Deep in one of the many packed boxes, a mint condition book of Call of Cthulu D20 awaits for its next victim to find it. Reading the blasphemous book will rend the mind with aeons-old pieces of the greater chaos that awaits, lurking, within the places that humans do not look, the place where false assumptions hide the real chaos. Insanity could be the only outcome, if there weren't something far darker and deeper yet to be awakened.
Lovecraftian horror awaits you. But what is it that defines Lovecraftian horror, over all the various subgenres of horror that evolved since? Simply put, Lovecraftian horror is defined by the discovery of new knowledge that destroys the human assumptions of the world so profoundly, that it causes insanity.
I cannot emphasize enough how utterly brilliant the piece "Lovecraft's Concept of Blasphemy" by Robert M. Price is in describing the true nature of the dangers in Lovecraftian horror. If you truly want to capture the dangers in your role-playing version of Lovecraft's world, you are going to need a truly dangerous and horrific form of insanity brought on by exposure's to blasphemous pieces left to be found in the world. You also are going to have to always have the threat that something bigger, chaotic, beyond understanding is lurking, awaiting return, awaiting a call.
In all of our games, there are those monsters set aside for destroying the world -- the tarrasque, the leviathan, the elder evils. They are reserved for times like these, when the actions or misactions of the party can trigger something so terrible, so much in utter defiance of the world as it is, that once unleashed, if even for a moment, that nothing will ever be the same again. In these moments, the PCs have the chance to not only miss their own petty goals, but to unmake the world. In this moment, the world can turn post-apocalyptic. The laws and rules can be thrown to the wind. The real emergence of danger can unwind everything.
And, yet, even before reaching this point, the characters will themselves, necessarily start to unwind, breaking piece by piece of the working model of the world that is their minds, until they no longer will be able to function, will no longer be able to determine the reality of shared humanity, the subset of the blasphemous world that lies just below.
As a GM, this is my greatest challenge -- to bring fear into a game with Cthuluian mythos. I think the answer is simple... do not let them see it coming. Let the threat appear from the corners and the edges until it is upon them, and then it is too late. Their precious characters will be pulled in and the new knowledge will tug and pull at their minds. And I, the GM, will track it all, and suddenly insanity (link to sanity rules for d20) will cloud them, their direction, their party. And if they do not discover the outcomes, it will be too late, and the Lovecraftian horrors will decend upon them, and destroy them. But if they do figure it out, victory, in some small petty way, might be theirs. But I will not tell them what is possible or how it will work. In this, they will find their fear.
Lovecraftian horror awaits you. But what is it that defines Lovecraftian horror, over all the various subgenres of horror that evolved since? Simply put, Lovecraftian horror is defined by the discovery of new knowledge that destroys the human assumptions of the world so profoundly, that it causes insanity.
I cannot emphasize enough how utterly brilliant the piece "Lovecraft's Concept of Blasphemy" by Robert M. Price is in describing the true nature of the dangers in Lovecraftian horror. If you truly want to capture the dangers in your role-playing version of Lovecraft's world, you are going to need a truly dangerous and horrific form of insanity brought on by exposure's to blasphemous pieces left to be found in the world. You also are going to have to always have the threat that something bigger, chaotic, beyond understanding is lurking, awaiting return, awaiting a call.
In all of our games, there are those monsters set aside for destroying the world -- the tarrasque, the leviathan, the elder evils. They are reserved for times like these, when the actions or misactions of the party can trigger something so terrible, so much in utter defiance of the world as it is, that once unleashed, if even for a moment, that nothing will ever be the same again. In these moments, the PCs have the chance to not only miss their own petty goals, but to unmake the world. In this moment, the world can turn post-apocalyptic. The laws and rules can be thrown to the wind. The real emergence of danger can unwind everything.
And, yet, even before reaching this point, the characters will themselves, necessarily start to unwind, breaking piece by piece of the working model of the world that is their minds, until they no longer will be able to function, will no longer be able to determine the reality of shared humanity, the subset of the blasphemous world that lies just below.
As a GM, this is my greatest challenge -- to bring fear into a game with Cthuluian mythos. I think the answer is simple... do not let them see it coming. Let the threat appear from the corners and the edges until it is upon them, and then it is too late. Their precious characters will be pulled in and the new knowledge will tug and pull at their minds. And I, the GM, will track it all, and suddenly insanity (link to sanity rules for d20) will cloud them, their direction, their party. And if they do not discover the outcomes, it will be too late, and the Lovecraftian horrors will decend upon them, and destroy them. But if they do figure it out, victory, in some small petty way, might be theirs. But I will not tell them what is possible or how it will work. In this, they will find their fear.
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