The H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Fun Thread

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:18 am

I go on a Lovecraft binge every now and then--usually reading things like Dunwich Horror and Whisperer in Darkness. I'm not a big enough fan to pour through his entire works, but I've read a fair few of them.

I have to wonder, though:

What's the other Cthulhu-mythos stuff out there?

I've heard of Arkham Horror (never played). I've heard of some fan-movies, the Call of Cthulhu video game and the tabletop game.

So what's out there? What's good and what's not? Which stories are the really chilling ones?

Psychic Robot · Post by **Psychic Robot** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:26 am

don't find most scary stories to be actually scary. mostly I like lovecraft because of the ideas behind his works.

sorry not trying to threadcrap. arkham horror is a lot of fun.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:33 am

Psychic Robot wrote:don't find most scary stories to be actually scary.

Whisperer in Darkness was good. The ending made the hair on my arms stand up for a good hour.

Shadow over Innsmouth was awesome at the escape, but the ending fell flat.

Call of Cthulhu...to me, the best part was the policeman's account and some of the little details around there. Things like seeing vague shapes out beyond the trees.

Dreams in the Witch-House was fairly effective, too.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:46 am

http://www.cthulhulives.org/shoggoth/

EDIT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toHEiLcS ... re=related

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:33 am

Games:

Shadow of the Comet
http://lparchive.org/Shadow-of-the-Comet/

Prisoner of Ice
http://lparchive.org/Prisoner-of-Ice/

Those two are good adventure games.

Insmouse no yakata
http://www.gamefaqs.com/virtualboy/5797 ... -no-yakata

There really isn't much to this game just First person shooting with very limited time and ammo. That and it only came out to japan.

Cthulhu saves the World
http://www.gamefaqs.com/xbox360/997646- ... -the-world
A humorous RPG (XBLIG) I haven't finished it yet, but it pretty decent so far.

Robert D. Anderson and the Legacy of Cthulhu

http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/939745-rober ... lhu/images

Don't know much about this one.

Ningyo no Rakuin
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/578165-ningyo-no-rakuin

Lovecraft SRPG, I played it a bit and it's okay. It was also only released in Japan.

Fuchs · Post by **Fuchs** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 6:49 am

Lovecraft is mentioned in a comic I read last night, Le Grand Jeu (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Grand_J ... in%C3%A9e) ), a story set in an alternate reality where the germans lost WW2 early on and then started to rely on occult aid - and try to summon some of the elder gods, as far as I can tell. Lovecraft is mentioned as someone who tried to warn humanity with his stories of those dangers, but had not much success.

I don't know how close the mythos is to his works, but in one scene a man explains "Chtulhu has no tentacles, that was wrong".

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:59 am

There's a decent set of anthologies called Lairs of the Hidden Gods which is Japanese Cthulhu Mythos stories translated into English.

I'd always recommend Robert Chambers' weird The King in Yellow.

Nebuchadnezzar · Post by **Nebuchadnezzar** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 1:31 pm

The Rats in the Walls was ok, if you can get over the cat's name.

Most film and TV adaptations are terrible. Dagon and Cthulhu are barely tolerable versions of The Shadow over Innsmouth, and the silent '05 Call of Cthulhu is noteworthy.

Doom · Post by **Doom** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:02 pm

The best HP Lovecraft movie made (there have been many stinkers) is Dagon....it's not Shakespeare, but it captures the flow of the stories well.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:09 pm

Doom wrote:The best HP Lovecraft movie made (there have been many stinkers) is Dagon....it's not Shakespeare, but it captures the flow of the stories well.

Slows down a bit in the middle (Just like HPL), but I agree. It's the best HPL movie by far.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:10 pm

I dunno, I reserve a modicum of appreciation for Cast A Deadly Spell.

Red_Rob · Post by **Red_Rob** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:54 pm

I found the Lovecraftian text adventure Anchorhead really sucked me in with it's evocative setting and oppressive atmosphere. Kept me interested right to the end.

