So I Roll A d20 And Add My Charisma To Make Cthulhu Love Me

 

Okay so only a very few players out there would try to charm Cthulhu. But inevitably, love and all things emotional come into play in most fantasy game worlds. You gotta be bashing goblins for something, right? If it's not a god, why not some dame or dude the character is jonesin' for? But, oh wise article writer, you ask, how do I, a mere, geeky GM, have my characters fall in love? Without it turning into some horrible encounter best left to those instant messaging at 3:30 in the morning?

Okay so only a very few players out there would try to charm Cthulhu. But inevitably, love and all things emotional come into play in most fantasy game worlds. You gotta be bashing goblins for something, right? If it's not a god, why not some dame or dude the character is jonesin' for? But, oh wise article writer, you ask, how do I, a mere, geeky GM, have my characters fall in love? Without it turning into some horrible encounter best left to those instant messaging at 3:30 in the morning? Do I have to set up NPCs specifically to be love interests? What if I'm a dude, and all of my players are dudes, doesn't it just get. . .weird? What about, you know, kids and stuff that comes with character marriages? Not to fret, sweet reader! I, the wise and benevolent Charisma Chicky, am here to help you develop this oft-neglected aspect of your RPG experience.

Rule Number 1, my friendly GMs, is: don't force it. Never design an NPC specifically to be a PC's love interest. It's kind of like those computer match-up things they do to high-schoolers on Valentine's Day: "Ok, I like computers, Terry Pratchett novels, Nirvana and Shakespeare, so my perfect match is: Becky Greenville!?!" It just doesn't work. You never know, a four foot tall halfling cleric might fall for your human machine-o'-buttkicking, leaving Khelios Fleetfoot without a role. Just develop a rich background of varied NPCs. As an old gnomish saying goes: it takes all kinds. Your players probably have a very distinct vision of their character, including the kind of people to whom s/he would be attracted. For a GM to choose a character's sweetie is just uncool, sort of like assigning them their alignment and deity. If you really want a rich roleplaying landscape, leave the choice to them.

Closely related to Rule Number 1 is Rule Number 2. Which is: don't try to roleplay anything that would make you or your players feel awkward. There's no need to sound like a Harlequin novel: "Taken by the beauty of the young cleric, the knight leaned in and brushed her lips with a gentle kiss." Most parties would giggle at best and become truly upset at worst by this sort of encounter. It is sufficient to say, "Cameron courts Ariane, seeking to win her love." If you're a creative type, you could even do the occasional non-mushy NPC letter. You can say just as much with allusion and innuendo without making your characters bolt for the nearest door. Tasteful limits are the key to roleplaying grown-up topics, like love and politics, without making people uncomfortable.

Of course, gaming is still a largely male-dominated hobby. How do you work in love as a guy GM with a bunch of guys at the table? Much the same way we girl GMs work in love with girls at the table. The above noted tasteful limits! It's a topic best broached by the party out of game, and needs to be carefully tailored to your players' comfort level. If you have players who blush and giggle uncontrollably at the mention of girls or of guys, it might be best to stick to gnoll-squishing. On the other hand, if your players can deal with a pit fiend who has a thing for the rogue and gives him bumless chaps, love interests probably won't ruffle any feathers. Allowing PCs to have lovers touches every end of the spectrum of delicacy, and has to be carefully tailored to the group. It can run the gamut to a husband back on the farm in someone's backstory, to an NPC with whom the rogue has a love-hate relation, to PC-PC relations, all depending on the party's comfort level. Including such a variable facet in your game (there's no percentile dice roll to figure out the results of the queen and former peasant fighter fall in love) has the possibility to change a lot of things. It requires Rule Number 3: be a sensitive GM. It's just like playing with a lot of high-level politics and intrigue in your game. You have to be very aware of your players, their comfort level, their perceptions and their goals for their characters. Ideally, you'd be doing this anyways, but negotiating characters' love lives is a bit more subtle than negotiating "Gruk bash! Gruk bash with club!"

