Five Lovecraftian Game Ideas That Aren’t Tentacles

When most people think Lovecraft, they think Cthulhu and tentacled horrors. This is
absolutely correct, but it’s also lacking the contextual awareness of his works. Instead of
raging against the fury of this particular storm, let me suggest five things you can take from
Lovecraft for tabletop game use that are neither tentacled horrors, Old Ones or Elder Gods.

1. Hounds of Tindalos: My man! Originally created by Frank Belknap Long in 1929, Lovecraft
mentions them in his 1931 piece “The Whisperer in Darkness,” codifying them into the
Cthulhu Mythos. The Hounds of Tindalos are prehistoric creatures that roamed the earth
before other life had evolved, and live within the angles of time. By contrast, humans live
within the curve of time. Hounds stalk their prey incessantly, traveling through time and
manifesting in places with sharp corners, as benefitting their relationship to the angles of
time. Hounds are thought to be immortal, and are often drawn to time-travelers, though
they hunger after all humankind, when their attention is brought to it. Hounds first manifest
in corners as smoke, before showing their hideous true form as…well, it’s not really clear,
but not dog-like, really, despite the name. They are most likely more bat-like, lean, have long
hollow tongues to drain bodily fluids, and the excrete blue ichor. If these horrific creatures
can’t inspire you, then I don’t know what can.

2. Deep Ones: The Deep Ones are a hyper-intelligent race of fish/frog amphibian people that
often mate with humans. This creates hybrid humans, all of whom look a bit odd and
possess bizarre movements, something spoken of in great detail in 1931’s The Shadow over
Innsmouth. These hybrids often have narrow heads, flat noses, and bulging eyes, described
as “that Innsmouth look.” These hybrids become more and more like Deep Ones, before
eventually becoming one and leaving to live an immortal life, where they continue to grow,
beneath the waves in the ancient cities of the Deep Ones. Deep Ones cannot die of old age,
though they can die from violence or mishap. The Deep Ones are followers of Father Dagon,
who may be either a powerful Deep One or just a rationalized, incorrect name for Cthulhu
(Dagon is a fish-deity in our real world history, and much of Lovecraft’s work has to do with
the need to rationalize and contextualize), Mother Hydra, another gargantuan Deep One
(probably), and Cthulhu (if, indeed, Dagon is not Cthulhu). The Deep Ones oppose the
Chthonic creatures and Old Ones, the lurkers beyond time, and the Elder Gods.

3. The Great Race of Yith: Not everything is a horrific nightmare, when it comes to Lovecraft.
The Great Race of Yith were introduced in 1936’s The Shadow Out of Time. Yithians were
powerful psychic aliens that lives billions of years ago. They were able to project their being
across space and time, resulting in something not unlike possession. In order to escape a
catastrophe on their own world, something they foresaw thanks to time-travel induced
precognition. They projected their consciousnesses into conical plant-like, four vine-limbed,
clawed creatures that lived on Earth. Of course, the Yith then knew humans would rule the
Earth, so they began trying to learn everything about us they could. When they swapped
bodies with us, the humans in the yith bodies were questioned incessantly, but were treated
well, and allowed to wander around the great library cities of the Yith, learning whatever
they wanted. Now, some things were erased from the minds of people swapped with the
Yith, but this was mainly just knowledge of the Yith themselves.Things get really weird when
the flying polyps show up in ancient earth and wage a war with the Yithians. The Yith then
look ahead to Earth’s future, finding a race of sentient beetle-folk. The Yith promptly swap
places with them, the beetle-folk are destroyed by the flying polyps instead, and the Yith
then live in the far future, when the flying polyps are no more. Once again, this should
supply you with ample game-running inspiration.

4. Shantak: Servants of Nylarlahotep, the Stalker Among the Stars, the shantak are primarily
seen in the Dreamlands, though they can travel from dimension to dimension, and from
world to world, under their own power. Shantaks are larger than elephants, possess heads
not unlike a horse, are bird-like, squamous, have huge, heavy slime-coated wings, and razor
sharp talons similar to a velociraptor. Talk about nightmare-inducing. Shantaks war with
Nodens and the nightgaunts, and provide great hunting sport for the Elder God and his
minions. This implies the creatures are superb predators, and are a massive-threat to any
who encounter them. The inspiration here isn’t just in its monstrous form, but rather their
nature as sentient servants of a dark god, able to travel through harsh environs and ensure
success. As far as servants go, these are pretty rad.

5. Fire Vampires: Fire vampires are servants of the Great Old One Cthugha, appearing as
creatures comprised of crimson lightning. The fire vampires surround their lord, igniting
everything they come into contact with. The fire vampires are led by Fthaggua, the high
priest of Cthugha, who takes the shape of a swirling orb of blue flame. Fire vampires, and
Fthaggua for that matter, drain the energy of intelligent beings, gaining their knowledge
and strength should the creature perish during the process. They use this knowledge and
strength solely to find better ways to continue devouring things. These dudes make their
home in a massive superstructure on a comet called Ktynga. Unlike most comets, this one is
able to be steered by the fire vampires, allowing them to cruise around the cosmos, looking
for things to eat. They are the foodies of the mythos, when it comes right down to it. Check
them out on instagram. Anyway, this is the kind of bizarre, alien threat that can serve as a
nice counterpoint to standard threats the PCs encounter. Sentient crimson lightning desiring
to feast on your essence and knowledge isn’t exactly common place.

In Conclusion…

This is really just the tip of the iceberg. The Cthulhu Mythos is vast, and I have not consumed
even a meaningful percentage of all that is available. There are a lot of fascinating ideas out
there that are ripe for use within games that are not the commonplace ideas and concepts
that are most often bandied about. It’s not like I am proclaiming these to be super-secret
things only I know about either. I am not being a hipster about it. I just want to share some
things I like that might help inspire you in new ways. When in doubt, go deeply weird.