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<blockquote data-quote="Jürgen Hubert" data-source="post: 2733200" data-attributes="member: 7177"><p>I sense a challenge...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You can still use them as written. The "magic" featured in the classical Lovecraft stories was often insufficiently understood technology which the limited intellect of humanity was incapable of truly understanding. Within the framework of D&D, the "standard" magic would be the equivalent of the "safe" human technology of the 1920s Mythos setting. Yes, it is capable of astonishing feats, but the <em>true</em> magic available to the forces of the Mythos is more powerful still, and human can only learn some basics of those - and only with a horrifying cost to sanity.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"What Gods?"</p><p></p><p>Divine magic might result from certain philosophical concepts that sprang from the human mind, or come from gods that are either weak (like the Dreamlands Great Ones) or imaginary. Ultimately, it might just be another subset of magic, and the clerics who use it are only deluding themselves.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Blaming Nyarlathotep for everying is boring. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Even that can be done with D&D. Even 18th level characters are like specks of dust when compared to Great Cthulhu.</p><p></p><p>And even if the PCs are near-invulnerable to "lesser horrors", you can still tell stories of Lovecraftian horror with them - but with the difference that the PCs aren't the victims, but those around them are. If they fail to stop the final, large outbreak from occurring, then they might be able to defend themselves from the individual members of the Nameless Hordes - but can they also defend the thousands of innocents in their paths?</p><p></p><p>How "heroic" will they feel when the lands they grew up in and cherished is swept away under a dark tide, and all they can do is protect some tiny enclaves whose survival is in doubt?</p><p></p><p>(Though of course, in one sense Lovecraftian protagonists can be the most heroic people of all - they are going against impossible odds with nothing but their wits and wholly inadequate weapons even though they know that ultimately their cause is probably doomed...)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>For a truly Lovecraftian universe, this is the wrong approach - for it is the <em>humans</em> who represent the aberrations...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jürgen Hubert, post: 2733200, member: 7177"] I sense a challenge... You can still use them as written. The "magic" featured in the classical Lovecraft stories was often insufficiently understood technology which the limited intellect of humanity was incapable of truly understanding. Within the framework of D&D, the "standard" magic would be the equivalent of the "safe" human technology of the 1920s Mythos setting. Yes, it is capable of astonishing feats, but the [i]true[/i] magic available to the forces of the Mythos is more powerful still, and human can only learn some basics of those - and only with a horrifying cost to sanity. "What Gods?" Divine magic might result from certain philosophical concepts that sprang from the human mind, or come from gods that are either weak (like the Dreamlands Great Ones) or imaginary. Ultimately, it might just be another subset of magic, and the clerics who use it are only deluding themselves. Blaming Nyarlathotep for everying is boring. :p Even that can be done with D&D. Even 18th level characters are like specks of dust when compared to Great Cthulhu. And even if the PCs are near-invulnerable to "lesser horrors", you can still tell stories of Lovecraftian horror with them - but with the difference that the PCs aren't the victims, but those around them are. If they fail to stop the final, large outbreak from occurring, then they might be able to defend themselves from the individual members of the Nameless Hordes - but can they also defend the thousands of innocents in their paths? How "heroic" will they feel when the lands they grew up in and cherished is swept away under a dark tide, and all they can do is protect some tiny enclaves whose survival is in doubt? (Though of course, in one sense Lovecraftian protagonists can be the most heroic people of all - they are going against impossible odds with nothing but their wits and wholly inadequate weapons even though they know that ultimately their cause is probably doomed...) For a truly Lovecraftian universe, this is the wrong approach - for it is the [i]humans[/i] who represent the aberrations... [/QUOTE]
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