem solving and meaningful choices.
@Rollenspielblog@Tim_Eagon Perversely – not something in my collection, but the existence thereof doesn't shock me at all.
According to DriveThruRPG, it was added to the catalog and thus probably came out about 10 years ago which puts it in a particular era of #PbtA development, one of the front runners. That would explain why it's not in my pocket.
@Tim_Eagon@Rollenspielblog My guess is that people who classically went in for Call of Cthulhu-style experiences weren't really interested in the PbtA-style experiences, and Chaosium hasn't had a significant enough scandal that got traction in public to push people away from their products (unlike Hasbro/Wizards), so there's not been market pressure to go discover other things.
Super heroics have always been a pretty market diverse silo, Blades did something very specific and very strong while introducing an excellent description of the mechanics themselves, Monster had the advantage of effectively being Buffy and putting relationships upfront as first-order mechanical objects… But Cthulhu has Call of Cthulhu which is probably best described as "adequate."
And "dominant."
It's hard to see something else slipping in there without a significant change.