[d20 Modern] Evil Dead: Swallow This!

[talien]

Abdul-Azeez is not Abdul Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon. Not to mention Necronomicon ex Mortis means, "The book of dead names of the dead."

See: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/4162/name.html

I don't have my Encyclopedia Cthuliana out, but I didn't realize they revised it significantly.

 

[Alzrius]

The site brings up that Raimi did indeed add "Ex Mortis" to the title "Necronomicon" (and that that was a redundancy). However, that doesn't really change what either of us said. Raimi wasn't particularly concerned with making the Evil Dead trilogy fit with the Cthulhu mythos, if he had been he would never have said the Necronomicon was from 1000 BC Sumeria, well over a millenia earlier than Lovecraft had it created.

The "Hail to the King" game tries to move a bit closer the Cthulhu mythos, putting Ash down at the place and time where Lovecraft said it was created (iirc, he said that that was the year Abdul Alhazred was torn apart in broad daylight on a Damascus street by invisible attackers). As for the name being different, well, that's another of those Evil Dead errors that make the series so much fun. One way of getting around it may be in the fact that "Abdul Alhazred" translates to "servant of the tentacled thing" so it may just have been a nomme de plume for Abdul Azeez.

As for the alternate name for the Necronomicon, since we know its a redundancy, we can just chalk that up to Prof. Knowby not being as good a scholar as he thought (the getting himself and his family killed by demons thing sort of hints at that anyway).

About the new version of the Encyclopdia Cthuliana, dont let a casual perusal fool you, it takes some digging to make the changes known, but once you start looking, they're pretty significant. Among the most significant, IMHO, are the inclusion of the Evil Dead nuances in the history of the Necronomicon (meaning that to them, it was the same book, "Ex Mortis" aside), and of the Conan series.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Cthulhu and Evil Dead

Cthulhu mythos and Evil dead, are both perfect for each other, and absolutly wrong for each other.

On one hand, the Necronomicon and dead rising from the grave are very consistent with the Cthulhu mythos. The insanity checks in Cthulhu are also exactly the sort of thing that can be used effectively in a Evil Dead campaign.

On the other hand, I think Lovecraft just turned over in his grave at the suggestion that his creepy and alien Mythos becoming the backbone of an Action/Comedy/Horror fiction story.

If someone were to recreate Ash in every detail in a seriously run Cthulhu game, the character would very shortly be dead. That character death would almost immeadiately be followed by the beating death of the player by the Cthulhu GM and other players.

This is not to say that I am personally opposed to the idea. I am merely saying that the idea is not one that would work without seriously compromising either the Ash character archtype or the Cthulhu atmosphere.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Alzrius]

I agree in that traditional Cthulhu mythos style doesn't mesh with Evil Dead at all. The Great Old Ones aren't traditionally evil like the deadites are; they're alien and unknowable. Your mind will shatter like glass before you can understand them. Deadites are just very evil, taunting, and generally an all-around pain.

That said, Evil Dead strikes me as sort of a sub-genre of the Cthulhu mythos (I would call it "Cthulhu pulp" but thats been done ). While in the normal game style, ordinary people go around investigating strangeness and then lose it when they finally find the strangeness, in the Evil Dead variation, they go around investigating strangeness, and then start blowing the hell out of it when they find it. Thats the basic difference anyway. You can still play CoC with an Evil Dead theme, just change the style.

I personally think itd be cool when the PCs go "Alright, Cthulhu's city of Ry'leh just rose from the sea, so we're gonna get on a boat, go there, and kick his rubbery @$$ off our planet!" and then venture through a very maze-like city before confronting the "final boss" that is Cthulhu.

 

[talien]

New URL

I've finally registered my new web site: http://michael.tresca.net. You can get Evil Dead: Swallow This! under the freebies section. If you were linking directly to the .pdf, you'll get an error.

Due to the ever fluctuating nature of my web development, it's best to just link to the front page and take it from there. If you use the old URL it has a 0 second redirect that will pop you over to the new location.

So one more time: http://michael.tresca.net.

 

[Alzrius]

Talien,

This is a slightly belated concern, but I'm pretty confident (though not 100% sure) that Department 7 is not part of the d20 Modern SRD, meaning it isn't OGC to be used in other works, such as in Evil Dead: Swallow This! I mention this because I know you want your work to be as in line with the OGL as possible. Hopefully, I'm wrong about Dept. 7 being PI...

 

[talien]

Department 7 definitely is.

http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/msrddepartment7.rtf

It is our hope that other publishers will use Department-7 as an example in their products, thereby providing a common feel for the game

“Department-7” and the Department-7 concept are designated as Open Game Content, and are licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.

Department 7 was made specifically for the OGL.

 

[talien]

Evil Dead has been updated to conform to the OGL.

 

[Alzrius]

Department 7 was made specifically for the OGL.

lol! So it is! Oi, excuse me while I wipe the egg off of my face.

This is one of those times I'm glad I was wrong.

 

[Alzrius]

Originally posted by talien
It also occurs to me I can't reference d20 Modern either.

Just wanted to mention that on ED:ST! page 6, first paragraph under "Campaign in Brief" still references d20 Modern. The d20 Fantasy part still seems okay though, since there is no book by that specific name.