Are you looking to get your Call of Cthulhu game up and running quickly — whether as a Keeper or a player? If you’re not already familiar, then we suggest you check out Dhole’s House, a fantastic online character generator with options for multiple CoC 7th Edition settings.

I’m about to start running some Down Darker Trails scenarios for one of my gaming groups, which usually leans more toward D&D/Pathfinder-style games. Character generators are always somewhat complicated, by necessity — but I think this one will help these dungeon-crawler types spin up their new investigators quickly.

While I’ve only ever used the Classic method (pictured below), there are also Point Buy and Freestyle options. I just mash the Roll Again button until I get some stats I like for the character I have in mind, then pick an era (Modern, Classic 1920s, Gaslight, Old West) and occupation — the site knows how many points I have to spend and what skill sets are available, depending on those choices. Hats off to the database designer; having conditional selections takes the hard work out of your hands, and will make it so easy for my band of looty gunslingers.

The PDF that’s generated is pretty good; pictured below is an Old West sheet (this example is one starting iteration of my Madam character, the proprietress of Priscilla Parker’s P—y Palace). It does not circle the starting values for HP, SAN, Luck, MP (and you’d have to go back to Dhole’s House to note your Luck number), but otherwise gives the standard 7th Edition data clearly. [Edited to add: Please see the creator’s comment on this post, for information on why those numbers can’t be circled. Makes sense!]

You can return to your account and access your saved characters at any time. I’d created an earlier version of Priscilla Parker, before the Old West era was an option (so I used Gaslight, at the time); she’s in here too. It’s handy to have all these people in one place!

And while I’ve only created 7th Edition characters, there is an option to create Pulp Cthulhu heroes, starting with one of 22 archetypes. I look forward to exploring that soon; I’ve long been a fan of the pulp adventure of Hollow Earth Expedition, and think it’ll be a blast to play up that style in a Cthulhu game.

So whether you’re a Keeper in need of some pre-gens, or a player looking for a quick way to spin up a Call of Cthulhu character, Dhole’s House is a fantastic resource. It’s free, although the creator welcomes donations; please join us in supporting this project, if you can.