Featured Member
Our Member of the Month for March 2017 is Paul Maclean of West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. Paul is a truly delightful fellow who works tirelessly to promote Lovecraftian gaming in the U.K. and around the world.
Paul says: "My name is Paul Maclean and I’ve been a fan of Lovecraftian worlds for over 30 years - ever since I encountered Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game back in the early ‘80s. The back pages of those games featured lists of Lovecraft’s works - but being British, it was something I couldn’t get hold of until several years later with the advent of cheap UK paperback reprints. I devoured all of HPL’s stories over one long summer, while listening to lots of early Mike Oldfield.
It may have had an effect. Following those formative years I became an archaeologist, which is great in a certain Lovecraftian way, but less so if you want to earn any money (though the lack of such is also probably quite Lovecraftian).
It was during this time I found the HPLHS. I clearly remember hearing the clever songs of “Shoggoth on the Roof” in the early 2000s and watching tiny videos put online by Sean and Andrew. A few years before this I had begun my own little fan site focused on the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game: Yog-Sothoth(.com), and later on the HPLHS were very generous in letting me stream a few bits and pieces of their content for the dedicated visitor - in the days of dial-up connections you had to be pretty patient for *anything* to download…
I remember the landmark year of 2005 and the HPLHS’ film The Call of Cthulhu - it showed just what amazing things could be done by dedicated folks even on a shoestring budget. Its production still astounds me today.
Despite being across the Atlantic I’ve had the good fortune to meet Sean and Andrew along with other members of the HPLHS including Chris Lackey of HP Podcraft (now an honorary Englishman) who sometimes joins our podcasts (The Cthulhu Breakfast Club and News from Pnakotus). They are all great people.
As soon as the HPLHS re-opened membership a few years ago I joined up; I always look forward to whatever they have in store next!
If you want to see what I (and a few friends) get up to, just visit YSDC. As for what the HPLHS are up to, well you’re already here. :-)"