The Hardy Boys vs. Cthulhu

[seneschal]

Write-ups of the Scooby Doo gang have been floating around the web for years. But has anyone taken the next logical step and had the original meddling kids confront the Mythos? Frank and Joe Hardy, curiosity-driven teen-age sons of famous detective Fenton Hardy, began their investigative careers in 1927, right smack in the middle of H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic hauntings. They operated from Bayport, a New England coastal town whose exact location was never established in the book series (the '70s TV show placed it in Massachusetts). They frequently investigated old, abandoned houses, traveling by motorcycle to rural, out-of-the-way locations remote from home, and eventually used their reward money to purchase a speedboat. The original novels (not the revised versions) oozed with pulp energy and atmosphere. Seems that the boys would be ripe for an encounter with Dunwich's denizens or Innsmouth's mutants which chasing down their usual smugglers, counterfeiters, and thieves. What do you all think?

Reading the books, being a teenager in the Twenties and Thirties was a very different experience than in the post-Sixties era of rebellion, angst, rock 'n roll, and obsession with sex and electronics. The Hardy boys are 15 and 16, respect and obey their parents, and focus on homework and baseball. Once their household chores and studies are done, however, they have tremendous freedom to roam the countryside with their friends. No fears about kidnapping or molestation by strangers. They each have a girl at school they admire, but all their socialization is done in a group setting; they don't date one-on-one. Crime and illegal drugs exist, but drug use is something weird, nothing that would attract and ensnare a high school kid from a small city. No computers, TV, or pocket radios. The boys spend their time playing sports, hiking in the woods, taking day trips via car or motorcycle, going to parties at a neighbor's home. Their respect for parents doesn't extend to all adult authority figures equally. While the Hardy boys are generally respectful toward adults, they and their friends frequently play tricks with Bayport's patently clueless police officials.

Edited December 14, 2011 by seneschal

[Aycorn]

Reading the books, being a teenager in the Twenties and Thirties was a very different experience than in the post-Sixties era of rebellion, angst, rock 'n roll, and obsession with sex and electronics. The Hardy boys are 15 and 16, respect and obey their parents, and focus on homework and baseball. Once their household chores and studies are done, however, they have tremendous freedom to roam the countryside with their friends. No fears about kidnapping or molestation by strangers. They each have a girl at school they admire, but all their socialization is done in a group setting; they don't date one-on-one. Crime and illegal drugs exist, but drug use is something weird, nothing that would attract and ensnare a high school kid from a small city. No computers, TV, or pocket radios. The boys spend their time playing sports, hiking in the woods, taking day trips via car or motorcycle, going to parties at a neighbor's home. Their respect for parents doesn't extend to all adult authority figures equally. While the Hardy boys are generally respectful toward adults, they and their friends frequently play tricks with Bayport's patently clueless police officials.

God ... sounds kinda nice....

Anyway, back in the 80's, Dragon had a one-shot scenario about some boy scouts exploring a haunted house. As I recall, they got a lot of flack for it from "serious" gamers. I've always thought it was a cool idea and have long toyed with doing something similar for BRP. A "Hardy Boys" might well fit.

[Max_Writer]

The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow, Dragon Magazine #42. It was written by Jim Ward.

[seneschal]

The Hardy Boys did indeed face a mad professor in a strange old house ... The Disappearing Floor (1940).

[kafka]

Think Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew would be a great way to get new and young gamers into Cthulhu - save the SAN penalty would make them effectively one shots which goes against bringing new players in. I should think the material is rather timeless, if played with new gamers, as their minds are relatively unpolluted by:

The Hardy boys are 15 and 16, respect and obey their parents, and focus on homework and baseball. Once their household chores and studies are done, however, they have tremendous freedom to roam the countryside with their friends. No fears about kidnapping or molestation by strangers. They each have a girl at school they admire, but all their socialization is done in a group setting; they don't date one-on-one. Crime and illegal drugs exist, but drug use is something weird, nothing that would attract and ensnare a high school kid from a small city. No computers, TV, or pocket radios. The boys spend their time playing sports, hiking in the woods, taking day trips via car or motorcycle, going to parties at a neighbor's home. Their respect for parents doesn't extend to all adult authority figures equally. While the Hardy boys are generally respectful toward adults, they and their friends frequently play tricks with Bayport's patently clueless police officials.

those things...as the players get older each mystery they uncover leads them to a conclusion that there is malignant cult orchestrating many of these mysteries...as they probe the cult and the players get older - would be the time to unleash the cosmic horror.

