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Chorrol.com _ General RPG Discussion _ Lovecraft Influences in Games
Posted by: Renee Aug 26 2018, 02:54 PM
I finally sat down the other day and really read a Lovecraft story, Mammoth Cave, also known as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_in_the_Cave. Was surprised to learn he was only fourteen when he wrote this tale! 
So I decided to make a thread listing a variety of Lovecraft influences in Bethesda games, and here it is. I'm sure these influences can be found in other games, as well as other media altogether, so feel free to add these as you'd like as well.
It struck me though. The Beast in the Cave features a pale-skinned creature with snow-white hair, which the protagonist kills toward the end of the tale. Before he killed this creature, he could only hear its footfalls (he was in total darkness), and apparently the creature alternated between walking on two feet, and walking on four feet. After killing it, he managed to find the tour guide he'd gotten separated from. He and the guide were then able to return to the creature, and were able to see it with a torch.
At the very end of the tale, the protagonist describes the creature he'd killed as having once been a MAN!!! ... There is an implication that this MAN once lived aboveground, perhaps. Because it's impossible for him to have been born underground.
And to me, this sounds like a reference to the falmer of Skyrim, who also once were an aboveground-living race, called snow elves.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 26 2018, 03:20 PM
I finally sat down the other day and really read a Lovecraft story, Mammoth Cave, also known as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_in_the_Cave. Was surprised to learn he was only fourteen when he wrote this tale!
So I decided to make a thread listing a variety of Lovecraft influences in Bethesda games, and here it is. I'm sure these influences can be found in other games, as well as other media altogether, so feel free to add these as you'd like as well. It struck me though. The Beast in the Cave features a pale-skinned creature with snow-white hair, which the protagonist kills toward the end of the tale. Before he killed this creature, he could only hear its footfalls (he was in total darkness), and apparently the creature alternated between walking on two feet, and walking on four feet. After killing it, he managed to find the tour guide he'd gotten separated from. He and the guide were then able to return to the creature, and were able to see it with a torch.
At the very end of the tale, the protagonist describes the creature he'd killed as having once been a MAN!!! ... There is an implication that this MAN once lived aboveground, perhaps. Because it's impossible for him to have been born underground.
And to me, this sounds like a reference to the falmer of Skyrim, who also once were an aboveground-living race, called snow elves.
Yes!! Beth actually puts lots of Lovecraftian elements into their games. Oblivion and Fallout3 were rife with them. Notably, Oblivion had the “Shadow over Hackdirt” quest, and Fallout3 had all the stuff with Ug Qualtoth (Dunwich building, which is itself a Lovecraft reference).
Khajiit really likes Lovecraft’s work. He gets a bad wrap in modern society because he is seen as something of a racist.
Posted by: Lopov Aug 26 2018, 04:03 PM
The Krivbeknih in Fallout 3 is like Lovecraft's Necronomicon in a way. 
Except that you have an option to destroy the evil book in the game.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 26 2018, 04:08 PM
The Krivbeknih in Fallout 3 is like Lovecraft's Necronomicon in a way.
Except that you have an option to destroy the evil book in the game.Indeed! It is a reference to the Necronomicon.
Posted by: SubRosa Aug 26 2018, 04:09 PM
Fallout 4 continues the Lovecraftian tradition with Dunwich Borers. Like the Dunwich Building in Fallout 3, it is filled with ghouls. As you go down you find clues to something terrible that happened there before the war. Finally down at the bottom you have a hallucination of a mass sacrifice. You find an altar there, and http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Kremvh%27s_Tooth, a sacrificial blade of Ug-Qualtoth.
The Krivbeknih in Fallout 3 is like Lovecraft's Necronomicon in a way.
Except that you have an option to destroy the evil book in the game.But is it really destroyed. Or has it just been transported somewhere else, or is it just reforming itself even as we speak?
After all, that is not dead which can eternal lie...
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 26 2018, 04:13 PM
Got a couple of full Lovecraftian games coming out:
http://frogwares.com/discover-the-sinking-city/
http://www.callofcthulhu-game.com/en
Posted by: haute ecole rider Aug 27 2018, 04:26 PM
Hermaeous Mora always made me think of my own mental image of Cthulhu . . .
