HPLHS News & Events Spring 2024

Miskatonic Patches

• May 8, 2024

We're very happy to announce a fun new product we've been working on. Inspired by some chat in the HPLHS Members-Only group on Facebook, we have been designing some new cloth patches, and are releasing the first set of three. We have offered an embroidered Arkham Sanitarium patch for a long time, but these new designs are more detailed than embroidery can capture at this size, so our new patches are woven. There is one each for three significant Miskatonic University expedition: Tibet, Antarctica and Australia. Get them now!

There are other designs in the works, and we'll be releasing more of them in coming months. Reception so far is very encouraging!

Gamer Map Set

• May 8, 2024

New in our online store this month is the first in a planned series of general-purpose gamer prop packs. We're kicking off with a collection of a dozen vintage maps showing places of Lovecraftian gaming interest, including Arkham, Innsmouth and Dunwich, New England, Antarctica, R'lyeh, the U.S., the world, and the solar system. We debuted this collection at ChaosiumCon in Michigan, and it's now available in our online store!

Featured Member

• May 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for May, 2024 is John Wick of Phoenix, Arizona.

John says: “John Wick... is a game designer and author... bought his first roleplaying game, Call of Cthulhu, in Spencer's Gifts in Ames, Iowa for $10 and didn't play D&D until 2 years later in Albany, Georgia... died three times... suffered the wounds of Hiram Abiff... uses his knowledge of confidence games for the power of good... made love on the deck of a tall ship in a thunderstorm... got a lapdance by Bayushi Kachiko... burned the first dollar bill he made telling stories in a magic ritual... collects orks... calls himself an omnetheist (because you can't have too many messiahs)... beat the Devil in a game of questions... was healed by Harlan Ellison... was called a "scoundrel" by Dave Arneson... knows the secret name of Baba Yaga... tricked the Faerie Queen with seven knots... was invited to Freja's great hall Fólkvangr... still believes in Santa Claus... shook the hand of Sherlock Holmes... lives with three cats, a dozen monsters, and a Rah!... wrote five novels, a handful of short stories over two dozen games and this bio. And it's all TRUE!

Arkham Investigator's Wallet Review

• April 20, 2024

Bud Baird has posted his review video of our Arkham Investigator's Wallet and its affiliated Call of Cthulhu scenario, "The Dog Walker"!

ChaosiumCon

• April 19, 2024

We are delighted to be attending ChaosiumCon 2024 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Sean Branney is running a couple of VIP game sessions, we're screening The Call of Cthulhu, and we'll be introducing a fun new prop product: the prop vintage map collection! It's always great to get a chance to hang out with our friends and colleagues from Chaosium, and celebrate the very successful conclusion of their most recent Kickstarter project, the Horror on the Orient Express Board Game! We're also very happy for the chance to cross paths with Lovecraftian gaming luminaries like Sandy Petersen, Ken Hite, Bob Geis and many others, as well as numerous HPLHS members in the flesh!

Featured Member

• April 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for April, 2024 is Andrew McKown of Lubbock, Texas.

Andrew says: "Artist. Comedian. Musician. Veteran. Born in 1970, Andrew was adopted by Great Depression survivors who instilled in him a great love for reading, particularly those stories from the pulp era. Those stories made an interest in roleplaying games practically a foregone conclusion, beginning with D&D in 1980. A high school graduation gift of the Call of Cthulhu boxed set (pictured here) drove Andrew to a renewed interest in the strange and unusual, which served him well as he spent most of his working life in various branches and components of the U.S. military. Now living in northern Texas, he enjoys feeding wild birds and listening to their stories."

Gaming Gaming Gaming!

• March 22, 2024

We've been working on a number of new Call of Cthulhu™ gaming projects recently, and another group of brave playtesters gathered at HQ last night to try out Sean Branney's latest. Playtesting is a vital step in the process to work out some of the kinks in the story, and we're grateful to the players for helping to shake out the material. Sean will be running VIP sessions of his two new games at Chaosium Con next month, with a view to making them actual products later this year!

The Iron Maiden

• March 21, 2024

We are delighted to announce that the audio for the newest episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre® is now complete, and downloads are now available! People who pre-ordered the episode will be getting automated email with download links shortly. People who buy a copy of the show in our online store now will get a download link immediately.

The last of the props is now being printed, and the CDs will be in manufacturing shortly. We anticipate shipping physical copies of the show within the next two or three weeks!

ORDER A COPY!

The Dagon Collection

• March 19, 2024

We were delighted to receive a shipment of copies of The Dagon Collection, the newest book from PS Publishing. A follow-up to The Starry Wisdom Library, the book is an imagined catalog of items being auctioned by the U.S. government after the FBI raid on Innsmouth in 1928. Edited by the returning Nate Pedersen, and featuring 35 articles by a numerous Lovecraftian luminaries including the late Joseph Pulver, Jr., it was designed by the HPLHS's own Andrew Leman.

We're pleased to be able to offer it in our online store HERE!

Equinox!

• March 19, 2024

Today's the day! Here in the northern hemisphere it is the first day of spring, and the weather at HQ is lovely. We have a very full slate of projects in development, and eagerly getting ready for our trip to Michigan and Chaosium Con in one month!

HQ Update!

• March 18, 2024

The Gentleman from Angell Street

• March 18, 2024

Our good friends at Helios House Press have just launched a new Kickstarter project: The Gentleman from Angell Street. It's a deluxe new edition of the memoir by Clifford and Muriel Eddy about their friend H.P. Lovecraft, now expanded with never-before-seen photos from the Eddy's grandson, Jim Dyer, new art, and other bonus content.

CHECK IT OUT!

Featured Member

• March 5, 2024

Our Member of the Month for March, 2024 is K.M. Hall of Cocoa, Florida.

K.M. says: "Many thanks to the forces of cosmic randomness for choosing me as HPLHS member of the month! I’ve been a fan of Lovecraft ever since the 1980s, when I came across a ratty old paperback copy of The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is still my favorite Lovecraft story after all this time, even though I know he didn’t think very highly of it…

Although an avid reader of his Cthulhu Mythos stories, I had never paid much attention to the details of Lovecraft’s life or read any of the eleventy-frillion letters he wrote, until I joined the HPLHS a few years ago. Thanks to the HPLHS’s Voluminous podcasts and Miskatonic Missives collection, I learned that Lovecraft had spent time in DeLand, Florida, only an hour or so from where I live. In January this year, I took the short road trip over to the Barlow house where Lovecraft had stayed in the 1930s. I have included a photo of me in front of the house, wearing my Miskatonic Tibetan Expedition hoodie (a necessity for this “Fortunate Floridian” when temperatures drop below 80 in January).

I have also included photos of my Lovecraft collection and of Sara and Sammy, members of the Kappa Alpha Tau Florida Chapter."

Iron Maiden

• March 1, 2024

The newest episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre™ is nearing completion, and the final cover art by Darrell Tutchton is now available, as seen here. Reber Clark is composing the music. Most of the props are already printed, and the liner notes are now in the works. Beware the ides of March! People who pre-order will get a bonus prop document!

CHECK IT OUT!