Mythos patrons

[Nyarlathotep5150]

I'm reading the DCCRPG book and it strikes me as perfect for a very specific type of game, one that I've been rolling around in my head for years. That being Conan meets the Cthulhu Mythos.
I haven't finished the book yet so I'm not quite ready to do it myself, but I was wondering if anyone has written up Patron stats for the Cthulhu Mythos beings (Cthulhu, Dagon, Yog Sothoth, etc)?

[finarvyn]

I haven't seen anyone mention statting out Mythos patrons specifically, but I agree that DCC and the Mythos seems like a natural fit. (There was one thread that mentioned DCC and CoC; perhaps this is what they meant. I'd have to hunt around for the thread, however.)

[sheriffharry]

Cthulhu Mythos Patrons Spellbook?
I would buy that in an instant!

(Now if only someone would write it.)

On the other hand,as a long-time Call of Cthulhu player I can't recall direct invocation of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods EVER being beneficial in any kind of way to any investigator... Usually in my games if contact with a Mythos god was established, half the world would be ravaged, destroyed or infected beyond recovery.

[TheNobleDrake]

My home-brew setting actually uses the Mythos' Outer Gods and Great Old Ones as the bulk of its patron and gods - to the point that even a few of the gods worshiped that seem unrelated are actually just little-know "sub-selves" of outer gods and great old ones... example: Hastur is sometimes worshiped as The Shepherd.

Thus far I have only been doing what is needed as it becomes needed to convert those being - and that has only resulted in deciding upon initial spell selection for a couple of clerics...

I plan, however, to mine all of the Call of Cthulhu RPG for information to write full entries for each being... and also conversions of spells and magical items found within the mythos.

It will probably actually be something like a year before I even have a few pages of conversion notes though... my players have a priority list of new material we want, and many more immediately beneficial things sit above the gods/patrons on that list... like expanded weapon rules that alleviate the feeling that two-handed weapons are "traps".

[Outsiders68]

It's a great idea so I will 100% look to incorporate some of it into our forth comming patrons book the unusual suspects.

Many thanks

Sean

[finarvyn]

as a long-time Call of Cthulhu player I can't recall direct invocation of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods EVER being beneficial in any kind of way to any investigator...

A really good point. Usually one tries to avoid contact with the Old Ones.

[TheNobleDrake]

as a long-time Call of Cthulhu player I can't recall direct invocation of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods EVER being beneficial in any kind of way to any investigator...

A really good point. Usually one tries to avoid contact with the Old Ones.

Anecdote: A player of a cleric worshiping Great Cthulhu got himself in a situation of dire proportion (party trapped themselves and were beset by a hydra) used divine aid to call forth "some creature" that would deal with the hydra... those that were conscious upon the arrival of the unknown horror where driven (temporarily, as luck would have it) insane.

[blackwingedheaven]

In my campaign, The Western Baronies (which is a fantasy-western pastiche), all arcane magic stems from the Great Old Ones. So if you were a wizard in that setting, you'd have to use an Old One as your patron if you wanted one at all. Mortal wizards inevitably believe that they can harness the powers of the chthonic deities if they're careful enough, and sometimes they're even right. The few successes give rise to legions of failures ranging from quiet to catastrophic.

[finarvyn]

all arcane magic stems from the Great Old Ones. So if you were a wizard in that setting, you'd have to use an Old One as your patron if you wanted one at all

That sounds like a really fun campaign. I love the idea of tying good (magic) with bad (Mythos patrons).

Really makes players question whether magic use is worth it or not!

[ragboy]

as a long-time Call of Cthulhu player I can't recall direct invocation of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods EVER being beneficial in any kind of way to any investigator...

A really good point. Usually one tries to avoid contact with the Old Ones.

And actually in Conan fiction, this is typically the response to intervention from beings beyond the mortal. Priests are corrupt and their masters are to be avoided at all costs.

[Raven_Crowking]

as a long-time Call of Cthulhu player I can't recall direct invocation of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods EVER being beneficial in any kind of way to any investigator...

A really good point. Usually one tries to avoid contact with the Old Ones.

And actually in Conan fiction, this is typically the response to intervention from beings beyond the mortal. Priests are corrupt and their masters are to be avoided at all costs.

Unless, of course, you need a quick flight back to the capitol before your kingdom is destroyed.....

[blackwingedheaven]

all arcane magic stems from the Great Old Ones. So if you were a wizard in that setting, you'd have to use an Old One as your patron if you wanted one at all

That sounds like a really fun campaign. I love the idea of tying good (magic) with bad (Mythos patrons).

Really makes players question whether magic use is worth it or not!

Thanks!

And that's the setting intention. Since all magic comes from darkness and alien powers, most wizards are also astrologers and ordinary people severely distrust magic. Wizards are considered a necessity by the government for their role in establishing independence from the old countries, and so their studies are protected by law back in the empire. Out west, wizards are a lot more likely to face persecution and lynch mobs, but they also don't have to operate under imperial strictures against certain kinds of experimentation.

This is also in stark contrast to the setting's clerics, who draw power from ancestor-spirits. Marikuhlians have deified their emperors and the founders of their noble lines, so imperial priests gain their powers from communing with ancient imperial ghosts (who they regard as gods). The Ko'Manna (the Native American stand-ins for the setting) worship their ancestors directly, as well as animal spirits, who are also just ghosts that have adopted animal personas for interacting with the living.

I haven't done a write-up for it yet, but the old countries also had an ancient native religion similar to the druidic faith that worshiped the earth. Their magic came from the multitude of faceless ghosts who had lost their identities from not receiving personal worship and had merged together into a single world-ghost whose ectoplasmic form permeates much of the planet's crust. The reason I haven't done a write-up for them is because they're just flavor now, since their religion is extinct.

[iemckinnon]

Cthulhu Mythos Patrons Spellbook?
I would buy that in an instant!

(Now if only someone would write it.)

On the other hand,as a long-time Call of Cthulhu player I can't recall direct invocation of Great Old Ones or Outer Gods EVER being beneficial in any kind of way to any investigator... Usually in my games if contact with a Mythos god was established, half the world would be ravaged, destroyed or infected beyond recovery.

But investigators are not working FOR the old ones. Still, I see most Lovecraftian gods (except ones like Nyarlathotep) being indifferent to mortals, and most priests would simply tap into the powers that surround that god, and hope they don't notice. Hastur, Hastur, Hastur! See? Nothing happ.....

[Nyarlathotep5150]

But investigators are not working FOR the old ones. Still, I see most Lovecraftian gods (except ones like Nyarlathotep) being indifferent to mortals, and most priests would simply tap into the powers that surround that god, and hope they don't notice. Hastur, Hastur, Hastur! See? Nothing happ.....

And this is precisely the idea I was thinking of. That Wizards are either trying to siphon off the power of the dreaming Old Ones without waking them (especially in the case of Azathoth, don't roll too badly or your spell might end the universe); or he was directly given that power because the Old One expects it to further his goals.
Now all I need to do is work up Taint, Invoke Patron, Spellburn and signature spells for each old one.