S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands: An Album of Entities from the Land Beyond the Wall of Sleep

Call of Cthulhu RPG

by Sandy Petersen, Mark J. Ferrari (Illustrator), Lynn Willis

Chaosium Stock #5107

An Album of Entities From the Land Beyond The Wall of Sleep... * Accurate and Up-to-date Information * Over Two Dozen Often-Dreamt Creatures * Quick-Reference Monster ID Key * 26 Evocative Full-Page Paintings * 3 Pages of Full-Color Maps * 50+ Illustrations and Silhouettes * Uniform Presentation of Data * Special Size Comparisons * Habitat, Distribution, and Life Cycles * Similar Lifeforms Distinguished * Latest Preternatural Scholarship * Observer Warnings as Needed * Bibliography * Faithful to Lovecraft

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Horror, Fiction, Gaming, Art, Reference

64 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1989

About the author

Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of RuneQuest and creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. He later joined id Software where he worked on the development of the Doom franchise and Quake. As part of Ensemble Studios, Petersen subsequently contributed to the Age of Empires franchise.

Reviews

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A companion to the other S. Petersen's Field Guide, this focuses on the strange and mystical creatures of the Dreamlands. Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories were more in line with Lord Dunsany or Clark Ashton Smith than his Cosmic Horror tales. Consequently there's a bit more whimsey, even if its tainted with some grim darkness. Like the other Field Guide, the physical book is not of a quality I like. It's oversized, softcover, but the cover is stiff and easy to crease, and the glue binding feels like it's going to give way at any moment. And these books have always felt like this, even on the day I bought them 25 years ago. It's too bad they aren't available in hardcover. I love the art. The writing is OK. The art is the star.

[Joel Jenkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this in a secondhand store in the San Juan Islands. It was pretty battered, but I was surprised when the clerk only charged me 25 cents. I was also surprised to find out that it was signed by the writer. Cool book!

[Patrick Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming largely for its brevity and its wonderful illustrations.

[Ikoy ･ ･ﾟ*☆ ☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read any of HP Lovecraft's books nor do I know anything about the Dreamlands. But the artworks and creatures are stunning and otherworldly.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok another one to add to my guilty pleasure list here. Years ago as I started to read H P Lovecrafts books I started to wonder what some of those monsters and nightmares would look like. The descriptions were creative and amazing and really brought the atmosphere and feel of the story to life. Then I started to wonder more about that - what they looked like, what they did, after all the authors had gone to great lengths to bring them to life - after all many of the stories are more about the creatures than they are of the people who encounter them.
Then I discovered that in the tradition of Dungeons And Dragons there was a paper based role playing game based on the world of Call of Cthulhu and I was hooked.
Now years later (too many if you ask me) and I am older and maybe not much wiser but I still have fond memories of those days. And yes the game maybe passed but the material that was written to support it still stand since it relates to the original stories too.
These two field guides are perfect examples of that wonderful work. And even now I love to read and remember the worlds they invited you to.