Evil Hat Productions Decry H.P. Lovecraft for Being “a Racist and Anti-Semite,” Continue to Use His Work for Fate of Cthulu Role-Playing Game

Evil Hat Productions Decry H.P. Lovecraft for Being “a Racist and Anti-Semite,” Continue to Use His Work for Fate of Cthulu Role-Playing Game

A recently released table-top role-playing game has sparked controversy after developer Evil Hat Productions directly denounced author H.P. Lovecraft as “a racist and anti-semite” despite their continued use of his mythos and settings to sell their game.

Fate of Cthulu is the newest release by Evil Hat Productions, having debuted to the public earlier this year on January 13th following a massively successful Kickstarter campaign which received a total of $93,894 in funding, more than $70,000 over their initial goal of $20,000.

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The game uses Evil Hat Productions’s original Fate Core system and is based upon the question “what if Cthulhu operated like Skynet?”. The end result features a setting filled with Lovecraftian horrors and time travelling would-be saviors, all vying to either save, destroy, or rule the world.

On January 17th, the official Evil Hat Productions Twitter account tweeted that the development team “were obligated to reflect on the problematic roots of the source material” and posted an image of a page from the Fate of Cthulu rule book featuring the section title “Content and Consent.” It draws specific attention to Lovecraft’s racist views (which were unfortunately common for his time period, though Lovecraft’s views eventually softened) and reasons that the developers and players “can acknowledge the fear behind his imagination while also re-examining what came out of it” before recommending similar works by “writers of color” as reference for world building as an alternative to Lovecraft’s stories.

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While developing Fate of Cthulhu, we were obligated to reflect on the problematic roots of the source material.

We tackle that on page 6.

The mythos is definitely worth exploring – it’s also worth re-examining.https://t.co/v0F853zsM0 pic.twitter.com/6WKcg0eSf2 — Evil Hat Productions (@EvilHatOfficial) January 17, 2020

This tweet was met with backlash, primarily from fans who believed that Evil Hat Productions, despite their supposed issues with Lovecraft’s person, were still comfortable using his name and works to appeal to customers:

>uses Call of Cthulhu as a setting for their game >calls Lovecraft racist >”Here are some PoC authors” Oh cool so why isn’t your game based on those books then? pic.twitter.com/w9ZvrNttQm — MarkyX (@TheMarkyX) January 19, 2020

“Lovecraft was racist so we must treat him and his work as if it’s the Devil, but at the same time we’re creatively bankrupt, love money and he’s really influential. Wait I know, we’ll just call him a big meanie-pants and shill some hacks, then we can steal his shit no problem!” https://t.co/rc57NCeDox — Max (@TheMaxVader) January 20, 2020

I love that they defame him while stealing everything from him bc they couldnt be bothered creating something of their own……Sooooo they have moral standards while being thiefs and smears…..Everybody knows that he was loony still his art ist magnificent — Future Scifi Author (@AngryScale) January 19, 2020

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Following the backlash, Evil Hat Productions took to Twitter to categorize critics as “predictable edgelords” and telling them that they “literally do not want your money”, as the company is “committed to diverse and inclusive gaming”:

Since the predictable edgelords and apologists have now shown up, a quick reminder:

If you don’t like the politics included in our games, don’t buy them.

We literally do not want your money.

We are committed to diverse and inclusive gaming.

We’re not perfect, but we’re trying. — Evil Hat Productions (@EvilHatOfficial) January 20, 2020

Creative Director and game designer Stephen Blackmoore would join the conversation days later, justifying the team’s decision in a lengthy Twitter tirade by stating that Lovecraft “was a racist motherf*****, and we couldn’t in good conscience ignore that” before dismissing critics as “probably white people” and telling them to repeatedly “F— OFF”

Let me get this straight. In Fate of Cthulhu we specifically pointed out the racism of HP Lovecraft because well, he was a racist motherfucker, and we couldn’t in good conscience ignore that. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

I don’t know about you but if I’m tying my name to a racist motherfucker, I kind of want to make sure people understand why. Racist motherfucker or not he sparked a world that has endured and grown by a lot of much better authors. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

One of the first things we agreed on was Lovecraft Without Racism. Which I think is a pretty worthy goal. I give a flying fuck who plays this game but I want to make sure it doesn’t alienate anybody. So this appears to have caused a bit of a ruckus. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

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Seems a lot of people (probably white people) have a problem with us having done this. YOU GOT POLITICS IN MY GAME!!!!! Evil Hat’s stance is you don’t like it, don’t buy it. I back that 10000%. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

If you have a problem with racism being called out in a game you’re probably the kind of person who really should have racism called out to you period. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

Now the funny thing to me are all the responses of “If you want people to buy your game, you shouldn’t tell them to fuck off.” Oh, snowflake, if I want to tell you to fuck off I will tell you to FUCK OFF. Happily. Repeatedly. With a bullhorn. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

So as the *looks at credits page* Creative Director (whatever the hell that means) of the game allow me to say to those of you who have a problem with us pointing out that Lovecraft was a racist motherfucker. Fuck off. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

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In fact fuck off and continue to fuck off. Fuck off until there is no off to fuck. Exhaust your fucks with their offness. Fuck the hell off far and wide. Fuck off in a plane, on a train. Fuck off on a wild palomino racing across the American desert in search of fucks to off — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

So in case I’m not making myself clear, in case there is any doubt as to my stance, FUCK OFF. — Stephen Blackmoore (@sblackmoore) January 23, 2020

What do you make of Evil Hat Productions and Stephen Blackmoore’s stance on H.P. Lovecraft?

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