Has Lovecraft become required reading?

[Dragonhelm]

I have noticed more lately just how much influence Lovecraft has on fantasy gaming. It seems like the influence keeps growing, so much so that you see it in various modules, and even in 4th edition's star pact for warlocks. I realize some of it has always been there, such as with illithids, but it seems to be even more prevalent than ever before.

Has it come to the point that to truly appreciate D&D and gaming in general, a person has to read Lovecraft?

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of horror. I get that Lovecraft is a highly influential writer and I respect that, but I'd rather not delve into the realm of horror if I don't have to.

 

[ggroy]

Has it come to the point that to truly appreciate D&D and gaming in general, a person has to read Lovecraft?

No.

Nobody is required to read anything. Not even the core rulebooks.

 

[jdrakeh]

Has it come to the point that to truly appreciate D&D and gaming in general, a person has to read Lovecraft?

No. Lovecraft is only one (small) influence amongst many. You could (as many do) appreciate D&D and PnP gaming without ever reading Lovecraft.

 

[Chainsaw]

Eh, I love Lovecraft for D&D.. but only because I like taking that mood and making it part of my mindset when I play. If you're not into horror, then I'm not sure you'll benefit your game that much more than if you'd just read the illithid description (or that of any black tentacled ancient cosmic weirdo monster).

If you're just a D&D History Completist and have to read anything and everything that might have ever influenced the game.. then yeah, might as well read all of Lovecraft.

 

[Doug McCrae]

It seems like the influence keeps growing, so much so that you see it in various modules, and even in 4th edition's star pact for warlocks. I realize some of it has always been there, such as with illithids, but it seems to be even more prevalent than ever before.

Which modules? You'll need to provide more evidence than star pact warlocks to advance your thesis.

I guess it comes from the growing popularity of the Lovecraft inspired Far Realm, which first appeared in Bruce Cordell's The Gates of Firestorm Peak (1996).

 

[Dragonhelm]

Which modules? You'll need to provide more evidence than star pact warlocks to advance your thesis.

I want to say that I've heard mention of Lovecraftian influence from Paizo in regards to some of their modules. I could be misremembering.

I guess it comes from the growing popularity of the Lovecraft inspired Far Realm, which first appeared in Bruce Cordell's The Gates of Firestorm Peak (1996).

I keep meaning to pick that up. I've heard it's really good.

 

[frankthedm]

Which modules? You'll need to provide more evidence than star pact warlocks to advance your thesis

I'd say that is more than enough evidence. That the far realm is standing with equal footing with Fiends & Fae in the arsenal of a core class says more than enough for how far the inference of cosmic horror has permeated D&D.

I guess it comes from the growing popularity of the Lovecraft inspired Far Realm, which first appeared in Bruce Cordell's The Gates of Firestorm Peak (1996).

1E's Steading of the hill giant king has a very dangerous room, sealed off from the rest of the steading, that drips with far realm flavor.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Seeing star pact warlocks in 4e really caught my eye, and I immediately thought "Mythos" when I read that. So, yeah, I think core D&D is a bit more blatantly Lovecraftian nowadays.

But I don't think this is limited to D&D. It seems that we've seen more Lovecraftian elements in entertainment culture in general-- film, books, video games-- over the last 10 or 15 years.

 

[Shemeska]

I really like Lovecraft's work. I also border on fanboy status for his lesser known contemporary Clark Ashton Smith.

I really appreciate well done Lovecraftian (and his associated writing circle) influence in D&D - but there's a caveat here - I appreciate well done Lovecraftian influence in D&D where it's appropriate. There is such a thing as being far too heavy handed and going overboard, which I think is the case with WotC and the Far Realms in late 3e and increasingly in 4e (Cordell has done some good things with the topic, and Leicester's Gap in 2e was amazingly done, but there is such a thing as overexposure within a game that isn't at its core a game of Lovecraftian horror and I think 4e has gone over the line at this point).

But in places where it makes sense to include Lovecraftian elements (creepy underdark/Darklands stuff like intellect devourers, neothelids, aboleths, etc; or certain Abyssal or Ethereal creatures; or things from outer space) it can add to the experience if you've got a passing familiarity with Lovecraft's work and the themes he, his contemporaries, and inheritors play around with in their eldritch, cyclopean, and even perhaps rugose sandbox.

I'm responsible for playing around with Lovecraftian stuff too. I did a writeup of Leng and an overtly Lovecraftian/Dunsany Plane of Dreams for Pathfinder's cosmology, there was a blatant homage to HPL's 'Green Meadow' revision cycle story in the writeup for the Dimension of Time, and some Lovecraftian themes in the context of the Night Hags and their patron deity/thing Alashra the Dream Eater. Guilty as charged.

 

[malraux]

Wasn't Cthuhlu himself in the original deities and demigods?