Jump to content

Eldritch Abomination/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

Eldritch Abomination/Tabletop Games (view source)

Revision as of 11:09, 8 April 2014

595 bytes removed ,  10 years ago
m
Mass update links
VisualWikitext
m (Mass update links)
m (Mass update links)
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:magic_cosmic_horror_5192.jpg|link=Magic: theThe Gathering|right|Meet the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2093 Cosmic Horror].]]
 
 
Line 17:
** Perhaps closest to the Lovecraftian mold are the aboleths, giant psychic fishlike aberrations that dwell in the deepest, darkest parts of the world in unspeakable aquatic cities and have racial memories stretching back to before the births of many gods ([[Time Abyss|and maybe even the current universe]]). They can enslave people by sliming them; the slime turns skin transparent. Ironically, these monsters are terrified of the illithids, who they, despite their long memories, have no recollection of.
*** {{spoiler|That's because illithids are from the future, refugees from the destruction of their vast empire at the end of the universe's lifespan.}}
** Aboleths are too arrogant to worship anything, but they ''respect'' beings they call the Five Elder Evils. These are [[Expy|thematically based on]] [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] horrors, and include flames surrounding a body that will [[Go Mad From the Revelation|drive you mad if you see it]] (if it does not kill you outright), a ball of sentient goo the size of a planet, and a drilling subterranean squid / centipede thing that appears to be eating its way very, very slowly through the crust of the planet. [[Brown Note|Whose feces will make your head go wonky if you get too close to it.]]
*** It's not so much that they are arrogant, they are just older than pretty much all of the modern day Gods and have seen how they came to power. They pretty much view them as young upstarts who have no business messing with them or demanding worship from creatures far older then they are.
**** 4e suggests that aboleths aren't even intelligent, thinking creatures; rather, everything they do is the result of a guiding, species wide instinct that is unfathomable by mortals.
Line 27:
*** Speaking of Eberron, there's also the Quori, horrifying monstrosities from the plane of dreams with very strong [[Psychic Powers]] (usually of the [[Mind Control]] or [[Mind Rape]] varieties) and the ability to possess mortals; they've already conquered/subverted almost an entire continent, and would really like to take over the rest...
*** Don't forget the Daelkyr's unique minions and mutants. As well as the 'standard' Dolgrim, Dolgaunt and Dolgarr, Dragon Magazine also gives them Akleu, Dolgrue, Kyra, Opabinia, Xenostelid and Xorbeast, each of which is its own flavor of ghastly.
** One of the last 3.5 books Wizards released is called "Elder Evils", which features a guide of how to create your ''own'' [[Cosmic Horror]], as well as several examples of [[Big Bad]] Eldritch Abominations, including Ragnorra, the [[Mook Maker]] [[Space Whale]] with an [[Evilutionary Biologist]] streak; Pandorym, the living [[Forgotten Superweapon]] with a personality you don't want ''anywhere near'' a [[Forgotten Superweapon]]; Atropus the [[Omnicidal Neutral|undead planetoid]] (who is the quasi-sentient remains of the thing that birthed the universe); Kyuss, [[The Worm That Walks]] (that's his ''[[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|actual title]]''); and of course, [[Alien Invasion|the Hulks of Zoretha]].
*** It also updates/reimagines one of D&D's earliest published examples of this trope: Zargon, a tentacled aberration revered by a fanatical drug-cult in ''B4: The Lost City''.
*** Since most of said world-threatening Elder Evils described in the book are actually beatable (in some cases ''killable'') by non-epic (i.e. non-godlike) characters, quite a few cases of [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]] can result. On the flipside, many of these cases are either fighting the monster before they've fully awoken/recovered from crash impacts, facing down a cult that was about to flood reality with beings like the one that just almost killed the party, or taking down an alien weapon designed to soften us up for invasion.
