title by ben didier

Sandy Petersen is, like, THE guy. You know that role-playing game that's way better than Dungeons & Dragons, the one that's based on H. P. Lovecraft's stories and won all those awards? Well, he wrote it. He also had a huge hand in creating the video game that turned the REST of the geek community into warped sickos, DOOM, and its descendent, Quake. (I personally spent many an hour with the lights turned down, the music turned up, Coke cans lined up by my side, and my face about 3 inches from the computer monitor trying to see what monster was around the corner.) You can pretty much blame his father, the one who left all those pulps, and illustrated books on plastic surgery, bizarre diseases, & birth defects lying around. Among them was a very old book printed in 1942, thirteen years before Sandy was born (in St. Louis, for those keeping track). It was titled "The Dunwich Horror and Other Stories" and was a compilation of HPL's best works.

The back cover claimed that it was a special issue for our boys fighting the Axis overseas. No doubt reading "Pickman's Model" & "The Thing On The Doorstep" greatly inspired the military forces of the USA. Probably war-winning. Anyway, "The Outsider" immediately appalled and enthralled me. I read this work avidly, then lent it to a friend. I did not see that friend again for three years, during which time I found little or nothing about HPL. My only recourse was the local town library, which alas had no HPL, but did have some excellent grimoires of 17th century sorcery. Don't ask me why. When I was 12, my friend returned my Lovecraft book, and it was my only source of Lovecraft for the next three years. When I started high school, I got a library pass for the local college library, which held over a million books. Looking up Lovecraft with faint hope I discovered to my ecstasy that they had a large number of his works, including "The Outsider & Others," plus all the rest of the old Arkham House books that were even then worth a fortune. Luckily for me, the library was unaware of their value, and let me, a callow teenager, check them out like any other book. So I got to read just about every story HPL wrote, plus I discovered other writers such as William Hope Hodgson and M. R. James. The die was cast. Basically a fairly large part of my life from the age of 8 to 17 was spent in seeking HPL, who was incredibly hard to get. Now my own kids take books out of my peculiar and outré library, including HPL. Heaven knows what they'll get into.

How involved were you with the very first original Call of Cthulhu game rules and design? Was it a team effort or was it just you taking this game that you wrote to Chaosium and saying: "publish this?" What made you decide to pursue the Lovecraft game? Did you go out and plan to conquer this As-yet-unexploited market, or was it just a happy, foibling series of events?

I suggested to Chaosium that I do a game supplement for RuneQuest based on H. P. Lovecraft's "Dream-lands" stories. Chaosium wasn't interested, because (so they said) they were already doing a full game based on Lovecraft's fiction, and based in the 20th century. I was fascinated, and begged and pled to be allowed to see the game, edit it, help in any way possible. They responded by saying that they weren't happy with how it was going, and turned the whole project over to me. I was thrilled.

They said they were going to send me the stuff that the previous author had written, but they never did, so I basically had to write everything myself. Chaosium provided the basic game system (adopted from RuneQuest), edited the manuscript, and put together a supplement for the 1920s (I did part of the supplement, too). When I came to work full-time for Chaosium I found myself editing my own manuscript for the second and later editions of the game. After I left Chaosium, the game went through another major editorial revision at the hands of Lynn Willis, which constitutes the 5th edition rules. I regard these rules as greatly inferior to the 4th edition, because the 4th edition had a picture of me on the back cover, while the 5th does not.

Looks pretty good. Lynn Willis is an excellent editor, the best I’ve ever worked with. I have only minor cavils about him. Basically, Lynn has an optimistic approach to CoC & the Mythos. He feels that players expect to be victorious. I, on the other hand, follow an apocalyptic view — my players expect, at most, to hold off the impending ragnarok for a few more years. Naturally, our different approaches affect the way the CoC game looks. But not that much – the game is still plenty flexible enough to handle both styles of play.

What kind of writing/RPG design experience did you have previous to this?

Not much. I had designed the "Gateway Bestiary," a collection of monsters for Rune-Quest, which included a batch of Lovecraftian monsters. I had done a couple of other small articles in magazines & game supplements. I was pretty much a publishing virgin.

What did you find most frustrating about making Call of Cthulhu?

