Looking for Aberrant/Far Realm/Lovecraftian theme resources/material/recommendations.

Hi!

I'm working on a custom-written campaign for D&D 4E (though the info I'm looking for is not system-specific) based very, very heavily on the theme of Aberrant creatures, the influence/infiltration of the Far Realm, and sort of vaguely Lovecraftian/Cthuluesque elements. So, lots of mind control and insanity kind of stuff, sinister deception and shrouded masterminds of pure, alien evil. Lots of horrid, madness-inducing, slimy, tentacled psionic genius monsters and their helpless thralls. That sort of thing.

So what I'm looking for is recommendations for any sourcebooks, adventures, articles, novels, or what have you, from any edition of D&D (or even other RPGs) that deal with these topics, to give me the most amount of inspiration, ideas, and general background info on how these types of creatures and themes have been presented thus far in D&D (or D&D-like fantasy gaming).

Stuff about mind flayers, aboleths, beholders, ancient Lovecraftian-type gods, psychic horror (not gothic horror), the Far Realm, or anything else along those lines. I know that there are tons of pieces of writing out there from the last 30 years which could be very useful, and I'll be searching for stuff myself, but I figure that there are probably some very good, more obscure little adventures or articles or stories which I'd likely overlook, but which someone here already knows about.

Adventures which feature these creatures or themes very heavily would be awesome, or anything with nicely-detailed chunks of background (or "fluff") text about such entities would be really nice to read.

So, anyone have some ideas to throw at me?

Thanks!

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/HP-Lovecraft/H-P-Lovecraft/e/9781435107939/?itm=14

If you go to your local B&N and get lucky, you can find this in the bargain books for $20. It's all the fiction the man ever wrote. That's a really good starting point, assuming you can get through it.

Well, I wrote an adventure for Dungeon (the online version) called "The Last Breaths of Ashenport" that might work for you.

[sblock]It was inspired, in part, by Lovecraft's "Shadow Over Innsmouth," and while some of what it deals with is demonic, as opposed to aberrant, the themes are all there. Heck, it uses worshipers of Dagon, and while he's a demon lord in D&D, you don't get much more Lovecraftian when it comes to evil cults. [/sblock]

It was published in Dungeon 156, which I think is one of the free issues, though I'm not positive.

Dungeon #156 Table of Contents

I always liked the bit of fluff that described mind flayers as the descendants of humans who traveled back in time to escape the destruction of the universe.

I think James Wyatt's Greenbriar campaign that he develops for Dungeoncraft has quite a bit of aberrant stuff going on.

Oh whoo, there's so many.

Call of Cthulhu d20
Any of the Chaosium stuff.
the movie Tremors with Fred Ward
Bruce Cordell's Far Realm materials
GURPS Horror
GURPS Creatures of the Night

This is just scratching the tip of the iceberg.

This was originally going to be the campaign I'm running now. But, given all the stuff coming from WotC on how PH3 is going to be a lot about that, and I'm guessing we'll get more and more fluff and stuff from them over the next year or two, I'm switching my campaign.

I recommend the Illithiad, a 2E rule book. (I think it is 2nd edition).

check for a pdf of beholders (maybe on goodman's site?).

There is some free Kaorti stuff on the WotC site (3E, I believe). search for Kaorti there, you should be able to find it.

I'm pretty sure that Goodman Games' next issue of their print magazine is based on this stuff extensively.

There is a three part Dungeon adventure in DDI that is far realms based (these are pay, I believe).

There are some old 2E/3E dungeon magazine adventures on the Far Realm, but you'll need to find a list, and then convert them.

Right, Wyatt's campaign will go to Firestorm Peak at some point, which is a great 2E Far Realms' based adventure (good luck finding it). I actually re-read this on my recent 2 week vacation (while driving across Montana). Good stuff, if in need of some work/conversion.

Elder Evils is awesome for Lovecraftian campaign planning. I highly recommend it.

Other 3.5 books that should still have usable fluff and convertable mechanics are Lords of Madness (chapter on each of the main aberrations, other fun ideas like the fleshcrafter prestige class) and Malhavoc Press's Hyperconciousness (more far realm inspired psionics by Bruce Cordell with the "Dark Plea" being a villainous "something" out there).

To go along with 2e's Illithiad, there was a trilogy of mind flayer adventures that are very cool (again by Bruce Cordell). In fact, I'm planning on running a 4e paragon tier version of them in a while.