What are the top 10 elements of a Lovecraft adventure?

[Desdichado]

In the end, they are ordinary people. They are just thrust into extraordinary circumstances. But isn't that true of all Mythos investigators?

True, but not necessary to justify. The question of whether or not Lovecraft would have approved is immaterial IMO. The "Lovecraft Mythos" is largely something created posthumously (of Lovecraft himself, anyway) and is based on the works of other writers nearly as much as it is on his work. It's fair to say that the whole idea has become public domain--indeed, may always have been in the first place--and is free for anyone to use however they like.

Given Lovecraft's own admission that the repitition of names and whatnot throughout various stories was nothing more than plot devices that hid no ulterior motive, design or underlying greater structure, it's arguable that using "Lovecraftian elements" in ways that Lovecraft himself may not have approved of is sort of the whole point.

 

[mmadsen]

CAS also adds such main standbies to the Mythos as Tsathoqua (under various spellings), the Book of Eibon, and others. His stories are mostly public domain now too, and many of them can be found on the Internet. Check out in particular the Zothique, the Averigoine (sic?) and the Hyperborea cycles.

As I said in another thread, "It's more Cthulhu Dark Ages than D&D, but I recommend reading his Beast of Averoigne."

 

[Shroomy]

To properly answer this question, I need to know what kind of game system I'm dealing with, since not all the elements listed here, which seems to make the assumption that the game system is CoC using BRP, would apply to D&D. However, I wouldn't hesitate to call "And Madness Followed..." from Dungeon 134 a Lovecraftian adventure even though you can enter melee with the otherwordly protagonists and expect to win/not go insane.

 

[Celebrim]

Actually, the protagonists in Delta Green are ordinary people, too. They just happen to be ordinary people who are in the employ of an US law enforcement or intelligence agency (or who know people who are).

I disagree that the protagonists in a Lovecraft story are ever ordinary people.

The original poster asked to not focus on the nature of the protagonists in a Lovecraft story, probably for the very good reason that in an RPG its not really the place of the DM to tell the players too much about what sort of characters that they create, but Lovecraftian protagonists have alot of traits in common that distinguish them from the ordinary. One of these in fact is that they begin by telling the reader that they are in fact not ordinary.

Lovecraftian protagonists pretty much always are the following:

1) Inexplicably attracted to the macabre and bizarre. Almost all of them have had some unusual contact with the occult before the events of the narrative, most commonly by having had contact with mythos books such as the Necronomicon. This contact leaves the peculiarly able to understand the events that follow in a way that ordinary people (mercifully) do not.
2) Unusually compotent in thier chosen field, well educated, and thus presumably unusually capable of facing the challenge which they are going to face. That they are so often frequently overwhelmed is supposed to convey to the reader that in the same circumstances no one would fare any better and almost everyone would fare much worse. Quite often, the narrator in the face of his failings will plead with the reader to understand this.
3) Very often they have some familiar attachment to the mythos, either through direct family ties (thier ancestors were mythos cultists) or else by being close friends of someone who has those ties. This often is the source of thier attraction to the macabre and bizarre, although the protagonist may not realize it at first.

A Delta Green investigator fits the type of a Lovecraftian protagonist quite well. They are unusually compotent, holding jobs which require high degrees of personal skill, courage, and training. They are generally tied to Delta Green through some close familiar tie (it wouldn't be unusual at all to play the descendent of someone who had participated in the Innsmouth raid), and they possess secret knowledge of the occult which is not widely known. The primary difference between someone in Delta Green and a Lovecraft protagonist is that they are explicitly part of a team which would be rare for a HPL protagonist, but this is easily excused as a necessary RPG convention.

 

[WayneLigon]

For instance, guns being worthless. The only story where I really remember that was stated was The Dunwich Horror, and that probably had to do with the size of the Horror more than anything else. Wilbur was killed by a dog. If a dog could kill him, a gun likely could have. I mean sheesh, dogs can kill people, but I've never heard of one tearing up a person like Wilbur got torn up. He must have been pretty wimpy, despite his great size.

I always got the idea that Wilbur's half-alien body was more... fragile or fluid than a normal persons. That his flesh, not being wholly human flesh nor totally of this reality, was less substantive (but not as alien as that of his brother, obviously).

Anyway, the 'guns are useless' comment comes from the game system. Guns do minimum damage possible to most creatures of the Mythos, usually because of their alien structures or because they're not wholly here on the material plane. That doesn't apply to most of the wholly physical beings like mi-go, deep ones, or things like Wilbur.

