For those of you who love horror fiction and roleplaying, yet also don’t mind a bit of academic/philosophical speculation, let me introduce a wonderful resourse: Collapse volume IV. This is a special edition of an academic journal on philosophy, this time specialising in horror fiction. Those of you who have a particular weakness for Lovecraftian fiction (such as myself) may be interested in Graham Harman’s article, “On the Horror of Phenomenology: Lovecraft and Husserl”, which starts on page 333.

Continue reading The Philosophy of Horror

Due to the enormous success of Zom-B-Gone by Geeky Clean in protecting me from the threat of daily zombie attack I have come up with a list of other repellent soaps that I would find quite useful.

Continue reading Zom-B-Gone Day 06 – Other repellents required

For those of you who don’t know, Keith ‘Doc’ Herber was one of the shining lights of the gaming industry. Many people had their first taste of the Cthulhu Mythos through Herber’s work; he was the principal author on such classic gaming masterpieces as “Fungi from Yuggoth” and “Spawn of Azathoth” among many others. After a period of quietude following a split with Chaosium several years ago, Herber had recently reconciled with the company, and had established (with others) another publishing house known as Miskatonic River Press dedicated to the production of new scenarios for the Cthulhu Mythos. Many were they who were eagerly looking forward to the new creations of a veteran of the field. Unfortunately for all, he passed away in the night of 13th of March, being found by his wife the next morning.

Continue reading In Memoriam: Keith ‘Doc’ Herber

There was a time in my life where I would jokingly treat the Cthulhu Mythos as a surrogate religion. As such, I borrowed heavily from other religions, taking what I could from them and turning it into a kind of pseudo-religion of its own. 

One such “borrowing” I have always been proud of is my version of “Cthulhu Loves Me”.

Cthulhu Loves Me

Cthulhu loves me, this I know
For the Necronomicon tells me so
Little ones to him belong
They are weak but he eats 1d10 of them a round

Obviously I came up with this before the d20 system was applied to the Call of Cthulhu game. Now, if memory serves me, its 1d6 a round (feel free to correct me here…), but I feel the message still holds true…

There is an edge of scepticism that I always develop when I hear about a strongly themed band. You know the ones – bands themed on horror stories, movies, the matrix, zombies, etc… Usually their only appeal is the theme itself, and the music is, well, kinda sucky. This all changed when I received an email from a friend of mine in the moshpit at PAX (what a wonderful nerdy age we live in…) of a band called The Darkest of Hillside Thickets.

Heavily themed on the writings of HP Lovecraft, these guys have released four albums (The Shadow Out Of Tim, Cthulhu Strikes Back, Spaceship Zero and Great Old Ones). I have heard their album The Shadow Out Of Tim, and I can honestly say its fantastic. The album is that good that my friend who sent the picture above from the concert bought 3 copies of their CD after the show (to give to friends…). For those that don’t believe me – you can download one of their tracks on their website.

These guys really know their stuff. The Shadow Out Of Tim follows the story of a marine biologist who discovers something he shouldn’t – with typical Cthulhu’isc results. The album concludes with a song sung in Egyptian. Yes, that’s right, Egyptian. Not bad for a band from Canada…

The Darkest of Hillside Thickets know two things very very well – their Cthulhu mythos and how to make a great album. There albums are available on iTunes, and I strongly recommend getting them…

Dark Fantasy was a radio program which aired for a short stint from 1941 to 1942. The audio plays were written by Scott Bishop, an author who had penned a number of short stories of weird fiction for various magazines, and was later to go on to the more widely known radio production known as the Sealed Book. My first introduction to this series of shows was while listening to the Cthulhu Podcast, which included the story The Demon Tree, which was based on the old English myth of the Strangling Oak. I listened to this while on my evening constitutional. In the dark, with the trees looming, I found it instantly chilling. Some stories show a Lovecraftian influence, and some of the names of the characters and places show that Bishop must have been influenced by Lovecraft’s writings.

It is, of course, also filled with wonderful 1940’s radio theatre cheese, including warbling organ, sexist stereotypes etc. But that all adds to the flavour.

The whole series can be downloaded both free and legally from the good folks at the Internet Archive.

On this day in 1890, Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born. His unique brand of horror fiction was to inspire imitation by hundreds of authors and an avid readership spanning the globe numbering in their millions. A shy and retiring type, often socially awkward and bookish, never having completed his high school diploma, yet he managed to create a body of fiction which has become known as perhaps the most influential works of horror fiction in the modern age, the true father of modern horror.

For more details have a look at Wikipedia.

Happy birthday, HPL.

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

Apparently the hugely awesome masterpiece The Call of Cthulhu came into public domain in April 2008… How could I miss it! I’m three months late! Anyway, here is a link where you can download the title in various formats:

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

I. The Horror In Clay

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents. They have hinted at strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if not masked by a bland optimism. But it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden eons which chills me when I think of it and maddens me when I dream of it. That glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, flashed out from an accidental piecing together of separated things – in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor. I hope that no one else will accomplish this piecing out; certainly, if I live, I shall never knowingly supply a link in so hideous a chain. I think that the professor, too intented to keep silent regarding the part he knew, and that he would have destroyed his notes had not sudden death seized him.

- H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu 1928

For all of you who enjoy the humour of LOLcats, but also appreciate the Cthulhu Mythos (and what self-respecting nerd doesn’t), there is available the wonderfully hilarious – one might even say squamous – LOLthulhu!

SAN loss 1/1d6
Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles
Spell multiplier X2.