Gaming night to honour cosmic horror author

BENDIGO Tabletop Gaming Group is holding a unique evening event at the Bendigo Club to mark the birthday of influential cosmic horror author H.P. Lovecraft.

The early-20th Century writer is said to have inspired the likes of Stephen King, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, artist H.R. Giger, and even heavy metal bands Metallica, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

He’s perhaps most famous for his creation of the Cthulhu mythos, a fictional universe centred around ancient, powerful beings beyond human comprehension.

As the Gaming Group’s Ben Tinney said, this mythos has spawned countless card and board games, some of which the group will be exploring on the night.

“His work is so richly thematic (that) he’s had an incredibly big impact on popular culture, and there’s been a lot of work done particularly in the tabletop role-playing game space,” he said.

“There’s myriad of different games that have received the Cthulhu treatment. The one that probably the most people would know is a game called Arkham Horror.

“There’s another game that’s called Eldritch Horror, which is the same sort of general format, then there’s Munchkin, which is quite popular, and Love Letter, which is a well-regarded smaller card game.

“Some of the most rich storytelling that I’ve played in board games has come from stories using his themes.”

Newcomers are invited to join fellow enthusiasts at the Bendigo Tabletop Gaming Group’s The Doom That Came to Bendigo event on Thursday 22 August from 6.30pm.