Recomposing Lovecraft: Genre Emulation as Autopoiesis in the First Edition of Call of Cthulhu

Recomposing Lovecraft argues that the first edition of Call of Cthulhu (1981) is best understood as a composite of genre emulation rather than a pure horror game. Drawing on Sandy Petersen's own design statement that matching fantasy RPG mechanics to modern horror was "the one paramount design problem," the analysis frames the game through an autopoietic, cybernetic lens, in which genre traits drawn from fantasy RPGs, horror, detective fiction, colonial mystery, and pulp are selected and recombined in response to social needs. The reading is situated in the early Reagan era, with Cold War anxiety, the energy crisis, and popular entertainment of the period serving as its sociohistorical backdrop.

The study identifies a central genre collision: the serious Lovecraftian tone of the game clashes with the dungeon-crawling expectations players brought from Dungeons & Dragons. The sanity mechanic, which Petersen described as producing a "fatalistic or depressing" experience, is presented as the clearest example of this tension. Supporting data include the rulebook's weapon mechanics, which stand in contrast to Lovecraft's relatively sparse firearm references (18 across his collected works, 8 in the rulebook's listed stories), and the gap between player-character hit points (about 11) and Great Cthulhu (over 150). The authors argue that these disparities are resolved by casting colonial and racialized cultists as typical opponents, a choice they interpret as reproducing colonial horror themes already present in Lovecraft's source material.

The analysis extends to the game's colonial perspective, illustrated through an Anthropology-skill example in which a South Asian character is read through caste, religion, and an alleged "Thuggee" affiliation. The authors connect this to the 1920s setting and to player-character privileges of wealth, travel, and institutional access. They note that such colonial elements were partly removed in the fourth edition (1989) but remain structurally embedded. Nostalgia for the 1920s is presented as an escape from early-1980s anxieties, and the game is shown to support both conservative and countercultural readings. The study is grounded in role-playing game studies, Lovecraft criticism, genre theory, and systems theory, drawing on editions from 1981 through 1989.