If you are thinking of running a Cthulhu roleplaying campaign in authentic New England surroundings, this site by John Ott has to be your first port of call. He's developed the Miskatonic railway line and in particular the city of Arkham as an amazing set of scale models. Show these pictures to your players to create a suitably eldritch mood.
For other things nameless and redolent of the outer darkness, try:
- The H P Lovecraft Literary Podcast
- Voluminous (the podcast of Lovecraft's letters by the HPL Historical Society)
- Lovecraft's fiction (but be sure to avoid Derleth's mythos contributions)
- Cthulhu Dark RPG
Or even this write-up of our 1890s campaign, which (I am told) was loosely based on "The Night of the Jackals", a scenario in later editions of Cthulhu By Gaslight.
I am sure HPL would have enjoyed this glimpse of "Pickman's Model Railway". The dioramas are delightfully creepy, immersive and evocative; the railway station is now always likely to be a feature of my own mental conception of that dream-haunted city on the Miskatonic!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, as I drift asleep on the train back to Boston, I am musing about the philosophical discussion I overheard in the senior common room of Miskatonic University, in which the learned dons were rejecting the cant of William of Ockham in favour (or favor, as they'd say) of their very own "Arkham's Razor", the principle that-
"Entities should be multiplied beyond Insanity".
Tickets please!
Arkham's Razor is just inspired, John. Now somebody needs to write the short story -- or novel. It's perfect. At the very least I will put my mind to dreaming up a scenario that does justice to that title.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Dave. Very happy to have added my own small footnote to the Cthulhu Mythos!
DeleteI'm planning to visit Ockham this week, John. But when I catch sight of the village sign my first thought is now going to be of tentacles and nameless horrors.
ReplyDeleteAnd in fact that will be the ideal setting for the scenario. There's an abandoned WW2 airfield nearby so I'll try and work that in. It could get quite "Whitbourn meets Lovecraft".
DeleteThat sound's great! I see that Ockham has an ancient "bell barrow" on the evocatively named "Cockcrow Hill." I am imagining that the name was to remind people that under no circumstances should a cock be allowed to crow on top of the hill, lest whatever was in the barrow awake...
DeleteAnd of course Ada King (née Byron), Countess of Lovelace and pioneer computer programmer, lived not far from there. This scenario will almost write itself.
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