Nothing says “Fear me” quite like Old Ones, Elder Gods, and things from beyond.

While technically a separate genre from fantasy TTRPGs, Eldritch Horror (the works of HP Lovecraft and the like) is available to us. I’ve been fascinated with the subject ever since the Great Cthulhu himself and all of his friends appeared in Deities and Demigods for 1st Ed AD&D. That was maybe one of the coolest crossover moments in TTRPG history.

Since then, several works of HP Lovecraft have become public domain. Multiple TTRPG companies have pounced on the Mythos to come up with new games alongside the masters of Call of Cthulhu RPG, Chaosium Inc. It’s all good, and it’s even managed to bleed over into the Dungeons & Dragons 5E as a Warlock patron.

Various renderings of Cthulhu might look different, but the horror remains much the same.

The tropes remain by and large untouched. Cthulhu has been rendered in practically every genre I can think of. I’ve seen everything from Roman Empire Cthulhu to Battlemechs vs Cthulhu. 1910-1930 is probably the most popular take, given the original works. I prefer modern Cthulhu ala Monster of the Week or SCP. (*Oh, we’re coming back to horror at some point.)

The other sort of odd thing that has been done in years leading up to Cthulhu & Friends becoming public domain was a lot of game companies doing Eldritch Horror themed campaigns and settings that never mentioned Cthulhu or any of the associated mythos monsters by name. That doesn’t mean there were never scary huge space gods from beyond our sense of reality that made kaiju look like goldfish.
(*Cthulhu & Friends coming to a TV station near you on Saturday mornings. Cthulhu & Friends was filmed before a mortified studio audience. Cthulhu & Friends All Star Comedy Special!)

A great example of this is the Necronomicon Ex Mortis: The Book of the Dead. It may have made an appearance in a movie franchise or two, Army of Darkness being my favorite. It pops up in one form or another in several works, just not always under the same name. It’s usually the same concept, though. I may or may not be planning a high fantasy game around it.

Then there’s the notion of Grimdark Fantasy.

I want to say Warhammer Fantasy Role Play was the first time I ever saw the term grimdark. Since then, it has been attached to any fantasy, gothic, dystopian horror setting where things aren’t all sunshine and rainbows most of the time. I mean, what sounds cooler- regular normal breakfast cereal or Grim Dark Breakfast Bites? I’m thinking the one that makes the milk turn to a swirling void of despair and blueberry flavor.

I think we have to be careful dropping the Mythos specifically into any old high fantasy game without talking to the players before the first session of the campaign. Horror in general is a pretty touchy subject and should probably be discussed up front. The way religion works in my games, the “good” (Lawful) clerics don’t always know about all of the “bad or evil” gods. There are going to be some godlike beings and monsters the characters have simply never heard of before.

I think it’s also important to point out that horror and some of what we are taught to fear is purely cultural in nature. Without getting too deep in the weeds, some real world religions had followers who were firmly entrenched in the belief that other cultures were scary or evil. Anyone could be a good person in deed and action just as any individual can be bad in deed or action.

Little kids are awesome to watch. I had a son who had never seen geese up close before and had no reason to fear them even when they hissed and charged. When we walked up on baby geese for the first time, he toddled on up to one, which was okay until the mama goose hissed and ran straight at him. My wife scooped him up and ran. I made a smart remark about both mothers being super protective.

The point is The Mythos can exist in a regular high fantasy world or a low magic one. I would actually argue they would be more likely to be active in a high magic world where the rules of reality are bent more frequently. It doesn’t have to be a world where every other peasant has a dark and tragic backstory, either. Not everything has to be grimdark before we add a little horror. In fact, it’s probably scarier if we don’t.

Shadowdark RPG already has that grimdark thing going on.

It’s only natural, as I’m sure author Kelsey Dionne would agree, to consider adding Cthulhu-esque elements to Shadowdark. I don’t know about adding the god stats and doing all of the pantheon stuff until it comes up in a possible storyline somewhere. However, I will still be telling my players during Session Zero that Mythos monsters or something similar will be on the table.

Another strong horror element similar to the Cthulhu Mythos I intend to emulate if not outright steal will be the Horrors of Earthdawn RPG fame. For those who might not know/remember that campaign setting had its own nameless, faceless terrors from beyond who lived in cairns and were still lurking around four hundred years later. In fact, I may have to dig those books out again sometime because I really love that first edition of the game so much.

Using Eldritch Horror in a fantasy setting.

Much like Necromancy and Demonology, it might be something that is only hinted at in quiet whispers in the beginning. Cultists make for really awesome low level opponents and powerful priests make for great BBEGs at later levels. Not to mention that thing those cultists are trying to summon might make for a great world shattering threat later in the campaign. Just because you stop one cult, doesn’t mean they’re all gone.

Here’s the best part. Necromancers and even Demonologists could be part of the cults of even scarier Eldritch Horrors. What if there was something out there that liches and demons were afraid to mention out loud? What if there was something that would even make Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead shut up and sit down in the corner? What could be that scary?

Some Elder gods might be trying to weasel their way onto the Shadowdark prime plane as well. Imagine a new, very scary religion begins taking hold. Priests from other religions begin to convert or disappear. Maybe an entire well know deity disappears entirely one day. What could cause such a disturbance?

There’s also an old fantasy question about what gods/demigods do monsters worship? Some campaigns completely shuck the old D&D Forgotten Realms pantheon out the window. Maybe the gnolls follow Cthon or Nylarthahotep. Maybe Kuo Toa are actually followers of Cthulhu. Those are just a couple of examples. There are hundreds of possibilities with or without the actual Lovecraft patronage.

There’s also the origins of magic to consider. Maybe the formulas or prayers needed to get spells actually came from an unspeakable Eldritch nightmare whispered on the winds by an unseen force. What if spells only came out of the rantings of the chronically deranged and utterly insane? Suddenly an eyebrow goes up before even the humblest Light spell is cast.

We’ve only scratched the surface here.

I never thought about it until now, but Earthdawn and Call of Cthulhu have a lot in common with Shadowdark. I might have to ask Kelsey about that one. Now I’m going to be thinking about converting Earthdawn to Shadowdark. I miss some of the old Earthdawn monsters and spells.

More to come sometime down the road. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you joy.