Tinterweb to the rescue - Call of Cthulhu

This is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing column. It's purpose is to help provide GM's (primarily) and players with web based resources for various games and campaigns. It was partly inspired by a similar column in KODT but there was also the problem that my Favourites folder was becoming quite full with all these links.

The first focus will be on one of my favourite games of all time and one that I am giving serious thought at the moment to going back and running again. Namely Call of Cthulhu. For those that don't know about it, Call of Cthulhu (Cthulhu, or CoC for short) is a horror game based on the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, a gothic horror writer whose works focused on the machinations of powerful alien gods and their interaction with humanity. THe stories are set mostly around the 1920's.

For all that the 1920's was a period in our history that’s not too distant and evokes images in our minds of gangsters and speakeasies; flappers and Jazz; skyscrapers and the depression; all too often though the details that make the world come to life are missing though. Did you know that flagpole sitting was a popular sport in the 20's or that men wore flared trousers back then? What did your average labourer wear? These are the kinds of things that help bring an element of believability to the game.

So below is a list of the various resources that I have found useful, ranging from Chaosium's own website and Yog-Sothoth.com to interesting places like Propping up the Mythos, so have a browse over them and I hope some of them prove useful :)

Places of interest:
Chaosium's homepage. Adventures, sheets and more. A lot of these adventures are mirrored on yog-sothoth.com too.
http://www.chaosium.com

Yog-Sothoth.com is a huge resource dedicated to Call of Cthulhu. If you've never been to it then you should do. Right now.
http://www.yog-sothoth.com

and of course never forget the wonders of Wikipedia or Google either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
htp://www.google.com

Google's list of links and resources:
http://www.google.com/Top/Games/Roleplaying/Genres/Horror/Call_of_Cthulhu/

The Mana Brothers Call of Cthulhu pages are full of interesting stuff for all the different setting including Delta Green. It also has a load of alternative setting stuff too.
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine/zenith/134/cthulhu.htm

Propping up the Mythos is an excellent site for help making props for your games:
http://www.miskatonic.net/pickman/mythos/

Cthulhu International seem to have a bunch of interesting things lurking around their site too including a timeline of the Mythos:
http://www.geocities.com/nicodemis_quick/ci/

The H.P.Lovecraft Historical Society produced The Call of Cthulhu short story as a 20's style silent movie. On top of that they have a fantastic resource of free downloadable items that make great props. We carry the Fonts & Props CD-Rom they sell as well which is a fantastic resource full of things like bank books, library cards, driving licences etc:
http://www.cthulhulives.org/toc.html
http://www.cthulhulives.org/store/store.lasso?1=product&2=18

Byakhee is an excellent piece of free software for creating characters and printing blank character sheets from too. IT has add-on’s available that allow you to make almost any character from any of the 3 classic era's or Delta Green. It also incorporates the occupations from a variety of different supplements including the 1920's Investigator's Companion.
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Haven/4173/byakhee.html

Although not directly related, FEEFHS map room contains a bundle of different 19th century (and earlier) maps from around the world. Great if you want to make props or if you intend to run a Gaslight campaign
http://www.feefhs.org/maps/indexmap.html

Tales of Terror has a grand list of story ideas and plot seeds not just for Cthulhu.
http://www.talesofterror.net/

For general information about what’s going on with the game and what’s happening with all things Cthulhu related check out Shoggoth.net
http://www.shoggoth.net/

American Cultural History has a huge list of information about all aspects of life in the 1920’s. It also has an array of interesting links to other sites with similar information.
http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade20.html

The Illinois Trails History and Genealogy site, much like the site above, has a veritable plethora of goodies covering all the major topics of the age. Like above it concentrates on 1920’s America but that’s not necessarily a bad thing given that most of CoC’s adventures are set in the US anyway.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/il/state/alhn1920.html

The Authentic History Centre has a library of images and audio files of the 1920's too. A very well presented site full of visual and audio info.
http://www.authentichistory.com/1920s.html

Ever wandered what people wore in the 20's? Check out fashion-era.com for pictures of costumes and clothes of the era
http://www.fashion-era.com/1920s_pictures.htm

Costumes.org also has a list of links concerning the fashions of the age
http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/1920links.htm

Importantly, this is a site about what MEN wore in the 20's. It may sound odd but the majority of the information that I have found is about womens fashions (and in particular there seems to be a disturbing amount of info on undergarments)
http://www.murrayontravel.com/carolnolan/fashionhistory_1920mens.html

Here are some more links to places I've found for fashion. THere's only so much I can say about clothes before I go cross-eyed so I'll just list them and leave you to it:
http://www.costumegallery.com/yif1920.htm
http://doe.sd.gov/octa/ddn4learning/themeunits/1920s/style.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/1920sfashions/
http://www.vintageblues.com/history2.htm

So, there we go for now. There is a load of more information available out there on the web and if you find anything on your travels that you think might be useful then please feel free to add it here.

Next week I start on Masks of Nyarlathotep; a chapter by chapter breakdown with links.