Eldritch Abomination/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

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* Naturally, Chaosium's ''[[The Call of Cthulhu]]'' game is just ''full'' of them. One of the basic stats of PCs, along with the normal STR, DEX, CON, WIS, INT and such, is SAN. That's ''[[Sanity Meter|Sanity]]''. It's arguably the most important single stat unless you ''want'' to keep rolling up new characters.
* Naturally, Chaosium's ''[[The Call of Cthulhu]]'' game is just ''full'' of them. One of the basic stats of PCs, along with the normal STR, DEX, CON, WIS, INT and such, is SAN. That's ''[[Sanity Meter|Sanity]]''. It's arguably the most important single stat unless you ''want'' to keep rolling up new characters.
** And, driving the trope home, increasing your Cthulhu Mythos skill ''directly'' [[Driven to Madness|reduces the extent to which]] [[Go Mad From the Revelation|your lost Sanity]] can be regained. [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] indeed.
** And, driving the trope home, increasing your Cthulhu Mythos skill ''directly'' [[Driven to Madness|reduces the extent to which]] [[Go Mad From the Revelation|your lost Sanity]] can be regained. [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]] indeed.
** There's also a board game based on Call of Cthulhu by [[Fantasy Flight]] called ''[[Arkham Horror]]'' which has tokens for hit points, knowledge of other worlds, and (you guessed it) sanity. Every turn, there's a high chance of a gate opening to another universe, and as more gates open, more monsters come flooding through ... and as the game progresses, the Doom Count slowly rises. If it gets high enough, the Old One (Cthulhu or one of his cousins) appears and the players have to battle it. (Each [[Eldritch Abomination]] has special powers -- Azathoth's power is "if summoned, the game is over. [[Rocks Fall Everyone Dies|Azathoth destroys the world.]]")
** There's also a board game based on Call of Cthulhu by [[Fantasy Flight]] called ''[[Arkham Horror]]'' which has tokens for hit points, knowledge of other worlds, and (you guessed it) sanity. Every turn, there's a high chance of a gate opening to another universe, and as more gates open, more monsters come flooding through ... and as the game progresses, the Doom Count slowly rises. If it gets high enough, the Old One (Cthulhu or one of his cousins) appears and the players have to battle it. (Each [[Eldritch Abomination]] has special powers -- Azathoth's power is "if summoned, the game is over. [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies|Azathoth destroys the world.]]")
*** And now there's spinoff game ''Mansions of Madness'', which is contained in a compact [[Haunted House]] format.
*** And now there's spinoff game ''Mansions of Madness'', which is contained in a compact [[Haunted House]] format.
*** As well as the card game ''Elder Sign''.
*** As well as the card game ''Elder Sign''.
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* And then there's the ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]'', published as Lovecraft's works are getting more influential...
* And then there's the ''[[New World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|New World of Darkness]]'', published as Lovecraft's works are getting more influential...
** Abyssal entities from ''[[Mage: The Awakening (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Awakening]]'' come from what could best be described as an "anti-universe," a world that lives by rules wholly antithetical to those of Earth. Truly, however, the most horrifying thing about Abyssal entities is that the idea that beings of the Abyss always take such predictable -- horrifying and maddening, but predictable -- forms as "monstrous, unclean abomination" is actually a comfortable lie that Mages tell themselves to hide from the fact that the Abyss is, in fact, [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|in no way as banal and quantifiable as that]].
** Abyssal entities from ''[[Mage: The Awakening (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Awakening]]'' come from what could best be described as an "anti-universe," a world that lives by rules wholly antithetical to those of Earth. Truly, however, the most horrifying thing about Abyssal entities is that the idea that beings of the Abyss always take such predictable -- horrifying and maddening, but predictable -- forms as "monstrous, unclean abomination" is actually a comfortable lie that Mages tell themselves to hide from the fact that the Abyss is, in fact, [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|in no way as banal and quantifiable as that]].
