Hey everyone,

One of my goals in life is to eventually read through all of H. P. Lovecraft's stories, along with any others written by other authors that are set within the Cthulhu Mythos. Being a huge fan of Arkham, I really love the idea of reading the stories that mention the characters/monsters/themes that I encounter in Arkham all the time.

I just read "The Call of Cthulhu" and absolutely loved it. Reading about John Legrasse after seeing his card numerous times while playing really put a smile on my face.

So, I was wondering if anyone knew of any compendium of information or anything of the sort that details what elements from Arkham are taken from which stories, whether from Lovecraft or not. Also, does anyone know if any of the characters or elements were designed specifically for Arkham and not taken from anything?

I'd love to read about characters like "Ashcan" Pete and Monterey Jack, but I have no idea if they're actually characters from the Cthulhu Mythos or if they were designed by the folks at FFG.

Any info would be much appreciated! Also, feel free to discuss some of your favorite stories and perhaps how it affects your gameplay.

First off, the playable characters are original creations for Arkham Horror and it's universe--though a number of them reference aspects of the Mythos, like Silas and Amanda referencing 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth' in their personal stories. There are also jobs that typical characters in the Mythos hold, scientist, psychologist, doctors and professors that are the usual fare for Lovecraft's heroes.

As for other aspects, I know Ruby Standish is an original creation so far I can tell, given that Lovecraft and indeed many Mythos authors didn't use women prominently (recall one of Lovecraft's 'pupils' is the man responsible for Conan the Barbarian).

The Arkham Horror wiki is actually pretty good about pointing you in the right direction for which character/item/spell/monster/Ancient One comes from which story, be it Lovecraft, one of his contemporaries or even from the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.

I have the complete works of Lovecraft that I downloaded on my Kindle and I can tell you I also am working my way through it--some are good, his early stuff written as a child are--obviously written by a child, but alot of his colaborations are interesting and different, like 'Horror in the Museum' or the piece he wrote with his wife, 'The Horror at Martin's Beach'.

My favorite stories are 'The Cats of Ulthar', 'The Color Out of Space' and 'The Dunwich Horror', the first and last stories because they are especially optimistic (in the way only Lovecraft can be) and have thoroughly happy endings.

There are a mixture of sources for Arkham. The canon forms the backbone - not just H.P. Lovecraft, but also Bloch, Derleth, Chambers and Ashton-Smith as well. On top of this, you can add the RPG by Chaosium. Masks of Nyarlathotep being an obvious source for some of the allies in Curse of the Dark Pharaoh, whereas Harvey Walters has been around as a suggested PC since the early rule-books. FFG / Launius then added their own new material on top of that: you can find many of the characters referenced in the string of Arkham Horror novels.

Fan created works such as Lovecraft Country or Door To Saturn continue in this theme, making great play of literate references. In the many encounters and Mythos cards associated with those expansions: you'll find references not only to Lovecraft and Ashton-smith, but also to Merritt, Poe, Lewis, Dahl, Gaiman and Hammett to name but a few.

Was that a self-plug there, Jake? XD

Was that a self-plug there, Jake? XD

It's a dirty job. but someone's got to do it.