In this episode, The Delapore Media Podcast comes full circle as I return to the topic of what it takes to be a contemporary Lovecraftian. I also begin my exploration of a book I have been wanting to read since I started this podcast: Bobby Derie's Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos. What results is a discussion of Lovecraft's masculinity, his social life in New York, the heartbreak of a poet, and the horrors that happen behind closed doors.

All this, and an unexpected package...

Thank you to Peter Rawlik for being such a good sport!

Peter's work can be found at: www.peterawlik.com

Information on Peter's newest collection is available at: https://weirdhousepress.com/products/in-the-shadow-of-the-eldritch-and-other-lovecraftian-horrors

If you would like your name and/or a revalant product to appear in an interstitial sketch, contact me at [email protected] to discuss advertsing.

Sources for this Episode

Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos, by Bobby Derie, 2014

"Of Gold and Sawdust," by Samuel Loveman from The Occult Lovecraft, 1975

Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein blog entry on "Of Gold and Sawdust," by Bobby Derie, May, 2025.

"The Pathetick Adventures of Sir Wilful Wildrake," by H.P. Lovecraft, as published in The Ancient Track: The Complete Poetical Works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Additional thanks to Bobby Derie for an insightful discussion on Bluesky.

Reading: "The Outsider," by H.P. Lovecraft.

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

CapCut, and Brighid Wall

Upcoming Events for Delapore Media

The Innsmouth Literary Festival in Bedford, UK: Sept 19, 2026.

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

In this episode, Delapore Media treads forbidden paths in the deep woods, searching for ways to understand witchcraft and how to use its folklore as inspiration for cosmic horror ttrpgs and fiction. We will watch as Margaret Murray attempts to "reconstruct" a religion from puritanical witchfinder lore, see what horrors assault Newfoundlanders in their beds and who might be responsible, and observe modern Neo-Pagans at play.

All this, and a persistent barnyard visitor with dangerous appetites.

IMPORTANT: Help Helena Real Fund Her Refugee Asylum Claim in Canada

Primary Resources

The Witch-Cult in Western Europe, Margaret Murray, 1921.

Making Witches: Newfoundland Traditions of Spells and Counter-Spells, Barbara Rieti 2008.

Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America, Sabina Magliocco 2004.

Additional Resources

The Terror that Comes in the Night, David Hufford, 1982.

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale, Written and Directed by Robert Eggers, 2015.

"The Dreams in the Witch House," H.P. Lovecraft, 1933.

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

CapCut, and Brighid Wall

Upcoming Events for Delapore Media

The Innsmouth Literary Festival in Bedford, UK: Sept 19, 2026.

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

This episode of the Delapore Media Podcast continues our exploration of Amanda Montell's Cultish: the Language of Fanaticism. This time, we will look at what happens when cult leaders reinvent themselves for the 21st century with MLM schemes, health and wellness fads, and viral videos. At same time we will be asking: how does cosmic horror adapt to the evolving landscape of cults? Is that a shoggoth hawking skincare? In your spin instructor a soul-eating sorcerer? Is that Nyarlathotep at the top of the pyramid scheme? Answers to these questions and more await…

Readings From

Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, vol. 2., eds. David E. Shultz and S.T. Joshi.

The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia, Daniel Harms.

"The Shadow Out of Time," H.P. Lovecraft.

Primary Source

Cultish: the Language of Fanatacism, Amanda Montell, 2021

Additional Sources

The Dollop Episode 703-William Penn Patrick

The Dollop Episode 613-SoulCycle

The Secret

The Zizians

Roko's Basalisk

Spiralists

Tell Me I'm Worthless, Allison Rumfitt. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57307172-tell-me-i-m-worthless

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias

The Innsmouth Book Club

I will be a guest at the Innsmouth Literary Festival on September 19th, 2026!

https://www.innsmouthgold.com/innsmouth-literary-festival

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

CapCut, and Brighid Wall

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

On the tenth episode of the Delapore Media Podcast we discuss cults. The cultist often comes off as an oversimplified, homicidal and/or suicidal zealot in Lovecraftian TTRPGs and pulp stories of cosmic horror. This episode applies the Lovecraftian gaze on the human factors that make this kind of fanaticism possible and considers how to use those ideas in storytelling.

