Azathoth took Toughness?

[Geoffrey]

Thanks for the links and the great post, kenjib! I have those exact four Lovecraft tomes sitting on my shelf. I purchased the first three all at once and read the stories in chronological order (i.e., I read Lovecraft's early stories first and his late ones last). I then bought the fourth volume that includes the ghost-written stories, collaborations, etc. and read it in chronological order.

I am proud to say, therefore, that I've read all of Lovecraft's fiction. What great stuff! I agree, kenjib, with the order of importance of the four volumes that you give. I suggest that for hardcore, pure Lovecraft Cthulhu mythos, the following nine stories be read:

1. The Call of Cthulhu
2. The Colour Out of Space
3. The Dunwich Horror
4. The Whisperer in Darkness
5. At the Mountains of Madness
6. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
7. The Thing on the Doorstep
8. The Shadow Out of Time
9. The Haunter of the Dark

With the exception of At the Mountains of Madness, all the above eight tales are found in the volume entitled "The Dunwich Horror and Others".

 

[vrykyl]

I'm sorry. I enjoy d20 Wheel of Time, and d20 Star Wars. But Azathoth's stat block is another prime example to me of why d20 Call of Cthulhu is just wrong, wrong, wrong! The horrors of Lovecraft's mythos are horrors precicely because they are alien and unfathomable, and beyond humanity's ability to comprehend. Reducing a god of the mythos (or even the Great Old Ones in the d20 Annual earlier this year) to a stat block, as if you had a chance of understanding what a Lovecraftian Outer God is capable of, goes totally against the genre.

This is one WotC d20 product I'll be skipping. I'll keep playing my Chaosium CoC and Pagan Publishing's Delta Green.

SCOOP: BTW, someone posted a comment on the Delta Green mailing list this morning that Erik Mona had said that d20 Delta Green was go. Much as I love Delta Green, I think I'll have to skip that one, too.

Have to jump in and defend this great book. This section on god stats is for using the Cthulhu Mythos in a D&D campaign, and specifically says that they're not really appropriate for a d20 Cthulhu campaign. The stat blocks don't even use the modified terms and skills, but are presented as straight D&D3e creature/gods. I've been reading through this book all day, and it's better than I ever hoped for.

Jamie Chambers

 

[Morrus]

Moved to d20 System Games.

 

[JDeMobray]

1. The Call of Cthulhu
2. The Colour Out of Space
3. The Dunwich Horror
4. The Whisperer in Darkness
5. At the Mountains of Madness
6. The Shadow Over Innsmouth
7. The Thing on the Doorstep
8. The Shadow Out of Time
9. The Haunter of the Dark

6. The Dreams in the Witch House.

Shadow is okay, but in my opinion Dreams is much more relevant to understanding the Mythos; especially the relationship between Azathoth and Nyarlathotep.

 

[Brother Laszlo]

I think that trying to nail down Great Ones with statistics defeats the whole flavor of the CoC setting. Great Ones should be so comepletely alien and unfathonable that they cannot be translated into statistics. Hit Points? How about 1.3 x 10^29873? How about fifty times that? As I think it's been mentioned, the Great Ones are setting, not characters.

But the fact of the matter is that people who buy books from WOTC are going to expect stats. Gamers like stats. Gamers like to see big numbers attached to big creatures. Wow, I thought that Cloud Giant was tough, but he's child's play to the Crawling Chaos! So I support WOTC giving stats to the Elder Gods, the Great Ones, whoever they want. They're offering a supply to the demand.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Yes, but Brother Laszlo, have you read the rest of this thread or looked at the book?

The actual CoC rules section of the book contains no stats for the Great Old Ones or Elder/Outer Gods, BECAUSE these beings are beyond statistical definition, precisely as you say. Statistics for the Great Old Ones and Elder/Outer Gods are given in a SEPARATE appendix that deals specifically with using CoC elements in a D&D campaign; emphasis on the D&D.

To recap: d20 CoC has no statistics for the Great Old Ones or Elder Gods, and specifically denotes the fact that such beings are beyond statistical definition.

The optional rules for a CoC/D&D crossover contained in the appendix to the CoC book contain D&D stats for the Great Old Ones.

IOW, the best of both worlds.