And yeah, I got a free copy of his works, and will have to read them again . . .
Posted by: ghastley Aug 27 2018, 05:42 PM
My mental image has been totally ruined by http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 27 2018, 08:44 PM
My mental image has been totally ruined by http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/
Wtf
Posted by: Renee Aug 27 2018, 09:06 PM
I am reading The Amulet next, started reading it yesterday afternoon. 
I can't believe this guy's writing ability as a teenager. It just boggles me. I mean, he must have spent a LOT of time reading and writing. Some of the words he uses, and the way he uses them, make me want to break out a dictionary or encyclopedia. He didn't have to write in such a way, at such a young age. It's obvious to me he was aspiring to become the very BEST of his craft?
Going back to The Beast in the Cave though, at the very end, it's almost like he betrays his actual age by finally emoting, when the protagonist realizes he's killed a MAN!!! The way Lovecraft wrote that very last word displays all kinds of enthusiasm, more aptly-said from a teenager than an adult.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 27 2018, 09:29 PM
I am reading The Amulet next, started reading it yesterday afternoon.
I can't believe this guy's writing ability as a teenager. It just boggles me. I mean, he must have spent a LOT of time reading and writing. Some of the words he uses, and the way he uses them, make me want to break out a dictionary or encyclopedia. He didn't have to write in such a way, at such a young age. It's obvious to me he was aspiring to become the very BEST of his craft?
Going back to The Beast in the Cave though, at the very end, it's almost like he betrays his actual age by finally emoting, when the protagonist realizes he's killed a MAN!!! The way Lovecraft wrote that very last word displays all kinds of enthusiasm, more aptly-said from a teenager than an adult.
Ya, he and Poe are probably Khajiit’s favorite authors.
Posted by: SubRosa Aug 27 2018, 10:03 PM
I am reading The Amulet next, started reading it yesterday afternoon.
I can't believe this guy's writing ability as a teenager. It just boggles me. I mean, he must have spent a LOT of time reading and writing. Some of the words he uses, and the way he uses them, make me want to break out a dictionary or encyclopedia. He didn't have to write in such a way, at such a young age. It's obvious to me he was aspiring to become the very BEST of his craft?
Going back to The Beast in the Cave though, at the very end, it's almost like he betrays his actual age by finally emoting, when the protagonist realizes he's killed a MAN!!! The way Lovecraft wrote that very last word displays all kinds of enthusiasm, more aptly-said from a teenager than an adult.
Lovecraft always tried to save that big reveal for the very end. At some times it even gets pretty convoluted as he dances around that big shocking Truth so he can save it for the finish. But mostly it creates a resounding finish. http://www.hplhs.org/dart.php, and they did that to outstanding effect with their version of Shadow Over Innsmouth.
You will also notice that HP hates woodwind instruments, especially pipes and flutes. If there is evil afoot, you can bet it will be heralded by musical piping. Daemoniac piping. He loves daemoniac things. He must have had a daemoniac neighbor who played the recorder all night...
For some of HPL's greatest hits, I recommend the following stories:
At The Mountains of Madness (probably his longest, and my personal favorite)
The Call of Cthulhu
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (my second favorite)
The Color Out Of Space
Dreams In The Witch House (I love the HPLHS radio drama of this, and how they used quantum physics)
The Dunwich Horror
Haunter Of The Dark
Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Shadow Out Of Time
The Thing On The Doorstep
The Whisperer In Darkness
Herbert West - Reanimator
For some of his best B-sides (well, smaller stories):
Cool Air
From Beyond
The Hound
The Lurking Fear
The Nameless City (you can see an early form of a recurring idea in his fiction - that of the Hollow Earth and the nameless horrors dwelling within it)
Nyarlathotep
The Outsider
Pickman's Model
Rats In The Walls
The Shunned House
The Statement of Randolph Carter
The Unnamable
Posted by: Renee Aug 28 2018, 01:01 PM
Ha! That's awesome. Thanks for making that list, SR.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 28 2018, 03:42 PM
Ha! That's awesome. Thanks for making that list, SR.
