Cthulhu Mythos/Elder Gods based Magical Tradition?, Anyone have any ideas? Options

[Stahlseele]

WHAT?!? Why had i not heard of this??

never actually read the manga, but the anime was good fun ^^

[Deraj87]

I agree w/ the risk/reward assessment. I'm not sure that one should be able to know things that man was not meant to know w/o becoming alien and/or totally insane from the perspective of those who don't have that knowledge.

Probably heavy on foci and/or fetishes. Lots of astral quests. Perhaps even involuntary astral vision(what would you do if the astral plane suddenly began overlaying your vision much like AR?).

I am not convinced on the toxic idea. From Street Magic: "Toxic magicians are Awakened characters whose sanity, outlook, and magic have become tainted by environmental blight or human desolation" This does not seem to fit a lovecraftian mage.

After re-reading the Threats section of Street Magic, I believe what you should be looking at are the Twisted Paths. I can see it as a form of almost any of those, but specifically the Zealot, Faustian Mage, or Path of Demons.

[faultline]

It depends on what kind of approach the character takes to the Cthulhu mythos. In Lovecraft's writings, it seemed that some people were the worshipers and cultists, which I would use Charisma for, and others took a more rational, hermetic approach - the difference being that they were so careful, because they knew they were messing with things that could blast their sanity. For them, I would use Logic.

The concept that I posted this for definetly falls into the former category, How can he not being a Changeling with Cephalapoid Skull, Extravagent Eyes (Red), Striking Skin pigmentation (Green) and a homebrewed quality of Vestigial Wings... oh and of course the street name kid Cthulhu taken from the Nightside novels which is where I got the idea from.

[faultline]

I am not convinced on the toxic idea. From Street Magic: "Toxic magicians are Awakened characters whose sanity, outlook, and magic have become tainted by environmental blight or human desolation" This does not seem to fit a lovecraftian mage.

After re-reading the Threats section of Street Magic, I believe what you should be looking at are the Twisted Paths. I can see it as a form of almost any of those, but specifically the Zealot, Faustian Mage, or Path of Demons.

Those are the areas I first looked at thinking there may have been something there concerning the cthulhu Mythos but since I didnt find anything specific there I posted here. Zealot seems the most suited.

Either for use as NPC's or PC's the Tradition is something I wanted to work on, though I'd love to play it one day with the character concept mention in the previous post.

[Lansdren]

for additional research into variations of the mythos I suggest reading some of the Brian Lumley stuff. he did his own spin on it which I am very fond of.

[snowRaven]

I'll agree with Lansdren that Lumley is a good resource -- his take is not quite Lovecraft-faithful, but it is far 'better' than what Derleth did (trying to bring order and purpose and epic conflict to something that was intended to be incomprehensible from human perspective).

As for a magical tradition, I'd see it as a mix of Shadow and Toxic -- to me, a Mythos-based tradition would be spot on for Horrors.

Using Wilpower and only Willpower as a drain stat is an interesting idea; it could balance things out if you allow the tradition to use spirits that aren't normally available (using Calling). For example:

Dagon-based tradition
Combat: Abomination
Detection: Harbringer
Health: Water
Illusion: Muse
Manipulation: Cicak
Drain: Willpower

Hastur-based tradition (Possession tradition)
Combat: Carnage
Detection: Nightmare
Health: Muse
Illusion: Harrow
Manipulation: Tangleweb
Drain: Willpower

Access to Metamagic like Taint, Leeching and Sacrifice. Calling spirits through Offering required; can't use Binding except possibly to take control of spirits summoned by others.

As for mentor spirits, I can see many working:

Adversary, Cat, Dark Goddess, Dark King, Doom, Dragon, Horned Man, Lion, Rat, Sea, Seductress, Shark, Snake, Spider, Trickster -- plus darker versions of Moon Maiden, Mountain, Phoenix, Sun...

[Speed Wraith]

Logic based tradition. All of the mysteries of the Great Old Ones are found in books and discovery. Think about the fact that the Necronomicon is one of the focal points of the Old Ones, not to mention other important tomes such as The King in Yellow.

You might want to check out a Steve Jackson Games book for G.U.R.P.S. called "Cthulhupunk". Its cyberpunk mixed with Mythos. Could have some useful ideas in there.

[Deraj87]

I made a Nyarlathotep worshiping mage once. Only in flavor though. I loved finding subtle ways to cause chaos wherever he could. Needless to say, he focused on manipulation spells. I think a (slightly)darker version of Raven would fit Nyarlathotep very well.

The topic is about a crazed cultist to Cthulhu though. I would say using logic is prudent because of the research needed. I also like the idea of only using willpower in exchange for access to things like calling. However, I think that maybe should be reserved for NPCs as at the point where a cultist can summon something that powerful, even with an offering, they are a bit too far gone to continue with running. But that is just my opinion.

You could allow the player to trade the reduced drain resistance for a level or two of initiation. Hmmm, isn't the study inherent in learning the truths effectively the same as initiation? You are doing something incredibly involved in order to uncover secrets and strengthen your connection to the awakened world. Maybe make it a guided form of initiation. Only allow certain metamagics, access to certain metaplanes(maybe ones that normal initiates cant access), or other privileges/restrictions.