D&D 5E (2024) Cthulhu Confirmed!

[ersatzphil]

Why? He was killed by a boat.

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.

 

[SkidAce]

Is there a more overused thing in TTRPGs than Cthulhu?

Funny story...
Re: Overthulhu Saturation

When I created the basic outline of my campaign world in the mid 80s (and its secret history etc) I had read Lovecraft and Moorcock extensively.

So I created the campaign, and the gods were more like immortals from basic dnd, and not directly responsible for the creation of the cosmos.

So this set up uncaring forces of the lovecraft mythos versus the immortals .....almost like law versus chaos. A lot of my friends and acquaintances had good versus evil, Tolkien, or dragons versus giants, or FR or Dark Sun, Greyhawk etc campaigns.

Through the 80s and the 90s, and into the 00s, people played and loved the campaign setting. "Wow", "Innovative", "Cooool"

Of course I used Tharizdun and mind flayers and aboloeths to an extent, but it was a fairly deep campaigns with story and lore and fun!

Then, slowly...it turned. "What's your world like?" "Thats kinda played out", "How boring" etc.

Still the people who get past that and play grow to love the campaign, saying "everything fits together".

So I'm still good to go...and understand some folks might be "bored" of my "innovative" campaign.

I'm fine really...

/runs off sobbing into the void

 

[mamba]

Is there a more overused thing in TTRPGs than Cthulhu?

dwarves?

 

[SkidAce]

I mean to each their own, but the thing is it NEVER gets scary. it does not slow burn toward anything horrifying. At least IMO. Not like Color Out Of Space, which I think is legitimately disturbing, or Herbert West, which (while being blatantly, disgustingly racist) is actual horror.

It was scarey when I first read it when I was 10 or 12.

Much like Jaws was terrifying and hundreds of people were scared of the ocean after seeing it...and now its very tame and we laugh and meme it.

 

[SkidAce]

... 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.

Desensitized is the word i was looking for.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Much like Jaws was terrifying and hundreds of people were scared of the ocean after seeing it...and now its very tame and we laugh and meme it.

Do we? I thought people still find most 1970s horror greats, including Jaws, to be very effective.

I showed it to my kids, who love horror, and the music alone made my youngest freak out mid-film.

 

[SkidAce]

Do we? I thought people still find most 1970s horror greats, including Jaws, to be very effective.

I showed it to my kids, who love horror, and the music alone made my youngest freak out mid-film.

Valid, I reckon I was thinking about it from the view of someone who has seen those kinds of things over time and gotten used to it.

For new viewers? Yeah, you are correct...its well put together and scarey.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Is there a more overused thing in TTRPGs than Cthulhu?

Dice/jk

Maybe elves?

 

[jdrakeh]

Is there a more overused thing in TTRPGs than Cthulhu?

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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Also in case you missed it, the Great Race of Yith:

View attachment 431131

They seem to be going big with Mythos material here, which is new.

The appearance of the Yith is really 2 for one, because we got the minds of the Yith, but the bodies technically belong to a sentient species that evolved on earth before humanity and that hijack by Yith minds. Makes me wonder if Polyps will be in the book as well.

Also I wonder if these bodies will come from Earth or have a more fantastical D&D origins. Like maybe the Yith are from the Far Realms, but the bodies the crestures inhabit are humaniods or fey or something.