Micro Mythos

© 2022 by Kyle Maxwell, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Call of Cthulhu is a registered trademark of Chaosium Inc.
This game is designed to play Call of Cthulhu (CoC) scenarios with simpler mechanics. Fall
back to the Keeper’s judgment or some other rules for anything that seems incomplete, such
as the free Call of Cthulhu Quickstart Rules. Let me know what you think by commenting on
the game page or hitting me up on Twitter (@technoskald).
Character Creation If you roll under half your attribute, you
achieve an extra level of success. On a
96-100, you automatically fail with extra
Roll 3d6 and multiply by five. Repeat this cost.
three times. Assign to Physical, Knowledge,
and Willpower. You have two Hits and a For example:
Mythos rating of 5.
● Physical: Leaping from an exploding
Choose an occupation, including a speciality boat (risk: getting caught in the
(e.g. "Professor of Ancient Languages", not explosion)
"Professor") as well as a personal interest, ● Knowledge: Getting the gist of a text
like "Athletics" or "Gambling". in a foreign language (risk: missing
key info)
Write a name, pronouns, and description. ● Willpower: Standing fast when an
eldritch creature is summoned (risk:
Grab a d100 and whatever you need to take flight or freeze)
notes.
When you see or comprehend something
Checks horrifying, make a Willpower check. On a
failure, the character panics (fight, flight, or
freeze) and takes Willpower damage, usually
When you do something with a risk of a one or two d10. An especially horrifying sight
negative outcome, roll d100 under the may do d5 Willpower damage even on a
appropriate attribute (Physical, Knowledge, success.
or Willpower). If your occupation or personal
interest applies, roll with a bonus die (roll an When attempting to understand the Mythos
extra d10 for the tens die and use the lower (e.g. recognizing an eldritch creature,
of the two). The Keeper may not require a making sense of a cult leader’s journal), roll
roll in some cases, particularly when related d100 under Mythos rating. On a failure,
to your occupation. make a Willpower check as above.

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Micro Mythos
Combat & Damage
Fighting directly against an otherworldly
power will kill you. Choose some other goal
(e.g. escape, distraction), and work to
achieve that.
When fighting mundane creatures (humans,
beasts), hand-to-hand weapons deal 1 hit, or
2 hits if they are particularly deadly
(chainsaw, garrote). Most firearms deal 2
hits, but larger automatic weapons do 3.
Otherworldly creatures have no limit on
their damage.
Roll under Physical to attack successfully.
When you take a hit, roll under Physical or
you are Wounded. When you are out of hits,
you are Wounded.
When you are Wounded, you are likely to
die. Roll a d10.
● 1-5: Your death is inevitable although
you have a few moments to say
goodbye.
● 6-9: You need immediate emergency
medical attention to save your life.
● 10: You'll make it but you're done in
this fight.
Non-combat damage will do damage directly
to Physical, usually measured in d10s.
● 1d10: This might hurt a bit
● 3d10: This is going to hurt
● 5d10: This may kill you
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Micro Mythos
Recovery
On encountering the Mythos and surviving
(e.g. at the end of an investigation), add 5 to
your Mythos rating.
Hits are recovered at the rate of 1 per week
of rest.
Attribute damage is recovered at the rate of
d10 per 2 weeks of rest and professional
care.
CoC Conversion
Perception checks (Spot Hidden, Listen,
Psychology) automatically succeed if the
player is looking in the right direction or
otherwise attempting to observe something.
Other checks should use a relevant
attribute, generally Physical or Knowledge.
Remember to apply bonus dice if the
occupation or personal interest applies.
Sanity rolls are replaced by Willpower but
function in the same way (roll d100 under
stat).
Each d6 of damage or HP corresponds to one
Hit. Each d10 worth of damage or HP
corresponds to two Hits.
If a character has an artifact or arcane tome,
using it (e.g. to cast a spell) requires a
successful Willpower check per the rules
above.