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Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation

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Creating a Call of Cthulhu Investigator should be just as exciting as the investigations in which they will partake.  Unfortunately, the frequency with which investigators perish, means often falling back on familiar tropes for creating characters.  Heinrich’s Call of Cthulhu Guide to Character Creation breaks that cycle by providing tools to ensure that every Investigator is unique and interesting to play.  For however long they may survive... 

The Guide is a tool for:

  • Solo & Group Play,

  • Session 0, and

  • Creating Your Campaign

The Guide contains:
  • Over 150 pages,

  • Hundreds of Events, and

  • 17 Player Handouts to Develop Your Investigator's Backstory

Heinrich’s Guide is a role-playing product for creating character backstories through emergent storytelling.  Experience your investigator grow up from strange going-ons accompanying their birth, to them finding love (and then rescuing said loved one from cultists), to skipping class to spend more time studying esoteric pursuits, to being recruited by a “Secret Government Agency," to traveling to other dimensions!

Heinrich's Guide is not a standalone product and is enhanced through use of Chaosium’s Seventh edition Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook and the Investigator’s Handbook.


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Reviews (21)
Discussions (15)
Customer avatar
José M January 24, 2024 5:14 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi!!

Is this character creation book necessary to play the campaign Heinrich's Call of Cthulhu Guide to Carcosa? Is it only recommended? Is the Call or Cthulhu 7th rules enough?

Thanks!!

I don't understand why this book has many more ratings than the campaign itself :).

Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V January 25, 2024 2:18 am UTC
CREATOR
Absolutely not! Both the Character Creation Guide and the Carcosa Guide are standalone products. Though you certainly can use one with the other (and the Carcosa Guide includes a short intro if you are using the Character Creation Guide), the Character Creation Guide is not required, and the Carcosa Guide actually has its own quick-start character creation process for those who still want some randomness with their investigators!
Customer avatar
Sascha R August 29, 2023 11:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi,

this is really a create guide.

But I stumbled over this: at several occasions I am instructed to "Make a Hard Characteristic/Regular Skill roll".
What is exactly meant by that?
Which characteristic shall I roll? Which skill? Both or only one? Am I free to choose?
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V August 29, 2023 11:51 pm UTC
CREATOR
A great question. One of the challenges with this style of a book is not being able to predict how a character would handle a situation (e.g., talk their way out, fight). So the Guide leaves it up to you to choose a characteristic or skill to roll. Because characteristics are more general and tend to have a higher percentage, they typically call for a Hard roll (meaning in Call of Cthulhu rules parlance, rolling half your number or less), while skills being more specialized just allow you to make a regular roll. Apologies that wasn't more clear in the introduction!
Customer avatar
Marek G August 24, 2023 1:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It's not just a great supplement, but actually two great supplements in one.

What do I mean by that?

This Guide offers two wildly different, but equally fascinating experiences - of reading it back to back and of actually generating investigators using it. When you generate investigators, you get a rich, but usually relatively realistic, story of a person from birth to adulthood. It's sometimes sprinkled with an encounter with the supernatural or two, but nonetheless focused on family, friends, beliefs, romances, hobbies etc. It's great fun to generate backstories using the random tables from the book and filling in the blanks with your own imagination.

However, when you read the book back to back, stange and eldritch events occupy quite a lot of it - probably because each needs lots of explanation, and there are so many eldritch elements to choose from in Call of Cthulhu! Read this way, Heinrich's Guide gives tons of ideas for scenarios, strange scenes, and NPC backstories....See more
Customer avatar
John W November 19, 2022 7:52 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I would like to reinforce the call for a printer friendly PDF of Appendix A: Player Handouts. Formatted for duplex printing (card backs on one side and fronts on the other) and remove the black background of the cards. It take far too muck ink or toner to print. Alternatively or additionally I would gladly purchase a POD deck of cards. Otherwise 4 at of stars.
Customer avatar
Robert F October 02, 2022 10:09 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I recently purchased this (PDF) and have just started going through it. Coming up with back story can be time consuming or just difficult, especially for less experienced players. As a Keeper, sometimes you just need some creative help. There are many great lists to help flesh-out investigators (or NPC's) from birth to current, all in one book. I like Appendix A: Player Handouts, although it would helpful to have them setup in a duplex print-friendly layout so they can be printed and cut-out. Great work, thanks!
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V October 04, 2022 12:07 am UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the very kind review!
Customer avatar
Ramsey L August 30, 2022 11:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Just purchased the Hardback print on demand and are ready to help make some characters. Are there digital resources for the handouts? I'd love to print the cards.

Edit: Just saw another comment that points me in the right direction.

