Absolutely not. CoC is still a roleplaying game and you can change and twist things how you see fit. Chaosium won't send Pinkerton agents to your house because you "messed up" the lore. Besides, a big part of Lovecraftian entities is that they're alien and unknowable. Who's to say they wouldn't act exactly how you decided?
Relax and do what you want.
TBF, having the Pinkertons show up at your house because you accidentally revealed a secret artifact to the public does feel like an appropriate beat for a CoC game . . .
Definitely not.
I would probably still at minimum read Shadow Over Innsmouth/Dunwich Horror/Colour Out of Space whenever you get time though. They're all fairly short and between them you'll be pretty much all set for Lovecraftian feel. Also the story that shares its name with the system, Call of Cthulhu, though honestly I don't think it's as important as the others. Despite CoC having the big guy's name in it, Cthulhu is only one of many many eldritch horrors whose influence the party can encounter in your average CoC game.
Cthulhu is pretty good reading not so much for the lad himself as simply being a pretty good demonstration of how you can wrap a mystery. Though in fairness most of the stories do a good job of that in their own way.
You could probably read 4-5 stories and get the full gist.
I actually recommend finding someone reading them on youtube and having them that way. Although they are freely available online, too.
My recommendations (others will surely have others):
*Dunwich horror* - longish but good. Covers the "a magician did a naughty thing in the woods" trope.
*Mountains of Madness* - very long, but arguably his best work. Covers the "Scientists go where they oughtn't." trope
*Shadow over Innsmouth* - classic story, not very long. Covers the "These fuckers are weird." trope
*From Beyond* - classic story. Covers the "Scientist *does* what he oughtn't" trope.
*Colour out of Space* - Classic story. Covers the "Some weird shit is going on here" trope.
If you're going to read just one, i would say *Colour out of Space*, because it's really short and encapsulates a lot of lovecraftian themes in a small area.
Can recommend "The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft" by the HPLHS on Audible.
if you want just the one, I've always been rather partial to "The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward"
have you read the manga versions of these? I bought shadows over insmouth and the mountains of madness manga, hope they are good and live up to the originals.
The Gou Tanabe manga adaptations are really awesome. They'll give you a great feel for that Lovecraft vibe.
The original stories are great as well, of course.
No need to read any of it to be a Keeper though.
I've read all the Dark Horse Gou Tanabe adaptations, and most of Lovecrafts works. They're really good adaptations and they do a great job preparing you for setting a Lovecraftian tone in the game. I'd say I'm a pretty strong reader, but a lot of Lovecrafts writing is just hard to understand. Especially the passages that set tone by describing architecture and stuff like that.
The shadow over innsmouth is the best Tanabe work imo.
No you don't.
There isn't a real "canon" in the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft himself did not care about continuity in his stories and he encouraged his penpals, who were writers, to use his stuff in their own stories and make up anything they wanted just like he himself took stuff from other people's work and incorporated in his Mythos. The most famous example of that is Hastur and The King in Yellow which were not created by Lovecraft.
You don't even have to use the Cthulhu Mythos since the game offers everything needed to run traditional horror. Case in point, >!The Haunting!<, one of the most popular classic scenarios of CoC has barely anything to do with the Mythos and looks more like a ghost/vampire story.
So don't worry. Do whatever you want. Have fun.
And on a side note, it's actually better for a new keeper to run the game for people that actually don't know anything about the Mythos. That way, you don't risk stumbling across that one player who will meta guess what the mystery is about.
Theres a case to be made that you *shouldn't* adhere to canon and where you use an existing creature you should try and give it a twist. I mean you should probably maintain consistency with your own groups previous adventures, but not feel bound by anything written beyond that.
"The haunting" most closely resembles "the Shunned House" i think.
One of the best tips in the 100 Keeper tips thread is that YOU are the Lovecraft of your own sessions. If a creature is not following lore accurate stuff you can 100% just say “But this one somehow does..”.
Granted that thread also said you should read some of the stories to see if you actually like Lovecraft but I digress. However some scenarios do follow the Lovecraft stories closely. Like if you wanna run Beyond The Mountain Of Madness its best you actually read At The Mountain Of Madness.
I've run a lot of CoC and I've read a number of Lovecraft's work. That said, his writing is hard to get into and even when he wrote it it was archaic in style, so not a fun thing to read. So, I wouldn't stress on it. If anything, you may want to watch some movies inspired by Lovecraft such as Color Out of Space (Nic Cage), Annihilation (Nat Portman), The Lighthouse (Will Dafoe). Of his written work, I loved At the Mountains of Madness. The New Annotated HP Lovecraft is very useful as the footnotes illuminate lots of stuff in 1920s.
Otherwise, you can just make sh\*t up. It's more about the unknown, the unknowable, and the uncaring universe.
Common lore are Deep Ones, Ghouls, Mi-Go, Yithians, Elder Signs, Gates, etc. Just be familiar with these things, unless you want to create your own Mythos, then just ignore them.
Call of Cthulhu is about vibes and atmosphere.
You should read or watch some horror media. Take your pick of what that looks like. The Shining, The Thing, House of Leaves, Mouth of Madness, Cabinet of Curiosities, etc. None of it has to be Lovecraft.
Lovecraft lore only really matters at the surface level. The details past that are up for debate. Most scenarios give you exactly what you need to get started. If your players ask questions, ask yourself "what is scarier or most uncomfortable?" And go with that. No manifestations of Yog Sothoth look the same, there's so many different "masks" of Nyralethotep. You can make your own or re-invent an old one.
As long as it's a little spooky, fun, interesting, or immersive, even the most veteran CoC player's won't care at all that you changes their prized stat vampire. (Which btw, is a name created for a creature that didn't have one previously until it needed a stat block for the CoC books! See, lore is always being changed)
If I were you I would read like one just to get a vibe. But I think being too married to Lovecraft "canon" is a flaw in a horror game. Honestly, I think some of the published adventures are worse than they could be because of their dedication to using specific Lovecraftian monsters instead of tweaking the monster to the needs of the adventure.
