Need Lovecraftian plots

[Were-Sandwich]

I've decided to run a solo campaign for my brother over (what reamins of) the summer holiday. I'm using a slightly modded version of the XPG system (Deep7) in a slightly different Cthulhu Mythos universe. Basically, he's the last Scion of the Elder Gods (human mythololgical gods, RL pantheons), a man with no mortal father, who's purpose in life is to fight the Mythos. He has greatly enhanced stats, and access to the Power Cosmic (divine shizz). He chose to be the Scion of Anubis, so his Power will be centred around the dead, their passing, and other such stuff. I'm going for a more action than horror theme.

But I have no idea of what to do for a plot. Help.

[slexlollar89]

well, you could always do the god conspiracy theory, annd have the hero take down their cults to show the world how bad the gods are.

[Solo]

How does your brother feel about Antarctica?

[Were-Sandwich]

This idea intrigues me and I wish to learn more. He's tough, but I doubt he can single-handedly take down a Gnop-Keh (sp?)

[Solo]

Couldn't you look in a Call of Cthulhu D20 game for some material? I heard they're pretty interesting.... IIRC, there's a campaign that takes place in the Mountains of Madness. Pure awesome.

[Were-Sandwich]

I have d20 CoC rulebook, but no others, so no Mountains of Madness campaign. I'll look through it for plot ideas, when I can remember where the hell it is.

[banjo1985]

Now while I find the actual d20 Cthulhu rules horrific, I must say there are a few good plot books out there.

You may want to look at Nocturnum, it's an 18 part modern campaign that has its fair share of action as well as plenty of puzzle solving and mystery. It seemed good, but I never got the chance to run it, I don't know how well it would work as a solo adventure though...

[Were-Sandwich]

After having a quick flick through the d20 CoC book and a few wiki searches, I have a sketchy plot:

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetic_Order_of_the_Golden_Dawn) have recently purchased a disused graveyard on the outskirts of town, where a century ago a mystic claimed to have contacted the Secret Chiefs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Chiefs) during an internment of a dead relative, claiming the 'psychic weight' of the mourning had opened a rift that took her from the place to Shangre-Lah (sp?) where she conversed with the Secret Chiefs on many subjects, before being spirited back to the funeral exactly at the time she had left it. The Order hope to re-open this rift in order to re-contact the Secret Chiefs. Obviously, they will find something, but not what they expected.

The character will get involved because as a Scion of Anubis he will be interested in looking after the resting palces of the dead, and making sure they are left in peace. I intend to portray the Order as hapless innocents, not evil cultists, so he'll have to do fair bit of RPing to deal with the issue. He can also have fun blowing the crap out of whatever comes through.

[RTGoodman]

If you're looking for anything "Lovecraftian," just make sure that everything is UNSPEAKABLE!. And describe everything using the most esoteric lexicon you can, throwing around words like "squamous," "cyclopean," "noisome," " betrachian," "eldritch," and "rugose" as often as possible.

Also, if the players do anything, tell them they've gone insane because of the horrors of what they've seen/read/researched/heard/saw a picture of.

[Were-Sandwich]

I utilise my verbose vocabulary all the time, so no problem there.

I also have another idea for a follow-up adventure. A scientist has purportedly created a device capable of fantastic feats of healing, including raising the dead. He shows off its capabilities at a large public demontration, first curing a terminal cancer patient, then resurecting his dead wife. Over then next week, he heals/ressurects people at a high-security clinic, before he is shot dead by religious fundamentalists at a press-conference. He is placed in his own machine, and returned to life, causing some to proclaim him the Anti-Christ, after drawing parralels to the Ressurection.

The machine is actually Old Blasphemous Magic with the serial numbers filed off, found on an expedition to Antarctica. After a week, everyone who was healed in the machine changes, becoming some kind of monster, and going on a rampage. PC steps in.

