Most generally useful figures?

[FramFramson]

I've read at least most of the Lovecraft canon, possibly all of it. One thing I've noticed is that most of the creatures used so often in games are not mentioned very often in Lovecraft's own works; most are only mentioned in one or two stories, a few in more, but that's rare. So it's really kind of up to us to determine what's most "common".

So I was wondering, what creatures do you think are most useful in games? After all, Cthulhu is well known, but how often are you really going to use him in a game? Sure maybe a big final campaign boss (though personally I'd prefer to find a way to imply his presence without even using a mini, or a whole one anyway), but you can't really stick him in every game.

What do you find is more useful for "everyday" games? Or what's most useful for occasional games? What's only really useful as centrepieces for big showdowns?

Off the top of my head...

"Everyday"
- Cultists
- Tribesmen or other human locals under the influence of artifacts
- Ghouls
- Half-breeds (Deep Ones or serpentmen of Yig)

"Occasional"
- Formless Spawn
- Star Spawn
- Shoggoths
- Mi-Go
- Nightgaunts
- Yithians

"Boss fights"
- Great Old ones, Outer Gods, etc.
- Dream Lands Gods (Hastur, The King in Yellow, etc.)

Nyarlathotep is sort of a funny special case, since you can slot him in as just a disguised human if you want.

There are probably a bunch I'm forgetting or lumping together.

So do you bother with any sort of hierarchy, just try to use as much variety as possible, or what?

[Red Orc]

I'd go along with your hierarchy more or less.

1 - most common would be cultists, and those who aren't cultists but are the henchmen of cultists. So normal humans, mostly, in western dress, arcane robes, or any local costumes for tribespeople or just normal townsfolk in different parts of the world;
2 - pretty rare would be the deformed results of too much messing with forbidden knowledge - people in the process of transforming into Deep Ones or whatever - this would partly cross over with your 'half-breeds' category, and could again include corrupted people in any relevant form of dress, but I wouldn't have thought you'd need many, as they will likely be either the leaders, or the shock-troops, of outwardly 'normal' humans;
3 - actual Deep Ones and Ghouls I'd make a separate category. They're pretty rare (as in, don't turn up very often) but when they do can turn up in some numbers (say more than 10 in a adventure);
4 - Mi-Go and such like are very rare - when they do turn up, they're not en masse either, as far as figures go I can't see why you'd need more than maybe 6 (perhaps 6 Mi-Go, with a variety of equipment) or even fewer (how many Dimensional Shamblers are you going to need in a game?);
5 - I wouldn't use Great Old Ones in a game anyway.

I am a bit of a fan of Hounds of Tindalos (which I don't think were actually invented by Lovecraft, but I'm no expert). But again, like Mi-Go (etc) you don't need many I don't think. Tyrannid runny-slashy-beasts (are they called Hormagaunts?) are where I'd go for that.

[FramFramson]

(how many Dimensional Shamblers are you going to need in a game?);

I love this quote in isolation.  

I agree I would probably never actually use a Great Old One or Outer God figure in a real game. I might have a Call of Cthulhu-type scenario where the heroes must race to prevent the appearence of a GOO or OG, but not actually represent that adversary with a figure.

[gnomehome]

I am a bit of a fan of Hounds of Tindalos (which I don't think were actually invented by Lovecraft, but I'm no expert). But again, like Mi-Go (etc) you don't need many I don't think. Tyrannid runny-slashy-beasts (are they called Hormagaunts?) are where I'd go for that.

I think the Hounds of Tindalos originated from as Frank Belknap Long story.

I like the look of the 'Achtung Cthulhu' Hounds a lot : http://www.modiphius.com/uploads/1/4/0/6/14062642/4256665_orig.jpg

[diehard]

I think the Hounds of Tindalos originated from as Frank Belknap Long story.

I like the look of the 'Achtung Cthulhu' Hounds a lot : http://www.modiphius.com/uploads/1/4/0/6/14062642/4256665_orig.jpg

I do believe you are correct about the origin of the Hounds, but it's been a long time since I read that story (first read CoC in 1969) and I'm too lazy to go down to my bookshelves and check. I've been rereading all this stuff since Cthulhu Wars though so I'll have to bump that one up the list (just finished "Cthulhu's Heirs", I've been alternating with an old classic then a newer collection [of which there are numerous volumes of now.])

And I have to agree, I really like the look of the Modiphius versions, I'll be picking up most (if not all) of the monster and villain figures from their upcoming line to use in my Strange Aeons games. I passed on the KS only because I was heavily invested in another campaign at the time and really don't do much RPG stuff anymore as I no longer have any interested players these days. Still may pick up the books sometime as I still also get the occasional CoC supplements just for the fun of reading and looking at the artwork.

[ced1106]

I think the Hounds of Tindalos originated from as Frank Belknap Long story.

Yep! "The Hounds of Tindalos". (:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hounds_of_Tindalos

Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror use these monsters by the monster cupful!

Otherwise, yeah, it's collecting more than playing, although I *did* see a pic of the Reaper Cthulhu in a modern-day miniature wargame! Reaper mentioned that while dragons were the least liked add-ons in the KS, they were the most popular add-ons ordered!

[Dr Mathias]

Good old fashioned nefarious humans are what I've used the most.

After that, probably ghouls and Mi-Go.

[Connectamabob]

Red Orc's thought mirror my own pretty well. With the caveat that some things which could be considered "rare" in an overall sense need not be rare on the level of individual games, provided you don't have recurring protagonists. Sort of an anthropic principle thing: the games can be assumed to be cherry picked rare incidents among an ocean of unrepresented banal scenarios.

I like the polygonal look of those Achtung hounds, but I cannot stand how literally dog-like they look. They're called "hounds" because they hound you, it has absolutely nothing to do with what they look like. That what they are and where they're from has no commonalty with life in our dimension is not only explicit, it's a plot point. Whenever I see a "hound of Tindalos" that looks like a dog, I see an artists with no reading comprehension skill (or possibly who never read to begin with), and/or far less imagination than any artist should have.