Roleplaying An Alien (as in: Lovecraftian Alien) Mindset

[Leliel]

Well, I brought a nice little RPG called Eldritch Skies very recently. It's best described as the Cthulhu Mythos as a straight science fiction/fantasy setting rather than a horror setting, with the world presented in the "core" Lovecraft books becoming aware of it's lonely existence in an uncaring universe...and humanity deciding we don't care, taking our first, uncertain steps into the universe with the help of the Mi-Go (most aliens aren't malevolent at all in the setting. Hell, the Deep Ones are some of our closest trading partners, and you can play a hybrid or a ghoul as a character option, though hybrids have their transformation halted).

Thing is, exposure to Mythos phenomenon does wear on the mind...but not due to any stupid SAN rules. Rather, it's exposure to hyperspace, which is where the Great Old Ones live. Initial infection gives you the capacity to use psychic powers and hyperspatial sorcery (not magic-it's explicitly the science of using hyperspace to accomplish various effects), further exposure results in hallucinations, dreams of the Old Ones, and eventual mutation into an insane monster. As per the setting byline, all except the initial exposure and mutation stages can be undone.

Thing is, the penultimate stage of exposure results in mental alteration into a Mythos entity, which is the explanation for people going mad (they aren't but they certainly don't have the same priorities as humans). Since you're still playable at that stage, my question is:

How would you roleplay someone who used to think like a human, but now thinks like Cthulhu?

[Comet]

Do everything at random. Don't stop to think about anything. As soon as you do think about what you're going to do next, you've come to the level of human cognition and out of the realm of eldritch insanity.

I don't know how Eldritch Skies does this, but Lovecraft's nastiest nasties were always all about being incomprehensible to the human mind. So you literally cannot assign rules to them with your human mind. You can't know how to roleplay them.

Of course, you don't need to get inside the character's head to guide them through a narrative. Just assume this character still acts in a way that is comprehensible by human standards, at least on a superficial level, but don't stop to think about the motivation behind said actions.

I'd better stop writing before I succumb to insanity myself.

[Analytica]

Make up a system of abstract concepts that the world can be represented in. Assign emotional importance to these concepts instead of human-centric concepts.

- A being for whom physical symmetry, on every scale, is as important as it is to avoid suffering.
- A being that regards human life first and foremost as a receptacle for the reproductive principle.
- Someone who values everything from a perspective of the extent to which it resonates with the universal hymn to Azathoth.
- Consider only a part of your mind to be your "self" (like only the urges, or only the experiences of the present), or consider your "self" to encompass more than your own body and soul.
- Consider individuals only as parts and representatives of groups, or do not recognize or notice group organization at all.
- Do not recognize constancy of objects or beings over time, i.e. consider an individual not to be the same person as themselves in the past or future.
- Inversely, consider an individual to be the same as themselves in all potential parallell worlds, and consider them responsible for their alternate selves's potential actions.
- Strive not to maximize happiness, but some other property, such as the experience of the colour blue.
- Consider all life and matter to be related to you in the same way that the hair you will grow next year is related to you.

I.e. I feel it is difficult to do randomness properly. We are poor random generators, and tend to move within the spectrum of human concepts. By taking an abstract concept and extrapolating, the results may not be random, but the effects of their implementations may be more unexpected than what random chance brings.

[Geostationary]

I.e. I feel it is difficult to do randomness properly. We are poor random generators, and tend to move within the spectrum of human concepts. By taking an abstract concept and extrapolating, the results may not be random, but the effects of their implementations may be more unexpected than what random chance brings.

This. The thing to remember is that these Lovecraftian beings do have hopes and goals, it's just that their reasoning is so damn ineffable, to the point that they make no sense to a rational human beings and are seen as mad. It's also important to note that unless it furthers or relates directly to these goals, humanity just doesn't matter to them- they have more important things to do and worry about, and they'll ignore any collateral damage that we may experiance because they are incapable of caring. We simply don't register as important unless something forces us to the forefront of their attention, or if we can further their goals- and even then, we're a tool at best. They're beyond seeing us as people, we may as well be (and often are) no more than scenery for them.

Note that this mainly applies if the entity in question is not actively malevolent; if they are, they would be more likely to pay attention and meddle because they enjoy or gain something from watching us suffer. They may also only appear and not really be malevolent if they, for whatever reason, try to help but keep running into problems because they keep forgetting that people can't breathe the color blue or that we'd rather not be integrated into a singular cancerous mass. This also works fairly well with Analysis' idea of tying abstract concepts to strange goals and pursuits.