Line 33:
** 3.5 Edition also included the Alienist class. The class features made all your Summoning spells summon creatures from the aforementioned Far Realm, which took the forms of creatures you could normally summon, but took on a template that gave them more hit points, resistances, tentacles or other deformities, and the ability to shift into their "true(r) form" which scared everything like crazy. Further, your familiar became one of these creatures. Basically, you're calling tiny C'thuloid monsters. In addition to that, the caster who takes the class eventually starts ''becoming'' like one of these creatures, goes more then a little insane, and (with the timeless body class feature) is taken to the Far Realms by the unspeakable Eldritch Horrors when they would normally die of old age, specifically ''never seen again'' by people on the prime material plane. If you manage to reach the maximum level, you can cheat dying of age altogether, gain the "Outsider" trait and become a [[Humanoid Abomination]]. Your character grows a tentacle or two at this point.
** 4th Edition introduces an Origin classification for Eldritch Abominations called "aberrants". Naturally, any aberrant creature is almost guaranteed to have numerous tentacles or mind and reality-warping abilities -- usually both.
*** 4E also has the Primordials -- a primeval race of elementals who ''created the universe'', and are powerful enough to ''destroy gods''. They would like nothing more then to [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|destroy said creation]], since as their nature as elementals dictate, they wish to continue an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Most mortals are perfectly fine with the world as it is now, especially since said death and rebirth would include them.
**** Also, given that the gods' (and primal spirits') ideals of stability are stated to be utterly alien and chimeric to the primordials, it can be argued that from the primordials' perspective, it's the ''gods'' who are the actual [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]].
*** Also 4E gives Warlocks the Star Pact power source, which basically involves beseeching strange otherworldly creatures that lurk behind specific stars for power. A lot of fluff text suggests that they become a little unhinged. Furthermore, a Dragon Magazine supplement includes an Epic Destiny where you become one of these strange otherworldly entities. It also describes the aforementioned stars, and notes their "unnatural" qualities, particularly one that you're better off not looking at for long.
*** ''The stars themselves'' are Eldritch Abominations in 4th edition. And some of them have the ability to create avatars of their power, to the point where even ''black holes'' can create such avatars.
*** [[Dark Is Not Evil|And at least one of those stars is good]]. While featured in a Dragon article, Ulban the Messenger is a mostly benevolent comet god who wants to change the future-thus averting [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]], but his Star Spawn was featured in the Monster Manual Three, and oh looky, [[Oh Crap|it's evil aligned]].
** While it mostly deals with Gothic horror, the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' campaign setting features an eldritch abomination in the form of {{spoiler|Gwydion the Shadow-Fiend, Darklord of the Shadow Rift. He became trapped between realities when a planar gate collapsed on him, and really, really wants out. His full appearance is unknown, but what has been seen causes even [[The Fair Folk]] to go mad.}}
*** The Dark Powers, the force(s) that created Ravenloft itself, could also apply, since their actual nature, methods and motives are entirely unfathomable. As well, the Nightmare Court could qualify.
Line 51:
* The [[Psychic Powers|psionic]] Slarecians of the third-party (by a [[White Wolf]] subsidiary, unsurprisingly) ''[[Scarred Lands]]'' setting. They're revealed to originally have been beings of pure thought, who were trapped in the world as it was forming, and now they want out. They've decided the only way to do that is to completely destroy the world. The guide book detailing them goes into details of their various experiments during their time on the world Scarn, which, befitting their origins, are pretty damn weird.
** To a lesser extent, the Titans, the original rulers of Scarn. While they usually appear humanoid, and can easily interact with mortals without driving them insane, they're also powerful to the point of not having statistics, they usually see mortals as irrelevant, and their mindsets are incomprehensible.
* The [[Pathfinder]] system, being effectively D&D 3.75, has of course included those in its base setting, to the point of obvious [[Author Appeal]]. The Aboleths have an extensive undersea/underground empire {{spoiler|responsible for the rise and fall of that world's [[Atlantis]] stand-in}}, and two of the basic pantheon's gods fit pretty well: Rovagug the Rough Beast, a ravenous, slavering monster from beyond whose reason for being is destroying the world, and who had to be stopped by all the other gods working together to [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|imprison him inside the Earth]] (many dying in the struggle), and who periodically disgorges horrid spawn to devastate the surface (like [[Kaiju|the Tarrasque]]); and Zon-Kuthon the Midnight Lord, whose jealousy towards his half-sister drove him to a self-imposed exile in remote corners of the cosmos, from which he came back changed into a thing of darkness, pain and loss. Both tend to attract insane cultists (or to drive cultists insane, depending).
