Sandy petersens cthulhu mythos (1) 10

I Getting Started
How to Bring Horror to Heroic Fantasy
—Sandy Petersen

Three Basic Rules of Horror

Mythos is full of entities that players can interact
with, but all of them are malign and creepy, even the
sometimes-peaceful ones. You can learn the language

M. R. James was a writer in the early 20 century who

of ghouls, but even when they are friendly, they are

specialized in creepy ghost stories. One of Lovecraft’s

always eyeing your physique with an eye to how tasty

favorite authors, James wrote an essay in which he laid

you look. Even the small and seemingly harmless zoogs

out three rules to construct an effective ghost story.

occasionally trap and eat visitors to their forest.

th

His rules apply to any type of horror, however, and I

Fortunately, the Mythos is filled with terrifying

consciously apply them to scenario-building and when

purpose. Sure, the fungi from Yuggoth might only say

running horror-themed games.

they want a quiet mining base, but there must be more

The First Rule:
Don’t Use Jargon
Nothing spoils the sense of fear more than bringing
the player out of the game and back into real life. Every
time you refer specifically to game rules or introduce
concepts by means of technical terminology, you lose
a bit of potential creepiness. Pathfinder is filled with
tactical options, all of which use precise terms, which
means you, the game master, need to find ways to
avoid saying things like, “Let’s see… the Shoggoth has
+11 Initiative. He rolls and hits with an… er… engulf
attack, inflicting 4d6+22 damage, plus 8d6 acid. Is
there a saving throw vs. acid?”

to it than that. What are they mining? What is their
underlying purpose? Are they using the ore to construct
some sort of gigantic bio-techno-magical device? If so,
what will it do?
At first glance, the great race of Yith appears
neutral—even benign. That is, until you realize that
they periodically exterminate entire sentient species

by mass mind-swap to continue their existence!
(Humanity has only escaped this fate because it is too
puny for Yithian ambition. Thus far.)

The Third Rule:
Set the Tale Somewhere Mundane
James points out if you set a ghost story in an esoteric

Instead, do the rolls without overmuch commentary.

and inaccessible locale, readers can’t easily imagine

You still need to inform the players of damage inflicted

themselves in that situation. As a result, he set all of his

and special restrictions, but you can accomplish this

stories in the places and locales he knew well: seaside

without parroting specific game rules. Experienced

hotels, old country churches, public libraries, and so

game masters may already be doing this—it is one of

forth.

the basics of drawing players into an adventure.

The Second Rule:
The Enemy Must Be Malign
Friendly ghosts aren’t scary—it’s a fact of life. This
applies to monstrous forces too. If the players find out
that the fungi from Yuggoth are trying to establish a
quiet mining base, all terror of them vanishes. The

You have a major advantage here, since you are
running a roleplaying game. Your players normally
throw themselves into the roles of their characters,
empathizing

with

them

and

cross-exchanging

personality traits. As a result, they know and feel their
characters, and it’s easy for them to buy into the setting
you choose.

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