I love Arkham Horror. I love H.P. Lovecraft. I specifically love the story "The Call of Cthulhu." Arkham Horror is described, on the box, as "A Call of Cthulhu Board Game."

So does anyone else feel like ol' octopus face doesn't get his due in this game? I mean, we've had SEVEN expansions, and really the only significance Cthulhu plays in these games at all is as one of several ancient ones from the base game. That's it... and none of those seven expansions really deal with Cthulhu himself at all. We get "Curse of the Dark Pharoah" (not even a Lovecraft story) and no "The Call of Cthulhu" expansion? or at least "The Madness from the Sea"? Sure occasional stuff pops up... like Legrasse as an Ally or the statuette as an item. But we've had a bunch of "groups to join" (sheldon gang, one of a thousand cult, etc...) and none of them have been the actual "Cthulhu Cult" yet? I wouldn't be worried if we only had one or two expansions at this point, but its likely we're winding down on the content being released for this game... and this long, and the high priest of R'lyeh is essentially an afterthought? In my opinion Cthulhu himself and the stuff directly related to him need to be a bigger part of this game and, in my opinion, it is kind of sad to me that the main part of this mythos has been kind of ignored over the course of THIS MUCH content...

Who else feels that way?

I agree. I love this game and in fact had started another thread about what the next expansions might be. The opinions you mentioned would be great. Even if a small expansion like the Curse of the Dark Pharaoh but with all Cthulhu related cards etc. Or a small 5 or 6 encounter board off to the side of one of the big board expansions related to the sea. I am sure with the talent of FF they could come up with something to satisfy us Cultists.

Well, my two cents.. I think the Innsmouth expansion enforces really the "cthulhish" component of the game.. we have two Heralds designed for enhancing a lot the difficulty of the game, with some special nastier effects when Cthulhu is the AO. And there are tons of Deep Ones and Deep Ones Hybrids and other monsters sea-related, not to forget the possibility for an investigator to become a Deep One via the Innsmouth look cards (Hi, Patrice, how much we missed you during our last game). There is a location designed as a place for the cult of Dagon and generally a great atmosphere in every encounter. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'm quite happy with the Cthuloid components of the game. I'd like to see expansions expanding other AO, like Ithaqua or Yig, enhancing the power of the base game AO. Nevertheless, I'll be happy as well with other r'lyehan stuff arriving.

We have Innsmouth Horror which is based on the story Shadow Over Innsmouth in which the deep ones lead by Dagon and Hydra are trying to herald in the return of Cthulhu. Ghatanothoa is also said to be the first born of Cthulhu. And don't forget he has an entire other world area dedicated to him (R'lyeh) in which there are two encounters where he personally shows up to eat you. I've also heard arguments to the effect that squid head as seen in the Call of Cthulhu story was actually Dagon being released and we may not have actually ever seen the whole of Cthulhu (Which I can see because he actually does kind of go down like a punk then has three days to stomp around his island before it sinks and fails to escape).

The term "Call of Cthuhlu" is really only a brand name referring to the mythos set up by several authors not just Lovecraft, and including Chaosiums RPG game. Cthuhlu is the most famous of the monsters but hardly the most evocative Lovecraft himself never referred to his works as a whole using Cthulhu's name but rather called his part of the mythos "Yogsothothery".

I'm fine with the treatment he gets, though I do agree that as a base game GOO he could use a little boost like all of them.

Well, I may have to stand corrected. I just got the Innsmouth expansion but have not looked at it yet, other than just briefly opening it. It does look however that all of us still want this game to grow.

I should have added that the only two expansions I don't own yet are Kingsport and Innsmouth.

Cthulhu is admittedly a big part of the Mythos, but he's not the only part. I don't know the exact percentage of material HPL wrote about Cthulhu as opposed to other things, but I don't think the game necessarily needs to revolve around Cthulhu in order to be "proper." He's in there, the town of Innsmouth is in there (at long last) I'm satisfied with the game as it is. That's not to say I would shun more Cthulhu-related madness, mind you. But all the big AOs have made appearances and they all have their place in the Mythos.

In my mind, the focus of the game is (as it should be) on the town of Arkham and all the crazy nonsense that goes on there. Being further inland that Innsmouth or Kingsport, I suppose there's not as much Cthulhu related activity there as other things, but I'm happy with all of HPL's creations. =)

As many have stated Cthulhu is a BIG part of the mythos but H. P. Lovecraft's works covered much more then the C man. H.P. focus mainly in going into the darkest part of man's mind. Several other writers just expanded his stories, H.P. did convers with people during his life. My godfather is the horror writer Peter Straub and he said H. P. was a big infuance in his writing early on.

Who are some of the writers who "covered" H.P. Lovecraft that are a good read? What are some of everyones other favorite horror writers?

I've read a few of Brian Lumleys and Clark Ashton Smiths shorts and a lot of their stuff has been included in the game already.

I never saw the game as Cthulhu-centric. I see it as more Lovecraft-centric, which means the theme covers everything from that Lovecraft sci-fi/occult/horror genre. I feel like the game covers that genre very well.

BTW many of you may know this. You can check at your local library for e-books. Ours has quite a lot of H.P. Lovecraft. You can "check them out online", basically download some software and the book stays on your computer for 3 weeks. It is someone reading the stories to you. My wife likes that because she can still play with out 2 pound 11 ounce Chihuahua that quite frankly could have his own "monster" card. (I love that little dog however, she's really a sweetie)

Or you can go here.

One of the great things about the Cthulhu Mythos is just how extensive it is. And there's always room for expansion. At the same time, I do like the idea of trying to capture individual stories either as game elements or as expansions in and of themselves. the Innsmouth Expansion comes closest to this I think, though the Dunwhich horror is not far behind.

Perhaps having certain stories in the form of missions/tasks mechanic. An idea anyways.

Heralds are particularly good at that. Not long ago over in the custom content boards someone did a good one that captures the Color Out of Space pretty well.

Drakson said:

One of my fave authors of all time is Clark Ashton Smith, because of his ability to mix in the same stories gothic horror, fantasy and science fiction in a very peculiar way. If you have some spare time, give "The doom of Antarion" a try (all of his short stories can be found here: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/).

As far as other Mythos-related authors, you can read some stuff by August Derleth or Brian Lumley, as Veet pointed out.

An author (from the past) that should be know is Algernon Blackwood. He is not covering HPL (basically because he was born 30 years before HPL :-P), but The wolves of God and The willows are little masterworks of supernatural horror in literature

Julia said:

My favorite D&D module, by far, is Castle Amber, which is based on the works of Clark Ashton Smith.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Amber_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

avec said:

I played it. Quite a long time ago. Ugh. Time passes too quickly sometimes :-)

I would like to see an actual "Call of Cthulhu" expansion, based off the story. I can think of a few new items that would make good additions as well. Particularly, I would love to see a nod to the video of the Narwhale song as an inside joke. Maybe an Item called a “Narwhale Horn” that adds a bonus to combat checks and can be discarded to lover the doom track by one.

Kithicus said:

Steam Yacht

Type: Physical Weapon

Hands: 2

Any Phase: Discard to add +50 to one combat check. Then go insane and move to Norway.

LOL.. nice.. I can see that too.