Recent content by Paul Farquhar

True, but it’s great sci fi. It did the Silurian hypothesis before Doctor Who, it did alien autopsies before the X Files, it did aliens look weird but they are actually people just like us before Star Trek, it did sentient species being the cause of their own destruction before humanity.

You are so three dimensional!

Yeah, done that. Works better than having the players bringing out all their meta knowledge. The best way to run a Ravenloft game. Horror protagonists generally are not aware that they are in a horror story (unless it’s a Scream movie).

Yes I have, and seen it performed on stage. And it’s excellent. Definitely my favourite work by Lovecraft. Slog? I’ve heard a lot of people use that word to describe LotR.

Because Strange Aeons AP and a warlock patron? Lovecraft was a big influence on early D&D, and that influenced other RPGs, but not as big as Tolkien and Conan, why are you not complaining about those?

Aside from them and the usual deity-level dudes there were also stat blocks for Shoggoth, elder things, and fungi from Yuggoth in the 1980 book. I would be surprised if we didn’t see shoggoth at least.

Plus computer games, anime, fantasy literature and Santa’s workshop.

21. I generally find them overrated though. I reckon a rested and preped 14th level party as a solo main boss. But one would expect minions. Nalfeshnee are CR 13. I wouldn't use them as a big boss for any party over level 8.

Indeed. Hint without confirming anything is the right way to go. But it does mean there is no canon true Ravenloft lore.

And if you want it taken seriously, then you do need to change the names, because if you mention Cthulhu by name the players will Deadpool him. Tharizdun is the numbers filled off version, but even he is well enough known that the players might get meta on him. In the same way that D&D Medusa...

Putting anything into D&D from some other media - eg elves and hobbits - is pastiche. Which was why Gygax put the whole Cthulhu menagerie into D&D in 1980. It’s not so you can do Lovecraft stories any more than the inclusion of Tolkien stuff is for retelling LotR and the Greek myth stuff is for...

Yeah, it is. Punching actual Cthulhu is a lot funnier than punching a lookalike. D&D is inherently silly. Lovecraft mythos is inherently silly. Just look at any movie version of either for evidence. They go together like jam and peanut butter.

Ravenloft is about any kind of horror. That's why it has lots of domains, each one an isolated mini-setting inspired by a different horror story or movie, rather than being a single world like CoC or MotRD. That's CoS. CoS isn't the only thing in Ravenloft. I can't say as I find anything...

I would drop Azathoth into Spelljammer. Or Star Trek. Kirk: "lets see how that thing likes a warp core detonation up it's backside!" Spock: "Sir, my calculations indicate that if Azathoth is destroyed there is a 99.927% probability that the universe will cease to exist." Kirk: "I like those...

Pastiche is what D&D is at it's core. Doing pastiche is D&D being itself. It's when it tries not to be pastiche that it becomes a bland non-entity.