With Amanda Montell's Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism (2021) as our principal text, and corresponding examples of cults in Lovecraft's short stories, we dive into the histories of three cults that gained prominence in The Post War United States. We examine cult techniques for attracting and maintaining the devotion of followers, we consider the fallout from these organizations, and we look for lessons that we can apply to fictional cults we create for our cosmic horror TTRPGs and other creative works.

Warning: This podcast contains candid discussion of mass suicide and sexual abuse, including recordings of cult leaders discussing the same.

Readings from the works of H.P. Lovecraft

The Call of Cthulhu

The Haunter of the Dark

The Shadow Over Innsmouth

Additional Works Cited:

Neonomicon, Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows (2011)

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, contains excellent summaries of the cults discussed in this episode. If you would like additional information these cults, consider these resources:

Peoples Temple article in Jacobin.

Heaven's Gate Podcast.

Behind the Bastards Episodes on L. Ron Hubbard.

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

CapCut, and Brighid Wall

L. Ron Hubbard, "Thank You for Listening" (1986).

"Father Dagon" written and performed by Stephen Wall as Zadok Allen and voices of the Innsmouth Boys Choir.

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

This episode takes on the complex task of portraying ethnic and cultural groups in Lovecraftian horror, with particular emphasis on colonized peoples. Thankfully, we have the poetry of featured author Bryan Thao Worra to serve as waypoint and respite as we answer the racist caricatures of the Lovecraftian past with foundational works of modern anthropology and ethnography. There are better, more realistic ways to portray the Cthulhu Mythos' corruptive influence on human groups. We can write fiction and TTRPGs that account for cultural context, maligning rumor, and the other everyday social practices that help cosmic horrors do their terrible work and hide in plain sight.

Featured Author: Bryan Thao Worra

Before We Remember We Dream. 2020

Demonstra: Lao American Art and Poetry, 2013. Art by Vongduane Manivong.

THAOWORRADOME A blog of Laotian American Writer Bryan Thao Worra and various guests dicussing Lao American Literature

Additional Works Referenced

Derleth and Schorer. "Lair of the Start Spawn," 1932. Republished in Magazine of Horror 1966--starting on page 8.

Robert M. Price ed. Tales of the Lovecraft Mythos, 1992.

Victor Lavalle, The Ballad of Black Tom, 2016.

Renato Rosaldo. Grief and a Headhunter's Rage, 1989.

Clifford and Marcus. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, 1986.

Edward W. Said. Orientalism, 1977

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

CapCut, and Brighid Wall

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

I was so inspired by my discussion with Jacqueline Bryk, I decided to take a walk through the haunted neighborhoods of Lovecraft Country and provide my own thoughts on the connections between cosmic horror and the family. Join me, as I peer through the dingy basement windows of the eponymous Shunned House, examine the two fictional families at the heart of the tale, and then consider familial pressures in H.P. Lovecraft's life by reading a few childhood letters he received from his maternal grandfather.

Works and Authors Discussed

The Shunned House, by H.P. Lovecraft

H.P. Lovecraft: Letters of to Family and Family Friends, Hippocampus Press

Clifford Geertz

In the Mountains of Madness

Voluminous: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

and Brighid Wall

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

Author, Editor, and Game Designer Jacqueline Bryk returns to the Delapore Media Podcast to give her takes on horror literature, her current reads and all-time favorites, and provide extensive commentary on the connections between two subjects: cosmic horror and the family. This episode is full of inspiration, direction, and novel approaches from an experienced game developer. It is not to be missed, especially if you are looking for something new and meaningful to bring to the table when you write or run your next horror game.

Jacqueline Bryk

Social Media: @rufflejax.bsky.social

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/rufflejax

Works and Authors Referenced

Ruthanna Emrys

Delta Green Shotgun Scenario Contest

Ursla K. Le Guin

Margaret Atwood

V. C. Andrews

Alison Rumfitt

Andrew Joseph White

Augustina Bazterrica

A Certain Hunger, Chelsea G. Summers

A Single, Numberless Death, Nora Strejilevich

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN, available at DriveThruRPG.

