D&D 5E (2024) Cthulhu Confirmed!

[Chaltab]

It's pretty distracting in the workplace, to be honest.

I once had to intern at a Kinkos in the Abyss and it was just the worst.

 

[Selas]

According to the portion of text that is visible, this Cthulhu is not a prisoner. Every time you adapt a literary character, you create a new version of that character. There are lots of different Draculas, lots of different Frankensteins, lots of different Sherlock Holmes, and not quite as many different Cthulhus. The Cthulhu in D&D isn't the same as the Cthulhu in Call of Cthulhu, isn't the same as the Cthulhu in Underwater, etc. And since the character is fictional there is no true version of that character.

Some people tend to treat the original version of a character with greater reverence than any adaptation, but in this case, there is no reverence for HPL. As pointed out elsewhere, this author is well and truly dead, leaving people feeling free to do whatever they like with his characters.

The text specifically refers to it as a prisoner of the Dread domains...one that can only exert but a fraction of its capabilities. I'm not saying this is the same version from CoC, but is is a version of the character.

This isn't a Mythos book. It includes some mythos creatures to accompany one new domain - presumably R'lyeh. It will no doubt have several other new domains, featuring different horror subgenres*. It's not going to include the entire pantheon of Elder Gods, just the one mentioned in the PHB, and the useful monsters.

You're right, it's not, but cultists and Eldritch gods are intrinsic to cosmic horror; if this new book is going to expand on the cosmic horror domain more than what was presented in VGR, then just Cthulhu is not enough. Using VGR as an example, we might see up to 5-10 monsters from the mythos (and may include other Elder Gods) that can be paired with MM monsters to pad up the cosmic horror section.
Personally, I would like to see the King in Yellow, but that's wishful thinking since it wasn't made by Lovecraft.

Note, Bluetspur is basically an X-Files domain, not a mythos domain, and was described in VGR. It's unlikely to be revisited in this new book.

Bluetspur is also tied to Illithids, and though they fit the cosmic horror label, I expect they're making a brand new domain that fits closer to the reference material

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I once had to intern at a Kinkos in the Abyss and it was just the worst.

"Ma'am, we've scanned the document for you, but we need an email address to send it to you. No, that's your physical address. An email ... it's electronic. In the computer. No, you don't bring the computer in. Ma'am .... ma'am ... ma'am ..."

 

[Voadam]

Rumours that Winnie the Pooh is the dark lord are greatly exaggerated - or are they....

Its been done before.

 

[pemerton]

Have you ever tried to actually read At The Mountains Of Madness? It is a SLOG.

I did once trick one of the friends I play with into reading it. He cursed me afterwards. But we both did agree that we were at least well-informed on Pabodie's remarkable drill!

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If now Lovecraft Myths will be in 5.5e Ravenloft then we will need some right rules for sanity/mental health. But this can't be "Ups! have you watched the monster-high version of a flumph, you lose two points of sanity". And somebody could want other game system close to "Unknown Armies" because this is more realistic.

Other idea could be alternating PCs, in some moments you could be a vampire-hunter munchkin and others would be a survivor more focused into stealth or investigation.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Oh, I absolutely agree

Sorry, didn’t realize you meant the question earnestly. So, this is entirely culture-dependent, because masculinity and femininity are social constructs. But, in most of the modern developed world, masculinity is treated as the default. This is why we often use gender signifiers like a bow, a skirt, makeup, jewelry, an hourglass figure, etc. because things will tend to be assumed masculine unless otherwise specified. For an example, look no further than Men’s and Women’s restroom signs - the former is an unadorned stick figure, while the latter is the same stick figure with a silhouette that flairs near the knees like a skirt.

Cthulhu’s description in the original short story is deliberately somewhat unclear, but the statue representing him is described in a lot of detail, and it doesn’t mention any such common gender signifiers. In addition, visual depictions tend to give Cthulu broad shoulders, large and well defined muscles, which tend to be associated with masculinity.

As for less overt traits that convey masculinity or femininity, the former tends to be associated with power, strength, directness, high-energy activity, violence, etc. The latter tends to be associated with grace, gentleness, passivity, warmth, nurturing, etc. Again, these are cultural associations and not inherently tied to gender or sex. But, within the social structures we exist within, those are the things most commonly associated with masculine or feminine “energy”.

It is more I figured out the basics of this as a small boy after watching shrek, but I am still trying to fathom how to make better female monster beyond the blindingly obvoius

 

[dave2008]

It is more I figured out the basics of this as a small boy after watching shrek, but I am still trying to fathom how to make better female monster beyond the blindingly obvoius

Well to start: female =/= feminine, so you need to decide what is it that you want to express?

Female great white sharks and eagles (among many other animals) are larger and stronger than the males but otherwise not very different. By western gender norms that would make them more masculine. So if you are looking to make "female" monsters then just about anything goes. If you want to make "feminine" monsters you first have to decided what culture's standards of femininity you want to emulate - they are not universal.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is more I figured out the basics of this as a small boy after watching shrek, but I am still trying to fathom how to make better female monster beyond the blindingly obvoius

Oh! Ok, that makes sense. I’m far from an expert on monster design, but generally speaking, if you want to communicate that a monster is female, using softer, rounder, more aquiline shape language can help with that, especially if contrasted with harder, sharper, more angular male counterparts. The Turians from the Mass Effect games are a great example of monster (well, alien in this case) designs that communicate sexual dimorphism without leaning on anthropocentric gender signifiers.

Well to start: female =/= feminine, so you need to decide what is it that you want to express?

Female great white sharks and eagles (among many other animals) are larger and stronger than the males but otherwise not very different. By western gender norms that would make them more masculine. So if you are looking to make "female" monsters then just about anything goes. If you want to make "feminine" monsters you first have to decided what cultures standards of femininity you want to emulate - they are not universal.

Well, yeah, in real life, a lot of the traits we tend to associate with maleness vs. femaleness are particular to mammals, and not even all mammals. If you want highly naturalistic designs, you don’t even necessarily need there to be visible sexual dimorphism within a species, and if you want there to be, you can make it pretty much anything you want. If you’re familiar with the YouTube series Helluva Boss, the imps have a neat example of sexual dimorphism where the males have white hair and horns with very wide stripes alternating between black and white while the females have black hair and mostly black horns with thin white stripes, which is neat because they have occasional background characters with hair that seems to be dyed and growing in the other color at the roots and horn patterns that don’t match what you would expect based on their gender presentation. Neat trick for communicating transness in a non-human sapient species!

All that being said, it’s also important to consider your audience and their expectations. If you’re designing a fantastical species you want to be appreciated by animal nerds and/or queer folks, yeah, using traits that communicate sexual dimorphism in a way that is totally different than the kind found in humans is a great way to go about it. If you’re designing an individual monster or demon character that you want a general audience to be able to immediately recognize as female, you probably aren’t going to achieve that goal without leaning into modern gender stereotypes. You probably don’t need to beat them over the head with it, but you should probably still lean into the shape language the average straight cis dude is going to expect from a female character, which means at minimum soft, curving lines, and if they have remotely anthropomorphic body shapes, narrow shoulders and wide hips.

 

[Charlaquin]

The (dramatically oversimplified) guideline from the graphic art world is: men are made of triangles, women are made of circles/ovals