As a near-total ignoramus about all things Lovecraft, can you give me recommendations about which of his works to read in preparation for the game?

Also, do they form a cohesive narrative and universe, or is it more a smattering of disjointed and unrelated stories that people have pieced together as being in the same Mythos?

They're a loosely connected canon, sharing concepts, ideas, objects (like the Necronomicon), locations (like Arkham) and characters (like Randolph Carter) between them.

Some things I recommend to get more into the overall Mythos are The Shadow Over Innsmouth , The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu . I've also heard good things about At The Mountains of Madness , but haven't read it yet.

Not as closely tied to the Mythos, but a darn good, creepy story is The Colour Out Of Space . And Herbert West - Re-Animator is pretty good too.

If you want to learn more about the Dreamlands, and a bit about Mythos deities like Nodens, Nyarlathotep and Azathoth, read the wonderful Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

Oh, and while not a story by Lovecraft (or even a story at all), maybe also check out Stealing Cthulhu by Graham Walmsley. It's mostly about how to write scenarios for lovecraftian role-playing games, but also has stuff like a lil beastiary and a bibliography.

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/147987/getting-started-cthulhu-mythos

The first expansion, Dunwich Legacy, takes place after the events of Dunwich Horror, so I would at least read that one.

I'd start with "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Whisperer in Darkness", The Dunwich Horror , and At the Mountains of Madness . Then move on to "The Dreams in the Witch House", " The Haunter of the Dark", The Shadow over Innsmouth , and The Shadow out of Time. That should cover the main points of the mythology.

The rats enemy is a direct reference to the short story The Rats in The Wall

Thanks all! Since most, maybe all, of his works are public domain, I've already got through audiobooks of Call of Cthulhu and Mountains of Madness.

Would also recommend to read the Dunwhich Horror in preparation for the first deluxe box, especially after you done Call of Cthulhu and Mountains of Madness. (my fav btw)

A bit random but for all other Germans here, listen to the German audio book for Rats in the Wall narrated by Lutz Riedel.

Gives me shivers every time

If you have an e-reader, you can pick up the entire works of Lovecraft for nothing (yay! public domain) or for a very nominal fee if you want the convenience of having them all collected together (I got the entire Lovecraft on my Kindle for 77p).

If you have an e-reader, you can pick up the entire works of Lovecraft for nothing (yay! public domain) or for a very nominal fee if you want the convenience of having them all collected together (I got the entire Lovecraft on my Kindle for 77p).

I did the same in preparation for this release. I'm about half way through, but Colour out of space, The Dunwich Horror and The Whisperer in the Darkness have been my favourites so far. I'm looking forward to Shadow Over Innsmouth

If you have an e-reader, you can pick up the entire works of Lovecraft for nothing (yay! public domain) or for a very nominal fee if you want the convenience of having them all collected together (I got the entire Lovecraft on my Kindle for 77p).

I did the same in preparation for this release. I'm about half way through, but Colour out of space, The Dunwich Horror and The Whisperer in the Darkness have been my favourites so far. I'm looking forward to Shadow Over Innsmouth

I picked them up a while back, just as a fan of the Mythos. Some of it is hard work - a lot of the stories should perhaps come with a racism warning (1920s/30s writing, and Lovecraft doesn't appear to have been a very sympathetic writer :/ ) but he essentially founded a genre with some of these stories.

Shadow over Innsmouth is a very important one for the Mythos generally. There are some really good non-Mythos stories too, like The Outsider.

EDIT: I lie; it appears The Outsider is tangenitally Mythos-linked.

The Outsider is fantastic, so I definitely second that recommendation. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is my other favorite, and that's one that will very likely be referenced by the game.

Some collections also contain some of Lovecraft's works where he collaborated with or ghost-wrote for someone else. If you can find those, I recommend The Curse of Yig and The Mound.

I have the complete collection in a big old book and have decided to start going through it. 3 spooky 5 me, wish me luck.