If Beyond the Mountains of Madness is anything like The Thing (1982) I'm totally sold. Kidding aside, Lovecraft is my favorite genre writer. Sure I think there a defter, much more profound genre writers, absolutely. But I find Lovecraft's cosmic terror inescapable. Horror is always present when I run an RPG, it is the assumed crossover along with whatever stock stetting the game provides. But no game is scarier than Call of Cthulhu. The game recognizes that vulnerability and sanity are the pillars of excellent horror (i.e. fear for ones corporeal state and fear for ones mental/spiritual state).
Lovecraft's horror is so inspiring because it feels at once close enough to touch, and yet somehow foreign. Lovecraft's tales take place in an era decades before my time. Cultural sensibilities from the 1920's and 30's are only a frail and rattling echo in the ear of today's reader. Lovecraft's bizarre cults and rites for ancient gods renders a mysticism that fractures man's pillar of moral sanity. Lovecraft's alien superscience defies the logic of man, or rather supersedes it, leaving man incapable of trusting his reality. Lovecraft translated the fear of God into commercial fiction.
I will keep my current DnD campaign running until there is a TPK "total party kill." Even if just one player-character survives an ordeal, the campaign will continue and the other players can roll up new characters after a character's death. However, once/ if all the player-characters die together, the campaign ends. The deceased heroes will join the ranks of the eulogized and a new DnD campaign will start anew. But not before I run a Call of Cthulhu game a while. Ill likely run Masks of Nyarlathotep because it is infinitely easier to find than Beyond the Mountains of Madness. Besides, I've never run a CoC module before -- why not start with a classic?
Lovecraft's horror is so inspiring because it feels at once close enough to touch, and yet somehow foreign. Lovecraft's tales take place in an era decades before my time. Cultural sensibilities from the 1920's and 30's are only a frail and rattling echo in the ear of today's reader. Lovecraft's bizarre cults and rites for ancient gods renders a mysticism that fractures man's pillar of moral sanity. Lovecraft's alien superscience defies the logic of man, or rather supersedes it, leaving man incapable of trusting his reality. Lovecraft translated the fear of God into commercial fiction.
I will keep my current DnD campaign running until there is a TPK "total party kill." Even if just one player-character survives an ordeal, the campaign will continue and the other players can roll up new characters after a character's death. However, once/ if all the player-characters die together, the campaign ends. The deceased heroes will join the ranks of the eulogized and a new DnD campaign will start anew. But not before I run a Call of Cthulhu game a while. Ill likely run Masks of Nyarlathotep because it is infinitely easier to find than Beyond the Mountains of Madness. Besides, I've never run a CoC module before -- why not start with a classic?
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