Campbell Country

Basic Information

Campbell Country can mean two things:

1. The equivalent of Lovecraft Country, but in England. Popularized by the works of Ramsey Campbell. See the TV Tropes Wiki for further details.
2. A more general term meaning the equivalent of Lovecraft Country, but relocated in whatever part of the world the author (or GM) is most familiar and comfortable with.

This trope has nothing to do with the Scottish Clan Campbell or their traditional homelands around Argyll.

Sources

The Original Campbell Country is located in the Severn Valley in the West of England and is mostly the area around the town of Brichester, including Lower Sevenford, Warrendown and the primal oak woodland of Goatswood.

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki

Game and Story Use

• According to Campbell there is a University in Brichester … and ideal place for an exchange programme with Miskatonic … or any other University your PCs happen to be attending.
• If you don't know New England well enough to run Cthulhu there, or New York enough to run Marvel there, or DS9 well enough to run Star Trek there, then set the game in a place you do know.
  • Or just make up a place, if you don't have an intimate familiarity with any locations that seem appropriate.
• Don't forget to adjust your setting according to the implications of the new locale.
  • Here's an example drawn from the TV Tropes Wiki, and the original Campbell Country: England is older, and less isolated than rural New England. An Englishman thinks 100 miles is a long distance, whereas an American thinks 100 years is a long time. In Lovecraft Country the old secrets are very secret, whereas in Campbell Country the old secrets are very old. That has rather strong implications for the Back Story of the campaign, and what kinds of locations and mysteries the tale can be about.
  • Apart from anything else there is likely to be a lot more folklore and/or written record of anything creepy that has happened anywhere in the Old World - in America, records might have been lost in the (near) eradication of various aboriginal nations, in Europe there is much less scope for this.
    • For those of the Arthur Machen (and indeed Robert Howard) tendency, it's worth noting some of the folklore in Europe may well be about the (near) eradication of various aboriginal nations