** [[It Gets Worse]], on several fronts. First: In this setting, Asmodeus is a reworked version of the above-mentioned backstory, only moreso: he is literally one of the two creator-beings of [[The Multiverse]], and his wounds are from a fight with the other, good-aligned creator-being, [[Devil but No God|who was killed in the battle]].
** Second: Kytons, a formerly unremarkable race of fiends whose main characteristic was looking like people wrapped in chains, have become [[Expy|expys]] of [[Hellraiser (Film)|the Cenobites]] (see film and litterature sections), and the more powerful types, while still chain-covered, look like huge, misshapen and lumpy modern art statues made from alien flesh (it's implied that the lesser humanoid Kytons are actually [[Squick|the product of breeding programs with mortals]]).
** Third: The Qlippoth are basically Obyrith with the [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]] (or rather [[Older Than They Think|the reverse]]; see the Obyrith entry above), and cosmology-wise, the Abyss is basically a cancerous sore that's wrapped itself around reality. And the qlippoth may just originate from whatever is beyond it...
** Fourth: Not only is there a Far Realms equivalent, called the Dark Tapestry, but it isn't very far, relatively speaking- it's actually ''The Void Between The Stars'', and to top it off, [[Oh Crap|it's the domain of literally Lovecraftian entities, Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth included]].
Line 65:
** And of course, the [[Collectible Card Game|CCG]] based on Call of Cthulhu (also by [[Fantasy Flight]]) has loads as well, although it's actually possible to see a game played in which they don't appear. Just not likely. (Sanity is too valuable as an attack vector.)
* In the world of ''[[Earthdawn]]'', the cyclical ebb and flow of magic periodically allows Horrors to slip from their own dimension into the world and devour anything that moves. If you're lucky, they will devour your body before they start on the good stuff. Luckily for the world, [[The Magic Goes Away|magic energies are on the decline]], so the survivors the last cataclysm the Horrors caused have just to outlast their ability to keep existing in our world for a generation or two before they're all gone.
** ''[[Shadowrun]]'' is more or less on the opposite end of the scale from ''[[Earthdawn]],'' with ''Shadowrun'' a world where [[The Magic Comes Back|magic is on the increase]] and the Horrors not terribly far behind. While there's at least one group working to speed the process, there's also [[Our Presidents Are Different|others]] working to delay things, with the hope that this new-fangled technology thing can prevent [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]].
* In [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[Old World of Darkness (Tabletop Game)|Old World of Darkness]]'', Cosmic Horror is not the central theme of the game, but the authors love to incorporate Eldritch Abominations from beyond time and space into the setting, whose presence corrupts souls, drives people insane, or warps reality. Included in this list are the various unearthly patrons of the Nephandi from ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage: The Ascension]]'', the Fomorians from ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: The Dreaming]]'', the Neverborn Malfeans from ''[[Wraith: The Oblivion (Tabletop Game)|Wraith: The Oblivion]]'' (and Grandmother from ''[[Orpheus (Tabletop Game)|Orpheus]]''), and the Earthbound from ''[[Demon: The Fallen (Tabletop Game)|Demon: The Fallen]]''. ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'' has a lot less of this... although the Tzimisce and Gangrel antediluvians now ''resemble'' these, they started out human.
* 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]].
*** 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...?
*** 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...]]
** The [[Sourcebook]] ''Summoners'' includes some other examples, such as the chthonians of the Underworld (known as the "neverborn" since they exist in the realm of the dead, but cannot be reliably said to have ever been alive) and certain Supernal beings. Said Supernal beings include the [[God in Human Form|Ochema]], avatars of the [[Big Bad|Exarchs]] in ''Seers Of The Throne''. [[Humanoid Abomination|Sure, they look]] [[Pride|(and act)]] [[Humanoid Abomination|like people]], [[Starfish Aliens|but look at them with Mage Sight]]... Unlike many examples, this is actually because they're ''less'' corrupted than everything else: [[Crapsack World|The Fallen World]] simply [[Divide Byby Zero|can't handle]] [[Heaven|Supernal]] beings like them... Although they stay significantly longer than and don't cause unintentional damage like Abyssal creatures, since they're ''supposed'' to be a part of the natural order of reality.