First, trying to ensure the game had the right feel. In your typical RPG, you race off to kill the monsters, loot their treasure, find out more information, and you’re off again. Most RPGs are rather progressive — you just keep getting better & better. In Call of Cthulhu, I needed to keep the players spooked, make them afraid of the monsters, even make them afraid of finding out Too Much. But I still needed to drive the players on to play the game despite their fear. As a result, CoC is dialectic, instead of progressive. For every action, there is an opposite reaction. The ancient musty books give you knowledge & magic, but prey on your character’s mind until he actually decays into a monster or madman himself. Just seeing the horrors in the game is bad, let alone fighting them.

The second frustrating thing was trying to assign statistics & point totals to these literary creations. How many hit points does a fungi from Yuggoth have? How much damage does Cthulhu do? This kind of thing is just not covered in HPL’s works.

Are there any parts of CoC that you aren't satisfied with? Something you would change if you could do it all over again?

Yes. Believe it or not, I'd probably put it in the modern age. My reasoning?

1) Lovecraft placed his tales in what was, for him, the modern age.

2) Few of his stories are particularly period pieces. Tales such as "The Call of Cthulhu," "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," or "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" work just as effectively in the modern time as in the old times. Lovecraft rarely depends upon topical subjects in his work.

3) Modern horror stories can be as gripping and effective as old-time stuff. Examples: Clive Barker, The People Under the Stairs, Halloween, The Evil Dead, Night of the Living Dead, etc.

4) The modern age has the advantage that there is no comforting "safe" world to return to, no conser-vative norm from which the horrors must perforce differ. You can put the terrors right in amongst the fearful obscenities of modern life.

BUT ... I'd certainly include appendices for running CoC in the 1920s and other eras.

A lot of people have been introduced to, and become fans of, Lovecraft's fantastic fiction for the sole reason that they played CoC. Does that give you a profound sense of self worth, or do you feel only like you've poisoned the minds of otherwise perfectly normal youth?

I am proud to have managed to introduce the terrors of Cthulhu, Joseph Curwen, and Abdul Alhazred to tens of thousands of otherwise innocent minds. Every time I see a reference to something by Lovecraft in a movie I feel a little thrill of accomplishment, probably totally unjustified. But it is definitely true that more HPL stuff seems around since the game came out. While it's possible that the game's success is a reaction to Lovecraft's popularity rather than the other way round, why not believe the more pleasant and self-promoting possibility? So I do.

RuneQuest, ElfQuest, and the Ghostbusters RPG. I also worked on the Darklands computer RPG.

Well, a friend of mine wrote some of the scripts for it, and he always alerted me any time that Cthulhu showed up. He also put me and my family in one of the episodes; "Dairy Farm of the Living Dead".

It's hard really to separate what I did from what other folks at id did on the project. Modern computer games are really very much a team effort. It's like saying who's responsible for the sound & feel of your song "Going Down to Dunwich." Even if only one of you did all of the music writing on that song, all contributed to the final effect -- if the exact same song had been recorded by Laibach or Tom Waits instead of the Thickets, it would have come out totally different. But, for what it's worth, I designed or, in some cases, re-designed every level in episodes 2 & 3, and 2 of the levels in episode 1. I helped calculate the hit points and damage of the monsters & weapons, and did design work. I also wrote the manual, most of the game text, etc. In Doom 2, I designed 17 out of the 32 levels, including the secret levels. Again I wrote the manual & text, etc., organized the order in which the levels appeared, did a lot of design work on the new monsters (not what they looked like, but their hit points, attacks, etc.) and so forth. In Quake, I designed about a fourth of the levels, helped design the monsters & game, wrote the in-game text, organized the level & episode order, etc.

You didn’t have anything to do with the look or even names of the monsters in the original Doom? This interview is over.

I pretty much named all the monsters in Doom, Doom 2, & Quake, except for obvious names like "ogre," "zombie," etc. But "imp," "cacodemon," "baron of hell," "shambler," "fiend," "arch-vile," "pain elemental," "scrag," etc. were my doing. Shub-Niggurath, too.

It’s my fault that the Pain Elemental shoots Lost Souls out of its mouth. I admit it. Sorry. Must I confess to more?

What was your favourite part of designing Doom?

Thinking up traps & puzzles.

The secret level of Episode 2. That level was so elegant, so simple, and so diabolic that I was very proud. Either that or firing off the shotgun. Shooting the shotgun was a wonderful experience -- you got so many rewards as a player for doing it. First there is the deep-throated roar of the weapon, then you get to see the manly animation of your arm rising up and cocking the thing. Then the bad guy goes flying backwards, blood spraying everywhere. It is excellent on so many levels. Far superior to just aiming a laser beam and seeing an enemy sprite pop in a puff of smoke.

