Cthulu

[Fireball.Man.Guy.]

Buing a nerd only the past year about, I've seen dozens of references to it on this site. My problem: I don't have a clue what it is. While my best friend Wikipedia could tell me, I think a few fellow nerds do it better. So: WHAT IS CTHULU???!!!111one

[Weezer]

Cthulhu is a powerful god created by H.P. Lovecraft for his short stories. As you may notice the second quote in my sig is a incatation praising Cthulhu. I cant think of how to describe his appearance but Wiki has a good picture of what he should look like. He is supported by a secretive cult that has chapters across the world, which is dedicated from freeing him from his imprisonment in R'lyeh. His very appearance makes hardened explorers go insane as will learning to much about him.

[oriong]

A google image search will show you about 4 dozen different portrayals but if you think "gigantic winged squid god" you aren't far off. Cthulhu is basically a very popular semi-godlike (depending on what you read) entity created as part of the 'cthulhu mythos' of Lovecraft and associated authors. A quick check on wikipedia will probably give you plenty of history on him.

[Rebonack]

I suggest you read Call of Cthulhu. You can find it on WikiSource.

That, more so than anything else, will give you an accurate picture of what Cthulhu is without all the extra fluff.

[Macrovore]

he looks like a big mind flayer with wings. in his simplest form.

[CockroachTeaParty]

Cthulhu is in all likely not a god, but it is an ancient entity that is immortal and spooky. He lives in an underwater temple-tomb with maddening geometric designs. For some reason, it can be disabled by ramming it in the face with a boat.

[Jarl]

His name is commonly used in connection with the "Mythos", a collection of stories and series based on or in the horror cosmos that Lovecraft created (another, perhaps more accurate term for such stories would be "Lovecraftean").
From it you get names like Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, Nyarlathotep, and, of course, Cthulhu. The protagonists of these stories are usually private investigators, professors, and other Pulp Hero type fellows, only they rarely if ever get to do anything more heroic than be eaten first. This is mirrored in the RPG, which I understand is the number one generator of Total Party Kills.
Also, Call of Cthulhu DMs tend to be really into their game, making props and everything. I say this because in my limited experience, every CoC DM I've met is all creepy with, like, old Mass. Driver's Licenses and such.

-I'm just as bad, though, I have on my computer a diploma certifying me as a Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient History from the Miskatonic University. :)

[Neo]

yeah, Cthulhu is just the tip of a dark and twisted iceberg, which means that characters usually end up committing suicide at the end.

Illithids are the D&D ode to Cthulhu.

Yeah, Cthulhu guys can be strange, especially the ones who learn R'ylethian.

[dead_but_dreaming]

You should read some Lovecraft stories. That guy is bascially the equivalent of Poe when it comes to classic, "romantic" horror. Consider it education. :smallsmile:

[Woot Spitum]

I believe aboleths (or was it chuuls, I can't remember) are loosely based on the appearence of Cthulhu.

[kamikasei]

Basically, Cthulhu is the iconic madness-inducing horror from Lovecraft's fiction. He is not the most powerful, most commonly-encountered, most dangerous, or even the strangest one - he's just the one whose name got associated with the Mythos.

Physically he's a gigantic, pale, bloated creature, roughly humanoid, with tentacles in place of a mouth (like an Illithid) and batlike wings on his back. To give an idea of his scale, in the Call of Cthulhu story, he's only injured when a trawler rams his head (and he quickly heals). His whole race are probably this giant, since ruins on an enormous scale are a common idea in Lovecraft.

He's the high priest of a race of ancient aliens from Beyond Space and Time, who worshiped the real 'gods' of the Lovecraft setting, but were themselves worshiped by lesser beings. The race are not purely physical, are basically immortal, and have goals and psyches and forms so alien and horrifying that most who encounter them simply go mad. They came to earth long ago and are now dormant because "the stars" are "not right", which somehow stops them being able to use their bodies. They therefore lie sleeping in the sunken city of R'lyeh in the Pacific until they can arise again. There are human cultists who worship Cthulhu and his kin, looking forward to the day that the stars are right again and the Old Ones can awaken. It's not obvious, though, that these cultists matter in any way to the Old Ones themselves, whether their sacrifices and rituals are necessary to sustain them, or whether they're the eldritch unhallowed equivalent of groupies.

The cultists are basically mad, either hoping to die quickly when the Old Ones awaken in exchange for their service (thus being spared the sight of the world's end) or to be taught to be free and uncaring and to revel in blood and pain and death as the Old Ones do. The idea is that when the Old Ones awake they'll not so much take over the planet as do whatever they feel like and wipe out humanity as a side effect.

The two famous quotes associated with Cthulhu are
In his house in sunken R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming
and
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
and with strange eons,
even death may die.