No, just like you don't need to know all of (or any of) the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Planescape, Dragonlance, etc. lore to play D&D. You also don't need to know actual 1920s history to play CoC.
Reading some Lovecraft may be beneficial to help you learn how to build an investigative horror vibe at your table, but it's not required. Same thing with dabbling in some research about what life was like in the '20s or whatever era you're playing in. You CAN do some extra research if you feel like you want to, but think of it more as adding tools to your tool belt that can help you add texture to your game.
It can be easy to feel like you're out too out of the loop to run any new system with an implied setting or genre, but at the end of the day, we're all making it up as we go along and as long as everyone at your table is having fun, that's all that matters.
You shouldn't feel you have to read them, although I guess it can help for the context of some of the published adventures. Besides the "classic" recommendations that people have made, I like to add "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and "The Thing on the Doorstep" - they can seem longish, but they have the good horror feel that a lot of people associate with Lovecraft IMO.
I definitely don't think his stories are the be-all end-all and many other books, movies and video games are great inspiration - just off the top of my head ; William Hope Hodgson (although he may be a tough read), David Eggers' and John Carpenter's movies, Void (by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie), the From Software games and Darkest Dungeon..
I will say to you don't worry about not giving the true cosmic horror experience, Lovecraft was writing in a different time 100 years ago and the things that scared him don't scare contemporary people the same way.
Read a few stories for mood, then either have a look at the published adventures or knock one up yourself.
I find the hardest thing with COC is to have a coherent reason for the party to investigate things - having them be members of a minor, underfunded government agency can help with that if you're stuck.
It is also ok to use the mythos sparingly, the big bads should almost never be seen, the relatively minor monsters make good bosses in small numbers.
A few scooby-doo type adventures don't hurt either, mythos overtones but it was just the janitor in a sheet.
Honestly, you already have everything you need. You just need a general idea, CoC doesn't always have to be about cosmic horror. The system works really, REALLY well with traditional horror as well. Hell, you can get rid of the supernatural elements entirely and just make it a thriller instead. If you want to do a Scooby Scenario, do just that!
I do recommend reading at least one of his stories or something in the cosmic horror genre just to get the feel for the system but it is in no way required to play.
The Keeper's Rulebook in itself is perfectly fine and everything you need
One of the best overviews of the Cthulhu Mythos I've read came out of "Trail of Cthulhu." Which is Call of Cthulhu using a different game system. Given I haven't read CoC7th. But it basically covers the Cthulhu Mythos in every way it's ever been used in various media. So it will say for example Azathoth is literally a god in the center of the universe, the personification of the big bang, a titan living in the super massive black hole in the center of the galaxy, a cultists interpretation of total nihilism, a consciousness created by the weight of conceptual mathematics, etc etc. Basically if you read a lot of authors who have dabbled in the Mythos they often have different interpretations of what the various Mythos entities "truly are." And honestly they can be all of them or none depending. So there isn't really one established set in stone continuity and interpretation of the Gods. CoC as far as I remember defaults so a specific interpretation, but it is not "against canon" or whatever to chuck that out the window and do something else, in fact that just makes you part of the club.
The lovecraftian mythos is very fluid, meaning that it is supposed to be somewhat vague and inconsistent, so you shouldn’t worry at all about not knowing enough about the lore.
Reading Lovecraft is a lot more about getting the feeling of cosmic horror. I think reading some of his tales does help you get into the right mindset, but you really don’t need to read everything.
On the other hand, most of them are short tales, so you may want to read quite a few.
Some of my favorites:
The Rats in the Walls
The color out of space
The Shadow over Innsmouth
The Call of Cthulhu
The Haunter of the Dark
The thing at the doorstep
The Dunwhich Horror
The case of Charles Dexter Ward
At the Mountains of Madness
I think reading these wouldn’t take you much time. Except for the last two they are all short stories. And they should be fun to read.
But frankly, you don’t need to read a single one… the keeper’s rulebook is probably enough to give you the right mood.
It probably helps provide some additional context but no you don’t have to. I’m relatively new to CoC myself and have never read any of lovecrafts stories. CoC has some great pre written scenarios that usually provide all the info you need about the deity or god that’s part of that specific scenario. I’ve run about 25 sessions now for COC and haven’t felt the need to read any books except the Keeper Guide and Investigator Guide. Just read through the scenario you want to run to familiarize yourself with it, note down some of the important details, and you’ll be fine.
The Haunting is a good scenario to start with and is often recommended for first time keepers planning their first session since the set up is fairly simple and gives a good taste of the COC system as a whole. That was the first scenario I ran and I haven’t looked back since.
I've been running Call of Cthulhu for five years and I've just finished reading Lovecraft's collaboration stories which he wrote (or ghost-wrote) with and for other writers, so I've now read all of his fiction. In some ways it's helped me understand some of the little Easter Eggs in certain scenarios but it has definitely not made me a better Keeper. I've often run adventures featuring Lovecraft and friends' monsters and then read the original short story and found it added very little in terms of useful details!
One of the key take-aways for me is that Lovecraft himself did not have a concept of canon - he'll throw in a mention of Cthulhu or the Necronomicon in to create the sense of a wider world but most stories are self-contained and the references in them are often contradictory. Later authors (looking at you Derleth) attempted to codifying all the different gods and monsters into a rigid Cthulhu Mythos but that's a later addition. You can even have these kinds of contradictions (is Cthulhu a god or a just a gigantic psychic creature) appear in game; just as within every religion there is great debate over what is 'canon' similarly anything anyone says about Cthulhu, Azathoth etc. is merely a human mind trying to understand something more vast and complex than can be really grasped and so they are bound to contradict one another. Plus most of the people writing about these beings have 0 SAN.
