Cthulhu, Lovecraft and other such horrors!

I'm very late to the party on this one!  I'd obviously heard of H.P. Lovecraft but never read any of this works (until recently).  Being an avid gamer, i'd also seen a number of games of different types based on the Cthulhu Mythos by Lovecraft, in particular the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying game and more recently, the board games and card games from Fantasy Flight Games.

Even so, it never appealed greatly, perhaps due to the pulp style and 1920's era setting... or maybe it's an age thing and now I've learnt to appreciate it so much more.   

My first introduction was a visit to my old best friend's place in Spain a few years back, where I had a very light view of the Arkham Horror LCG (card game) and had a quick demonstration of Elder Sign (dice game).  I found myself overly intrigued and thus looked into the games more, ultimately buying Elder Sign initially.   The game is great fun and many games were played, sometimes for an entire Sunday.

...and thus the touch paper had been lit.  Fantasy Flight produce a number of games within this Mythos, under their product line banner of "Arkham Horror Files" and thus I spent around a year collecting all the main games and expansions for Elder Sign, Arkham Horror LCG, Eldritch Horror, Mansions of Madness and he newly released Arkham Horror board game.

It's pretty much the only games I play these days and largely enjoy more than others, perhaps in part to them being cooperative games rather than player vs. player competitive.   I'm loving the flavour and atmosphere of these games and they've grown my interest of the works of Lovecraft and other Cthulhu game publishers.   So much in fact, that later this year i'll be going to a weekend gaming event at Lundy Island purely for Lovecraftian games with like-minded gamers.

Flavour aside, the Fantasy Flight games are absolutely genius design.  Not easy by any means and it's been a very low number of times winning at any of the games.  It's not about the winning of course, as the experience is so great and memorable.  The games often feel sentient in how random events, card flips and dice rolls are so specific in reaction to player decisions and actions that it is seems so uncannily intelligent and thinking!  

All the games are quite different in play style too; with the LCG having a deckbuilding and RPG feel to it, with the added excitement of deluxe expansions having a number of scenarios followed by monthly releases of "Mythos packs" for a new scenario.  Eldritch Horror and Arkham Horror are board games, in a global and local setting respectively with many types of card decks and turn sequences to keep it always interesting and evolving.  Mansions of Madness is an interactive dynamic board game which also makes use of a digital app and miniatures, and last but not least, Elder Sign is a dice game and whilst the least flavoured of all the games, is still very enjoyable and can get quite intense.

All are highly recommended and i've also thrown some other games into the mix, such as Reign of Cthulhu and have several more lined up as well as pending deliveries of Kickstarters.   Gaahh! Gaming has exploded and certainly shifted from tabletop wargaming to board gaming.