Cthulhu is basically the canonical example of something utterly alien, unimaginably powerful, and so horrifying to see or contemplate that you will go mad. The basic idea behind most settings where Cthulhu fits in is that what's really going on in the world is something you're better off not knowing.

Oh, and that Cthulhu eats 1d6 adventurers per round (http://www.cruisegazing.com/RPG_Motivational/Cthulhu.jpg).

[Maxymiuk]

My introduction to Cthulu came through my former gaming group, when they stumbled upon a strange egg in one of the games I ran. I listened in bemused silence as they speculated upon its origins and purpose, eventually prompting the immortal line "If any tentacles appear, I'm running."

The discussion veered towards size issues, namely how could Cthulu fit into a head-sized egg. Someone brought up Nyarlathotep... and from that moment on I can't think of that one other than as a miniature Cthulu that hops around going "Meep!"

[Neo]

Aboleths are probably tied into Dagon, whereas Mindflayers are basically mini-Cthulhus without wings.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

Because I had to, and because it's awesome here's the best picture of Cthulhu (http://www.waynereynolds.com/WOTCGallery1A/1.jpg) I could find.

[Josh Inno]

This is also in a word where all magic is inherently tainted, and any kind of alien knowledge or ability to cast spells decreases your sanity permanently in the same way that cybernetics decrease your access to magic in certain cyber punk games.

[Brauron]

Hey! I run a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and I don't get all creepy with props...though I do do sound effects and weird dialects and accents.

[Melrob]

Here are some other good pictures of the tentacled one from beneath

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/22961013/?&q=cthulhu&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/4986753/?qo=1&q=cthulhu&qh=boost%3Apopular+age_sigma%3A24h+age_scale%3A5

[Arbitrarity]

Hello Cthulhu (http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2003-11-30)

That is.. random.

[Thomas]

Cthulhu only appears in Call of Cthulhu (one of Lovecraft's bad novels), but is referenced a few times in other works (but no more so than Shub-Niggurath, Azathoth, or Nyarlathotep; in fact, I'd say the last two, at least, are a lot more prominent).

I have no clue how it became such an iconic creature, considering that Lovecraft never seemed to place a great deal of focus or importance on Cthulhu itself.

I suggest nobody read Call of Cthulhu. Read Shadow Over Innsmouth, or Dreams in the Witch House, or Rats in the Walls, or Pickman's Model, or Case of Charles Dexter Ward, instead, if you want to read Lovecraft...


Also, yeah, Cthulhu's not a god. Cthulhu is a Great Old One, not an Outer God like Azathoth or Nyarlathotep (or especially an Elder God, which are Earth and Dreamlands gods). Cthulhu is, specifically, inferred to be a high priest or patriarch of its "people" - presumably worshipping some Outer God?


You should read some Lovecraft stories. That guy is bascially the equivalent of Poe when it comes to classic, "romantic" horror. Consider it education. :smallsmile:

I think you mean "he read a lot of Poe and his early works are basically really bad, repetitive, and predictable fanfiction" ... bleach.

[oriong]

Cthulhu only appears in Call of Cthulhu (one of Lovecraft's bad novels), but is referenced a few times in other works (but no more so than Shub-Niggurath, Azathoth, or Nyarlathotep; in fact, I'd say the last two, at least, are a lot more prominent).

I have no clue how it became such an iconic creature, considering that Lovecraft never seemed to place a great deal of focus or importance on Cthulhu itself.

Actually I think you answered your own question there. Cthulhu appeared. He is one of the few creatures from lovecraft's collection of weird names to actually show up and be described (even if it is a 'lovecraft' description). Certainly he's not the only monster lovecraft ever included but in a lot of ways he's had more screentime than any of the other entities referenced in lovecraft's other works (such as Shub, Azathoth, etc). Yog-Sothoth does appear as well, but I don't believe he had quite the impact Cthulhu did.

Cthulhu is also represented as one of the more active and dangerous of these entities, I think he is the first to be represented as a looming, inevitable threat to the world (as opposed to simply an inhuman or alien horror), and definitely as the one with the greatest world-wide influence (both through the cthulhu cult and the psychic influences he has)

[Dhavaer]

That is.. random.

Its true purpose is... sinister.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I believe aboleths (or was it chuuls, I can't remember) are loosely based on the appearence of Cthulhu.

Hmm... In monster manual I alone;

Aboleth (Dagon), Chaos Beast (tentacles, tentacles!), Ghoul (Lovecraft had them but not really original), Gibbering Mouther (in some ways Shoggoth like), Locathah (possibly Deep One), Mind Flayer, Ooze (possibly Shogoth again), Skum (possibly Deep One), Xorn (simatry is similar to Elder Thing).