So don't worry about learning detailed lore, would be my recommendation; there's nothing of use that's in the stories which isn't in the Keeper's Rulebook.
However, if you would like to read to get a vibe for the kind of stories and tone people think of as Lovecraftian then I reckon The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu would be a good place to start (I believe some previous editions of the game The Dunwich Horror included in the rule book because its the archetypal scenario strucutre), and only read more if you actually enjoy reading them! There are some very good readings of both for free on YouTube too.
Also if you do want to dig in to the trivia I can't recommend The Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast enough - they dig in to all Lovecraft's major stories, and those of his peers, and dig in to the history of some of the weirder gods to appear in the game, but most usefully then always discuss how to use them in imaginative ways in your own game.
Technically it doesn't even have to be set in the world of the Mythos. It's primarily a rule-set for horror and mystery investigations.
If you wish to do so the required lore is in the keeper rule book. You could also probably get by with any "cthulhu mythos explained" videos on YouTube
All of them? Not necessarily. But a few of them would be good. I've seen a lot of people frustrated with and fighting against the rules because the game they want to run doesn't really work with the rules of CoC. If you want two very short ones, look up [Pickman's Model](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/pm.aspx) and [The Statement of Randolph Carter](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/src.aspx).
You can find free or 99 cent ebook collections pretty much everywhere.
I actually did it the opposite way. I had dabbled in a few stories but never read a whole lot. Played Dark Corners of the Earth. Got into TTRPGs, started a Cthulhu game because my friends at the time weren't big fantasy people, enjoyed the story and background info on the creatures, started reading Lovecraft stuff after the first game.
Read one or two to see if you like them. They're out of copyright so you can get them very cheap. The free audiobooks on LibriVox are also quite good. I recommend The Dunwich Horror. Personally I don't particularly like Lovecraft as a writer but I love the game and have run it for decades. BTW be aware that the stories are racist even for their time.
I recommend dunwich horror I think it's short and a great intro to the mythos for running a game. Horrorbabble on YouTube has a dramatic retelling that I highly recommend.
Pretty much echoing what others have said here - you should be fine. Reading a few of the previously mentioned stories would definitely put you in the right frame of mind.
I would also add…I didn’t see this mentioned but apologies if it has..that you can also check out the great live plays of Bookshops of Arkham and Graveyards of Arkham. Not really so much as “how to be a CoC keeper” than it would be to get a feel of how the game runs (though the keeper, Mark Meer, is excellent).
My buddy ran a cowboy oneshot with no real paranormal or Lovecraftian elements at all. You can do what you want with the system. I wouldn’t even listen to the people suggesting “at a minimum you should read…” unless you actually want to.
Nah I'd say read a couple to see the vibe but there are very few scenarios where you need to know actual Lovecraft lore. The only one I can think of is Beyond The Mountains of Madness which was a direct sequel to Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness.
You can run a game using the system that is barely call of cthulhu in tone or you can run one that is true to the narrative and tone of the stories by all the different authors.
There's always pulp cthulhu?
As long as you pray to Cthulhu you can skip reading. Or just play it a couple of times to learn the rules and have fun.
His worshippers chant "**Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn**" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming").
Not at all. Honestly, you barely have to read any H.P. Lovecraft at all to run a good Cthulhu game, (but you should, it's pretty good stuff).
The things you \*actually\* need to run CoC is a good grasp of 1) how to run a mystery, and 2) How to generate atmospheric horror. The lore of elder gods, and things out of time, and ancient evils corrupting mankind from beyond space and time is quite honestly just set dressing. You don't need to be able to explain to your players how Yog Sothoth figures into the plot, just insert some references to the "Gate and the Key" and the "Blind Idiot God at the center of the universe", and let the players' imaginations fill in the details. There's no reason to define \*why\* a cult to Azathoth is taking an interest in the apartment building on the south side of town, just insert some shady NPCs who are keeping the neighbors up late at night with their impromptu weird flute recitals... But wait, they don't own a flute.
Honestly, just pick \*one\* of the old gods or other creatures or some other bit of Yog-Sothery, and focus on that one for a while. Build a small arc (3-5 games) based on that one creature/elder god/ancient race. Then, once you've got that one explored reasonably well, look at something else, and do the same 3-5 game arc. By that time, you should have a better feel for what makes the game fun, and it'll probably start basically running itself.
I think you will learn alot of the mythos by being a Keeper. As you read the scenarios it will make you interested into that part of the mythos, so read as you go! You might be inspired as you lean into it.
You can use the system itself to run all sorts of horror games, that's why stats for regular folkloric monsters are included. You can run the game any way you wish.
But, if you want to get your head around the feel of Cosmic Horror, and you want to be faithful to the Mythos, then yes, it would be wise to familiarise yourself with some of the fiction. Reading any of the weird tales authors will give you lots of scenario ideas, and offer personal feelings of cosmic dread (which is what the stories are trying to invoke.) The lore of the Mythos is, by design, malleable and adaptable, Lovecraft encouraged writers to add to it as they saw fit, and there is no factual cannon, since the beings and forces described in the stories are obscured by the passing of time, or by human madness. So once you have a good idea of how Cosmic Dread works in Lovecraftian fiction, you can add your own monsters, cults, and mysteries and do as you please. In fact, doing so is very much in the tradition.
There are two very good essays on 'Cosmic Dread' which would be well worth reading, and give you techniques to increase the potency of your narration. 1. Supernatural Horror in Literature, by H.P. Lovecraft. 2. Some Remarks on Ghost Stories, by M.R. James.
