What do you think?
Rate this book
Call of Cthulhu RPG, 7th Edition
The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic
Over 550 spells of dire consequences, secrets, and unfathomable power!
Here are gathered spells drawn from over thirty years of Call of Cthulhu supplements and scenarios. Each spell has been revised for the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition game, including optional Deeper Magic for the most powerful of Mythos sorcerers and monsters, with which to beguile and confound investigators.
Packed full of advice and guidance on diverse matters including spell names, elements of spell casting, magical components, and astronomical considerations. Plus flawed spells, ley lines, folk magic, and the magic of the Dreamlands. Use this grimoire as a resource, a play aid, and as inspiration when designing scenarios. The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic is an essential supplement for Keepers of Arcane Lore.
Here are gathered spells drawn from over thirty years of Call of Cthulhu supplements and scenarios. Each spell has been revised for the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition game, including optional Deeper Magic for the most powerful of Mythos sorcerers and monsters, with which to beguile and confound investigators.
Packed full of advice and guidance on diverse matters including spell names, elements of spell casting, magical components, and astronomical considerations. Plus flawed spells, ley lines, folk magic, and the magic of the Dreamlands. Use this grimoire as a resource, a play aid, and as inspiration when designing scenarios. The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic is an essential supplement for Keepers of Arcane Lore.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2017
4 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
About the author
Mike Mason
32 books48 followersLine Developer and Editor for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, freelance author and game designer.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 26, 2020
I have been playing RPGs for forty years now. I know their history, I understand their evolution, and--as I have become older--I can read them with a designer's eye instead of just a consumer's POV. So I was pretty jazzed to grab this book, since I am an avid player of Call of Cthulhu, and have been since 1983! It is my favorite game.
Most of this book is a grimoire, as the title says. The author's have taken all of the spells from 30+ years of game materials, organized them, and updated them to the 7th edition of the rules. This isn't a read-from-cover-to-cover book, but rather a resource for game masters. That along is great: this is the kind of book that I will peruse and refer to and find inspiration in as I play CoC with my friends, and perhaps design some scenarios myself.
What I loved about this book was the thinking behind the actual magic system. Most people begin role playing games with an FRPG (fantasy role playing game), with Dungeons&Dragons being the most common system. In an FRPG, magic is a utility: your characters learn spells in order to better, and more effectively, interact with their environments. In an FRBP, magic is almost like gravity: it is a force that can be understood, manipulated, predicted, and utilized by wizards and clerics. Even divine magic is logical: a cleric uses his or her faith in order to access magic from their gods. All good stuff.
In CoC, magic is a different sort of thing, and here is the summation: all magic is black magic. With the exception of some Dreamlands spells, and some simple folk magic, any spell a character utilizes or interacts with during a game is evil (or at least, will have an evil impact). The 'magic' in Call of Cthulu isn't gravity: it is a taste of cosmic darkness, and a sampling of 'reality' that will eventually drive people to acts of depravity and madness. We we played CoC as kids, I think we treated spells more like D&D magic (which makes sense because that was the system we were used to using). The player cast Shrivel, or summoned monsters, or created gates with little or no consequence to themselves. Sure, there is a SAN loss, but I don't think I really understood the basis of magic in CoC until I read the first 20 pages of this book. So that's been super helpful.
About fifteen years ago, I sold all of my old CoC stuff. It has been sitting in boxes, unused, for more than two decades at that point (and man oh man did I have a lot of stuff!) Now that we are playing again, I've felt a little nostalgia for all the oldies buy goodies, but I have to say that the 7th edition of this game is great, and the new materials are wonderful. It has been absolutely wonderful to reconnect with this game, and to see the growth and development of the system. Well done, Chaosium, as always!
Most of this book is a grimoire, as the title says. The author's have taken all of the spells from 30+ years of game materials, organized them, and updated them to the 7th edition of the rules. This isn't a read-from-cover-to-cover book, but rather a resource for game masters. That along is great: this is the kind of book that I will peruse and refer to and find inspiration in as I play CoC with my friends, and perhaps design some scenarios myself.
