by Rick Hershey (Illustrator), Adrian Kennelly (Author)
Tomes of Cthulhu is a generic supplement for horror games based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. It describes in detail 20 different books, plus alternative editions and original sources for some of them, of esoteric and sometimes forbidden knowledge that are a common theme in Lovecraftian horror.Each book has its name, and author, if known, as well as details on its appearance, when and how it was published, again if known, and what sort of knowledge might be found in it, which includes a Least to Greatest approximation for how much general knowledge, and its effect on the reader's sanity, might be found in a book. The language and physical description of the books are also included. Some of these books are by genuine historical characters, although the books themselves are not. One book is actually real. The majority were written prior to 1930, at least in the first edition, some many centuries before that, with a spike in English translations in the late 19th century.Some sample titles are:
Novum Organum Occulta by Francis Bacon, also available in the 19th century as Francis Bacon's New Instrument of the Occult.
Giants in the Earth by Private Tommy Atkins, also available in a second edition.
The Sunken Civilisation of the Caribbean by Dr. Simon Baxter, also detailed are the stone tablets the author discovered.