And I'm pretty certain that Pisca would be completely inappropriate for this setting.  I think I might go human for this one.  Or, for a bit of irony, maybe a monster race, if such a thing is available.

I don't know about a monster race: the player's guide warned about including exotic races.  They would take away from the mystery and horror theme of the setting.

I'm looking at the Inquisitive Rogue as a build path.  I like the idea of the Hard-Boiled Halfling Detective.  And the class path feels appropriate to the setting too.

Ooohh, maybe I'll be a gnome!  Turn the party dynamics on their head!

Or a half-elf!  5e gives them a lot of skills.

Really can't go wrong with human either.

Still leaning towards Rogue for class though.  Or maybe Paladin, I haven't made a Paladin in a while.  Or a Ranger!

Waaah!  Sudden onset decision paralysis!

Well, one thing I'm certain of is I don't want to be a primary caster.  I've done a lot of those lately.  So I do know that much!

I've been looking at 5E classes for the inspiration to build a Lovecraftian character.  I think I can fill either the Primary Caster or a Fighter roll at this point.  I'm shying away from Rogue/Detective.  I've played that too often.

That's an interesting question.  How exactly do you define the horror genre?  Especially cosmic horror?  I'd argue just having vampires and werewolves isn't necessarily horror, depending on how its portrayed.  I read a few of the Anita Blake novels and most of the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  I don't think those are horror.  More supernatural-tinged investigation/romance.

Cosmic horror especially is about the horror of humans confronting the greater unknown, which might explain why so little of it features other races.  Because it could dull the impact of man confronting the unknown if elves, dwarves, etc all face it too.  Though, from a scientific point of view, if humans and elves can interbreed to produce fertile offspring, they're not really different species per se, right?  And dwarves aren't that much further away, because at least in some settings, human/dwarf hybrids are Muls, sterile like their namesake, but it implies a rather close connection between the two races.  Gnomes, being of fey ancestry, could be different.

In reply to Liseth Thoradin (msg # 482):

Paladins would interface interestingly with this AP.  Not as powerful as the PF Paladins with the huge bonuses to save against fear, which definitely seem to fly in the face of confronting cosmic horror, but still with some nice bonuses.

Yeah.  Those kind of books don't classify well as horror to me either.  Closer to fantasy adventure.  Though there are sections that attempt to evoke the fear associated with horror, those are mainly there to augment the Adventure side of things.

On a somewhat related note, ever read any Robert E Howard?  Creator of Conan the Barbarian?  As I understand, he was a contemporary of Lovecraft's,and they used to exchange correspondence.  You can see it especially in some of Howard's earlier Conan stories.

In reply to Pisca Neep Freemish (msg # 486):

I don’t think I’ve ever actually read Howard. I’ve read some Jack Vance and Lieber.  Apparently Howard and Lovecraft had a disagreement over whether or not Conan could take on Cthulhu. I think the same is going to be true here. Although at low levels, heroes should be wary of Mythos gods and their servants, eventually they rival gods and can stand up to them.

Yeah, interesting conundrum.

I mean you take say, a "deep one" , yeah an average guy with a shotgun might be able to take on a super muscular fish man.

But an Elder God? Humans would be akin to chimps in a little corner of the jungle I would think. Interesting maybe, but never any true threat to the powers behind the curtain.

Fritz Leiber!  I remember the Fafhard and the Gray Mouser books!

In reply to Kellan Storval (msg # 488):

I mean, even in the canonical Lovecraft stories, like the Dunwich Horror, offspring of Yog-Sothoth are killed by a guard dog (for the more human one), and some small arms (for the less human one.)

In reply to Pisca Neep Freemish (msg # 489):

I read those!  I got on a big kick a year or so back.  Have you read Jon Peterson's Playing at the World?  Nonfiction, and honestly a bit dry, but a very exhaustive look at the evolution of the RPG hobby, tracing both the roots in fantasy fiction and kriegspiel-german type wargames through miniature wargaming and D&D.  But yeah, I read that, read some more of the "foundational" texts that Gygax used as inspiration, like Fafhard and the Grey Mouser.  It's interesting how the view of what constitutes D&D has changed from the early dungeons of the 70's to something like Critical Role today.
Oh!  I also went to PAX Unplugged in 2018 and 2019, and sat in one the some panels that discussed this same thing.  (And I got hooked on miniature painting, which is fun for my in-person settings but not getting a lot of use right now.)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:00, Mon 13 Apr 2020.

This message was deleted by the player at 16:59, Mon 13 Apr 2020.

Considering this, would it be better of we limited our selections for race?  The inter-racial dynamic is really a tertiary thing considering the style of adventure.

The more I think about it, the less small races like gnomes and halflings feel appropriate for playing in a horror setting.