[Zim]

Try this:

www.talesofterror.net (http://www.talesofterror.net)

I used some of thes ideas in a Harnmaster campaign. Really freaked the PC's out. Maybe I should borrow a bit for my Age of Worms campaign too...:smallamused:

[Subotei]

If you're looking for anything "Lovecraftian," just make sure that everything is UNSPEAKABLE!. And describe everything using the most esoteric lexicon you can, throwing around words like "squamous," "cyclopean," "noisome," " betrachian," "eldritch," and "rugose" as often as possible.

Also, if the players do anything, tell them they've gone insane because of the horrors of what they've seen/read/researched/heard/saw a picture of.

Dont forget the pseudopods. They'll never forget their first pseudopod...

[Knight_Of_Twilight]

Remember that there needs to be a constant, unrelenting sense of terror. The players shouldn't feel like they can ever win- they may kill a cultist, or even an unspeakable horror, but there should always feel that there is something out there, something bigger, meaner, and immortal.

Unless they are Conan the barbarian. He can beat anything.

[SurlySeraph]

Shangre-Lah (sp?)

Shangri-La. Oh, and I like your plot idea. The follow-up especially sounds awesome.

[s.donahue]

I agree with Knight_Of_Twilight. I've played a Call of Cthulhu game before, and the DM really hammered home just how overwhelming the odds were. You may go in looking for treasure, knowledge, or power, but before long all you'll want to do is survive and get far, far away.

[Golthur]

You can check here (http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=2) for a bunch of free old-style CoC modules, of varying lengths and details.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Does it matter? The whole party will just get eaten by something Man Should Not Know anyways

[Matthew]

You can check here (http://www.yog-sothoth.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=2) for a bunch of free old-style CoC modules, of varying lengths and details.

Neat link, Golthur. Never seen that site before.

[The Prince of Cats]

I am not sure about unrelenting horror, but there are two rules you should never break when playing CoC... (YMMV, but this works for me and my friends)

1) The player never directly sees the Old Ones, Outer Gods or Elder Things.

They hear screams from the room next to them and run in to see the room devoid of people and furniture but no sign of where they went. They dream of figures in silk masks who seem almost human, but they are not quite perfect.
The player will find the whispering in the dark, the dark language and the inexplicable events more terrifying than a monster. You can fight a monster (even if it will eat you) and so the horror can be faced and overcome. If your survival relies on being fast enough to get out of the room before it arrives, the unseen thing that keeps making that scraping noise, then you start to feel scared.

1a) The exception that proves the rule: they can see the horror if it is about to kill them. Personally, I think a good San check (or Will save or local equivalent) would be necessary to even begin to comprehend what they are seeing.

2) The player cannot directly fight the Old Ones, Outer Gods or Elder Things.

They can stop the cultists from completing the summoning, they can destroy the gate or the book, they can find out that the King in Yellow is real (but not ever see him) and that he is why the strange events are happening. They can never actually do anything except run away once the summoning is over, losing their allies as they go.

[Were-Sandwich]

As I said in the first post, I'm going for more of an action/adventure feel, rather than horror, because it just wouldn't work with my brother. He's too jovial and silly for serious horror. He's familiar with the Mythos, although he can't wax lyrical about it, which is about the level of knowledge his character should have. Note to self: Get him to name character.

EDIT: I don't suppose anyone has the XPG stats for a Hound of Tindalos?

[Golthur]

Neat link, Golthur. Never seen that site before.

Yes, I found that site/forum quite helpful when I was running CoC on a more regular basis. I mean, where else can you find out how to put fake dried blood stains on a manuscript? :amused:

[Were-Sandwich]

Anyoen got any ideas for what specifically should come through from "Shangri-la"? I think some Hounds of Tindalos would be cool, but they don't seem entirely appropriate.

[puppyavenger]

An angel, thaat is something that fits the exact description of an angel, great snow white wings, flawless skin etc, and a trupet of course, that summons the celestial host. then the carnage begins:smallsmile:

[Were-Sandwich]

Not quite the thing I was aiming for, but a cool idea nonetheless. The way the world is set up, all RL human dieties (past and present) are the inner Gods, and are united (mostly) against the Outer Gods (Yog-Sothoth etc). However, neither side can interfere directly, and must act through Scions or cultists.