Edit2: Nope, got excited but it was the character sheet. Still very useful but I was looking for the cards.
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Customer avatar
Niels V September 01, 2022 1:12 pm UTC
CREATOR
Greetings Ramsey! Best is to get the PDF copy so you can just print out those pages. Another option is to scan the pages of course (you have total permission to do that for personal and promotional use!). If that doesn't produce satisfactory results, go ahead and email me at heinrich.d.moore@gmail.com and we can see about getting you just the handouts.
Customer avatar
Marcel B August 19, 2022 11:07 am UTC
PURCHASER
Does the supplement works well for modern times investigators?
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V August 20, 2022 4:33 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yes, it does! The supplement is setting neutral, so you can use it with 1890s (Gaslight), 1920s (classic), 1930s (pulp), modern, or most other time period.
Customer avatar
Niels V July 15, 2022 2:02 pm UTC
CREATOR
Heinrich Moore here: We have received requests for a digital version of the Appendix D: Investigator Backstory Sheet for those who have purchased the POD version of the book only. While we continue to explore whether this is possible on DriveThruRPG without creating an entirely separate listing, you can contact me to request a copy, or download it directly here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zkv9wmgT99Sy0Vd-w1fk0gwBKs4IlvEk/view?usp=sharing
Customer avatar
Jean-François P July 07, 2022 10:16 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I've been playing CoC for 40 years now and this book has considerably improved my current campaign. Nevertheless, I met some minor typos. The most noticeable up to now is on page 95 (Relationship events), the entry 54-56 is missing. That does not withdraw anything to the wonderful work you did! Congratulations and thank you!
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Customer avatar
Adrian S July 08, 2022 4:45 am UTC
PURCHASER
Are you sure? It's not missing in my version. It says 54-56 Favorite spot: You and your Love Interest develop a
special connection to a place (roll on Table 14A:
Meaningful Locations). [ML].
Reply
Customer avatar
Jean-François P July 08, 2022 7:00 am UTC
PURCHASER
Yes, I am. I just downloaded again the file (named: 319735-Heinrichs_CoC_Guide_-_(FINAL_REVISED)_(hyperlink) ). Page 95, I can see 51-53 Family Pet (down the left column) then 57-59 Family Vacation (top of the right column). Maybe the file has not been updated on DriveThru?

Thanks for your responsiveness!
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V July 08, 2022 2:05 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yep, I acknowledge the typo. When we redid the layout and uploaded a new file, somehow entry 54-56 ended up missing (54-56
Favorite spot: You and your Love Interest develop a special connection to a place (roll on Table 14A: Meaningful Locations). [ML]). Adrian S may be looking at the original layout, which correctly included the entry. My apologies!

Heinrich
Reply
Customer avatar
Adrian S July 08, 2022 3:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Ah, wow, I didn't realize there was a new version with a completely new layout. I was using the old one this entire time. I don't believe I ever got an e-mail that said the product had gotten updated. So thank you, Jean-François, I wouldn't have learned about it without your comment! :)

I have two follow-up questions of my own then: has anything other than the layout changed; and will the missing entry found out by Jean-François be added?
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V July 08, 2022 3:53 pm UTC
CREATOR
An email should have gone out when the update happened (about three months back). Also possible that my DriveThruRPG skills were not up to snuff. As to your follow-on questions, nothing else has changed other than layout and some art; as to whether the typo will be fixed, short answer is not in the near-term. We are tracking a list of typos (this one is probably the biggest), but given that the product is available in POD, and there would be a lot of hoops to jump through to create a new edition, including playing with the layout some more, it likely won't happen anytime soon. Happy to provide the older version to those who have the version with the newer layout, and of course if folks are dissatisfied with the product, we can absolutely talk refunds as necessary.
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Customer avatar
Jean-François P July 08, 2022 5:11 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you very much for your answers. I'm absolutely satisfied by the product. Thanks to Adrian (and you), I know the missing entry and a simple sticky note on my printed copy will be sufficient for now.
Reply
Customer avatar
Jeffry W September 07, 2022 12:26 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is the POD version in the new layout?
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V September 07, 2022 2:59 pm UTC
CREATOR
Yes it is (see a video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-sT3DuYFJ0)
Reply
Customer avatar
Jeffry W September 08, 2022 5:52 am UTC
PURCHASER
Oh perfect! Thank you!
Customer avatar
Stuart D June 09, 2022 8:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
Looks fantastic but I second the request for a printer friendly version.
Customer avatar
Tim C June 07, 2022 8:00 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I had my eye on this but after listening to the Miskatonic University Podcast I jumped on it. Looking forward to trying it out this evening. After that I'll decide on getting a POD copy, I generally prefer having a hardcopy of my books.
Customer avatar
Franck F May 12, 2022 7:35 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Great work, may I suggest a printer friendly version (no background, or separate layer for background so it can be disabled before printing) and a POD version?
Customer avatar
Bobby N April 22, 2022 12:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
Really love this book! A lot of thought went into making this. The only thing I wonder about is if it's possible to get a copy of the handouts in a jpg format for people who use VTTs? Maybe it's a lot to ask and honestly it's like adding more awesomeness to something that is already very awesome.
Customer avatar
Steve K April 12, 2022 10:30 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is there any benefit to a soft or hard cover?
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V April 17, 2022 2:36 pm UTC
CREATOR
At this time (April 2022), we have not yet achieved a sufficient volume of sales for print-on-demand, but we are hopeful of getting there!
Customer avatar
Adrian S April 06, 2022 6:23 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is quite possibly my favorite RPG supplement ever! Do you have any plans of making variations of this for other systems/settings, like the World of Darkness for example?
Reply
Customer avatar
Niels V April 09, 2022 1:09 am UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for the kind comment! We will have to see about the success of this volume first, but yes, I would love to work on versions of this for the World of Darkness, the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and other RPG systems! - HDM
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File Last Updated:
April 17, 2022
This title was added to our catalog on January 31, 2022.