Hello, I just got into HP lovecraft and I bought this game.
I was wondering what stories by Lovecraft to have to have a better understanding of the Cthulhu universe as well as the characters/events in this game. I've already read Call of Cthulhu and the Dunwich Horror.
Also, is there of all that cards that tells you what story the card orignates from?
thanks in advance.
Did you already read through all the threads in World of HP Lovecraft section here in the CoC corner of the forums
?
I don't even know what that is...
Wow! You are lucky to be just at the beginning of your H.P. knowledge. You could go in many directions. I think reading his best stuff is smarter than reading his most game-approprate stuff, at least for now. So the Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a great one. Whisperer in Darkness is a must. Be prepared for some inaccessible reading, exciting scary descriptions with very little flow of action. And don't get attached to characters. Not only do few of them make it, there are few to begin with, and they don't say much.
Welcome!
All stories bring their unique perspective, and you'll see a lot from the stories in the cards, but if you want to have a short list:
The Summons of the Deep set of asylum packs deals with the themes off The Shadow over Innsmouth .
The Dreamlands set of asylum packs explore the dreamlands as described in -amongst other stories- The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath . Note that the dreamland cycle isn't as much horror as the other HPL stories, but more like fantasy, and quite random and a little hard to get through, though.
And one of my faves has always been The Whisperer in Darkness , which borders on scifi, and well, Mi-Go are cool. And called Outer Ones, really.
Enjoy!
How could I forget Shadow Over Innsmouth? Also: the doom that came to Sarnath, the music of erich zann, horror at redhook, pickman's model, colour out of space...
wow thanks for all the help guys!
Sadly, I don't know of any checklist that tells you which character was from which story. Most of the Cthulhu stories mention the deity in passing. Although, you're more likely to see a mind-shattering alien god than to see Paris Hilton in a library.
Here's a good book that collects some of Lovecraft's original stories and some from other authors.
Wouldn't that be fun, to have a deckbuilder tab that identifies which story, if any, a card is attached to. There'd be lots of blanks, not just for FFG and Chaosium inventions, but for events and some locations that are obscure. But that would be the best part of it. Many characters and thus stories, like Hildred, I learned about through the card. It's a valid request to connect the card with the history. There's just 1,700 entries to fill. Who'll get right on it?
I have a pretty extensive Call of Cthulhu role-playing game library, and would be glad to help out with that part of the effort, but don't want to be the nexus for this big project.
Also, for Seasideren, you could just Google the card names and I imagine that would effectively identify many of the stories from which they spring.
Edit: I tried it and a "Jack Brady Cthulhu" Google search immediately identified "Masks of Nyarlathotep" (Rpg campaign, not a Lovecraft story) and "Silver Key Cthulhu" identified the Lovecraft sequel "Through the Gates of the Silver Key"
I'm less confident that Google will work for cards like "dymanite" or "Prize Pistol". End Edit
chicklewis said:
"The public first learned of it in February, when a vast series of raids and arrests occurred, followed by the deliberate burning and dynamiting - under suitable precautions - of an enormous number of crumbling, worm-eaten, and supposedly empty houses along the abandoned waterfront."
- The Shadow Over Inssmouth.
H.P. Lovecraft, upon sight of two possum tormenting his mother's cat in their Providence shed, proportedly did say, "Mum, take these hot muffins and get auntie's Prize Pistol from the cupboard. I'm gonna blast me some possum, yee haw! blam!"
Project Gutenberg Australia has a great text-only archive of may of HPL's stories, if you're looking for straight reading. www.gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0600031.txt
Dagonbytes.com has a near-complete archive of stories but the site tends to go down for months at a time. It's unavailable at the moment but I'll post it here anyway just in case it comes back in future. www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/
The Call of Cthulhu RPG core rulebook by Chaosum has a list of required reading for people just entering the world of Lovecraft which I heartily endorse:
They also included a "If you liked the ones above, why stop?" list:
If you want hard copies of his collected works I highly recommend volumes edited by S.T. Joshi. He is the leading scholar on H.P. Lovecraft & has worked tirelessly to keep accurate, corrected editions of stories faithful to Lovecraft's original manuscripts in print.
Happy reading!