curious about cthulhu

[jscottbowman]

Thought I'd check in here and have a look...

I first came across this cthulhu business back in the 80's when I was into D&D. I saw on the games store shelves... I stuck with D&D then, as i didnt like the look of the 20's setting, and was more into dungeon fantasy bash stuff. But the look of the horrific / spooky monsters always made me curious.

Have to say though the greatest off put was the unpronounceable names and dialogue - is there a guide somewhere to phonetic pronunciation???

Also is there a quick synopsis somewhere as to what this is all about.

I thought I might find a 'sticky' here explaining it all...

Any help appreciated.

Scott

[archangel1]

People can pronounce this stuff? I usually just let it register and move on.  There's no real way to explain Cthulhu in '20 words or less' except maybe 'Ageless, mind-shattering beings from 'Beyond Time and Space' want the earth, and everyone on it, back, or else!'

The whole Mythos has expanded far beyond what Lovecraft wrote in his original dozen or so stories.  Just think of it as the ultimate (non-religious) never-ending battle of Good versus Evil.

This clip has been linked before but it's still a good 'primer' and the singer's still the only guy I've actually heard who's been able to get his tongue around the words of the classic Cthulhu chant.

''Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.''

[Connectamabob]

"Cthulhu" I usually pronounce "kuh-THOO-loo",
"R'lyha" - r(stop)-LEY-uh
"Shoggoth" could be SHAWG-goth or SHOW-goth. I like the latter, but I don't think it matters.
"Shub-Niggurath" - shub-nih-GOO-rith
"Tsathoggua" - suh-THOG-wah
"Byakhee" - bee-AH-kee

Those are just my own guesses though. The list could go on and on, but really don't think it matters how you actually say any of them. The names I read, but the chants and incantations I usually just skim, so I only have an impressionistic and probably a bit dyslexic concept of what those might sound like.

Most of them are supposed to come from exotic, sometimes even non-human languages that don't share many phones with English, so the romanized spellings and by extension any attempts to sound them out should be taken with a mountain of salt anyway. As long as you say it smoothly like an actual language, instead of being all stilted and fake like, well, Klingon or Jaffa, I won't complain.

The "Peterson's Guide" books (sort of the COC equivalent of the D&D Monster Manuals) have pronunciation guides on the back, but I never payed attention to those, as I figured it was as much an ass-pull a guess as anything I might make up.

[Sheerluck Holmes]

wiki has an entry about the game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu_(role-playing_game)

but it might be better to have a look at this Chaosium Inc. site, as it breaks the game down into sections of information for people who might be interested in the game: http://catalog.chaosium.com/pages.php?CDpath=29

One of the rule book editions does have a phonetic pronunciation guide, but I can't remember which one sorry.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.

[supervike]

A true pronunciation of Cthulhu cannot be mimicked by human tongue.


Although, once I hacked up a partially chewed wad of food with that properly pronounced name...

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

if you think Cthulhu is weird,then you havent heard Swiss German:
D Guetzli sind im Chuchichästli versteckt  

[B. Basiliscus]

Whenever someone asks me to explain the Mythos, I do one of two things.
I either give them an in depth speech about the horrible, unutterably alien forces in the chaotic universe who don't even notice or care about the existence of humanity, or I simply link this video.

Because it really explains just about everything.
Ancient alien beings beyond the puny comprehension of Man kind with godlike powers who are locked away and like to eat things.

[Profane Creation]

I actually managed to train myself to say Cthulhu without the "kuh-" but an actual "K"... probably something to do with the dialect I grew up with  With all our rrrrolled Rrrrs and glo''al stops...

[archangel1]

"Shoggoth" could be SHAWG-goth or SHOW-goth. I like the latter, but I don't think it matters.

Strictly speaking, the rules of English state that a vowel found before a double consonant is 'short' so your first example is correct.  But, rules are meant to be broken, so 'they' say.  And, who's to know who 'they' are!

[bc99]

Good pronunciation guide.

"Shub-Niggurath" - shub-nih-GOO-rith

I always pronounced it shub-nih-goo-roth or -rath.



Part of the fun of Cthulhu.

[jscottbowman]

Guys, thanks for all your feedback, and the video links.

Intriguing, and it has some slight parrallels to dialogue and imigery from my current pirate/swashbucking themed interest particularly Pirates of the Caribbean; the kraken, Davey Jones tentacle/squid face, and of course Jacks classic one liner :      "Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this wierdness..."
But perhaps thats coincidental...

Although its easy to see from the imigery the amount of influence the whole genre must have had on sci-fi, horror and fantasy writers over the years... and it does seem rather all encompassing and widespread in its influence potential.

What I am left wondering is, is this still best as a RPG, or can it be a miniatures skirmish type game? I am not too likely to get into it now as an RPG as I wouldnt have the time to devote to it, but a miniatures game version could be cool.

Theres certainly some interesting modelling and terrain making opportunities there.

Also is it still classically a more 20's period thing, or has it become more sort of modern mainstream? Although presumeably from looking at it, it really appears to poptentially span all ages and go into the furture too.

[Connectamabob]

Strange Eons, which has it's own child board at the top of the CoC boards right here, is exactly that: a Lovecraft mythos skirmish game.

As to the second question, it's all down to personal interpretation, there is no solid consensus or "correct". To some fans the period aspect is integral to the appeal of his work, but Lovecraft himself was just going for the "this is happening right now" thing: the stories aren't intended to be period stories, and the themes & ideas aren't in any way tied down to the period. There have been quite a lot of authors, artist, filmmakers, TV writers/producers, and game writers who have transplanted the same ideas and atmosphere into other periods, sometimes quite successfully, and if you look through the forum, you'll find plenty of examples of gamers here doing the same.

So, in the immortal words of Digital Underground, do whatchya like. Some people will feel like it's less Lovecraftian for being in a different era, but that's a personal thing, not an "official" thing, and even the people who feel that way won't conflate "less Lovecraftian" with "less cool" or "less fun". It's a cool crowd like that.

[jscottbowman]

thanks again
Cheers
Scott

[Profane Creation]

Also it's fun to take local folklore and incorporate it into a Lovecraftian theme, at least for RPG purposes but it can be used for small-based skirmish I guess...

Also look at Mythos Minis which is free and based on the Doctor Who Miniatures Game. The only "catch" is that you have to sign up to their Yahoo page to download it. But the Doctor Who game mechanic is certainly strong and tanslates quite well to the Mythos.