It’s a good list, can confirm
Posted by: Lopov Aug 31 2018, 08:12 PM
At the Mountains of Madness is my personal favorite too along with The Shadow over Innsmouth.
Of shorter ones I really like The Cats of Ulthar.
The only story which didn't interest me and at some points I needed to force myself to read it until the end, is The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath though the "surprise"at the end is worth reading it until the end.
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 26 2018, 12:09 AM
I recently started listening to the http://hppodcraft.com/podcasts/page/151/. It is pretty good. The two people doing it are indie filmmakers, who among other things worked with http://www.hplhs.org/ in their movies Call of Cthulhu and Whisperer in Darkness. I remember them from the behind the scenes features (which are in some ways more fun the the actual films!). They have also done some of their own stuff.
I went back and started with their original podcasts, and have been working my way forward. They are examining all of Lovecraft's stories in they order they were written. I don't recommend doing it that way for someone new to Lovecraft, because his earliest works were pretty rough. It takes a while to get to the real gems. But as someone who is already familiar with Lovecraft's writing, it is really fascinating. It has given me a whole new appreciation for his work, as I am not only noticing the firsts (like the first time the Necronomicon is specifically mentioned), but also I am seeing common threads in his writing I never noticed before.
Each podcast takes one or two of Lovecraft's stories and basically walks through them, with a guest reader narrating certain parts. They talk about what is going on, tell some bad jokes, and sometimes have some really clever and insightful remarks. They also add in background like when the story was written, what was going on in Lovecraft's life at the time that might have influenced the story, and things like that. It is this latter stuff that has really added a whole new dimension for me.
Some of the readings are dodgy (not the best voice actors). Some are outstanding, especially when Andrew Leman from the HLPHS is doing them). I find I really enjoy the female readers. That in itself adds a whole new dimension to the stories, as Lovecraft was far from female friendly (there are almost never any female characters in his stories!). The stories they picked for a female reader were good choices though, as in these the protagonist is not named, or given any background or history (he does that a lot). So they could be anyone. I am sure Lovecraft would be rolling in his grave. But considering who he was, I think he would enjoy rolling in his grave... 
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Oct 26 2018, 12:59 AM
I recently started listening to the http://hppodcraft.com/podcasts/page/151/. It is pretty good. The two people doing it are indie filmmakers, who among other things worked with http://www.hplhs.org/ in their movies Call of Cthulhu and Whisperer in Darkness. I remember them from the behind the scenes features (which are in some ways more fun the the actual films!). They have also done some of their own stuff.
I went back and started with their original podcasts, and have been working my way forward. They are examining all of Lovecraft's stories in they order they were written. I don't recommend doing it that way for someone new to Lovecraft, because his earliest works were pretty rough. It takes a while to get to the real gems. But as someone who is already familiar with Lovecraft's writing, it is really fascinating. It has given me a whole new appreciation for his work, as I am not only noticing the firsts (like the first time the Necronomicon is specifically mentioned), but also I am seeing common threads in his writing I never noticed before.
Each podcast takes one or two of Lovecraft's stories and basically walks through them, with a guest reader narrating certain parts. They talk about what is going on, tell some bad jokes, and sometimes have some really clever and insightful remarks. They also add in background like when the story was written, what was going on in Lovecraft's life at the time that might have influenced the story, and things like that. It is this latter stuff that has really added a whole new dimension for me.
Some of the readings are dodgy (not the best voice actors). Some are outstanding, especially when Andrew Leman from the HLPHS is doing them). I find I really enjoy the female readers. That in itself adds a whole new dimension to the stories, as Lovecraft was far from female friendly (there are almost never any female characters in his stories!). The stories they picked for a female reader were good choices though, as in these the protagonist is not named, or given any background or history (he does that a lot). So they could be anyone. I am sure Lovecraft would be rolling in his grave. But considering who he was, I think he would enjoy rolling in his grave...