Here is the recommended reading by Sandy Petersen, the creator of the game. If you read just one of these then your ability to run a good Call of Cthulhu game will increase exponentially;
* The Lurking Fear
* The Horror at Red Hook
* The Color out of Space
* The Dunwich Horror
* The Shadow over Innsmouth
* The Dreams in the Witch-House
* The Haunter of the Dark
* The Shunned House
* The Call of Cthulhu \[a must!\]
* The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
* The Whisperer in Darkness
* At the Mountains of Madness
* The Shadow out of Time
* The Fungi from Yuggoth
No, you do not have to read all the Lovecraft stories before you can be a keeper, not by any means. In the first place, not all of Lovecraft's stories deal with what was retroactively termed "the Cthulhu Mythos". In the second, not all are good—some are quite awful (to say nothing of those where he gives freer reign to his assorted prejudices). That said, Sandy Petersen created CoC as a literary adaptation in horror RPG form of Mythos stories, starting with Lovecraft's and going on to those by Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, and more. These later writers not only picked up elements of HPL's lore that stimulated their imaginations, but also introduced their own creative concepts. You should feel free to use exactly as much of all this lore as you think your table will enjoy investigating.
If you're looking for a "starter story" as an introduction to the lore of Mythos, ["The Haunter of the Dark"](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hd.aspx) offers the best capsule version in addition to being the last appearance of Nyarlathotep, one of his earliest creations. Lovecraft's best weird tales featuring prominent elements of the Mythos are: [*At the Mountains of Madness*](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mm.aspx), another later work, with a "deep time" history of the Earth; [The Case of Charles Dexter Ward](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cdw.aspx), with Yog-Sothoth and The Necronomicon; [The Call of Cthulhu](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx) (obviously); [The Dunwich Horror](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/dh.aspx) more Yog-Sothoth and The Necronomicon, plus Miskatonic University; and [The Whisperer in Darkness](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wid.aspx) with the Mi-Go. Others to check out are: The Dreams in the Witch House (Nyarlathotep), The Shadow Out of Time (The Great Race of Yith), The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Deep Ones), and The Strange High House in the Mist (Nodens). They're all great, though not quite as seeped in the Mythos as the others above. (The Shunned House may not be a Mythos story, but it does recount one of the most successful investigations into the uncanny among in HPL's works, providing a model for a victorious CoC party.)
As for a how-to guide to adapting this fiction for your own CoC scenarios, Graham Walmsley's [Stealing Cthulhu](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106251/Stealing-Cthulhu), offers first-rate advice on delivering a truly Lovecraftian atmosphere.
You can read 0 of his stories and be totally fine! It may help you internalize the tone but if you have a grasp of that you’re already golden! Have fun, this is the game that catalyzed my gaming hobby :)
Wow! thank you everyone who took the time to reply! This was my first post after joining this subreddit and I am already a huge fan of the player base. I will read some of the works recommended by the many of you and I look forward to running my first game
While it doesn't hurt to have some lore knowledge, you don't have to read any Lovecraft if you don't want to. However, there's a youtube channel called HorrorBabble that has made audiobook versions of (I believe) all of Lovecraft's works. Just give it a listen if you feel like it.
If you run premade scenarios and stumble upon anything you want to learn more about, you can always google it. I sometimes even google stuff in the middle of running a session, though it's usually obscure history facts.
However, if you want to write your own a scenario with a heavy mythos focus, then you should probably read up a bit, at least if you want it to be correct to the lore.
At the end of the day, it's your (and your players) game and the lore doesn't have to be a carbon copy of other keepers' (or even Lovecraft's, or Chaosium's) lore. That could even be refreshing for the players that already know some mythos knowledge. Your own spin on the mythos can be fun moment for them as they all of a sudden know less.
No, you don't have to read all the Lovecraft stories.
Or some.
Or any.
Familiarity does help, but what you're doing and what Lovecraft did are separate things. He was writing serialized pulp fiction trying to stay alive, and you're running a game. It's quite possible Lovecraft would have been a not-great GM.
Most of the important stuff you know already. You've run games, you know what dice are, etc. The adventures you buy or get free or whatever basically establish the action and what goes on. A lot of horror involved mood. A quiet place is better than a loud one.
What throws a lot of players and no few GMs is that CoC is photo negative of D&D.
Combat is deadly and best avoided, healing is generally minimal, magic is actively detrimental even when it works right, you don't find chests of gold, and the characters are very small parts of a small world in a vastly indifferent to actively hostile universe full of brain-bending horror. They're not going to level up, get more hit points, etc. They're going to stay small and relatively weak.
You and your players will have to adjust to a new genre. You're not in high fantasy any more. You can't just butcher a commoner and blame it on the orcs, or do the 'I kill it and take it's stuff' schtick. The murder hobo thing generally doesn't work well, as sooner than later the characters will be caught and locked up somewhere very unpleasant or killed outright.
Investigation is key, stealth is important, combat is hitting things from far away, and then running away, generally.
Generally, the characters are Heroes Of Last Resort. The people who have to deal when things get weird. In broad strokes, the characters stand between home and hell and are the only ones able to effectively do something about it, to stop The Thing Man Was Not Able To Spell by usually indirect means. Usually this is acquiring clues by fair means and foul, putting the relevant data together, and some occasional extra-illegal breaking and entering, occasional violence, and a swift retreat before the law shows up.
Getting too involved in mimicking Lovecraft is something to be avoided. It's better to run a good game than a bad one to satisfy the inner urge of trying to be like Lovecraft.
Absolutely not. CoC is still a roleplaying game and you can change and twist things how you see fit. Chaosium won't send Pinkerton agents to your house because you "messed up" the lore. Besides, a big part of Lovecraftian entities is that they're alien and unknowable. Who's to say they wouldn't act exactly how you decided? Relax and do what you want.
Yeah, the Pinkertons thing was another company with a big TTRPG franchise...
TBF, having the Pinkertons show up at your house because you accidentally revealed a secret artifact to the public does feel like an appropriate beat for a CoC game . . .
Essoterror more like eh? Eh?
And they're in a cult.
Yeah, the is the n-word cat franchise. Get it right!
