Want Cthulhu? Stay Away from Cthulhu

A couple days ago a friend of mine recalled a conversation we had in the '10s or something, about how, if you want to run a game of lovecraftian horror, you should stay away from Lovecraft.

The idea is not original, and probably came from some blog that we read at the time. Let me expand on that.

Running a horror campaign (whatever ruleset you use) with Deep Ones, Mi-Go, Shoggoths, and the other canonical creatures and gods of the Cthulhu Mythos, is not going to make your players experience lovecraftian horror at all. All those entities have become pop culture icons, so widely known and, in the nerdsphere collective imagination, they are domesticated to the point of becoming the subjects for plushies, funkopops, cool t-shirts, mugs, political satire ("Vote Cthulhu"), board games and comical stories.

They are, quite literally, a comfort zone, which is quite literally the opposite of lovecraftian horror. 

If you achieve to have your players experience even just a bit of lovecraftian horror with such set pieces, you probably are a great GM running a great scenario.

The point is, the canonical pieces of the Cthulhu Mythos can't surprise. Cosmic dread, madness, and the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible is gone.

The only way to truly make an attempt is to create your own Mythos. Your unique creatures, entities, gods, and books. Or even better, no creatures, gods and books at all. Go for unprecedented, or at least less abused, categories. One of the points of lovecraftian horror should be: facing something that can't be fully understood, and being able to categorize it is a big step towards understanding... The other points should be: something that threatens you, and that the more you understand it, the more it questions your understanding of reality itself.

I know, it sounds daunting! Even if what you come up with is a half-botched attempt, it still has much better chances of disturbing your players' imagination a little bit.

And potentially, there's more. If you propose your group to play Call of Cthulhu, Trail of Cthulhu, Tiny Cthulhu, The Cthulhu Hack, Realms of Cthulhu, Cthulhu in Space, Cyber-Cthulhu (and the list could go on and on AND ON), well, you've already lost them. You are already telling them "We are going to play a game with the cliche of cosmic dread, madness, and the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible, so play along".

And they might. I mean it will be a game of lovecraftian horror, except the horror.

What to do in order to pull it? In theory, the best way would be to let that horror seep into something else, just like it crawled into the lives of Lovecraft's protagonists without a warning. Let those themes (and your own cosmic Mythos) creep into another game. In theory, the further away the starting setting is from lovecraftian horror, the more impactful it becomes.

That's what they did with True Detective season 1 or, to a lesser degree, with Archive 81,  or Annihilation.

But is that ok, ultimately, with RPGs? There is a final, and not trivial, conundrum.

In my opinion, players should not be sold an epic fantasy campaign, only to see it slowly become a horror campaign. Not fair at all. They signed in for A, not for B. They might hate it, and lose trust in you as a GM. The campaign might feature themes and topics some people don't want to see in a game: body horror, mental illness, religions, you name it. Not fair at all to have those things dropped on players who expected to play college drama, space opera, western action, or whatever.

So what? Probably, the best way is to inject lovecraftian horror into games that already are supposed to be horror, but belong into very different horror niches. Zombie apocalypse games. Vampires. Gothic horror. Heck, even most Sword & Sorcery rpgs might do. You'll avoid pulling a very bad trick to your players, but may still have a chance to go lovecraftian. An Apocalypse World game starting with zombies and slowly turning cosmic horror sounds like a great campaign to me.

So am I saying all those Cthulhu-branded games are worthless?

Naaa. They are fine, good games in their own way. Just know that horror, the way Lovecraft tried to convey it, will hardly be part of your campaign. You're still in for a lot of fun, with so many great adventures and campaigns available.

I'm absolutely in favor of playing within one's comfort zone. I even enjoy vanilla fantasy and will probably write a post about its merits soon!

I think most of the times gamers just want to have fun, not to experience negative emotions such as actual fear, inquietude, uneasiness, doubt. Let alone questioning their understanding of life! Sometimes it's fun to just blast your shotgun into a Deep One's face, and send the inhuman temple into orbit via dynamite... or end up squished to bits or locked at the asylum for trying.

d12 Nighttime City Encounters and Events for Old-School Essentials

New week, new random table!

