The Plateau: Brainstorming

[sparkletwist]

Hey, Derleth wasn't all bad. He did create Cthugha... that's worth something! :grin:

Anyway, I'm with Steerpike. Going for a Lovecraftian feel without just yoinking the Mythos gives you a lot more leeway and, I think, actually gives you more depth because you can add original content. (At least, that's assuming everything isn't going to sound like ersatz Mythos stuff, but this setting doesn't seem like it's in danger of that any time soon)

Beyond the Lovecraft stuff, this premise sounds really cool to me, too, so I hope you focus on some of that as well rather than getting too deeply into "Cthulhu in the Wild West." I've always liked settings that take a few eclectic sorts of inspiration and meld them together into something crazy-awesome, and anything that describes itself as "a mix of wuxia, chanbara, Hong Kong blood opera, dime novels and Spaghetti Westerns as written by HP Lovecraft" is definitely going in that direction.

Personally, I am not really big on "splatterpunk body horror," but that's just one thing-- other than that, the mixture that you've created sounds quite exciting. For what it's worth, were there ever a game in this setting, I'd certainly give it a try. :)

[HippopotamusDundee]

Any thoughts on what else you think I should try to incorporate?

Surprising absolutely no-one who plays Underdeep, I'm going to recommend Star Vampires and the Hounds of Tindalos :P

Given the way you've made the sky such a close and active element of the setting, some manner of star-elemental type thing ala the Colour out of Space could be interesting too, and just to ensure that people can't even trust the ground to be truly solid, Dholes constantly undermining the plateau with their burrowing and creating an underground network of casts and tunnels that offer shelter and concealment with an added pinch of potential rockfall and/or being devoured could be cool.