Any other aberrations and some outsiders are very Lovecraftian as are Pseudonaturals.

[Viscount Einstrauss]

Lovecraftian monsters are some of the best. They're creepy and unsettling, exactly the sort of enemy you wouldn't want to run into. I'd rather brave a whole world of rotting undead then face ten minutes in a small shack with a few Lovecraft-inspired ickies.

Undead will probably eat you. Those things? They unhinge reality and bring you infinite horrors.

[Dant]

This is mirrored in the RPG, which I understand is the number one generator of Total Party Kills.


I feel obligated to mention that this is in fact incorrect. You have obviously never played Paranoia. In CoC the party can only die once. It's got nothing on 600% casualties in under 15 minutes.
Still, CoC is fun. I've never seen the words "I run away" used so many times.

[Thomas]

Actually I think you answered your own question there. Cthulhu appeared. He is one of the few creatures from lovecraft's collection of weird names to actually show up and be described (even if it is a 'lovecraft' description). Certainly he's not the only monster lovecraft ever included but in a lot of ways he's had more screentime than any of the other entities referenced in lovecraft's other works (such as Shub, Azathoth, etc). Yog-Sothoth does appear as well, but I don't believe he had quite the impact Cthulhu did.

Eh? Azathoth is described, too. And at least one or two forms of Nyarlathotep. I'm not so sure about Shub-Niggurath.

Yog's appearances are related in Lurker at the Treshold, right? In the last chapter (written by Derleth, apparently), which is total crap (and a huge disappointment after the uncharacteristically good and suspenseful first two chapters)... so that'd explain why nobody wants to think of Yog. :smallamused:

Cthulhu certainly isn't active, either - it's dead and trapped in R'lyeh, which only surfaces very rarely. "With strange eons even death may die." Nyarlathotep is much more active (acting as a psychopomp for witches).

[Malek]

Cthulhu is a Great Old One *snip*
Actually wikipedia lists Cthulhu among Great Old Ones... And yes I know that wikipedia isn't the most reliable source so I'll try to research some more on that.

[Thomas]

Uh, so, what's the contradiction between "Cthulhu is a Great Old One" and "Wikipedia lists Cthulhu among Great Old Ones" ? Illiteracy, I presume...

I don't really give a hoot what Wikipedia says on the issue, anyway (even when it agrees with me); I'm going off the CoC books (which had to take a stance on the confused issue of the terminology; Lovecraft himself didn't apply the terms consistently). There's a page or two in most editions of the CoC rulebook devoted to this matter alone.

[Malek]

Argh, me bad. All the exams today must have dulled my sight. Just ignore my previous post. ^^"

[Amphimir Míriel]

Hmm... In monster manual I alone;
Gibbering Mouther [...] Ooze

Wikipedia seems to agree with you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoggoth , scroll down to "Other appearances":



In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game system, the shoggoth is referred to as a gibbering mouther. The shoggoth also could be considered the basis of the ooze family of creatures, or more specifically the black pudding. Much like the shoggoth, the black pudding is tar-like in appearance as well as amorphous.

[Thomas]

Also, the tell-tale signs of a gelatinious cube's presence - clean-swept hallways etc. - are straight from At the Mountains of Madness, really, and the tell-tale signs of a shoggoth's presence...

[oriong]

Eh? Azathoth is described, too. And at least one or two forms of Nyarlathotep. I'm not so sure about Shub-Niggurath.

I may be overlooking a few stories, but as far as I remember Azathoth's descriptions are limited to something like 'blind idiot nuclear chaos', possibly with the term 'writhing' thrown in. Which is, admittedly, only a bit less descriptive than Lovecraft ever gets. I don't know about any physical appearances he's made. Cthulhu's description is actually relatively concrete, although you get it mostly through the two pieces of artwork crafted in his likeness.

You're right about Nyarlathotep, but I'd also argue that he's a close second place when it comes to iconic Mythos entities, maybe the only thing keeping him back is that he seems to work a lot more on the level of humans.




Cthulhu certainly isn't active, either - it's dead and trapped in R'lyeh, which only surfaces very rarely. "With strange eons even death may die." Nyarlathotep is much more active (acting as a psychopomp for witches).

'influential' might be a better word, since the Cthulhu cult and the nightmares he causes aren't even something he's aware of. Nyarlahotep is more active personally, but less influential world wide (it seems) and also a lot more in the style of a classic 'demonic' or 'satanic' evil rather than the weird alienness that is cthulhu. I think Nyarlahotep is the only one of the creatures to ever take a human form.

