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Decline So much potential for Lovecraftian Games, yet so little effort

Western

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I don't know why combat doesn't fit Lovecraftian fiction. Just because Lovecraft wasn't really good at writing action scenes — well, he wasn't really good at writing fiction in general and action in particular — doesn't mean it's out of place. Lovecraft did pulp fiction after all. Many board games with a Lovecraft theme feature combat and still retain the dark and oppressive atmosphere, although in this case combat is only one option available and depending on the enemy might best be avoided in some circumstances.

Shadow Over Innsmouth gets actiony once the denizens try and get a hold of the protagonist.

However I'd definitely like to add in the vast majority of Lovecrafts fiction, the protagonist is lucky to escape with their lives (and usually not their sanity), or is touched by the old ones (or other monstrosities) in some horrible way, like the protagonist in Innsmouth.
 
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Western

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In terms of a stylistic comparison between Howard and Lovecraft, Howard's Worms of the Earth is mandatory reading. Howard's "let's get shit done" approach to storytelling lends itself to gaming, whereas Lovecraft's slow (turgid in the case of At the Mountains of Madness) build up to an eventual payoff is more suited to passive media. The 1973 film The Wicker Man is very Lovecraftian in the sense that 99% of the move is atmospheric build up. It's a classic movie, but it'd make a shitty game.

I think the Lovecraftian style can be adapted to adventure games (e.g, Scratches).
 
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As for games that capture the Lovecraftian mood, I think Thief: The Dark Project does to some degree, especially the supernatural levels, without really trying (AFAIK) to be Lovecraftian, with a very vulnerable protagonist sneaking around in dark places.

thief086.png


Thief has that feeling, and some supernatural missions in thief reminds me a lot of the original alone in the dark, a game which aknowledges HP lovecraft. Alone in the dark is set in a mansion with an undegroud system of caves, filled with monsters, ghosts, zombies, mostly like thief.

But thief has another element that reminds me of REH's conan works a lot: Conan was a thief in a time of his life, and I remember in some conan comics things being very similar to thief: strange towers with a special relic, robbing loot from estates, taverns filled with scum, and shadizar had "the city" vibe. One of the elements of thief being similar to conan is the FMs being used to focus on many aspects/time lines of garrett, similar to various conan stories in comics and books made by a bunch of different authors.
 

WhiteGuts

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It's because the addition of visuals makes clear the weakness of Lovecraft's writing.

Lovecraft presents that shit as mind-destroying because he was a doctrinaire modernist and couldn't handle the idea that humanity might not be on an 'onwards and upwards old chap' singular path to enlightenment.

I think that's quite the opposite. Lovecraft was anti-modernist, and had a very pessimistic outlook on life. That's precisely what made his work obscure back then, because he wasn't in line with the general mood of his time. People were more optimistic, and somewhat happy. Same thing happened with Philip K. Dick.

And also, post-Lovecraftians have been focusing too much on the other-wordly creatures rather than the author's message. Cthulhu, Dagon et al. were just a device that allowed him to convey his ideas and nothing more. Basically, humanity thought it was the shit, but it's actually pretty small on the scale of the universe...etc.
 

chestburster

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And also, post-Lovecraftians have been focusing too much on the other-wordly creatures rather than the author's message. Cthulhu, Dagon et al. were just a device that allowed him to convey his ideas and nothing more. Basically, humanity thought it was the shit, but it's actually pretty small on the scale of the universe...etc.

This is why I consider Watchmen (the comic, not the abomination movie) to be very faithfully Lovecraftian.
 

Lyric Suite

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Lovecraft was a surrealist and an atheist. Because of the first he was able to convey the experience of dreams (or nightmares), which contrary to what many people believe is the true essence of late Romanticism (hence, the predominance of the Gothic in his imagery). From his atheism, he derived his sense of cosmic horror (for those who understand what atheism implies). Neither of those elements appear to be well understood here. Personally, i think a good graphic adventure might have been able to translate those elements in some sort of playable form, but nobody ever made a good one and i think that boat has sailed for good at this point.
 

WhiteGuts

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Yeah. When people think of Lovecraft, the first image that comes to their mind is some big monster with tentacles wrecking shit. It's sad.
 

Chef_Hathaway

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His horror stories have not aged very well, since we're all too jaded to become scared of them nowadays, but his earlier Dunsanian "Dream Cycle" stories hold up better IMO.

Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is my favorite HPL story, it's just so full of these fantastic places and creatures, some of which we see, some of which only get mentioned briefly, but I'd love to visit all of them.

A game set in the the Dream World would be amazing, but it would probably never be pulled off right.
 
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ZodoZ

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Actually, maybe you should learn how a fucking comma works before you call me on my choice of invective.

Second edit:
{Are you}Your calling me out on comma placement? Ok

Edit:
Can we call Peace?
I don't wanna dirty up an otherwise cool thread with petty arguments over whatever.

There, happy now? I know spelling and grammar is more important than underlying meaning to you. dood.
 
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chestburster

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Yeah, learn to spell.

YOR


Very Lovecraftian (whatever people mean by this word when they throw it around) I say.

You got your half-naked barbarian, aliens, dinosaurs, space-time paradox, and other shit that makes zero sense.

Robert Howard would approve this.
 

Cadmus

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I don't know why combat doesn't fit Lovecraftian fiction. Just because Lovecraft wasn't really good at writing action scenes — well, he wasn't really good at writing fiction in general and action in particular — doesn't mean it's out of place. Lovecraft did pulp fiction after all. Many board games with a Lovecraft theme feature combat and still retain the dark and oppressive atmosphere, although in this case combat is only one option available and depending on the enemy might best be avoided in some circumstances.

Shadow Over Innsmouth gets actiony once the denizens try and get a hold of the protagonist.

However I'd definitely like to add in the vast majority of Lovecrafts fiction, and the protagonist is lucky to escape with their lives (and usually not their sanity). Or be touched by the old ones (or other monstrosities) in some horrible way, like Innsmouth.

Damn that scene in the game was great, I miss how they don't make such chase scenes without a retarded QTE prompt or at least keys flashing on the screen and telling you what to you can press to live.
Yeah, learn to spell.

Yor.png

One of the bests spoony's reviews now also done by RLM, I was so happy with this episode. Sorry for offtopic guys!
I think Dark Corners was a great game with the proper atmosphere and I didn't get to the shooty parts due to some bugs making the game unplayable, so it's apparently possible to make a Lovecraftian PC game.
It would be also nice to get a new Conan game while we're at it.
 

Hobo Elf

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Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was one of the better Lovecraftian inspired games.
 

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