HPLHS News & Events

September 2026

• September 1, 2026

Our Member of the Month for September, 2026 is James Morgart of Trenton, N.J.

James says: “I was 18 years old, standing in the bookstore, wondering which dark abyss to descend into next. In front of me stood a wide ocean of books, mostly with black spines, indicative of the genre they shared. At that point, I was already hooked on horror. I’d watched slashers all through the 80s and 90s and eagerly awaited every Stephen King adaptation, regardless of whether it was a theatrical release or television miniseries.

Peering out from the sea of black were two paperback titles from Del Rey with bright red and yellow lettering on black spines: Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos and Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. The former was described as “A chilling collection written and inspired by the Master of Horror” and included a short story I was already acquainted with: Stephen King’s “Jerusalem’s Lot.” The byline for the collection itself was H.P. Lovecraft and Others. The latter was titled The Best of Lovecraft, featuring an introduction by Robert Bloch and a blurb on the front cover: “H.P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.”

The author of the blurb? Stephen King.

High praise from a high priest of horror. I was intrigued.

I had heard of HPL but had no idea just how important a figure he was to the horror genre.

Rather than read the stories in order, I bounced around, starting with the shortest story. (May as well start with an appetizer and work your way into a main course, right?) That story was “The Outsider.”

That story was all I needed.

Maybe “normal” people who have been accepted their entire lives read a story like that and find it to be just your run-of-the-mill horror story. (You know, the very same people HPL calls out in his essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature,” who are unimaginative because they are caught up in the everyday tedium of life.)

But if you have ever felt excluded, outcast, or simply uncomfortable in your own skin, that story hits different.

I devoured both books, re-reading King’s short story with a new framing and being introduced to writers like August Derleth, Clark Ashton Smith, Henry Kuttner, Fritz Leiber, Ramsey Campbell, and others. (Glad to meet you, sirs.)

Fast forward nearly three decades. There was probably little doubt that I would one day wind up being an English teacher. It was written in the stars long before that fateful encounter. I have loved reading for as long I can remember, preferring the smell of lignin to that of flora. Give me straining my eyesight in a dimly lit room any day of the week over the sun’s bright rays blinding me on a walk in the local park.

However, if it wasn’t for Lovecraft (and King), I likely would not have found my place (and such a productive outlet) as an American literature scholar and teacher. As one, I have long since learned of the irony in HPL’s sense of being different (his intolerance of Others was a sad discovery), but it is perhaps a lesson for all of us to realize that intolerance can lead to scapegoating when people seek control in the face of powerlessness. It is a vicious cycle that can only be short-circuited by seeing past our differences with the intention of finding common ground.

I thank HPLHS for giving me the space to introduce myself to fellow members this month. Their efforts to cultivate a community have been wonderful to observe, and I hope that we can continue to support them for many years to come. HPL’s life and art are things we can seek refuge in, learn from, and draw inspiration from for our own imaginative pursuits, and the historical society plays no small part in making that possible.

NecronomiCon 2026 Highlights

• August 31, 2026

The HPLHS crew made it back from Providence safe and sound, wrapped up in warm memories of another spectacular Lovecraftian convention in Grandpa's home town. Our thanks to Niels Hobbs and all his amazing crew for their insane work and dedication in mounting this monumental event.

Above is a little slideshow of just some of the highlights we happened to have pictures of, but there were so many more wonderful people and events we encountered. There are many more photos and some videos posted in the HPLHS Members-Only facebook group. Panels, games, live performances and readings, the art show, the vendor hall, Providence itself and all the wonderful Lovecraft fans who came from across the country and across the world to gather and celebrate and imagine together. We are already looking forward to returning in 2028!

NecronomiCon!

• August 12, 2026

Featured Member

• August 1, 2026

Our Member of the Month for August, 2026 is Darren Ormandy of Oxford, England.

Darren says: “I discovered Lovecraft through playing RPGs. I had played D&D in the 80s but it didn’t go too well. I ran every game like it was Tolkien fanfic, low on combat but big on looking at scenery and feeling sad about the end of beauty. This didn’t go down well with a bunch of sixteen-year-old boys fired up from watching ‘Beastmaster.’

