Press [Chaosium] "Tentacled but OK" - the late, great Brian Lumley on Call of Cthulhu fans

[Michael O'Brien]

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Esteemed horror writer and Mythos creator Brian Lumley, who passed away in early January, was not a player of the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG himself. But he did once have nice things to say about the Call of Cthulhu fans he'd interacted with. This was in the pages of the seminal 1980's Dagon, which played an important and influential role in both the horror gaming and literary scene of the era.

Dagon #13 from 1986 was the "Brian Lumley Issue", and in it, as part of a lengthy interview, Dagon editor Carl T. Ford (who in 2017 also sadly left us) asked the question:

DAGON: "I would now like to turn to the subject of role-playing games, and in particular, Call of Cthulhu. Have you ever had any role-playing experiences? And do you feel this sort of thing lends itself to Lovecraftian Lore?"

BRIAN LUMLEY: "I've never played. From what I've seen of fans of CoC, however, I'd say it must have something. I mean, these are intelligent blokes; mainly young, very switched-on lads. I know several of them poisonally (sic): people like Guy (the Cowled One) Colishaw, and James (the Felpham Foulness) Simmons. When I first met these blokes, I thought: "animal, vegetable, or mineral?" But now that I know them better ... I still wonder! Seriously, it seems to me that the Mythos is admirably suitable. The guys who've contacted me through Dagon, for books, or stories or information, all seem decent, well-educated, nice sorts of blokes. Tentacled, but OK."

 

[wicked cool]

Ughh I had no idea. Loved his vampire series and it’s 2 bad we probably will never see them on small/big screen.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

"Very switched-on lads," got to love old slang. For 1986, considering the dim view lots of people had of role-players, his words amount to high praise.