Full description not available
R**L
A very thoughtful and useful 7e book
Well done and well organized. One of the issues I've always had with CoC is the relative paucity of spells and the fact that there was little variety between the various sorcerers in terms of their capabilities. How many times can you describe the effects of shrivel or Voorish sign before there familiarity breeds contempt? (answer: not too many, really). This book not only collects all the various spells, but it also gives suggestions for alternate names and different effects depending on whether the caster is willing to go all out into the outer darkness in preparing the spell. Combined with an excellent introduction and organization of the spells into various types (extend life, offense, protection, summoning, etc.), the book is more than just a 7e update of spells, or even a collection of spells from a variety of sources, but it is also a good way to restore the mystery and danger of spells for any CoC game. I've been using it to rerun Fungi from Yuggoth, and it is amazing how much just a couple of different spells in the hands of bad guys can change the flavor and direction of a story.
A**K
Great book!
This book is amazing. Beautiful, informative and a useful tool for Cthulhu Mythos spells. The usual high quality 7th edition Call of Cthulhu book that we've come to love. Much better than my backwards and upside down Investigator Book that shipped together with this one.
J**N
Indispensable for my 7e CoC game!
I *love* this thing! While I've been playing RPGs since the 80s (don't judge), I'm relatively new to Call of Cthulhu, so when I saw that the Grand Grimoire was a "thing" I was immediately intrigued. The spells in this thing are collected from years of CoC products, old and new, with the particulars of each one updated for 7th Edition. Each one of the spells in this thing is so evocative that it will, in and of itself, inspire you to whip up a horror scenario based around it. It's going to go quite a long way towards adding creepiness and depth to the CoC games I run. I'll also mention that the printing quality, binding, excellent paper, and so forth make you feel like you're getting your money's worth. And if anyone asks, I have not noticed any particular modern-day political bent to the book's contents.
A**H
Great resource
This is a great supplement for anyone looking to add a more spells to their game. The book is well organized, and splits the spells based on the kind of spell it is i.e. banishment, combat, enchantment etc. The book also discusses things such as spell components, ley lines, phases of the moon, and other astronomical factors. If you want to make the magic in your campaign feel more lovecraftian this is a good resource. I also enjoyed that they added a couple of creatures, and NPC's interspersed between the spells. Not many, but it was unexpected and a nice touch.
B**N
Another good book for Call of Cthulhu
If you run Call of Cthulhu, you will eventually need some magic spells. Not only does Chaosium collect five-hundred magical spells for us, but they also give us everything we would ever want to know about casting (fictional) magic: Leylines, magical components, times of magic, folk magic, it's all here.The spells are sorted alphabetically but there is an index that sorts them by category: Banishment, combat, communications, dreams, time, making monsters, folk magic, etc. This is very helpful, especially if you're trying to stock a tome with a variety of spells.The book delivers on its promise of magic spells. There are more spells in this book than you'd probably ever be able to use in your CoC game. If you have a spell idea, I'd be darned if you couldn't find a similar spell in here. Not only are the spells, costs, and mechanics laid out, but a fictional description of the spell, and other names for the spell, are given.The book itself is beautiful and looks great on the shelf, but if you've been buying Chaosium's books lately you probably don't need me to tell you that. This company has been putting out nothing but shelf-candy lately, and I hope they keep going!There are some things I'd have liked to have seen. Maybe a section about how to fill out a grimoire, or even a few "spell packages" that'd help us quickly create sorcerers. I'd have also liked some logistical info about some of the spells: It's obvious you'd learn 'Create Yellow Sign' from the King in Yellow or some follower thereof, but where would you learn 'Wrath of Ages?'Another negative is that many of the spells feel "samey" to me. I've found at least four or five spells that all immobilize a target in slightly different ways, and that's just from doing a casual glance. Another annoyance is that quite a few spells refer you to the Malleus Monstrorum, which is not released in hardback yet, and makes the book feel incomplete. It also has to be said that if magic is rare in your game, you probably don't need 500-something spells.For those reasons, I can't give the book five stars. It does what it sets out to do, but falls short of being a grand slam in my book. I find I don't pull this book off the shelf very often, I'm sad to say. But it is still an enjoyable read, and if you run a magic-heavy game of CoC it will be invaluable to you.
L**R
Great supplment - use as a refrence book
easily my favorite addition to my CoC games.basicly Its a refrence book, if you're looking for anything other than that, than this is not the supplment for you. If you are, than this is by far the best source for CoC magic. There are a few contridictions between this book and the Keepers guide - I tend to stick closer to this one, but honestly that's just a personal prefrence and the diffrences I noticed are very minor (e.g. taking d6 or d10 sanity from casting a certin spell)It is not a 'must have', but it makes a great addition
S**S
Well done, worth the upgrade from 6E...
I don't tend to buy the newest edition of anything, but this one is worth it. The cleanup of the rules has been so worth it. Better explanations, faster game play, and good consolidation of skills. This really is one of the few times paying the extra money for the next edition was worth it.
G**.
Cool book and the cover looks awesome
This was on my girlfriend’s wish list... she loves it. I think it looks really good, too.It’s great to have a book you want that has a cool cover, too.
Trustpilot
1 month ago
3 weeks ago