** In addition to mentioning the above Chthonians, ''[[Geist: The Sin Eaters (Tabletop Game)|Geist: The Sin Eaters]]'' features Kerberoi -- wholly alien in mindset, bizarre in appearance, and nearly unstoppable, they exist solely to enforce the Old Laws of the Dead Domains. Geists can also border on this -- they're universally completely or near-completely alien in mindset, and varying degrees of bizarre in appearance.<br /><br />The supplement ''Book of the Dead'' introduces the Leviathan, the Kerberos of the Ocean of Fragments, who pretty well embodies this trope. It's an [[Giant Swimmer|impossibly vast sea creature]] of some sort -- it's assumed to be a [[Everything's Squishier Withwith Cephalopods|cephalopod]], but that's just because it has tentacles; it's too big for anyone to ever see enough of it to make out its true form. ''Every'' human in the world has had nightmares of it lurking beneath them in an endless ocean, even if they've forgotten them. It cannot be killed or placated, any more than the tide or any other force of nature, and stats are provided solely for the purposes of escaping it or inconveniencing it enough to drive it off temporarily. Fortunately, it's rarely seen -- to the point that most people think the Dead Dominion's only other notable inhabitant, the Admiral, is actually its Kerberos.
** The [[Fair Folk|True Fae]] of ''[[Changeling: The Lost (Tabletop Game)|Changeling: The Lost]]'' deserve a mention. Now, they're more recognizable than their stablemates above, capable of great [[Pride]], vanity and twisted creativity, but they are ultimately alien, incredibly powerful and terrifying beings with [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|no concept of empathy, kindness or selflessness]], capable of rending souls and striking pacts with aspects of reality itself, and within their [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|home dimension]] they are capable of [[Reality Warper|just about anything]], and can twist their kidnapped human subjects to meet their needs. That they happen to have inspired [[Fairy Tales]] perhaps only makes them ''more'' frightening. And do you wanna know how they're born? {{spoiler|[[And Then John Was a Zombie|No. No, you don't.]]}}
** The sourcebook ''Second Sight'' has a pretty good chapter on building your own abomination, a [[Misanthrope Supreme]] or [[Fallen Hero]] to serve as their high priest, and a cult to worship them. The creation example is a being of dissonant sound. (Although one suggested weakness for this being -- music of unity -- seemed uncannily reminiscent of ''[[Ghostbusters]] 2''.)
** BIG ''[[Hunter: The Vigil (Tabletop Game)|Hunter: The Vigil]]'' spoiler: {{spoiler|The Cheiron Group is run by ten of them, with [[Humanoid Abomination|illusions of human beings]] to let them interact with people. It's the Storyteller's choice whether they're working to defend our world or are planning to exploit it for everything we've got.}}
* ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' has the Cold Ones, entities living at the end of time, who'd like to go back and experience things like heat and movement.
* [[White Wolf]]'s ''[[Exalted (Tabletop Game)|Exalted]]'' has some bizarre entitites which originated in the [[Primordial Chaos|chaotic non-place]] outside of reality itself.
** There are several vast armies of insane, unreal things "out" there positively ''itching'' to roll up reality like a carpet and devour the souls of the living. And these things are the setting's [[The Fair Folk|elves]]. Since this is ''Exalted'', it's the player characters' job to [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|punch every last one of them in the face with the power of their undiluted, shiny awesomeness.]]
** The Primordials came out of said [[Primordial Chaos]] and ''built'' Creation, with all its gods to take care of it, so that they had time to [[Memetic Mutation|smoke magical crack.]] Their minds are so vast that they're divided between entire hierarchies of multiple souls, each of which has a mind of its own and multiple lesser souls with minds of ''their'' own.
Line 95:
** While the Tyranids may seem more like a [[Horde of Alien Locusts]], the utterly alien nature of said [[Hive Mind]] and the metaphysical effects of a Hive Fleet's presence (the Shadow in the Warp, which screws with communication, sensors and navigation and causes insanity in psychically sensitive beings) is rather telling. And at one point it was hinted that they were running from [[Always a Bigger Fish|something even worse]].
