Este lunes fui a jugar por primera vez en mi vida a un juego de rol, más concretamente a ‘La llamada de Cthulhu’, y me dejó bastante buen sabor de boca. No había tocado nada de Cthulhu desde que el verano pasado probara el videojuego ‘Dark Corners of the Earth’, que me pareció tan sumamente difícil que lo abandoné tras no conseguir pasarme una escena en la que había que salir de un hotel mientras te disparaban y te perseguían con hachas.
The game is based on the novels by Howard Phillips Lovecraft, so it is a “horror” game. Something that caught my attention about the game is that, unlike any other role-playing game, this one rewards caution more than curiosity, since it is very easy to go crazy or die, so sometimes it is better not to have played other role-playing games. Another thing that surprised me is the freedom of action it allows you, since you can do anything that occurs to you (And preferably that makes some sense).
According to Lovecraft, many eons ago, a race of extraterrestrial beings called the Old Ones rebelled against their masters, the Archetypal Gods. They lost and were punished. Some were exiled to distant stars, others are in remote and inaccessible places on Earth. Names like Cthulhu, Azathot, Shub-Niggurat, Yog-Sothoth and Nyarlathotep are the names given to some of them. Of the others, the Archetypal Gods, only one is known, Nodens and his symbol, a five-pointed stone star, considered an arcane symbol.
The Old Ones left behind a trail of servants, human and not so human, who want to make them regain their lost power. The knowledge of all this is also contained in forbidden and dark books (For example, the Necronomicon). This is where the players’ research work begins.
My character was Hanz Alberstein, the Polish immigrant Bible seller( :)) who ended up becoming the right hand of a gangster and, at the end of the first session, tried to kill an astronomer with arcane knowledge who was going to resurrect the gangster’s brother… I couldn’t let him leave me aside! Unfortunately he failed and they beat him up… but little by little he will become more powerful… (Muahahaha!).
The good thing about this type of game is that with a little imagination, you can end up making a good story, from which a good movie could be made (Although very absurd things can also come out). While the next session arrives, I’m going to play Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corner of the Earth again, to see if I can beat the happy escape.
* Did you know that…
- … in a book by Lovecraft, titled “The Tound”, its protagonist is Mr. Pánfilo de Zamacona, nobleman of Luarca (Asturias)? -… Lovecraft knew this town and the bable since at one stage in his life he visited Luarca?