Summertime is when big concerts roll around the world. Fans want to see their favorite performers live. This summer the big names incude Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and…The Great Old One Cthulhu?
Big actual plays like Critical Role and Dimension 20 are hitting the tour circuit this summer to bring their stories out of the studios and into big venues. Chaosium backed a recent tour of Call of Cthulhu that ran through the United Kingdom featuring a mix of actors and actual play stars. The tour is part of Chaosium’s 50th anniversary celebration this year.
Call of Cthulhu is the premier game of cosmic horror. Players are ordinary people who are drawn into a secret world of secretive cultists, unknowable horrors and mind shattering revelations. The timelessness of the horror allows games to be set in multiple places during human history, though the 1920’s remains one of the most popular.
We spoke with tour members Samantha Béart and Mark Meer about bringing the game’s madness to the masses. Mark Meer is a voice actor best known as the voice of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series of video games. Samantha Béart’s best known role is as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Both Meer and Béart began their time in role playing games where many people do. Dungeons and Dragons remains the great gateway into the hobby. Meer found himself stepping into the Dungeon Master role for a very common reason; nobody else would do it.
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“I started playing Dungeon & Dragons back in 1981,” said Meer. “I remember the year well because my first DM was excited to show off the brand new book he’d just purchased – the original Fiend Folio. I was instantly hooked. I was playing with a group of older kids who needed somebody to be the cleric .When they moved on to other interests, it became clear to me that if I wanted to keep playing in the small prairie town I grew up in, I’d need to both teach other people how to play and learn how to be a Dungeon Master myself. Other favourite RPGs included the old Marvel Super-Heroes game and later, Vampire: The Masquerade and GURPS.”
“I’m more of a video gamer,” said Béart. “I’ve been a gamer since I could make a boy give me his controller. In 2019, my friend who is a DM wanted to ease me into it. There was a one-shot club in London. The idea is that you make your character, you’re hired as a mercenary and you go on the job. There were a lot of first time DMs there. My first chracter was a Dragonborn barbarian called Denise. She was very accident prone. Then 2020 happened and I started playing online with that DM. I played regretful tiefling warlock. Weirdly, you put those two characters together and you get Karlach, so maybe it was meant to be. I had to then give up that group to record Baldur’s Gate 3 without being able to tell them that’s why I had to leave.”
In the tour, Meer took the role of Keeper of Arcane Lore, which is what Call of Cthulhu calls the Game Master. This is Meer’s third live play series partnership with publisher Chaosium. Béart won a BAFTA Breakthrough award for her work on The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow which is known for combining the cosmic horror of Lofecraft with folk horror situations.
“I’ve got two very useless arts degrees,” said Béart. “one in English Literature and one in acting. Lovecraft isn’t that well known in the UK. But I was aware of him for a long time. Hob’s Barrow had very strong Lovecraftian themes. I got asked by one of the actors if I wanted to do it.”
“My direct involvement with Chaosium came about when Elder Eye Entertainment put the YouTube series Bookshops of Arkham together back in 2021, with Belinda co-writing the scenario alongside our friend Darren Ormandy, me as Keeper, and Chaosium as a producer/backer. The success of Bookshops lead Chaosium to contact Belinda and me for a sequel, Graveyards of Arkham, with Good Time Society. Since then, I’ve also run games for Chaosium at Gen Con, and they asked me to be Keeper for the 2025 UK tour.”
Call of Cthulhu can be a dark, grim game and there was plenty of horror to be had in each show. Each episode featured a different adventure built to be played in an hour or two ranging from tomb raiding to checking in on a missing friend. The players did their best to balance the spooky with the silly and send everyone home entertained.
“Although they were assigned archetypes for each show,” said Meer. “The players were generally making up names for their characters in real time in front of the audience. There were certainly a few hilarious surprises in that department! Some favourites included Professor J.R.R. Culkin, Mr. Abraham Lincoln Norelation and Dr. Newjersey Jones. Perhaps they thought horrific things wouldn’t happen to people with funny names. They were sadly mistaken!”
“It’s so priviledged a position to be in,” said Béart. “I know folks in TTRPG. I know how long it takes to build that following, to get that funding. I’m so appreciative. I’m a pretender. A total fake. I’ve not worked for this. I got lucky on a video game and I’m playing a barbarian. I’m making all my mistakes in public, but it’s fine.”
Meer will return at Dragon Con running a liveplay show featuring Baldur’s Gate 3 characters. He can be heard in the upcoming adaptation of The Last Wardens. He is also booking reservations at his table at D&D In A Castle for Spring 2026.
Béart continues her career as an actor in the upcoming game, Fading Echo, which also features Matt Mercer and Laura Bailey from Critical Role. She will voice one of the four playable characters in Absolum called Cider, an enigmatic fusion carefully rebuilt from near death by a mysterious puppeteer.
Call of Cthulhu is available directly from Chaosium, multiple online retailers and Friendly Local Gaming Stores around the world.