I guess the look of Shub-Niggurath is totally up to interpretation, But that’s not the way I would have imagined her as has been depicted at the end of Quake.

Well ... we had limitations on polygon number. Quake’s Shub is based on the Dark Young monster that I invented for CoC.

Doom got pretty popular there for a while. Did you get a lot of fan mail or excessive goobering? Any weird experiences?

1) a death threat from a guy who felt that our 3-D engine was evil. Not the game, but the engine.

2) I got my daughter a T-Shirt that read "DOOM. My Dad Wrote It." All kinds of unsuitable guys were impressed when she wore it to high school.

3) a youth minister informed me that our game was bad because it might lead young kids into Satanism. I told him that in a time with AIDS, teen pregnancy, crack, and olestra, wasting time on suppressing devil worship was evading his calling as a minister.

4) a Dutch fan told us that we were gods and he wanted to worship us.

5) many fans have not believed me when I told them I worked on Doom. I guess I don't wear enough black or something.

6) numberless fans asking us why there's no women in Doom. I told them that the monsters were mostly all female ("Just look -- none of them have visible penises even though they're all naked". This seemed to shut them up.)

7) one guy asked me why we didn't use the music of the 'Hillside Thickets in Quake. I swear.

It's a big dark Secret with a capital S.

With any luck, being feted as a genius by armies of loyal followers, as opposed to my recurring killer octopus nightmare. My guess is I'll keep doing games until I'm too old and senile to work a controller. I've taken a couple of stabs at writing a horror novel. Maybe someday it will see the light of day, but I'm not holding my breath.

Pshaw. There hasn't been a real TV show since Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner". Certainly nothing worth attaching my brain to the glass teat over.

THE MILLION FAVOURED ONES

To Those Creatures Whom It May Concern,

Yo, what up, slugs of evil? What is with this (relatively) new Jonny Quest show on Cartoon Network? New Adventures or some such, with computer generated graphics and virtual ridiculousness. Suddenly our hero Race is a jerk with a voice like a bad Bruce Willis impersonator! I am frankly disgusted and horrified at what modernization has done to Jonny and his pals. At least there is the Prequel to look forward to, May 21st 1999. While I await the unleashing, I collect the new series of Star Wars figures. But where is squid face? His cute Cthulhoid pucker is yet to be seen among the hordes of new collectibles. Are they holding him back as part of some fiendish and horrific plot yet to be revealed?

Jim Genzano, Sewell, New Jersey

Jim, I haven't personally seen the modernized Jonny Quest. I'm sure it's an abomination (in a bad way, I mean). Here in Canada we don't get Cartoon Network. Rather, we get Teletoon, a diluted version with a lot more Krappy Kanadian Kontent. Still, we get the classic Quest, and just this morning I watched as Race Bannon blew up four gun-totingOrientals in a jeep by tossing them a grenade. Boy, were they surprised (for about half a second, after that they weren't anything)! I think that episode, "Terror Island," has one of the highest body counts, (with the possible exception of "Calcutta Adventure") and of course is the source of the sample "I gave them a new god. Now they worship...ME! Ahahahahah!" that leads into "Worship Me Like A God" off of Cthulhu Strikes Back. As for Star Wars' squid face character, I read on the internet that Wizards of the Coast (creators of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, and now owners of the Dungeons & Dragons systems) are going to merge with Lucasfilm, and by the third movie they will establish that the Squid Face aliens are actually Mind Flayers (also known as Illithid) from the D&D realm, and a young Yoda will fight these dark jedi atop his trusty neo-otyugh using his +3 vorpal light saber. It's marketing genius, really.

Hey!

Are you getting anything pressed on vinyl? Have you guys put together the ultimate list of bands using songs about HPL's writings? Naturally, DotHT [eugh...] gets the #1 spot! I'm curious, what do you listen to music-wise? I would guess nothing remotely close to what you play--quite a few bands seem to want to hear something besides themselves, at least that's my guess. I'd doubt The Misfits or Samhain in your case. Anyway, are you into H.R. Giger? I've got one of his official '98 calendars. That's the extent of the oddities you can find here in Minnesota, besides the inbred population (I swear they are horribly mutated Deep Ones or Cro-Magnon). I can't believe you guys are unsigned.

