World Concept: Grimbright Lovecraft Lite Setting

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

So, recently, I got my hands on Darkest Dungeon, and whilst it has been kicking me in the teeth with that learning curve, I'm actually quite enjoying it. However, in all honesty... I've always been more of a Lovecraft Lite sort of guy, for reasons that aren't really relevant here. Combine that with a pair of world-seeds - "it's always darkest before the dawn, but dawn always comes" and "the stars can be right for mortals, too" - and it's made me start tentatively feeling out the idea of "grimbright" sort of campaign setting for 5e.

In brief summary, this is a world in the deepest throes of Night. The Mad Gods are ascendant and mortals cower in fortified cities against the lunacy in the wilderness. But the Night is waning, and Dawn is coming. Some Mad Gods are actually becoming more benevolent, having grown increasingly fascinated with their charges. Mortals are growing in power. The light is coming, to throw the darkness back once more.

Only thing is, beyond this, and a few random ideas about playing around with the typical racial lineup - for example, turning the Lovecraftian "racial corruption! Ie!" thing on its head by making it actually a sign of hope, with humans who bear ancient blood from the benevolent and wise serpentfolk empire that ruled before the Night fell centuries ago beginning to awaken to that noble heritage - I don't actually have a very clear idea of how to pull this sort of world off.

So, I was hoping that if there's any interested souls out there, they might be willing to discuss the idea with me and assist me in bringing it to life, because I think this has the potential to be pretty unique.

[Cyclopean]

I love this idea! I've always been into the Lovecraftian aesthetic, but I've grown tired of the most of the themes and tropes. I might doubt my sanity if I saw a giant tentacle monster, sure, but if it turned out to be real I'd be thrilled at the discovery. Well, until it tried to kill me.

You've got a great setup for something like 4e's "points of light" setting--you pretty much cover that in the pitch. The point is, this setting seems like it would lend itself very well to typical adventuring fare of defending one's home, escorting trade caravans, delving into ancient ruins to recover lost secrets, that sort of thing. Of course, you're more interested in the world.

The first thing to figure out is why the Mad Gods (and their presumed spawn) are so dangerous to mortals, especially the sentient ones. Do they need to eat memories, minds, souls, that kind of thing? Their motivations can be inscrutable, but they need to have them. Arbitrary Pure Evil is boring.

After that, I'd try to figure out how the world's ecology is different. Did the Mad Gods replace all previous flora and fauna? Do aberrant and/or corrupt creatures coexist with natural ones? What are the differences between them?

Basically, I'd like to know more about what you have in mind for the Mad Gods--what they are, what they want, and what they've done so far.

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

Honestly... I haven't gotten that far. I just simply don't have any real, solid concepts for what the Mad Gods are beyond dangerous and dark, and that some of them are evolving beyond that - imagine if Shub-Niggurath stopped being so much about mindless fertility and began learning about motherhood in the emotional sense, for example.

[Eldan]

Are we building a high fantasy world here, or are we going for a more lovecraftian/Call of cthulhu-ish our world + magic thing?

The second question to ask is what your interpretation of lovecraft is and which elements you want to take. Lovecraft is not remotely consistent in scope, worldbuilding or theme between stories.

I'm not a fan of ancient alien bloodlines in general, whether good or bad. Know what would be a much more interesting basis for this? The Elder Things of Antarctica. Even Lovecraft's protagonists in At the Mountains of Madness recongize that essentially, the Elder Things are mentally like us, in many ways. Technologically advanced, biologically alien, but mentally familiar.

So, instead of bloodlines and ancestral knowledge, which I always find hokey, go back to the interesting parts of Eldritch horror. Make it about uncomfortable science, not weird magics. The races that inhabited the planet millions of years before the current ones encoded their knowledge for posterity before they were snuffed out by laughing alien gods.

Honestly, want to see modern Lovecraft, but with the possibility of a good ending? Mass Effect. A lot of the ideas are there.

[Cyclopean]

Have you checked out this thread? To summarize, LudicSavant presents his Deep Ones as a group of "gods" that have been around since before things like souls or the sun were created. Maybe in your world, the Mad Gods have overthrown the previous cosmic order, one that was built around mortals. Now that they once again have the luxury of power and security, some of their number are starting to look at people as something other than pawns of the opposition. Of course, most of the pantheon still wants to stamp out the remaining mortals to prevent their gods from rising again.

[Shadow_in_the_Mist]

I'm going for a high fantasy setting here. As I said in the opening post, my inspiration was Darkest Dungeon, with a dash of Bloodborne; I have very little interest in the Call of Cthulhu base-game, simply because the "our earth with an occult underground" approach... well, let's just say I have bad experiences with it.

Anyway, I thank you both for your input. I just... don't really know what to say that's meaningful in the face of what you've said.

[Eldan]

I'm just saying: if you want Lovecraftian inspiration, the fantasy parts of Lovecraft are rather dull and generic. Ghosts, undead sorcerers, fantastical parallel worlds, monsters living under the sea, all done in D&D before.

What's new and interesting is the scientific bent on it. Lovecraft worked best at the time because he built on quantum mechanics and relativity and astronomy, the newest discoveries at the time. The sense that humans went from the top of the universal pecking order to a tiny blue dot, that we went from "physics is basically finished" to "we probably don't understand anything" in a decade.

Try to keep at least some of that live in your setting. Magical talents from ancient blood are utterly done. It's not new and interesting. But uncovering the scientific writings of an aeon-dead race and decyphering them, integrating their technologies? Thta's new. It can still be ocmbined with high fantasy too. Make it magical writings and arcanatech.
It works with a less grim approach too, if you take modernity back into it. There is darkness among the stars, but humanity is on the edge of vast understanding and one day, we will take our place among the gods.

[Clockwork333]

I'm just saying: if you want Lovecraftian inspiration, the fantasy parts of Lovecraft are rather dull and generic. Ghosts, undead sorcerers, fantastical parallel worlds, monsters living under the sea, all done in D&D before.

What's new and interesting is the scientific bent on it. Lovecraft worked best at the time because he built on quantum mechanics and relativity and astronomy, the newest discoveries at the time. The sense that humans went from the top of the universal pecking order to a tiny blue dot, that we went from "physics is basically finished" to "we probably don't understand anything" in a decade.

Try to keep at least some of that live in your setting. Magical talents from ancient blood are utterly done. It's not new and interesting. But uncovering the scientific writings of an aeon-dead race and decyphering them, integrating their technologies? Thta's new. It can still be ocmbined with high fantasy too. Make it magical writings and arcanatech.
It works with a less grim approach too, if you take modernity back into it. There is darkness among the stars, but humanity is on the edge of vast understanding and one day, we will take our place among the gods.

I dunno, even older tropes can be a lot of fun with a fresh coat of paint, or a new twist.

I really like the OP's general premise of benign mutation and lizardfolk blood being a blessing rather than a curse that leaves someone a pariah.


Might start with crafting the deities as neutral and geared around things necessary for life that are not always necessarily nice but also don't have to be 'evil', like hunger, or evolution, or growth.