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Anyone ever combine Lovecraftian horrors with Xenomorph aliens?
Is this feasible? Lovecraftian stuff is generally madness beyond the human ken, and the xenomorphs have a comprehensible, if horrifying, life history.
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Actually there is a pretty strong connection between Lovecraft and the xenomorphs, namely the story at the Mountains of Madness.
The story having a hook where an intelligent race of beings, called the Elder Things created the ultraviolent race of creatures called Shoggoths, which in turn destroyed their creators.
This is the basic premise behind Alien/Prometheus and why Ridley Scott pushed to get MoM movie delayed since his story was basically a clone (in space) of Mountains.
Or something like that.
Imagine though, while the xenomorphs are mortal what kind of horrific god they would worship?
I can easily see the relationship between HPL and the xenos because in many ways they are derivative from his mythos. A mythos race.
Yes.
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The xenomorphs story framing also alters a lot depending on the installment. The xenomorph from the original film or from Alien Isolation works as a mythos monster. It is an ultimate predator who you cannot beat or stop. Its whole biology is just one answer after another to anything you try to stop it with.
Once you get to Aliens the narrative and story role changes to a more inevitable horde, but whose constituent parts are beatable. Which could still work as something Mythos related so long as it is the species as a whole that is considered the Great Old One equivelent thing rather than any individual member.
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Even the Lovecraftian Mythos itself starts to become comprehensible (and awfully quickly, too) in The Mountains of Madness.
For the upcoming Starfinder and an alien-themed Pathfinder AP, the Zerg come to mind . . . .
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The xenomorphs story framing also alters a lot depending on the installment. The xenomorph from the original film or from Alien Isolation works as a mythos monster. It is an ultimate predator who you cannot beat or stop. Its whole biology is just one answer after another to anything you try to stop it with.
Once you get to Aliens the narrative and story role changes to a more inevitable horde, but whose constituent parts are beatable. Which could still work as something Mythos related so long as it is the species as a whole that is considered the Great Old One equivelent thing rather than any individual member.
So what you're saying is, once I get the flamethrower, all the Great Old Ones are now absolutely nonthreatening?
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Assume that only the highest difficulty of Alien Isolation is canon. So once you get a flamethrower you have 4-10 seconds of breathing room at most.
It's perfectly reasonable for there to be some weakness that gives you a few seconds to run or contemplate your demise against any given GOO.
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Assume that only the highest difficulty of Alien Isolation is canon. So once you get a flamethrower you have 4-10 seconds of breathing room at most.
It's perfectly reasonable for there to be some weakness that gives you a few seconds to run or contemplate your demise against any given GOO.
Even so, flamethrowers broke the game.
The entire point of GOO's is for them to be incomprehensible and unfathomable, and other words for lazy writers to keep a word count up.
Having a weakness just hurts that imagery.
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Maybe you ere playing a different game than me but on the highest difficulty you had two uses of the flamethrower before the alien completely ignored it.
Think of it as Cthulhu's boat if you will.
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Maybe you ere playing a different game than me but on the highest difficulty you had two uses of the flamethrower before the alien completely ignored it.
Think of it as Cthulhu's boat if you will.
Eh.
On the subject of Old Gods, I've never considered Cthulhu to be the star that the internet has made it.
Entirely too much focus on tentacles, and not enough on gibbering space blobs.
But I suppose you have a point.
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Eh.
On the subject of Old Gods, I've never considered Cthulhu to be the star that the internet has made it.
Entirely too much focus on tentacles, and not enough on gibbering space blobs.
Well yes since Cthulu isnt a god as such... as opposed to the Outer Gods who are obviously so...
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Honestly, the xenomorphs would be more like HPL's flying polyps - awful things that just happen to be out there, rather than actual servants of the Old Ones.
An independent race that nevertheless demonstrates that the universe doesn't particularly love us.