The character is a Scion of the Anubis (I told him to chose an Inner God), and roams the country (Britain, for now) fighting the Mythos wherever it rears its tentacled head. He has semi-divine powers over areas within his purview (Death, Dying, Funerals, Veils, etc) represented by his Power Cosmic skill. His physical stats are also quite powerful, so he can fight Deep Ones and Ghouls on equal terms, and go toe-to-toe with Dimensional Shamblers and Gugs without immediatly splatting. One of the quirks of the system is that although he isn't that much harder to hurt than an average human (average SHRUG), he will probably stay upright and conscious for a lot longer without succumbing to those injuries (high SAVE).

[Aquillion]

I don't think running a Lovecraftian plot is really what you're looking for...

You made the PC too powerful for that sort plot. Really, D20 isn't too suitable for it anyway... an essential part of any Lovecraft plot is that humans just don't really matter and, most importantly of all, the main characters don't matter that much. If you're seriously running a Lovecraft plot, there should never, at any point, be any real hope of fighting back against the unspeakable horrors; it shouldn't even be clear whether the methods that we would use to defeat corporeal creature can defeat them, and players shouldn't know enough to be sure. The best they can hope for is a huge explosion at the end, and a lingering uncertainty that the creature might have survived... if the players ever view fighting back as a serious option, though (at least for more than three seconds at the beginning), you are doing it wrong.

The point of Lovecraft is that the characters are facing something that is completely and totally beyond them. They shouldn't have any real understanding of the supernatural or of the alien forces they're dealing with; indeed, there should be a general sense that they're incapable of fully comprehending what they're facing.

Some other major themes in Lovecraft: The underlying supernatural drama is never, ever good verses evil. Human cultists might be creepy, crazy, and evil, but Cthulu and Yog-Sothoth are not "evil", no more than a black hole or a supernova is evil. They are beyond human conceptions of good and evil. In some cases, it shouldn't be entirely clear whether they know that humans exist; and, in all cases, such things should never care that humans exist. The central theme of Lovecraft is that humans, their beliefs, and so forth are a very very very small part of the universe, basically meaningless to everyone but them. There is no vast conflict, no supernatural system of morality, nothing out there that cares about humans or, really, about this little planet (beyond a few things that have happened to take up residence here, or creatures like the Mi-Go whose interests are highly impersonal. Oh, and the Great Race of Yith, but there's something fairly impersonal about their interest, too.)

No human gods. The 'supernatural' in lovecraft barely cares about humans. If you really want to run Anubis vs. Yog-Sothoth, sure, you can... but it's like running a campaign where the players join forces with Luke Skywalker to fight against Batman and Baba Yaga.

Religion in Lovecraft is always practiced by creepy cultists (usually, alas, savage non-whites. You probably don't need to keep this part of his books, and he was writing a long time ago, but it's definitely there.) The creatures they're worshipping don't care about them and barely even know about them. The things they're trying to wake up will just eat them if, and when, they do awaken.

Technically, Lovecraft doesn't have to be scary in a horror sense, but it does have to be unsettling. The Shadow out of Time was not, for the most part, terrifying--the main character is in no danger for most of the plot--but it was very, very creepy. The main character in The Whisperer in the Darkness never even gets a clear view of the alien horrors. The players should never really know what's going on (at least not until the very end, at most), and should always feel that they're in danger.

"The Mythos" is a term invented after Lovecraft's death to encompass various things he wrote about. It isn't a unified 'thing' in anything he wrote, though... talking about "fighting the Mythos" is like talking about "fighting the unknown" (which, if you're going to go that route, might be a better way to put it.) Most of the horrors in Lovecraft have no connection to each other aside from being part of a vast, incomprehensible universe that doesn't really care about humanity. Note that that vast incomprehensible universe isn't some sort of "thing" -- it's not a bad dimension or something like from D&D. In Lovecraft, that is the universe. The world doesn't care about us, and all we have otherwise are delusions. You can't fight it, because it's simply the way things are--all you can do is crawl back into your delusions and try to forget that there's anything outside. That's supposed to be the scariest, most unsettling part of Lovecraft's world.

