GM resource
Session zero for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Set expectations, tone, and table agreements. Session zero for Call of Cthulhu 7e sets the table before the dice matter: agree on tone (investigative cosmic horror), safety boundaries, and what each player wants from the game.
Checklist
- Talk through tone and boundaries: how hard the table wants to lean into what makes Call of Cthulhu 7e distinct (investigative cosmic horror).
- Walk the group through the core roll mechanic together so nobody is guessing at the table: Call of Cthulhu uses percentile skills: roll d100 and succeed if you roll at or under your skill. Difficulty often shifts the threshold (Regular/Hard/Extreme) and Sanity loss is a core pressure loop.
- Collect character concepts and connect them to each other before the first scene.
- Agree on logistics (session length, cadence) and which safety tools the table will use.
Common pitfalls
- Skipping the tone talk and hitting a mismatch mid-campaign
- Running session zero as pure character creation with no table agreements
- No shared safety-tool agreement before the first high-intensity scene