An idea I have been mulling over recently in a modded dwarf fortress set on the ancient earth populated by the races of the Cthulhu mythos.
you'll probably play as either
Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths – combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans. . . which gives almost seven-foot wing spread. Arrangement reminds one of certain monsters of primal myth, especially fabled Elder Things in [the] Necronomicon.
or
Crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membraneous wings and several sets of
articulate limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short
antennae, where a head would ordinarily be.
I'm also considering the
The Great Race ... waxed well-nigh omniscient, and turned to the task of setting up exchanges with the minds of other planets, and of exploring their pasts and futures. It sought likewise to fathom the past years and origin of that black, aeon-dead orb in far space whence its own mental heritage had come – for the mind of the Great Race was older than its bodily form. . . The beings of a dying elder world, wise with the ultimate secrets, had looked ahead for a new world and species wherein they might have long life; and had sent their minds en masse into that future race best adapted to house them – the cone-shaped beings that peopled our earth a billion years ago
but they would be much harder and i cant think of a way of doing there swapping minds with future beings thing.
hostile races could include primitive races(basically animal men), deep ones, rebellious shagoths, The Flying Polyps and The Star Spawn of Cthulhu.
weapons could be interesting I imagine the elder things would be excellent wrestlers.
I could make flavored weapons similar to vanilla ones for melee.
For ranged weapons there is a bit to go on in the mythos i remember lightning guns being mentioned which i presume I could do with DF-hack. Also i believe I could make sonic weapons which could basically be blunt ranged weapons.
I was also thinking because of the different races anatomy i could split the weapon skills into say 3 groups with humanoidish creatures getting access to say sword, maces, spears and bow skill
while the Great Race and Elder things could get axes, hammers, pikes and xbows
primitive races could get lasher, knife user and blow gun
each group would get a penalty when learning weapons belonging to other groups
Armour would be more interesting and mostly made up, i do remember reading something about the fungi from Yugoth having armour of some saught.
Other features could include making shagoths to preform basic labor and act as solders
Communing with elder gods principally Yog-Suthoth and Nyarlithotep this could be a fairly random set of reactions that could ever give you boons or lead to !Fun! it could even lead to a Dunwich horror style event where you can either end up with one of your creatures becoming extremely powerful and useful or basically spawning a semi mega beast in the middle of your fort.
I'll probably have to replace most animals with more primitive animals(hopefully i'll be able to beg steal and borrow from what the community has already made) to fit the time period.
I'll also have to spend a lot of time making the weird body plans and might try making one or two later tonight.
I have no idea how far i'll get with this and might barely start or i might make it pretty deep and would appreciate any suggestions, comments, advice, ideas and help in any form