Lovecraftian Horror by Committee

Joshua Fox and Becky Annison's

Lovecraftesque: A Story Telling Game of Eldritch Horror Mysteries 

 

Black Armada's Lovecraftesque Second Edition.

 Introduction

Lovecraftesque: A Story Telling Game of Eldritch Horror Mysteries is published by Black Armada and written by Joshua Fox and Becky Annison. It is part of a growing genre of cooperative narratively driven board games that blend elements of RPGs and traditional board games together. It might be better to call it a collaborative story telling engine more than a 'game' in the traditional sense of winners and losers. The phenomenal youtube channel, Quinns Quest, did an excellent review of several of these sorts of games late in 2025. The rules booklet is detailed and a bit dry with some art spread about to break up the text. The rules flow very well during actual game play, but take one or two games to really understand. The rigid-ish structure of the rules forces the game into a distinct framework that ensures the players' narrative has clear acts with a distinct arc. Despite this somewhat rigid framework, the game has no problem generating wild and unique stories. I would be shocked if any two of the narratives generated by the game's engine are even remotely similar - even if players use the same scenarios. 

Art and Tone

The art for the game is evocative and does an excellent job of communicating the fear of the unknown that is central to the cosmic horror genre. Some of the art pieces are more surreal than other pieces, but it all holds together well.  I would argue that the best piece of art in the game is either the box art or the board itself. The art direction and graphic design is also quite good and the text layout is good and easily understood.

The board for Lovecraftesque, showcases its art style quite well.

The intended tone of Lovecraftesque is very much that of cosmic horror, but not that of its namesake H.P. Lovecraft. Unlike some Lovecraftian games, Lovecraftesque makes a concerted effort to divorce itself from its namesake's legacy of racism and bigotry in a meaningful manner while preserving the tone of the genre he helped pioneer. This is a worthwhile endeavor and Annison and Fox, I would argue, succeed at it. The core scenarios and the expansion scenarios are all devoid of problematic elements, such as harmful ethnic stereotypes or allegories about the 'evils' of mixed race couples, that are common in some Lovecraftian games and stories even to this day. True, players could lean on these common tropes as they develop out their narratives but the game's text does everything it can to discourage it. I would further argue that many of the scenarios provided actively discourage this. For example, the scenario "Through the Waters, Darkly" from the expansion Waves of Darkness includes a multi-ethnic cast lacking in stereotypes. More explicitly, one of the expansions, Citadels of Shadow, goes so far as to turn the tables on traditional bastions of bigotry - entrenched power structures - and make these organizations the explicit homes of cosmic evil. Two of the scenarios in this expansion stand out as examples: "We Serve and Protect" which deals with police violence and "The Hidden Cabinet" which deals with corruption in the halls of power. I suspect both of these scenarios would be very hard to play through in 2026.

Moreover, the authors helpfully include two sections in the extras manual, "Lovecraft and Race" and "Lovecraft and Mental Health." These sections give examples of Lovecraft's bigotry and advice on how to counteract their influence on the genre during gameplay. I personally found these sections illuminating and useful to how I approach Lovecraft and cosmic horror. 

The extras manual. It has some excellent advice on handling H.P. Lovecraft's problematic legacy.  Read it, implement it.

 

The Ruleset

This is a cosmic horror game that can touch on issues that are painful or actively harmful to some people. However, Annison and Fox clearly want to make the game accessible to as many people as possible, in as safe a manner as possible. To that end the game wisely includes at the very beginning of the rules a section entitled "Making the Game Fun for Everyone," that details several safety tools that are more common in the modern table top role playing space, and an exhortation that they be adjudicated at the start of every game. These tools include a ban list and what are essentially two variations of the X card. 

Annison and Fox's rules are little complex to understand straight out of the box and require careful review by at least one of the players ahead of time in order to guide the rest of the group. However, once things get started the rules flow remarkably well during actual gameplay, as they follow a simple series of gameplay loops. The game can either be played using a custom scenario designed using the guidance contained in the core rules, or by using one of scenarios included with the game or the expansions. 

The game is divided into three acts and the conclusion: Signs and Portents, Impending Doom, Journey into Darkness, and the Final Horror conclusion. These acts are divvied into eighteen distinct scenes across all acts, the conclusion, and the epilogue. Each act has a set of rules that bind the narrator and the witness roles to specific limitations that help shape the structure of the emergent narrative. The rules change four times throughout the game at set intervals, allowing for the escalation of the cosmic horror from the subtle to the overt and violent in a very satisfying manner. 

The Lovecraftesque rules manual. It clocks in at a reasonable 43 pages.

