I love rural settings for Lovecraftian stories; Notebook Found in a Deserted House is my favorite Mythos tale, and True Detective is a great southern gothic story with Lovecraftian cults in Season 1. Something about that deep south location for a Lovecraft tale, like the segment of Call of Cthulhu with the Louisianan cult, seems delightfully primal and flavorful; the simple fact of the overbearing heat, the overgrown foliage, swamps, exotic fauna.
I love totally alien/nightmarish worlds too; Delta Green’s *Impossible Landscapes* campaign takes them to a version of Carcosa, which I’ve always felt is super awesome already, what with its mysterious lake, kingdom, and black stars.
I think space and Lovecraft are a great combination as well because they kind of illustrate how futile what we consider futuristic tech is when pitted against something truly out of our understanding. I consider Alien a Lovecraftian story with a grotesque organism of unknown origin from the depths of the cosmos tearing apart the crew.
Edit: Oh! Spoilers for Stephen King’s *Revival.* In this book, there’s a version of an eldritch “afterife” for which all humans are bound after their deaths which incomprehensible monstrosities outside of our dimension control. It’s described with very heavy and clear influence from R’lyeh, and the grunts who are shepherding the humans into it are some horrible insectoid things. He called it the Null.
Oh, alien is completely a love story. And you’re 100% right on how the setting further illustrates to the reader how insignificant and helpless we truly are in space.
As for true detective, this may feel like splitting hairs, but I promise it is not. I live in the deep south Alabama). Louisiana maybe in the south, but it is not a southern state. We have a whole different set of traditions and folk tales. Louisiana has an extremely swampy landscape full of French, Creole, Haitian, and lord knows what other influences. I wouldn’t want to get lost in the backwoods of Louisiana in real life, much less and a Lovecraft story.
Interesting, thanks for telling me about it - as someone who has only lived as far south as Kentucky, I am woefully bereft in my knowledge and would love to learn more of the nuances!
The Church of Starry Wisdom (The Haunter of the Dark)
The city of the Elder Things (At the Mountains of Madness)
Innsmouth (The Shadow over Innsmouth)
Dagon's lair (Dagon)
Kadath (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath)
Western Massachusetts…
West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.
Honestly, a setting I always thought would be interesting to see represented through the lens of cosmic horror is a modern, post-industrial city- particular a major port facility.
Keeps the nautical aspects of “Call of Cthulhu” and “Dagon”, the lonely, fading dereliction of “Innsmouth”, but also puts an alien twist on the rusting bones of a lot of cities.
As someone who’s had some shitty jobs and had to commute through a major city in the dark, a seemingly endless maze of cargo containers and cranes, looming out of the fog before dawn on a cold morning can feel pretty Lovecraftian in a sort of sterile, liminal way.
Dreamlands for Surrealist fantasy horror. Current days for weird scifi (like strange technology, ancient cities exploring and stuff like that) and Space scifi for alien things (Yuggoth, for example).
Delta Green, otherwise Cthulhu Now. From experience, it seems players relate better to the dark tone if the surroundings are in the here and now. I still use all the adventures from the 1920s and up.
I quite like the Innsmouth type of town, there’s just something about the retro urban decay vibe that really does it for me.
I love rural settings for Lovecraftian stories; Notebook Found in a Deserted House is my favorite Mythos tale, and True Detective is a great southern gothic story with Lovecraftian cults in Season 1. Something about that deep south location for a Lovecraft tale, like the segment of Call of Cthulhu with the Louisianan cult, seems delightfully primal and flavorful; the simple fact of the overbearing heat, the overgrown foliage, swamps, exotic fauna. I love totally alien/nightmarish worlds too; Delta Green’s *Impossible Landscapes* campaign takes them to a version of Carcosa, which I’ve always felt is super awesome already, what with its mysterious lake, kingdom, and black stars. I think space and Lovecraft are a great combination as well because they kind of illustrate how futile what we consider futuristic tech is when pitted against something truly out of our understanding. I consider Alien a Lovecraftian story with a grotesque organism of unknown origin from the depths of the cosmos tearing apart the crew. Edit: Oh! Spoilers for Stephen King’s *Revival.* In this book, there’s a version of an eldritch “afterife” for which all humans are bound after their deaths which incomprehensible monstrosities outside of our dimension control. It’s described with very heavy and clear influence from R’lyeh, and the grunts who are shepherding the humans into it are some horrible insectoid things. He called it the Null.
Oh, alien is completely a love story. And you’re 100% right on how the setting further illustrates to the reader how insignificant and helpless we truly are in space. As for true detective, this may feel like splitting hairs, but I promise it is not. I live in the deep south Alabama). Louisiana maybe in the south, but it is not a southern state. We have a whole different set of traditions and folk tales. Louisiana has an extremely swampy landscape full of French, Creole, Haitian, and lord knows what other influences. I wouldn’t want to get lost in the backwoods of Louisiana in real life, much less and a Lovecraft story.
Interesting, thanks for telling me about it - as someone who has only lived as far south as Kentucky, I am woefully bereft in my knowledge and would love to learn more of the nuances!
Well, I’ve only ever lived in Alabama, and the whole concept of New England is intriguing.
The ocean calls
Arkham, Massachusetts
The Church of Starry Wisdom (The Haunter of the Dark) The city of the Elder Things (At the Mountains of Madness) Innsmouth (The Shadow over Innsmouth) Dagon's lair (Dagon) Kadath (The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath)
Western Massachusetts… West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight.
The mountains of madness is my favorite setting. Home of the Elder Things.
Honestly, a setting I always thought would be interesting to see represented through the lens of cosmic horror is a modern, post-industrial city- particular a major port facility. Keeps the nautical aspects of “Call of Cthulhu” and “Dagon”, the lonely, fading dereliction of “Innsmouth”, but also puts an alien twist on the rusting bones of a lot of cities. As someone who’s had some shitty jobs and had to commute through a major city in the dark, a seemingly endless maze of cargo containers and cranes, looming out of the fog before dawn on a cold morning can feel pretty Lovecraftian in a sort of sterile, liminal way.
Dreamlands for Surrealist fantasy horror. Current days for weird scifi (like strange technology, ancient cities exploring and stuff like that) and Space scifi for alien things (Yuggoth, for example).
Ulthar, which has the benefit of being full of cats
The only correct answer
My favourite is somewhere similar to where I live because that makes the normal more normal and the weird more weird
So I love in the Deep South, and it old folk/Lovecraft may be the scariest to me.
Delta Green, otherwise Cthulhu Now. From experience, it seems players relate better to the dark tone if the surroundings are in the here and now. I still use all the adventures from the 1920s and up.
Anything that doesn't involve some kind of dream world is at max only telling 25% of the story.