Has Lovecraft become required reading?

[Cam Banks]

My very first 3rd edition D&D campaign was referred to by my group as "Elizabethulhu" because it was Elizabethan England + Cthulhu Mythos + D&D. I've been a Lovecraftian fan for a quarter century now, since I borrowed a leatherbound collection of HPL's stories from the library as a teenager, and much like Neil Gaiman, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, and C.S. Lewis, he's inspired pretty much all of my fantasy gaming in ways large and small.

I think it's useful to have a working understanding of HPL's stories, at least so it can inform some of the darker or more bizarre aspects of your fantasy gaming, but I don't think that you're missing out on much if your focus (as yours is, Trampas) is on Tolkienesque high fantasy. You're better off reading Sir Thomas Mallory's La Morte d'Arthur when it comes to classic fantasy literature.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[MarkChevallier]

Actually, Shakespeare wrote significant portions of the plays in prose. Most people just don't realize it because they don't know how to scan verse and the prose is (usually) printed with line breaks.

I'm fairly sure (and trusty Wikipedia seems to confirm) that he wrote the vast majority of his plays in iambic pentameter, a form of blank verse most people would regard as poetry, even if it doesn't rhyme

He may have written some prose sections, but it wasn't his typical style.

 

[Wayside]

I'm fairly sure (and trusty Wikipedia seems to confirm) that he wrote the vast majority of his plays in iambic pentameter, a form of blank verse most people would regard as poetry, even if it doesn't rhyme

He may have written some prose sections, but it wasn't his typical style.

He wrote the plays in both, not one or the other. Whether verse or prose is primary depends on the play, but they all (especially the comedies, and in increasing amounts as he matures) employ prose. Much Ado About Nothing, for example, is almost entirely prose, while the tragedies are primarily verse with substantial portions in prose. Several plays are balanced more or less evenly between the two. So while you're right that Shakespeare is meant to be acted on stage, your comment that in the plays "you're not reading prose, but Elizabethan poetry" misses the mark. The plays are full of both, and prose was part of his typical style.

 

[Necronomicus]

I was actually excited when I started 4E to see that the Star Pact Warlock had even the slightest hint of Cthulhu Mythos. I immediately created a Star Pact Warlock when I started (about the time that the 'Wish Upon A Star' magazine entry came out from Dragon) and basically made a Half-Elf Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. I mean, I didn't make 'him' him but rather something that had familiarity to him, something that worshiped the being of insanity out there while at the same time bordering on neutrality. Never got far playing him as my Sundays got cut off, but I loved him all the same.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I mean, 'I' didn't make him but rather a being that had familiarity with him, something that worshiped a being of insanity out there while at the same time bordering on neutrality, and took me over when I started the Character Builder the first time. Never got far playing him since the electro-shock therapy started.

FIFLovecraft.

 

[Imperialus]

I wouldn't say Lovecraft is required reading for D&D...

But unless you read him then rather amusing songs like this make a lot less sense.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptP0OR-e7rI[/ame]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I just f'tagned so hard, my keyboard is covered with the colour out of space!

 

[Imperialus]

I just f'tagned so hard, my keyboard is covered with the colour out of space!

Well in that case
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2DscvVye94]YouTube - Oh Come All Ye Old Ones[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbzuzSbCyfQ[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ftld7Ohojg[/ame]



And yes, I own the CDs that those are from. It was a hell of a lot of fun to pop them in the store stereo system during the Christmas season back when I worked retail just to see how many customers noticed.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You should probably post those here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/off-topic-forum-currently-named-hapax-legomenon/268695-your-favorite-non-traditional-xmas-songs.html

 

[Imperialus]

You should probably post those here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/off-topic-forum-currently-named-hapax-legomenon/268695-your-favorite-non-traditional-xmas-songs.html

Good idea.