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By N2H
Welcome to Raph Koster's personal website: MMOs, gaming, writing, art, music, books.

Holmes meets Cthulhu

December 20th, 2006

So Game|Wire mentions this game concept of Sherlock Holmes vs Cthulhu, and apparently it even exists already in a French version. But all I can think of is Neil’s Gamain’s award-winning short story “A Study in Emerald,” which you can download the PDF of, if you want to read it. I guess there’s no connection, and it’s just a case of peanut butter and chocolate seeming obvious.

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12 Responses to “Holmes meets Cthulhu”

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  1. Tales of the Rampant Coyote wrote on

    . There’s a German Demo (700 MB!) available already on Filefront. The gameplay is first-person perspective, but it switches to third person during cut-scenes. You alternate between playing Holmes and Watson. Thanks to Raph for the tip! Labels: Adventure Games - posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 1:35 PM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

  2. Mythos MMO Ruminations « Voyages in Eternity wrote on

    [...] Inspired by this post and comments at Raph’s and this post at Tales of the Rampant Coyote…  [...]

Reader Comments
  1. James Wallis said on

    There’s also Andy Lane’s excellent “All-Consuming Fire” (Virgin, 1994) which considers the question of Sherlock Holmes + Cthulhu mythos and correctly surmises that the only thing that could make the equation more awesome would be adding Doctor Who to it.

  2. Craig Huber said on

    Holmes in a Cthulhu setting was also explored briefly in the Cthulhu by Gaslight PnP RPG expansion from Chaosium.

    The linked Neil Gaiman short story was apparently part of a collection of similar stories? (Shadows over Baker Street, 2003, ISBN ISBN 0-345-45528-2)

    All I can say is, you probably aren’t going to please the hardcore fans of either genre with that kind of cross-over. Sherlockian sages will decry the lack of rationality, while Cthulhu fans will lament the lack of maddening horror. Not sure those two tastes can be mixed: might be more like black licorice and yellow curry than peanut butter and chocolate…

  3. suske said on

    this as a mmo if done right would rock! lovecraft is the father of modern
    sci-fi. i cant belive i didn’t think of this!

  4. suske said on

    all i have to say is: THE STAND mmo.
    This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides-or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail-and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
    if stephen king and raph ever got together, look out!

  5. magicback (Frank) said on

    There are lots of MMO mashups that could be interesting. One day you’re in Sherlock Holmes land and next thing you know, a Great Old One comes along. What’s happening is that a pack of good werewolves are trying to stop a cabal of evil vampires from aligning with a Great Old One too….wait for it…..destroy the world :)

  6. Grimwell said on

    The Stand only works because of the power of the individual. Bring it to the masses (MMO) and you are stuck hunting The Walking Man (Level One - Even Con). Kind of robs the power of the work.

    Flagg is a badass — shows up in many of King’s books. My wife is a huge SK fan and I went through a phase where I read most of what she had — my hobby was spotting Flagg in as many of them as I could.

  7. Ace Albion said on

    A Cthulhu MMORPG, with or without a Holmes style archetype is something I’ve pined for since I knew about MMORPGs. Done right it would be amazing. Of course it wouldn’t be done right, it’d be done like all the rest.

  8. Kev R. said on

    Wow, this crossover has Alan Moore written all over it….anyone got his number? Hehe :)

  9. SandraDickinson said on

    Can Sherlock “discover’ Cthulthu by Sherlock’s usual methods? How would Sherlock need to change in order to solve the Cthulthu mystery? How would Sherlock go about changing himself in order to meet this challenge?

  10. Cael said on

    I can just see this turning into another Gaiman piece very quickly.

    Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar, anyone?

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