In the early 1900s, horror writer H.P. Lovecraft created a series of books and short stories set in a dark world beset by cultist, monsters and unfathomable “things” from space and other dimensions. These works collectively became known as the “Cthulhu Mythos,” named for one of the Great Old Ones that slumbered in the lost city of Rályeh, awaiting the end of the world.

Chaosium’s “Call of Cthulhu” horror roleplaying game captures the feel of Lovecraft’s writings and puts players in the roles of investigators bent on uncovering, and surviving, the dark lore of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Review by Michael Erb

Earlier this week we posted an initial Origins Report which featured a few teasers for interviews that guest blogger Michael Erb had lined up while he was at the convention. Also included in that first post is the list of Origins Award Winners for this year. Today Michael shows off a few of the photos he snapped while wandering the hall and highlights some of the publishers he made contact with throughout the weekend…

Horror Roleplaying in the Worlds of H. P. Lovecraft

The Great Old Ones ruled the earth aeons before the rise of humankind. Originally they came from the gulfs of space and were cast down by even greater beings. Remains of their cyclopean cities and forbidden knowledge can still be found on remote islands in the Pacific, buried amid the shifting sands of vast deserts, and in the frigid recesses of the polar extremes. Now they sleep — some deep within the enveloping earth and others beneath the eternal sea, in the drowned city of R’lyeh, preserved in the waters by the spells of mighty Cthulhu. When the stars are right they will rise, and once again walk this Earth.

The first print-run of Trail of Cthulhu is just about sold out. That is pretty damn cool. This has quickly become one of my favorite RPGs. The Gumshoe System is easy to learn and fun to play. Check out Grim’s review of the first three Gumshoe books for a bit more detail on the system.

So, even if the first printing is gone you haven’t missed out. You can pre-order a copy of the upcoming second print over at Indie Press Revolution. The books will be shipping in the early part of July.

There are also some great deals on Trail of Cthulhu eBooks at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop. Instant download, no waiting…

The setting for this ‘script’ is negotiation over the surrender of a fortress manned and protected by a contingent of Templars. Also present are merchants from a secret society with a very deadly secret, servants, priests and monks and the forces of the Muslim leader who is demanding surrender.

On the surface this is a parley to determine the exact nature of this surrender and how it is to be conducted but under the surface each faction has their own secret agenda and these intermingle between the various forces at work. It’s a nice, tangled knot of interwoven motivations and goals that should be ideal for a one-off convention-type scenario.

Review by James ‘Grim’ Desborough

Way back in September of last year I wrote a review of the print version of Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition.

Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition is a great book that is an easy-to-read manual with straightforward information and lots of options to enhance or run your LARP. There are plenty of photos of players in costume, as well as props and monsters, to give you a visual feel for how the game could be played. These photos help set the mood of the game, and give ideas for “how-to-build” your own stories. If you are a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or Live Action Role Playing, it would be worth it to buy this book, get together with some friends, and create some tales of your own.

This is a great book and a great improvement on previous editions. For the last several months you could only get the book in print for $20 or so, say on Amazon.com.

Well, finally available is the eBook edition of the Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition core book. You can get it at the Flames Rising RPGNow Shop for only $10.

The Flash Fire Mini-Reviews have awoken once more.

This week we will be taking a look at some of the Games, Books and other creations featuring the big green guy (no, not the Hulk) known as Cthulhu, one of the Great Old Ones in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Cthulhu first appeared in the short story “The Call of Cthulhu” and has made many, many other appearances since in fiction, games, toys and artwork. Today we’re just taking a peek at a few of the Cthulhu-related items I’ve come across in the last few weeks.

Elder Signs Press is excited to announce the title The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia by Daniel Harms, available in summer 2008.

This is the third edition of his popular and extensive encyclopedia of the Cthulhu Mythos. Updated with more fiction listings and recent material, this unique book spans the years of H.P. Lovecraft’s influence in culture, entertainment, and fiction. The voluminous entries make The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia invaluable for anyone knowledgeable about the Cthulhu Mythos and necessary for those longing to learn about the Cosmic Horrors from past and present decades.

Arc Dream Publishing and Pagan Publishing are working together again to produce a new collection of terrors for Delta Green.

Last year, Arc Dream and Pagan Publishing produced the long-awaited Delta Green: Eyes Only, a gorgeous hardcover sourcebook for Pagan’s award-winning Delta Green game setting. Despite having only 1,000 copies released, Eyes Only is now a finalist for the industry-standard Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement of 2007.

We want to do it again with Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity. The authors of Delta Green have been working on material for Targets of Opportunity for years. This fundraiser will tell us if there’s enough interest to finish developing it and to print a limited hardcover edition of the same quality as Delta Green: Eyes Only.

Munchkins have hacked their way through dungeons, kung fu temples, starships, haunted houses, and super-foes. Now they face their greatest challenge – Cthulhu! Will they survive? Will they retain their sanity? Will they . . . level up?