Of course, some of the subtlety of in-game romances comes from what they encompass. There's the politics, both class and racial, of characters falling for anyone outside of their own background. What happens when a human noble and a lowborn half elf fall for one another? You can choose to say your world doesn't care, or you can involve your characters in a new level of interaction. Suddenly, Henrick is treated with a coldness he never experienced before at court. The Thieves' Guild starts treating Anya as a traitor and an outsider. It's all politics, and few things are as political as love. Particularly in the proto-medieval setting used in games like Dungeons and Dragons, love can be a bargaining piece. A beautiful female character might seduce and connive her way out of jail, or she might be branded a harlot and punished for her beauty. A paladin might betray his ethos for love. Love gives you, via your NPCs, a new level of power over and interaction with your PCs. If one of your characters starts to fall for the Black Knight, by all means, use it. Develop it in accordance with the social and political structure of your world, and you'll be amazed at how many new levels of resonance you find in RPing in your world.

Of course, with great power comes great responsibility. There is no denying children are frequently the result of amorous liaisons. You can do this by saying, since a fertile woman will get pregnant from 25% of such encounters, your players should role the percentile dice to determine their fate. Or you could just let them decide if their character wants to have a child. Surprisingly, some characters will say yes. But then you're left with a new quandary. What do you, the GM, do with a party whose main tank is 7 months pregnant and waddling? Or a cleric who is expecting her first child in the middle of a war? First off, provide a convenient orphanage, convent, or family with which the child can be placed. "Ok, you have your kid, you stop adventuring and live in a hut raising it. Roll up a new character." Stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200, because that's just not a thing a nice GM does. It might be the realistic thing, but this is fantasy. Furthermore, it's fantasy that everyone is supposed to enjoy. So sure, a character might get stuck with the results of his night with Lady Sedona, but don't punish the player. There's always an interesting way to place the child so that the player can still play his/her character. Later on, you could even use the child as a plot hook: "A messenger rides up breathlessly and falls before Dame Lihan. . .'Oh mistress! The dwarves have captured your child! We must ride west and rescue her!'" A little creativity will find a lot of uses for a character's child.

In short, a fantasy RPG can easily incorporate love, seduction, pregnancy, marriage, and betrayal. But it means you, the GM, the great and powerful one, must run with awareness and sensitivity. Including your characters' love lives can add new levels to game play. But only if done well, by a GM who cares about his/her players and world. Are you ready to face that challenge?

Wow! Great article lillith! Hope to hear more from you soon!

A good first article indeed...I believe I wrote a similar one when I was first writing here, but you have plenty of new and good points of your own so I'll say no more about that. (c; However, I do think it's important to talk to your group about it before you make romance a part of your game, because some players may be uncomfortable with roleplaying that sort of thing no matter how discreetly done it is. As one of my friends put it, "Characters having relationships with characters are...weird." The point of gaming is to have fun, not to make people uncomfortable, so make sure everyone's cool with it and proceed with caution when you know for sure that they are.

I'm lucky of course...most of my fellow players agree with me that IC romances are a great addition to almost any game and an even better motivating factor. I include them as subplots (never main plots, as it leads to too much focus on one character in my opinion) in almost every game I run. It works best when you really focus on the political aspect you mentioned, where a love interest becomes as much of a liability as it is a joy. Love isn't easy in the real world and it *definitely* shouldn't be easy in an RPG. Nonetheless this can be fun as well...one of my favorite gaming experiences was a subplot in a Hunter: The Reckoning game in which my sword-slinging monster hunter character suddenly found herself falling in love...with a vampire. Talk about an awkward situation, but an entertaining story for everyone! Thanks for the article, and keep up the good work!

RPGs are most often a group activity, whereas a 'love interest' tends to be more of an individual story. I've never seen it work except in LARP, whereas most of the players tend to use it as an excuse to flirt safely.

I like the idea of having characters have some kind of context around them, showing them something to fight for. I like my characters to settle a bit, to get to know the people, to buy a bar, to celebrate Winterfest with the locals after each adventure. I keep it brief and narrate most of it to move it to the next point. It just adds some color.

So much positive feedback :o) You guys warm my little techie heart.
I hadn't thought abuot it from the perspective you're talking about, nephandus, probably because we've had the same party running the same 3 games for the last 3 years, so everyone's had plenty of time to develop pc-pc relationship, pc-npc relationships, pc-demon relationships...and everyone's used to sharing the group limelight with individual limelight
Definitely great suggestions, all, though, and I'll have to try to keep them in mind!
Thanks guys! :o)

Excellent article, Lillith, you give out excellent general
advice to the GM wondering whether or not to add love
interests into a game. However, Nephandus's comment reveals
another key rule that must be considered: follow the group
dynamics and story themes. Not all GMs handle RP groups as
collections of individuals. Especially in casual or large
groups, it is the group itself which is considered the basic
unit of role-playing. While individual PCs exist in these
groups, the basic decision-making and theme is group-based.
Motivations tend to be similiar, etc. In such a group, a love
interest may be entirely inappropriate, even if the players
would be willing and able to handle it.

