"Tarzan v. Cthulhu: Who wins? And is this a good campaign?" Topic

Tarzan can't kill Cthulhu, but Cthulhu can't catch Tarzan, nor drive him crazy. His feral nature is effectively immune.

However, every Jane Porter type who Tarzan saves does go crazy, so it's pretty much a draw.

As to a campaign, I think it'd be a blast. Just basically a beast man of Opar game doubled down with magic and insanity. Probably a bunch of nutty Englishmen who want to photograph the jungle before they go really nuts. Or a bunch of really, really nutty Englishmen who want to summon some shoggoths before they go really really REALLY nuts.

Tarzan: So you guys want to go where and do what?

Uh huh. Come on Korak. This ought to be fun to watch.

The longer Tarzan spends in England, the less immunity he has.

Probably.

No, not a good campaign. Just because you can blend two things doesn't make it a good idea. The basic premise of Lovecraft is that nothing we do makes much difference and the situation is hopeless in the long term. The fundamental premise of Burroughs is that if you have enough courage, determination and skill, you'll get enough luck to prevail. The more a campaign feels like one, the less it will feel like the other.

Leave Tarzan in his natural element of human evil--slave-traders, enemy agents, ivory smugglers and irate witch doctors. Let scholars and gentlemen of doubtful sanity deal with Cthulhu.

Now Solomon Kane would charge it flintlocks blazing.

Not T vs C directly, but…

An African tribe under Tarzan's protection guards an unspeakably ancient artifact – not to use, but to keep safe. An extremely well-armed and ruthless group of "adventurers" break free from their safari guides – turns out they are Cultists drawn to this spot by dream visions of this Key Out of Time. Tarzan has his work cut out for him, helping the peaceful tribe prevent the McGuffin from falling into the hands of the Unaussprechliche Kult.

If the Lord of the Apes is in deep trouble, perhaps Sheena and Simba can lend a hand (paw). If he is _really_ in trouble, a time-travelling Elder Thing can lend a tentacle…

Eumelus

Sounds neat. I was thinking more of earthbound Cthulhu thingies, like serpent people, but this might work.

Robert Piepenbrink

I get you, but I think that is exactly why it DOES work.

On many different websites, I find somebody suggesting some mash up of Cthulhu and other fictional stuff. Mythos fans pile on saying essentially that Tarzan or Captain Picard or Strawberry Shortcake or whatever vs. Cthulhu can't work because HPL's writings say otherwise.

However, one author's take on a character is no longer controlling once the ink leaves his pen. Many authors have had different takes on Cthulhu such as Lumley and Derleth. Well and good.

Where then is the difference between that and positing a conflict between two philosophies? Lovecraftian nihilism and Burroughs, for example, who seems to hold (for the purposes of his fantasy writings at least) something like the great man theory?

Not starting a battle. Just interested in the exchange of idead.

Or even ideas.

I concur with Mr. Piepenbrink, but +1 for Eumelus' scenario & Gorgat's rationale for a single event. I think that it would be a great game & fits in with the Cthulhu Mythos: the heroes don't often face Big C directly, but they battle his minions to prevent his awakening or to eject him from our dimension before he secures his presence. Tarzan & his Waziri thwart the cultists, or they fail & we're all doomed!

As fine literary examples have shown, Cthulhu mixes just fine with Sherlock Holmes and Bertie Wooster, both of whom are pretty unflappable (Shadows Over Baker Street, and Scream For Jeeves). So there's no reason Tarzan couldn't mix in as well. Pretty much any formulaic character can adapt quite easily in cross-genre worlds.

George of the Jungle however, might succumb to some temporary madness until rescued by Ape and Shep.

I would suggest the "Shadow Over Innsmouth" approach. Keep big C as a looming shadow in the background, but give the players a chance at a hard fought victory over his cult.

Good points, several of them. And yes, I do own a copy of "The Punisher Meets Archie." But that sort of thing is easier with the creator in absolute control than it is in a campaign.

But each to his own. Agree that minions work best. Congo Bill and Congorilla ought to make an appearance.

Also, in any Cthulhu campaign, the humans "win" every game. They do that by staving off complete annihilation of the world (and probably a bunch of other stuff) for a mere 1,000 years or so. As soon as an elder thing wins, the campaign is over.