A Miskatonic Repository Scenario for the Call of Cthulhu RPG

This vampire horror scenario is set retro 90s Middle America and follows church moms and goth kids as they discover the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting, 6 pre-generated characters, maps, and art by DG Monsters, DNS, and Murphy Knox.

In this episode, I'm privileged to present my interview with TTRPG designer Jacqueline Bryk. Jacqueline is prolific editor and writer who has worked on a wide variety of games including Kult: Divinity Lost, Exalted, Scion, and World of Darkness. February marks the release of her latest solo TTRPG project: Bear Witness, available through Plus One EXP Zine Club. This solo journaling game is an homage to the transgressive 2008 French horror film Martyrs, directed by Pascal Laugier. I talk to Jacquelyn about what inspired her, how she developed the game, and we share a discussion of my play-through experience. We also discuss the American suburbs as a horror setting and some of the more monstrous qualities of the nuclear family.

Content Warning: Bear Witness is a transgressive horror TTRPG that describes the systematic kidnapping and torture of helpless individuals, all beneath a layer of suburban banality and nonchalance that serves to heighten the cruelty and inhumanity perpetrated by the player character. Both my discussion with Jacqueline Bryk and my notes from my play-through of the game reflect these facts.

Jacqueline Bryk

Blue Sky: @rufflejax.bsky.social

Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/rufflejax

BEAR WITNESS IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

https://plusoneexp.com/products/bear-witness-1

Notes for My Play-Through of Bear Witness

https://delaporemedia.wordpress.com/bear-witness-play-through/

Musical Theme: Gothic by Cyber Angel

This is a bonus minisode in which I read a bit from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear." I'm mainly doing this to test some uploading issues, but since this reading was going to end up on the cutting room floor, I figured I might as well share it. Enjoy.

H.P. Lovecraft's "The Lurking Fear" (1923)

Music Credits

Theme by Cyber Angel

Additional Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

Get a Discounted Code of Delapore Media's Call of Cthulhu RPG scenario here:

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN at DriveThruRPG. 60% Off. Only $2 USD!

Or get the code at http://www.delapore.media under the post "Anniversary Sale!"

A vampire horror scenario set in retro 90s Middle America where church moms and goth kids take on the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting.

This episode explores the American suburbs as a unique horror setting and considers how to bring that horror to TTRPGs and other creative works. I'll discuss the origins, failings, and fallout of suburban expansion and consider the shadows that lurk amidst a landscape of cul-de-sacs, perfectly manicured lawns, and two-car garages. I'll show you how suburbia gave birth to a new wave of gothic storytelling and provide some accessible academic resources you can use to plan your stories set in the American suburbs.

So keep up with the Joneses, don't tread on the neighbors' grass, and avoid the baleful gaze of the HOA president as we consider the nightmare of the American Wasteland.

Content Warning: This is a politically charged episode with frequent references to systemic racism and poverty. Also, this episode features readings from the works of Matthew M. Bartlett, a man who's prose would give any would-be censor an apoplectic fit. You have been warned.

Thank you to Matthew M. Bartlett for permission to read from his works. Mr. Bartlett's unique catalogue of surreal and grotesque horror tales and other merchandise is available online at Gare Occult.

Works Referenced:

Eco Gecko, Urban Planning Commentary on YouTube. Particularly the video essay series Suburban Wasteland.

M.A. Kleen, Author and Blogger. Specifically his articles on the Suburban Gothic.

Stephen Graham Jones, Mongrels, 2016.

Matthew M. Bartlett, The Devil's Radio and WXXT Program Guide chapbook series.

Music Credits

Themes by Cyber Angel, Ausku Studio, Pinetreesstudio, STAGEWORKMUSIC, CapCut Music

Additional Music by Brighid Wall

Resources and Products from Delapore Media

Visit Delapore Media for more TTRPG Resources

Get a Discounted Code of Delapore Media's Call of Cthulhu RPG scenario here:

SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN at DriveThruRPG. 60% Off. Only $2 USD!

Or get the code at http://www.delapore.media under the post "Anniversary Sale!"

A vampire horror scenario set in retro 90s Middle America where church moms and goth kids take on the Cthulhu Mythos. A great one-night scenario with a unique setting.