How would go about making a campaign where the eldritch horrors are actually the heroes?

>eldritch horror actually likes mortals and drops his spaghetti when he tries to meet with them becaus ethey all freak the fuck out

Unlike all other living creatures, Eldrich horrors devolve instead of evolve. In the beginning, they were perfect, and now, they are pitiful.

After Eons of observing the universe as gods unfathomable, the Old Things have been forced to take permanent physical form - to breath air and feel pain and struggle every day to survive - and have been stranded on earth.

There they will remain, living out their last eternity in panic and fear, waiting for the inevitable day that they devolve to the form of a single grain of sand, and willing to do anything to delay this grisly fait by even a single second.

Roll characters.

Sounds like nWoD: Mummy.

I like it.

After they devolve out of being a grain of sand, do they reincarnate into perfect beings again?

The eldritch horrors are pretty nice guys in bloodborne, only problem is the protaganists are total cunts

After the stars go right, all the normal humans are dead. The children and champions of the Old Ones duke it out over what's left for the glory of their Master.

>President Trump

By realizing that humans are eldritch abominations.

Really? I've only seen one lets play of it so I don't actually know a whole lot about it. Pargon is power though.

Simple: Make it so the eldritch horrors are in the right. Make it an undeniable fact in your campaign that everyone is better off being insane, unreasoning things driven by instinct and emotionless calculation with no middle ground in between. This is actually very easy to accomplish in Warhammer 40k, since you could make a valid argument that the universe would be better off ending.

If you actually play through the game three times, choosing the three different gods, you find out that he split the timeline to cause this to happen, and then merges it again when each one kills the other, leaving all three of them dead.

How about the eldritch horror Old Gods wake up to find that several mortals have ascended to godhood and created seasons and old age as a means to control mortals, holding the world hostage to get power from prayers. The new gods may not be all bad, but they've corrupted the system and the Old Gods need to wipe the slate clean and start over to fix the problem.

Oh that is cool.

Cast the players as minor spirits instead of old gods.

Or you could have a game with a power level so high entire realities are manipulated every session.

I dig it.

Build up enough power so you bitchslap Yahweh and Vishna at the same time.

They do not know, but they have ben discussing this topic ever since they were aware their single flaw.

Some believe that their eventual death are just heralding their reincarnation, and when this universe dies, they shall be reborn in their original forms (which were more akin to sentient planes of existence rather than what we would traditionally consider a living entity).

Others say that this death is permanent and absolute - in fact, every single grain of sand or other particle in the universe is the corpse of a single Old Thing, which have been accumulating for a time even incomprehensible to beings as great as they.

Only the Old Thing known as El, both to his fellow Old Things and to the many humans who worship him, has come close to an answer. Of all the old things, only he is humble enough to comprehend that one may find infinity in a grain of sand, or eternity in an hour.

Imagine you've been sleeping at the bottom of the ocean for millennium. Little bits have been breaking off of you forever, eventually changing and developing wills of their own, living out their own little lives across the world you're using for your nap. In your dreams you live the lives of these tiny fragments of your magnificence alongside them. It is good.

Then some motherfucker from out of space and out of town drops on you like the wrath of god, interrupting your nap, and hits you so hard you're reduced to a few separate fragments of your former self. Then it sets itself up in your sunken city and starts screwing around with all the funny little lifeforms that, for a time, were also you.

You know, Deep Ones might be freaky fish people but they are actually immortal and seem to live pretty good lives.

Maybe man was never meant to leave the sea, but was deceived by the Earth Gods and coaxed out.

Fucking deep man.

I like this. Each shard that is left becomes another PC

Make them relatable and not "So unimaginably horrifying that your eyes melt and your brain oozes out of your ears".

Bobbitt Worm I think

>infinity in a grain of sand, or eternity in an hour
Real close there, m8. It's see a world in a grain of sand.

They ruled here first before us, and will rule here after us.

We are the usurpers.

All we value is bunk, illegal, or wrong in the maladaptive sense for the rest of the universe and the "real laws" of physics/nature.

