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Game System
ToC uses Gumshoe. It's a 1d6 system. Every die roll is just 1d6. No special dice needed.
CoC uses BRP. It's mainly a 1d100 system, but it does use most of the other polyhedral dice.
Time Period
ToC is set in 1930's.
Various published scenarios are set in different time periods ranging from 1914 to 1954.
Fear Itself and Esoterrorists use the same base Gumshoe system that ToC uses, but set in the modern day.
I play tested Cthulhu Confidential (ToC for one GM and one player) and I really enjoyed it. It has 3 play sets: a noir detective in Hollywood during the 1930's, a black ex-soldier in Washington DC during the 1940's, and a woman reporter in NYC during the 1930's. Extensive information about the time periods and locale were included. Cthulhu Confidential uses a vastly modified version of the Gumshoe system and they call this new system One-2-One.
CoC is set in 1920's.
There are various supplements published by Chaosium for other time periods:
Pulp Cthulhu is set in 1930's (CoC 7th Ed) .
Cthulhu Dark Ages is set in 950-1050 Dark Age Europe (CoC 7th Ed).
Down Darker Trails is set in late 1800's American Wild West (CoC 7th Ed).
Cthulhu by Gaslight is set in 1890's Victorian England (CoC 6th Ed).
Cthulhu Now is set in 1990's (CoC 3rd Ed, out of print)
Supplements published by licensees:
World War Cthulhu (CoC 6th Ed by Cubicle 7, out of print) and Achtung! Cthulhu (CoC 6th Ed by Modiphius, out of print) are set in WW2.
World War Cthulhu: Cold War is set in the 1970's (CoC 7th Ed by Cubicle 7, out of print).
Cthulhu Invictus set in Roman Times (CoC 7th Ed by Golden Goblin Press; CoC 6th Ed by Chaosium, out of print).
Conversion from CoC 6th to 7th isn't that difficult.
Published Scenarios
When I compare published scenarios written for CoC and those written for ToC, there is a marked difference between the two. I'm not sure if it is because there are more CoC scenarios written, so more bad ones are mixed in with the good or whether ToC lends to a better writing style. The two iconic campaigns for CoC are Horror on the Orient Express (HotOE, 1991) and Masks of Nyarlathotep (Masks, 1984). Eternal Lies (EL, 2013) was written long after the CoC campaigns were written so it benefited from their mistakes and successes. My personal ranking from best to worst would be Eternal Lies, Masks, then HotOE. HotOE suffered from having multiple authors write separate chapters for different cities.
In ToC, investigative rolls are auto-successes (in actually there are no rolls), the investigator just declares that they're using an investigation skill and the GM responds if there is a clue. The whole philosophy behind this is that a game shouldn't be sidelined if the investigator fails to find a clue. Sometimes the investigator must do a spend to get a clue or additional information. This makes the GM/scenario writer more focused on where clue trails lead to (e.g. how to get to the next scene) vs the investigation.
In CoC, investigators must roll dice to spot clues, so there's a chance that a clue can be missed. So, the GM/scenario writer focus is on multiple details that investigators might miss (and possible red herrings), so each scene is like a puzzle to figure out. Also, as you go from scene to scene, you get more puzzle pieces. So, CoC scenarios need to be more well-written to get the same effect as a ToC scenario.
CoC 7th's Push and Luck spends does narrow the gap of catastrophic missed clues that ToC is designed to eliminate. In ToC, you can still miss a clue if an investigator at a scene doesn't have a specific investigative skill necessary to unlock a clue. An example would be where none of the investigators at the scene have Chemistry or Forensics which would be necessary to unlock a specific clue.
I feel ToC is like Sherlock Holmes where every clue is immediately found and CoC is like CSI where clues need to be teased out of the crime scene. To me, ToC is more storytelling focused whereas CoC is more investigative focused.
In some cases, failure is more interesting than success. This is embodied by the Push mechanic in CoC. By removing the possibility of failure in ToC, I feel that a potential for tension and danger (and sometimes frustration) has been removed. I think, with a well-written CoC scenario with multiple clue trails, core clues clearly marked, and explanations as to where a clue can take the investigators, CoC scenarios can be just as good if not better than ToC scenarios.
