Stephen King's sons play(ed) Call of Cthulhu

[Krug]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/magazine/18hill.t.html

The King boys grew up riffing on each other’s fantasies; in what they called the Writing Game, a literary version of tag, one brother would write for a few minutes and pass the story to the other. “We used to play Call of Cthulhu,” Owen told me, referring to the role-playing game based on the H. P. Lovecraft story. “Joe was always dungeon master. You had sanity points, and it was like, if you encountered Yog-Sothoth one too many times, you were crazy. You could only have so many adventures, and then you had to have a new character, and I thought that was brilliant.”

 

[BOZ]

well, King himself is a big HPL fan (which comes out in his books often enough, with the whole "unknowable horror" aspect), so that should be no surprise.

 

[Shadowslayer]

Heh...I've always maintained that, of anyone, Stephen King would be the awesomest DM on the planet.

 

[Nifft]

Heh...I've always maintained that, of anyone, Stephen King would be the awesomest DM on the planet.

He might just try to rail-road you a little....

-- N

 

[Chaldfont]

I vaguely remember an SK short story tribute to Lovecraft. I think it involved someone discovering the thing in IT.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

I vaguely remember an SK short story tribute to Lovecraft. I think it involved someone discovering the thing in IT.

King has done a number of these stories. For example, Crouch End and Jerusalem's Lot (not to be confused with 'Salem's Lot) are both Lovecraftian in both tone and the names of monsters invoked.

Those names and themes come up in a lot of his earlier work even if they do not take center stage, so to speak.

But it is interesting to learn his sons gamed when they where young.

 

[Wraith Form]

Jerusalem's Lot

Best. King short story. EVAR!

 

[Ulrick]

He might just try to rail-road you a little....

-- N

Or, after your character is almost at the end of a long, strange, and arduous quest, he'll pause the session and warn you that you might not like the ending. That the ending won'timprove your sex life and that the only reason he's putting and ending on to the adventure is because its the custom of the country. He'll say that he hopes your not "goal-oriented" and that you're there for the story, not just the ending.

Then he'll give you the option of proceeding forward--which, of course, you do.


And then it turns out he's right...the ending SUCKS!

 

[LoneWolf23]

He might just try to rail-road you a little....

-- N

Yeah, but you get to know just what the evil monster is from the start as he randomly rolls it up on his tables, then tells you that you all get visions or omens about what the monster is anyway.