** The original [[Warhammer]] has the Gods of Law, which are arguably more inhuman and, should the unlikely case of their victory occur, will turn the world into a stillborn reality where no change of any sort occurs. This is particularly more true to [[Light Is Not Good|Alluminas]], whose requirements for his worship are extremely bizarre, and who can cast a light that makes anything it touches unmoving and unchanging.
* ''[[Magic: theThe 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 Aa 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.
*** 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]]''.
Line 107:
** ''GURPS'' has a few more from diffetent settings and splatbooks: ''GURPS: Cabal'', with its cosmology based on the qabbalah's Sephirot has the creatures of Qlipoth and its Ur-Lords, ''Creatures of the Night'' has the godlike Betweeners, the force called "[[Dark Is Evil|the darksome]]" which is responsible for the creation of the literal organ-farmer [[Split Personality|Darklings]], and many of the non-undead creatures described, a few licenced settings (like ''Cthulhupunk'' and ''[[War Against the Chtorr]]'') have their own native abominations, and ''Infinite Worlds'', the meta-setting that ties [[The Multiverse]] together, not only makes ''all'' the previous settings inter-accessible, but also has at least one world (Taft-7) where humanity never evolved in the first place because of Great Old One (or similar) influence 50 million years back- and although they're long gone, they left enough "Fun Stuff" behind (and the risk of attracting their attention is great enough) for the agencies overseeing interdimensional travel to quarantine the world from any travel there whatever the reason.
* Spoofed in ''[[Pokethulhu]]''. Yes, there are hideous, evil non-Euclidean critters. But you can tame them and use them as [[Mons]] (and they still drive you to insanity).
* While [[Humans Are Cthulhu|our nature]] in [[KULTKult]] allow us to kick most super beings with ease once awakened, the Forgotten Gods are different stories. These beings represent principles incomprehensible to humanity and powerful enough that they do not even care about the plans of the [[God|Demiurge]] or [[Satan|Astaroth]].
* ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]''. An RPG set about 80 years in the future after the Mi-go (or rather, [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|Migou]]) have attacked earth and the Great Old Ones are stirring. It combines [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] with [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] of all things (what with the gigantic biological weapons called Engels that pilots mentally sync to and ride in their spines).
** It also throws ''[[Guyver]]'' into the mix, with [[Cosmic Horror]] [[Expy|Expys]] of Guyvers and Zoanoids (you can actually play the former).
* ''Dragon Warriors'' brings us Balor, the god of darkness. A humanoid being, but of such immense size and power that he can rampage across the world unstoppably. It's a good thing that he's [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|entombed in magical ice.]] His cultists, [[Elemental Powers|the Darkness Elementalists,]] are granted some of the best elemental spells.
** From the same setting, the ''Blood Sword'' campaign/series reveals there are others, such as a trio of truly hideous demon-things that were worshipped in the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Middle-East equivalent]] before the spread of their [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|Crystal Dragon Islam]], and [[Evil Sorcerer|the Archmagi of Krarth]], whose return from the void between the stars to their ruined fortress of Spyte heralds [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]; the battle againt just ''ONE'' is [[Climax Boss|the hardest fight in the series]].
* The ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' TCG gives us the Alien archetype of monsters, the two strongest of which are [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Horror_Gangi%27el Cosmic Horror Gangi'el] and [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Fortress_Gol%27gar Cosmic Fortress Gol'gar]. Not quite as unspeakably horrible as some other examples, but still pretty terrifyingly-hideous nonetheless.
** Worm Zero is a giant moon size thing that looks like it has multiple heads sprouting out of itself, going by its effects, it can erase monsters by assimilating them, implant some hive mind knowledge into its user, or give birth to a worm. Said worms could also qualify, given their origins.
** One of Pegasus' signature monsters, [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Relinquished Relinquished] could also qualify. Its main gimmick is assimilating an enemy monster into its body, taking on its stats, and using it as a meatshield in the event that it might be destroyed.
** And then there's [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Fusion_Devourer Fusion Devourer]. Just look at the face-tipped tentacles.
