What Is Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu?
Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu is a Petersen Games picture book that rewrites classic nursery rhymes using Lovecraftian lore instead of sheep and stars. It's listed at $12.99 on the Petersen Games site under the Book category, and the product copy sums up the pitch in one line: "sing your family to sleep with rhymes from Lovecraftian lore."
It's not a board game, and it isn't sold as one. There's no player count, no play time, and no game box on the product page, just a book. The site tags it "all ages," but the whole joke depends on an adult reader who already knows the Cthulhu Mythos well enough to catch what's been swapped into "Rock-a-Bye Baby" or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." It sits inside the Larva Games line, Petersen Games' imprint for lighter, faster, non-centerpiece products.
What's Actually Inside the Book?
Familiar nursery rhyme structures, rebuilt with cosmic horror imagery. The product description calls it "your favorite nursery rhymes re-written using knowledge that man should not know," which is a fairly accurate description of the format: recognizable rhyme and meter, unfamiliar and unsettling subject matter. Given the title, it's a safe bet the classic "Rock-a-Bye Baby" gets the treatment somewhere inside, though the site doesn't publish a full page-by-page contents list, so treat any specific rhyme title as an educated guess rather than a confirmed spoiler.
Retail listings for the book credit the rhymes to Arthur Petersen and the illustrations to Luis Merlo, an artist who has worked on other Petersen Games print titles. Merlo's style leans toward detailed, slightly grotesque linework, which fits a book built around tentacled things tucked into a crib scene rather than a fuzzy lamb. It ships as a physical book (weight just over a pound, per the shipping data on the product page), not a PDF-only release.
A companion piece is worth knowing about too: the Acolyte Activity Book ($4.99), a separate Petersen Games title that reuses every image from Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu in black and white, paired with activity pages the product copy describes as built around "esoteric mathematical formulas." Think of it as the coloring-book counterpart to the picture book, sold on its own rather than bundled automatically into the Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu checkout.
Is Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu Part of the Larva Games Lineup?
Yes. Larva Games is Petersen Games' own imprint for its lighter, quicker, lower-priced titles, and Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu carries that branding on the site alongside card games, dice games, and party games like Quivit and Dicenstein. It's one of the few book-format entries in that lineup rather than a card or dice game, but it's built around the same logic: a smaller, faster, cheaper product next to the studio's $200+ centerpiece boxes.
That distinction matters if you're comparing it to Cthulhu Wars. Cthulhu Wars (O4 Edition) is a $249.00 asymmetric war game with 72 premium miniatures across four core factions. Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu shares none of that: no miniatures, no rulebook, no faction mechanics. It's a novelty read that happens to share a publisher and a mythos with the studio's flagship game, not a companion product for it.
Where Does the Cthulhu Lore Actually Come From?
From H.P. Lovecraft, not from Petersen Games. Cthulhu first appeared in Lovecraft's 1928 short story "The Call of Cthulhu," described as a colossal, tentacle-faced entity sleeping in the sunken city of R'lyeh. Lovecraft built an entire body of interconnected cosmic horror fiction around entities like Cthulhu over his writing career, and Lovecraft's work has been in the public domain for decades, which is why publishers, game studios, and independent creators across the hobby world can all draw on the same mythos without licensing it from any single rights holder.
Petersen Games doesn't own Cthulhu, R'lyeh, or the broader Mythos any more than any other publisher does. What the studio owns is this specific book: its specific rhymes, Merlo's specific illustrations, and the specific joke of running Lovecraft through the structure of a lullaby collection. Nursery rhymes themselves are an old, mostly anonymous folk tradition, which is exactly why the format is so easy to parody: everyone already knows the tune "Rock-a-Bye Baby" is riffing on.
Who Should Buy Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu?
Adult Lovecraft fans first, gift-buyers second. This isn't a book to hand a toddler as an actual bedtime read; the joke is aimed at readers who already know the source material and want to see it twisted into a familiar shape. Existing Cthulhu Wars collectors and Mythos readers who want a cheap, funny, shelf-ready piece of the lore world will get the most out of it.
It's also a low-cost entry point. At $12.99, it's one of the more affordable items in the entire Petersen Games catalog, well under the $100 to $200-plus range collectors usually spend on a centerpiece game. That makes it an easy add-on for someone already checking out with a Cthulhu Wars expansion, or a stocking-stuffer for the Lovecraft reader on a list who isn't in the market for a $249 miniatures game.
Baby shower gag gift, office desk conversation piece, or a shelf-filler next to a Cthulhu Wars box: all three work. What doesn't work is buying it expecting a game. There's no rulebook tucked in the back, no dice, no cards. It's a read-through item, closer to a novelty poetry collection than anything with a play session attached to it.
How Do I Buy It, and What Should I Expect for Shipping?
You can order Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu directly from Petersen Games for $12.99. In-stock orders process within 48 hours (two business days, Monday through Friday). US orders ship via USPS Ground Advantage in 2 to 5 business days after that, and Canadian orders ship via DHL Ground in 3 to 7 business days, with exact rates calculated at checkout based on destination and package size.
Frequently Asked Questions About Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu
Is Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu a board game?
No. It's a book, listed under the Book category on the Petersen Games site. There's no player count, play time, or game components involved, just Lovecraftian nursery rhymes and illustrations.
Who wrote and illustrated Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu?
Retail listings credit the rhymes to Arthur Petersen and the illustrations to Luis Merlo, an artist who has worked on other Petersen Games print titles.
Is Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu part of the Larva Games lineup?
Yes. It's sold under Petersen Games' Larva Games branding alongside the studio's other lighter, faster, lower-priced titles like Quivit and Dicenstein, distinct from centerpiece lines like Cthulhu Wars.
Does Petersen Games own the Cthulhu Mythos?
No. H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos is public domain fiction. Petersen Games owns this specific book, its specific rhymes and art, not the underlying Cthulhu character or mythos.
How much does Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu cost and how fast does it ship?
It's $12.99 on the Petersen Games site. In-stock orders process within 48 hours, then ship via USPS Ground Advantage (US, 2 to 5 business days) or DHL Ground (Canada, 3 to 7 business days), with rates set at checkout.
Want a strange little addition to your Cthulhu Mythos shelf? Pick up Rock-a-Bye Cthulhu directly from Petersen Games for $12.99, and browse the rest of the Larva Games collection for more of the studio's lighter, faster titles.
0 comments