*** An Abyssal entity that's been known to sell a lot of prospective players on the setting is the Prince of 100,000 Leaves, a demon made of living anti-history whose first summoning [[Ret Gone|rewrote history]] and spawned a cannibal cult that ''literally'' [[Ret Gone|eats its victims out of history]] in an attempt to bring the world in line with the Prince's native timeline
*** An Abyssal entity that's been known to sell a lot of prospective players on the setting is the Prince of 100,000 Leaves, a demon made of living anti-history whose first summoning [[Ret-Gone|rewrote history]] and spawned a cannibal cult that ''literally'' [[Ret-Gone|eats its victims out of history]] in an attempt to bring the world in line with the Prince's native timeline
*** Oh yeah, and ''Imperial Mysteries'' has the reason for the strange predictability: each and every Abyssal being is [[Fighting a Shadow|actually a resident and part]] of a Greater Abyssal Entity. You know what those are? ''[[Oh Crap|Semisentient stillborn universes]].'' The Prince is explicitly stated to be an example of one, with all his manifestations being him trying to replace all of reality. Now think: What kinds of beings gave birth to ''everything else'' in Intruders, since they aren't part of the Prince...?
*** Oh yeah, and ''Imperial Mysteries'' has the reason for the strange predictability: each and every Abyssal being is [[Fighting a Shadow|actually a resident and part]] of a Greater Abyssal Entity. You know what those are? ''[[Oh Crap|Semisentient stillborn universes]].'' The Prince is explicitly stated to be an example of one, with all his manifestations being him trying to replace all of reality. Now think: What kinds of beings gave birth to ''everything else'' in Intruders, since they aren't part of the Prince...?
*** There's also the Nemesis Continuum. It's the [[Mad Scientist|scientific]] [[Cosmic Horror]] to the Prince's [[Mad Artist|perversion of the humanities]]. It's an altered set of the laws of physics. Bits of the material world it contaminates are [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|twisted]]; what if anything green was suddenly boiling hot, and the speed of light was slower than the speed of sound? [[It Got Worse|It gets worse.]] The Nemesis Continuum is summoned by intelligent scientists "accidentally" (the book says that most proofs are found through indirect interference by [[Eldritch Abomination|acamoth]]) finding a proof for it, which then becomes true. And they become obsessed with finding more proofs. The best part? The Nemesis Continuum is apparently [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the physical laws of the Abyss itself]], so to fight it on its own level, ''you probably need to infect yourself with them''. By the way, [[The Virus|it's also easier for a scientist to explain and thus prove a proof once he understands it...]]
*** There's also the Nemesis Continuum. It's the [[Mad Scientist|scientific]] [[Cosmic Horror]] to the Prince's [[Mad Artist|perversion of the humanities]]. It's an altered set of the laws of physics. Bits of the material world it contaminates are [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|twisted]]; what if anything green was suddenly boiling hot, and the speed of light was slower than the speed of sound? [[It Got Worse|It gets worse.]] The Nemesis Continuum is summoned by intelligent scientists "accidentally" (the book says that most proofs are found through indirect interference by [[Eldritch Abomination|acamoth]]) finding a proof for it, which then becomes true. And they become obsessed with finding more proofs. The best part? The Nemesis Continuum is apparently [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the physical laws of the Abyss itself]], so to fight it on its own level, ''you probably need to infect yourself with them''. By the way, [[The Virus|it's also easier for a scientist to explain and thus prove a proof once he understands it...]]
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*** Did we also mention that once the Exaltation shard becomes redundant, it is released to be implanted in another Infernal...?
*** Did we also mention that once the Exaltation shard becomes redundant, it is released to be implanted in another Infernal...?
* The Greater Titans of ''[[Scion]]'' are beyond mortal ken. They're beyond ''divine'' ken. They are so divorced from reality [[Logic Bomb|(despite being incarations of its primal concepts)]] that they had to divide their power among Avatars just to have a clue what they were doing. Each one is its own internal world.<br /><br />Worst of the lot, though, is Hundun, the Titan of Chaos. It alone of the Titans couldn't be bound, for doing so requires definition - and Hundun ''cannot be defined''. An easy way to enter Hundan is to have a God become the Void, the living embodiment of all things chaotic... and then jump in.
* The Greater Titans of ''[[Scion]]'' are beyond mortal ken. They're beyond ''divine'' ken. They are so divorced from reality [[Logic Bomb|(despite being incarations of its primal concepts)]] that they had to divide their power among Avatars just to have a clue what they were doing. Each one is its own internal world.<br /><br />Worst of the lot, though, is Hundun, the Titan of Chaos. It alone of the Titans couldn't be bound, for doing so requires definition - and Hundun ''cannot be defined''. An easy way to enter Hundan is to have a God become the Void, the living embodiment of all things chaotic... and then jump in.
