Call of Cthulhu 7e Improvement check cheat sheet
Skill improvement rolls between adventures. At-the-table reference for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition.
Call of Cthulhu improvement checks: the between-sessions skill advancement mechanic. Roll over your current skill to improve it.
How improvement works
- When
- Between sessions (or at a natural narrative break)
- Eligible skills
- Skills you used successfully during play (marked with a check)
- Roll
- d100; must roll OVER your current skill rating
- On success
- Gain 1d10 percentiles in that skill
Step by step
- 1. During play, when you succeed at a skill roll, check the improvement box for that skill.
- 2. At the end of the scenario (or session, per Keeper preference), roll improvement for each checked skill.
- 3. Roll d100. If the result is HIGHER than your current skill, add 1d10 to the skill.
- 4. Clear the improvement check. Repeat for each marked skill.
Special cases
- Cthulhu Mythos never gets improvement checks; it only rises from reading tomes or experiencing the unnatural.
- Credit Rating cannot be improved through checks; it changes through in-game financial events.
- Skills at 90+ are extremely hard to improve (need to roll 91-100 on the d100).
Characteristic improvement
- Characteristics (STR, DEX, etc.) do not improve through checks.
- Some scenarios award characteristic improvements as rewards.
- EDU has a special improvement check: between major time jumps, roll d100 > current EDU to gain 1d10.
Common mistakes
- You must succeed at the skill to mark it: failures do not earn improvement checks.
- The improvement roll must exceed the current skill, not meet it. Skill 55 needs 56+.
- Only one check per skill per improvement phase, no matter how many times you succeeded.
- Pushed rolls that succeed do count for improvement checks.