Sanity
In ToC, there are both Stability and Sanity meters. Stability measures whether you panic and freak out now. Sanity measure whether you're crazy (in a Lovecraftian way, being able to understand non-Euclidean space or the insignificance of man) or not. A mad scientist can be very stable, but very insane believing in very odd things. A frantic person being chased in a haunted house can be unstable, but very sane. Your Stability has to go to zero before you lose Sanity. If you use Cthulhu Mythos, you lose Sanity. e.g. you believe in the Mythos and are consciously using it -- which is crazy. What I found was that was very hard to drive an investigator's Stability to zero. Between episodes in a long campaign, an investigator would visit a Source of Stability and refresh their Stability. In my campaign of Eternal Lies, several investigators did gain some Mental Illnesses and lose some Pillars of Sanity and some Sources of Stability. It was the slow eroding of these things that was very interesting in running this year long campaign. Only at the very end did we lose several investigators to full insanity and death. So, ToC works very well for long campaigns, but the Stability and Sanity system doesn't seem to work very well for one-shots.
In CoC, there is only one Sanity meter. But the amount of Sanity loss determines if it is a Temporary Insanity (lose 5 at one time, this is equivalent to Stability loss in ToC) or an Indefinite Insanity (lose 20% at one time) where you also gain an Insanity such as a Phobia or Mania. CoC is easier to run as a one-shot as you can either start the investigators with less Sanity or adjust either the Sanity loss for shocks to the system or increase the number of frights. When running Masks and HotOE, the number of investigator deaths and instances of Insanity were higher than in Eternal Lies even though I thought some of the things uncovered in Eternal Lies were more horrible. CoC 7th added character backgrounds that can be affected by Insanity.
ToC's sanity system is more nuanced than CoC's. CoC character backgrounds can be used in a very similar way as ToC's Sources of Stability and Pillars of Sanity, but it isn't as formalized as ToC's Stability/Sanity system.
Combat
ToC has only 3 skills for combat: Firearms (guns), Scuffling (fists), and Weapons (knives). Combat uses 1d6 to hit and generally a 4 or better is needed to hit (50%). Damage is generally 1d6 also. Points can be spent from the investigator's Firearms, Scuffling, or Weapons pool before they roll their 1d6. Spending 3 points generally guarantees a success. But most investigators have about 5 points to spend. So, by their 3rd or 4th shot, they're out of points. Once out of points, they can still roll, but cannot modify their rolls with point spends. The points refresh only after 24 hours elapses for the investigator.
I find ToC combat very lackluster. Other Gumshoe systems have added Cherries where Investigators have special abilities that kick in if they have 8 or more points in a general ability which allows them to make special moves, so it adds extra flavor to combat and other activities. I've played Night's Black Agents and it really adds a lot to the game.
CoC has basic skills for combat: Fighting (Brawl) 25%, Firearms (Handgun) 20%, Firearms (Rifle/Shotgun) 25%. Investigators can choose to have combat specializations in other weapons, but the most common are these 3. Damage varies depending on the weapon. During character creation, players may decide to add skill points to combat skills. Combat uses 1d100 to hit and the chance to hit is based on their combat skill with that weapon (rolling that skill % or less). CoC allows Fighting Maneuvers such as disarming, choking, restraining by using Fighting (Brawl).
CoC combat is a little more complicated than what I outlined above, allowing the defender to fight back or to dodge, but I just wanted to go over the general differences.
Health
In ToC, Health is your Hit Points. Investigators generally have 10 Health (max 12), but they only die at -12 Health. When they reach negative numbers, various abilities and penalties apply. At -1 and -6 there's a Consciousness Check. Weapons all do a variation of 1d6 with a plus or minus based on the lethality of a weapon. A gun for instance generally does only 1d6. I found ToC to be a very forgiving system and investigators rarely die. If the investigator team survives an encounter (beats the encounter and someone is still conscious), more than likely any unconscious investigator will be saved. On average, it'll take 6 bullets to kill an investigator. About 5 to possibly knock him unconscious.
In CoC, Hit Points are generally at about 10. If you take damage and reach zero, you go unconscious. If you take any attack that causes damage equal to half your maximum Hit Points (about 5), you gain a Major Wound and make an Unconsciousness Check. If you reach zero Hit Points and have a Major Wound, you would be dying. Previous versions of CoC were less forgiving and death was much easier. CoC is very lethal. A gun will do 1d10 damage. An Extreme success, 1d10+10. On average it'll take 2 bullets to kill an investigator. About 1 to possibly knock him unconscious.
So, you can see that ToC is very forgiving and the chances of dying is much lower than CoC.