So for Tarzan, success is really how many friends, compatriots, and fellow Africans die each time to put a temporary corker in doom (and was it really 1,000 years, or will it resurface soon?).

You don't want Tarzan to die in the campaign, but after a number of games, it might not be too bad. Passing the torch of the protector is part of both the ERB and HPL milieux.

You would need to prep appropriate characters and sidekicks/minions for that. You don't want the success or just to be "New Secret Tarzan That We Never Heard of Until Now". It should be a transformative event – the torch passes to T&J's son (when he is too young yet), or the "Tarzan Society" – his closest compatriots who are now their own different team without him, or even a government agency. Prep a couple of options, so it's not out of the blue.

Betrayal is also important for both genres. Friends become enemies. Enemies become allies of convenience, or possibly real friends (I was in it for the money, not the destruction of humanity that I didn't know about.).

I'm guessing T's tribal buddies are eventually going to get tired of feeding bodies into the grinder. Maybe even a possessed subversive helps them along. And when the traitor is exposed, they renew their commitment to the cause. That bit could run over five or six games.

Hope some of that helps.

I would only add in passing that "victory" for the cultists need not mean _immediate_ doom for Earth:

(1) Perhaps activating the Key requires that the Stars be Right – perhaps there's a very narrow window for a counter-raid by Tarzan and whatever pulpy heroes he's able to recruit to forestall the Kult; and/or

(2) Even if the Key is Turned and the Emergence of the Dreaded One is inevitable, it doesn't follow that "inevitable" means today. Perhaps Earthlings have a century or two to prepare evacuation vessels. How's that ether screw technology coming along?

Both of them also deals with themes of colonization and eradication. While Tarzan is definitely a white savior and HPL had some nasty racial purity ideas, you can flip it around and point out the parallels. The natives are facing invasion and enslavement by a powerful alien culture with advanced technologies that doesn't recognize them as human. Perhaps in their arrogance these would be conquerors are destroying barriers to even more inhuman forces. Or, perhaps, they are already acting as their agents.

Maybe some of the invaders do see the horrors that they are enabling and try to stop or at least slow the process. They see kinship in their fellow humans. Less save the savages and more realizing who the monsters truly are ala Heart of Darkness. Players are empowered to resist as either natives (who no doubt have their own native alliances and rivalries to worry about on top of everything else) or reformed colonialists trying to set aside their previous ways. And just as some colonialists that seek to do better, there are natives that fall to the lure of the enslavers.

Good responses all, and I especially like jamemurp's take.

Hm…

What if it turned out that the Africans, and other technologically primitive peoples, are simply living the life that is natural to all sentient species, but technology is an aberration and -to those sages who truly understand reality- a sure sign that the Old Ones are in play? After all, it is simple power grabbing as opposed to finding a balance.

However, even the Africans have slowly and grudgingly started to develop technology, and their ability to resist the enemy begins to wane.

But a few people like Tarzan.will certainly have developed throughout the ages. Those who have human intellect, but unsullied by human sorcery or machinery, both of which are ultimately traps to enslave us.

Whether they were created by the Old Ones, or sorcery and technology just arise when man falls out of balance, allowing the Old Ones to creep in, doesn't really matter.

Have to give this some thought.

Much obliged, all.

If you want to get really dark, consider a world where man was not only guided to embrace sorcery and technology to unleash horrific forces, but was actually bred/created/engineered specifically for that purpose. There natural desire to spread, conquer, and advance is nothing more than genetic programing to make sure they bring the contamination far and wide. Once they reach a specific threshold in an area to awaken the Powers, they arrive and consume, resting afterward as their heralds continue ever onwards.

^^ is also very cool.

Have you ever read Christian Read's Chaosium monograph, The Cruel Empire of Tsan Chan? That throw away my HPL in The Shadow Out Of Time" prodded him to write a history of Tsan Chan, in which it is ruled (initially) by a bunch of sorcerers who are resisting the Old Ones when they finally arrive.

But I wonder if your take couldn't be applied in at least as interesting a manner.

The Empire is actually an almost unstoppable power that, once it gets populous enough, sorcerous enough, and technolobical enough, will finally cause humanity's collective consciousness to summon the Old Ones from their sleep.

Very cool stuff, sir.