I tend to run games in which each PC is a completely
independent individual, and the group only combines for
major plot points in my story. As I also try to emphasize
the humanity of these characters (I feel it helps the
player bring his character to life), I feel that adding
the option of a love interest is almost mandatory. After all,
if you're running a "Day in the Life Of..." chapter, the
character had better have some sort of real life, otherwise
things will get awfully dull. [Note: I tend to run White
Wolf games in the standard setting, so my players get the
advantage of being able have the same general expectations
in regards to cultural mores, etc.]

Both methods of handling the group are equally valid, but
the love question should always be answered with a view
towards theme and group dynamics.

In my own campaign, the love interest angle between both PC's and NPC's worked wonderfully well.

We had respectively :

PC Sorceror (and merchant) marrying the (NPC) daughter of a Guild Leader he had saved, which strangely doubled the size of his trading empire.
And to the player's credit, I as GM was never quite sure if it was 'love' or just marriage for advantage.
[ I particularly enjoyed this one, since I gave him a traditional Marvel Comics wedding - i.e. all the villains you faced in the past turn up to try and spoil your day.]

...But this was only after the same PC had an affair with a PC Houri -only to later ditch her with a particularly callous "I've had you now... clear off"

The Houri then decided to spread party strife by sleeping with most of the guys in the village which the sorceror was Sherrif of, to piss off all the wives. She was hauled before a court by the wives who claimed she had ensorcelled their husbands (true!) and was exiled from the party to become an houri-spy for the boss's NPC boss.
However, she fell in love with a PC cleric, who wasn't interested and so charmed him on the scene of a bloody battlefield for her physical needs. This finally got her chucked out - after a big in-game bust-up.
The same cleric later made the mistake of getting completely drunk at a druidic mid-summer event. His half-human half rabbit twins turned up sometime later demanding quality time from dad (half-rabbits live only a short while compared to humans).

The PC druid who invited him to the party was godmother to a White Half-Dragon/Half Dinosaur wyrmling brood of 4. And fiercely protective of them!

Whilst this was going on, a PC dwarf wooed, married and had children by a human NPC bar-maid who helped him out in a brothel fight against the bad guys.
Alas, short-lived since he fell in love with a dwarven Princess on Neverwinter mountain - who gave him the 'You aren't Royal Enuff for me'. so he deserted his wife to the disgust of the party to go off and do even greater deeds and earn a kingdom.

Lastly , there was the drow fighter mage (converted to good) who forlornly chased the shy-retiring chronomancer for some time.

Lest you think this is all the party did, it was a 12 year campaign and they started love interests after about 3 years.
For both myself and the players, it made the whole of the game-tapestry so much richer. It gave me many more options as GM both for solo and group adventures.

Like Lillitth said above, I think this sort of stuff only really works in a campaign environment which ahs run for some time.

- Grey

Lillith, your artcile was marvelous, but you already knew that. &)

I have been thinking about addding some love interests into my game for some time, but the one chance I tried it the two female charcters in the game got really uncomfortable. I probably won't try it again until either they become more confident or leave the game. However, I do have a rather lonely upper class mage who is dying for something to spice up his life...and help make his dream of building two Shield Guardians named "Left" and "Right" a reality.

Thanks again for the advice.

Courtship has not been particularly successful in my games.

In one case, the PC gazed moonie-eyed at an NPC druidess. The PC didn't do anything beyond this. The druidess flirted a little but, with no response except a slack-jawwed stare, she split with the party quickly.

In another case, the party attended a play and an actress in the play flirted with him later backstage. The PC enjoyed the attention but did nothing to pursue the relationship.

In a third case, a female PC feel in love with a high-level evil cleric and they agreed to meet in the future to pursue their relationship. The player lost interest in the game before the pair could reunite.

In a fourth case, the party heard of a beautiful princess who could only be freed by correctly answering a riddle. As a reward, the PC would would receive an entire kingdom and marriage to the princess. Several players were interested in solving the riddle but none were interested in getting married (or having a kingdom).

In a fifth case, a female PC went to a festival with an NPC ship captain. Very quickly, the ship was captured by pirates. The PC escaped but let the NPC rot in his chains.