[Thomas]

I may be overlooking a few stories, but as far as I remember Azathoth's descriptions are limited to something like 'blind idiot nuclear chaos', possibly with the term 'writhing' thrown in. Which is, admittedly, only a bit less descriptive than Lovecraft ever gets. I don't know about any physical appearances he's made. Cthulhu's description is actually relatively concrete, although you get it mostly through the two pieces of artwork crafted in his likeness.

Dreams in the Witch House; they visit Azathoth's court, don't they? The blind, mindless mass writhing in the middle of the insane lesser outer gods, the horrible piping, and so on...


Influential is a better word; Cthulhu is certainly one of the more worshipped creatures of the Mythos (although not the only one by a long shot; even Lovecraft's stories include a lot of other cults, and the Mythos as a whole includes many, many more). And yeah, Nyarlathotep is the "sanest" of the creatures (despite being pretty insane itself), and several of its thousand forms are apparently more or less human. (And yes, he's definitely the Satan of the the Mythos; the source of witches' power and so on.)

[Closet_Skeleton]

Wikipedia seems to agree with you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoggoth , scroll down to "Other appearances":

Guess where I looked.

The Gibbering mouther is too small to be a true Shoggoth though. A Shoggoth is at least 15 ft. in diameter (which would be Huge in DnD) while Gibbering mouthers are medium and only advance as far as Large. However the amorphous shrieking attributes are very Shoggoth like.

The whole Ooze familly inherits certain Shoggoth traits, Black Puddings have the colour and as previously mentioned Gelataneous cubes have the size and waste disposal.

[Thomas]

Tekili-li! Tekili-li!

[Closet_Skeleton]

Okay, apparently some Kua-Toa actually worship Dagon. Looks like they're more Deep One like than Locath. Blibdoolpoolp is their more common goddess though.

[Renrik]

Dagon has always held a special place in my heart. It's the first story of H.P. Lovecraft's I read. I remember reading the first paragraph and just thinking: "I'm gonna like this guy."

In my campain, I replaced Sekolah with Dagon, so the sahuagin worship him. When I read the story, the image of sahuigan just stuck in my head. I swear, for three weeks after reading it, I was scared to go inot the water.

Of course, Rats in the Wall is also one of his really good works (ignoring, of course, the obviously great ones, like Call of Cthulhu and the rest fo the later ones.

[Ethdred]

As well as 'I run away', Cthulu is also responsible for that other frequent player quote - 'How many tentacles?'

[Renrik]

and of course, DM quotes:

"You are all dead. No saves."

"You are all insane. No saves."

[TimeWizard]

Cthulhu only appears in Call of Cthulhu (one of Lovecraft's bad novels), but is referenced a few times in other works (but no more so than Shub-Niggurath, Azathoth, or Nyarlathotep; in fact, I'd say the last two, at least, are a lot more prominent).

I have no clue how it became such an iconic creature, considering that Lovecraft never seemed to place a great deal of focus or importance on Cthulhu itself.

I suggest nobody read Call of Cthulhu. Read Shadow Over Innsmouth, or Dreams in the Witch House, or Rats in the Walls, or Pickman's Model, or Case of Charles Dexter Ward, instead, if you want to read Lovecraft...


Also, yeah, Cthulhu's not a god. Cthulhu is a Great Old One, not an Outer God like Azathoth or Nyarlathotep (or especially an Elder God, which are Earth and Dreamlands gods). Cthulhu is, specifically, inferred to be a high priest or patriarch of its "people" - presumably worshipping some Outer God?



I think you mean "he read a lot of Poe and his early works are basically really bad, repetitive, and predictable fanfiction" ... bleach.

Hahebawa... huh? Sacralige. Call of Cthulhu is among Lovecraft's finest. Cthulhu isn't the most well known because he/it/unspeakbality entity has a good pr agent, it's because Cthulhu was a stepping stone into dark portals hitherto unknown and unspoken. But it's just a contest of opinions, so Lovecraft fans really win, despite your seeming to recomend and bash him simultaniously. And why, pray tell, is The Colour Out of Space not on the list?

[SpiderBrigade]

Pah, everyone knows the best Lovecraft stories are Dreams in the Witch-House and Pickman's Model anyway :smallbiggrin:

But I agree that CoC is not a bad one, either. It's nice for him to actually describe the idol, instead of just telling us how incredibly horribly indescribable it is...

In MY opinion, the Lovecraft stories no one should ever read are the Dream Cycle ones where he leaves anything like the real world behind and you have people running around opening doors with mystical keys and it's all just so...metaphorical (only without actually being a metaphor FOR anything). Gah. I hate those.

