Miniatures and Call of Cthulhu

There's a lot of debate on wether miniature help or harm a Role Playing Game, particularly one like Call of Cthulhu. For the most part the game is simple. The system tends to blend into the background; often times a player might only have to roll dice a handful of times through a session. Some sessions don't have any dice rolling at all!

So, why do I find myself busting out the Battle-Mat and the paper chits whenever combat arises?

Well, there a few reasons. First and foremost, combat in Call of Cthulhu is deadly. VERY deadly. So deadly that I want to give my players a good sense of what is going on when they bullets start to fly. So, instead of simply describing a Deep One crouching in a dark corner of the room, I can give the players an idea of where they are and the layout of the room. No surprises means a "fair" fight.

To a lesser extent it gives players a sense of self in a fight. The power of a cool looking mini can spark the imagination. However, while I do enjoy painting miniatures for wargaming purposes, I don't find myself with a lot of time or money to buy and paint a slew of cultists and beasties for my weekly Call of Cthulhu game.

So, for my games I like to play things fast a loose, much like the BRP rules themselves. Instead of miniatures I use Fiery Dragon counters, specifically their "Eldritch and Occult Investigators" Counter Pack. It was published back in 2003, but it's still available from several gaming stores online. The counters look great and are the perfect size (1" squares) for the second part of the equation, which is the battle mat. The mat I use is a Chessex hexed battle mat I picked up very cheaply (accidental pilfered) several years ago at a local convention. The hexes allow for players to very simply count their movement; one hex, which we've decided is about a yard, for each point of MOV a person or beastie has.

While I've listed the pros that using minis in my campaign, there have been some cons. Foremost is the time it takes away from RPing. Often times I don't have maps pre-drawn, which takes some maneuvering between players to draw the situation. It also takes a few seconds to get everyones chits out and on the map, figure out where they are in the scene, etc. While this may only take a minuet or two, it could really kill a moment of surprise. When a group of NPCs draw guns and start firing it's shocking, but not so shocking when your Keeper then takes a minuet to draw the warehouse, bust out the Cultist counters, get everyones DEX rankings, and then continue the scene.

In the end I think I've reached a good balance in my campaign. The miniatures have certainly helped more than they've hindered, and the players have never spend more than a few minuets each session focused on the table when they should be focused on the Role Playing.