A Few of My Favorite Things Man Should Not Know

As spring approaches, I find myself beginning to entertain thoughts of madness and despair - different from the thoughts of madness and despair that the passing of the winter holidays brings, that is. No, this time of year I tend to find myself drawn toward the legacy of my favorite author, H. P. Lovecraft, and yearning to play one of my favorite role-playing games (if not my all-time favorite): Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu.

I don't know why this time of year causes such feelings. It may be because I associate late spring with the time of year I truly discovered my love for the horror genre. For whatever reason, though, this seems to happen to me every year. (Don't believe me? Then go read this and come back - it's okay, I'll wait for you.)

Being the visceral person I am, I like to fan the flames of my growing obsession interest by looking at pretty pictures. This year, I decided I'd share some of my favorite inspirational images with you.

Up first we have the cover of my favorite edition of my possibly favorite role-playing game: the third edition hardback produced in collusion with Games Workshop:

Although not from my favorite version of the book, the following image graced the covers of the game until its fourth edition. (I'm fairly sure of this, despite the 3rd edition cover above, because my third copy of the 3rd edition of the game is a boxed set with this image on its cover.) This image was also used for the cover of the limited 25th Anniversary Edition (don't get me started on that book!). It's my favorite of the game's covers, with the one above running a very close second:

I had the cover of Arkham Unveiled in poster form (it came with the original version of the book) hanging in my study/game room for years:


The book for which the following image is the cover - Mansions of Madness - has the distinction of being the only Call of Cthulhu RPG book from which I've run a scenario ("Crack'd and Crook'd Manse") in its entirety - with great success, I might add:

Here are the covers of a couple of books I would love but have yet to have the pleasure to own (despite regularly looking at them on eBay and used game sites)- Spawn of Azathoth and Cthulhu Now:
















Shambling away from book covers, here are a few other game covers I like, starting with another game I wish I owned - the original Arkham Horror:


And here some covers from the version of Arkham Horror I do own (and absolutely love!) starting with the core game:

And the Kingsport Horror Expansion (I especially like this one; like the two main book covers above, this is - to me - what an in-game session of Call of Cthulhu should look like):

And the Black Goat of the Woods Expansion (yeah, shoot that dark young - that'll save your butt. Not!):


I guess that's enough for now. I've got a bunch of other images I use for inspiration, but these are - as I alluded to in the title of this post - just a few of my favorite things...
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Obviously, the images above are either the property of Chaosium (the Call of Cthulhu and 1987 Arkham Horror covers) or Fantasy Flight Games (the contemporary Arkham Horror covers).
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Comments

  1. I can see why you picked out your favorites, but the 5th edition cover was always my personal favorite. I love the body language of the two investigators; plus, their puny size perfectly conveys the central theme of the game. My friend started a mural in our game room back in the day based on the cover, but never completed it unfortunately.

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  2. its a very fine and informative post. i like it. thanks for sharing us.

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