[/rant]

[Thomas]

Call of Cthulhu is seriously bad. Not as bad as some of his stuff - it's just at the bottom of the "worth reading" list. It lacks everything Lovecraft actually knew how to do - describing cities and countryside in a creepy way, immediate description of surroundings from a personal point of view, etc. Pickman's Model is great; Rats in the Walls is good; Dreams in the Witch-House is likewise good... but Shadow Over Innsmouth is the very best.

I guess if you mean "finest 15 out of the ~60 he wrote, ~40 of which were worthless crap like Outsider or Beast in the Cave or all the others that repeated the same two stories over and over"... sure.

The Dream Cycle stuff isn't proper horror; it's more bizarre fantasy, like Clark Ashton Smith also wrote. (In fact, Smith was probably mainly inspired by the Dream Cycle stuff.)

The really bad stuff are the early, repetitive stories (about a dozen repeats each of "IT WAS ONCE HUMAN!" and "HE HAS LIVED FOR LONGER THAN PEOPLE LIVE!") and the several Poe knock-offs (I never found Poe even creepy, myself, so that might affect my judgement there).

[CockroachTeaParty]

At the Mountains of Madness was the first Lovecraft story I read, and so for me it holds a special place in my heart. But I think that The Shadow over Innsmouth is perhaps the best one. It inspired a whole campaign for me.

[kamikasei]

Oh, man. I love Wikipedia. As far as I can tell most of Lovecraft's stuff is online (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:H._P._Lovecraft) and freely available. You want to know who dread Cthulhu is, you're all set.

[TimeWizard]

Okay, apparently some Kua-Toa actually worship Dagon. Looks like they're more Deep One like than Locath. Blibdoolpoolp is their more common goddess though.
i find it hard to quake with the drea certainty that my reality is about to be peeled away like a week old bandaid when i know the face of ultimate insanity is named Blibdoolpoolp. It sounds like something a baby calls a fish.

[SpiderBrigade]

HAH!


stupid character limit....yes, I hate Blibdoolpoolp as a name, also. But Kuo-Toa make the ultimate Deep Ones, IMO. Some might say it's Skum, but their art isn't as creepy :smallbiggrin:

[Dairun Cates]

Oh, and that Cthulhu eats 1d6 adventurers per round (http://www.cruisegazing.com/RPG_Motivational/Cthulhu.jpg).

Actually, having looked up the call of Cthulu system, this turns out to be wrong, but everyone keeps quoting it. I can't remember the exact number, but I believe he actually kills 2d4 investigators a round and gains an extra 4 automatically if he can grapple the opponents with his awesome mouth tentacles. Now, this turns out to be worse on average, but I guess I'm just bugged by the fact that no one seems to have actually read the entry on Cthulu. Oh, and if you hit him with a nuke, he comes back 10 minutes later. Basically, he's the biggest hosejob ever. Only a Paranoia GM would use him while "sane".

[Ethdred]

Actually, having looked up the call of Cthulu system, this turns out to be wrong, but everyone keeps quoting it. I can't remember the exact number, but I believe he actually kills 2d4 investigators a round and gains an extra 4 automatically if he can grapple the opponents with his awesome mouth tentacles. Now, this turns out to be worse on average, but I guess I'm just bugged by the fact that no one seems to have actually read the entry on Cthulu. Oh, and if you hit him with a nuke, he comes back 10 minutes later. Basically, he's the biggest hosejob ever. Only a Paranoia GM would use him while "sane".

Yeah, I think the point of having an entry for Cthulu is just to give you a really really really good incentive to stop the cultists _before_ they summon him

[Thomas]

Oh, man. I love Wikipedia. As far as I can tell most of Lovecraft's stuff is online (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:H._P._Lovecraft) and freely available. You want to know who dread Cthulhu is, you're all set.

Well, it's freely available online, but it may be illegal. There's been some major issues and confusion (and, I think, legal battles) about the matter of copyrights.


Actually, having looked up the call of Cthulu system, this turns out to be wrong, but everyone keeps quoting it. I can't remember the exact number, but I believe he actually kills 2d4 investigators a round and gains an extra 4 automatically if he can grapple the opponents with his awesome mouth tentacles.

Looks like you didn't read the entry just recently, either.

From CoC edition 5.5:

... "each round 1D3 investigators are scooped up by Cthulhu's flabby claws to die hideously." ... [if Cthulhu's head is low enough, they] "might also be attacked by Cthulhu's facial tentacles, which can grab four people per round." Both have 100% attack; claws deal 1D6+21D6 damage (average 77, which is 5-7 times an investigator's hit points), tentacles deal 11D6 damage. Of course, investigators should be allowed Dodge rolls (or Luck, or even DEX times X rolls). There's a play example somewhere in the book that suggests NPCs get grabbed first, I think.

[Mr Croup]

Well, it's freely available online, but it may be illegal. There's been some major issues and confusion (and, I think, legal battles) about the matter of copyrights.

