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.
@Tim_Eagon I'd say that probably counts. I'd probably throw in Trophy Dark/Gold as a closely related game design which puts its fingers into a lot of the same spaces. Also the Dee Sanction.
Let me grab some links for those people who may be coming along later and want to check out what we're talking about:
That last is particularly interesting because they put out a standalone SRD book (Sanction) which essentially lets anybody build a game off of the core that they want, as quite a lot of indie RPGs these days are doing.
In a real sense, we are not spoiled for choice when it comes to Lovecraft on the tabletop. Not even a little bit. In my mind, truthfully, the question is "why does Call of Cthulhu remain so ridiculously dominant when there are better game designs out there for doing the same thing?"
But I ask the same question about D&D on a regular basis.