The multiverse of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG is filled with powerful gods and goddesses who wage war across time and space, but some of them should not have been part of the game, as the mad deities created by H.P. Lovecraft were added to D&D without permission of the copyright holder.
Dungeons & Dragons is one of the Call of Cthulhu. D&D has a focus on combat and exploration in a medieval-style fantasy setting, while Call of Cthulhu involves horror stories set in the 1920's. Call of Cthulhu is based on the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, which means that the players usually face unknowable horrors and unspeakable gods which cannot be defeated. The lucky players would end a game with their character locked up in an asylum, while the unlucky players left their characters in the clutches of the alien Cthulhu deities.
H.P. Lovecraft ed away in 1937, so the creators of Dungeons & Dragons assumed that his work had ed into the public domain by the 1980's. There was a book released for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons called Deities & Demigods which featured stats for the gods from real-world mythology, such as the deities of ancient Egypt and the Norse gods. The first printing of Deities & Demigods also featured stats for the gods and monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos, including Cthulhu, Azathoth, Cthuga, Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth. There was one problem with including the Cthulhu gods, as they had already been licensed to another company.
Dungeons & Dragons' Lovecraft Controversy
faced a number of controversies throughout its lifespan, and it was about to be part of a new one. According to Deities & Demigods co-author James M. Ward on Facebook, he ed Arkham House (the publishing house which manages the work of Lovecraft) and received permission to use the Cthulhu gods in Deities & Demigods. There was one problem, however, as Cthulhu content had already been licensed by Chaosium. It didn't take long for Chaosium to send a cease & desist letter to the owners of Dungeons & Dragons once Deities & Demigods was published.
Ward believes they would have won if it had come to a lawsuit, but the owners of Dungeons & Dragons weren't interested in pursuing legal action. This led to later printings of Deities & Demigods crediting Chaosium, and the 1981 edition of the book removed the Cthulhu content and the references to Chaosium altogether. This incident happened after a similar lawsuit involving Dungeons & Dragons had legal problems with Lord of the Rings due to the game featuring elements that had to be cut, such as hobbits and the Balrog.
The Cthulhu Mythos would become involved with Dungeons & Dragons years later upon the release of the third edition of the game, which was developed by Wizards of the Coast. The third edition of Dungeons & Dragons used a ruleset known as the D20 system, and a D20 version of Call of Cthulhu was released that allowed D&D characters to test their mettle against the elder gods. Both Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu still exist to this day and have dedicated fanbases who love their games' respective takes on tabletop role-playing, be they bright and happy fantasy stories or ones exploring the dark worlds conjured up by the mind of H.P. Lovecraft.
Source: James M. Ward/Facebook