But in my early 20s, a friend got us around the table for a game I hadn’t heard of before, a 1920s horror RPG where we could dress up in hats and waistcoats and have jazz playing in the background. It was a life-changing moment. Call of Cthulhu blew me away, and after a few games I bought ‘Arkham Unveiled’ and ran my first game as Keeper. We would talk in hushed tones about the H P Lovecraft Historical Society, these legendary players who made amazing props and even fonts that imitated Lovecraft’s handwriting.

A few years later and I was at theatre school training to be an actor. In the year below me was Richard Coyle, a lovely guy with a great voice who went on to narrate At The Mountains Of Madness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth for the BBC. One day I got talking to one of my classmates, Cornelius Booth, about RPGs and D&D. I said, ‘Have you heard of a game called ‘Call of Cthulhu’? and his face lit up. I knew then we’d have plenty to talk about, and we still do.

Corny had played CoC LARP with some of his friends from school, running around London at night with a ‘blasphemous tome’ taken from the local library. Now everyone had grown up (sort of) and got proper jobs (sort of), those LARPs had become more ambitious. I was invited to NPC a game, and I found myself in a car park in Wales waiting for people I’d never met, to take me to a cottage I’d never been to, to play a narrative that I knew nothing about. Those people became some of my closest friends and creative collaborators. Life-changing moment #2.

Over the years we’ve LARPed CoC in everywhere from remote manor houses to the British Museum, from historic fortresses to an abandoned boarding school. We once hired a submarine. We’ve battled pirates in Tortuga, dived to the sunken city of R’lyeh, and fought shoggoths in lightless tunnels. Good times.

Once, when looking at my friends fighting Deep Ones wearing steampunk diving gear in a barn filled with dry ice, I thought to myself ‘We should make a film.’ One of us, Andy Green, was a trained film director so I wrote a stack of scripts about some of our best-loved PCs and NPCs. We picked one of them and made ‘Mister Gibson’, a dark and sad tale set in World War Two about loneliness, loss, and witch hunting. It won the best short film award at the Edinburgh Fringe Film Festival, so we thought we’d do it again. Our second film, ‘Vomica’, was the story of WW2 Commandos who stumble into something beyond horror. All the actors were our LARP friends. Corny played his NPC character, the frighteningly-authoritarian Archangel. Joseph Chance, now well-known as one of The Apocalypse Players, played the lead role. Andy Green not only directed but played one of the Commandos. Vomica got selected for the HP Lovecraft Film Festival at Portland Oregon where I met Sean and Andrew of the HPLHS for the first time, and I signed up for life membership straight away. Vomica won best short film in Portland, as well as at the Philip K Dick Festival in Tribeca NYC, and the London Festival of Horror. It was selected for a whole raft of festivals including the Amazon Film Festival. This had nothing to do with Jeff Bezos; our low-budget Lovecraftian horror was being screened in the middle of the Amazon jungle.

Somewhere in the midst of all this madness, when LARPing in front of a giant burning Wicker Man, I met Mark Meer and Belinda Cornish, a fantastically-talented couple with a passion for both Lovecraft and improvised theatre. In our next game, Belinda’s character went insane, took the ancient manuscript that was the main prop and tried to eat it. Life-changing moment #3.

By now we were in the middle of COVID and Belinda and I started to write a Call of Cthulhu campaign for online play, with Mark as the Keeper of Arcane Lore. ‘No Man’s Land’ was set in World War One, and was a fun mix of folk, gothic, body, and cosmic horrors. The players in one session included Devan and Dustin of D4 fame. They loved what we did and produced our new campaign ‘Bookshops of Arkham’ as an Actual Play, with their friends playing the various NPCs and Mark again taking the role of Keeper.

‘Bookshops of Arkham’ is still, I believe, Chaosium’s most-watched video on YouTube. The players were terrific; we were delighted with the end result. Through ‘Bookshops’ we got to know Michael O’Brien, Brian Holland, and many other great people at Chaosium. Our follow up, ‘Graveyards of Arkham’, used the new ‘Arkham’ supplement derived from the ‘Arkham Unveiled’ that I’d owned all those years ago. Our players Patrick Logan and Lucia Versprille returned and were joined by Noura Ibrahim and Josephine McAdam. Becca Scott and Paula Demming were NPCs, and Andrew Leman delivered a wonderful cameo performance in Episode One.