* Spoofed in the ''[[Munchkin (Tabletop Gamegame)|Munchkin]]'' Cthulhu stand-alone ''[[Munchkin (Tabletop Gamegame)|Munchkin]]'' set and its expansion, The Great Cowthulu. It added a new dimension to the game in the form of the players being able to become cultists. And if everyone in the game became a cultist, the game was over as Cthulhu won. Also, one of the monsters featured is the very cute Chibithulu. Cthulhu also shows up as a monster in the original ''[[Munchkin (Tabletop Gamegame)|Munchkin]]'' game (based on Dungeons and Dragons).
** Now with a second expansion, based on [[The Unspeakable Vault of Doom]], with artwork by the webcomic's artist! [[Catch Phrase|Yum Yum!]]
* ''[[Betrayal Atat House Onon the Hill]]'' has, as one of its 'haunt' scenarios, 'The Stars are Right'. Just guess what survivors are trying to stop, and what the traitor is trying to do.
* ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop Game)|Unknown Armies]]'' {{spoiler|deliberately subverts this trope, at least in a way. What's scary about the universe isn't that it's so alien and vast and inhospitable to humans. What's truly scary is that}} [[Arc Words|You Did It.]]
* [[Precursors|The Ancients]] in ''[[Traveller]]''. {{spoiler|Especially Grandfather, who uplifted the rest, and exterminated them by himself after [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|they outlived their usefulness]].}}
* The [[Mad God|Mad Gods]] from ''[[Witch CraftWitchcraft]]''. When they intrude on our reality, they spread [[The Corruption|taint]], which causes [[Body Horror|mutations]], [[Go Mad From the Revelation|madness]] and [[Reality Is Out to Lunch|a weakening of the veil separating universes]], potentially allowing more to come through. In the follow-up game ''Armageddon'', a [[Religion of Evil]] dedicated to one of them called the Leviathan is currently trying to conquer the world in its name; [[It Got Worse|it's about halfway done]]. You know it's bad when most angels and demons get to the conclusion that [[Enemy Mine|they have to work together if they want any chance of stopping it.]]
* [[Eclipse Phase]]: Encountering ''any'' alien life triggers a stress check, and the only canon sapient species that transhumanity has contacted resemble [[Starfish Aliens|giant slime molds]]. And then there's the [[Deus Est Machina|Seed AI]] that can potentially achieve god-like intelligence and the effects of some strains of the [[The Virus|Exsurgent virus]] are not [[Body Horror|pretty]].
** Warning, GM only info ahead {{spoiler|the ETI, [[Abusing the Kardashev Scale For Fun Andand Profit|a Kardashev III or maybe IV entity]] that created the Exsurgent Virus. Described as being [[Time Abyss|eons old]] and capable of megascale engineering with an understanding of physics, matter, energy, and universal laws that makes all of transhuman knowledge seem insignificant. And for some reason it has seeded the galaxy with probes that infect near-singularity intelligences with civilization destroying viruses.}}
* In Glorantha (as seen in [[Rune Quest]] and other sources), Chaos is like this. One major empire has an enslaved Chaos god/demon/thingy called the Crimson Bat. It's huge, it flies, it is covered with eyes, it glows with unholy energy, and it will eat your soul. It ''is'' crimson, and I suppose it's at least as much like a bat as it's like anything else... which isn't much.
* ''[[Nobilis (Tabletop Game)|Nobilis]]'' has three main types. First, the True Gods- some of the earliest gods to come into being, to be found below the world in an enormous mass of tentacles and weirdness, [[Interplay of Sex and Violence|simultaneously fighting and mating with each other]]. Next, the Excrucians, beings of not-being from outside reality who aim to destroy the universe, and finally the Actuals, the precursors to the True Gods- the movement like life, before it learned to live. The Actuals are vital to the existence of reality- but if one is summoned into the world, it will consume ''everything'' in a futile attempt to attain self-awareness if it isn't stopped. The True Gods, on the other hand, could quite possibly be the guys who empower the PCs.