* In the [[Tabletop Game]] ''[[Monsters and Other Childish Things]]'', one of the types of monsters used in its dark and twisted take on [[Mons]] are Eldritch Abominations. The non-statted sample monster Dewdrop is an Eldritch Abomination take on a unicorn, while one of the statted sample monsters is a Lovecraftian monstrosity merged with a teddy bear named [[Shout Out|Yog-So`Soft]]. Both these and the more "normal" monsters tend to cause bouts of panic and madness in people who see them as well, further adding to it. There are also a few non-[[Mon]] antagonists that are also abominations.
* In the [[Tabletop Game]] ''[[Monsters and Other Childish Things]]'', one of the types of monsters used in its dark and twisted take on [[Mons]] are Eldritch Abominations. The non-statted sample monster Dewdrop is an Eldritch Abomination take on a unicorn, while one of the statted sample monsters is a Lovecraftian monstrosity merged with a teddy bear named [[Shout-Out|Yog-So`Soft]]. Both these and the more "normal" monsters tend to cause bouts of panic and madness in people who see them as well, further adding to it. There are also a few non-[[Mon]] antagonists that are also abominations.
* In ''[[The Whispering Vault]]'', the player characters are all minor Eldritch Abominations who act as a "police force" that apprehends and retrieves other abominations who have illicitly made their way to Earth. {{spoiler|Reality is also literally [[All Just a Dream]] cooked up by those abominations who haven't gone rogue.}}
* In ''[[The Whispering Vault]]'', the player characters are all minor Eldritch Abominations who act as a "police force" that apprehends and retrieves other abominations who have illicitly made their way to Earth. {{spoiler|Reality is also literally [[All Just a Dream]] cooked up by those abominations who haven't gone rogue.}}
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' has the Chaos Gods and their Daemons who reside in [[The Legions of Hell|The]] [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|Warp]].
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' has the Chaos Gods and their Daemons who reside in [[The Legions of Hell|The]] [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|Warp]].
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* ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'' has the "Horror" and "Nightmare" creature types. Not all of them fall under this trope, but a fair number do. For example, the [http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/tcg/products/alarareborn/oz5ev5t1ru_EN.jpg Nemesis of Reason]. As well, there's [http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/mtgcom/arcana1000/1119_maritlagetoken.jpg Marit Lage], an ancient, betentacled [[Sealed Evil in A Can]]. The card [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=121155 Dark Depths] allows you to ''unseal'' her.
* ''[[Magic the Gathering]]'' has the "Horror" and "Nightmare" creature types. Not all of them fall under this trope, but a fair number do. For example, the [http://www.wizards.com/mtg/images/tcg/products/alarareborn/oz5ev5t1ru_EN.jpg Nemesis of Reason]. As well, there's [http://www.wizards.com/magic/images/mtgcom/arcana1000/1119_maritlagetoken.jpg Marit Lage], an ancient, betentacled [[Sealed Evil in A Can]]. The card [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=121155 Dark Depths] allows you to ''unseal'' her.
** For those who don't play MtG, a brief explanation: The deck, generally consisting of 60 cards, represents the player's spell reserve and memory remaining. So, effectively, everytime the Nemesis of Reason even ''looks'' at you funny, you ''lose one sixth of your mind''. No questions. And Marit Lage? She is 20 times as strong and resistant as one of the heroes who defeated the ''Empress of Fae'' in one of the more recent sets, gameplay wise.
** For those who don't play MtG, a brief explanation: The deck, generally consisting of 60 cards, represents the player's spell reserve and memory remaining. So, effectively, everytime the Nemesis of Reason even ''looks'' at you funny, you ''lose one sixth of your mind''. No questions. And Marit Lage? She is 20 times as strong and resistant as one of the heroes who defeated the ''Empress of Fae'' in one of the more recent sets, gameplay wise.
*** To clarify further: The player's role is that of a Planeswalker, one of the most powerful kinds of beings in existence. The starting life total is sufficient to survive multiple attacks from [[Kraken and Leviathan|Leviathans, Kraken]] or [[Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons|Ancient Dragons]]. Marit Lage will kill you in ''[[One-Hit Kill|one hit]]''.
