The Grand Grimoire is exactly the right name.

A Keeper may not literally need this book to run CoC magic well, but it makes it so much more likely, easy and fun. For Investigators its more of a list of even more things to worry about...

A compilation of 550+ spells from a 40 year back catalogue of CoC games; this really is as close to a real grimoire as you are likely to get. The spells are presented with variants, alternatives and twists already baked in - making it easy to individualise each one, just the way Cthulhu magic should be - unique, mysterious, individual, unknowable. This is not your grandfather´s spell list.

And horrific? Some of the spell features gave me actual shudders reading them, which is exactly what you want in this game. Not "oh this is an evil spell that needs a sacrafice" but "oh... that ... is a gruesome and nasty concept". Don´t give to anyone with trouble distingushing gaming fantasy from reality.

Word of warning - this is an encyclopedic volume of information, you will not absorb it all in one sitting. Far better to dip in from time to time and browse or look for something specific.

One thing that makes that a lot easier is the use of Spell categories - these list out all the spells with effects in a given field like "Making Monsters" so pick roughly what you want you villan to be interested in for example and then read through how they could accomplish it ... I defy anybody to do so without having a some ideas how they could use something from what follows in their campaign. The "Extending Life" list for example has given me long lived villans with vulnerabilities, perils of disloyal henchmen, complex preparations to interfer with, locked-room murder mysteries, vampiric red herrings, mulityear memory loss victims... in short plenty to investigate.

If pressed to find a flaw - its only that there isn´t a category for Gathering, Storing and Manipulating Magical Power ... those are included in Other Spells category. Might just not be enough spells written for that yet. And a Keeper doesn´t really need a "mechanically canon" explanation for high cost plot critical magic being cast anyway.

One thing on the wish list ... as the glyph/rune font pastes out to text ... could it be made available? Or even as a text "translation" website.

Anything else? Three very different but plausible NPC magicians to tailor into your game; a smattering of magical minions with statistics like Spectral Hunters and Hybrid Tindalosians; the normal high quality art work expected from 7e; and mystic diagram line art that would be frankly wasteful not to copy out for use in your own handouts.

In short, a wothwhile addition to any CoC bookshelf.

Call of Cthulhu is a classic role-playing game that has been around since the 1980s. It's one of the most unique RPGs out there, given that instead of fighting monsters for treasure, players are often fighting for their lives against alien horrors. Call of Cthulhu is a horror game, and magic in this game is often something frightening that involves horror elements such as human sacrifice, summoning hideous monsters, and giving up one's sanity. Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic is a guide to the magic system of Call of Cthulhu that compiles all spells from across sourcebooks and editions and puts them into one large volume for convenient reference.

To start off, this book isn't an absolute requirement for running Call of Cthulhu, but it is a great resource when you are running a campaign, and especially when you are writing your own adventures. The Grimoire collects any spell that has appeared in the core rules, sourcebooks, and adventures from Chaosium's offical Call of Cthulhu materials. Veteran players will be happy to know that some of the spells from previous editions that had been removed from the core rulebook can be found here. Spells like 'Hands of Calubra' (one of my favorites), which didn't find its way into the 7th edition core rules, is available here. Some spells may have been known by other names in other editions or books, but you can find them all here--perhaps under the list of alternate names for each spell. Though, the core rules lists alternate names for some spells, they sometimes don't match the list of alternate names in this book, which has more of a focus on tying spells to earlier editions. Like the core rulebook, this book includes explanatations of similar spells in aggregate, such as sections on contacting deities, summoning monsters, and enchanment spells--though with larger lists of spells than get from the core rules. As well, some spells here offer a 'deeper magic' version as in the core rulebook, which gives an alertnate, more powerful version of some spells. In this book, you'll find more spells with deeper magic versions, for example, the core rules has the spell 'Dread Curse of Azathoth', but only the Grand Grimoire has the deep magic rules for this spell.

Much of the appeal of this book is in the extra details and the expanded spell list. The core rules may have a few dozen spells--but the Grand Grimoire has hundreds. It includes spells related to the Dreamlands (an alertnate dimension that exists in dreams), and low-level 'folk' magic that is more practical and has less horrifying effects than other spells. In fact, the spells are organized with a series of icons next to each spell name that tells you what kind of spell it is (enchantment, dreamlands, communication, travel, folk, harmful, protection, etc). On top of all of these extras, this book also offers some expanded general rules for using magic in Call of Cthulhu. This is great for adding details about magic use to your adventures, as you should in this game. This includes charts of spell components, lists of magical effects by day of the week and phase of the moon, and a handly list of pagan holidays. There is also information on magical effects associated with locations, such as ley lines, and places of residual magic effects. Not to mention, we also get a few sample NPC magic users that might make a good addition to your game.

Overall, the Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic is a great supplement for Call of Cthulhu game keepers. It's full of supplemental magic rules and a ton of spells beyond what you get in the basic core rules. It's useful if your characters have picked up a spell from an adventure, and you want to reference it without finding it in the scenario book. It's useful if you're looking for a spell to surprise your players with. With a bit of planning and creativity, you can even use the rules to add some details about magic rituals to your game. This book may not be an essential guide for Call of Cthulhu ,but it is very handy for bringing your campaigns to the next level.

Read the full review at Geeksagogo.com