The HP Podcraft podcast is a trip through all of Lovecrafts published works with two affable hosts that examines each stories themes and plot, which I highly recommend.

A Colder War is a free online story by Charles Stross which integrates the Cthulhu Mythos into the Cold War era.

Delta Green is a great read even if you're not into the CoC RPG. Both the main book and the sourcebooks are some of the best writing I've come across.

If you're looking for a good roundup of all things Cthulhoid www.yog-sothoth.com is the best place to go. Their downloads section has some interesting interviews with various authors of both fiction and RPG material.

Post by **fbmf** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:51 pm

I was really hoping this was going to be a link to the Cthulu Christmas Tree Topper I've been trying to convince my wife we need for years.

Game On,
fbmf

Blicero · Post by **Blicero** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:46 pm

There's always Shoggoth on the Roof.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 11:47 pm

fbmf wrote:I was really hoping this was going to be a link to the Cthulu Christmas Tree Topper I've been trying to convince my wife we need for years.

Game On,
fbmf

Hah!

The title comes from Terry Pratchett. There was a group of writers--him, Neil Gaiman--a few others in the similar neck of the woods, who always ended up hanging out with each other at conventions.

He called it the H.P. Lovecraft Holiday Fun Club

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:04 am

I hear that one author wrote Cthulhu's sparkly golden Good Twin into existance as a Mythos entity at some point. Anybody have more information on that? I want to throw a couple surprises into an adventure involving some underwater stuff.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:14 am

Brian Lumley, yeah. He started off as one of August Derleth's "discoveries" at Arkham House, and wrote up a bunch of short stories and later novels - even until quite recently. There are (as I recall) three different "series" of Mythos-stuff, which interweave here and there - Dreamlands, Titus Crow, and Primal lands, I think. There are some recent collected editions if you're interested, I'm due to give the material a run through to see what (if anything) needs to be covered for my essay.

Most of the hate he gets from the fandom is because of:
a) Titus Crow, a Mary Sue-ish investigator
b) Kthanid, which is Cthulhu's golden-eyed good twin brother
c) Weird shit involving Ithaqua
d) General failure to write "Lovecraftian" stories

He has made some memorable contributions to the Mythos besides that, but really his stuff takes more off of Derleth's Mythos than Lovecraft's.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:29 am

Interesting. I don't think I've ever read anything by Lumley, and I'm going on a vacation in a few weeks where I'll have plenty of time to read. I'm open to reinterpretations of the setting, so perhaps I should give it a shot.

What would you recommend as a starting point?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:33 am

Well, first you might want to read the Lovecraft/E. Hoffmann Price collaboration "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" - because that's Lumley's jumping-off point; any previous Randolph Carter stuff is optional. Then you might as well get started with Titus Crow; if you like that there's more.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:57 am

Ancient History wrote:Brian Lumley, yeah.

Same Brian Lumley that wrote the Necroscope/Wamphyri/Harry Keogh series?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 1:59 am

Yeah, same guy.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 3:32 pm

If you guys liked the silent Call of Cthulhu, the HPLHS also has a "talkie" Whispererer in Darkness.

In other HPL news, I've just started work with some movie-making friends of mine on an adaptation of "The Outsider". It's going to be done entirely in engineered paper, a la popup books/Eric Carle.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Tue Mar 13, 2012 9:18 pm

an intriguing alt-history essay

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:30 am

How to introduce your child to the mythos.

Have you read the good book lately?

And of course THe Collect Call of [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfOBf2G ... re=related[/url]

There's loads of fan stuff out there that either uses it as satire or treats it in a true lovecraftian style. But, I like both aspects. The satire and light aspects lets me introduce my daughter to Loveraft. As she gets older, I'll ease her into the more serious aspects.

Cthullhu dice by Steve Jackson games is another awesome 5-10 minute diversion.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 4:54 pm

So yesterday was good news day... I got my contributor's copy of Accessible Love Stories, a wheelchair-themed alt romance anthology that I contributed to... and got news that I'm going to be a guest speaker at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in May. So... fuck yeah!!!