Pathfinder 1E World of Golarion going Lovecraft too much?

[Systole]

Not true. If it doesn't happen in the campaign then it doesn't matter to the campaign. It would be like running a Star Wars game set on Alderaan. Just because at a future date the planet gets blown up doesn't make the fun or purpose of the campaign any less.

I disagree. The setting colors everything about the campaign. If the world is, at its heart, hopeless, then the campaign is hopeless. If you go do stuff on Alderaan, there's the possibility that you change the fate of someone who gets off Alderaan, or who invents a widget that makes life better for everyone in the galaxy. That somehow, something that you do, makes a happily ever after, even though Alderaan is gone.

If there's no possibilty of that -- if you rescue the fair maiden right about the same time that Grand Moff Whatshisname says "You may fire when ready" and Alderaan gets blown to Grape Nuts, then what you just did was pointless. Fruitless. Futile. Frustrating. Hopeless.

This is what the Elder Gods are about: Cthulhu Tract | By Fred Van Lente and Steve Ellis . If it isn't, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is what the Elder Gods are about: Cthulhu Tract | By Fred Van Lente and Steve Ellis . If it isn't, you're doing it wrong.

You seem strangely eager for Erik Mona to tell you what you are or aren't allowed to do in your home campaign. I submit that he hasn't the time, inclination or resources to monitor everyone's home games and police them when they're "doing it wrong."

 

[ahayford]

Presumably, some day the universe, earth, humanity, and everything we created will eventually come to an end. That doesn't render my existence today any less meaningful.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I disagree. The setting colors everything about the campaign. If the world is, at its heart, hopeless, then the campaign is hopeless. If you go do stuff on Alderaan, there's the possibility that you change the fate of someone who gets off Alderaan, or who invents a widget that makes life better for everyone in the galaxy. That somehow, something that you do, makes a happily ever after, even though Alderaan is gone.

If there's no possibilty of that -- if you rescue the fair maiden right about the same time that Grand Moff Whatshisname says "You may fire when ready" and Alderaan gets blown to Grape Nuts, then what you just did was pointless. Fruitless. Futile. Frustrating. Hopeless.

Oh, and "I don't want to try unless I can save EVERYONE FOREVER AND EVER" is a pretty limited vision of heroism, one which would be alien to most heroes.

As for Alderaan (which is a pretty good adventuring world in Star Wars: The Old Republic, even though all the players know what'll happen there in a few thousand years) and other "doomed" worlds, this old chestnut is probably apropos.

And, for the record, the Earth is doomed, in one fashion or another, whether it's the Sun plumping up to a red giant and swallowing Earth into its coronosphere or an extinction event (which we're overdue for, based on the paleontological record) asteroid hit: Does that mean that everything you do is pointless and without merit? And if so, why do you bother getting out of bed in the morning?

The fact is, the world might end tomorrow but it might not, and you have the ability to make tomorrow a better day by your action. That's the decision that billions of people make every single day. "We're all doomed, so let's just give up" is not the standard or even rational response.

 

[Systole]

You seem strangely eager for Erik Mona to tell you what you are or aren't allowed to do in your home campaign. I submit that he hasn't the time, inclination or resources to monitor everyone's home games and police them when they're "doing it wrong."

If you're in Golarion (which is what the thread is about), then you are deliberately choosing to allow Erik Mona to tell you what to do. If you're disallowing the Lovecraft stuff, then it's a homebrew version of Golarion, and this discussion no longer applies.

 

[Systole]

And, for the record, the Earth is doomed, in one fashion or another, whether it's the Sun plumping up to a red giant and swallowing Earth into its coronosphere or an extinction event (which we're overdue for, based on the paleontological record) asteroid hit: Does that mean that everything you do is pointless and without merit? And if so, why do you bother getting out of bed in the morning?

Humanity has the possibility to become an interstellar race/ascend to higher plane of existence/finagle its way around entropy/whatever. There is not an absolute denial of hope in the real world. There is if you know that Elder Gods are real.

 

[paradox42]

Humanity has the possibility to become an interstellar race/ascend to higher plane of existence/finagle its way around entropy/whatever. There is not an absolute denial of hope in the real world. There is if you know that Elder Gods are real.

No, there isn't, because the stories of the Elder Gods come down to us from more primitive times. What looked hopeless to them may well be just very difficult to us. Or even relatively easy. For example, check this out (warning: TVTropes link).

I've read lots of Lovecraft, and Lovecraftian stories, and the fact is, there are different ways to interpret the concepts and beings of the Mythos. Lovecraft himself even deliberately encouraged and put such interpretations into his own works and the works of others who used his stuff with his permission, because ambiguity was part of the whole mood his stories "run" on.

Treating the stuff in books as Absolute, Inviolable Canon is the way to run an organized religion, not a game involving dice, player choice, and unknown events.

And for my answer to the Question Of The Thread, I like a little peanut butter in my chocolate- so No, I don't at all think Golarion is "too Lovecraftian." It's just another option to consider if I ever use the world.

 

[Crothian]

This is what the Elder Gods are about: Cthulhu Tract | By Fred Van Lente and Steve Ellis . If it isn't, you're doing it wrong.

Different people are allowed to have different interpretations of the way the elder gods work. Anyway a DM does it is the right way for him, he can't do it wrong because its his game. The only one wayism is kind of old and boring in gaming. The neat thing about Pathfinder and its D&D roots is PCs can continually gain power and in theory eventually kill them.

 

[billd91]

If you're in Golarion (which is what the thread is about), then you are deliberately choosing to allow Erik Mona to tell you what to do. If you're disallowing the Lovecraft stuff, then it's a homebrew version of Golarion, and this discussion no longer applies.

I'm going to let you in on a little DMing secret since it seems you missed this at the last union meeting...

All DMs exert editorial control over their own campaigns, even if using published materials. If the DM says it isn't in there, it isn't in there. Period.

 

[Systole]

I'm going to let you in on a little DMing secret since it seems you missed this at the last union meeting...

All DMs exert editorial control over their own campaigns, even if using published materials. If the DM says it isn't in there, it isn't in there. Period.

Pathfinder Society.