J. Perkins, Flowood, MS

J, vinyl is for REAL bands. No, we haven't put together The Ultimate HPL-inspired band list, although I'm sure there's something on the net, probably on Donovan Loucks' page. As for what we listen to, you're right, it's Master T & the Super-Hip Three and a whole lotta John Tesh for us.

Dear Everybody

On or about May last year (the date may be wrong but it’s not important) this conversation took place: ME: "So what do you think?" MUSIC BUSINESS PERSON: "I like the music, but I can’t get past the costumes." And that was the end of that. At the time I thought ah fuck you anyway, what do you know and went off to win myself a brain, for the band we were discussing was The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. I keep the brain in a pickle jar now and have vowed never to open it. Anyway, I like the costumes and think they should be even more realistic! More clanky scales on the bugman! Hahaha! The SCARY costumes set the mood. They lend a carnival atmosphere to the show and the kids love a carnival. That’s entertainment baby! And that’s what I should have said at the time but instead I didn’t! I went and won the contest that made me the proud owner of a water-soaked loaf of chemicals. Mine at last! THE OORT CLOUD!! The Oort cloud was the answer to the skill-testing question and the "mine at last," was not what I thought at the time but what I feel now. Really. I like the music too. "Shoggoths Away" is the coolest. Some day it might come true except I think B-17s are hard to come by. I once watched a documentary where these people dug a B-29 out of the ice in Alaska. They rebuilt it right there and tried to fly it out. It caught fire and burned. What that has to do with anything, I don’t know.

Jamie Ferrigan, Vancouver BC

Hi!

I'm an 18-years old Chilean girl, a real Lovecraft fan. Last week, searching for stuff about him, I found you. I heard some demos and I like them, but my problem is that I can't find your music in my country... what can I do? (and the same about the "Cthulhu strikes back t-shirt"... it's just great!!!) I'll appreciate that you answer me. Thanks,

Sarah

The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets first started to burrow their way into my heart after I stumbled upon their act one night at the dearly departed Town Pump in the summer of 1996. I subsequently purchased "Cthulhu Strikes Back" which has been greatly treasured the last two years, an album that I consider to have timeless appeal. I often listened to the CD late at night in headphones, and in those nocturnal musings, a bug was planted in me to someday bring the 'Thickets up to Whitehorse.

Whitehorse and the Yukon in general is blessed with a profusion of talent in all the arts (perhaps because we consist of, or are descended from, misfits and castoffs from other parts of Canada and the world). I became actively involved in the fringes of the music community as a bass player in a now-defunct original band that happened to sound a lot like Crazy Horse. Around the time the band was falling apart, I was fortunate to witness the debut of a young local group called Undertow who have been in the last few years the flagship alternative band in Whitehorse. My involvement in music changed from that of a player to being a music coach/fan/buddy to Undertow and the young groups who sprang up around them. I found that it was much more fun and rewarding being around their energy as opposed to the ego B.S. and irresponsibility that were too much a part of dealing with adult musicians.

The next time I heard the call for the sake of rock 'n' roll happened in 1996. There is a 'non-profit' music organization in Whitehorse by the name of the 'Frostbite Music Society' which has existed for twenty years. The principal reason for its existence is the annual Frostbite Music Festival that takes place in February. The society, which receives a whack of money from government and the local business community in addition to a lot of volunteer energy, is supposed to serve developing musicians in the Yukon as part of its mandate. In recent years, however, the festival and the various fundraising events which are held throughout the year have been a playground for special local interest groups who I call the 'local musical establishment,' and folk and 'world music' groups of varying quality from the South. In the good years, local bands who wrote their own material but who did not fall into the professional category could play as opening acts at events during the year and would work towards a spot at the main festival. Early in 1996, the appointed 'artistic director' told these bands, who had been a big part of fundraising events for the winter festival, that they would not have a place and that he also didn't think they were any good. Undertow, who were a big draw the year before, were offered a fifteen minute spot at noon on the Sunday of that weekend. Mostly out of concern for Undertow, I felt these were 'fighting woids' and organized an event called 'Freezer-burn Alternafest' on the Saturday night of Frostbite weekend. Seven Groups played including Undertow who put on a legendary performance as headlining act. The room at a local hotel was sold out to a crowd of three hundred people. A Toronto Globe and Mail article gave mention to Freezerburn in its coverage of Frostbite in the national edition. I held another Freezerburn event last year for which I had to spend a bit of my own money to produce. The first two Freezerburn concerts were done as charitable events and as a showcase for mostly young original bands to perform material they have worked on during the winter. I have never pocketed one cent for the time involved in organizing the shows. In order to deal with bands from the South and to be able to solicit advertising, sell tickets, and to provide an added attraction to local bands, etc, I set up 'Freezerburn Productions' this year. Which brings us to 1998 and, back to your friends and mine, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.