In most cases, the PC was very passive, letting the NPC do most or all the work. Curiously, the female PCs (played by male players) were more active than male PCs; they were not slutty, just willing to arrange a romantic supper or two and go out dancing.

(I've had similar results with politics. When the party earns the respect of a politically powerful NPC, the party has universally ignored any advantage of it. Even when an NPC offers to use his political clout to help the party, the party ignores it. This explains why, despite being mid level, the party still bumps along in the lowest caste of my world, never scraping together more than a few hundred gold pieces and never rising beyond just being some anonymous but capable out-of-towners.)

Some might accuse me of simply being a bad GM. That might be true but, man, I've sure tried.

As a comment to dwhoward, sounds like your players just aren't into romance or politics.

I concur that you should think in-game romance through carefully and probably discuss it with the players before you introduce it into the game. I'm currently in a Forgotten Realms campaign in which the GM decided to bring the PCs together by having them all be apprentices/followers/students of high-level NPCs, who will eventually fade into the background after the PCs get a few levels under their belts. I decided it would be interesting to have my PC be the spouse of the NPC "mentor" character. The GM and I discussed it carefully before beginning to make sure we were both comfortable with the idea. It's a bit odd because I'm running a male PC and the male GM is running the female NPC spouse, so we try to keep the mushiness to a minimum. But we've concluded that this relationship actually gives my PC a good reason to adventure, and if the NPC spouse is killed he'll have a good reason to keep adventuring rather than just going home again. We haven't been playing this campaign long, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this allows me to develop my character.

It may not just be my players.

My game is an Internet game that is relatively "open". In the course of a 2.5 year campaign, I've had 30 (!) players attend my game seriously and probably 20 others only attend for one session. (I've had 100+ inquire about playing.) I'd estimate that each "serious" player averages about 10 sessions before leaving.

My experiences are probably more typical.

Interestingly enough, these themes are touched on in the game "King Arthur Pendragon" (once published by Chaosium, now by Green Knight).

In the course of the game, playing knights in Arthurian Britain, characters are encouraged to marry (bringing Honor and wealth to the family name) as well as practising "amor" or courtly love. In fact, most marriages are alliance-sealing convieniences, and Amor is a passion that can lead to extremely horrible results. (Launcelot goes insane when confronted by the object of his Amor, Guenivere.) It adds a lot to a fairly fast-paced and exciting game.

I really did like reading this article. Though one thing; how do you decide on the stats for a baby? Certainly it won't be born with the random-rolled strength, intelligence, and handsomeness (or beauty) of a full-grown, well-trained adult.
And anyways, I've grown used to AIM roleplaying (without use of GMs or stats at all, so it can get rather chaotic) and for some reason...people keep falling in love with my 11-year-old boy character who doesn't even count as an animal (he's some sort of shapeshifter). It's really strange. On top of it all, he's married (to a tigress demon, no less). I'm not sure how to react, really. I find it sort of amusing when some perfect beauty gets flirty with my li'l ol' charry, but it can be awkward (for me and him, even if he's not real). And though it's fun to let them think he's available until the last minute, I don't think they'd like to find out the person they've been ogling for the past hour happens to be non-human, non-adult, and non-single. And...well, I sort of lost my point a while back. But there you go. Fooey on desperate roleplay romances, yay for nicely-thought-out-story-led-up-to marriages! Or something. I'll shut up now. *Scuttles off to read some more articles.*

Thanks for the article, Lillith. I'm glad you brought this up.

I finally got the chance to play Baldur's Gate 2 last year (ever read PVP Online? Sometimes I feel an awful lot like Cole), and the inter-party romances it included inspired me to use romance threads in my D&D campaign.

You don't have to start a romance thread for everybody. Some players will start one all by themselves; some players will luck into them; and some will resist any and all love-interest-candidate characters you throw at them. It has to do with player comfort level and role-playing style, of course.

An alternative to PC romances is to put the players on the periphery of an existing romance. One of my female players (the group's ranger) became close friends with an NPC who did rogue work for the party, and continued corresponding with the rogue after she left. Through the ranger, the thread of the rogue's ill-fated involvement with another NPC known to the party became an engaging sub-plot for those members of the group who knew anything about it.

This leads me to another tangential note: dreams, visions, and letters. I make extensive use of NPC correspondence and other "private" player handouts. I feel that this kind of thing increases each player's sense of character individuality and place in the world. I found that I could accomplish many things in private handouts that were embarrassing or silly for me to say out loud. I'm a portly fellow with a beard, so I can understand when some of my players have trouble envisioning the charming princess through my role-playing of her. I found that handing the player a letter from her worked much better. I wound up devoting a considerable portion of my week to writing correspondence from NPCs to the party's characters, but I had fun doing it, and it seemed to create a depth of tangibility to the world background that I'd never achieved before.

