Since the 1980s, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (HPLHS) has been conjuring imaginary horrors into the real world. Named for the 1920s author who created Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones, the HPLHS specializes in bringing Lovecraft’s strange world to life in a dizzying variety of ways. They craft elaborate, artistic game props. They’ve written and published scenarios for both tabletop and live-action roleplaying. They’ve even set the cosmic dread to music in the form of the musical stage production parody A Shoggoth on the Roof. To call the HPLHS prolific is an understatement.
We spoke via email with society co-founder Sean Branney to learn a little more about the publisher behind the curtain – and the origins of the society who works to maintain the Lovecraftian madness.
At the Mountains of Colorado
For Sean Branney, his first brush with the Cthulhu mythos came as a teenager growing up in Colorado.
“My weirdest friend shared with me an anthology of horror stories that included Lovecraft’s The Rats in the Walls” he recalls. “He said it was a really strange story, and he was right. I was hooked from that point on.”
That first encounter with a Cthulhu story eventually led Sean to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game, and it wasn’t long before he pulled a friend into the madness.
“My partner in crime, Andrew Leman, had not heard of Lovecraft until I invited him over to my house to play this game with the weird name: Call of Cthulhu. That’s when he got hooked.”
Soon, the boundaries of the kitchen table proved too restrictive for Sean and his friends. The group began taking their adventures out into the real world, inventing their own live-action rules that allowed them to act out their adventures in person. They incorporated costumes and props, and clues hidden around town became a normal part of their games.
One especially memorable session took place on the campus at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The game involved an in-character skirmish between the players and a group of costumed ninjas. The campus police, responding to what must have been a very strange call, were less than thrilled.
“In that particular incident,” Sean says, “the police displayed no sense of humor whatsoever – which to me seems challenging given the circumstances. We were chided and told not to do things like this again. But 40 years later we’re still at it.”
From Beyond the Pizzeria
Phil Bell, Andrew Leman, and Sean Branney formally created the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society in a pizza restaurant in Boulder, Colorado. What started as something of a lark among friends, built around a shared interest in old horror stories, has grown into something that surprises even its co-founder.
“If I could have told my 20 year old self that my nearly 60 year old self would make a living running the HPLHS,” Sean reflects, “there’s no way my 20 year old self would have believed it. No way. The journey of the HPLHS has been utterly implausible.”
Perhaps some of the success of that implausible journey is the result of the group’s ability to tap into a popular niche long before it went mainstream. According to Sean, they were way ahead of an emerging trend.
“Back in the 80s, hardly anyone had heard of Lovecraft or Cthulhu. These days, both have really permeated popular culture. We talk with people all the time who know what Cthulhu is even if they’ve never heard of Lovecraft. It seems that the stars were right for HPL to have his moment of fame; it’s a shame it came a century too late for him to be able to enjoy it.”
In many ways, it was H.P. Lovecraft himself who set the stage for Cthulhu’s eventual cultural influence.
“I think part of HPL’s popularity began with him sharing his ideas and encouraging his friends to do likewise,” Sean says. “The popularity has only increased by it being a space where fans and creators alike are welcome to contribute to the world-building Lovecraft started.”
The HPLHS certainly carries on that collaborative spirit through their own creative works. As Sean puts it: “We…try and share what we create with a wider audience, who in turn, often build upon our creations. And if someone runs into an idea that they don’t like, it’s easy to ignore it and turn one’s attention elsewhere. But on the whole I think it’s a very creatively welcoming community.”
Artifacts and Relics
Another secret of the HPLHS’s success has to do with the cosmic horror genre itself. Something about Lovecraft-inspired games seems to naturally invite props, costumes, and other immersive elements. For one thing, physical objects are a big part of the mythos itself. Lovecraft’s works are full of forbidden tomes like the Necronomicon, a dark grimoire full of dangerous knowledge beyond the understanding of the human mind. And many a Lovecraft tale centers around some strange ancient artifact of unknown provenance.
The HPLHS lets you bring all these sorts of props right to your game table. From weird carved statuettes, to a period newspaper, to a tooth of mysterious origin, the society offers a variety of unique objects. And many of them serve a dual function as works of art unto themselves.
For his part, Sean believes the appeal of these props has to do with the sense of investigation that sits at the foundation of Lovecraft’s most iconic stories.