Also, the players usually either die or go insane at the end. They might manage to crawl back into their lives with only the occasional nightmare, if they're lucky, but no long-term victory is possible, because in the end the universe is scary and incomprehensibly bigger than we are.

Try reading some Lovecraft, too. There's a lot of short stories, and they're in the public domain now, so you can find them online.

[Runolfr]

Other comments aside, there are probably still ways to have an action adventure scenario against the Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, etc.

First, direct confrontations are out. The heavies of the Mythos are just too powerful to be defeated. On the upside, they're so powerful that the activities of humans are beneath their notice, and mundane concepts like time mean little to them. Their goals are beyond human comprehension, and they come to fruition over timescales that could be measured in epochs. The efforts of mortals to thwart them are so insignificant that they can't be bothered to intervene.

That said, associating with the Mythos heavies brings power, even if its a largely unconcious act on the part of the entities themselves. Their servants acquire dreadful power from their patrons, as well as flashes of insight about what they can do to promote their patrons' goals. These flashes of insight typically make the servants barking mad, but power always comes with a price.

So your villains are going to be insane cultists working toward esoteric goals that they only dimly understand. A cultist might be trying to change the course of a river so that ten thousand years later it will erode away the covering a vault in which one of the Entity's greater servants sleeps. The villain's actions need make no sense to your hero: the cultist probably doesn't even know why he's diverting the river himself. His actions, however, are destroying a village or otherwise causing havoc that your heroes want to prevent.

That's how I would set it up. The villain's goals are mysterious and nonsensical, but the consequences of their actions require someone to intervene to protect innocents. In the process of interfering with the villains' work, the heroes delay the inevitable resurgence of the Mythos horrors, but delay is a good thing.

[Mr Croup]

I don't think running a Lovecraftian plot is really what you're looking for...

Yeah, I have to echo what Aquillion said here. Fundamentally, in the Lovecraftian setting, you can't really fight back and win, not in any lasting sense. What you seem to be looking at is more of a Derlethian take on the mythos, in that August Derleth added a sense of good vs evil to the mythos with his contributions, including entities that were on the side of man, and the application of human morality to the Old Ones. I'd suggest taking a look at some of his stories, as well as Brian Lumley's Titus Crow books, as they might present something more in line with what you already have planned out. There's definitely more of a pulp feel, and a sense of being able to fight and win. Also, you may want to pick up some Hellboy comics and see what you can glean from them.

[Were-Sandwich]

I don't think running a Lovecraftian plot is really what you're looking for...

You made the PC too powerful for that sort plot. Really, D20 isn't too suitable for it anyway... an essential part of any Lovecraft plot is that humans just don't really matter and, most importantly of all, the main characters don't matter that much.
I'm not using d20, I'm using XPG. He's not (wholly) human. And I said a "slightly different" version of the universe.


If you're seriously running a Lovecraft plot, there should never, at any point, be any real hope of fighting back against the unspeakable horrors; it shouldn't even be clear whether the methods that we would use to defeat corporeal creature can defeat them, and players shouldn't know enough to be sure. The best they can hope for is a huge explosion at the end, and a lingering uncertainty that the creature might have survived... if the players ever view fighting back as a serious option, though (at least for more than three seconds at the beginning), you are doing it wrong.
If they can't fight back, what purpose is there in him being there in the first place, just to watch whilst I describe how some evil stuff goes down and everyone dies?


The point of Lovecraft is that the characters are facing something that is completely and totally beyond them. They shouldn't have any real understanding of the supernatural or of the alien forces they're dealing with; indeed, there should be a general sense that they're incapable of fully comprehending what they're facing.
See above.


Some other major themes in Lovecraft: The underlying supernatural drama is never, ever good verses evil. Human cultists might be creepy, crazy, and evil, but Cthulu and Yog-Sothoth are not "evil", no more than a black hole or a supernova is evil. They are beyond human conceptions of good and evil. In some cases, it shouldn't be entirely clear whether they know that humans exist; and, in all cases, such things should never care that humans exist. The central theme of Lovecraft is that humans, their beliefs, and so forth are a very very very small part of the universe, basically meaningless to everyone but them. There is no vast conflict, no supernatural system of morality, nothing out there that cares about humans or, really, about this little planet (beyond a few things that have happened to take up residence here, or creatures like the Mi-Go whose interests are highly impersonal. Oh, and the Great Race of Yith, but there's something fairly impersonal about their interest, too.)
I always viewed the Great Race as being slightly nicer than most of the other races, eccentric in a cute way. But doesn't the Elder God's existence add a sort of duality to the whole thing? The CoC d20 book describes them as being 'good'.