For me, it is always the question of when to start to introduce players to Cthulhu - in their 20s everyone has the maturity to handle it. In the earlier years, it is harder so Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew might just be the vehicle.

[Bob Hanks]

God ... sounds kinda nice....

Anyway, back in the 80's, Dragon had a one-shot scenario about some boy scouts exploring a haunted house. As I recall, they got a lot of flack for it from "serious" gamers. I've always thought it was a cool idea and have long toyed with doing something similar for BRP. A "Hardy Boys" might well fit.

I agree that does sound nice.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Bob Hanks
mispelling

[Bob Hanks]

I heard a podcast not sure at the time what it was exactly but Kenneth Hite mentioned that Pelgrane press were working on Bubble Gumshoe which is

from what I gathered a Gumshoe system to play Hardy Boys Nancy Drew type adventures which I think sounds Faboo

[hanszurcher]

I always thought Shaun Cassidy had a certain Innsmouth look about him.

Edited August 6, 2012 by hanszurcher

[seneschal]

I always thought Shaun Cassidy had a certain Innsmouth look about him.

That highlights an interesting cultural difference between the 1920s, the '70s, and today. The Hardy Boys of the Twenties, although what we would consider teenagers, were very much school boys -- focused on homework, playing ball afterwards with the guys, barely beginning to notice girls at ages 15 and 16 -- even if they did slug adult criminals once in a while. Modern teen/youth culture didn't evolve until the 1950s and '60s -- which the 1977 Shaun Cassidy/Parker Stevenson version were very much part of. Near adults, they managed to pursue suspects into private clubs, fancy restaurants, and beachfront hotels -- places the original incarnations wouldn't have entered or been allowed to enter. You can see the difference by comparing the '70s TV show with the 1956-57 Disney TV show starring Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine. Or the 1977 TV version of Nancy Drew with Bonita Granville in the 1938-39 Nancy Drew movie series (there were three or four films). Same age range, all old enough to drive, but a very different world.

[hanszurcher]

That highlights an interesting cultural difference between the 1920s, the '70s, and today. ...

And the racial attitudes of the 20s. Though not nearly as harsh some of those early Hardy Boys books would have sat well with a few of Lovecraft's views.

That aside, the early books where also somewhat anti-establishment.

[seneschal]

I disagree. While some of the then-common slang expressions used in the original novels' dialogue (such as "that's real white of you") would make today's political correctness cops cringe, the protagonists, their parents and friends don't generally express racism in their remarks or attitudes toward other characters. In fact, in one novel a pair of black farmers rescued the Hardy Boys from (white) thugs that were following them. The fact that the Hardy Boys' friends included Italian immigrant Tony Prito was an attempt by the authors to be inclusive, since southern European immigration was a hot-button issue at the time. It's as unfair to label the Hardy Boys books as racist as it is to do the same to adult novels such as Huckleberry Finn or King Solomon's Mines -- which portray people of color in a positive light and were written before liberals began to attempt to restrict freedom of thought and expression by curtailing what words people can use. If anything, the HBs are the opposite of the perceived racism in Lovecraft's writings. In the Hardy Boys' adventures, immigrant children and boys from down-on-their-luck families are heroes right alongside the protagonists. In Lovecraft, they'd be lookouts for the Red Hook gang.

Also, after reading some of the original tales and comparing them the rewrites done in the early '60s, I prefer the originals. There's genuine period flavor, and the stories are better written. Sometimes it is best to read and enjoy a book (or movie) as a product of its time rather than trying to make it "relevant" or "correct."

[hanszurcher]

I do not remember saying the books where racist, but the racial attitudes of the 20s are evident. The Footprints under the Window, The Mark on the Door and The Hidden Harbor Mystery are probably the worst offenders. For the time most of the stories are quite liberal. Though whether or not this stems from an attempt by the authors to be more inclusive or the publishers drive to appeal to a wider audience is up for debate.

I would agree. The original tales are superior to the rewrites. But I prefer the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series.

[dragonewt]

Someone is getting a raging cluethulhu.