Summary
I favor the CoC 7th ed system over the ToC system. But if hear of some fantastic ToC campaign or scenario, I would not hesitate to run that scenario. I would not bother to convert the scenario to CoC, but run it as-is in ToC.
I play tested Cthulhu Confidential (ToC for one GM and one player) and I really enjoyed it. It has 3 play sets: a noir detective in Hollywood during the 1930's, a black ex-soldier in Washington DC during the 1940's, and a woman reporter in NYC during the 1930's. Extensive information about the time periods and locale were included. Cthulhu Confidential uses a vastly modified version of the Gumshoe system and they call this new system One-2-One.
CoC is set in 1920's.
There are various supplements published by Chaosium for other time periods:
Pulp Cthulhu is set in 1930's (CoC 7th Ed) .
Cthulhu Dark Ages is set in 950-1050 Dark Age Europe (CoC 7th Ed).
Down Darker Trails is set in late 1800's American Wild West (CoC 7th Ed).
Cthulhu by Gaslight is set in 1890's Victorian England (CoC 6th Ed).
Cthulhu Now is set in 1990's (CoC 3rd Ed, out of print)
Supplements published by licensees:
World War Cthulhu (CoC 6th Ed by Cubicle 7, out of print) and Achtung! Cthulhu (CoC 6th Ed by Modiphius, out of print) are set in WW2.
World War Cthulhu: Cold War is set in the 1970's (CoC 7th Ed by Cubicle 7, out of print).
Cthulhu Invictus set in Roman Times (CoC 7th Ed by Golden Goblin Press; CoC 6th Ed by Chaosium, out of print).
Conversion from CoC 6th to 7th isn't that difficult.
Published Scenarios
When I compare published scenarios written for CoC and those written for ToC, there is a marked difference between the two. I'm not sure if it is because there are more CoC scenarios written, so more bad ones are mixed in with the good or whether ToC lends to a better writing style. The two iconic campaigns for CoC are Horror on the Orient Express (HotOE, 1991) and Masks of Nyarlathotep (Masks, 1984). Eternal Lies (EL, 2013) was written long after the CoC campaigns were written so it benefited from their mistakes and successes. My personal ranking from best to worst would be Eternal Lies, Masks, then HotOE. HotOE suffered from having multiple authors write separate chapters for different cities.
In ToC, investigative rolls are auto-successes (in actually there are no rolls), the investigator just declares that they're using an investigation skill and the GM responds if there is a clue. The whole philosophy behind this is that a game shouldn't be sidelined if the investigator fails to find a clue. Sometimes the investigator must do a spend to get a clue or additional information. This makes the GM/scenario writer more focused on where clue trails lead to (e.g. how to get to the next scene) vs the investigation.
In CoC, investigators must roll dice to spot clues, so there's a chance that a clue can be missed. So, the GM/scenario writer focus is on multiple details that investigators might miss (and possible red herrings), so each scene is like a puzzle to figure out. Also, as you go from scene to scene, you get more puzzle pieces. So, CoC scenarios need to be more well-written to get the same effect as a ToC scenario.
CoC 7th's Push and Luck spends does narrow the gap of catastrophic missed clues that ToC is designed to eliminate. In ToC, you can still miss a clue if an investigator at a scene doesn't have a specific investigative skill necessary to unlock a clue. An example would be where none of the investigators at the scene have Chemistry or Forensics which would be necessary to unlock a specific clue.
I feel ToC is like Sherlock Holmes where every clue is immediately found and CoC is like CSI where clues need to be teased out of the crime scene. To me, ToC is more storytelling focused whereas CoC is more investigative focused.
In some cases, failure is more interesting than success. This is embodied by the Push mechanic in CoC. By removing the possibility of failure in ToC, I feel that a potential for tension and danger (and sometimes frustration) has been removed. I think, with a well-written CoC scenario with multiple clue trails, core clues clearly marked, and explanations as to where a clue can take the investigators, CoC scenarios can be just as good if not better than ToC scenarios.