Khajiit has recently started listening to podcasts so this sounds right up his alley! Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: SubRosa Mar 15 2019, 11:36 PM
Today is the anniversary of Lovecraft's death.
In his house in Providence
dead Lovecraft waits dreaming
Posted by: Renee Mar 16 2019, 01:05 PM
And such a shame he was not to know of the recognition he'd gain over the next decades.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jul 5 2020, 03:13 AM
https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/332203/del-toro-vows-to-make-lovecrafts-at-the-mountains-of-madness/
*Edit*
Of course, after posting, I realized that you had probably already heard he was wanting to do it, lol
Posted by: SubRosa Jul 5 2020, 03:49 AM
I had not heard this news. Though sadly, just because he still wants to make it, does not mean he will be able to. Tbh though, I am glad he did not make a version with Tom Cruise. That would have been awful, not matter how well he did the rest of the movie. I would love to see him team up with Sean Branney and Andrew Leman from HPHLS, and do a low budget version. Their Call of Cthulhu and Whisper In Darkness movies were great, albeit cheap.
Now watch, he will make it with Nic Cage instead... Though granted, the Color Out Of Space movie he was in was good.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jul 5 2020, 04:15 AM
I had not heard this news. Though sadly, just because he still wants to make it, does not mean he will be able to. Tbh though, I am glad he did not make a version with Tom Cruise. That would have been awful, not matter how well he did the rest of the movie. I would love to see him team up with Sean Branney and Andrew Leman from HPHLS, and do a low budget version. Their Call of Cthulhu and Whisper In Darkness movies were great, albeit cheap.
Now watch, he will make it with Nic Cage instead... Though granted, the Color Out Of Space movie he was in was good.
Lol, when I read that about Tom Cruise I was like “ew”
Posted by: mirocu Jul 5 2020, 12:33 PM
After all, that is not dead which can eternal lie...
"Yet with strange aeons, even death may die"
On the subject, I like CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth. Haven't played it but I've watched a playthrough of it. Kinda neat game, if only it had been developed for the PC and not just ported.
Posted by: SubRosa Jul 5 2020, 07:03 PM
After all, that is not dead which can eternal lie...
"Yet with strange aeons, even death may die"
On the subject, I like CoC: Dark Corners of the Earth. Haven't played it but I've watched a playthrough of it. Kinda neat game, if only it had been developed for the PC and not just ported.
Wow, nothing is more appropriate than some thread necromancy on a Lovecraft topic!
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jul 6 2020, 12:46 AM
Wow, nothing is more appropriate than some thread necromancy on a Lovecraft topic!
Cheshire Khajiit: Thread Reanimator
Posted by: SubRosa Aug 13 2020, 02:17 AM
https://mymodernmet.com/paul-m-smith-sprite-chaser/
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 13 2020, 02:53 AM
https://mymodernmet.com/paul-m-smith-sprite-chaser/
Neat! And yikes! Yikeat!
Posted by: SubRosa Aug 21 2020, 10:59 PM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/idz5s8/idol_cthulhuchan_figure/
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 21 2020, 11:09 PM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/idz5s8/idol_cthulhuchan_figure/
Kinda reminds me of the vampire ladies in the Darkstalkers fighting game series!
Posted by: macole Aug 22 2020, 03:54 PM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/idz5s8/idol_cthulhuchan_figure/
Kinda reminds me of the vampire ladies in the Darkstalkers fighting game series!
Yes it does.
Posted by: SubRosa Aug 25 2020, 02:27 AM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/ifxrf4/something_seemsoff_original_photo_by_uantongorlin/
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Aug 30 2020, 03:30 PM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/ifxrf4/something_seemsoff_original_photo_by_uantongorlin/
Spooky!
Posted by: macole Sep 2 2020, 04:39 PM
https://www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/ifxrf4/something_seemsoff_original_photo_by_uantongorlin/
Up from the depths it rises. Run! Run, I say!
Posted by: SubRosa Sep 6 2020, 08:04 AM
https://andreewallin.com/Misc-Client-Work# and other things.
