What time (year) do most Mythos stories take place?

[Mo!]

I'm toying with an idea for basing some games in a Dutch mythos setting but i'm not sure when to let it take place in the dutch historie...

In Oudewater there was a Heksenwaag that was the scene for many witchscares and trials. But that was probably befor most New England Salem/Arkham stories take place...

Thanks!

[styx]

I'm toying with an idea for basing some games in a Dutch mythos setting but i'm not sure when to let it take place in the dutch historie...

In Oudewater there was a Heksenwaag that was the scene for many witchscares and trials. But that was probably befor most New England Salem/Arkham stories take place...

Thanks!

Most was written in the 1920's to 1930's....there have been other stories similar by other writes beyond (even to modern times and there has been some stories that reference prior time periods). The nice thing about the Mythos is the timeless feel you can work into the story.

I always thought it would be fun to do either an Old West or Pirates vs Cthulu type story arc....

[Mo!]

Thanks for your trouble but i know when they where written but i feel the stories are set a bit if not alot earlier... some 1800 rather then 1900 but i'm not sure... Call of Cthulhu indeed takes place in the early 1900's so maybe i should stick to that too...

what i like about the original Lovecraft stuff is that there is no real "spoiling" technology... now a days you could probably find R'lyeh on Googlemaps  

Whats the mystery in that...

Pirates vs. Cthulhu i really would dig...

[Plynkes]

The Lovecraft ones are generally set "present day" as far as I can tell, so that would be 20s, 30s. Some are set earlier, there are occasional ones that don't really give a clue as to when they are set, but many explicitly say the year of the events in the story. Such as...

"The Temple" (1920) is set during the Great War, as it is about a U-Boat.

"The Call of Cthulhu" is set in the mid 1920s (1924-25). "The Whisperer in Darkness" is set in 1927, "The Dunwich Horror" in 1928, and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" 1927-28. "At the Mountains of Madness" is 1930-31. These ones are generally set in the year of writing or the year before that.

[LidlessEye]

The settings for Lovecraft's own stories were pretty much all contemporary, so roughly 1915-1935, as were those of most of his immediate 'disciples'.  Lovecraft's own influences date heavily from the late 1800s and early 1900s, but whether these stories actually qualify as mythos tales depends on who you ask.  If you want to get into post-Lovecraft extended mythos territory though, the timeframe is pretty much wide open.  I've read everything from a medieval mystery to distant-future sci-fi with a mythos edge, and it all works, given the Great Old Ones have been with us throughout our history.

[Mo!]

Thanks for all your imput... early 1900's it is! Dutch history here I come...

[Fantasy Fixtures]

I'm toying with an idea for basing some games in a Dutch mythos setting but i'm not sure when to let it take place in the dutch historie...

This is why I like Delta Green, as a Mythos transport.  It takes all the juicy Lovercraftian things and plops them down, squarely in the modern age.  Imagine a group of investigators poking around the death of an importer, only to find that Cultists of an Elder god, complete with AK-47 wielding Tcho-Tcho are behind it. 

Chthullu vs automatic weapons and plastique; how much more fun could that be?

[Plynkes]

Chaosium once did a supplement for their Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game called, as it happens "Strange Aeons" which had three one-off adventures, all of which had non-standard Mythos settings.

One had the PCs as working for the Inquisition (Inquisitors, monks, soldiers of the Inquisition, etc.) in 16th Century Spain; one was set in Elizabethan London and involving the mysterious death of playwright Christopher Marlowe; and the third had a Sci-Fi setting of a Moon base in the future. I believe there was a sequel with all kinds of other settings such as Cavemen, Ancient Greece, Roman Britain, Feudal Japan, the American Civil War, and the Woodstock Festival in 1969(!).

Other populars supplement were "Cthulhu by Gaslight" (Victorian Mythos gaming) and "Cthulhu Now" (modern Mythos gaming).


So as you can see, Mythos gaming can be done in any era you like. There is really no reason to confine yourself to a period you are unfamiliar with or find uninteresting.

[Enethaeron]

Most of the stories are set in the early 1900's but the roots of evil are often older. So you can set your games in the late 1600's for instance and your team can fight the horrible Keziah Mason and his minion Brown Jenkins (the Dreams in the Witch-House) or the terrible experiences of Joseph Curwen (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward).

[Mo!]

What i like alot is how the "truth" of Salem and the escape of the real baddies to made up places like Arkham...

In Holland (the place the most evil of baddies come from) there was a lot of bogus witch persecution so the Heksenwaag was instated to stop corrupt officials from burning/drowning innocent women for profit...

So i'd like to incorporate the real but fague secret dutch/european organisations to be either Mythos badguys or a secret organistation to battle it... or both Sylver Twilight Lodge style...

[Enethaeron]

In Holland (the place the most evil of baddies come from) there was a lot of bogus witch persecution so the Heksenwaag was instated to stop corrupt officials from burning/drowning innocent women for profit...

When did all these events took place?

[thebinmann]

Lovecraft is present day and I seem to remember Sandy Petersen once telling me that you should always set Cthulhu stories/scenarios in your present day so that realism is well real.

I guess set them wherever you think you won't have to much to create in addition to mythos ideas, so players don't stump you with crazy "era" questions.

[Mo!]

I kinda agree... but a lot of the modernday technlogy takes away a lot of mystery... gps/satelites there are no undiscovered/strange places left... modern weapons and such may add a lot of "bang" but it's the whole hopelesness "earth weapons don't affect Mythos creatures, if you escape mad you've won" fibe that make the Mythos so cool and wierd...

Besides 1700 fluff bleeding into the early 1900's isn't so hard to fathom... but that's just me 

[thebinmann]

I kinda agree... but a lot of the modernday technlogy takes away a lot of mystery... gps/satelites there are no undiscovered/strange places left... modern weapons and such may add a lot of "bang" but it's the whole hopelesness "earth weapons don't affect Mythos creatures, if you escape mad you've won" fibe that make the Mythos so cool and wierd...

Besides 1700 fluff bleeding into the early 1900's isn't so hard to fathom... but that's just me 

That's true and for me I always play 1920/30s classic, with a little gaslight... Now I can't stand.

[Mo!]

Besides i'm not going for a full RPG more Strange Aeons like... I'm still in doubt whether ill make a mod for LOTOW (I love those rules) basically adding madness and mythosmagic... or make an unofficiël expension for Strange Aeons...

I also have a lot of Call of Cthulhu rpg books so probably gonna translate those stats to either LOTOW or Strange Aeons...
just really broke so no money for strange aeons rules just now... i do have all the LOTOW and LOTHS books so it's really tempting to use that...