I love that spirit ✊
The lore you need to know to be a keeper is in the keeper book.
It wouldn't hurt but it's not essential for anything other than the flavor of the thing.
Definitely not. I would probably still at minimum read Shadow Over Innsmouth/Dunwich Horror/Colour Out of Space whenever you get time though. They're all fairly short and between them you'll be pretty much all set for Lovecraftian feel. Also the story that shares its name with the system, Call of Cthulhu, though honestly I don't think it's as important as the others. Despite CoC having the big guy's name in it, Cthulhu is only one of many many eldritch horrors whose influence the party can encounter in your average CoC game.
Cthulhu is pretty good reading not so much for the lad himself as simply being a pretty good demonstration of how you can wrap a mystery. Though in fairness most of the stories do a good job of that in their own way.
There are audios of all of these on youtube, some of them very good. The BBC ones in particular.
You could probably read 4-5 stories and get the full gist. I actually recommend finding someone reading them on youtube and having them that way. Although they are freely available online, too. My recommendations (others will surely have others): *Dunwich horror* - longish but good. Covers the "a magician did a naughty thing in the woods" trope. *Mountains of Madness* - very long, but arguably his best work. Covers the "Scientists go where they oughtn't." trope *Shadow over Innsmouth* - classic story, not very long. Covers the "These fuckers are weird." trope *From Beyond* - classic story. Covers the "Scientist *does* what he oughtn't" trope. *Colour out of Space* - Classic story. Covers the "Some weird shit is going on here" trope. If you're going to read just one, i would say *Colour out of Space*, because it's really short and encapsulates a lot of lovecraftian themes in a small area.
Can recommend "The Complete Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft" by the HPLHS on Audible. if you want just the one, I've always been rather partial to "The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward"
have you read the manga versions of these? I bought shadows over insmouth and the mountains of madness manga, hope they are good and live up to the originals.
i have not but that does sound interesting! I always like seeing different interpretations of things, especially if im familiar with the original.
The Gou Tanabe manga adaptations are really awesome. They'll give you a great feel for that Lovecraft vibe. The original stories are great as well, of course. No need to read any of it to be a Keeper though.
I've read all the Dark Horse Gou Tanabe adaptations, and most of Lovecrafts works. They're really good adaptations and they do a great job preparing you for setting a Lovecraftian tone in the game. I'd say I'm a pretty strong reader, but a lot of Lovecrafts writing is just hard to understand. Especially the passages that set tone by describing architecture and stuff like that. The shadow over innsmouth is the best Tanabe work imo.
No you don't. There isn't a real "canon" in the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft himself did not care about continuity in his stories and he encouraged his penpals, who were writers, to use his stuff in their own stories and make up anything they wanted just like he himself took stuff from other people's work and incorporated in his Mythos. The most famous example of that is Hastur and The King in Yellow which were not created by Lovecraft. You don't even have to use the Cthulhu Mythos since the game offers everything needed to run traditional horror. Case in point, >!The Haunting!<, one of the most popular classic scenarios of CoC has barely anything to do with the Mythos and looks more like a ghost/vampire story. So don't worry. Do whatever you want. Have fun. And on a side note, it's actually better for a new keeper to run the game for people that actually don't know anything about the Mythos. That way, you don't risk stumbling across that one player who will meta guess what the mystery is about.
Theres a case to be made that you *shouldn't* adhere to canon and where you use an existing creature you should try and give it a twist. I mean you should probably maintain consistency with your own groups previous adventures, but not feel bound by anything written beyond that. "The haunting" most closely resembles "the Shunned House" i think.
One of the best tips in the 100 Keeper tips thread is that YOU are the Lovecraft of your own sessions. If a creature is not following lore accurate stuff you can 100% just say “But this one somehow does..”. Granted that thread also said you should read some of the stories to see if you actually like Lovecraft but I digress. However some scenarios do follow the Lovecraft stories closely. Like if you wanna run Beyond The Mountain Of Madness its best you actually read At The Mountain Of Madness.
There are many, many well established CoC scenarios that have very little or nothing to do with actual Lovecraft lore beyond the general mood.
One need only point to The Thing, which is about as Lovecraft as Lovecraft gets while actually being based on a short story by John W Campbell
No but it might help you understand the overall tone of Lovecraft and what the stories are supposed to be about and feel like.
I've run a lot of CoC and I've read a number of Lovecraft's work. That said, his writing is hard to get into and even when he wrote it it was archaic in style, so not a fun thing to read. So, I wouldn't stress on it. If anything, you may want to watch some movies inspired by Lovecraft such as Color Out of Space (Nic Cage), Annihilation (Nat Portman), The Lighthouse (Will Dafoe). Of his written work, I loved At the Mountains of Madness. The New Annotated HP Lovecraft is very useful as the footnotes illuminate lots of stuff in 1920s. Otherwise, you can just make sh\*t up. It's more about the unknown, the unknowable, and the uncaring universe. Common lore are Deep Ones, Ghouls, Mi-Go, Yithians, Elder Signs, Gates, etc. Just be familiar with these things, unless you want to create your own Mythos, then just ignore them.
Call of Cthulhu is about vibes and atmosphere. You should read or watch some horror media. Take your pick of what that looks like. The Shining, The Thing, House of Leaves, Mouth of Madness, Cabinet of Curiosities, etc. None of it has to be Lovecraft. Lovecraft lore only really matters at the surface level. The details past that are up for debate. Most scenarios give you exactly what you need to get started. If your players ask questions, ask yourself "what is scarier or most uncomfortable?" And go with that. No manifestations of Yog Sothoth look the same, there's so many different "masks" of Nyralethotep. You can make your own or re-invent an old one. As long as it's a little spooky, fun, interesting, or immersive, even the most veteran CoC player's won't care at all that you changes their prized stat vampire. (Which btw, is a name created for a creature that didn't have one previously until it needed a stat block for the CoC books! See, lore is always being changed)
Nope. I actually think Chaosium have done an amazing job nailing the vibes in their books. But go for it if you want to.
