329: Cthulhu and Board Games, with Paula Deming

We’re back and we’re wiping ichor off our meeples. Cthulhu and board games can be a messy combination, but also a popular one. Cynics may tell you that this is because Cthulhu is in the public domain, so anyone can slap his tentacles on a game for a bit of brand recognition. We prefer to think the truth is more insidious than that, however. Every die roll, every card played, every token moved towards its inevitable doom is done in Cthulhu’s most terrible name, the terrible luck of the players and the curses they utter when they lose sustaining him deep beneath the waves. Plus, they’re a fun way to pass the time until the stars come right.

Main Topic: Cthulhu and Board Games

Cthulhu’s tentacles have wriggled their way into every aspect of popular culture, and board games are no exception. Lovecraftian horror has been part of board games for as long as Call of Cthulhu has been around, and it’s only grown in popularity. But what are some of the main Cthulhu-tainted board games people should look out for? And what are our own experiences of playing them?

Our Guest Host

We are delighted to welcome Paula Deming to The Good Friends of Jackson Elias! Paula is an actress and YouTuber making entertainment-focused videos about board games on her channel Things Get Dicey, and talking about board games on the comedy panel show This Game is Broken. She plays tabletop RPGs with the Glass Cannon Network and Ain’t Slayed Nobody, and you can find her as a regular cast member on Push the Roll With Ross Bryant.

Links

Things we mention in this episode include:

• Cthulhu in popular culture
• The Calyx
• Love Letter
• Lovecraft Letter
• Cthulhu board game list on BoardGameGeek
• Illuminati
• Illuminatus! by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
• Theosophy
• At the Mountains of Madness by HP Lovecraft
• HP Lovecraft archive list of Lovecraftian board games
• Dark Cults
• Magic: the Gathering
• Arkham Horror (1987)
• Arkham Horror (2005)

• Candy Land
• Fantasy Flight Games
• Eldritch Horror
• Curse of the Dark Pharaoh expansion for Arkham Horror
• The King in Yellow expansion for Arkham Horror
• Talisman
• Innsmouth Horror expansion for Arkham Horror
• Dunwich Horror expansion for Arkham Horror
• Miniatures for Arkham Horror
• Judge Dredd board game
• Masks of Nyarlathotep expansion for Eldritch Horror
• Beyond the Mountains of Madness expansion for Eldritch Horror
• Gen Con
• UK Games Expo

• Shadow of K’s-Birlcess
• Replays
• Call of Cthulhu in Japan
• Japanese TV adaptation of “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”
• Creatures & Cultists
• Cults Across America
• Cthulhu 500
• The Hills Rise Wild
• Pagan Publishing
• Call of Cthulhu CCG
• Mythos CCG
• Vampire: the Eternal Struggle
• Kult CCG
• Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game

• Into the Darkness
• Tabletop Simulator
• Cthulhu: Death May Die
• Hastur
• Cthulhu Wars
• HorrorClix
• Risk
• “The Whisperer in Darkness” by HP Lovecraft
• “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” by HP Lovecraft
• The Merchant of Venice
• 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Mansions of Madness

• Elder Sign
• The Stars Are Right
• Paula’s video on the Horror on the Orient Express board game
• Horror on the Orient Express
• Munchkin Cthulhu
• Cthulhu Gloom
• Cthulhu Fluxx
• Crypt of Cthulhu
• Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu
• Pandemic
• Unfathomable
• Battlestar Galactica board game
• Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow

• Do You Worship Cthulhu?
• Don’t Mess With Cthulhu
• Coup
• The Resistance
• Blood on the Clocktower
• The Doom That Came to Atlantic City
• ConTingency
• Fluxx
• BANG!
• Cthulhu retheme of BANG!
• Munchkin
• Cthulhu Dice
• Y’all of Cthulhu

News

The Great God Pan

You may have noticed four bonus episodes in your podcast feed this month. These were the festive ghost story readings of Arthur Machen’s classic weird tale “The Great God Pan”, directed by our good friend Mike Perceval-Maxwell of Mr Spike’s Bedtime Stories. These readings took place on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord server, where you can find story readings throughout the year offered by our wonderful listeners.

We would like to thank Mike for all his hard work in making this happen, and to thank all the readers who brought it to life: Andy Goodman, Anthony Lee-Dudley, Brian Murphy, Graham Walmsley, Jen Fridy, Sarah Dovey, and Sue Savage.

You can also find our previous Christmas ghost stories below.

• “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
• “The Canterville Ghost” by Oscar Wilde
• “The Viy” by Nikolai Gogol
• “Told After Supper” by Jerome K Jerome
• “The Searcher of the End House” and “The Horse of the Invisible” by William Hope Hodgson

Matt on the Innsmouth Book Club

Matt recently joined our good friends Rob Poyton and Tim Mendees over on the Innsmouth Book Club podcast, discussing Call of Cthulhu and his own contributions to the game. He also did a reading from Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Maze of the Enchanter” for their sister podcast Strange Shadows.

Blasphemous Tome Issue 14

Issue 14 of The Blasphemous Tome will be going out in early January of 2026. This bumper issue includes two new scenarios by Matt and Scott, presenting loose conceptual sequels to “A Social Responsibility” and “Blackwater Creek”.

Anyone backing us at the $5 level or higher at the end of December will receive a print copy of the Tome, signed by our own gnarled hands. Backers at the $3 level will receive a voucher for a heavily discounted print-on-demand copy, and every backer will receive the PDF.