Munchkin Cthulhu combines the zany comedy of the previous Munchkin games with the oddities of the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft and its further developments by other authors and game designers.

The folks over at Pelgrane Press have been busy with all kinds of new Trail of Cthulhu updates.

Over at RPGNow you can scoop up the Trail of Cthulhu Player’s Guide for $10.95. This slimmed down volume contains everything you need to play in the game. Of course, your GM should probably have the complete book, which is available at Indie Press Revolution (in a mix of options, including bundle deals) and in eBook format at RPGNow.com.

The contracts are signed in blood, the sacrifices have been made, and mighty Cthulhu has bestowed his blessings. Reality Deviant Publications is happy to announce we are the newest Chaosium licensee! RDP will focus on support of the True20 game system by bringing fans of all things Cthulhu outstanding game supplements which bring H.P. Lovecraft’s deliciously maddening Mythos to life!

“I am so excited about this agreement with the fine people at Chaosium,” said David Jarvis, president of RDP. “I’ve always wanted the chance to write and develop gaming material based on H.P. Lovecraft’s works. To be officially allowed to add our own pages to his legacy is a privilege, one which we don’t take lightly. Fans of True20 and Call of Cthulhu won’t be dissapointed.”

“That is not dead which can eternal lie.
And with strange aeons, even death may die.”
– The Necronomicon

You uncover mysteries in dusty libraries and bloody crime scenes. You walk the mean streets of Chicago or hack through the jungles of the South Pacific. You battle vile cults, or recoil in terror at the alien enormities they worship. You follow the clues wherever they lead, whatever the cost in life or sanity. But do you dare to follow…The Trail of Cthulhu?

Trail of Cthulhu is now available at Noble Knight Games!

Along with Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, Howard Phillips Lovecraft is considered one of America’s most innovative and popular American horror writers. The master of the weird tale during the first decades of the 20th Century until his premature death in 1937, Lovecraft’s distinctive style and canon of work has influenced as many authors as the stories of Ernest Hemingway and Dashiell Hammett. Lovecraft’s earliest published work, Herbert West: Re-Animator, was turned into the 1985 cult classic film, Reanimator.

Caliber Comics has published a number of Lovecraft’s classic tales and inputed a modern spin for today’s audiences and the writers are developing new tales based on Lovecraft’s imaginations in addition to adapting some of the classic stories.

Mongoose Publishing has released the Cthulhutech Main Rulebook as an eBook with a reprint of the paper version on the way to stores sometime next month.

2085. Humanity faces extinction. Alien insects from the edge of our solar system, long hidden behind the façade of reality, descend to enslave us. Hordes of unspeakable horrors roll out from Central Asia, laying waste to anything in their path. The church of the fish-god scours the world for lost occult secrets to unleash terrible forces. Dead gods awaken and turn their dreadful eyes toward the Earth. And within hides a cancer, eating away at the very heart of the New Earth Government.

This is the Aeon War. This is the time of CthulhuTech.

Last week we talked about the most well-known vampire in the world, Dracula. The Dark Prince will probably return for another round of Mini-Reviews at a later date, since we only had the chance to check out a few of the products featuring Dracula and there are certainly many more available.

This week we are going to take a look at some great collections of scary stories. There are fiction anthologies on every subject imaginable. Fans of Horror & Dark Fantasy have many authors and publishers to choose from. Some of the authors featured in this week’s mini-reviews include Jim Butcher, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong, David Wellington, C.J. Henderson, Tanith Lee and Patricia A. McKillip…just to name a few.

Here are a few anthologies that I’ve had the chance to check out recently…

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From the dark imaginations of Mark Kalita, Paul Mannering and H.P. Lovecraft: an original horror audio drama set in a city where the sun never rises … where the supernatural explains what science cannot … where modern man and ancient myths collide … and monsters are very, very real. Rise of the Ancient Ones Featuring […]

Sideshow just posted links to a new Cthulhu Statue from the folks at SOTA Toys.

Deep in the waters of the South Pacific lies the sunken city of R’Leyth. Beneath the ocean’s surface dwells the fearsome Cthulhu, a creature of enormous size and great power from the world of H. P. Lovecraft’s fictional works. The legend of Cthulhu’s colossal size and gruesome visage evoke fear and reverence from those who cross its path, human and animal alike.

Should I get the Cthulhu Statue or the Sideshow Exclusive Edition?

Welcome to the first installment of the Flash Fire series of mini-reviews on the new Flames Rising website!

Every Friday (hopefully) we’re going to post a series of short reviews of new-to-me Horror & Dark Fantasy products. These will usually be one or two paragraph highlights of whatever caught our eye that particular week. Basically…stuff we think is cool and want to share. We will try to keep it a mix of stuff, but you never really know just what we will be up to in a given week.

This week we’ve got some Changeling, a few zombies, a conspiracy, Cthulhu and something unnatural…