In honest truth, the first and foremost band I wanted to bring here was the 'Thickets. Even though they have underground status and are relatively unknown in some parts, my job as promoter is to translate my care and faith in the band into attracting an audience of new 'Thicket devotees. I always put much effort into the design and production of a poster that borders on being a collectors item. I most enjoy this part of the process although it involves a high level of frustration getting to the final product and eats up cash. Radio promo is expensive although one of the local stations do the best coverage they can offer in return for being recognized as a sponsor.

I also have friends in the community in the technical and volunteer areas who are concerned about me not losing my shirt in putting on the shows, mostly in case of poor turnout. I am very fortunate to have a great sound and lighting company to work with. The 'Thickets were also great to make it happen this year. They offered to forego a performance fee for the honour of being flown up to Whitehorse and being put up in a hotel, have some fun, see some sights, and maybe sell a little merchandise. Even though this agreement was in place, I would have loved to have paid them a 'whack of money' instead of T-shirts and a few beers after the show, which, incidentally, was great. I got to hear a lot of 'great old' songs as well as some new ones such as 'Slave Ship' and 'The Innsmouth Look' which should be on the next album.

I have to confess that although I've gone to the length of buying The Crawling Chaos, I have a bit of a hard time getting into HP Lovecraft, but I think the Cthulhu mythos with regard to being an ultimate outsider has a lot to say in the 'Thickets' material. The songs have everything that make songs memorable and of lasting importance to people like myself--they are fun, comical, touching, dark in a comic book sort of way, and I believe would be of great appeal to a very young mass audience such as the crowd at Freezerburn this year (although it could not be termed as a 'mass audience'). In closing, I think The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets are a very special entity who are much loved by their scattered fans around the world. Toren, Merrick, Warren, Jordan and Bob are involved in a worthwhile calling. I hope you guys make it really big out there in the big world. I also think everyone should produce a concert once in their life, even if it's only a local band that you like. I'm very proud to have brought the 'Thickets to my town, the kids and the young bands loved them. One of the guys I work with, whose 10-year old son was at the show, was told by his son, who happens to have a lot of self-esteem problems, that the concert was the best thing he had ever been to in his life.

A couple Cthulhoid items in which our own MacBin has had his filthy mitt in, firstly: MORTAL COILS is a new anthology of eight Call of Cthulhu scenarios from Pagan Publishing. Assembled by Brian Appleton, the anthology has a diverse group of noisome terrors ranging from surreal/psychological horror to confrontations with degenerate cultists. Works include:

The book is strikingly illustrated by artists Toren Atkinson, Dennis Detwiller, and Heather Hudson.

"...this may be the best set of scenarios that Pagan has ever put out." -- Scott Shafer

"one of the best adventure books currently available. Pagan Publishing has done their job." -- Adam Schroeder.

Cost: $20.95 Page count: 208 ISBN: 1-887797-11-4

Pummel the President. Sink R’lyeh. Shoot Nyarlathotep with a Cosmic Ray Gun. Rule the Free World.

In Cults Across America, you’ll do all that and more. You’ll command cultists, high priests, tanks, nuclear reactors, the national guard, the Pope, the President, and maybe even Cthulhu himself. You can start the plague, assert yourself with whips and chains, race in the Mythos 500 aboard a satanic pushcart, and invade the Dream-lands. What could be more fun than sacking Waco aboard a Big Honkin’ Truck with Ghatanothoa at your back and the Necronomicon in your hand?

Cults Across America is a high-powered board game featuring challenging resource management, detailed combat choices, three scenarios that let you play the game you want to play, a host of cards that can change the game’s course in seconds, and a severe attitude like nothing you’ve ever seen in a board game. By Jeff Tidball and Toren Atkinson ISBN: 1-887801-63-4, Price: $44.95 Cults Across America comes equipped with a large game board, 384 counters, 112 cards, 2 dice, and complete rules for play that include three separate scenarios so Cults Across America can be tailored to your style of boardgaming.