Well, basically everything from his early career is in the public domain since it was published before 1923. And in fact, everything that he wrote and controlled rights to, became public domain as of this year.

The trick is there is some contention about a number of stories that were published in Weird Tales. Some of the stories published in that periodical were possibly published elsewhere previously, thus making the claim of rights a bit fuzzy. However, a good number of his later works belong to Weird Tales as he sold the rights to them.

Then of course you have the whole mess with Derleth and Arkham House, and the "collaborations." The site linked above by kamikasei goes into some of this, and you can do some more in depth digging to find out info regarding particular stories. I did a little of this when I was checking on rights issues for The Statement of Randolph Carter for a film adaptation I'm working on before I found it was clearly in the public domain.

[Dairun Cates]

From CoC edition 5.5:

... "each round 1D3 investigators are scooped up by Cthulhu's flabby claws to die hideously." ... [if Cthulhu's head is low enough, they] "might also be attacked by Cthulhu's facial tentacles, which can grab four people per round." Both have 100% attack; claws deal 1D6+21D6 damage (average 77, which is 5-7 times an investigator's hit points), tentacles deal 11D6 damage. Of course, investigators should be allowed Dodge rolls (or Luck, or even DEX times X rolls). There's a play example somewhere in the book that suggests NPCs get grabbed first, I think.

I think I was in a different edition, but yeah, you're right. I think it was 1d3+4 not 2d4. The edition I read didn't bother with damage or dodging.

[blackout]

All your base are belong to Cthulhu...sorry, I just HAD to do it. :)

[Thomas]

I think I was in a different edition, but yeah, you're right. I think it was 1d3+4 not 2d4. The edition I read didn't bother with damage or dodging.

That sounds dubious, honestly. I've used one or two older books, and they had attack percentages and damage values, too. Dodging or Luck rolls are specifically allowed - the game isn't about killing the investigators in horrible ways with Great Old Ones they can't escape or beat, no matter what some people like to say as hyperbole.

[henebry]

Also, the tell-tale signs of a gelatinious cube's presence - clean-swept hallways etc. - are straight from At the Mountains of Madness, really, and the tell-tale signs of a shoggoth's presence...

What about "The Dunwich Horror"? The invisible and gelatinous brother, which leaves behind him a trail of broken trees?

In fact that gives me an idea: how hard would it be to modify Gelatinous Cube to give it (1) invisibility or improved invisibility (2) a madness affect that strikes any which succeed in overcoming its invisibility and (3) class-level advancement?

[Dairun Cates]

That sounds dubious, honestly. I've used one or two older books, and they had attack percentages and damage values, too. Dodging or Luck rolls are specifically allowed - the game isn't about killing the investigators in horrible ways with Great Old Ones they can't escape or beat, no matter what some people like to say as hyperbole.

It could also be that I've never run Call of Cthulu so I don't know the system well, I just know the 1d6 investigators was wrong. It's possible I could've missed the damage values. Although, I swear when I looked at the entry, it just flat out said they died without any damage values. I never claimed to be an expert on the system, it's just always bugged me that no one can actually properly remember the number of investigators Cthulu kills even when they own the book. I suppose a bit hypocritical since I couldn't even remember them, but I've heard the 1d6 bit from about 12 different people.

[Ar-Sakal]

You want to know what is Cthulu??

Man, Cthulhu is a being so powerful and so mighty, that a party of 8 half-drow, half-celestial, half dragon munchkins (fighter-wizard-rogue-psionist-ninjas) with epic levels 30-40, armed with weapons and armor +8 and mounted on their charmed-for-life Celestial Tarrasques would be eaten by Him in 2 rounds.

Thanks the Gods (even if they are crazy) that the Great Old One is asleep and forgoten in an ancient city, and no one has been foolish enought to wake...

[Thomas]

Ar-Sakal: that sounds improbable. A party like that should and could certainly defeat something like Cthulhu. I'd argue that most of the abominations in the ELH are only slightly below Cthulhu in power level (and some are above it).

Going by the printed (in CoCd20) D&D stats for Cthulhu, he's CR 34 demigod (not that demigods should have CR, but then he doesn't have a single salient divine ability), and not really overpowered at that CR.


What about "The Dunwich Horror"? The invisible and gelatinous brother, which leaves behind him a trail of broken trees?

That's not a gelationous cube. The tell-tale signs are specifically clean-swept hallways. The Son of Yog-Sothoth is statted for 3.0 in either the Fiend Folio or the MM2, as the moonbeast (tentacles, invisible, drives you mad when you see it - it's the other Whateley kid, alright).

