Yesterday, I arrived home to find a mysterious package awaiting for me… To be fair, this isn’t a rare occurrence for me, given I do a LOT of my shopping online. Part of me feels sorry for the poor postman that has to deliver these… but then I remember the goodness that’s contained within 😉
This one particular package got me thinking though. It was marked as having come from Sofia. “What the hell have I ordered from there!?” I thought. We’d recently played the Sofia chapter in “Horror on the Orient Express” but that’s about the only thing that my poor little memory could come up with. So, I opened it up, wondering what I might find, and I was confronted by the horror below!
A beer mug and a tiki mug in the guise of the Great Old One himself – items I’d pledged for on Kickstarter a loooooong time ago that had finally arrived. Part of my confusion was that I’d got it in my head that they were going to be shipped from Scotland. Who knows, maybe they did… they just ended up going a LONG way round.
This got me thinking about Cthulhu themed Kickstarters. Now, as many of my friends know, I back a lot of projects on Kickstarter (normally by getting a notification from the website to say “Hey, Matt’s backed another project!” or when I post links up on Facebook and G+ to projects that I think others further afield might be interested in). Admittedly, I’ve backed quite a few projects now (126 to date) and have had to build a spreadsheet to keep track of what I’ve pledged for, what rewards I have received, what I am still waiting for, etc. When I went back to have a look at them, I found that of the 126 I’ve backed, 31 of them have been related to Cthulhu or Lovecraft in general. I know, I can hear the gasps of shock and surprise now, dear reader 😉
There’s quite a lot of different projects up there that have been inspired by the Mythos, and I thought it would be a nice theme for an article to write up which one’s I’ve seen up there, showcasing some of the good stuff that crowdfunding has made possible.
For those unfamiliar with Kickstarter, the premise is pretty simple. Someone comes up with a nice idea for a product that they would like to create. They need money to make it happen. They go to Kickstarter and create a page that states if they received X amount of cash, the product will become a reality. The page remains open for about a month or so, in which time backers can pledge varying amounts to receive a variety of rewards. If it doesn’t hit it’s funding goal, no money is taken. If it reaches the goal, they take the cash, and then backers wait to receive the product once it’s ready. This can take a varying length of time, depending on the complexity of the product in question.
First off though, projects currently running.
Cthulhu Britannica: London Box Set
A huge box-set for the Cthulhu Britannica line by Cubicle 7.
Call of Cthulhu, the Writhing Dark Playing Cards and Tarot
A deck of playing cards, a tarot deck, and more extras being added as stretch goals are being hit.
A deck of playing cards and a nice Cthulhu idol-container.
The following campaigns have already come to an end – some products being readily available, others are still in production.
A Study in Emerald
A board game based on the Mythos short story of the same name by Neil Gaiman.
Achtung Cthulhu
RPG set in WW2, pitting the Allies against the horrors of the Mythos.
Baby’s First Mythos
Third edition of the book every cultist’s child should be brought up reading 😉
Blasphemous Cocktails
Ahhh, if ever there was a perfect book for me 🙂 A cocktail guide with Mythos inspirations.
Bumps in the Night
A collection of scenarios featuring non-Mythos content from Pagan Publishing for Call of Cthulhu.
Call of Cthulhu Playing Cards
A deck of playing cards (one of many!).
Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, a project very dear to us over at The Good Friends of Jackson Elias!
Cthulhu & Zombie Mugs
A project that originally started as just Zombie head mugs, but then partnered with Actung Cthulhu to offer Cthulhu-head mugs.
Cthulhu Christmas Cards
Just the kind of seasons greetings cards that every cultist wants to get 🙂
Cthulhu the Great Old One Card Game
Sadly, this one didn’t achieve enough funding, but it would have been a tarot-card sized card games based on Old Maid.
Cthulhu the Great Old One Playing Cards
The artwork for the project above was adapted and became a successfully funded playing card deck project!
Cthulhu Ski Mask
Produced by Toy Vault, of plush Cthulhu fame, just what every cultist needs to keep warm on those long cold nights out in the wildness summoning eldritch horrors 🙂
Cthulhu vs the Vikings
A graphic novel adaptation of a popular web comic, along with a viking board game, featuring Deep One pieces.
Cthulhu Wars
The massive board game (which Paul got to play at GenCon this year) of Mythos battles across the world. It was originally envisioned as a computer game, but the project didn’t successfully fund. When it relaunched as a board game, it was a massive success.
The Doom that Came to Fiddle Creak
A puppet theater show of Mythos horror. Yeah, you heard me right – puppets!
The Horror in Clay
A project predating the Cthulhu & Zombie mug campaign, solely producing Cthulhu-style tiki mugs.
Horror on the Orient Express
The re-release of the classic campaign, expanded and updated for 7th Edition.
Island of Ignorance
The Third Cthulhu Companion, following the previous Chaosium releases, this time from Golden Goblin Press.
The Littlest Lovecraft
A cute little graphic adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu story as a children’s book. They also did some wonderful little gold coin mementos that you could add to your pledge.
The Littlest Shoggoth
A cartoon book for the festive period telling the story of the world’s smallest Shoggoth and how he rises to power as Christmas – definitely got a giggle out of me 🙂
Mask of the Other
Audio-book release of a Lovecraftian novel by Greg Stolze. I love his work!
Necronomicon Playing Cards
Another Mythos inspired playing card deck.
Puffed Shoggoths
An art book, featuring works inspired by the Mythos and various individual Lovecraft stories.
Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man
The Dreamlands campaign from Arc Dream Publishing for Call of Cthulhu.
Steampunk Cthulhu Playing Cards
Yet another Mythos inspired playing card deck.
Through a Glass Darkly
The latest Delta Green novel (and the first project I backed on Kickstarter!)
Tremulus
A game of Lovecraftian horror using the Apocalypse World system.
The Very Hungry Cthulhupillar
Another example of how to expose children to the Mythos! Get them whilst they’re young 😉
Cthulhu projects appear all the time on the site. I usually search for “Cthulhu” and “Lovecraft” every couple of days to keep on top of new projects. There’s a lot more up there admittedly that I haven’t linked to, but in most cases (like the ones above) the trend is that almost all of them are fully funded, and more.
For the moment, at least, it looks like there’s going to be plenty of Mythos goodness to get your tentacles into on Kickstarter!
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