This time, it's d10 nighttime city encounters and events for Old-School Essentials, and easily portable to similar rulesets such as Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, or any other clone of OE, B/X, or BECMI Dungeons and Dragons.

Use them to spice up your campaign!

This table also is a preview of the extended version (with d20 results!) that will be featured in Candle, a special zine project I've gladly joined!








Writing these entries was a lot of fun. As usual with my other encounters/events tables, I've tried put enough meat to have a decently fleshed-out encounter, while keeping the text short enough to be read in a minute.

Some are fairly simple and may resolve in a few minutes, while others may spring a few hours of adventures, or even develop into a large plot. Just how I like it!




d10 Nighttime City Encounters and Events for Old-School Essentials

Roll 1d10 for an interesting night-time encounter for when the heroes stay up late in the streets of a large city.

1. A naked young halfling (level 3) climbs down a rope from a window on the second floor of a rich building. He’s fleeing from the bed of an important local NPC’s wife, but will say he was the victim of a miscast teleportation scroll, or something... and he would gladly use a cloak. He is the son of the leader of the nearby halfling enclave, and their ambassador in the city.
2. The group hears a 6 years old boy sobbing in a back alley. He got lost chasing his cat Smirk after sundown. He lives “near the temple” (can’t specify which). His father, a well-to-do tailor, is looking for him and might not like the looks of the group with his son (Reaction roll) and might call out for the guards. And the boy hasn’t found the cat yet! The father might as well offer to pay the group 50 gp to find the cat so as to convince his child to come back home.
3. A group of 1d6+2 wererats have just pilfered from a weaponsmith’s shop a sword and shield for each of them, plus all the silver daggers available (12, now inside their bags). They are running in humanoid rat form to get back to their lair in the sewers, where another 1d6+2 wererats await. If they hear unusual noise, they set up an ambush (surprise on 1-4). In their lair, a large chest holds 9,000cp, 2,000sp a gem (500gp) and a piece of jewellery (1,200gp), but is trapped: six metal pipes can be seen at the bottom. Unless disarmed, opening the chest shoots d6 darts (1d4 damage) in front of it.
4. A group of 1d6+6 cheerful, drunken young nobles (treat as normal humans, each with a jewel worth 900gp and 1d100gp in a pouch) are having a tavern crawl, accompanied by 4 sober bodyguards (level 3 fighters with chainmail and swords). Roll for Reaction, as they might invite the group to join the party, or find their mere presence and looks “offensive”.
5. The nearest manhole begins to tremble as a pack of rats crawls out and bolts away in all directions, terrified. Seconds later, a carcass crawler emerges from the manhole! Down in the sewers is its lair, with the skeletal remains of a few humanoid victims and, under the dirt and goo, a necklace worth 700gp and a battleaxe +1.
6. The group sees a large bat entering an open window. It’s a vampire looking for a midnight snack! If disturbed, it flies away and out of the city to leave the interlopers behind. If undisturbed, he returns to his hideout: a crypt hidden behind a secret passage inside a mausoleum in the city cemetery. The secret passage is protected by 4 gargoyles, and his coffin is guarded by 2 wolf-shaped iron living statues. A secret compartment inside the coffin holds 3,000ep, 2,000pp, 8 gems (200gp each), Potion of Giant Strength, Wand of Illusion.
7. Two beggars are chatting and drinking wine near a fountain. If befriended, they may reveal interesting rumors about the local criminal underworld, or the not too distant dungeons.
8. Four groups of 1d6 acolytes of a chaotic cult are sneaking to the hidden entrance of their secret underground temple, where a level 5 cleric is holding a midnight ritual. The temple includes a golden idol worth 10,000gp.
9. A girl cries “Stay away! help, HELP!” in a back alley. She’s baiting the group to an ambush, as 2d4 bandits (leather, clubs) are waiting to surprise the group (1-4 on d6). They request the group to leave their gold so that no one gets hurt. If they don’t obey, the girl (and bandit leader, a level 3 magic-user) can use her spells: sleep (to knock out uncooperative victims), detect magic (to take any magic items from the victims), and invisibility (in case she needs a quick escape).
10. A tiger prowls the streets! It has a jewelled collar worth 5,000gp, with the seal of an important local family. It is semi domesticated, so its Reaction roll is at +2. If captured and brought back unharmed to the rich owners, the group might receive a 500gp reward or some other benefit.
11. The PCs are mistaken for someone else, as a robed man greets them and takes them to a secret meeting in a basement where 2d6 conspirators (treat as nobles) plot to overthrow the local ruler(s).
12. A level 5 cleric warns the group to stay away from the area, as accounts of a ghost appearing at night around those streets have circulated for three days. What’s going on: the ghost is a wraith, the spirit of a librarian haunting his house and shop and wandering around it at night. He died five days ago after finding and accidentally reading a cursed scroll inside a book, which is still open on his desk, in front of his corpse (but its power is depleted). Inside his shop a chest holds 5,000gp and seven scrolls: spell scroll (knock, hold portal, wizard lock), spell scroll (dispel magic) spell scroll (haste, wizard eye, ventriloquism), spell scroll (ice wall), protection scroll (protection from lycanthropes), treasure map (the chest with “the treasure of the black bandit is buried under the oldest oak” of a not too distant forest, contains dozens of gems and jewels for 20,000gp, but is guarded by a spectre!), treasure map (“an iron coffer with the Djinni’s gold is inside the at the Azure Oasis”, and contains 37,000gp).

