A new "Cthulhu" Mythos

[Desdichado]

Here's a couple of quotes from a thread I just read at rpg.net. I think this is a great idea, and I'd like to hear some thoughts on it here, if anyone cares to comment. The thread over there had some great replies, but also got bogged down in esoterica and discussions on what's scary and what ain't.

I've decided I want a new Mythos. The old one's fine, but at this point, mouldy old texts in Arabic get the same reaction from my players that a duplicitous Mr. Johnson or an old guy in a tavern with a job for your party do. Yeah, Cthulhu's still scary, but he's scary like Fonzie is cool -- you can remember when he sent chills up your spine, but now he's just Henry Winkler with tentacles.

Bah, and a humbug. The familiar is the only source of fear. It's the familiar defying the "natural order" that scares the crap out of you.

That's why 100' tall tentacled beasts moving in noneuclidian dimensions bore you to tears. You can't even imagine them properly. Thus, they ain't scary.

Although I did include one of the quotes from that discussion, because it sums up my feelings quite well. My own "new" Mythos is more traditionally fiendish in many ways, Armies of the Abyss meets Warhammer chaos gods or some such. To me, that's much more compelling that a tentacled Henry Winkler, so to speak.

So I guess I've already done it, in some ways, to my satisfaction. What have others done, and why?

 

[Zappo]

That's why the most scary Cthulhu games are those where the actual monsters are never quite seen, they are always just around the corner. Same goes for lovecraft stories, actually. The real creepy characters are the insane cultists, the partial-hybrid almost-human folks, the guys that are not-quite-normal.

 

[diaglo]

Hastur! Hastur! Hastur!

 

[Bendris Noulg]

My own campaign features what was essentially "the Dark". At the time of Gods' Fall (approx. 20K ago), the divine beings of Aedon invoked a great working of magic known as The Rendering. This was intended to destroy the cosmos, but failed. It did suck the gods into the Dark, and while they are no longer what they were, they have become something else ("whispers" or "Madness Dark"). This non-place is typically described as the "bubble" between everything and nothing, and the Whispers are trapped there. Their only release is by means of destroying the Cosmos, thus completing the Rendering and making everything into nothing.

It is when these Whispers are drawn into the physical world that they become the horrors inspired by Lovecraft: Gibbering Mouthers, Gibberlings and Gibberling Broods, Worms of Chaos*, Pseudo-Natural Creatures, Warp Worms*, etc., as they have no actual form in Madness Dark. Of course, my initial use of Cthulianesque themes was originally more inspired by Event Horizon than by any of Lovecraft's actual works, followed by In the Mouth of Madness, with the TSR-copy Far Realm material (but not Far Realm itself) coming in later, although I tend to ignore things like "noneuclidian dimensions" in favor of stuff like "undescribable horror" or "thing that should not be".

* Written by our fellow poster Gothmog and available in the Other Gamers Download section at my site.

* From Inner-Circle's Where Madness Dwells but under a different name (can't remember the original name, Xxyth or something like that, but it was declared PI, so I changed it for my own material).

 

[Dakkareth]

Hastur! Hastur! Hastur!

Mwahahahahah!

Spoiler

*points to avatar*

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Mwahahahahah!

Spoiler

*points to avatar*

Un-Hastur! Un-Hastur! Un-Hastur!

...nyah!

 

[Henry]

I always like to point out something that a lot of people don't know: Lovecraft ENCOURAGED his writing circle at the time he was living to create new creatures, new horrors, and new "truths" for their own stories. (I'll have to find the quote at home - an online search turned up nothing.)

I imagine if someone asked Lovecraft's permission to create a new Mythos whole-cloth, he'd probably answer in a Gygaxian Fashion, "What are you asking ME for?" He encouraged new gods, new cults, and new strangeness, because the virtue of the Truth being incomprehensible to man was not lost on him. In fact, it was the focus of his "Azathoth Cycle."

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm just saying, "A tentacled Henry Winkler? Scary!"

I'm just saying.

Let's take the mouldy Arabic text issue. What are other creepifying sources of knowledge?

 

[Wrath of the Swarm]

Esoteric mathematics and physics.
Deep ocean exploration. (The stuff they find there is just strange. Do some searches on "vampire squid" to see what I mean.)
Lunatic ramblings.

These are all things that are traditionally considered "spooky Mythos topics". But what about new ideas?

What about an ancient, incomprehensible entity that exists solely as data? Think of a cross between Cthulhu and Snow Crash.

In our everyday lives, what are we dependent on without really being aware of? That's some pretty scary stuff right there - what happens when the things that were unnoticed under our noses begin acting up?

 

[Awakened]

Check out Cthulhu 2000 or Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. These Lovecraftian books are far from stale, as are Lovecraft's stories. If insanity bringing creatures and diabolical lore are not frightening to you, it may be due to over-implementation or just poor implementation. Cthulhu can be brought in any direction, really, its just a question of imagination and determination, and numerous other related words that end in -ation.
Sorry, just my fitty cents worth.