August marks the birth month of H.P. Lovecraft, whose peculiar vision has cast a long and often unsettling shadow over the realms of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. In recognition of this, I’ve decided to devote the coming month here at Grognardia to what I’m calling
The Shadow Over August, a series of posts exploring the life, legacy, and influence of the Old Gent from Providence.
As I mentioned earlier this week, Pulp Fantasy Library will be returning in August on a trial basis, in part to honor Lovecraft and his contributions to the weird tale. However, I’ve since come to feel that this alone isn’t enough. Lovecraft’s presence deserves to be felt more widely across the blog. In addition to literary retrospectives, I’ll be delving into Call of Cthulhu and other Lovecraft-inspired roleplaying games, considering both their origins and their enduring impact on the hobby. I’ll also be sharing thoughts on Lovecraft’s broader influence on gaming, fantasy, and science fiction, along with outlines for two Call of Cthulhu projects I began many years ago but never finished. With luck, they may yet prove useful (or at least thought-provoking) to others.
This isn’t intended as an exhaustive or scholarly treatment of Lovecraft’s work. Rather, The Shadow Over August is a personal exploration of the ways his idiosyncratic imagination continues to shape the creative pastimes so many of us enjoy, often in ways we scarcely notice. Whether you’re a long-time admirer of Lovecraft or simply curious about his lasting presence in the hobby, I hope you’ll join me in the weeks to come as I shine a light, however briefly, on this strange and enduring figure.
Sounds fun. I remember DMing a game where the PCS had their pineal gland stimulated and grow out their foreheads, allowing them to see the HORRIBLE ABOMINATIONS THAT HAD BEEN THERE THE WHOLE TIME. The players looked at me in shock for a second and then they had their PCs draw their daggers and remove their ability to see them. I was a little disappointed at how easy the fix was. But they still remember it happened.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that carving off a piece of their own brain was "easy". ;)
DeleteGood point. Maybe I should have made that a hard constitution check or something. Maybe I did and just don't remember. And if they moved, the Things noticed them. Not sure how I played that.
DeleteAmazing. Can’t wait.
ReplyDeleteI can’t recall the last rpg I’ve run where at least a little Lovecraft hasn’t found its way in.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Twilight 2000? But then again, it’s never too late to come upon a weird isolated village that has some strange traditions….
Looking forward to an unspeakably dreadful August!
ReplyDeletePlease cover (out-of-print?) STRANGE AEONS, an RPG-ish skirmish game :)
ReplyDeleteI recommend the Annotated HP Lovecraft (volume 1, volume 2 is much weaker. in fact, anything by Joshi is likely good) if you have not read it.
ReplyDeleteJim Hodges---
ReplyDeleteStrange how sometimes it's like the stars align, the universe opens up, and God decrees it is the time for something to happen. And so it was with me in the summer of 1991, when after years of hearing about Lovecraft and meaning to get around to reading his work, I finally did. I loved it, I read, I think, everything of his out there in three intense, awe-filled months, but it's also like those same celestial gates sometimes abruptly shut, because while I still respect the heck out of HPL and fondly recall him as part of that summer, (an otherwise not too great time, honestly) I have seldom opened the cover on anything of his since, and I'm not sure why.
You got me by a few years. The early 1990's was my period of digging-deep into Delta Blues. I think the Lovecraft - and some of the creepier Kipling stories like Marrabie Jukes - pages came later, around the time when Diana died and our first child was on the way. My experience was like yours: I read a lot of Lovecraft, it blackened some small part of my soul and nerve, and I moved on without really remembering much of it beyond the feeling. In retrospect I retain a larger amount of E.A. Poe's images and unnerve in my mind than Lovecraft. I have always had that feeling about Scarface, too. Once was enough. It stays with you although you don't really remember it. And I have never had the urgent need to rush back and digest it again. Whereas Miami Vice is worth watching over and over because you pick up nuances of that stamp in time . . . pay phones and office smoking.
DeleteHPL is vastly overrated.
ReplyDeleteHe's definitely an acquired taste. He wrote some dreck, but some of it is remarkably visionary and well done, in its own way. The hardback volume put out by Library of America is the best collection his works, with stories selected by Peter Straub. It has the "good stuff" in it.
DeleteI wish it had included “Dream Quest”. That was my favorite of his works, with a surprising amount of action, probably helped by having no dialogue and only one stretch of quoted speech, which also lent to its oneiric atmosphere. It is also interesting in its commentary on his own work, like the sympathetic recasting of Pickman and the ghouls.
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