* AdaptationDisplacement: Not to the same extent as Manga/YuGiOh and Film/GoldenEye but a significance amount of players have not only never read Lovecraft' original writings, some didn't even know it Cthulhu was originally a literary creation for the first good years of their time with the game. Among the TabletopRPG community, the RPG is what first comes to mind rather than Lovecraft's literature. Furthermore, several elements of the Cthulhu Mythos often assumed to be part of Lovecraft's writings actually originated with the RPG.
* BrokenBase:
** How exactly should one be lethal and/or insanity-destroying to their players? To some, if you're not trying to murder your players, giving too many hints, and it doesn't end in a party wipe, you're being too soft and playing it too much like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Contrariwise, if you're being too harsh, especially with players who aren't used to ''[=CoC=]'''s bleakness, you're perpetuating the stereotype that ''Call of Cthulhu'' isn't meant to be ''fun''.
** Sanity checks: fun addition to the game that makes it stand out from other tabletop fare and teaches players to be careful, or offensive and completely immersion-destroying when one bad roll can kill your character and knock you out of the game?
** How ''exactly'' is the game faithful to Lovecraft's universe at large? Either the standard fare of "all investigators die horribly and/or completely insane" is either a mangling of Lovecraft's original stories, where the characters who go insane usually recover (save for something that sounds suspiciously like PTSD) and alien menaces can be fought off, or a distillation of Lovecraft's themes, where success happened by sheer luck or by attracting another Eldritch entity.
* CommonKnowledge: No, Great Cthulhu does not ''eat 1d6 investigators per round, no save'', in spite of this being passed around as part of his stat block. He instead ''Scoops 1d3 investigators into his flabby claws to die hideously". Older editions were a bit more accurate to the [[MemeticMutation memetic quote]], with him eating 1d4 investigators instead.
* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/CallOfCthulhu here]].
* FanNickname: Gnarly (Nyarlathotep), Buzz (any individual Mi-Go), [=ETs=] (Elder Things), etc.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
** ''Call of Cthulhu'' has a long-standing status the most popular Tabletop RPG in Japan. The Japanese version is such a bestseller that it has received quite a few exclusive splatbooks and expansions. Manga and anime series have been written inspired by the game and the setting as the result of the boom of ''Call of Cthulhu'' in the country.
** A French RPG publisher is re-translating sourcebooks and modules and publishing them as premium quality hardcovers with reworked interior art and layout, including several long out-of-print in English, for both ''Call'' and ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', and is quite successful at it. The consensus among several English-speaking fan communities is that anyone literate in French should get these books, especially the 30th anniversary edition core book.
* HilariousInHindsight: Sandy Petersen, the creator of the game, was also one of the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' developers. Decades later, someone made a Franchise/CthulhuMythos-themed [[GameMod mod]] for ''Doom'' (it's named ''VideoGame/StrangeAeons'').
* MemeticMutation:
** SAN check.
** "Cthulhu eats 1d4 adventurers per round."
** "You're dead. And crazy."
** [=IA IA CTHULHU FHTAGN!!!=]
** [=ARGH, MY EYES=]
** [=MAN THE HARPOONS=]
** Fanfic/OldManHenderson, the man who "won" Call of Cthulhu.[[labelnote:Note]]A later, more detailed writeup from a witness to these events pointed out that it didn't happen in ''Call of Cthulhu'', but actually ''TabletopGame/TrailOfCthulhu''[[/labelnote]]
** Cthulhu comes back radioactive. [[labelnote:Explanation]]A statement in Cthulhu Now about what happens if you nuke Cthulhu. Somewhat divisive in the general Cthulhu Mythos fandom.[[/labelnote]]
** Y'golonac. "YOU FOOL, YOU'VE KILLED US ALL!"
* MyRealDaddy: Sandy Petersen has claimed sole creatorship of the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, which other sources like Daniel Harms' ''The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia'' attribute to Robert Bloch due to them being based on the "shoggoths" from his 1951 short story "Notebook Found In a Deserted House".
* RetroactiveRecognition: Created by Creator/SandyPetersen, as in, [[VideoGame/{{DOOM}} DOOM's]] level designer Sandy Petersen. A lot of ''VideoGame/QuakeI'''s lovecraftian atmosphere and some of the most horrific monster designs came from his love of all things Lovecraft.
* SlowPacedBeginning: The ''Beyond the Mountains of Madness'' campaign is infamous for this, as it styles itself an epic Antarctic campaign and it means it. It can take well over a dozen play sessions, ''if not longer'', before the group reaches Antartica, let alone the City of the Elder Things. And that's assuming the Keeper doesn't add any side adventures in Kingsport or Arkham as the source book suggests. It's very common to hear stories of groups giving up on ''Beyond'' due its sheer length and lack of Mythos encounters in the early to mid game.
* StopHavingFunGuys: Many people view inevitable death or insanity to be the only way in which the game can be played. Notably, vlogger Creator/SethSkorkowsky, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWpNDDhmOAw well known for his reviews of CoC modules, considers this view nonsense.]] -
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The adventure ''Fractal Gods'' of the book ''The Stars Are Right'' was released in the 90s and it shows. The titular "Fractal Gods" is a ''fanzine'' that sends [=CDs=] with fractal-based screensavers, one of which is infected by a virus coded by a Yog-Sothoth cultist, which makes the computer summon fractal-based creatures and Yog-Sothoth's fractal form. A free PDF later tried to "update" the scenarios from ''The Stars are right'' and the [=CDs=] and screensavers become a Youtube channel that streams EDM music with a fractal background, which does sound more modern and plausible, however, [[HollywoodHacking a Youtube video can somehow infect a computer with virus]].
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