* The ''Gumshoe System'' has openly embraced the concept for its first settings- there is of course ''[[Trail Of Cthulhu]]'', their own take on the [[Cthulhu Mythos|Mythos]], but there is also the basic campaign world for ''Esoterrorists'' and ''Fear Itself'', which they have given the [[Sarcasm Mode|cutesy moniker]] of '''[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|World of Unremitting Horror]]'''. The monsters, most of them described in the supplement ''The Book of Unremitting Horror'', are for the most part ghastly [[Humanoid Abomination|humanoid abominations]] that seem straight out of one of [[Clive Barker]]'s more horrifying stories, many also blurring the line with other monster types such as [[Our Demons Are Different|demons]], [[The Undead|undead]] and [[The Fair Folk|fairies]], the worst being [[Reality Warper|Reality Warpers]] from "The Outer Black"; many others [[The Heartless|feed on and/or are created by the worst aspects of human nature]] (for example [[Snuff Film|the Snuff Golem]]). The entries, which include numerous fiction pieces and detailed descriptions of how to identify the things' depredations through forensic sciences all add up to some seriously [[Nightmare Fuel]].
* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' RPG has the DarkStryder, a self-aware supercomputer created by a [[Precursor]]-type race that has created several species of its own and looks like [http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080922130707/starwars/images/6/6b/DarkStryder.jpg THIS], and the Mnggal-Mnggal, a sentient fluid adept at [[Grand Theft Me|possessing bodies]] so horrible that even the Celestials (a [[Precursor]] race even more mysterious than the DarkStryder's creators, and believed to be nearly omnipotent) didn't want anything to do with it and sealed it away. [[Word of God]] from the creator of the latter abomination says it's supposed to be the same type of being as fellow ''[[Star Wars]]'' abomination [[The Crystal Star (Literature)|Waru]].
* Well, though the RPG of [[Mortasheen]] isn't out yet, there are three creatures in the setting so powerful they might as well be some of these. Called [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|The Destroyers]], these unfathomably powerful weapons are as follows.
** There is [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/hestermoan.htm Hestermoan], a horrible Nuckleavee-esque monstrosity created "as an instrument of genocide against an entire civilization, and so effective that their very name remains unrecoverable". It is basically every variant of [[Plaguemaster]] rolled into one horrible monstrosity, including a [[Hate Plague]] to boot.
** Then there is the [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/tormanshee.htm Tormanshee], a creature that creates that can be best described as a neural network of [[Mind Rape]]. [[Oh Crap|And every mind it adds to the the network increases its horrible mind rape radius]]. Oddly enough, it is also a [[Non-Malicious Monster]], which just serves to make it even more disturbing.
** And finally, there is [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/mothneaser.htm Mothneaser], an enormous pillar of flesh with such perfect control over its blood that it can create massive [[Shapeshifter Weapon|Shapeshifter Weapons]], enormous Blood [[Golem|Golems]], and even use victims as [[People Puppets]]. And also, [[From a Single Cell|even a single blood cell of it's can multiply inside other creatures]] and consume them from the inside-out.
*** Oh, but we're not out of the woods yet, as there's an entire class of monsters based on the theme, called the Unknowns. These creatures include such lovely things as [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/psychodrome.htm a creepy interdiemensional television "signal"] [[Touched Byby Vorlons|implied to have bounced off of]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]], [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/hobkin.htm a thing that's biology is] [[Bizarre Alien Biology|so alien]] that nobody has the foggiest idea how the thing works, [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/xenogog.htm a diver-masked thing] that can make itself intangible at will; spawns from [[Alien Geometries]]; and can see something [[Ultimate Evil|so horrible in television static that it breaks the TV in fear]], [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/underfiend.htm a horrible thing that is pretty much the embodiment of] [[Naughty Tentacles]], and [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/avazoth.htm the] [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/grenzo.htm Meteor] [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/ziafel.htm Series]; [[Bizarre Alien Biology|which aren't even technically alive]].
*** And don't forget the "honorary" Destroyer, [http://www.bogleech.com/mortasheen/necromon.htm the Necromon]. Originally just [[The Symbiote]], a unique mutation caused it to grow in size and intellect until is became a [[Physical God]] with control over its smaller brethren-all of which serve as [[Amplifier Artifact|Amplifier Artifacts]] which also were the basis for an ''entire genus'' of monsters. It's [[Lawful Good|friendly]], but it says something that the ''attempted'' replication of it is a capital crime in Mortasheen, on the basis of [[Gone Horribly Wrong|what happens]]. Keep in mind the same people who banned this ''created'' the Destroyers, so something that scares [[Nightmare Fetishist|them]] must be ''really'' bad.
 
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/892354"
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.
More information