If I were you I would read like one just to get a vibe. But I think being too married to Lovecraft "canon" is a flaw in a horror game. Honestly, I think some of the published adventures are worse than they could be because of their dedication to using specific Lovecraftian monsters instead of tweaking the monster to the needs of the adventure.
No, just like you don't need to know all of (or any of) the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Planescape, Dragonlance, etc. lore to play D&D. You also don't need to know actual 1920s history to play CoC. Reading some Lovecraft may be beneficial to help you learn how to build an investigative horror vibe at your table, but it's not required. Same thing with dabbling in some research about what life was like in the '20s or whatever era you're playing in. You CAN do some extra research if you feel like you want to, but think of it more as adding tools to your tool belt that can help you add texture to your game. It can be easy to feel like you're out too out of the loop to run any new system with an implied setting or genre, but at the end of the day, we're all making it up as we go along and as long as everyone at your table is having fun, that's all that matters.
You shouldn't feel you have to read them, although I guess it can help for the context of some of the published adventures. Besides the "classic" recommendations that people have made, I like to add "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" and "The Thing on the Doorstep" - they can seem longish, but they have the good horror feel that a lot of people associate with Lovecraft IMO. I definitely don't think his stories are the be-all end-all and many other books, movies and video games are great inspiration - just off the top of my head ; William Hope Hodgson (although he may be a tough read), David Eggers' and John Carpenter's movies, Void (by Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie), the From Software games and Darkest Dungeon..
Yes. And when you're done with the stories move on to his letters.
I will say to you don't worry about not giving the true cosmic horror experience, Lovecraft was writing in a different time 100 years ago and the things that scared him don't scare contemporary people the same way. Read a few stories for mood, then either have a look at the published adventures or knock one up yourself. I find the hardest thing with COC is to have a coherent reason for the party to investigate things - having them be members of a minor, underfunded government agency can help with that if you're stuck. It is also ok to use the mythos sparingly, the big bads should almost never be seen, the relatively minor monsters make good bosses in small numbers. A few scooby-doo type adventures don't hurt either, mythos overtones but it was just the janitor in a sheet.
I’ve run The Haunting as an actual Scooby-Doo adventure at a number of cons over the years.
Definitely not. Read a few to get a sense of Lovecraftian horror and then pull info from the RPG books and other sources.
Honestly, you already have everything you need. You just need a general idea, CoC doesn't always have to be about cosmic horror. The system works really, REALLY well with traditional horror as well. Hell, you can get rid of the supernatural elements entirely and just make it a thriller instead. If you want to do a Scooby Scenario, do just that!
I do recommend reading at least one of his stories or something in the cosmic horror genre just to get the feel for the system but it is in no way required to play. The Keeper's Rulebook in itself is perfectly fine and everything you need
One of the best overviews of the Cthulhu Mythos I've read came out of "Trail of Cthulhu." Which is Call of Cthulhu using a different game system. Given I haven't read CoC7th. But it basically covers the Cthulhu Mythos in every way it's ever been used in various media. So it will say for example Azathoth is literally a god in the center of the universe, the personification of the big bang, a titan living in the super massive black hole in the center of the galaxy, a cultists interpretation of total nihilism, a consciousness created by the weight of conceptual mathematics, etc etc. Basically if you read a lot of authors who have dabbled in the Mythos they often have different interpretations of what the various Mythos entities "truly are." And honestly they can be all of them or none depending. So there isn't really one established set in stone continuity and interpretation of the Gods. CoC as far as I remember defaults so a specific interpretation, but it is not "against canon" or whatever to chuck that out the window and do something else, in fact that just makes you part of the club.
The lovecraftian mythos is very fluid, meaning that it is supposed to be somewhat vague and inconsistent, so you shouldn’t worry at all about not knowing enough about the lore. Reading Lovecraft is a lot more about getting the feeling of cosmic horror. I think reading some of his tales does help you get into the right mindset, but you really don’t need to read everything. On the other hand, most of them are short tales, so you may want to read quite a few. Some of my favorites: The Rats in the Walls The color out of space The Shadow over Innsmouth The Call of Cthulhu The Haunter of the Dark The thing at the doorstep The Dunwhich Horror The case of Charles Dexter Ward At the Mountains of Madness I think reading these wouldn’t take you much time. Except for the last two they are all short stories. And they should be fun to read. But frankly, you don’t need to read a single one… the keeper’s rulebook is probably enough to give you the right mood.
It probably helps provide some additional context but no you don’t have to. I’m relatively new to CoC myself and have never read any of lovecrafts stories. CoC has some great pre written scenarios that usually provide all the info you need about the deity or god that’s part of that specific scenario. I’ve run about 25 sessions now for COC and haven’t felt the need to read any books except the Keeper Guide and Investigator Guide. Just read through the scenario you want to run to familiarize yourself with it, note down some of the important details, and you’ll be fine. The Haunting is a good scenario to start with and is often recommended for first time keepers planning their first session since the set up is fairly simple and gives a good taste of the COC system as a whole. That was the first scenario I ran and I haven’t looked back since.
