RPG Examiner: How Lovecraft Saved RPG Gaming

The "RPG Examiner" has an encapsulated history of H.P. Lovecraft's potent influence on the Role Playing Game industry. The article contends that his themes have been so powerful, in fact, that Lovecraft's works played a savior role in propping up the Role Playing Game. If this is the case--and it's easy to see a lot of truth to it--then the relationship between HPL and RPGs appears to be a mutually beneficial one. Lovecraftian horror has spawned a large and lucrative RPG line in the popular Call of Cthulhu RPG scenarios. Similarly, it's reasonable to assume exposure to Lovecraftian themes through gaming has opened up countless gamers to H.P. Lovecraft's writings, and perhaps the broader field of weird fiction.

For the record: I'm not really an RPG gamer, but I do find the phenomena very interesting when it's intermingled with the weird. Articles like the one from "RPG Examiner" should have wide appeal to all sorts of Lovecraftians. After all, this is a major component of H.P. Lovecraft's extra-literary existence today, particularly among younger readers.

-Grim Blogger