Call of Cthulhu: The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic - RPG Review

"Flesh like Rope" is my favourite spell in the whole book. Nothing beats tying a mook to lamp post with his own wrist

An issue I have with D&D style magic is that it’s too reliable, it just feels like another form of science. What I love about CoC is that magic is mysterious, it’s difficult to cast and the outcome is often chaotic...plus dabbling in magic will ultimately lead to madness, great stuff!

You are, by a WIDE margin, my favorite RPG commentator. Thanks so much for what you do.

No matter how many times I look at that book, it still looks like a D&D 3e supplement. :) Also: Seth: "I would love to see all these extras mentioned in the video., Mike & Co.: "That's a brilliant idea! Write up a proposal outline and we'll send you a contract to start writing it." :D

The Delta Green Handler guide has more modern mythos tomes and has a little bit of advice on making your own, and Targets of Opportunity has an extensive breakdown on a Nyarlathotep cult and a few others. The zine The Unspeakable Oath also has a lot of more modern "tomes" such as a kung-fu movie "The Deadly Claws of the Yellow Emperor" (an obvious Hastur-infected film) EDIT: TUO issue one actually has rules for making your own tomes.

Current objective: Create seventy year old pulp Cthulhu character who’s a Mystic, can cast spells, and also has a six shooter

"Spikey Turtle Thing"  I think we need to lobby the UN for that to become the official international symbol for combat magic.

Yes! This is exactly what I needed. Have a group of PCs looking to sacrafice sanity for sorcery and finding info on mythos magic is tough. Thanks Seth!

If you're interested in a collection of Lovecraftian generator tables for Cults, Tomes, and Cult Conspiracies, I'd recommend getting the "Silent Legions" RPG. Even though it comes with it's own basic OSR system, the real highlight are all the thematic random gen tables in it. Great for rolling up and/or mixing Cthulhu themes for other RPGs like CoC. Can also be combined with "Stars Without Number (Revised Edition)" for a d20 space-cthulhu sandbox since it uses the same system, and is written by the same guy. I recommend getting them printed at DTRPG since you additionally get the PDF, along with the print-on-demand, for the same price as the PODs on Amazon.

9:28 There is a Miskatonic Monograph called the 'Big Book of Cults'

I absolutely LOVE this book! As scary as it is to use magic in Call of Cthulhu, the system has always had some of the most atmospheric spells, and the fact that there is no real structure to the magic system (as seen in other games like D&D) makes it really easy to tailor or create magic that fits your own campaign needs. I was actually lucky enough to snag a signed copy of both Pulp Cthulhu and the Grand Grimoire from the Compleat Strategist in NYC back in 2017. Even though I missed the chance to meet Scott Dorward, Matt Sanderson, and Paul Fricker in person (thanks to heavy work schedules during the summer months), the Strategist had a couple of signed copies sitting inconspicuously in the Chaosium section, so I bought them right then and there, even though I hadn't gone in there planning to buy anything that day. Thanks for covering this awesome book, Seth!

I picked this book up after watching your video. Greatly appreciated it!

It would really be useful to be able to create Mythos tomes as a PC. There are even multiple reasons to. The writer might document the most important bits of lore, so the knowledge isn't lost if they ever lose the original texts. A PC suffering from insanity might create poetry or prose as part of their therapy, which in turn could be collected and read, for occult insight. Studying what one wrote in a fugue or heightened state of madness could prove...enlightening. When the product of pure madness is examined from a perspective of reason. A dream diary could be employed as part of a person's attempts to explore the Dreamlands. If nothing else, I know from personal experience that dreams become easier to remember - and control - when you're in the habit of writing them as soon as you wake. If a PC is ever stricken with amnesia, it can be helpful to have their own documents on hand to remind them. If a new PC joins the investigators, a comprehensive record of what they've experienced can be handy at getting them up to speed. (As a fringe bonus, they get a big dump of Sanity loss, and Cthulhu Mythos gained, all at once; it's like ripping off a band-aid). Creating a treatise on the Mythos may be the first step in developing some character's occult Great Work. Like a new spell or some original bit of insight. Purely for role-play purposes, there's the fact that a Mythos tome becomes a character's legacy. A form of immortality...possibly literally, if you start exploring the headier aspects of memetic magic. "I shall persist as pure information! And when someone, centuries hence, has read and understood my work, I shall be reborn in them! I will live forever!"

Definitely agree with Jack about more modern scenarios

I highly recommend Silent Legions by Sinne Nomine Publishing. It's full of tables for rolling up cults, tomes, monsters, aliens, alternate dimensions, and so on. It has a game attached, a sort of B/X version of CoC, but the real joy of that product is the ability to create a full mythos of your own based on random tables. It does a lot of what you wish this product did!

Great review. Thanks again Seth. And yeah - a book of mythos tomes would be fantastic.

I've been waiting for this review for like, no joke, a year.

Thanks for the rules explanation, its a huge help. And congratulations on your nomination.

Fantastic review, as per usual. I also firmly agree with your suggestions for more products.

Just discovered you, Seth. Your videos are great!