[blackout]

My all-monster party in the Forgotton Realms(armed with grenades and plasma weapons taken from the Master Chief(don't gimme that look)) just ran across something my DM has named 'Spawn of Cthulhu.' Should I be worried? Please, tell me I shouldn't be worried. :smalleek: I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIIIIIIIIE!*cries*

[Mewtarthio]

My all-monster party in the Forgotton Realms(armed with grenades and plasma weapons taken from the Master Chief(don't gimme that look)) just ran across something my DM has named 'Spawn of Cthulhu.' Should I be worried? Please, tell me I shouldn't be worried. :smalleek: I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIIIIIIIIE!*cries*

You shouldn't be worried. Your fate is sealed already. Acceptance and a dignified death is your only option.

...Well, actually, your death will be drawn-out and painful and you'll be screaming and voiding your bowels all throughout, so it's not exactly dignified. And really, anyone who accepts that kind of fate is truly a scary person. Never mind, then. Honorable suicide is your only option.

[blackout]

...OR, I could THROW the party's Kobold Sorcerer at Cthulhu's son, and then RUN, in the vain hope that he will eat the Sorcerer first.....My Half-Giant Sorcerer party member's player is looking at me like I'm insane and IS READING OVER MY SHOULDER. Y'know, Phil? I'm gonna OUTRUN you.

[Thomas]

blackout: Not really. Why should you? If it uses the stats for the star-spawn from CoCd20, it's a total wimp by D&D standards.

[blackout]

Actually, it uses a god's template...yes, a god's template.

Faerun is SCREWED.

[Mewtarthio]

I was thinking along the lines of this template (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/pseudonaturalTroll.htm). And since this is Cthulhu we're talking about, and Cthulhu's a pretty major guy, you might also even get this template (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/paragonCreature.htm) applied to whatever the base creature is.

Hey, if you play around with future tech, you're gonna get burned. And by CR [base] + 30 creatures, no less...

[Arbitrarity]

Wizards can take 'im.

Particularly that moronic thing I made involving 18000 damage in a round.

Oh damn, +at least 26 on FF touch :/.

Epic spellcasting FTW!

[blackout]

We were thinking of powering up all of the gear on the Phantom, and then suicide-bombing the guy. Didn't work. But, luckily, the DM was nice, said he was joking, and we're all alive again...and we NEVER met Cthulhu's son....GO AWAY, PHIL!

[Krill]

Hello Cthulhu (http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2003-11-30)

That is.. random.


And utterly genius.

http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2003-12-18

[Bearofbadnews]

Didn't see anyone else mention it, but Lovecraft himself referred to his Mythos as "Yog-Sothothery". Yog-Sothoth being the greater mind-numbingly alien evil, you can see why he would choose it over Dead Cthulhu, described as cousin to the more powerful Old Ones, who generally hang out outside our dimension.

If anyone here likes Lovecraft's work and hasn't read a biography about him, I would encourage them to emphatically. What a fantastically appropriate person he was to write what he did!

And CockroachTeaParty, I am with you on At the Mountains of Madness. It's my favorite. As far as relative quality of his various stories, I must confess I like Lovecraft as much for his idiosyncratic failings as an author as for his brilliant cultivation of dread.

In the spoiler lies a quick sketch of Great Cthulhu done by Yours Truly.
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/328/26119136pa2.jpg

[Voleta]

EXCELLENT WORK, Bearofbadnews! That would make a spifftacular t-shirt or heck, a tattoo... Yes. A TATTOO OF CTHULHU!


I recently found out a friend of mine has an excellent Lovecraft collection, and is willing to let me borrow them. Any reccomendations on what to read first, I mean, are they all seperate storylines but in the same world, or do they go in order..?

[Closet_Skeleton]

I recently found out a friend of mine has an excellent Lovecraft collection, and is willing to let me borrow them. Any reccomendations on what to read first, I mean, are they all seperate storylines but in the same world, or do they go in order..?

They're all seperate stories in differant worlds with tons of referrences really. About 20 or so stories can be said to be "in the Cthulu mythos" but it's really just idea recycling. Basically Lovecraft and his friends kept name dropping stuff from each other's work and some other guy tried to make it make sense. None of them are really sequels to each other.

[Voleta]

Ah, so it doesn't matter what order I read them in. I didn't intend to read the other folks books, because it.. It kinda feels like how there are eighty flavours of CSI and Law and Order now. They're vaugely like the origional, but pretty much suck in comparison to the starter.

[Tobrian]

Kuo-Toa re a rip-off of Deep Ones... in regard to their appearance, not to much in regard to their culture, though, or their breeding cycle (tadpoles). In mythos tales, Deep Ones can interbreed with humans, and the offspring often transforms into a Deep One in later life. I doubt anyone wants to find out first-hand if this works with Kuo-Toa, too. Ick.

