Since 1993 The Dark Door has been running horror based live role-playing events set within the Cthulhu Mythos as depicted in the stories of H P Lovecraft (1890-1937) and others, where we have continued the tradition of "borrowing" from H P Lovecraft's Mythos genre, then adding and expanding it to fit our own purposes; a practice adopted by all Mythos writers and supported by the author himself while alive.

The Cthulhu Mythos, while initially the creation of H P Lovecraft, is a series of allusions drawn from the works of many hundreds of authors spanning three quarters of a century. Over the years Mythos writers have  borrowed from each other and adapted ideas for their own purposes, creating a suitably ambiguous mythology. The tales are a mix of fantasy, science fiction, and mostly  horror. They tell of an alternative version of history and of the universe as we think we know it, where alien beings known as the Great Old Ones came from the far reaches of the universe and colonized the Earth before the dawn of mankind.

The Dark Door evolved from a series of Lovecraft-influenced games run in the early 1990's by a LRP group called Hack and Slaughter. A few participants at these events hit on the idea of setting up a group specifically to specialize in games set in Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and so The Dark Door was born. The first Dark Door game "The Ghost Hunt" took place in April 1993 in a hotel, which provided a rather unusual stay for the regular guests, then "Mr Dudley Disappears", set this time in an isolated, but very ramshackle, cottage in a Welsh forest followed in August 1993, and from here many more games were to come. Many of the original founders of The Dark Door have since retired from LRP gaming, but we continue to uphold the original vision of the club and, as from the earliest days, our aim is to scare and entertain participants while they uncover arcane secrets and do battle with the undead and unhuman.

The Dark Door is run very informally. It is left down to individual members, or groups of members, to organize the games. We generally run around 3 games a year mainly during winter, early spring or late autumn, which are held at various locations around England and Wales and will range in length from one day to whole weekends. The cost of attending a game will vary, all depending on the cost of hiring venues and buying props etc. We are however a "not for profit" organization and any surplus money that may be left over after a game is ploughed back into the club. The games are all fully catered but the facilities available at the venues we use will dictate what can be offered. Similarly, accommodation can vary and at times may be quite basic.