During each scene one player takes on the role of the narrator another the role of witness (ie the main character in the scenario) and everyone else takes on the role of whispers. The narrator controls the story and can play mystery 'clue' cards to add an additional element to the narrative. These elements range from the subtle, like "Unusual Weather", to the more overtly strange such as "Horror Out of Time." Helpfully, each card includes multiple examples of what the clue could be. The witness player is supposed to embody the main character of the scenario and react to scene that the narrator is building. Whispers, on the other hand, are there to interject and add flavor to the scene. Once the narrator is done with a scene the roles are passed on to the next player in line and the process begins anew.  At the end of each of these scenes each player is required to write down what they think the horror is, on either scrap paper or a sheet from the conclusions pad included in the core game. These conclusions are kept secret from the other players in order to prevent collusion and to keep the Final Horror a surprise for everyone involved. This is also a good exercise for helping players keep track of the narrative and organize their thoughts while preserving a strong element of suspense. 

My badly spelled notes and conclusions from our second game.

This loop of narration continues until possibly the end of the seventh or eighth scene wherein the third act, The Journey into Darkness, begins. This third act is much faster, with the game play loop changing to that of each player adding a detail before passing the speaking role on to the next player as the narrative charts the protagonist's journey towards the final confrontation with the horror. The confrontation with the final horror can be trigged at any point from the thirteenth step/ scene through the sixteenth scene by any player who is actively the narrator. It is at this point that the final horror is revealed in a suitably dramatic scene.   

It is important to note that there are a couple of cards that allow the narrator to radically violate the rules for any given act of the game in a profound manner. These special cards can and will change the narrative and structure of the game in an extremely satisfying manner if handled well. 

Play Experience

Annison and Fox's ruleset took my play groups a little while to understand and implement the first time. However, once we understood, the rules were intuitive and worked very well; the core gameplay loop of passing the narrator role around the table worked exactly as intended. The both groups built on each other's additions in a constructive manner generating a plot and story of eldritch terror on the fly.

The first game of Lovecraftesque that we played we built out our own setting and characters using the rules for doing so from the rule book. Our first go at the custom scenario involved a disgruntled college football mascot as the protagonist. It ended with a rakshasa-esque cat and its minions devouring the personality of the protagonist. This game went well enough, though it became a little competitive around the second act as players tried to implement their own vision while incorporating the additions of everyone else. I think this was more do to with us trying to start off our first game with a bespoke scenario rather than an intentionally designed one.

The second game was played with a slightly different group of people, and we tried a scenario from the expansion Waves of Darkness dealing with an isolated research base in the Challenger Deep. This game started out with a bang during the first scene with the narrator playing the special card, "An attack", and destroying a large portion of the Challenger Deep research base. By the end of this narrative our protagonist and the supporting characters were dead, devoured by a monstrous hermit crab monster masquerading as a H.H. Geiger-esque city. This second time things went much smoother, despite two of the special cards being played and radically shifting the story around very quickly. 

During both our games things tended to start out a little silly but slowly became more serious as we grew attached to the protagonist and the suspense increased. During the final few story beats during each game everyone was hanging on the words of everyone else waiting for the final horror to be revealed. The confidentially component of the conclusions and note taking preserved the suspense remarkably well in practice. 

Expansions, Support, and Alternate Game Modes

Lovecraftesque has three expansions: Citadels of Shadow, Echoes of the Past, and Waves of Darkness. Each add several scenarios based around a central theme to the game. Citadel of Shadows adds scenarios focused around the malevolence and corruption of those in power. Echoes of the Past focuses on ancient and lost histories. While the final expansion, Waves of Darkness, deals with oceanic themes and the unknown of the deep depths. Each expansion is well written and thought out, with each of the component scenarios offering a very specific experience. The core game box helpfully includes a tray explicitly designed for the neat inclusion of all three expansions. This sort of nod towards practicality is very welcome! 

Interestingly, rules are included in the extras booklet for solo and two player game modes. This booklet also includes advice on legacy play across multiple sessions with recurring locations and horrors. The game does make it clear that doing legacy play does require players to generate their own cards for use, but it does helpfully provide guidance on how to do so. I suspect that there might be a way to hack this game in manner more closely resembling a traditional RPG as well, with one player taking on the role of narrator for the duration, and the rest of the players acting as a group of witnesses. Though, figuring out the details of such an implementation are beyond the scope of this review.  

Remarkably, Lovecraftesque has an official Roll20 module, that is pretty affordable and functional. It is even possible to conduct a hybrid game using the physical and digital product in unison. Though it is not a simple thing to do, keeping everything synched up between the physical and digital during the heat of game play. 

Conclusion and Recommendation 

Lovecraftesque does a very challenging thing; create a satisfying cosmic / eldritch horror game while distancing itself from problematic elements of the genre. The rules are fantastic and preserve the narrative suspense throughout by masterfully building and preserving tension. I would not play this game with anyone younger then fifteen or sixteen and even then it would need to be a pretty mature teenager given the potential for it to generate nightmare fuel. Regardless, I give this game my highest possible praise - I'll play it again and I am looking forward to it.