D&D 5E (2024) Cthulhu Confirmed!

[Paul Farquhar]

Jaws literally lead to declines in beach community tourism for a year or two and experts believe it's partially to blame for the stunning decline in shark populations worldwide. I think it's safe to say a lot of people were scared.

Quite. I've never had the remotest interest in getting in the sea or on a boat, so I'm not frightened of sharks. I used to be afraid of dogs, managed to overcome that.

 

[dave2008]

I don’t think The VVitch ever really gets scary, though I suppose I probably would find it much scarier if I was a Puritan settler in 1600s New England. Likewise, Mountains of Madness isn’t scary to me, but might be if I was a white supremacist. I appreciate both works more for their atmosphere, mood, and tone, rather than eliciting a genuine fright response. Though, I’m a bit biased, as I consume enough horror content to be largely desensitized to it, and tend to enjoy horror more cerebrally than viscerally as a result.

Yes, what is scary is very subjective. Back when it came out I can remember a friend telling my "The Blair Witch Project" was the scariest thing they had ever seen and it didn't really do anything for me. We are all different. I too didn't find "The Witch" scary, but I will say the movie "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" hunted my nightmares when I was a child.

 

[dave2008]

I disagree and think all should have stats. However, it is just that the stats should make it clear they are not something a level 1-20 adventurer can take on (at least not without very special circumstances).

 

[dave2008]

I disagree and think all should have stats. However, I just believe that the stats should make it clear they are not something a level 1-20 adventurer can take on (at least not without very special circumstances).

For example: IMO the power reducing options Rise of Tiamat should have reduced her a CR30 creature, not a CR 15 creature or whatever it was). Then if is pretty clear, yes she can be defeated now, but if we hadn't done X, Y, & z to reduce her manifest power it would have never happened.

Cthulhu should never have stats imo.

Kinda goes against the point!

I don’t mind stats on Cthulhu. Azathoth shouldn’t have stats though.

You could make the argument Orcus, Tiamat and Vecna shouldn't either, but here we are.

 

[dave2008]

Why? He was killed by a boat.

It was delayed by a boat, not killed by it. But I agree with your general point, Cthulhu is not some mountain sized monster that can't be defeated. At least not in its own story.

 

[dave2008]

I mean, HPL wrote that story in 1928 - a big steamship was huge and leading technology at the time, and Cthulhu pops and reforms unhurt, but goes back to sleep. Had he written it 20 years later, I imagine we would've seen Cthulhu get winded by being hit with a nuclear weapon.

Also, it wasn't the steamship that put him back to sleep

 

[dave2008]

Right? Look, I love Cthulhu Mythos fiction, but the overwhelming need to shove the Mythos into pretty much every tabletop RPG is one of my least favorite things. It's been especially bad in the last 20 years or so. I recently wrote a conspiracy weirdness RPG that I took pains to not include the Cthulhu Mythos in, Because damn.

To be fair, the Cthulhu mythos was in one of the first AD&D books: Deities and Demigods. So if any RPG has some claim to it, it is kind of D&D.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To be fair, the Cthulhu mythos was in one of the first AD&D books: Deities and Demigods. So if any RPG has some claim to it, it is kind of D&D.

At a certain level, this is a "who got chocolate in my peanut butter" situation. That chocolate has been in there a long time by this point.

 

[dave2008]

With a MacGuffin like Ao taking away most of the god's power, yes. Simply growing in power and killing a god? Not that I've seen in official products. The one exception is the guy who was powerful enough to do it in the Forgotten Realms who died in the process.

I think they are talking about the real life home adventures, particularly after 1e Deities and Demigods when killing gods very much became a thing in D&D. My group never did that, but I new a few that did.

This was then continued in 3e with a new Deities and Demigods and the epic level handbook.

Then again in 4e where at least 2 adventures that had PCs involved in or responsible for the death of a god (Tiamat and the Raven Queen) and stats, very killable stats with guidelines on how to do it, of several more (Bahamut, Torog, Vecna, Malubygiet -sp) and several demon lords, demigods, archdevils, and primordials which were as strong as gods.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If it has hit points, we can kill it.