Dagon was adapted to D&D d20 rules in an article in DRAGON magazine #349. He was turned into a quasi-godlike entity inhabiting a bottomless sea in a lowest layer of the Abyss, which veers off from the Lovecraftian tales, because in the MYthos universe, there are no heavens or hells, no devils, demons or angels... merely Deep Space with planets and suns as we know it and inhabited by starfaring mythos races, the Dreamlands, and unknown other dimensions where the laws of nature as we know them do not apply, and where the the Hounds of Tindalos and Outer Gods like Azathoth dwell and prey on unwary spellcasters and dimension wanderers.

Most CoC stories and CoC roleplaying games are set in the 1920s, but there are adaption for Victorian times ("Cthulhu by Gaslight") and modern times: namely, CoC Modern, Delta Green (merging the Mythos with secret societies and Special Ops work), GURPS Cthulhupunk (merging the Mythos with a high-tech Cyberpunk setting), basically a lot of backgruind monsters in Mage and Werewolf RPGs from the old World of Darkness 1.0 setting were modelled on Cthulhoid themes. And of course movies like Hellboy.

Some links:
The H.P. Lovecraft Library - The Works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (http://www.noveltynet.org/content/books/lovecraft/works.html)
His works are in the public domain by now.

Shoggoth.net (http://www.shoggoth.net/)

and various private websites

[Tobrian]

Related to Lovecrafts work:
Robert W Chambers: The King in Yellow
Arthus Machens: The Great God Pan

Actually Chambers and Lovecraft knew each other AFAIK. Back in those days Lovecraft knew a lot of other horror writers and they borrowed stuff from each other.

[Thomas]

That would be what the Cthulhu Mythos is all about. Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard are both "Lovecraftian writers"; Smith, at least, was in correspondence with Lovecraft. August Derleth and several others wrote works with Lovecraft, and on their own, and Lovecraft ghost-wrote for a lot of other writers. Ramsey Campbell (Goatwood, Severn Valley - a big part of the Mythos, really) was a later writer, but he was in correspondence with August Derleth... Lovecraft started a literary mythology that spanned generations and had a huge influence on what is now modern fantasy (see Howard) and horror literature...


I recently found out a friend of mine has an excellent Lovecraft collection, and is willing to let me borrow them. Any reccomendations on what to read first, I mean, are they all seperate storylines but in the same world, or do they go in order..?

No order or interconnection, but when you read the stories, you will start picking up details and patterns that make it all feel like a coherent world (even though it's not) - like the names of Dunwich and Innsmouth families, etc. Here's my recommended reading list, in order:

Pickman's Model
Rats in the Walls
Dreams in the Witch-House
Shadow Over Innsmouth
Dunwich Horror
Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Thing on the Doorstep
Shadow Out of Time
At the Mountains of Madness
Call of Cthulhu
Lurking Fear
Haunter of the Dark

Anything else is bonus, but those are the best and most important novellas, really.


Edit: Actually, a collection is likely to include mostly anthologies, so skim through the contents and pick the books with these stories, and read them first. Then read the other stories, I suppose. Some are real bores (and liable to turn a first-time reader off Lovecraft).

[TheOtherMC]

What is Cthulu you ask? MAKE A SANITY CHECK!

[kamikasei]

EXCELLENT WORK, Bearofbadnews! That would make a spifftacular t-shirt or heck, a tattoo... Yes. A TATTOO OF CTHULHU!


I recently found out a friend of mine has an excellent Lovecraft collection, and is willing to let me borrow them. Any reccomendations on what to read first, I mean, are they all seperate storylines but in the same world, or do they go in order..?

At the Mountains of Madness
The Shadow out of Time
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
The Dreams in the Witch House
The Dunwich Horror
The Whisperer in the Darkness
The Thing on the Doorstep

Not in that order of reading, but in that order of coolness, approximately.

[Closet_Skeleton]

What is Cthulu you ask? MAKE A SANITY CHECK!

Heh, once I made a campaign setting without humans and then made the Elves make a san' check when they saw a heavy set elf with rounded ears.

[Tobrian]

Another great Lovecraft short story:
The Colour out of Space
The Strange High House in the Mist

The Rats in the Walls has already been mentioned

The Dunwich Horror is a bit lame but it and At the Mountains of Madness, The Nameless City, Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Haunter of the Dark, and Shadow out of Time are some classic Mythos stories with mythos races making an appearance.

I love Pickman's Model and the Dreamland stories:
The Quest of Iranon. The Cats of Ulthar. Celephais. The White Ship. The Doom That Came to Sarnath. The Silver Key. Through the Gates of the Silver Key. The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. The Statement of Randolph Carter.
Lovecraftian ghouls rock!