ChrisTalbot.com

Many, many months ago, I described the concept of Call of Cthulhu to Rawl. He thought it sounded kind of neat; and I have a feeling he thought it sounded neat because he could see it for what it was -- a genre piece where the players are meant to get into the spirit of the genre. He mentioned CoC to another gamer, whose response Rawl later related.

The response was something like this: "Burn every book you find immediately. Don't follow clues. If the GM wants you to do something or go somewhere, don't do it."

To me, this is someone who has completely missed the point of not only Call of Cthulhu, but of roleplaying in general. What if you watched a horror movie and the entire cast of characters sat around in a brightly-lit room and did nothing? If the phone rings, they don't answer it. If they hear something move outside, they ignore it. They take turns on watch and refuse to do anything from the beginning of the movie until the credits start rolling. Would you enjoy seeing such a movie? I know I wouldn't.

So in an RPG CoC session, if your characters refused to follow clues, sat around in a hotel room and did absolutely nothing at all to put themselves at risk, and absolutely refused to get involved in the story in any way, how would it be fun? The very idea baffles me.