The responses were predictable. Thousands of people replied to the tweet. Some praised Evil Hat’s decision, while others logged on to defend Lovecraft from criticism and heap scorn on Evil Hat for daring to point out that a racist was racist. “Since the predictable edgelords and apologists have now shown up," Evil Hat said in response , "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.”

Racism and fear of the unknown powered Lovecraft’s work. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Yet his work is still compelling to many, including myself. The weirder the world gets, the more popular his work becomes. “We can acknowledge the fear behind his imagination while also re-examining what came out of it,” Evil Hat Production said in its content warning.

Fate of Cthulhu is an RPG where players take on the role of time travelers trying to stop a Cthulhu-style apocalypse. It’s inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, who was racist and anti-semitic—vehemently racist and anti-semitic. Because of that, Evil Hat Productions is publishing a content warning on page six of Fate of Cthulhu that calls out the author, and highlights the work of writers of color who’ve reexamined and reinterpreted the author’s work.

When tabletop role-playing game developer Evil Hat Productions announced it had included a content warning on page six of its recently released Fate of Cthulhu game. Many folks praised Evil Hat, but there was also the now predictable tide of hateful bullshit .

Just as important was Fate of Cthulhu’s mature content warning, which encourages gamemasters to communicate with their players about the hard edges of the game and seek their “enthusiastic consent.”

(For this story, Evil Hat's answers were written collectively by several members of the team. So while we're attributing the quotes to "Evil Hat," know they reflect the views of many actual people who work there.)

Evil Hat Productions recently told me they felt it was important to create distance between themselves and Lovecraft. “Evil Hat is committed to creating games that are welcoming and inclusive, and so we had an obligation to separate the art from the artist,” the company said over email. “No one needs to implicitly endorse the bigoted views of HPL [H.P. Lovecraft] just because they find value in the seeds of cosmic horror he planted.”

Tabletop RPGs are intimate experiences. Players and game masters collaborate to tell a story. Some of those stories can include themes of violence, sex, and any number of horrors both supernatural and banal. Increasingly, game designers are including guides and content warnings to help players navigate these themes responsibility. When they do, a vocal contingent online pushes against it. But players and designers say the content warnings and mature playing guides are working as intended—gatekeeping bad elements of the community and providing a framework for sensitive players to deal with mature narratives in a safe environment.

“We think it’s always worth giving both players and game masters a heads-up so they can judge for themselves whether this is the type of content they want to explore,” the company said. “No one wants their session to suddenly go sour because the game unexpectedly slips into anxiety-inducing material.”

Not all tabletop RPGs carry the same emotional weight, and there’s a big difference between running a group of friends through Storm King’s Thunder in Dungeons & Dragons and running through an apocalyptic horror game like Fate of Cthulhu. Games like Fate of Cthulhu, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Numenera are edgier than their high fantasy counterparts, and that’s part of the appeal. The mature themes are built in, and aren’t always used empathetically by players and storytellers. Consent warnings are coming into vogue in these games and are long overdue, given the mature themes and tendency to push players into uncomfortable places.

"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."

It’s possible to play in uncomfortable places safely. Vampire: The Masquerade’s 5th edition release made headlines when publisher White Wolf was accused of anit-semitism, promoting pedophilia, and marketing to neo-Nazis. White Wolf’s response was clear and fast—it modified language in its game, apologized profusely, and included an appendix titled “Advice for Considerate Play,” which detailed how to handle violence, fascism, and sexual trauma sensitively in a tabletop RPG. Then, White Wolf quickly destroyed the good will it had built up among its fans when it used Chechnya’s LGBTQ community as a prop in a section of a Vampire book. White Wolf apologized, again, and Paradox Interactive—its parent company—reined it in.