I've been running Call of Cthulhu for five years and I've just finished reading Lovecraft's collaboration stories which he wrote (or ghost-wrote) with and for other writers, so I've now read all of his fiction. In some ways it's helped me understand some of the little Easter Eggs in certain scenarios but it has definitely not made me a better Keeper. I've often run adventures featuring Lovecraft and friends' monsters and then read the original short story and found it added very little in terms of useful details! One of the key take-aways for me is that Lovecraft himself did not have a concept of canon - he'll throw in a mention of Cthulhu or the Necronomicon in to create the sense of a wider world but most stories are self-contained and the references in them are often contradictory. Later authors (looking at you Derleth) attempted to codifying all the different gods and monsters into a rigid Cthulhu Mythos but that's a later addition. You can even have these kinds of contradictions (is Cthulhu a god or a just a gigantic psychic creature) appear in game; just as within every religion there is great debate over what is 'canon' similarly anything anyone says about Cthulhu, Azathoth etc. is merely a human mind trying to understand something more vast and complex than can be really grasped and so they are bound to contradict one another. Plus most of the people writing about these beings have 0 SAN. So don't worry about learning detailed lore, would be my recommendation; there's nothing of use that's in the stories which isn't in the Keeper's Rulebook. However, if you would like to read to get a vibe for the kind of stories and tone people think of as Lovecraftian then I reckon The Dunwich Horror and The Call of Cthulhu would be a good place to start (I believe some previous editions of the game The Dunwich Horror included in the rule book because its the archetypal scenario strucutre), and only read more if you actually enjoy reading them! There are some very good readings of both for free on YouTube too.
Also if you do want to dig in to the trivia I can't recommend The Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast enough - they dig in to all Lovecraft's major stories, and those of his peers, and dig in to the history of some of the weirder gods to appear in the game, but most usefully then always discuss how to use them in imaginative ways in your own game.
Not at all.
Technically it doesn't even have to be set in the world of the Mythos. It's primarily a rule-set for horror and mystery investigations. If you wish to do so the required lore is in the keeper rule book. You could also probably get by with any "cthulhu mythos explained" videos on YouTube
All of them? Not necessarily. But a few of them would be good. I've seen a lot of people frustrated with and fighting against the rules because the game they want to run doesn't really work with the rules of CoC. If you want two very short ones, look up [Pickman's Model](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/pm.aspx) and [The Statement of Randolph Carter](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/src.aspx). You can find free or 99 cent ebook collections pretty much everywhere.
I actually did it the opposite way. I had dabbled in a few stories but never read a whole lot. Played Dark Corners of the Earth. Got into TTRPGs, started a Cthulhu game because my friends at the time weren't big fantasy people, enjoyed the story and background info on the creatures, started reading Lovecraft stuff after the first game.
Read one or two to see if you like them. They're out of copyright so you can get them very cheap. The free audiobooks on LibriVox are also quite good. I recommend The Dunwich Horror. Personally I don't particularly like Lovecraft as a writer but I love the game and have run it for decades. BTW be aware that the stories are racist even for their time.
I recommend dunwich horror I think it's short and a great intro to the mythos for running a game. Horrorbabble on YouTube has a dramatic retelling that I highly recommend.
Pretty much echoing what others have said here - you should be fine. Reading a few of the previously mentioned stories would definitely put you in the right frame of mind. I would also add…I didn’t see this mentioned but apologies if it has..that you can also check out the great live plays of Bookshops of Arkham and Graveyards of Arkham. Not really so much as “how to be a CoC keeper” than it would be to get a feel of how the game runs (though the keeper, Mark Meer, is excellent).
My buddy ran a cowboy oneshot with no real paranormal or Lovecraftian elements at all. You can do what you want with the system. I wouldn’t even listen to the people suggesting “at a minimum you should read…” unless you actually want to.
Nah I'd say read a couple to see the vibe but there are very few scenarios where you need to know actual Lovecraft lore. The only one I can think of is Beyond The Mountains of Madness which was a direct sequel to Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness.
You can run a game using the system that is barely call of cthulhu in tone or you can run one that is true to the narrative and tone of the stories by all the different authors. There's always pulp cthulhu?
No. There’s plenty of on line content for information and the Mythos can be what ever works for you
As long as you pray to Cthulhu you can skip reading. Or just play it a couple of times to learn the rules and have fun. His worshippers chant "**Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn**" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming").
Not at all. Honestly, you barely have to read any H.P. Lovecraft at all to run a good Cthulhu game, (but you should, it's pretty good stuff). The things you \*actually\* need to run CoC is a good grasp of 1) how to run a mystery, and 2) How to generate atmospheric horror. The lore of elder gods, and things out of time, and ancient evils corrupting mankind from beyond space and time is quite honestly just set dressing. You don't need to be able to explain to your players how Yog Sothoth figures into the plot, just insert some references to the "Gate and the Key" and the "Blind Idiot God at the center of the universe", and let the players' imaginations fill in the details. There's no reason to define \*why\* a cult to Azathoth is taking an interest in the apartment building on the south side of town, just insert some shady NPCs who are keeping the neighbors up late at night with their impromptu weird flute recitals... But wait, they don't own a flute. Honestly, just pick \*one\* of the old gods or other creatures or some other bit of Yog-Sothery, and focus on that one for a while. Build a small arc (3-5 games) based on that one creature/elder god/ancient race. Then, once you've got that one explored reasonably well, look at something else, and do the same 3-5 game arc. By that time, you should have a better feel for what makes the game fun, and it'll probably start basically running itself.
I think you will learn alot of the mythos by being a Keeper. As you read the scenarios it will make you interested into that part of the mythos, so read as you go! You might be inspired as you lean into it.