*** To clarify further: The player's role is that of a Planeswalker, one of the most powerful kinds of beings in existence. The starting life total is sufficient to survive multiple attacks from [[Kraken and Leviathan|Leviathans, Kraken]] or [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons|Ancient Dragons]]. Marit Lage will kill you in ''[[One-Hit Kill|one hit]]''.
*** The fluff for the ''Zendikar'' block strongly hints at the existence of an ''entire race'' of Cosmic Horrors called the Eldrazi, all of which got locked away inside planets by a coalition of aforementioned planeswalkers. The name of the final set in that block? [[Oh Crap|Rise of the Eldrazi]].<br />The (comparatively) good news is that this is probably localized for now to Zendikar, and (hopefully) will be stilled there by Jace and/or Chandra. Still, there's something very unsettling about them. In M:tG, everything except lands and artifacts have at least one out of the five colors of mana associated with them; those mana colors define what aspects of reality they are most attuned to. Lands, meanwhile, almost always supply mana, and when colorless mana is supplied, that usually means mana too raw to have a particular slant; think of "colorless" as actually meaning "no particular attunement to a specific aspect of existence". The Eldrazi in question? ''They don't '''have''' a color.'' And no, they're not artifacts (the only type of colorless spell card until then). They're alien to ''the structure of the known multiverse''. And if that Annihilator keyword is anything to go by, wherever they go, a bit of the multiverse there gets destroyed. And to think that they were once worshipped as the main gods of Zendikar...
*** The fluff for the ''Zendikar'' block strongly hints at the existence of an ''entire race'' of Cosmic Horrors called the Eldrazi, all of which got locked away inside planets by a coalition of aforementioned planeswalkers. The name of the final set in that block? [[Oh Crap|Rise of the Eldrazi]].<br />The (comparatively) good news is that this is probably localized for now to Zendikar, and (hopefully) will be stilled there by Jace and/or Chandra. Still, there's something very unsettling about them. In M:tG, everything except lands and artifacts have at least one out of the five colors of mana associated with them; those mana colors define what aspects of reality they are most attuned to. Lands, meanwhile, almost always supply mana, and when colorless mana is supplied, that usually means mana too raw to have a particular slant; think of "colorless" as actually meaning "no particular attunement to a specific aspect of existence". The Eldrazi in question? ''They don't '''have''' a color.'' And no, they're not artifacts (the only type of colorless spell card until then). They're alien to ''the structure of the known multiverse''. And if that Annihilator keyword is anything to go by, wherever they go, a bit of the multiverse there gets destroyed. And to think that they were once worshipped as the main gods of Zendikar...
**** Now that the whole set has been revealed and released, there are THREE Mythic Rare Legendary Eldrazi: Kozilek, Emrakul and Ulamog. These can't be killed permanently unless you exile them since as soon as they hit your graveyard from anywhere, you shuffle your entire graveyard into your deck. There are six more non-Legendary Eldrazi, the smallest of which is a 7/7 and is COMMON. Of these six, 2 are common, 2 are uncommon, and 2 are rare. All of them have the Annihilator ability. Plus there are several cards that create Eldrazi Spawn (small creatures that can be sacrificed for mana to help cast the big guys). And there are four non-creature colorless Eldrazi spells with considerable power. Notably, the mythic rare ''All is Dust'' [[Kill'Em All|destroys everything that has a color]] and the rare ''Eldrazi Conscription'' [[One-Winged Angel|turns any creature into an extremely powerful Eldrazi]].
**** Now that the whole set has been revealed and released, there are THREE Mythic Rare Legendary Eldrazi: Kozilek, Emrakul and Ulamog. These can't be killed permanently unless you exile them since as soon as they hit your graveyard from anywhere, you shuffle your entire graveyard into your deck. There are six more non-Legendary Eldrazi, the smallest of which is a 7/7 and is COMMON. Of these six, 2 are common, 2 are uncommon, and 2 are rare. All of them have the Annihilator ability. Plus there are several cards that create Eldrazi Spawn (small creatures that can be sacrificed for mana to help cast the big guys). And there are four non-creature colorless Eldrazi spells with considerable power. Notably, the mythic rare ''All is Dust'' [[Kill'Em All|destroys everything that has a color]] and the rare ''Eldrazi Conscription'' [[One-Winged Angel|turns any creature into an extremely powerful Eldrazi]].
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