SPCM for 5e

I've been reading Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for 5e book lately. It's a long book, fully 425+ pages. I'm almost on page 200, but I'm really through much of the content. By far the two last chapters are the longest, which include the Mythos entities, and then the Mythos monsters. I'm far enough along, even though I'm less than 50% through the page count, to comment, I think, since all that's left is the monster list to peruse. 

I find this a very interesting book-end, if you will, to the Call of Cthulhu book by Monte Cook and John Tynes published in 2001 for the d20 system. Whereas this new(er) book is clearly a D&D sourcebook, aiming to bring the tone and themes of the Cthulhu Mythos to D&D 5e specifically, the older book was meant to be specifically an interpretation of the "modern" Call of Cthulhu game into a system that was similar to that of D&D at the time. There really wasn't any intention that you use this Cthulhu stuff with your D&D game... although because the system was more or less the same, there wasn't any reason why you couldn't. And, of course, there was an appendix at the end where in a few short pages, they suggested ways in which that could be done. Both of them, however, strongly encourage players, even if only by implication, to blend D&D with Cthulhu.

Of course, Cthulhu was always part and parcel of D&D. One commentator on one podcast that I listened to a number of episodes of, suggests that Lovecraft was actually the most important influence on Gary Gygax of all of those he listed as influences, and notes that Appendix N also singles him out as one of about half dozen who are "especially" not to be missed. Plenty of monsters from the earliest days of the game are clearly Lovecraft-inspired, and the whole tone of the game in the earliest days was arguably much more of a dark, survival horror game in places where Man Was Not Meant to Go. That said, D&D always had lots of other influences too, and those others usually grew while the Lovecraftian often shrank, and hardly anyone would say that your "standard" game of D&D resembles Lovecraft very much today, which is why both of these two products are very interesting. 

Of course, as I said a few posts ago, both also kinda sorta miss the point. In statting out and quantifying specific Mythos items and entities that have been mentioned in stories, they do little to encourage the spirit of the Mythos as it actually was, originally—wholly unique threats that were only loosely associated into some kind of greater dark tapestry by implication and off-hand reference. Delving deeply into the customs and personalities of Pickman-style ghouls or zoogs, or whatever, or quantifying exactly what Rhan-Tegoth can do to a character, makes it difficult to actually feel like Lovecraft would have wanted his stuff used, I think. D&D fundamentally isn't the right medium for Lovecraft... although D&D-like mechanics can do the job. Playing Lovecraft appropriately requires a focus on immersion, not mechanics and tactics, and it requires mystery and uncertainty, not super detailed stat blocks. Nor is the playstyle that modern versions of D&D have engendered appropriate for Cthulhu either. It's just that it lends itself to Lovecraft Tourism, where you amble by like you're on your DisneyWorld ride-car. Look! An animatronic of a Deep One! And there! A big animatronic of Azathoth! It just doesn't quite work.

As I said before, Warhammer Fantasy RPG actually does Lovecraftian better than this more overtly Lovecraftian homage, even though it lacks a single reference to any specifically Lovecraftian entity, book or idea (sadly.) It's not that fantasy adventure gaming and Lovecraft can't mix... it's just that I'm skeptical that this is the right approach.

Anyway, that said, I'm amused and gratified to see many of my own ideas reflected in some ways. One thing that I actually quite enjoy is the idea that Mythos entities supercede all kinds of other major threats. Demon Lords should be like Mythos entities, as done here. Much of what Gygax did needs to be, sadly, undone. And it helps if you have a much more grounded, humanocentric, non-superheroic lower magic grubby fantasy approach to add your Lovecraft-like entities to. That's been the biggest disconnect; high level bird-people wizards casting spells left and right feeling threatened by even Yog-Sothoth or Cthulhu just feels strange. 

That said, I've enjoyed reading this well enough. Like I said, it's a great book-end for my read-through of the d20 game earlier this year, and because I'm a fan of Lovecraftiana, I'm a fan of this book. But I'm actually interested in getting through it and then reading the SPCM Mythos Sagas. Adapting campaigns, adventures and modules is usually much more interesting to me than adapting mechanics. I don't know for sure how much of any of those I'll want to adapt; of course, but I'm excited to find out.