Old Ones - How powerful are they?

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Rogerd
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Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Rogerd »

Pretty much as per the title.

How powerful are they? No one has all the books, so what fluff out there is there to indicate what they are capable of?
Do you keep them at that power in your games? Nerf them? Or empower them some more?
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Rogerd wrote:Pretty much as per the title.

How powerful are they? No one has all the books, so what fluff out there is there to indicate what they are capable of?
Do you keep them at that power in your games? Nerf them? Or empower them some more?


Depends. Some of the weaker old ones are stated out: Vampire Intelligences are discribed as petty old ones for example, so minor they wern't wroth the trouble of sealing away because while a real and major threat, mortals can in theory manage to deal with them without divine intervention, though useually at great cost.

The Great Old Ones are discribed as casually wiping out entire races and pantheons of gods and even entire dimensions without actually taking the fight seriously.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by taalismn »

Great Old Ones are supposed to be the Lovecraftian horrors that should be your PCs' boogeymen. Annoy at your own risk.



Though if you REALLY wanted to turn things on their heads, have a fabled Old One turn out to be a very wimpy but immortal lifeforms that's really REALLY good at avoiding trouble and going unnoticed by all the other major powers and Old Ones out there. :D
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Warshield73 »

Nekira Sudacne wrote:
Rogerd wrote:Pretty much as per the title.

How powerful are they? No one has all the books, so what fluff out there is there to indicate what they are capable of?
Do you keep them at that power in your games? Nerf them? Or empower them some more?


Depends. Some of the weaker old ones are stated out: Vampire Intelligences are discribed as petty old ones for example, so minor they wern't wroth the trouble of sealing away because while a real and major threat, mortals can in theory manage to deal with them without divine intervention, though useually at great cost.

The Great Old Ones are discribed as casually wiping out entire races and pantheons of gods and even entire dimensions without actually taking the fight seriously.

I have never run PFRPG but I have used the threat of the old ones, both lesser and greater, since Rifts Atlantis came out as I believe it was after that that I purchased PFRPGs 1e Old Ones Book. I have a whole region near the core of the Corkscrew galaxy in Phase World that is a twisted dream realm of Netosa.

Also I NEVER nerf old ones, especially not lesser. PCs have no business trying to directly attack one so when I use them players are made to think how can they thwart the plans of such a being while still surviving. I love the old ones becomes sometimes you need something that can terrify even the gods.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Rogerd »

Does anyone make a differentiation between Old Ones and Outer gods?
Those that are more personifications are more in the latter category.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Rogerd wrote:Does anyone make a differentiation between Old Ones and Outer gods?
Those that are more personifications are more in the latter category.


Palladium doesn't have Outer Gods to worry about. It's just not a classification it has. an an outer god is just a regular god.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Rogerd »

Nekira Sudacne wrote:Palladium doesn't have Outer Gods to worry about. It's just not a classification it has. an an outer god is just a regular god.


I know, but I just wondered if people did add that distinction. It would make generic Old Ones less powerful and capable of being dealt with, while the heavy hitters (Outer gods) would be nigh impossible.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Borast »

Ignoring Toth...
The lesser Old Ones are to the gods what A spluggie is to a Chihuahua.
The greatest of the Old Ones are to the gods what spluggie is to a virus.
;)
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Riftmaker »

Borast wrote:Ignoring Toth...
The lesser Old Ones are to the gods what A spluggie is to a Chihuahua.
The greatest of the Old Ones are to the gods what spluggie is to a virus.
;)


This put its better than I ever could.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Rogerd »

Borast wrote:Ignoring Toth...
The lesser Old Ones are to the gods what A spluggie is to a Chihuahua.
The greatest of the Old Ones are to the gods what spluggie is to a virus.
;)


Good explanation, but didn't the imorisonment, battle against the Old Ones, take place on Palladium?
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

To get more text about the OO there is "The Old Ones" PFRPG game book (both 1st & 2nd Eds). I do believe there is also information in the PF2 core book.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Curbludgeon »

Leave that August Derleth noise at the door, pal. Quantifying things beyond imagining by placing them into various categories ruins them. The Old Ones are greater than they need to be. Considering the innumeracy expressed in the PPE thread I'm frankly surprised.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by taalismn »

Curbludgeon wrote:Leave that August Derleth noise at the door, pal. Quantifying things beyond imagining by placing them into various categories ruins them. The Old Ones are greater than they need to be. Considering the innumeracy expressed in the PPE thread I'm frankly surprised.



And it gives the PCs false hope that they actually might stand a chance against them.
Though there are a few posters on these forums who I suspect might have had a go at them. They just haven't been right in the head ever since. Those that we've heard from.
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"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"

--------Rudyard Kipling
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Rogerd
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Rogerd »

Curbludgeon wrote:Leave that August Derleth noise at the door, pal. Quantifying things beyond imagining by placing them into various categories ruins them. The Old Ones are greater than they need to be. Considering the innumeracy expressed in the PPE thread I'm frankly surprised.


You really should read Trail of Cthulhu then, as it gives a whole new way to look at them as Azathoth could easily be a Xeelee for instance.

There are some good ideas in Eldritch Skies regarding Old Ones and Outer gods. The former being partially ascended and need to feed psychically on pain and misery, while the Outer gods are part of the Void between universes.

Or some Doctor Who, as they make the ones in Palladium look like wimps! Full manifestation in a universe would pop it like a bubble. But they have rules of conduct preventing that - Eternity being really boring when everything is dead.

Curbludgeon wrote:Considering the innumeracy expressed in the PPE thread I'm frankly surprised.


There is none.
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drewkitty ~..~
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

I've learned one thing from reading the KotDT comic, when playing CotC burn all the books and not to investigate that houseroom, strange sound.
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Re: Old Ones - How powerful are they?

Unread post by Warshield73 »

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:I've learned one thing from reading the KotDT comic, when playing CotC burn all the books and not to investigate that houseroom, strange sound.

Main thing I learned was never to go into a barn. No joke I have only played a Cthulhu game my character dies in a barn. But if I followed the "don't investigate the strange sound" rule I could probably avoid that too.
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