As there are so many choices, I decided to go with more than one.  Throw them at the wall and see which one sticks, so to speak.  I'm not completely finished with the last one yet.  And these are all roughs.  I've thrown in some Our Earth history for flavor.  That, of course, will change with the setting.

What do you think?

---

Shiu Lin Zhao
Human
Monk (Way of the Mercy)

Hands of Healing
Hands of Harm
Face of an angel
Deadly charm.

Zhao Shiu Lin ranged in high society circles in the Shanghai of the 1920's.  She was reputed to have the gift of healing in her touch.  Among the Chinese, who prize long life, she was much sought after - for her beauty as well as her reputed talent.

In secret, however, she was an assassin for the Triads.


Ezra Chandler the Fire Starting Boy
Human or maybe Half Elf
Sorcerer (Phoenix Sorcery)

The youngest son in the Chandler Business Machines empire.  At the age of nine, he's said to have set his older sister on fire.  Since that time, he's been passed about in occult circles by his mother, an avid fan.  At 18 he has pale and wispy good looks.  Sharp enough of wit, he's subject to bouts of melancholy.  It's whispered that he is a homosexual.


Sir Terrance Carpatius Longley
Human
Fighter (Monster Hunter)

Terrance Longley earned a knighthood for <as of yet unfinished>

Wait, I thought the setting was still in Pathfinder's Golarion?  Isn't that where the AP is set?

Yeah.  I just used Our Earth for speed.  I would have to adapt the background to Golarion later.

In reply to Pisca Neep Freemish (msg # 494):

That’s an interesting way of making characters. Is that your usual process?  It seems like it would be difficult to translate old earth to Golarion.

TTYTT, that's not my normal way of creating characters.  But, in this case, so many of my ideas have springboarded from the Lovecraftian setting, and a lot of that has connections with Our Earth history.  Personally, I don't think I'll have difficulty finding analogs in the Galorion world.  Or, find compromises.  The main idea is to put things down on paper - so to speak - and then refine from there.

Wow, a new adventure!  This is exciting.  :)

Tempted to join?  ;)

I am indeed!  I believe I even have a 5E PHB kicking around somewhere.  :)

Yeah!

These are fleshed out as far as I wish them to be.  Any more work would focus on only one of them, and be aimed at fitting into the campaign setting.

What do you think?  Any particular choice?  They're designed to plug into roles in the group.  Shiu Lin would be a healer - or backup healer.  Ezra would be the primary caster.  Sir Terrence would be a line fighter.  They're each also designed to have a dark side.  The better to confront that dark side when memory returns, and come out the better for it.

Sir Terrence, BTW, is very loosely based on Sir Richard Francis Burton.

---

Shiu Lin Zhao
Human
Monk (Way of the Mercy)

Hands of Healing
Hands of Harm
Face of an angel
Deadly charm.

Zhao Shiu Lin ranged in high society circles in the Shanghai of the 1920's.  She was reputed to have the gift of healing in her touch.  Among the Chinese, who prize long life, she was much sought after - for her beauty as well as her reputed talent.

In secret, however, she was an assassin for the Triads.  Using her sexual allure as well as a corruption of ancient mystic healing techniques for the purposes of murder and political gain.


Ezra Chandler the Fire Starting Boy
Human or maybe Half Elf
Sorcerer (Phoenix Sorcery)

The youngest son in the Chandler Business Machines empire.  At the age of nine, he's said to have set his older sister on fire.  Since that time, he's been passed about in occult circles by his mother, an avid fan.  At 18 he has pale and wispy good looks.  Sharp enough of wit, he's subject to bouts of melancholy.  It's whispered that he is a homosexual.


Sir Terrence Carpatius Longley
Human
Fighter (Monster Hunter)

Terrence Longley earned a knighthood for his exploration of the seven golden pyramids of the Khmer ancients.  A long-time member of the Royal Geographical Society, Sir Terrence is well known for his countless publications on topics from ethnography, to fencing, to modern sexual mores.  He's been said to be fluent in 23 different languages.

Less well know is that fact that he is the scourge of the local populace on three continents.  A side effect of his ambition is ruthlessness, and he's left a wake of native bodies in the pursuit of his goals.  It is even rumored that he has arranged for the death of a colleague - a white man - who held objections to his methods.  Nothing, however, could be proven.

I actually do have the 5th edition PHB!

Reading through the Adventure Path player's guide and the PHB, I've been struck by the concept of a charismatic Lore College Bard who simply has too much curiosity for his own good.  After all, how could simply knowing something be a bad thing?  What could *possibly* go wrong?  And then he ends up in an asylum . . . I can see his good-natured, somewhat-naive optimism severely challenged by story events.

He would be a support class, party face, and all-around knower of things.