What I loved about this book was the thinking behind the actual magic system. Most people begin role playing games with an FRPG (fantasy role playing game), with Dungeons&Dragons being the most common system. In an FRPG, magic is a utility: your characters learn spells in order to better, and more effectively, interact with their environments. In an FRBP, magic is almost like gravity: it is a force that can be understood, manipulated, predicted, and utilized by wizards and clerics. Even divine magic is logical: a cleric uses his or her faith in order to access magic from their gods. All good stuff.
In CoC, magic is a different sort of thing, and here is the summation: all magic is black magic. With the exception of some Dreamlands spells, and some simple folk magic, any spell a character utilizes or interacts with during a game is evil (or at least, will have an evil impact). The 'magic' in Call of Cthulu isn't gravity: it is a taste of cosmic darkness, and a sampling of 'reality' that will eventually drive people to acts of depravity and madness. We we played CoC as kids, I think we treated spells more like D&D magic (which makes sense because that was the system we were used to using). The player cast Shrivel, or summoned monsters, or created gates with little or no consequence to themselves. Sure, there is a SAN loss, but I don't think I really understood the basis of magic in CoC until I read the first 20 pages of this book. So that's been super helpful.
About fifteen years ago, I sold all of my old CoC stuff. It has been sitting in boxes, unused, for more than two decades at that point (and man oh man did I have a lot of stuff!) Now that we are playing again, I've felt a little nostalgia for all the oldies buy goodies, but I have to say that the 7th edition of this game is great, and the new materials are wonderful. It has been absolutely wonderful to reconnect with this game, and to see the growth and development of the system. Well done, Chaosium, as always!
January 15, 2021
This book is exactly what it says it is, a one stop reference for basically every spell that has ever been in Call of Cthulhu. Beyond that, it includes 3 ready to go Mythos Sorcerer NPC's, a few new monsters, and some minor rules for Folk and Dreamlands magic. There are also notes about Ley Lines, Magical Residue, and things like ingredients, timing, sacrifices, etc. It's a great complete package of Mythos magic.
I deducted 1 star because I really wish they had included the original source for each spell. A few more illustrations would have also been nice to add flair and break up the text.
One last note, this book is much more useful for Keepers than for players.
I deducted 1 star because I really wish they had included the original source for each spell. A few more illustrations would have also been nice to add flair and break up the text.
One last note, this book is much more useful for Keepers than for players.
November 28, 2021
Estrictamente lo que reza la sinopsis: una recopilación de hechizos para usar junto con La llamada de Cthulhu. Manual del guardián y Pulp Cthulhu: aventuras de acción trepidante contra los Mitos, en un bonito formato pero con escasísimas aportaciones nuevas: tres PNJs por si te inspiran para crear aventuras, textos copiados y pegados directamente desde el manual básico o desde los módulos que Chaosium ha publicado durante las últimas cuatro décadas, y alguna criatura nueva que, indudablemente, repetirán en el Malleus Monstrorum si alguna vez lo editan en castellano.
Además, la edición tiene algunos errores en alguna tabla que la hacen inaplicable; tampoco es que antes fuera de mucha utilidad, pero da rabia que haya que dirigirse a la edición original para aclarar las dudas que deja.
En definitiva: si llevas muchos años metido en este juego, escasa aportación nueva aparte de algunas ocurrencias menores; si llevas poco tiempo, añade color a pesar de que el uso de conjuros en CoC por parte de los jugadores sea improbable. ¿Por qué tengo la impresión de que casi todas las expansiones de reglas (entre comillas) que se han producido en los últimos tiempos son más bonitas que útiles o interesantes?