“There’s a mystery of sorts at work and HPL’s protagonists dig deeper to try and understand what is going on,” he explains. “This quality lends itself really well to gaming. One of the things that really got us going with Call of Cthulhu was its use of handouts. Players literally got physical clues to study and analyze, and those handouts brought players deeper into the game. It made the whole experience of the game feel more real, and that underlying sense of reality bumped up the thrill of playing the games. There are many adventures that make great use of props and handouts and we do our best to make those props as realistic as possible.”
Historical Preservation
It’s worth noting that the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, despite the tongue-in-cheek tone that often accompanies a group founded on stories of
monsters and existential madness, is an actual society with a worldwide membership. Through audio dramas, film, roleplaying games, and other media, its members have helped to grow and preserve a massive, century-old collaborative world. The spirit of this group is perhaps best encapsulated by their motto: “Ludo Fore Putavimus” (Translation: “We Thought it Would be Fun”).
You can find out more information about the HPLHS on their website: https://www.hplhs.org/
A Few Quick Questions with Sean Branney (The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society)
You’ve been involved with a wide array of creative endeavors (some might say a staggering array), including films, radio dramas, and music. What drives you to keep experimenting across so many creative formats?
We are creative guys and we’ve been at this for a long time. So part of the fun is looking for new ways to do things and new kinds of projects to take on. Sometimes we circle back around onto things we’ve visited before. I started playing Call of Cthulhu back in the early 80s when it first came out. But I didn’t play much for several decades. Now I’m back to playing the game pretty regularly and writing and publishing supplements for it. It’s fun to revisit a creative outlet at a different time in one’s life. We still have a lot of stories to tell.
Of all the things HPLHS has made—films, props, audio dramas—is there a personal favorite? And are there any hidden gems you wish more people knew about?
Most folks don’t know about our early history as LARP guys. The Society was founded around our LARP endeavors and we did some pretty remarkable games. These started in the days before the internet and before hardly anyone had heard of the concept of that kind of gaming. But we’ve played games in the British Museum and Death Valley and lots of other exciting places and pushed the boundaries of that kind of gaming in some pretty interesting ways.
Have you seen your products used in any especially creative or unexpected ways (e.g., games, weddings, escape rooms)?
Lovecraft fans have embraced our work in many delightful and unexpected ways. Our basic principle is that we’ve had a lot of fun with Lovecraft’s works and we’d like to share that fun with others. So we’re happy to see our works being manifest in people’s lives. I guess the number of tattoos I’ve seen that make use of our works might be the most surprising thing to me, but hey, why not?
Are there any new projects in the works you’re excited about?
We’ve got some fun new projects coming in our Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series. We’ve also returned to the Call of Cthulhu role playing game. We’ll be publishing a few scenarios that will come with some pretty spectacular prop sets. We hope that’ll help folks take their gaming to a new level – or at least that they’ll have a lot of fun.
Do you have any favorite non-Cthulhu games?
I like a good, lively party game. Cards Against Humanity has brought us a lot of laughs. And we’ve been playing Celebrity since the Pleistocene.
What’s your favorite Great Old One or mythos creature?
Personally, I’ve got a soft spot for Cthulhu itself. In some ways, it’s a cliche now that people have Cthulhu slippers, toys, etc… but if you take Cthulhu at face value, they way it was written by Lovecraft, this horrific monstrosity that can tromp around in your mind while you sleep and then rise from the ocean’s depths… well, that to me is an awesome monster in the best sense of the word.
If someone has never read a Lovecraft story, where would you suggest they start?
I tend to suggest people start with the shorter, easier stories like “The Statement of Randolph Carter”, “Beyond the Wall of Sleep,” “The Picture in the House”, “From Beyond”, and “Dagon”. If you like the writing style, then take on some of the more challenging works.
What movies or TV shows do you think capture the feel of Lovecraft (even if they aren’t actual mythos stories)?
To me the best non-Lovecraft Lovecraft film would have to be John Carpenter’s The Thing. It brings in cosmic elements and a pervasive sense of doom that is very pleasing to me as a Lovecraft guy. There’s also a terrific film out of Quebec called “Out of Mind” which is a pretty terrific mash-up of a few HPL stories but also involves Lovecraft himself, beautifully portrayed by Chris Heyerdahl. It’s a lot of fun.