Vanilla Eldritch horror.
Done.

Basically alienate the players from their humanity by making it objectively and morally undesirable to be human.

Shit

Well, serves me right for not looking up the damn quote first.

I don't trust the Deep Ones. They're too attached to their gods, they're basically slaves. The Yithians and Elder Things are much more noble people.

Semetic good too strong

Meh. I always like the "god = benevolent eldrich horror" explanation in fiction. In my experience, it has very few flaws.
>Religious people like it: it proves that god exists
>Fedorafags like it: it proves that god is not infaliable
>Newer fans of cosmic horror like it: it eases them in by giving them at least one faint example of hope and benevolence
>Older fans of cosmic horror like it - or, at least I do

>You're evil for being born
Great. You've just made the eldritch horrid the BBEGs

By not fucking doing it and nit missing the entire point of 'eldritch horrors'.

...

>Yith

Body swapping autists.

>Elder Things

Got killed by their construction equipment.

And both lasted far longer than humanity will.

The Yithians apparently forever.

And the Deep Ones will live forever in eternall bliss in their abyssal homes.

...

So they say, but I think modern humanity could take them.

Guns and bombs do the trick well enough, and we'll see how invincible their cities are after a nuke or two.

They blew up a reef. Nothing more.

There was a quest in BG2 where you had to enlist the aid of an illithid in order to save a little girl's life.

Though later in the game you butcher its entire organization holed up in the city sewers so you can get the component to the strongest weapon in the base game.

They want to uplift humans to their own level, but they haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

best girl

They killed enough that they left, and burned a shoggoth or two. They also captured a decent amount, if the book is anything to go off of. It even mentions that Y'ha-Nthlei was hurt, but not destroyed. One pre-WW2 sub was able to damage the city, imagine what modern nuclear boats could do.

They might be millions, but they apparently don't have guns or vehicles and they go down to bullets like anything else. The Mi-Go and Cthulhu Spawn have the bonus of being extra-corporeal and partly immune to conventional arms, but you could easily blow up or stab a Deep One.

I'm currently working on a setting where the Eldritch Horrors aren't necessarily the heroes, but they're a lot more appealing for most people than what's in direct opposition to them. They're a lot more emotional, both in a human and non-human way. They love, they hate, they can even be afraid given enough threat. That's why the global cults dedicated to them are a lot more numerous than those dedicated to their enemies, they appeal to people's base feelings to gain worship and aid.

It's a ragworm, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nereididae, pretty cool little guys, I use them as bait when fishing, hurts like fuck if they bite you with their pincers though

The Whispered (Whispering?) Vault rpg sounds close, although your PCS are more akin to the endless from the Sandman series than eldritch horrors

The real risk is their indirect influence and potential human "cultists" supporting them with tech and knowledge.
Think War With The Newts, minus nazi negro symbolism.

After being defeated, Those Who Exist Beyond in their infinite benevolence decided to give you a chance to redeem yourself by breaking you into individual fragments.

Although exalted, each fragment is bound to a mortal existence to learn and understand and to obtain enlightenment and absolution in their own way.

When each fragment has achieved such a state then when you will be made whole and ascended.

>How would go about making a campaign where the eldritch horrors are actually the heroes?

Just read any of Lovecraft's stories about the Deep Ones.

>store.steampowered.com/app/107310/
Where is that gif from?

Aliens from another dimension invade Earth. Old Gods don't want their favorite little playground ruined. Fighting ensues.

Basically the main idea of a setting/system I'm working on, except the Aliens are Skynet/the Matrix.

today there is an uneasy truce between the deep ones and other horros and humanity. Not all the nuclear testing in the pacific was really testing. Neither side wants mutually the assured destruction that would come with another invasion from the deep. The illuminaty are secret peacekeeping enforcers.

suddenly que the alien invasion, we may not like the humans very much. but damnit this is our planet and we aint gonna let the greys get their hands on our oceans.