Posted by: SubRosa Jan 1 2021, 12:24 AM
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn is in the Urban Dictionary, under just the word https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fhtagn
Posted by: Renee Jan 1 2021, 05:26 PM
Isn't the Urban Dictionary great? 
Posted by: SubRosa Feb 16 2021, 02:35 AM
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-strange-creatures-accidentally-beneath-antarctica.html. An expedition from Miskatonic University is being dispatched to investigate.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Feb 16 2021, 03:32 AM
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-strange-creatures-accidentally-beneath-antarctica.html. An expedition from Miskatonic University is being dispatched to investigate.
Lol oh noez!! Shoggoths!!
Posted by: SubRosa Sep 7 2021, 05:10 AM
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hp-lovecraft-writes-olive-gardens-dinner-menu
Posted by: macole Sep 7 2021, 05:26 AM
The Olive Garden near me closed recently. Now I know why.
Posted by: Lena Wolf Sep 7 2021, 08:52 AM
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/hp-lovecraft-writes-olive-gardens-dinner-menu
Syl should have hired him to write the menus for the House of Dementia.
And may be she did? 
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Mar 27 2023, 11:23 AM
A heads up:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=io5-UsjUGvU comes out April 27th. As you can see from the trailer, it is a 2D (2.5D?) side scrolling action platformer in the vein of Castlevania Symphony of the Night and Metroid, and so may not be for everyone here, but it looks to have a very strong Lovecraftian feel to it. Khajiit is very interested in this title.
Posted by: Renee Oct 20 2023, 03:33 AM
So, I finally found my Lovecraft book: https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780345384225_p0_v1_s550x406.jpg. No joke: I think the book is haunted. It keeps disappearing! 
Bought it whenever I started this thread (which I see was August of 2018), and since then the book has just *poof* vanished twice or three times. It'll vanish, then I'll find it in some odd spot. None of my other books do this!
Now that I work in a bookstore I could've just bought a second copy (and at a discount) and maybe the forces that be knew this. Because I found the original I bought in 2018, this time on an odd shelf underneath my housemate's entertainment system, of all place. Karen, my housemate, says she didn't move the book and I believe her because other than an occasional newspaper or magazine article, she's not a reader.
Anyway, I wanted to type my thoughts on a few of the short stories I've read. None of them have anything to do with gaming, so technically I'm off-topic. 
Oh well.
---------
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/b.aspx: This one's really creepy, partially because it's unfinished. It details a story of a man who found a 'worm-riddled book' in some outdoor location, near a river where "the mists always swirl." Super creepy.
After reading the book, the protagonist goes mad, of course. He (get this) locks himself into an attic filled with candles. As he loses touch with reality, he can't even remember if he's got a family. He begins hearing 'scratching' at the windows. Pretty soon he finds himself 'foating above the city', but then abruptly awakes back in the candle-filled attic.
And that's how the story ends. It's only 3 pages long!
-------------------
https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/tjr.aspx. The protagonist this time is day laborer, a white man who works amongst Mexicans and Native Americans, and so on. They're all working in a goldmine. 🪙 A few of the laborers he works with are superstitious, which can often be shrugged off. But one of them, Juan Romero, just happens to eventually stand out.
Juan is fascinated with a 'Hindoo ring' which the protagonist wears. He seems to know there's some sort of magic within this ring, or something. The ring is beset with Hieroglyphics.
A part of the mountain they're mining gets blasted with too much TNT, and things go wrong. By the way Lovecraft describes, an entire portion of the moutainside falls away, leaving behind a huge cavern. Juan becomes attracted to something deep within the cavern that night, some sort of menacing rumble which throbs from deep beneath the ground. AT this moment, the Hindoo ring is glowing.
Juan goes running off into the cavern, while the protagonist initially follows. Something happens to Juan down there. Lovecraft gets sort of vague about what it could be. But later the next day, Juan is found by some of the other men. Still alive, but unconscious. And the protagonist's Hindoo ring, it's now missing from the protagonist's finger. 
Next one I'm gonna read should be REALLY interesting. It's called Dagon!