Belinda and I are now working on some exciting new projects, including a year-long Call of Cthulhu campaign of monthly one-shot adventures and a new Actual Play film. So watch this space!

They say you should never meet your heroes, but in this fandom it isn’t true. I haven’t mentioned half of the inspiring, clever, passionate people that I’ve met through a shared love of Lovecraftian horror. It’s been quite a journey and thinking back to those days when I first played Call of Cthulhu, what an honour it is to be the HPLHS Lovecraftian of the Month.

Innsmouth Mania!

• July 25, 2026

Eternity at Sea

• July 14, 2026

Ennie Awards!

• July 13, 2026

Featured Member

• July 1, 2026

Our Member of the Month for July, 2026 is Lady Jaide Erin Reynolds of Corbin, Kentucky.

Jaide says: “Greetings fellow fans of Lovecrafitan lore! It is an absolute pleasure to be picked as the Member Of The Month for July! In just a couple of days, it will be my 54th birthday, so this is quite a surprising gift!

I have been a fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft for close to 40 of my years now. It all started with a "weird tale" my Grandaddy was telling us in his back yard one night by the Phoenix moonlight. He told of having a conversation with a man in a bowling alley who relayed to my Grandaddy that he was an Old One and he felt that my Grandaddy was as well. He described Old Ones as beings on this planet who had souls which were older than history. Souls who could speak to each other across the room without moving their mouths. He and my Grandmother both confirmed that they had many conversations and sensed when the other one was in danger from many miles away. They would find one another without knowing where the other one had gone by this same ability. He never claimed it was a trait which was passed down to his children or grandchildren, but the story definitely stuck with me. My parents dismissed my grandparents as just being eccentric and prone to telling tales, but I was moved.

Skip to my 18th year and being introduced to a group of friends who liked to play Dungeons and Dragons. Among the rulebooks and guidebooks was a copy of Deities and Demigods. I like reading reference books, so I began devouring this one and learning about all of these mythical deities from ancient lore or absolute fiction. As I went through the book, I came across a group of beings known as the Old Ones. The description was not even close to being humanoid, but they did communicate through thought. Reading more into the description, the person who wrote of these beings was named as being H.P. Lovecraft. I really liked that name. It stuck with me.

I couldn't find any books by Lovecraft in the mall bookstores. We used to keep our bookstores in these things called malls, by the way. Of course, I was also looking in the completely wrong section. I thought anything about these gods would be in the New Age or Occult section. I had no idea it was fiction.

By the time I finally found works by this man I had seemed to be chasing through the shadows of time, I was raising a family of small humans myself. I did not have a lot of time or resources, but I did what I could and saved as much money as I could to buy anything Lovecraft-associated. The library was in walking distance, but the only book they carried with Lovecraft's name on it was a Biography. Though the biographer was quite generous with his forgiveness for Lovecraft's personal beliefs, I resolved to never venture beyond his works of fiction. I'm certain I would not have found common ground with him in a social setting beyond our mutual love of science fiction and weird tales.

I finally read every work of fiction, including his book of poems, Fungi From Yuggoth. The experiences I have had throughout my life after exploring Lovecraft have been seasoned exactly as I would have wanted them to be. I read his stories over and over again. I have purchased illustrated versions of his stories, special editions, and children's books for my grandchildren so future generations can be as weird as I am some day. I have travelled to his hometown of Providence and picked up a little map from an affiliate of the HPLHS, Lovecraft Arts and Sciences so I could walk the streets he walked. If you ask nicely, they even give directions to a person's house who made an entire life-size Lovecraft statue and allows nice visitors to take pictures. Don't bother knocking, they don't want to be bothered. Just take your pictures and be kind to their property.

I have attached a picture of my new Lovecraft shelf. I have a lot more to put up here, but I just started this shelf. My most prized pieces are my Cthulhu Zippo and Lovecraft Bobblehead. I hope my fellow HPLHS pen-pal Gloria gets to see this post and is beside herself with just a touch of envy.

Ludo Fore Putavimus, my friends!

New Game Acquisition

• June 30, 2026

The HPL Experience Abroad

• May 31, 2026

Eternity at Sea

• May 25, 2026

Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Works complete!

• April 30, 2026

REH House Raffle!