No human gods. The 'supernatural' in lovecraft barely cares about humans. If you really want to run Anubis vs. Yog-Sothoth, sure, you can... but it's like running a campaign where the players join forces with Luke Skywalker to fight against Batman and Baba Yaga.
Funny you should say that...


Religion in Lovecraft is always practiced by creepy cultists (usually, alas, savage non-whites. You probably don't need to keep this part of his books, and he was writing a long time ago, but it's definitely there.) The creatures they're worshipping don't care about them and barely even know about them. The things they're trying to wake up will just eat them if, and when, they do awaken.
The last part is kind of a given. Doesn't stop people trying though.


Technically, Lovecraft doesn't have to be scary in a horror sense, but it does have to be unsettling. The Shadow out of Time was not, for the most part, terrifying--the main character is in no danger for most of the plot--but it was very, very creepy. The main character in The Whisperer in the Darkness never even gets a clear view of the alien horrors. The players should never really know what's going on (at least not until the very end, at most), and should always feel that they're in danger.
As I said, I'm going for a more Action-Adventure feel. Kinda like Hellboy, but without all the clever intertextuality. Or government agencies. Or americans.


"The Mythos" is a term invented after Lovecraft's death to encompass various things he wrote about. It isn't a unified 'thing' in anything he wrote, though... talking about "fighting the Mythos" is like talking about "fighting the unknown" (which, if you're going to go that route, might be a better way to put it.) Most of the horrors in Lovecraft have no connection to each other aside from being part of a vast, incomprehensible universe that doesn't really care about humanity. Note that that vast incomprehensible universe isn't some sort of "thing" -- it's not a bad dimension or something like from D&D. In Lovecraft, that is the universe. The world doesn't care about us, and all we have otherwise are delusions. You can't fight it, because it's simply the way things are--all you can do is crawl back into your delusions and try to forget that there's anything outside. That's supposed to be the scariest, most unsettling part of Lovecraft's world.
I know. But its a lot eaier than saying "fighting the assembled horde,s minions and avatars of the Outer Gods and thier spawn"


Also, the players usually either die or go insane at the end. They might manage to crawl back into their lives with only the occasional nightmare, if they're lucky, but no long-term victory is possible, because in the end the universe is scary and incomprehensibly bigger than we are.
The whole "You all die or go insane" thing doesn't really work for a solo game, for obvious reasons. Thats what NPCs do.


Try reading some Lovecraft, too. There's a lot of short stories, and they're in the public domain now, so you can find them online.
I have done so, and know.


Calm down man, its a freakin' game.

EDIT: ^ THanks, I'll check those out. I'm familiar with Hellboy, ut I haven't heard o the others.

[Mr Croup]

EDIT: ^ THanks, I'll check those out. I'm familiar with Hellboy, ut I haven't heard o the others.

August Derleth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Derleth) was the fellow that compiled much of Lovecraft's works after his death, and ended up founding Arkham House publishing with Donald Wandrei to publish his tales. He was one of the many writers that Lovecraft corresponded with, and because of his role as literary executor, contributed a great deal to the shape of the mythos. He's often vilified for the changes and additions he made, but without him, we would most likely not have the ease of access to Lovecraft's body of work that we do today.

Brian Lumley is probably best known for his Necroscope books. The Titus Crow stories (comprised of a series of half a dozen or so novels, and at least twice as many short stories) may really be right up your alley. There's a decent amount of pulp sensibility in them, while still keeping to the core themes of alienation and unknown terror of Lovecraft's writing. Definitely worth a look.