Interestingly to me, the main bad guy in my campaign was the wicked God of Love. Despite the group Wizard's baleful statements about how everyone needed to avoid romantic attachments, I wound up juggling five separate romantic threads of varying stability. Two of these threads involved the Wizard himself!

Unlike my previous campaigns, my current one (very dynamic, played regularly for more than a year already) has led to the development of several PC-NPC relations, some of them encouraged by me, the GM, and some initiated by the players themselves...

One elf demon hunter fell in truly melodramatic love with ... you guessed it ... a demon. Little surprise here, actually, but the strange thing is: the party was understanding, and did not look down on the poor hunter just for sacrificing his ideals and abandoning his wows. We have overheard statements like: "I am STILL a demon hunter and hate all the other demons madly, and will slay any other demon we meet mercilessly, of course except *eyes filled with love* Isolde here ... and her friends and relatives and any of the children we might have together..."

Conclusion: the NPC demon was intended as a reluctant adversary, but became actually more of an ally. NEVER restrict an NPC to one role.

Another character started a relationship with a high-ranking member of a sinister cult after both of them tried to kill each other several times and failed yet lived to make one more attempt. Currently, they are engaged though the relationship relies more on mutual respect and usefulness than love. Yes, and the cultist finds dangerous people attractive. The same might be true for the PC (or player?).

Conclusion: most NPCs, even enemies, are reasonable people, and should be able to see more than one solution to a problem.

More liaisons with the dark side? Surely. A priest had the soul focus of a demon, allowing him to summon it and make it do his bidding - the demon hated him for that, and he didnt like the beast very much either. The, the priest accidentally drunk a love potion and fell in love with guess whom. The demon could not harm him because he still had its soul focus, and it could not leave - the both ended up swearing a geas of loyalty to each other ... and then the priest was given an antidote to the potion of love. He and the fiend were loyal yet had differences that could not easily be settled ... the priest ended up drinking another love potion voluntarily so he would no longer be torn between loyalty and dislike. The demon was actually flattered by the priests devotion, and they ended up having a love-hate relationship that gave all the players several good laughs. Her: "you know, I hate you far less than the other beings on this plane" Him: "How kind of you. Have I already told you no-one before has broken my arm so tenderly and lovingly?" Or ... Her "I have killed these twelve children for you so you too could feast upon their souls..." Him: "Promise me, please, to never do this again." Her: "Okay, should it be twenty pieces next time?"

Conclusion: Acted out wonderfully. I love that character.

A noble lady ended up in love with the unicorn she rode, then went to riding it some more (no details, please). The problem is - they both are not mature by any means, and both are untrue to the each other on a regular basis yet cant stop loving each other - they are too god friends, not always on good terms, and have saved each others life quite some times.

I am still unsure how to solve this.

The most touchy problem is a pretty weird relationship in the making - one characters sister has reached puberty, is cloistered away in the familys castle in the mountains with her sadistic sister, quite frankly insane mother and father who buries himsef in books, and the PC was the only family member who showed her any act of kindness - well, the kid aint all too right in the head either, but has already begun to idolize the PC during his infrequent visits at home.

I am walking on veeeery thin ice here, and pretty unsure how to deal with the situation.

All in all is romance to be encouraged in RPGs I guess, for it gives players something to care about - it is of no use to be the ultimate 67th level warrior king of all that was, is and can be if the one you love is not returning your favors.
It depends on the players how much willing they are to accept, but certainly, do NOT idealize the romances encountered. Nothing is ever perfect, and relations even less so: for example, a lowly knightly lady (PC) wanted to start a relationship with the prince, crown prince at that. Of a mighty empire with 65 million inhabitants. The prince seemed to be enamored, won her favor with attention and gifts, and revealed himself an abusive jerk a while later, when the PC found out that due to her lowly birth the prince considered her nothing more than a toy.
Do not make love easy, but give it its rewards. Like the death of the ultimate arch-enemy or acquisition of the sword-of-truly-incredible-evisceration, the way will be fraught with dangers and perils. The roleplaying skills will be honed to the extreme, and no lady nor sir can be won with dice.