• March 15, 2026

Autumn Wendel returns

• March 11, 2026

Steamboat R'lyeh

• February 18, 2026

Narrator Hall of Fame

• February 18, 2026

Prolific audiobook narrator Ray Porter made his Dark Adventure Radio Theatre debut in the most recent episode, "The Blood Red Sphinx", playing the role of movie studio chief Louie Mayfield. Now he has been inducted into the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame. Coincidence? Yes! Ray is terrific and we're very glad he has joined the DART team. We send him our sincerest congratulations.

Azathoth Blues

• February 11, 2026

The first episode of Azathoth Blues, a new audio drama series based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, premieres in one week! Featuring some voices you may recognize from Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, including Kacey Camp and Sean Branney! CHECK IT OUT!

The Robert E. Howard House

• February 11, 2026

The fine folks at The Robert E. Howard Foundation are trying to save the house where Lovecraft's friend REH lived and wrote. We will be contributing to the effort, and hope you'll consider doing so as well!

Cthulhu in a Castle!

• February 3, 2026

The fine folks at Cthulhu in a Castle are mounting two fantastic weekends of TTRPG fun at the Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Penn. this summer. It's your chance to play Masks of Nyarlathotep or another amazing Call of Cthulhu campaign in an amazing setting, run by expert Keepers with dedicated fellow players from all over. And they'll be using our deluxe prop set! Check it out!

The Sphinx is Released

• January 21, 2026

At long last Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Blood Red Sphinx is complete and is now available for download! Those who preordered will soon get (if they haven't already gotten) an email with a download link to the audio, and the prop packages are now being shipped worldwide!

Gaming

• January 20, 2026

Sean Branney is cooking up a new HPLHS Call of Cthulhu® adventure, and an intrepid group of players joined him at headquarters to playtest it. Two sessions down, with probably one to go!

Golden Mirrors

• December 30, 2025

We are very pleased to be able to offer once again the Golden Mirror from Masks of Nyarlathotep. Originally part of the Super Deluxe Masks Prop Set, we have a limited supply of these awesome props a la carte. Get one while they last!

Lovecraft Ezine Podcast

• December 11, 2025

Sean and Andrew were delighted to join host Mike Davis on his podcast to talk about "The Blood Red Sphinx", "Purgatory Chasm" and other topics! Thanks to Mike for his interest and hospitality!

International Spark SNAFU

• November 7, 2025

International shipping is a very moving target, with tariffs and regulations and customs constantly changing. To our great chagrin, we recently became aware of a prohibition on shipping electronic devices to overseas addresses. Because of this, we have been compelled to cancel and refund most international orders for The Spark Devil, which contains an electronic device. As a workaround, we have created a new “International Edition” that omits the custom "Spark Angel" Bluetooth speaker, but is otherwise identical. Because we’re not including a speaker with the International Edition, the price and weight of the shipment is slightly reduced. We are now working as swiftly as we can to notify all international customers who have pending orders, and get them sorted out with the new International Edition as economically as possible. All international customers will see only the International Edition available in our online store.

A number of original Spark Devil orders were shipped overseas without incident, and we deeply regret that we were only informed of this shipping issue at such a late date. The good news is that any sufficiently small Bluetooth speaker will work great with the prop radio included in The Spark Devil. International customers who want the Spark Angel speaker we originally designed to go with the game are invited to email us, and we can put together a custom order for them using a carrier that does not have the prohibition on electronic devices.

We heartily apologize for any inconvenience to our international customers. We have no control over international shipping policies, customs duties or tax rates, but will do our very best to accommodate everyone to the best of our ability.

The Spark Devil

• October 20, 2025

We are now shipping our latest gaming project: The Spark Devil. Because of limited space here at HQ, shipping will take place in waves. We will load up boxes and ship them out, then prepare another set and ship them out as quickly thereafter as possible. We are very grateful to all who placed pre-orders for the game, and assure you we will ship them out in the order in which they were received as quickly as we can.