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

I think a lot of things describe more Call of Cthulhu designer's attitudes, not necessarily HPL's actual stories.

For instance, guns being worthless. The only story where I really remember that was stated was The Dunwich Horror, and that probably had to do with the size of the Horror more than anything else. Wilbur was killed by a dog. If a dog could kill him, a gun likely could have. I mean sheesh, dogs can kill people, but I've never heard of one tearing up a person like Wilbur got torn up. He must have been pretty wimpy, despite his great size.

Similarly, in The Whisperer in the Darkness, the Mi-Go are held at bay in part by the guy's gun (and dogs).


Also, about mankind being insignificant, that might have been HPL's beliefs (since he apparently was some sort of nihilist), but at the same time, the various Mythos critters (and gods) seems to be obsessed with humanity and the Earth. I mean, if Cthulhu is sleeping, why does he care when he wakes up? Seriously, I would prefer to sleep in if I had a chance, but he makes great efforts to manipulate humanity. Yog-Sothoth is supposed to be some sort of mindless blob thing from beyond, but he apparently likes to sleep with human women. And Nyarlthotep himself seems almost human at times. If humanity is so unimportant, why are so many of his forms human (or human like)? The Mythos most certainly does seem to care about humanity. Yeah, it wants to manipulate it for its own purposes (another example - Hastur apparently has a cult of humans who fight the Mi-Go), but that's still caring.

Well said. The very fact that Cthulhu is sleeping ON EARTH suggests that we matter, to some extent. And if humanity is so irrelevant, why are the fishfolk (goshdammit, can't remember their name right now) mating with the good folks of Innsmouth?

Also, there's that whole Noden thing, where he comes down to help humanity from time to time, if memory serves . . .

I suppose there's a necessary contradiction there. You want to write stories about how insignificant mankind is, but if mankind were really so insignificant, you wouldn't think of bothering to write stories about it.

 

[Johnnie Freedom!]

Actually, the protagonists in Delta Green are ordinary people, too. They just happen to be ordinary people who are in the employ of an US law enforcement or intelligence agency (or who know people who are).

Your definition of "ordinary people" is different from mine, then. Members of a conspiracy in the employ of the US intelligence service are hardly "ordinary people".

A professor, a store clerk, a taxi driver, a priest . . . these are Lovecraftian "ordinary people".

 

[GreatLemur]

Yog-Sothoth is supposed to be some sort of mindless blob thing from beyond, but he apparently likes to sleep with human women.

I don't think that's exactly how it worked. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I never really pictured scenes from Legend of the Overfiend playing out on top of Sentinel Hill. But that's a good point all the same: The very fact that the various mythos deities and such can be called up by humans--whether or not such summonings are vital to some big, important plan of theirs--certainly sounds like it raises humanity's importance, a bit.

Then again, maybe that's like saying that I'm important to gravity because I can experience its power by stepping off a cliff.

And Nyarlthotep himself seems almost human at times. If humanity is so unimportant, why are so many of his forms human (or human like)?

Nyarlathotep is definitely a different case. I don't think it can be denied that it has some kind of interest in humanity, for whatever reason. It's probably the only mythos entity in its weight class with anything like a mind or personality that human beings can perceive (if not understand).

Well said. The very fact that Cthulhu is sleeping ON EARTH suggests that we matter, to some extent. And if humanity is so irrelevant, why are the fishfolk (goshdammit, can't remember their name right now) mating with the good folks of Innsmouth?

The Deep Ones are pretty insignificant, too. They're just a bunch of Cthulhu-worshipping earth natives, not monstrous space gods like Azathoth.

Also, there's that whole Noden thing, where he comes down to help humanity from time to time, if memory serves . . .

Sort of. Nodens showed up to help Randolph Carter in the Dreamlands. Lovecraft's Dreamlands stories--despite a lot of shared mythology--always had a much different tone and outlook from his other work.

 

[EditorBFG]

Yes, the three of them were described at times as "the three musketeers" of weird tales. CAS is a much more clever and talented writer than Lovecraft, but his stories, while excellent, lack the breadth of imagination of Lovecraft at the same time. It almost seems at times as if the two of them were unconsciously imitating each other--CAS imitating Lovecrafts themes and ideas while Lovecraft tried to imitate CAS's wonderful prose. But that's just my opinion and is completely speculative.

