Just keep in mind that there's no power playing in Cthulu, no matter what all your playing characters are either going to die or become insane.
I'd say that on average an inexperienced player is going to die in no more then 3 sessions.
Probably is just nostalgia speaking, but do not play the D20 version of the game, find the D100 rules, they are much better and are part of what makes this rpg unique.
The only thing i recommend is not to play with any sore loser: often you'll have to sacrifice someone to let all the other characters live and you don't want to turn every session into a long fight because last time you left your friend in the room full of dynamite.
And just one more thing, play the game in the intended age: 1920
The high death/insane rate is what really got me interested in the concept. But as my friend was describing it, the game often requires you to travel to very distant locations and puts an emphasis on ludicrous amounts of preparation like making sure you have malaria shots if you go into the Congo or whatnot.
Which wouldn't be too bad, except (as you mentioned) it's suppose to take place in the 1920s.
Also, my friend prefers running his own stories so people can't just look up the answers/mystery/whatever early on. I think he did start the initial preparation of an adventure so maybe he'll actually run it some day.
I think so. I think also belonging to a subset considered socially deviant may make for feelings of want to be exclusive and to feel it is 'us vs them', if you know what I mean.
Hm, yeah I think I see what you mean. It's kind of sad mindset.
No shortys, Asians, fats or fems? Don't be gay? I understand that this site catalogues douchebags, but god damn.
Hey now, everyone knows that short people only have half the amount of soul as us normal folk. Seems reasonable to me.