Nightbane rpg

Wrongaroony.
They're from the distant future, a future where mindflayers deliberately destroyed the sun, so they've gone back in time not only just so they can survive, but to try to have blow up the sun twice.

>lets try set up a paradox

wow mindflayers that seems like a great idea.

Why do they hate the sun so much?
There's ordinary hate, and then there's "I loved killing you so much, I went back in time to do it again" hatred.

You know how Kratos was so angry he stabbed people for three whole games?

About that angry.

>mindflayers blew up the sun
>they want to do it again
Why?

fuck the sun
that's way

I think I've seen something like that before.

Make them into qt girls

Just when I think I have an original idea...

Well it's not like that's EXACTLY what happens. Despite being stuck in physical form, it still has immortality. Before manifesting, it didn't interact with the world and didn't possess self awareness. It's the only one of its kind and has no knowledge of its own nature.

Ever had the hate about that HFY boner of Veeky Forums?

Put that into full effect, until said humans manage to intrude/rape/breach/invite/omnigoogle the Outer Realms.

Enough is enough, time to put those 4D upstarts into their place.

Armor your tentacles, grab the entropic axe, wield your dimensional shield and defend your Sea of Chaos from that bunch of plastic and metal things they try to pass by like if your home was some kind of shorcut.

I have two ideas
>An ancient evil eldritch horror is locked away for eons in a dark box by the gods
>At first hes angry, cursing the gods and swearing to burn the earth in madness and darkness forever when he is free
>Then a thousand years pass, and that anger starts to subside as time blends into infinity, at least in that dark box
>Several thousand years pass, the old one in the box no longer knows how long hes been in imprisoned
>He starts to get scared
>As ages come and go, that fear begins to build into terror, and despair, ironically the great ancient evil is afraid of never being freed from this dark box
>After what is probably a millenia in the box he begs to be free, saying he will turn over a new leaf and help the world
>Cue modern era, the box is unearthed and the old one comes in contact with a human, and now free once more, decides to stick with his promise, and turns to being a hero with his ancient eldritch powers.

Alternatively
>An old one Batman, an eldritch horror that works to make other horrors fear it, to keep them in line and not devouring humanities sanity

Do it WoD-style. There's even bigger, scarier eldritch horrors that these ones are trying to stop.

This is actually the story to Bloodborne. Most of the Eldritch beings are basically good. You actually have to reach out and attack one that is keeping people sane and another that is praying for their dead friend.

It's the Humans you have to look out for. Most of them are actively wanting to kill you, and the rest are more than okay with your death if it helps their cause.

I know people keep using the ant comparison when contrasting humans and Eldritch beings, but what if they just bring something nice?

Well, Rom is also hiding the truth of the problem. Similarly, the Moon Presence is actually causing all the problems you encounter for apparently no reason, so it's not like they're all peaceful.

Literally no reason since they arent even light sensitive.

They just did it for shit and giggles or because the sun had no brain.

Even Kos caused some problems, but not as bad as the action/reaction of the Hunters and Byrgenworth.

I like your style of justifying your explanation:
>The first group likes it for reasons
>The second group likes it for reasons
>The third group likes it for reasons
>The fourth group, of which I am a part, likes it ... because I like it and I'm a part of it

The moon pressence is basically being an agrevatoing shitter to have someone come kill him. Causing something bad to lure out a worthy hunter(/king/ choosen undead. Its a common theme in fromsofts games). Because apparently death is only a natural thing in the elder things life cycle.

Still a dick thing to do but its not exactly without a greater goal.

Kos's only crime was that she died and was beached on the shore of a fishing hamlet. Perhaps she died for the sake of the fishermen? Who knows.

For all we know the Moon Presence's purposes could be exactly what was being said the entire time throughout the story: Every Great One yearns for a child. So perhaps for the Moon Presence Gherman took the place of the child and when you kill him the moon presence simply replacces him with you unless you ingested the three thirds cords

Perhaps already suggested umpteen times, but here it goes...

IF we take something like 1984, advanced along a few steps to where Newspeak is the only language for basically anyone, and the doublethink is how everyone thinks all the time.

