Eldritch entities and Shadowrun

[Hyooz]

So, I'm planning a last-hurrah sort of Shadowrun campaign this summer for my group to celebrate the release of SR5, and I want to do something a little different with them. Since I've been perusing Spoony's Counter Monkey videos lately, I hit upon the idea of Cthulupunk, and kind of fell in love with the idea of bringing an Eldritch entity into Shadowrun.

I've got a strong skeleton planned out, but I can't really start putting meat on the bones until I decide which entity to use, and that's where I'd appreciate some advice/suggestions.

My currents thoughts have basically boiled down to three: Cthulu, Slender Man, Korrok.

Cthulu is obviously a classic, but I don't know if I really want to use Cthulu, since he has so much mythos built around him already and, well, there's really only one endgame with him. He eats your city and reality bites it. Still, there might be something to his recognizability to grab the players.

The Slender Man has similar problems to Cthulu, but the scale is at least much smaller for him. The mythos is much more flexible, but he's still recognizable once things really start manifesting crazily. Additionally, since he's on that much smaller a scale, and Shadowrun is as much a world of spirits and magic as technology, it would be much more believable to include a "good" ending of sorts where the party actually can confront the Big Bad and defeat him (at least, for a time.)

Korrok is the most esoteric of the three by far, and if you haven't heard of him, go read John Dies at the End, you owe it to yourself. Korrok is sort of a Cthulu lite, where he's way beyond full comprehension and if he gets what he wants life is pretty screwed, but he also has this sense of vulnerability in that he's a giant mass of flesh and doesn't actively unmake reality by being conscious. Plus, he brings with him the Shadow Men and the soy sauce and other fun mythos things that would be fun to play with.

I'm open to other suggestions, and any ideas/advice/concerns you might have. The idea excites me, I'm just really indecisive.

[Deffers]

Damn, now I have to read John Dies at The End. Also, Cthulhu does not make reality bite it, really. You have to go a bit further up the ladder for that.

If you are a man of esoteric tastes, consider using the minotaur from House of Leaves or even just a high rise that is like the house. On the other hand that is CLEARLY my sleep deprivation talking, but if you could pull it off you'd get mad props for life, yo.

I'd explain the minotaur but I'm not sure anyone knows what it is or if it exists. The house is basically just a normal house with one door that only sapient living beings can pass through. There is an always shifting series of corridors and rooms in there, all made of uniform black stone. Once someone died in there even the regular portion of the house could open up to the unlit corridors. Things you leave there tend to disappear, sometimes torn up as if by claws.

And that is only the first layer.

I am not just being coy with my colors and stuff. That's the way you're supposed to type those names.

[Hyooz]

Oh man, House of Leaves. I can't even begin to think of how I would make that work... but now I really have to find a way. I'm not sure Shadowrun is the best fit for it... but that is definitely going into my "make this happen" pile.

... maybe a session or two taking place in a section of some mega-skyscraper that got magicked heavily somehow and... gah

But yeah, I really do recommend John Dies at the End. It's not heavy horror, by any means, it's a lot more of a horror comedy, but it's one of my favorite books in a long time.

[hiryuu]

Actually, Shadowrun canon is that the mana cycle in SR is literally caused by the proximity of cosmic horrors to the physical world. When people can use magic, it means they're about to break on through. So it's not a huge stretch at all. If you can find it, try to find a copy of the Earthdawn book The Horrors (http://www.amazon.com/Horrors-Earthdawn-Sourcebook-Robin-Laws/dp/1555602592). It'll transform you.

[Science Officer]

Going to echo the bit about The Horrors. Already being canon is a plus.

You mention that Slender Man as a more personal, manageable threat that the PCs might have a chance of defeating. Others can be this as well, if you focus on fighting cultists instead of the horror itself.

But I would recommend Nyarlathotep. Read (http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/nyarlathotep.htm)the story he's introduced in. A strange man becomes famous for bizarre scientific experiments. Viewers become restless, irrational. Something is different, something in the air. Armies march, the world is ending.

I think it's a narrative that could fit well in a cyberpunk setting, and especially in Shadowrun. Nyarlathotep is also a very variable character. After all, he does have a thousand forms (of which Slenderman is one, I'm sure), and he is capable of understanding and being understood by humans, when he wants to be.

[Asmodai]

Things is, though... I'm not sure Shadowrun has the right tone to actually make it stick. It's the kind of setting where they'll just flip it off and Punch out Cthulhu (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu)or die looking awesome while trying.

