[DF 3] inspiration for Dark Ones?

[Dammann]

I have not included Dark Ones in my DF campaign so far. I am having a hard time getting a feel for them, the way that it is easy to get a feel for halflings or orcs or minotaurs.

What are some of the inspirations for this race? I am interested in fiction, art, games, or whatever people associate them with (or Kromm, if you see this, what you had in mind).

Dark Ones seem like a potentially fun race for DF, but I don't know if they are misunderstood monsters, if they are a sign of darkness and chaos quietly invading civilization, if they are a race from another plane/dimension... I must have missed whichever touchstone marks this race from the genre.

[Kromm]

They're basically Generic MMORPG Undead Guys minus the "being undead" part – that is, a true living race that's creepy and unsettling and Not Quite Human without being dead people (which don't make for a good race). The Elder Thing connection is there mostly to justify the creepiness . . . in a world where undead and even demons are common monsters, even PCs, you have to up the ante to get creepiness.

[nanoboy]

I think that the name "Lovecraft" is what you're looking for. The Dark Ones are clearly just a few degrees removed from cosmic horror Cthulhu stuff.

[Dammann]

Thanks- can't get much better than actual authorial intent for a question like this!

As per my usual habit, I probably made this more complicated than it needs to be. The d20 to GURPS conversion thread had me thinking about whether they might be a melange of Githyanki, Lovecraft, and who knows what from Diablo (which I am sadly unfamiliar with). Now I am seeing something more like the Forsaken from WoW, with a Lovecraft spin.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by nanoboy

I think that the name "Lovecraft" is what you're looking for. The Dark Ones are clearly just a few degrees removed from cosmic horror Cthulhu stuff.

Specifically a variant of HPL's "taint theme", c. f. The Shadow over Innsmouth. But with Elves and Mind-Warpers substituting for New Englanders and Deep Ones.

[Dammann]

I feel like the more I learn about the implicit cosmology of DF, the more I see this Squid-Bunny/Good-Evil graph of "alignment." I do like that it isn't codified (although there could be a cool Pyramid article in that, maybe), but rather, a construct that is easily overlaid on the game as a model for understanding something less simple and straightforward.

[Dammann]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Specifically a variant of HPL's "taint theme", c. f. The Shadow over Innsmouth. But with Elves and Mind-Warpers substituting for New Englanders and Deep Ones.

It is my suspicion that Lovecraft had some overripe calamari at a young age.

[Kromm]

There's more obvious Lovecraft in the elder-spawn, which were inspired by The Shadow Over Innsmouth. They're my poke at 1980s and 1990s fantasy games where every last damned extra-planar race had apparently bred with humanity and produced mutant offspring. I figured that if demons could do that, then why not Elder Things? From there it was a clear shot at a TSOI homage.

The dark ones are somewhere between "dark elves for players who hate dark elves" and "vampires for the GM who doesn't want vampire PCs" . . . basically, one of those Dark, Mysterious Races that also filled 1980s and 1990s FRPGs, but different from the classics in case the classics weren't appropriate. The Elder Thing connection was more of an afterthought to explain them: "Hmm . . . they aren't undead like vampires and they aren't faerie relatives like elves, so what else is creepy and supernatural? Ah, Elder Things!"

[Dammann]

re: players who hate dark elves
When one of my players wanted to make a "dark elf ninja," I sort of rolled my eyes for a second, but I'm glad he did. It turned out to be a very entertaining character. Sometimes the old chestnuts are great, especially if most people are doing something more weird.

re: every extraplanar/outsider makes human hybrid children
Maybe it makes weird player races easier for a player to identify with. Maybe it is triggered by anxiety about real racial barriers gradually dropping. Maybe it is about munkinism, getting kewl powers without completely giving up humanity. Maybe we are simply irresistible (their methods are inscrutable, we're so fine, there's no telling where the money went, etc.).

[nanoboy]

Originally Posted by Kromm

There's more obvious Lovecraft in the elder-spawn, which were inspired by The Shadow Over Innsmouth. They're my poke at 1980s and 1990s fantasy games where every last damned extra-planar race had apparently bred with humanity and produced mutant offspring. I figured that if demons could do that, then why not Elder Things? From there it was a clear shot at a TSOI homage.

The dark ones are somewhere between "dark elves for players who hate dark elves" and "vampires for the GM who doesn't want vampire PCs" . . . basically, one of those Dark, Mysterious Races that also filled 1980s and 1990s FRPGs, but different from the classics in case the classics weren't appropriate. The Elder Thing connection was more of an afterthought to explain them: "Hmm . . . they aren't undead like vampires and they aren't faerie relatives like elves, so what else is creepy and supernatural? Ah, Elder Things!"

Oh right. I hadn't looked in the books for a while, so I'd forgotten that they were two separate things.