The Spark Devil

• September 9, 2025

We are now taking pre-orders for our latest gaming project: The Spark Devil. This is a complete adventure for Call of Cthulhu®, licensed by Chaosium. The Spark Devil is an original scenario written by the HPLHS' Sean Branney with a fantastic set of props created by Andrew Leman. The adventure makes extensive use of real Providence history and locations to create the most authentic setting possible. Investigators can explore Lovecraft's home town as they strive to stave off an entirely new Mythos threat. Both newcomers to Call of Cthulhu and seasoned veterans will find this story an engaging mystery filled with perilous surprises. The deluxe box set measures 13.5 x 11.75 x 4.5 inches and weighs almost 5 pounds. We expect the game will be shipping by mid-October.

HPL Film Festival

• September 6, 2025

Two weeks from today we will be performing Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: "The Temple" LIVE on stage at the Hollywood Theater in Portland, Oregon. The show will feature some exciting guest actors, and will be accompanied by live music on the mighty Wurlitzer organ by Dean Lemire. If you can get yourself to Portland, it should be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And that's not all! Our movie of The Call of Cthulhu will be returning to the HPLFF for a 20th Anniversary screening and Q&A! It will be the opening night feature at 7:40 PM, and also accompanied LIVE on the Wurlitzer pipe organ. Even if you've seen the film before, you've never seen it like this. Card-carrying HPLHS members can collect two bonus stamps during the weekend. And we'll be vending some of our newest offerings in the theater lobby. Please come say hello!

M.U. Podcast

• September 1, 2025

We were delighted to join in to the Miskatonic University Podcast episode 331 to talk about some of the many things recently released! Thanks to Bridgett and Evan for their gracious hospitality!

Purgatory Chasm!

• July 25, 2025

At long long last, after years of technical issues, platform changes, and other unexpected obstacles, we are very happy to announce the release of Purgatory Chasm! Years in the making, this epic episode of Dark Adventure "Two-Way" Radio Theatre offers a thrilling interactive story hosted by longtime friend of the HPLHS, Nick Offerman! Some few were allowed to beta test it, and some other few heard a live version in Providence years ago, and now we're ready to make it available to YOU!

Audio Props

• July 25, 2025

We are happy to release the first volume of Audio Props. Created for tabletop gamers playing Call of Cthulhu™ and Delta Green's "God's Teeth", these fun audio files bring new life to your gaming. This first volume includes scenarios from Chaosium's "Pulp Cthulhu", "Mansions of Madness" and "Cthulhu by Gaslight™", in addition to Arc Dream Publishing's disturbing game set in the modern era. More audio props are in the works: stay tuned!

Dagon Collection Nominated

• July 24, 2025

We were delighted to learn that The Dagon Collection has been nominated as "Best Anthology" for a World Fantasy Award. The HPLHS' own Sean Branney and Andrew Leman contributed one of the many items in the book, and Andrew did the graphic design. Nate Pedersen is the editor. The winner of the award will be announced at the convention on November 2nd.

The H.P. Lovecraft Experience

• July 9, 2025

We are extremely happy to announce that a project we have been working on for about a year is nearly ready for release.The H.P. Lovecraft Experience is a new and deluxe edition of the collected works of HPL presented in a dynamite embossed case with cover art by friend of the HPLHS Lee Moyer. S.T. Joshi provided the edited texts of the fiction itself, and Sean and Andrew of the HPLHS wrote the introduction and a reader's guide to ten of the most significant tales. The set also comes with a bunch of Miskatonic University ephemera, including a course book, diploma, decals and more. It has been lavishly produced by Insight Editions and will be available for sale nationwide by mid-August. Currently available for pre-order!

ChaosiumCon Australia

• June 20, 2025

Sean and Andrew will be heading off to Melbourne to be international guests of honor at Chaosium Con Australia, 27-29 June at the Moonee Valley Racing Club. They are scheduled to run a number of games, including two adventures currently in development for imminent(?) release and the Arkham Sanitarium Sanity Assessment. They will also present a 20th Anniversary screening of The Call of Cthulhu at the Sun Theatre in Yarraville on 26th June (ticketed separately). There will be bonus stamps for attending members for both the Con and the screening!

Gilman House Lounge Hospitality Set

• June 20, 2025

We are enormously pleased now to be shipping the Gilman House Lounge Hospitality Set! It's a delightful little box full of whimsical accoutrements that you might find in your room at the Gilman House Hotel in Innsmouth. It can be used as a prop in a game set in Lovecraft's fictional seaside town, or as a collectible in its own right.