Lovecraftian Supers
Using the Mythos to Power Your Metahumans
by Joshua Marquart & Chad Underkoffler
What unique benefit does combining the Cthulhu Mythos with the Supers genre grant?
Many gaming super-hero worlds have a common basis from which the majority of superpowers spring. Aberrant Novas have an M-R node, Brave New World Deltas survived trauma, Talents from Godlike alter reality by will alone, GURPS Wild Cards aces and jokers are affected by xenovirus Takis-A, heroes from the DC universe often have a metagene, and many folks from the Marvel world claim mutant DNA as their origin. A common basis serves as a single "point of departure" from the Real World, and helps make the existence of these strange abilities consistent. This article chooses to use the Cthulhu Mythos as the point of departure for superpowers; in a "Lovecraftian Supers" game, the possibilities for tying the abilities and motives of a character to the Mythos are endless.
Clearly, neither the Mythos nor the supers genre can survive unchanged when mixed; they must alloy into something new. With careful (and quiet) miscegenation between Lovecraft's ideas and common comic book tropes, only players well versed in the Mythos may twig to the inspiration. Of course, some players may want to know about this alloy up-front, so that they can embrace it. GMs should figure out whether or not their groups will appreciate or despise the concept before they decide about disclosure.
Rather than plunking the Mythos down into . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 22, 2002
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