If you enjoy this type of content, check out my upcoming kickstarter!

d20 Curses for OSR Games, and Some Zine News!

What with the holidays and my baby girl being sick, I've missed a couple of my usual Saturday tables, so here I am to make amends.

In the meantime, though, a lot has happened! ZineQuest4 has been officially postponed to August, but the creators' community has organized an alternative for this February: ZineMonth, or ZiMo!

And that's not all! I've set up the pre-launch page for Axian Library, my contribution to the ZineMonth! If you've enjoyed my random tables and OSE-licensed electronic/print-at-home zines, the project is definitely for you: more information in Axian Library post.

And that's not all, again! My friend & designer Danilo Moretti has launched his very first Kickstarter with a cool OSR offering: a series of Pamphlet Islands, which just got funded!

I think that's enough for today, whew!

So here's the table: d20 curses for OSE and other OSR games. These are also a preview of my upcoming Pious Prayers & Powerful Prodigies.

1. Hands tremble (-4 to attack rolls).
2. Crippled, movement halved.
3. STR halved (minimum 3).
4. INT halved (minimum 3).
5. DEX halved (minimum 3).
6. CON halved (minimum 3).
7. Painful sores: 20% of the character’s total hp don’t heal in any way.
8. Bad luck, -2 to saving throws.
9. A permanent Blight spell on the character.
10. The character cannot lie and must always tell the truth.
11. Vision is obfuscated past 40’.
12. Daylight imposes -4 to all attack rolls.
13. Nightmares disturb the character’s sleep: healing from rest only works after a successful WIS check.
14. The character can no longer read (includes scrolls).
15. The character’s spoken words become an unintelligible gibberish.
16. Magic items don't work for the character. Cursed items are not affected.
17. All retainers, followers, hirelings, specialists, etc, turn their back on the character.
18. All shields and armor fall off from the character, who can no longer use them.
19. The character’s words are only understood by creatures of the same alignment.
20. Roll and combine two results, or devise something based on the character’s story and current situation.

If you enjoy this type of content, check my other random tables posts, and my OSR stuff on DrivethruRPG: the Land of Legends series and my pwyw e-zines for Old-School Essentials: Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird, Mysteriously Missing & Merrily Met, and Notable Novices & Notorious Newcomers!

My next pwyw Old-School Essentials e-zine will be released this month! To find out what it'll be about, and grab it as soon as it's out, follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Telegram!