[Leliel]

This. The thing to remember is that these Lovecraftian beings do have hopes and goals, it's just that their reasoning is so damn ineffable, to the point that they make no sense to a rational human beings and are seen as mad. It's also important to note that unless it furthers or relates directly to these goals, humanity just doesn't matter to them- they have more important things to do and worry about, and they'll ignore any collateral damage that we may experiance because they are incapable of caring. We simply don't register as important unless something forces us to the forefront of their attention, or if we can further their goals- and even then, we're a tool at best. They're beyond seeing us as people, we may as well be (and often are) no more than scenery for them.

Note that this mainly applies if the entity in question is not actively malevolent; if they are, they would be more likely to pay attention and meddle because they enjoy or gain something from watching us suffer. They may also only appear and not really be malevolent if they, for whatever reason, try to help but keep running into problems because they keep forgetting that people can't breathe the color blue or that we'd rather not be integrated into a singular cancerous mass. This also works fairly well with Analysis' idea of tying abstract concepts to strange goals and pursuits.

Yeah, that makes sense.

The Hyperspatial Exposure rules are also made under the assumption that the RP challenge is temporary-again, it can still be treated at that level, it's only the "physical mutation" stage that's the end for that particular character. Still, it can take a while to get to the "entering detox" stage, and I doubt if most characters would be unaffected by memories of being something they can't quite comprehend.

Now, on to a different challenge, dealing with the memories of the Alien Perspective. What to do, what to do...besides imply that the character may have been more perceptive than everyone else in that state.

[Analytica]

Aftereffects may involve that you can get strange hunches from the ST whenever that is useful for guiding or hindering the PCs. Not visions as such, but vague memories of insights that apply to the present, strange associations, that kind of thing.

One thing that has enriched game experiences I've had have been characters with their own customized "limit break" random tables, when failing spellcasting or getting chocked, they would roll one of the pre-written personality fragments/dementias/delusions and act on that for a scene. It doesn't need to be be detailed, "for the next ten minutes your personality is coloured by the Trickster archetype", that kind of thing.

[Xuc Xac]

Insane people do NOT act randomly. They act in response to stimuli just like sane people do, but it looks random because sane people can't perceive that stimuli. People who have hallucinations or delusions look like they are acting at random because they are responding to things that only they can see. In the case of Mythos knowledge, the things they can see are actually there.

Have you ever seen someone walk into a spiderweb? They're perfectly normal then suddenly they're flailing their arms around and clawing at their face to pull off the invisible strands. They're not flipping out at random, but it looks that way to anyone who doesn't see the web. That's what being aware of other dimensions is like.

Being afraid of right angled corners looks like a bizarre phobia, but it's perfectly rational precautionary behavior for someone who knows about the Hounds of Tindalos. From the point of view of a young child who doesn't understand bank deposits, a checkbook looks like infinite money because you can write any amount you want on a check to buy something. A physicist with a Geiger counter won't go anywhere near a highly radioactive uranium fuel rod without a lot of protective equipment, but to an uneducated person it just looks like a metal bar.

They aren't "crazy" or "psychic". They just have more knowledge and senses that normal people didn't even suspect were possible. Imagine how a world of deaf people would see a person who could hear. If someone standing behind him clears their throat, he turns to look as if he knows. He is aware of things outside his field of vision even if they don't cause the floor to vibrate. Or how would a world of blind people react to someone with vision? He can navigate the world in complete silence without touching anything! How is that possible!

I'm hardly a computer expert, but the stuff I can do with my laptop looks like magic to people who can barely check their email. They do things by clicking on the menus and navigating through the options and they are amazed when I just tap a quick keyboard shortcut to do the same thing. Sorcery is like that. When you melt steel and make it flow like water without increasing it's temperature, you're not breaking the laws of physics with magic: you're just using the shortcut that's always been in the system but the "sane" people have overlooked.

For an "insane" hyperdimensionally aware character, just think about what new knowledge and senses they possess and then react accordingly without explaining it to the "sane" people.

[gkathellar]

You can't roleplay a totally alien mindset, or it wouldn't be totally alien. The closest you can probably get it to take your character, and put everything they do or think at cuil 4-6. (http://cuiltheory.wikidot.com/what-is-cuil-theory)

[Buwh]

I don't know about this topic, but that cuil thing was pretty creepy. I feel like I watched a David Lynch movie.