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Hobbit, Avatar, and Blade Runner alum joins our favorite Lovecraftian TTRPG Call of Cthulhu as art director

Former Wētā Workshop art director Paul Tobin has been playing Call of Cthulhu for 35 years.

The cover for Call of Cthulhu Arkham — Image credit: Chaosium

News by Jules Chin Greene, Staff Writer

Published on Fri Dec 05 2025

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There's a unique overlap between tabletop gaming and artists. Chances are that if you're an artist who likes drawing nerdy stuff, you also probably have other nerdy hobbies. And that's certainly the case for the new art director for Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu game, Paul Tobin.

As announced on Chaosium's website, Tobin has joined the tabletop gaming company after serving as a Senior Concept Artist and Art Director at the illustrious Wētā Workshop in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. Tobin worked on The Hobbit trilogy, Blade Runner 2049, The Expanse, The Chronicles of Narnia, and James Cameron's Avatar films.

Over the past few months, Tobin has worked on Chaosium's Arthurian RPG, Pendragon, but will soon begin working on art direction for Call of Cthulhu. On the move over to Call of Cthulhu, Tobin said, "I started playing Call of Cthulhu 35 years ago, so joining Chaosium in its 50th year feels like I’ve just rolled a critical success on my Luck roll. Working on Pendragon these past few months has been incredible, and I’m excited to meet even more of the team in the months ahead."

In case you're not familiar, Call of Cthulhu has plenty of opportunities for some gnarly art direction, given the high stakes of the game as well as its commitment to horrifying imagery. If you don't believe me, just check out the Masks of Nyarlathotep. I think the Call of Cthulhu logo design is great, and the game is every bit as deserving of great illustrations on par with, say, D&D's Ravenloft, for instance.

Here's to hoping for a more spooky-looking future for Call of Cthulhu.

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Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.