My post on Lovecraft, S&S, & D&D was pretty popular in terms of visits. Every time I go surfing the blogs and web I notice something I left out or see another great idea regarding Lovecraftian themes in Swords & Sorcery gaming.
This post over at Eiglophian (/Eye-glow-fee-an/) Press is quite good, and must have been on my mind although I didn’t cite it in my previous post on the topic, because that is a blog I visit fairly often. Just yesterday I got around to following the link to G. Benedicto’s other blog, Quantique, and it is seriously awesome. Not exactly the direction I’d go but very imaginative and unique, check it out.
Eiglophian Press is well worth following too, with great posts of book reviews, art, and gaming stuff.
Long, long ago (and before I had any real familiarity with HPL) I read Clifford Simak’s Where the evil dwells, which incorporated some of the menace of HPL’s outsiders, although I don’t really recall the specifics, I’ll have to re-read that.
I also just checked out a Clark Ashton Smith anthology (The return of the sorcerer) from the library, partly on the strength of James M.’s untiring promotion of him. Amazing stuff so far. The only sustained fantasy RPG campaign I ever ran was a GURPS Conan campaign (more about that later) and for that I borrowed rather heavily from one of Dunsany’s stories (The fortress unvanquishable save for Sacnoth). If I had known about CAS, I’d have pillaged him too!
Thanks again, Mike! I’d never heard of that novel by Simak –actually, I’ve never read any of his work. Tell me, is it in the Derlethian vein or is it faithful to Lovecraft’s man-as-insect vision?
The Return of the Sorcerer was a middle-of-the-road anthology and may not be the best intro to CAS. (In fact, the title story is rather stanky — definitely not on par with Smith’s best work). I recommend Tales of Zothique and The Book of Hyperborea if you can find ’em.
Honestly I read WTED so long ago I don’t remember much detail, and at the time I certainly had no appreciation for the difference between Derleth and HPL, because I only knew the “mythos” only second hand through DDG. I can’t say I’ve read a lot of Simak’s work but the Enchanted pilgrimage was great until about the last 10% of the book (just good as a fantasy novel, no at all mythos related).
Thanks for the tip regarding CAS. I thought the title story was sort of HPL in tone, and off-putting, but the two Sing flame stories reassured me and then I skipped ahead to Empire of the necromancers which rocks. The vaunts of something or other starts out exactly like a HPL story too ‘writing from what I am told is my deathbed.’ (can’t pin down the HPL story that starts that way but it set off bells). Anyway I’ll watch for the two you suggested. Very good so far.
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