Shattering the wall in the head of people that allows for doublethink would probably leave a trail of broken madmen behind, and likewise restoring a "proper" language could be akin to an infectious "madness" that allows people to form and express ideas and fundamental truths about reality that you can't even think in Newspeak. This too would probably leave a lot of depressed husks behind as people get to grips with just how fucked things are.

Add in Big Brother propaganda and this is of course the most unnatural abomination unimaginable.

Translating this over to fantasy or SciFi or pretty much whatever probably wouldn't be all that hard.

So now the PCs are running around, trying to overthrow the system for good and justice, or to become evil tyrannical overlords themselves, or because of boredom, or whatever. Divine backing optional, as is running things cult-style, and physical peculiarities.

Kos is a total MILF by the way

Horrible abomination MILF

Id fuck it.

Porn when?

>those dick-sucking lips

>capitalists wasteland
You commy loving fuck

You need to play the game 3 times each time picking a different God at the beginning, after that you unlock the 4th option and play the game picking mat as the bad guy.

He planned it all. He tricked you into freeing him

>I know people keep using the ant comparison when contrasting humans and Eldritch beings,
well the thing about the ant comparison is that it relays how powerful they are it gives no insight into their nature. Yes we are but ants to them, but then how often do you go out of your way to ruin an ant's life? unless they are taking up residence in your pantry probably not that often if at all, the more likely scenario is you see an ant colony, acknowledge their existence, and then go on with your day; this says nothing about who you are as a person. A similar thought could be implemented on eldrich horrors, they know we exist, but why would they bother with us? they could be evil, they could be good, we just wouldn't know based on that kind of limited interactions.

Ever got a sunburn.
That's why

Not sure if this is applicable, but I'm working on a setting that's takes place after the heat death of the universe. Everything is locked in frozen death, leaving behind a cold playvround for liminal beings. Between the spaces, previously drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the living universe, they can now make themselves known. But what can they do?

It's kind of a whimsical setting, very Douglas Adams esque, but with eldritch space monsters. Or rather, beings based on the concepts of the universe, old and new. There's plenty of gods, eldritch or otherwise, exploring the dead universe alongside their fellow thought forms and other goons.

the simplest way to have Eldritch Things on the side of Protagonist is to come up with a base enough motivation for the Things that their goals and the goals of human protagonists can match, even tangentially.

Japan often goes to the well of "they come to fug" like Saya no Uta and Bloodborne, Nougami Neuro went with "solve mysteries/because they eat mysteries", i.e. eating.

Freedom from captivity, yearning to go home, desperately needing to shit, gaining more space to grow are all things that humans and eldritch beings can find reasons to work together to achieve.

Making said eldritch horrors genuinely benevolent is probably one way to go around it. Make the BBEG an eldritch horror who isn't so benevolent.

He could mean an wasteland for capitalists.

Have them be misunderstood.

>protagonist's face when

The "Eldritch Horrors" in this imaginary setting are not malign Lovecraftian things. Instead, they are what you might think of as "glitches" in the reality in which we live, peculiar spirits that can spring into existence anywhere.

The presence and powers possessed by these Eldritch Entities are actually responsible for déjà vu, precognition, poltergeist activity and other types of paranormal phenomena that Humans experience. Their powers may be minor or major, but are almost always narrow in scope and specific to the reality glitch that created them.

They are for the most part non-sapient, neither good nor evil, and short-lived as our reality is always works to correct these glitches, but some particularly old and powerful entities have manifested the abilities to think and feel at a demi-Human level.

It is this collection of Entities, their intelligence, self-awareness and struggle to survive that become important to the setting and it's future.

I like to think that all those elder gods who destroy everything with their pressence are ultimatly not evil on the sole reason we are alive. They know of their destructive otherness and distance themselves/carefully avoid lesser species.

Somethimes one gets a little to curious thinking a small peek to see if we are okay and thats when the horrors happen.

I want to make this a setting. We need this to happen.

What is the original source for this?

Gherman, go home