[Were-Sandwich]

An interesting plot point I might develop is that of other Scions (of either set of gods). They would definetly be interesting opponents/allies, with their own abilities to bring to bear. I might compile all this into a short sourcebook when I get round to writing any of it down.

[tainsouvra]

If they can't fight back, what purpose is there in him being there in the first place, just to watch whilst I describe how some evil stuff goes down and everyone dies? Basically. If that seems like no fun, then his point that Lovecraft isn't what you want is probably true. The enjoyment of such a game, for those who enjoy it, is in the sense of mystery and dread of facing down horrors beyond mortal comprehension...and running like hell from them. Your character, if he survives at all, is either in heavy denial about the whole experience (other than the nightmares, oh the nightmares) or a shattered wreck of a man that will never view the world the same way again...and that's if you "win", heh.

If you want a game where you face horrors and smash them with a chunk of metal or a magic phrase, mrcroup's suggestion is definitely the way to go--something dark, but definitely not Lovecraft.

[Aquillion]

If they can't fight back, what purpose is there in him being there in the first place, just to watch whilst I describe how some evil stuff goes down and everyone dies?There isn't any purpose. That's the whole point. If he's lucky, he might survive with only occasional fits of trembling.


I always viewed the Great Race as being slightly nicer than most of the other races, eccentric in a cute way. But doesn't the Elder God's existence add a sort of duality to the whole thing? The CoC d20 book describes them as being 'good'.This is something that was added much later, in other interpretations. It's not there in Lovecraft... the Great Race is certainly less horrifying than most of the other things out there, but even they view people as, at best, strange creatures to be studied. They also have no objection to simply replacing entire races, coming out of the past to take control of their bodies and essentially exterminating them so the Great Race can survive.


The whole "You all die or go insane" thing doesn't really work for a solo game, for obvious reasons. Thats what NPCs do.It can work, with the right player... but the player doesn't strictly need to die. Simply surviving can be an accomplishment.

Basically, though, a Lovecraftian theme is good for a player who just wants to take part in a spooky story or enjoy some spine-tingling creepiness. It isn't really suitable to players who want to be heroic adventurers, make major accomplishments, or feel that they're in control of their character's destinies. Lovecraft's themes were directly hostile to all of those things.

[Ulzgoroth]

There are wins in Lovecraft. Occasionally even clean ones, I think, where the humans wipe out the bad thing and get out alive...well...this happened once at least, I'm pretty sure...

Heck, in The Call of Cthulhu one of the characters actually inconvenienced Cthulhu with direct violence, and may well have saved the world by butchering some cultists. Many, though far from all, of the monsters are indeed nearly impossible to seriously harm, and very few problems could be solved by any reasonable amount of simple force, but it isn't a no-win setting. Of course, after you encounter anything, whatever the outcome, you do wind up insane eventually...

[Belteshazzar]

No human gods. The 'supernatural' in lovecraft barely cares about humans. If you really want to run Anubis vs. Yog-Sothoth, sure, you can... but it's like running a campaign where the players join forces with Luke Skywalker to fight against Batman and Baba Yaga.



Not necessarily, Bast is mentioned in the Mythos. Not prominently mind, but she does appear as a real power as does Hypnos one of the Greek Gods of sleep and dreams.

The Yithians may truely feel some strange fondness for humans. The kind one may feel for mice or an ant farm but still, it is worth noting that they specifically never replaced the entire human race even when it would have been expedient to do so.

[Roog]

If they can't fight back, what purpose is there in him being there in the first place, just to watch whilst I describe how some evil stuff goes down and everyone dies?

Best case scenario - if you "win", you temporarily (days, weeks, months, years, who knows?) stop things from getting worse, at a (terrible) cost to yourself.

[Ulzgoroth]

Best case scenario - if you "win", you temporarily (days, weeks, months, years, who knows?) stop things from getting worse, at a (terrible) cost to yourself.
Again, that isn't the best case: Dunwich Horror (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dunwich_Horror), anyone? The literature does have cases of straight-up victory for the humans. The Shunned House (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shunned_House) likewise featured the evil being apparently destroyed, this time by purely mundane attack.