Sanity
In ToC, there are both Stability and Sanity meters. Stability measures whether you panic and freak out now. Sanity measure whether you're crazy (in a Lovecraftian way, being able to understand non-Euclidean space or the insignificance of man) or not. A mad scientist can be very stable, but very insane believing in very odd things. A frantic person being chased in a haunted house can be unstable, but very sane. Your Stability has to go to zero before you lose Sanity. If you use Cthulhu Mythos, you lose Sanity. e.g. you believe in the Mythos and are consciously using it -- which is crazy. What I found was that was very hard to drive an investigator's Stability to zero. Between episodes in a long campaign, an investigator would visit a Source of Stability and refresh their Stability. In my campaign of Eternal Lies, several investigators did gain some Mental Illnesses and lose some Pillars of Sanity and some Sources of Stability. It was the slow eroding of these things that was very interesting in running this year long campaign. Only at the very end did we lose several investigators to full insanity and death. So, ToC works very well for long campaigns, but the Stability and Sanity system doesn't seem to work very well for one-shots.
In CoC, there is only one Sanity meter. But the amount of Sanity loss determines if it is a Temporary Insanity (lose 5 at one time, this is equivalent to Stability loss in ToC) or an Indefinite Insanity (lose 20% at one time) where you also gain an Insanity such as a Phobia or Mania. CoC is easier to run as a one-shot as you can either start the investigators with less Sanity or adjust either the Sanity loss for shocks to the system or increase the number of frights. When running Masks and HotOE, the number of investigator deaths and instances of Insanity were higher than in Eternal Lies even though I thought some of the things uncovered in Eternal Lies were more horrible. CoC 7th added character backgrounds that can be affected by Insanity.
ToC's sanity system is more nuanced than CoC's. CoC character backgrounds can be used in a very similar way as ToC's Sources of Stability and Pillars of Sanity, but it isn't as formalized as ToC's Stability/Sanity system.
Combat
ToC has only 3 skills for combat: Firearms (guns), Scuffling (fists), and Weapons (knives). Combat uses 1d6 to hit and generally a 4 or better is needed to hit (50%). Damage is generally 1d6 also. Points can be spent from the investigator's Firearms, Scuffling, or Weapons pool before they roll their 1d6. Spending 3 points generally guarantees a success. But most investigators have about 5 points to spend. So, by their 3rd or 4th shot, they're out of points. Once out of points, they can still roll, but cannot modify their rolls with point spends. The points refresh only after 24 hours elapses for the investigator.
I find ToC combat very lackluster. Other Gumshoe systems have added Cherries where Investigators have special abilities that kick in if they have 8 or more points in a general ability which allows them to make special moves, so it adds extra flavor to combat and other activities. I've played Night's Black Agents and it really adds a lot to the game.
CoC has basic skills for combat: Fighting (Brawl) 25%, Firearms (Handgun) 20%, Firearms (Rifle/Shotgun) 25%. Investigators can choose to have combat specializations in other weapons, but the most common are these 3. Damage varies depending on the weapon. During character creation, players may decide to add skill points to combat skills. Combat uses 1d100 to hit and the chance to hit is based on their combat skill with that weapon (rolling that skill % or less). CoC allows Fighting Maneuvers such as disarming, choking, restraining by using Fighting (Brawl).
CoC combat is a little more complicated than what I outlined above, allowing the defender to fight back or to dodge, but I just wanted to go over the general differences.
Health
In ToC, Health is your Hit Points. Investigators generally have 10 Health (max 12), but they only die at -12 Health. When they reach negative numbers, various abilities and penalties apply. At -1 and -6 there's a Consciousness Check. Weapons all do a variation of 1d6 with a plus or minus based on the lethality of a weapon. A gun for instance generally does only 1d6. I found ToC to be a very forgiving system and investigators rarely die. If the investigator team survives an encounter (beats the encounter and someone is still conscious), more than likely any unconscious investigator will be saved. On average, it'll take 6 bullets to kill an investigator. About 5 to possibly knock him unconscious.
In CoC, Hit Points are generally at about 10. If you take damage and reach zero, you go unconscious. If you take any attack that causes damage equal to half your maximum Hit Points (about 5), you gain a Major Wound and make an Unconsciousness Check. If you reach zero Hit Points and have a Major Wound, you would be dying. Previous versions of CoC were less forgiving and death was much easier. CoC is very lethal. A gun will do 1d10 damage. An Extreme success, 1d10+10. On average it'll take 2 bullets to kill an investigator. About 1 to possibly knock him unconscious.
So, you can see that ToC is very forgiving and the chances of dying is much lower than CoC.
Summary
I favor the CoC 7th ed system over the ToC system. But if hear of some fantastic ToC campaign or scenario, I would not hesitate to run that scenario. I would not bother to convert the scenario to CoC, but run it as-is in ToC.