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I'd investigate the Kythons, reflected in the Book of Vile Darkness, and/or create a proper template. Consider also the Embryonic Implantation spell in Beyond the Void. Give that as a spell-like ability to a small version of a kython but make it so it only can implant Kythons.. and we have that covered... Though maybe kythons have that, I don't have the stats in front of me.
Consider this;
They are fecund
They are durable
They are adaptable
They are clever
They don't need to be a hive intelligence that is the manifestation of a Great Old One, or extending from one, in order to be eldritch horrors, manifesting as living step and die traps.
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Smilodan,
Funny you should post this.
I explictly did combine elements, but I didn't use Mythos races per se. I used Intellect Devourers and xenomorphs.
I altered the Aliens to be 'steeds' for the Devourers...they literally plug into the morphs' nervous systems and ride them around like disposable bodies. The long, sloped heads are actually flexible braincases with openings for the devourers to enter and plug into. They don't have the 'flavor' and fun of being intelligent beings, but they are hardy and very disposable, and are easily procreated by giving them host bodies that are about to wear out to face hug.
Larger morphs go to the stronger devourers, of course.
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Neat! I'm thinking of doing something similar in my steampunk/Stone Age campaign.
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The xenomorphs story framing also alters a lot depending on the installment. The xenomorph from the original film or from Alien Isolation works as a mythos monster. It is an ultimate predator who you cannot beat or stop. Its whole biology is just one answer after another to anything you try to stop it with.
Except that Ripley DOES beat it with guts and brains instead of force. It seems inexorable because it was facing what was essentially an unarmed freighter crew unprepared for what they encountered, not a ship of Space Marines.
That's why when you get the Space Marines in the second movie, the opposition isn't just one xenomorph, but a whole colony of them... as well as Company subversion of the mission.
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Aren't azatas a mix between a xenomorph and Lovecraft?
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?? you mean aboleths? Azatas are CG elvey outsiders.
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oh
no...the blue tentacle lion things that reproduce by laying eggs in their prey...
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oh
no...the blue tentacle lion things that reproduce by laying eggs in their prey...
Akata, you mean.
Though.. if azata were, that would certainly be interesting.
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I was close :P
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They're neat, too. I might have to convert them for my 5th Edition campaign.... **evil grin**
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So what you're saying is, once I get the flamethrower, all the Great Old Ones are now absolutely nonthreatening?The xenomorphs story framing also alters a lot depending on the installment. The xenomorph from the original film or from Alien Isolation works as a mythos monster. It is an ultimate predator who you cannot beat or stop. Its whole biology is just one answer after another to anything you try to stop it with.
Once you get to Aliens the narrative and story role changes to a more inevitable horde, but whose constituent parts are beatable. Which could still work as something Mythos related so long as it is the species as a whole that is considered the Great Old One equivelent thing rather than any individual member.
Time to roll a pyrokineticist!
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Assume that only the highest difficulty of Alien Isolation is canon. So once you get a flamethrower you have 4-10 seconds of breathing room at most.
It's perfectly reasonable for there to be some weakness that gives you a few seconds to run or contemplate your demise against any given GOO.
Even so, flamethrowers broke the game.
The entire point of GOO's is for them to be incomprehensible and unfathomable, and other words for lazy writers to keep a word count up.
Having a weakness just hurts that imagery.
On a moderate difficulty the alien was more annoyed by the flamethrower than hurt by it. There seemed to be an issue with the power of the flamethrower between difficulty settings.
Except that Ripley DOES beat it with guts and brains instead of force. It seems inexorable because it was facing what was essentially an unarmed freighter crew unprepared for what they encountered, not a ship of Space Marines.
That's why when you get the Space Marines in the second movie, the opposition isn't just one xenomorph, but a whole colony of them... as well as Company subversion of the mission.
Ripley escapes it through as you said guts and brains, but there isn't really any evidence that getting shot into space killed Big Chap, it just saved Ripley from him.
As for the space marines stuff like I said it really depends on the installment. The destructiveness of the acid was toned down, the aliens shrank in side, they actually responded to melee strikes instead of just no selling them, etc. The nature of the alien very much changed between installments.