Además, la edición tiene algunos errores en alguna tabla que la hacen inaplicable; tampoco es que antes fuera de mucha utilidad, pero da rabia que haya que dirigirse a la edición original para aclarar las dudas que deja.
En definitiva: si llevas muchos años metido en este juego, escasa aportación nueva aparte de algunas ocurrencias menores; si llevas poco tiempo, añade color a pesar de que el uso de conjuros en CoC por parte de los jugadores sea improbable. ¿Por qué tengo la impresión de que casi todas las expansiones de reglas (entre comillas) que se han producido en los últimos tiempos son más bonitas que útiles o interesantes?
Read
October 5, 2022This was a very interesting book to leaf through right after Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse: both are compilations and re-workings of things that have gone before (in this case, not monsters, but all sorts of spells); both are organized alphabetically, with other groupings done elsewhere (i.e., Mordenkainen has a page that splits up the monsters into humanoids, giants, devils, etc.; the Grand Grimoire has a page that splits up the magic into Dreamlands, Folk, Mythos, etc.).
But whereas Mordenkainen goes for illustrations on every page and tight text, the Grand Grimoire goes for white space and occasional illustrations. (Also scattered here and there are a few NPC magicians and some monsters related to some spell or other.) It makes for a pretty different reading experience, and for me, a slightly less engaging one. Like: the book notes that some of this info might inspire adventures, when to me it feels more like a utility book -- or like material cut from the core books for space. I'm not upset to have it as, well, utility books provide utility in a game, but I'm not necessarily taking away any big ideas from this about magic or how to write a game book.
But whereas Mordenkainen goes for illustrations on every page and tight text, the Grand Grimoire goes for white space and occasional illustrations. (Also scattered here and there are a few NPC magicians and some monsters related to some spell or other.) It makes for a pretty different reading experience, and for me, a slightly less engaging one. Like: the book notes that some of this info might inspire adventures, when to me it feels more like a utility book -- or like material cut from the core books for space. I'm not upset to have it as, well, utility books provide utility in a game, but I'm not necessarily taking away any big ideas from this about magic or how to write a game book.
July 17, 2021
For years, Chaosium has been knocking it out of the park with some of the finest material ever published for tabletop RPGs. The Grand Grimoire of the Cthulhu Mythos is another in a long line of excellent supplements by Chaosium for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It is a handy tome that gives the Evil Sorcerers sure to be featured at every Keeper’s table plenty of ammunition. .
The production value of the Grimoire fits this bill. It is beautiful and well written. The material in Chapter Two, Concerning Spells, is particularly good, providing great inspiration on how to work magic in the CoC game. The next chapter, Spell Categories, is less successful. The authors have invented 17 different runes to identify types of spells that have not become second nature despite multiple readings. Most of the book is found in Chapter Four, an extensive listing of the spells of the Cthulhu Mythos. This section would be stronger with categories shown rather than using the aforementioned unintelligible runes. Still, this is a handy reference, despite magic in the game necessarily being largely the province of Non-Player Characters.
Recommended for those looking to bring their “A-game” in running sorcerer NPCs.
The production value of the Grimoire fits this bill. It is beautiful and well written. The material in Chapter Two, Concerning Spells, is particularly good, providing great inspiration on how to work magic in the CoC game. The next chapter, Spell Categories, is less successful. The authors have invented 17 different runes to identify types of spells that have not become second nature despite multiple readings. Most of the book is found in Chapter Four, an extensive listing of the spells of the Cthulhu Mythos. This section would be stronger with categories shown rather than using the aforementioned unintelligible runes. Still, this is a handy reference, despite magic in the game necessarily being largely the province of Non-Player Characters.
Recommended for those looking to bring their “A-game” in running sorcerer NPCs.
April 10, 2019
Not what I Expected
June 23, 2019
A great way to get a feel for balance, and a way to inspire fear of the unknown.
Read
November 19, 2019Page1
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 3, 2022
About as expansive a compilation of magic stuff for Call of Cthulhu as you could want. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews