Quote from: TristramEvans;624183Cthulhu is just like King Arthur and Dracula. Mostly overdone, and sometimes best left alone for a while after a glut, but every once in a while someone will come up with a new or brilliant interpretation and every few decades or so the original will inspire a new generation. So, yeah, Cthulhu is overplayed right now but its a strong enough archetyope that I'll think he'll sustain through time for quite a while.

I agree.

But I also think that we need to keep in mind that the Cthulhu Mythos has not been 'overdone' for most folks, including most gamers.  Call of Cthulhu rarely is a group's main game, and I doubt that most D&D (or RuneQuest, or Pathfinder, or whatever) games include substantial Cthulhu content.

I ran some classic CoC adventures recently for some 'casual' gamers and they loved it.  One is even a great Lovecraft fan, but a guy who hadn't played CoC until I introduced him to it.  The Mythos seemed plenty 'fresh' (and terrifying) to them.

The Mythos seems 'overdone' only to the hardcore RPG addicts that hang out at places like this.

Also, I should mention that Dark Streets from Cakebread & Walton is pretty damn awesome.

It's essentially the Laundry (or Delta Green) in the 18th century.

Quote from: Akrasia;624629The Mythos seems 'overdone' only to the hardcore RPG addicts that hang out at places like this.

Hear, hear.

I don't know about "new", but I'm still using the mythos for gaming in my currently-running Cthulhubusters campaign (see sig).

So far, the PCs in my campaign haven't actually discovered much (except for torching a single "monster" and discovering a strange artifact) but my backstory is all about exploring how the classism, racism (or more accurately, immigrantism, since the races in question are all considered "white" these days), and eugenics beliefs of the cultists feed their plots with regard to interacting with the mythos.

Quote from: Akrasia;624632Also, I should mention that Dark Streets from Cakebread & Walton is pretty damn awesome.

It's essentially the Laundry (or Delta Green) in the 18th century.

Yes, damn good!

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. . . and Cthulhu officially jumps the shark, courtesy of Big Purple.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;628017. . . and Cthulhu officially jumps the shark, courtesy of Big Purple.

Why should I give a fuck about people who visibly don't understand squat about the Mythos to begin with? It certainly hasn't jumped the shark for me because some guy had fantasies about bringing Cthulhu to beat the shit out of the Winter Witch.

Quote from: Benoist;628020Why should I give a fuck . . . ?

You should't.

Fact is, it's no worse than my King Arthur v Cthulhu mashup, so I could lay a reasonable claim to a shark-jump myself.

So really, if I write up a campaign where Frodo uses LOTR's primary macguffin as a cock-ring... surely I'm the one flying over the shark, not Tolkien.
I'd figure the same goes for these various whatsits who want Cthulhu jammies and Yog Sothoth bath bubbles.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;628017. . . and Cthulhu officially jumps the shark, courtesy of Big Purple.

That is just The Never Ending Story redux with Oz and Cthulhu plastered on for resale value.

Even as a deconstructive mash-up effort of two great fantasy works, it still is a poor derivative of an already extant work. The big purple is only a legend in its own mind. Like many things on the internet, it is not worth the effort to engage.

Quote from: Opaopajr;628039That is just The Never Ending Story redux with Oz and Cthulhu plastered on for resale value.

Even as a deconstructive mash-up effort of two great fantasy works, it still is a poor derivative of an already extant work. The big purple is only a legend in its own mind. Like many things on the internet, it is not worth the effort to engage.

Interesting to compare it to the first Neverending story-movie ...
Yes, i say the first, even though the second was rubbish, because, really, to someone that has read the book by Michel Ende, the world of Fantasia really holds its own mind-wrenching perils for possibly anyone with the ability to imagine ....

But i ... digress? The op in the link obviously has also seen the first movie of Neverending Story, by calling the corrupting power "the never" ....
However, it is obvious that those that has answered in the thread either did not make that connection, or completely ignores it, and comes with far better suggestions themselves.

As far as other ways to look at the Mythos, one could really do anything from an odd take on TORG, but with the Mythos sharing the world, ... or fighting over it? to ..
When i think of it, has anyone really thought of combining computers with the Mythos yet?
I mean, it could be anything from a "cheap but entertaining game" that ultimately leads a characters to unlock the portal to R'lyeh ... or however it is spelled, just to get sucked into the screen literally, since the screen has become a portal, .... or that a virus that is made on the play "The King in yellow" is spreading .... or someone hooks up a lot of weird contraptions to their computer, in an attempt to reach "the Master of Knowledge" ... and ending up summoning Yog-Sothoth .... again, through the screen.

My blog entry from a couple of days ago was actually about suggesting that CoC is in the process of a mini-renaissance of its own, thanks to stuff like the C&W books and "Achtung! Cthulhu".

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Quote from: RPGPundit;621534The recent death of one of the guiding lights of the CoC RPG got me thinking... is Cthulhu (who has evolved to being the source of cutesy "hello kitty" drawings and plushies) completely spent as an adventuring concept.. .or is there something that could be done with a mythos campaign (be it fantasy, medieval, roman, 1920s, modern, futuristic or other) that would still actually be novel?

If so, what?

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I am reading a short story by Neil Gaiman called A Study in Emerald, which you can read for free at that link.  It was created as a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and the Mythos.

Without spoiling it much, the story takes place 700 years after The Old Ones conquered earth.  The royals are beings from Out There, and there are clever marketing pieces sprinkled throughout the story that reference characters such as Vlad Tepes, Victor Frankenstein, Spring Heeled Jack, Dr. Jekyll., etc..  England has some scattered members of a seditionary 'restorationist' anarchist movement to restore humanity to self-rule.  

I think it could make for a very interesting Mythos campaign, and it feels like a "new" take to me.

Quote from: The Traveller;621795Have a read of A Colder War, one of my favourite Mythos stories.

That was a good story.

Quote from: Mistwell;628960I am reading a short story by Neil Gaiman called A Study in Emerald, which you can read for free at that link.  It was created as a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and the Mythos.

And that was a very good story.

Thanks to both of you.

Quote from: Mistwell;628960I am reading a short story by Neil Gaiman called A Study in Emerald, which you can read for free at that link.  It was created as a mash-up of Sherlock Holmes and the Mythos.

Without spoiling it much, the story takes place 700 years after The Old Ones conquered earth.  The royals are beings from Out There, and there are clever marketing pieces sprinkled throughout the story that reference characters such as Vlad Tepes, Victor Frankenstein, Spring Heeled Jack, Dr. Jekyll., etc..  England has some scattered members of a seditionary 'restorationist' anarchist movement to restore humanity to self-rule.  

I think it could make for a very interesting Mythos campaign, and it feels like a "new" take to me.

I didn't actually read the story, but from your description this doesn't sound like the Mythos to me at all... because one of the premises of the Mythos is that if the Old Ones do arrive on earth, whatever happens after won't be recognizable to us. If humans survive, they will look both inhuman and totally insane to us.

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