... Actually I'd pay good money to see a Dragon going up against Cthulhu. Shadowrun always could use more Kaiju ;)

[Hyooz]

Things is, though... I'm not sure Shadowrun has the right tone to actually make it stick. It's the kind of setting where they'll just flip it off and [URL=" out Cthulhu [/URL]or die looking awesome while trying.

... Actually I'd pay good money to see a Dragon going up against Cthulhu. Shadowrun always could use more Kaiju ;)

This is actually something I was halfway planning on letting them do. Part of the "grand finale" theme. Haunt them with some kind of ghoulie through most of it and provide a grand-scale way to fight back (and likely die trying) because... well, cybertech, magic and dragons. SOMETHING'S gotta stick, right?

[ActionReplay]

Well as for suggestions I'd put forth Hastur (If only to give them hope of being the Henderson before crushing it), Yog Sothoth, or Shub-Niggurath for end game bosses if you're drawing from the well of the lovecraft mythos. For sources outside of that, the SCP foundation has some SCPS that might give you inspiration for minions or manifestations of the eldritch horrors.

As for canon eldritch horrors, its ventured that the big D sacrificed himself to ascend to a higher plane of existence to stave off the premature coming of the outer horrors. After the great ghost dance sped things up ahead of schedule. Nice job breaking it Sioux nation....

[comicshorse]

Don't forget there's the 'Harlequin's Back' campaign where you can go into the Meta Planes and fix that particular screw up

[Deffers]

OK, yeah, populate a House with scips and basically you've got an entire campaign.

WHY is dimensionally warped? Never explain. Make sure to add in enough details that are jarring, and then leave them hanging, but make it CONSISTENT otherwise your players will rightly yell at you.

[hiryuu]

Going to echo the bit about The Horrors. Already being canon is a plus.

I used The Artificer once.

I made it responsible for planting the memes for Arcologies into heads in the first place, way before the Awakening.

My PCs were watching footage from headcams snuck out of an Ares job in the Garibaldi Highlands where one of Artificer's "dungeons" was. They kept hearing the same phrase over and over, "He is the one who builds the bridge." They started looking for it in city graffiti and for an encore I had some of my out of game friends actually IRL spraypaint it a few places around that I knew my players drove past on their way to game and plant some of the "in game" objects as props around the coffee shops I knew they went to. Phrase still sends my players up the walls.

I think it's best, just like it is in Call of Cthulhu, to make them things you can't physically deal with. You just have to mop up their messes until they get bored and leave. They're not a thing you can fight, just like you don't get into a war with a hurricane; it doesn't know anything about you, its presence is just anathema.

[Neo Tin Robo]

I know Spoony said to keep it a surprise, but I would check with the players whether this is the kind of game they really want from SR. My GM once dropped what was effectively Cthulu on us and it ended the campaign instantly.

[Hyooz]

I know Spoony said to keep it a surprise, but I would check with the players whether this is the kind of game they really want from SR. My GM once dropped what was effectively Cthulu on us and it ended the campaign instantly.

I'm actually trying to keep most of the game pretty straightforward Shadowrun faire. Corporate espionage, cyberwarfare, all the classic SR stuff, but with a sort of hidden side-story of eldritch stuff. Until the last few sessions, unless they really dig for it, it'll just seem like I'm going more spirit heavy than in the past. Once it becomes obvious what I'm doing, I have a contingency or two in place that'll let them just say "no" if they'd prefer, and then all that was different was this campaign was kind of spooky in places.

[Brother Oni]

Why not Zalgo? Drop subtle hints at first with corrupted unicode text in the Matrix covering up messages like "He Waits behind the Wall", "Zalgo", "He Comes", etc.

Run a couple of background news chatter with people turning up with missing/bleeding eyes, along with an increase in the corrupted text showing up.
When they start seeing the messages spraypainted as graffitti every now and again, it should start to ramp up the uneasiness.

Top it all off by having them face an antagonist at the climax of a run. When they break into the room to face off against him, instead of a big fight, have him sitting there with missing eyes (for added squick, have him still holding his torn out eyes in his hands).
He hears them enter, says "Zalgo. He comes.", then picks up a gun and shoots himself in the head.

If that doesn't make them completely paranoid, nothing will.

You may want to use the Zalgo text generator for that extra feel: link (http://www.marlborotech.com/Zalgo.html).