CAS also adds such main standbies to the Mythos as Tsathoqua (under various spellings), the Book of Eibon, and others. His stories are mostly public domain now too, and many of them can be found on the Internet. Check out in particular the Zothique, the Averigoine (sic?) and the Hyperborea cycles.

To my mind, Clark Ashton Smith is the best writer of the three. And that is saying a lot.

A lot of D&D comes from him I think. Read Empire of the Necromancers, for example.

 

[Celebrim]

One big problem I see with my first post is it doesn't say much of anything useful about writing an RPG adventure. I'll try to remedy that.

1) The repeated assurance of the accounts credibility and the competance of the narrator.

The hook in most CoC adventurers in the encounter with some sort of definitive evidence, the first peice of a (possibly) much larger puzzle. The evidence should suggest some mystery which needs to be explained. The evidence is something which the larger world dismisses as a fraud or one of life's unsolvable but trivial mysteries, but which to experts like the PC's is too credible to dismiss.

2) The preparation for a journey, usually with the intention of assuring to the reader its completeness.

It should not be immediately obvious to the characters what to do with the evidence. Some initial collection of clues is required - from other experts, at a library, from newspaper clippings, at a crime scene, from the public records of a courthouse, at a museum, and so forth - before the characters even know where the mystery is leading them. Once these clues are gathered, the characters may plan thier foray, whether it be to the heart of Africa, the farthest Himalayas, or a district of town to which gentlefolk would not otherwise go.

3) The journey into the unknown and away from the modern world.

The journey is important. No matter how short it may be, whether simply down into the cellar of an abandoned house, the journey must create a separation from the safe knowable world and the unknowable darkness which they are entering.

4) Isolation of the narrator.

Once the destination is reached, the characters must rely on thier own resources. In fact, it is better if the environment is hostile to the characters presence.

5) The road which can only be travelled in a single direction. The return path - if possible at all - must be by another means, and only after some unimaginable loss.

The road here mentioned can be one of either time or distance. It's geography is often physical, a literal road, or cave, or path but just as often it is mental geography. Entrances are blocked by land slides. Bridges become washed out in freak storms. Hostile forces gather behind the characters. The conveyance the characters relied on to arrive does not return, or else only goes in one direction (like a canoe down a river, a train on tracks, or an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic). Or else, the characters realize that they have awakened something, and only by passing through some test and putting it back to rest may they safely exit.

6) The presence of unexplainable dread.

This requires probably the least explanation, but it is also the hardest 'art' to running a CoC adventure. Capturing the numinous fear of the unknown within an RPG, especially with battle-tested, world weary, rules memorizing players hardened to all mythos elements is tough. I can give little real advice on how to do it, as its often as not the little things which you scarsely thought on that freak the players out. So, to the extent that I can give advice is it is to be detailed. Make your locations small, intimate, and eerie. Avoid the grandiouse until the last possible moment.

7) The insignificance of humanity and all of its achievements. This is probably the most important one and it involves rejection of both humanism (man is important because of his singularity) and traditional religion (man is important because the universe cares about him). In Lovecraftian horror, man is not alone and not unique but the universe does not care about him, and does not even really acknowledge his presence any more than it acknowledges an insect or a mouse.

This is that moment. At some point at the end of the adventure, the characters must be confronted with the thing which is of such enormous scale that they are but gnats to it. It doesn't have to be physical scale. It can be the fact that the artifact they are holding is 300 million years old, or that the villianist cultist has been around since the time of Gilgamesh, or that humanity turns out to be not even the most common intelligent inhabitant of the earth by several orders of magnitude, or that strands of the entities DNA entered the human population at least 100,000 years ago and as such everyone on the Earth is potentially a walking monster. It's not so much the thing itself necessarily (although there is a time for great old ones and 1000' high monoliths), but the implications of the thing. Fortunately, Lovecraft is filled with examples of this. Read a few stories.

8) The dawning comprehension and the accompaning panic rather than solace which understanding brings.

Because you don't control the protagonist, this is basically the payoff of telling the story right. It helps if you have a twist, but if I knew how to write twists I'd be an author and not telling you these things.

9) The inescability of the horror. Any escape is only temporary, because once the horror has been awakened it pursues the narrator endlessly.

In an RPG, I think you can overdo this. Like all RPG's, ultimately CoC depends on the PC's triumphing so that the story can continue.

10) The eventual release and acceptance of oblivion as preferable to the torment.

And I wouldn't even worry about this. It's CoC. Any decent set of CoC rules is going to kill off characters eventually.