For that matter, the Elder Things from At the Mountains of Madness were recognized as personlike by the protagonists. And for all that the gap between their technology and ours exceeds that between ours and chimpanzees', they could use any help they can get...much as it would be out of the usual flavor, you could offer an alliance with one or a few Elder Thing survivors. Which in turn would make it at least more feasible to occasionally fight off fairly major enemies, if you've got incredibly tough aliens with disintegration beams willing to lend a hand.

[Were-Sandwich]

The military pretty much pwn all the Deep Ones in Innsmouth. I think that was a pretty clean win. They dynamited all the warehouses, rounded up and killed all the hybrids and torpedoed Devil's Reef. Sounds like Humanity 1, Deep Ones 0.

It think the "You can't do anything to stop them, and will die or go mad trying" thing could be fun (I'm due to play in a CoC game soon), I just don't think it would work solo, or with this specific player.

[The Prince of Cats]

I suppose the second Broken Sword game (Smoking Mirror) might be an example of what CoC could be if Indiana Jones was playing. In the end, there are cultists and an Aztec god who needs to be stopped before he breaks free. Even the third one (Sleeping Dragon) has a certain sense of events beyond the ken of man, though the ending was a little naff.

Another good one with some chance of fighting back is Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. That is Lumley's kind of CoC in many ways. Even those with the power to fight back are not necessarily best serving the cause by their continued survival. You lose sanity just by seeing or hearing those things that should not be, having to claw back a little bit by executing a finishing move and mashing their heads in. Also, see spoiler...

Perhaps the best example of Lovecraft at work in this game is that 'winning' just means that you help another Power ascend so that it can defeat the Power currently assaulting the Earth . You have to play the game three times to actually save the world and even then, there is the fourth Power. It was the weakest of the four, but then you went and weakened the other three...

There is no real reason why the player must go mad; madness is the result of direct interaction with the Mythos. A few dreams, perhaps a glimpse of something that should not be fleeing the scene of a fight...

Also, I second the suggestion that Hellboy (comics, cartoon or film) might give you some interesting ideas.

[puppyavenger]

Okay just remember that if the cultists ever somon a old one/outer god the world is doomed after all Cthulhu is NOWHERE NEAR the strongest of them and he could probably take over the world if he hadn't been kamakazied.

[Runolfr]

The military pretty much pwn all the Deep Ones in Innsmouth. I think that was a pretty clean win. They dynamited all the warehouses, rounded up and killed all the hybrids and torpedoed Devil's Reef. Sounds like Humanity 1, Deep Ones 0.

While Innsmouth itself was cleaned out pretty thoroughly, whether the torpedoing of Devil's Reef did any good is anybody's guess. If I remember the end of the story correctly, the Deep Ones considered humanities actions in and around Innsmouth to be more of an annoyance than a serious defeat.

[Were-Sandwich]

I imagine a barrage of military torpedoes being fired into your house wouldn't do it much good.

[puppyavenger]

No but they probably have some sort of protection given by Dagon/Cthulhu/hydra after all they are low enough down on the totem pole to care about worshippers

[Dervag]

I don't think running a Lovecraftian plot is really what you're looking for...

The point of Lovecraft is that the characters are facing something that is completely and totally beyond them...Great summary; the only thing you forgot was to use the "circle of firelight" metaphor, and that is mostly just a matter of taste on your part.


The efforts of mortals to thwart them are so insignificant that they can't be bothered to intervene.More likely, they do not even perceive the mortal as an enemy, any more than you would perceive the hostility of a goldfish in a bowl that was grimly determined to kill you and which was ferociously gumming pebbles in its tank to build up bite strength for the day that it would get a chance to bite you to death in the fingertip.


That's how I would set it up. The villain's goals are mysterious and nonsensical, but the consequences of their actions require someone to intervene to protect innocents. In the process of interfering with the villains' work, the heroes delay the inevitable resurgence of the Mythos horrors, but delay is a good thing.Good one.


There are wins in Lovecraft. Occasionally even clean ones, I think, where the humans wipe out the bad thing and get out alive...well...this happened once at least, I'm pretty sure...Something like it happened in The Shadow over Innsmouth.


