Despite his foundational importance to the literature that inspired the hobby, a character from the works of H.P. Lovecraft appears only once in "Giants in the Earth" and the choice is an odd one, at least in my opinion. The column from issue #36 (April 1980) features Richard Upton Pickman, here styled the "King of the Ghouls." Here are the game stats that accompany his description, along with a portrait that looks to me as if it was drawn by Jeff Dee (there is no credit accompanying either the article or the illustration):
There are certainly a number of things one could discuss about this write-up – feel free to do so in the comments – but, for me, what's more interesting is the accompanying description of Pickman. For example, the text states that he "wears +3 plate armor (no shield) and carries a +1 sword which is +4 versus ghoul enemies (most living creatures)." What a bizarre detail! I say that, because Pickman is presented in the article just as he is in "Pickman's Model." He's a Boston artist whose work is shunned by respectable galleries for its disturbing subject matter. Though he is now himself a ghoul, he's nevertheless a man of the 20th century, not some medieval fantasy characters. It's very odd.
Beyond that, the text presents six examples of Pickman's paintings. Each one is given a title and a magical effect if viewed.
The first three paintings listed – "The Lesson," "Ghoul Feeding," and "Subway Accident" – are all lifted straight from "Pickman's Model," while the last three are references, either direct or indirect, to famous Lovecraft stories. I find the inclusion of "The Silver Key" notable, since protagonist of the story with which it shares a name, Randolph Carter, eventually meets Pickman in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. The article also notes that each of these paintings has a saving throw versus fire of 10, suggesting that it's quite likely someone might seek to burn them in order to stop their deleterious effects.
More than halfway through The Shadow over August, it's been a bit of a struggle to find Dragon magazine articles that connect directly – or even indirectly – to H.P. Lovecraft and his legacy. I would have thought there'd be more examples of this kind of thing, especially from the period prior to 1980. As it turns out, that's not the case and I find myself wondering why ...
Interesting! Any idea what the (00%) after Intelligence 18 is all about?
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you’ve read later stage Dragons, but there’s a quality article penned by James Jacobs in Dragon # 324 (Oct 2004) entitled The Shadow Over D&D concerning Lovecraft’s Influence on the game.
I stopped reading Dragon regularly after about issue #200, only picking it up again around the time 3e was launched. I'll have to look for that particular issue to see if the article holds any interest.
DeleteAs for the 18(00) INT, it's a feature of the "Giants in the Earth" series. Moldvay and Schick introduced percentiles for all the ability scores as a way of finely distinguishing between the characters they describe. Most of them have maximum scores in several areas.
Hi James, just in relation to the 18(00). Did the authors who developed this consider moving attribute scores to 19 or 20, or was this inconceivable to them at the time?
DeleteThere's no provided explanation for why they chose to do it this way. Prior to the release of Deities & Demigods, ability scores above 18 were uncommon, so they might not have had a model from which to work. Alternately, they may have felt that, since most of these characters are "human scale" in power rather than gods, they couldn't give them stats above 18.
DeleteI actually own that issue of Dragon (I had a very small collection, I never had a subscription and mostly picked them up because they looked interesting), I specifically searched it out when I was young because I was just getting into Lovecraft and D&D at the same time. Fun, but inessential, I think. It does has three fun little sidebars with quotes from Lovecraft's letters on various subjects though ("Lovecraft on Shared Mythos", "Lovecraft on Games", and "Lovecraft on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser").
DeleteWhy are you wondering?
ReplyDeleteWhen did the lawsuit to remove the Cthulhu Mythos from DDG occur?
I am betting the drop off happened then.
This is often asserted but as far as I recall there was never actually a lawsuit. TSR had Arkham House's permission to use the Mythos material. However, when Chaosium got the gaming license to the Mythos, it became a problem; TSR had permission to the published material, but Chaosium had the rights to publish as a game. Rather than fight it out in court (TSR wasn't yet flush with that fad cash that was to be forthcoming) both companies reached an agreement and TSR dropped the material.
DeleteThe best and most thorough account of the whole thing, with links to interviews to Jim Ward and others involved, is here (Ward apparently gets tired of having to explain that nobody sued anyone):
https://dmdavid.com/tag/the-true-story-of-the-cthulhu-and-elric-sections-removed-from-deities-demigods/
It's really much more interesting than a simple "TSR got sued and Cthulhu got pulled" - Moorcock, the Blumes, Leiber, even Robert Aspirin's Thieves World, all play a part.
Pickman's Model would be right at home in Castle Amber.
ReplyDeleteIf you mean the module, there's already an entrance to the Kingdom of the Ghouls in the basement. Along with all the Poe and Smith, there's definitely a bit of Lovecraft in that adventure.
DeleteThis is Jeff Dee. If you look closely at the pic there is a tiny "D. 80" near the bottom left corner
ReplyDeleteBless your eyes!
DeleteI think anon might be on to it with the lawsuit. Check this out anyway- https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-cthulhu-mythos-in-d-in-1970s.html
ReplyDeleteMy guess is this is supposed to be Pickman post-exile, in the Dreamlands. I still wouldn't have described him there as a "9th level fighter" it would perhaps explain the fantasy trappings of armour and sword.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is definitely Dreamlands Pickman.
DeleteI'd portray Dreamlands Pickman as an abnormally intelligent ghoul, probably with a few extra HD. CN seems right; the ghouls in Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath seem less predatory and sinister.
ReplyDeleteHeck, they’re actually sympathetic characters and allies of the protagonist.
DeleteThere were a few adventures with Cthulhoid elements, but for the most part I don't think that they were very overt with the Lovecraftian influences on early D&D. One of these is in issue #46, "The Temple of Poseidon". I wonder if this adventure was originally meant to be in a temple of Nodens, but was changed for publishing. It's a decent enough adventure, with some big flaws. The art for the cthulhoid big baddy is hilariously bad.
ReplyDeleteThe Heretic
I suspect the reason there wasn't more Lovecraft in Dragon was because of the reasons you brought up with Pickman having plate armour and a magic sword. Most of Lovecraft's characters and scenarios are from more modern times and wouldn't be particularly well-equipped for more heroic fantasy. Most of his characters would be either normal humans or sages, possibly with a gun.
ReplyDeleteI kinda wish that Lovecraft had done a S&S-type story, just to see how he'd have handled it. I assume stylistically he'd be a bit more CAS than Howard, more Satampra Zeiros than God in the Bowl.
The Dreamlands stories _are_ S&S and have been called derivative of Dunsany (and in a nice way by Dunsany himself). Check out “The Other Gods” and especially “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath”, both of which feature active protagonists in a fantasy realm.
DeleteThe GM simply migrated Pickman from their CoC campaign to their D&D campaign.
A fair point (and I do quite like the Dreamlands stories), but I generally consider Dunsany's Pegana, and by extension the Dreamlands stories, to be more mythopoeia than S&S. Dunsany does have the prototypical examples of S&S (Sacnoth and Thangobrind), but by and large his stories are more focused on the crafting a mythic experience than on creating an adventure story.
DeleteThat’s an interesting insight. I haven’t read “The Gods of Pegana”, but from what I’ve read about it I could easily believe it’s mythopoeia. And “Sacnoth” reads more like a fairy tale, with a flat hero largely devoid of personality.
DeleteBut what about “The King of Elfland’s Daughter“? There really are characters in there and Dunsany put in references to anchor it to our reality, rather than an invented world. So maybe he worked in varied modes?
And Lovecraft’s Dreamlands stories all feature relatable people, not abstractions, so don’t feel like mythopoeia to me. (A favorite of mine is Carter’s getting Atal drunk so that he would let slip something he could use.)