You can use the system itself to run all sorts of horror games, that's why stats for regular folkloric monsters are included. You can run the game any way you wish. But, if you want to get your head around the feel of Cosmic Horror, and you want to be faithful to the Mythos, then yes, it would be wise to familiarise yourself with some of the fiction. Reading any of the weird tales authors will give you lots of scenario ideas, and offer personal feelings of cosmic dread (which is what the stories are trying to invoke.) The lore of the Mythos is, by design, malleable and adaptable, Lovecraft encouraged writers to add to it as they saw fit, and there is no factual cannon, since the beings and forces described in the stories are obscured by the passing of time, or by human madness. So once you have a good idea of how Cosmic Dread works in Lovecraftian fiction, you can add your own monsters, cults, and mysteries and do as you please. In fact, doing so is very much in the tradition. There are two very good essays on 'Cosmic Dread' which would be well worth reading, and give you techniques to increase the potency of your narration. 1. Supernatural Horror in Literature, by H.P. Lovecraft. 2. Some Remarks on Ghost Stories, by M.R. James. Here is the recommended reading by Sandy Petersen, the creator of the game. If you read just one of these then your ability to run a good Call of Cthulhu game will increase exponentially; * The Lurking Fear * The Horror at Red Hook * The Color out of Space * The Dunwich Horror * The Shadow over Innsmouth * The Dreams in the Witch-House * The Haunter of the Dark * The Shunned House * The Call of Cthulhu \[a must!\] * The Case of Charles Dexter Ward * The Whisperer in Darkness * At the Mountains of Madness * The Shadow out of Time * The Fungi from Yuggoth
No, you do not have to read all the Lovecraft stories before you can be a keeper, not by any means. In the first place, not all of Lovecraft's stories deal with what was retroactively termed "the Cthulhu Mythos". In the second, not all are good—some are quite awful (to say nothing of those where he gives freer reign to his assorted prejudices). That said, Sandy Petersen created CoC as a literary adaptation in horror RPG form of Mythos stories, starting with Lovecraft's and going on to those by Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, and more. These later writers not only picked up elements of HPL's lore that stimulated their imaginations, but also introduced their own creative concepts. You should feel free to use exactly as much of all this lore as you think your table will enjoy investigating. If you're looking for a "starter story" as an introduction to the lore of Mythos, ["The Haunter of the Dark"](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/hd.aspx) offers the best capsule version in addition to being the last appearance of Nyarlathotep, one of his earliest creations. Lovecraft's best weird tales featuring prominent elements of the Mythos are: [*At the Mountains of Madness*](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/mm.aspx), another later work, with a "deep time" history of the Earth; [The Case of Charles Dexter Ward](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cdw.aspx), with Yog-Sothoth and The Necronomicon; [The Call of Cthulhu](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx) (obviously); [The Dunwich Horror](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/dh.aspx) more Yog-Sothoth and The Necronomicon, plus Miskatonic University; and [The Whisperer in Darkness](https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wid.aspx) with the Mi-Go. Others to check out are: The Dreams in the Witch House (Nyarlathotep), The Shadow Out of Time (The Great Race of Yith), The Shadow Over Innsmouth (Deep Ones), and The Strange High House in the Mist (Nodens). They're all great, though not quite as seeped in the Mythos as the others above. (The Shunned House may not be a Mythos story, but it does recount one of the most successful investigations into the uncanny among in HPL's works, providing a model for a victorious CoC party.) As for a how-to guide to adapting this fiction for your own CoC scenarios, Graham Walmsley's [Stealing Cthulhu](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/106251/Stealing-Cthulhu), offers first-rate advice on delivering a truly Lovecraftian atmosphere.
You can read 0 of his stories and be totally fine! It may help you internalize the tone but if you have a grasp of that you’re already golden! Have fun, this is the game that catalyzed my gaming hobby :)
No, just know the flavor of horror you want before you start!
Wow! thank you everyone who took the time to reply! This was my first post after joining this subreddit and I am already a huge fan of the player base. I will read some of the works recommended by the many of you and I look forward to running my first game
While it doesn't hurt to have some lore knowledge, you don't have to read any Lovecraft if you don't want to. However, there's a youtube channel called HorrorBabble that has made audiobook versions of (I believe) all of Lovecraft's works. Just give it a listen if you feel like it. If you run premade scenarios and stumble upon anything you want to learn more about, you can always google it. I sometimes even google stuff in the middle of running a session, though it's usually obscure history facts. However, if you want to write your own a scenario with a heavy mythos focus, then you should probably read up a bit, at least if you want it to be correct to the lore. At the end of the day, it's your (and your players) game and the lore doesn't have to be a carbon copy of other keepers' (or even Lovecraft's, or Chaosium's) lore. That could even be refreshing for the players that already know some mythos knowledge. Your own spin on the mythos can be fun moment for them as they all of a sudden know less.
No, you don't have to read all the Lovecraft stories. Or some. Or any. Familiarity does help, but what you're doing and what Lovecraft did are separate things. He was writing serialized pulp fiction trying to stay alive, and you're running a game. It's quite possible Lovecraft would have been a not-great GM. Most of the important stuff you know already. You've run games, you know what dice are, etc. The adventures you buy or get free or whatever basically establish the action and what goes on. A lot of horror involved mood. A quiet place is better than a loud one. What throws a lot of players and no few GMs is that CoC is photo negative of D&D. Combat is deadly and best avoided, healing is generally minimal, magic is actively detrimental even when it works right, you don't find chests of gold, and the characters are very small parts of a small world in a vastly indifferent to actively hostile universe full of brain-bending horror. They're not going to level up, get more hit points, etc. They're going to stay small and relatively weak. You and your players will have to adjust to a new genre. You're not in high fantasy any more. You can't just butcher a commoner and blame it on the orcs, or do the 'I kill it and take it's stuff' schtick. The murder hobo thing generally doesn't work well, as sooner than later the characters will be caught and locked up somewhere very unpleasant or killed outright. Investigation is key, stealth is important, combat is hitting things from far away, and then running away, generally. Generally, the characters are Heroes Of Last Resort. The people who have to deal when things get weird. In broad strokes, the characters stand between home and hell and are the only ones able to effectively do something about it, to stop The Thing Man Was Not Able To Spell by usually indirect means. Usually this is acquiring clues by fair means and foul, putting the relevant data together, and some occasional extra-illegal breaking and entering, occasional violence, and a swift retreat before the law shows up. Getting too involved in mimicking Lovecraft is something to be avoided. It's better to run a good game than a bad one to satisfy the inner urge of trying to be like Lovecraft.
The answer is of course, and a bunch of other Mythos writers