Many, though far from all, of the monsters are indeed nearly impossible to seriously harm, and very few problems could be solved by any reasonable amount of simple force, but it isn't a no-win setting. Of course, after you encounter anything, whatever the outcome, you do wind up insane eventually...Right. The "everyone dies, you lose" school of Lovecraftian gaming seems to be a sort of exaggeration or overreaction, although a well-warranted one.


I imagine a barrage of military torpedoes being fired into your house wouldn't do it much good.If your house is really big, and probably defended by super-technology of some sort, it might be a nuisance on the order of having some punk kid come by a break a few of your windows with a BB gun.

[Runolfr]

More likely, they do not even perceive the mortal as an enemy, any more than you would perceive the hostility of a goldfish in a bowl that was grimly determined to kill you and which was ferociously gumming pebbles in its tank to build up bite strength for the day that it would get a chance to bite you to death in the fingertip.

Even more accurately, like the little fish in the river that sometimes swim up to me and peck at my legs. I'm not sure what they think they're doing, but they're not causing me the least bit of harm, so I just ignore them.

[Arbitrarity]

Even more accurately, like the little fish in the river that sometimes swim up to me and peck at my legs. I'm not sure what they think they're doing, but they're not causing me the least bit of harm, so I just ignore them.

The fish's take on this:

"Good lord, it killed Bobby! Destroy it!"

"What's this stuff... covering it... so wrong... getting weaker.."

"Oh Gods! The hair! It's watching me! It's watching you! Auuuuughhh!! It wants to twist..."
*Uncontrollable spasms*
"Noooooo!!!!"
*Fish goes utterly insane, and begins gnawing on legs of anything it sees, as a vacted body, an empty husk of what previously was.*

[Were-Sandwich]

I think I'll add a few Ghouls in the catacombs to make it a bit for interesting for the excavators, and give the PCs another chance to get interested in the goings on.

[puppyavenger]

what catacombs?

oh and for the follow-up adventure keep the scientest humen looking, makes it so much easier to decieve the PC's

[Leliel]

[QUOTE=Prince_of_Cats;3039311]

Perhaps the best example of Lovecraft at work in this game is that 'winning' just means that you help another Power ascend so that it can defeat the Power currently assaulting the Earth . You have to play the game three times to actually save the world and even then, there is the fourth Power. It was the weakest of the four, but then you went and weakened the other three...

[\QUOTE]

Em, no. Mantarok is actually the most powerful of the Ancients, and actually seems to like humanity more than the other three(as in, he mostly ignores us unless we intrude upon his business, and is then unperdictable in his behavior towrds us, rather then "outright hating our guts and actively plotting to kill us."

[Were-Sandwich]

From the wiki entry on Titus Crow:


I have trouble relating to people who faint at the hint of a bad smell. A meep or glibber doesn't cut it with me. (I love meeps and glibbers, don't get me wrong, but I go looking for what made them!) That's the main difference between my stories...and HPL's. My guys fight back. Also, they like to have a laugh along the way.

My opinion, in a nutshell.

I have another idea for a plot. The Unbroken Circle are a breeding cult dating back four millenia. They take the theory of Selective Breeding, and apply it to their members. They are not permitted to breed with outsiders, or tell outsiders of the existence of the Circle. The overall effect is that after 4 thousand years, they are all super-strong, super-fast, super-smart super-humans. And there are lots of them. Thousands, across the globe, at all levels of society. But I can't think of an agenda for them, or how the Pc finds of their existence.

[Solo]

From the wiki entry on Titus Crow:



My opinion, in a nutshell.

I have another idea for a plot. The Unbroken Circle are a breeding cult dating back four millenia. They take the theory of Selective Breeding, and apply it to their members. They are not permitted to breed with outsiders, or tell outsiders of the existence of the Circle. The overall effect is that after 4 thousand years, they are all super-strong, super-fast, super-smart super-humans. And there are lots of them. Thousands, across the globe, at all levels of society. But I can't think of an agenda for them, or how the Pc finds of their existence.

Get one drunk at a bar and talk to him about marital problems?