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 20 2023, 04:43 AM
The Book really showcases the Lovecraft style of writing. It is all mood and setting and feeling, and short on things like character and plot. That was the way he liked it. What he wanted to do was create an experience for the reader, to get them to feel as they read his work. Which is what art is supposed to do after all. He really did not care about anything else.
I just looked in my audiobook version of his works. The Readme has a list of his stories in the order that they were written, as well as another list breaking them down by genre. The Book was done in 1933, so it is near the end of his career, when he had really crystallized his own style.
The Transition of Juan Romero is one of those stories of his that deals with the Hollow Earth, and the idea that there are huge, open spaces down there, where all manner of dark and horrific monsters brooded and plotted. It is an early stab at the concept. My readme file says it is from 1919, so it is really early in his career. He would go on to develop the idea much more The Festival, The Nameless City, and The Mound. He really hits it out of the park with At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time.
Dagon was ok. Not one of his best to be sure, but one where he started to really show his own unique style of writing. I remember a podcast talking about it, and they brought up that at the time someone had criticized the plot, saying that it didn't make sense. Lovecraft shot back at them that he knew it was right, because he had dreamed it that way. That was often how he got his inspiration. He wrote what he dreamed. It is definitely in keeping with his decision to focus on mood and feeling, rather than on plot and characterization.
Posted by: Renee Oct 20 2023, 03:51 PM
Okay, that helps what you just said: "all mood and setting, short on character and plot". Never thought of it that way, but that's a very succinct way of putting it. I was assuming since a lot of these shorts were published in pulp magazines that he was dealing with a lot of short deadlines, as well. Wow, that was written in his latter years.
Do you think he meant for The Book to end so abruptly like that from the protagonist's viewpoint? Or was it maybe an editorial thing? Maybe the publication would only accept so many words (assuming the story went into a magazine), so he had to trim The Book down and make it end like Thereafter I was more cautious with my incantations, for I had no wish to be cut off from my body and from the earth in unknown abysses whence I could never return. ?
The Lovecraft book I've got puts ellipses at the end. So it's like "whence I could never return..."
Whoa, I love that retort. "It has to be right, that's how I dreamed it!" That's something I didn't know, and now it makes sense, because some of the stories definitely come across as dreamy. The way The Book changes course several times is an example.
I'll read Dagon some point this weekend.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Oct 20 2023, 05:41 PM
I’ve always liked Dagon. It’s pretty short and I think it can serve as a great entry point for someone new to Lovecraft’s work to really get a feel for his style. It has all the weirdness and creature horror that a lot of his work features without throwing a lot of his more “out there” ideas at you.
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 20 2023, 06:47 PM
Renee: I am sure Lovecraft wanted The Book to end that way. He was not a very financially-minded person. He did not write stories to get paid, he wrote them because he wanted to, and then shopped them around to magazines afterward. There were much more profitable genres that he could have written in, but he vehemently opposed that, and he kind of snobbishly looked down his nose at people who did basically just write for the buck. In the end he could not write something that was not in his nature. For him it was all about the Art.
That is why he was not a big success in his lifetime. He had a niche of fans, but they were small. He really did not start to get popular until the 80s, when his work started getting re-released, and the game Call of Cthulhu came out. Ironically there were writers in his lifetime who were hugely successful that sometimes get named, and I have never heard of them. Once they retired, they just faded into obscurity, like last week's pop star. I think Lovecraft's lasting fame is due to him sticking to his artistic vision, in spite of all the people telling him to write in ways that were more commercially successful.
The podcast https://hplhsvoluminous.libsyn.com/ covers all this in great detail. It is on probably permanent hiatus now, but they have a very extensive back catalog of episodes. It is put on by two Lovecraft nerds who take a letter of his each week and read it in full. Then they talk about it, what was going on in the world at the time, and in Lovecraft's life in particular, and just add another layer of conclusions. It shows all the really good things, and all the really, really bad things about him.
Khajiit: Dagon is one I put in the lower end B-Sides. Again, it is one of those where Lovecraft is working out ideas that would eventually blossom into great things. I don't think we would have gotten The Shadow Over Innsmouth without Dagon. Just like I don't think we would have gotten At The Mountains of Madness without The Nameless City first.
