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<blockquote data-quote="Pour" data-source="post: 6043218" data-attributes="member: 59411"><p>Lovecraftian horror in D&D is a bit of a joke to me. I just don't see it, even with Aberrations. What you get is D&D's version, heavy on tentacles, knowable, mortal, visually stimulating but lacking in any notion of what makes that kind of fiction engaging, which is okay. In a game with spells, super-heroics, gods, monsters, and ultimately the expectation of even a slim chance to win (and fairness for that matter) it's difficult to hard-wire that, but lets not pretend any game besides certain Lovecraftian-specific games do it well. </p><p></p><p>Aberrations, if you're really going for unspeakable, might drastically differ from every other creature type in the monster manual, like a Colour Out of Space that's immune to damage and magic, instantly kills when it occupies a character's space, and cannot be trapped or impeded. Now the characters are working on a somewhat Lovecraftian playing field. How do they reconcile this being's presence? </p><p></p><p>How else do you bring the sense of things infinitely greater and imperishable to a game of D&D characters? Where's the hopelessness in AC and a hp total? Where's the overwhelming horror of being able to survive even one blow with your sanity or your life intact? Even if they did defeat or just survive something, what's the lasting physical or more likely psychological effect? And don't even get me started on something like stats for Great Cthulhu. </p><p></p><p>Part of me feels demons are meant to be the strangest, most fearsome monsters in the game. They can be killed (lords with extreme difficulty), but exhibit cursory elements of Lovecraftian horror (Juiblex or Dagon, for instance). </p><p></p><p>It's ironic, since my current game deals heavily with Lovecraftian-like entities, but I think that's where I'm coming from, the struggle with the expectations of a D&D game and my own sense of what should really happen, even after a 4 year old game... they should all be devoured, never having really had more than an illusion of a chance.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Pour, post: 6043218, member: 59411"] Lovecraftian horror in D&D is a bit of a joke to me. I just don't see it, even with Aberrations. What you get is D&D's version, heavy on tentacles, knowable, mortal, visually stimulating but lacking in any notion of what makes that kind of fiction engaging, which is okay. In a game with spells, super-heroics, gods, monsters, and ultimately the expectation of even a slim chance to win (and fairness for that matter) it's difficult to hard-wire that, but lets not pretend any game besides certain Lovecraftian-specific games do it well. Aberrations, if you're really going for unspeakable, might drastically differ from every other creature type in the monster manual, like a Colour Out of Space that's immune to damage and magic, instantly kills when it occupies a character's space, and cannot be trapped or impeded. Now the characters are working on a somewhat Lovecraftian playing field. How do they reconcile this being's presence? How else do you bring the sense of things infinitely greater and imperishable to a game of D&D characters? Where's the hopelessness in AC and a hp total? Where's the overwhelming horror of being able to survive even one blow with your sanity or your life intact? Even if they did defeat or just survive something, what's the lasting physical or more likely psychological effect? And don't even get me started on something like stats for Great Cthulhu. Part of me feels demons are meant to be the strangest, most fearsome monsters in the game. They can be killed (lords with extreme difficulty), but exhibit cursory elements of Lovecraftian horror (Juiblex or Dagon, for instance). It's ironic, since my current game deals heavily with Lovecraftian-like entities, but I think that's where I'm coming from, the struggle with the expectations of a D&D game and my own sense of what should really happen, even after a 4 year old game... they should all be devoured, never having really had more than an illusion of a chance. [/QUOTE]
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