Yours

EchoMirage

Just a wicked thought...if a pc dies, then the pc's kid could become a new pc? whaddya think? just a truly odd idea. Then there's this business of love with extraplanar entities...that brings nasty ideas to mind....kid's from hell....man, that's just weird!!! Of course better than some of the stuff I read, I remember an online bbs rpg where my guy (a golem) was getting love letters from a faery!!! Don't think about it....it'll hurt your head trust me.....I mean, how does one deal with that kind of thing?
Well, anyone? I guess not...like I said, don't think about it. Any way, here's my sig comin' up.
"Do not ask a question if you are not prepared for the answer. Even if it is that which you do not wish to hear."

Neurotically yours
Theo

Thanks again for all the comments...I'm going to have to get off my duff and write something again here soon. As for all of the baby questions...I assumed that babies don't get stats until they reach an age that's playable in the context of the game. Until then, they are in the care of someone, and it's the responsibility of GM and PC together to make sure that that happens. As for the weird relationships...well, they're weird :o) It's a fantasy world. Weird happens ;o)

GMs, this is a danger zone. You must walk the line between a matchmker and an escort service. You have to weigh the difference between romance and love or lust and porn. I suggest you go low on details if you do this and avoid doing this with a group of anyone younger than college level. Tht would be best, anway.

Now Echo...

1. Is it okay to call you Echo?
2. As for the unicorn business, I honestly don't know. I could suggest killing someone off, but I do not think of that as a solution.
3. I guess you could introduce a guy into the girl's life, but seeing as she's stuck in a castle it's hard to get new neighbours. You could also make her go off on an adventure of her own, making her try to prove she's as good as anyone else in her family. Again there's the kill 'em off deal, but that isn't very nice, to kill off the one person in that family he actually gives a rat's tush about. Or kill the whole family, but that too isn't the best way out me thinks. Maybe you could write it off as childish crush and thus make it float around at a whim. Make her fall for a party memeber every time you party goes to his house. Don't let him go alone. Let him bring someone. Even if the little kid falls for another gal, it would be easier than walking on te tightrope you gotten into here.

Lillith, I've never actually done any posting, but I did want to say that you inspired me in this article. I don't normally do romantic relationships, but considering that one of my players is running a randy half-orc character and another one is running a staid humorless sorcerer, the potential for my NPC to mess with both of them was impossible to resist. At one point he had a pair of bumless chaps delivered to the sorcerer along with a forged note from the orc. Another time everybody except the NPC got drunk, and he pushed the two together and put a blanket over the two of them. I doubt any really romantic antics are going to occur, but considering the half-orc's exploits (Chambermaids, captive orcs, horses, bar wenches, slain foes, ect ect) the sorcerer HAS to be worried that things are going in that direction.

Our group actually decided against having female PCs after one guy raped one of the group's female chatacters just because she was unconsious...

That's all I have to say

That's not a reason not to have female pcs. That's a reason to never, ever speak to that person again, and to eject him from your games.

I will not, under any circumstance, play a role playing game with people who enjoy describing imaginary rape scenes. In fact, I would not associate with them under any circumstances at all.

Amen.

I agree with Cadfan 100%.

That is fairly scary...honestly I'd throw a man like that out the game, my house, and probably get him kicked out of Sparks as a dangerous offender.

Errr..... I know I'm off topic here, but whom or what is cthulhu? (Again I'm proving my rookiness here, help me to learn...)
Bookaya! (the word is telling you to use it...)

Peculiarly yours,

Theophenes

*this is a totally different Lilith than the one who wrote this column*

On the comment about playing a PC's kid, I started out a character in your typical D&D campaign, then fastfowarded it to D20 Modern so he could play his grandson. (They were elves). It was fun.

Theo:

1) Search engines are your friend. Try running a search for Cthulhu on Google or your favorite alternative. When the search results come back, try not to go insane. =)

2) the best answer to your question can be found in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu" by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. I think there may be a free copy on-line somewhere; if I find one, I'll e-mail it to you.

T Y cocytus! thanx for de E mail too.... Honestly it's nice to know I'm not the only man of such insane thoughts in the universe.

Would you believe that storie makes a good deal of sense? I can just about visualize what there talking about, but there isn't quite a word that I can use to say it...oh well, what can you do?

Stark raving madly and idiotically babblingly yours,
Theophenes

Much of Lovecraft's work, including CoC, can be found at the H. P. Lovecraft Library at http://www.gizmology.net/lovecraft/.