Posted by: mirocu Oct 21 2023, 09:35 AM
Just came to mind; Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened.
Have been some years since I saw a LP of this game but it was pretty good. Started out as a typical Sherlock detective story but evolved into a supernatural Lovecraft story. If you like detecting and puzzle stuff at a slower (usually) pace with some Deep Ones thrown into it, maybe look into this!
Posted by: Renee Oct 29 2023, 08:53 PM
Lopov played a couple Sherlock Holmes games, and yes I remember him mentioning something about Lovecraft.
I did read Dagon a couple days ago, I can see what you're saying Florens. It is sort of just "okay". Maybe it's because of the Mehrunes Dagon connotation I've got in my head, I was expecting a grand demon to be the main focus of the story. But yeah, Dagon does sort of seem half-finished. And like a dream, it shifts around a few unconnected times.
The protagonist starts off saying he's a drug addict at the end of his life. Then he changes subject, and begins talking about being on a boat at the start of the war? Is he a soldier? Or a stowaway?
It was in one of the most open and least frequented parts of the broad Pacific that the packet of which I was supercargo fell a victim to the German sea-raider
I have read that bit over and over. Maybe it's the language of the times, or something. I can't make heads or tails what's being said here. 
Maybe "packet of which I was supercargo" is a term which isn't used in our modern times. Or maybe it's a seafarer's term... I dunno!
The story shifts again, and becomes very hellish. Like he's in hell, watching the ocean his boat was floating on turn into this hellish place. Maybe Beth used this portion of the tale to draw inspiration toward the Planes of Oblivion.
Buy yeah, otherwise I don't fully get Dagon. Maybe it's a story written by a morphine addict, his addiction causing all those horrible visions. Or were the visions really supposed to have happened (he was actually in the South Pacific, where he lost his mind)? Don't know.
I like that he mentioned Poe!
Posted by: SubRosa Oct 29 2023, 11:50 PM
A packet is a term for a ship that made a regular route back and forth between two ports. So one that always ran back and forth between say San Francisco to Brisbane. Think of it as a ship version of a bus or train. It is an older term, because we don't really use ships for people's transportation much anymore, except luxury cruises.
A supercargo is likewise an old term for a passenger on a ship.
This is why a lot of people say that if you want to read Lovecraft, first buy yourself a good dictionary... Every time you read him, you are going to learn a new word.
Anyway, I am sure the protagonist is a morphine addict because of this experience he had where he saw Dagon. That is what Lovecraftian horrors do to you. They drive you insane, or make you wish you were insane, as that is a comfort compared to facing the reality you have just borne witness to.
Posted by: Renee Oct 30 2023, 02:09 AM
Ah okay, yea I was getting the feeling that was an actual term. It'd be like if you went back 100 years ago and said "My boy's an influencer with over twenty-thousand clicks on my latest site. I've gone green, I'm a vegan, and my mom's off the grid", nobody in 1919 would know what the heck! -- Even the way 'boy' is being said, that's more likely a guy talking about his buddy, not an actual kid.
Cool, that helps. The guy goes mad and winds up on morphine, got it.
Posted by: Renee Jun 18 2024, 04:18 PM
I read https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/t.aspx the other day. 
Which tells of a lad named Jervas who discovers a half-hidden entrance to a crypt near (or nearby) his family's property. The entrance is locked, and the lad becomes fascinated with what could be inside. Sure, I can relate. He's a child. Imagination takes over. I can remember being a kid, roaming the woods behind our street, hoping to find a wild child; a boy or a girl native American who lived in the woods and had been cast away from society. I would discover this child. Teach him or her English or whatever. We'd come inside "Look mom! Here's my new friend!" Can they stay over for the night?"
Jervas begins visiting the Tomb whenever he can, sitting outside its locked entryway for hours, sometimes until night befalls. Eventually his fascination becomes obsession. He begins going mad, apparently.
Two things stand out. Actually three.
1). I love how the protagonist, Jervas Dudley, jumps right into the story. No backstory, hardly any preamble at all. He's already a mess by the time he's writing his morbid account.
