01/12/2018 update: COSMIC HORROR; WHAT IS IT?
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 07:32:44 AM
In an essay that Lovecraft wrote, entitled "Time and Space," which predates "The Call of Cthulhu" by nearly eight years, the author explores the existential fear wrought when humankind confronts its infinitesimally small place in the rest of the cosmos. He then ponders what is to be found out there, saying:
"In our own solar system, we discover the apparently boundless earth to be a comparatively small planet, and in the immediate universe we find the entire solar system but an inconsequential molecule. What, then, shall we think when we learn that all that universe is but one of an infinite number of similar star-clusters, only the nearest of which are to be seen from our part of space? [...] What mind can venture to depict those remote realms where form, dimensions, matter, and energy may all be subject to undreamt-of modification and grotesque manifestations? All that we know, see, dream, or imagine, is less than a grain of dust in infinity. It is virtually nothing, or at best no more than a mathematical point."
In a science-fantasy game such as Starfinder, the focus of the average game tends to point more towards action and heroic adventures set amongst the stars. And that’s AWESOME, make no mistake. I love the work that Paizo has done on this great game. I love the options for characters, the themes, the streamlined rules, but I also think that there’s room for more gritty games and elements that help to play on the idea that space is vast, and each planet or star system your characters visit might reveal things that “no man was ever meant to know.” I use the term “man” loosely. One might easily say Dwarf, Shirren, Tiefling, Vesk, or Ysoki, and the application would be true.
And that’s really the intriguing part, because when we think of horror, and how it affects us we’re naturally thinking about how it affects our “human” minds. But how would an alien race such as the Vesk deal with horrific creatures such as an Elder Thing, a maddening Shoggoth, or some other unspeakable horror from beyond? Is that fear diluted in the mind of a creature who is accustomed to interacting with beings that look wildly different in form?
Do the telepathic abilities of a Shirren, or a mystic’s spells expand the minds of player characters, and allow them to accept that which, in our world, would not be possible? Or, is there a common thread running through the ancestral memory of all races; a point at which the mind—whether Human or Yashunta, Ysoki or Drow— shatters under the pressure of maddening forces emanating from beings that defy logic or reason? Key to any game which deals with Outer Gods and their spawn, insanity is a natural (unnatural?) byproduct of exposure to these creatures. Our rules for sanity are fairly straight-forward, and designed to be used in any game dealing with creatures of this kind.
Note: We're still fleshing out the various stages, so don't view this as completed. Any rules I post on updates should always be considered in their rough form unless I state otherwise.
Sanity
Sanity is a mental condition that falls on the Mental Disease Track, which can be found in the Starfinder rules. When a character comes into contact with the mythos, they are considered exposed to mental affliction, and must make a saving throw. Only one saving throw is required per character per day, unless a more powerful mythos creature is encountered. For example, if the characters encounter a group of cultists, they must make a sanity check. Regardless of whether they succeed or fail, they do not need to make another check that again that day unless they encounter another, more powerful, creature belonging to the mythos, such as an Elder Thing or a spawn of Amut-Aboth. They must make a check again the next day that they encounter a mythos creature, even if it is the same creature they saved against the first time.
Affliction: Mythos Exposure
Type disease (contact)
Save Fortitude DC 14
Track Mental
Frequency 1/day
Effect Once the victim has reached the dissociated stage, the character can only be cured by a restoration spell. A victim reaching the end of the track is not dead, but rather becomes an insane servant of the Mythos gods, and control of the character transfers to the GM.
Cure Before reaching the dissociated stage, the victim reverses course on the Mental Disease track by one for every week in which a creature of the mythos is not encountered.