The backstory comes a paragraph & two later. Jervas reveals his family is wealthy. And that he's grown up reading 'ancient and little-known books.' Must be nice.
2). This story also uses actual full names, rather interesting. Nowadays there are all sorts of disclaimers in works of fiction: the people and places mentioned in this story are not to be associated with anyone or anything real, and are the results of the author's pure imagination, or whatever. Wonder if Lovecraft, or the magazine (or whatever publication) The Tomb was published in, would've had to make a similar disclaimer. 
3). Lovecraft uses the word "whilst" instead of while. I've been assuming whilst is a British word ever since I first heard Callidus Thorn and ghastley and others who are from the U.K. use whilst in our forums. Never ever have I heard anyone, any of my elder relatives, my grandparents for instance, who were born just after WWI, use the word whilst. But Lovecraft uses whilst instead of while.
So my question is, during his lifetime, would people be saying whilst, which got phased out during the 1920s and later? Or is this word being used because this story is supposed to be set back in the 1800s when whilst was still commonly said?
Anyway, Jervas predictably goes mad after finally breaking into the tomb, and laying within an open casket. The story loses focus, not that it's expected focus should remain; this is a Lovecraft tale after all. But still, it's unclear (to me) what exactly happens next; Jervas suddenly claims he's no longer a youth after this moment, suddenly he's the age of 21. Henceforward I haunted the tomb each night; seeing, hearing, and doing things I must never reveal.
I love that he keeps some info to himself. He "must never reveal". Dude's gone wack, perhaps he doesn't want others to suffer whatever he's going through. Or maybe he fears being locked in an asylum. Heh. Too late for that, buddy.
And then a second horror took possession of my soul. Burnt alive to ashes, my body dispersed by the four winds, I might never lie in the tomb of the Hydes! Was not my coffin prepared for me? Had I not a right to rest till eternity amongst the descendants of Sir Geoffrey Hyde?
Seems he's been possessed. Living whatever Sir Hyde experienced. Later Jervas gets rescued apparently by two locals. And then there it is: On the following day I was brought to this room with the barred windows... Good gosh, man!
Posted by: Lena Wolf Jun 18 2024, 05:08 PM
You picked up "whilst" but not "betwixt"? 
Men of broader intellect know that there is no sharp distinction betwixt the real and the unreal...
I've known quite a few modern day Americans who used to say "whilst". Perhaps it is more common in other parts of the USA? But admittedly, I've never heard anyone say "betwixt".
Posted by: Renee Jun 18 2024, 06:08 PM
Ah, but we don't say 'betwixt' in America, or anything close! ---- Unless betwixt is supposed to be derived from between? I honestly don't know.
Okay, but you have heard a few Americans say 'whilst', okay. As stated, I never, ever have.
Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jun 18 2024, 06:45 PM
Lovecraft loved to use language and spelling that we, and even his American contemporaries might have considered “archaic”. He felt that New England culture had become too much influenced by modernity, and by what he considered to be inferior cultures as compared to the WASP culture that became dominant in New England during colonial times up to about the Civil War. He purposefully used this language to evoke that of those earlier times when things were, as he believed, “better”.
Posted by: Lena Wolf Jun 18 2024, 06:45 PM
Ah, but we don't say 'betwixt' in America, or anything close! ---- Unless betwixt is supposed to be derived from between? I honestly don't know.
"Betwixt" is just an old form of "between".
It's not that uncommon, actually. There are whole lengthy discussions being held among professional writers regarding this word - whether one should always use "while" or always "whilst", some people feel very strongly about it. Personally, I don't think it matters that much. They mean the same thing.
And yeah - what Khajiit said!
Posted by: SubRosa Yesterday, 03:33 AM
As Khajiit noted, Lovecraft felt like he was born in the wrong time. He wanted to live in the Georgian Era (the 1700s, and definitely before those rascally Continentals rebelled against the good Kings George.) In his letters he often talks about preferring to have lived the life of a country squire of the time (i.e. a plantation owner, or at least landlord over sharecropper peasants/serfs).
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