Grand Theft Auto, Lovecraft-style

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-03 04:08am

I dimly recall a thread about GTA expansion packs we'd like to see (I suggested a 1970s version, complete with Ford Pintos!), and after finally playing GTA3 at a LAN party I got this idea:

GTA Cthulhu Mythos
Set in the fictional Lovecraftian city of Arkham, MA and surrounding villages. Instead of competing gangs there are competing cults, following created by Lovecraft (and expanded upon me):

The Esoteric Order Of Dagon
Home turf: Innsmouth
Leader: Captain Marsh
Description: Religious cult responsible for crossbreeding between humans and Deep Ones. Owns a gold refinery.
Vehicle: Either a fish van (though that would be too similar to the Triads in GTA3), a Marsh Gold Refinery van or a jet-black Citroën DS. (a reference to the movie "Dagon", where the wealthy Deep One/Human hybrid Xavier Cambarro owned a black DS)

The Whateley Family
Home turf: Dunwich
Leader: Ol' Man Whateley
Description: Redneck sorcerers who worship Yog-Sothoth.
Vehicle: Either a pick-up truck or a primered, rusting '70s Camaro with a souped-up big-block V8 engine. (these two vehicles seem to be the ones most commonly associated with trailer-thrash)

Starry Wisdom
(I barely remember anything about "The Haunter Of The Dark", except that it included some strange cult called the Starry Wisdom which worshipped Nyarlathotep or Azathoth or something like that)

The Cthulhu Cult
Home turf: ???
Leader: ???
Description: a division of the voodoo-like Louisiana Cthulhu-worshippers in "The Call Of Cthulhu."
Vehicle: Perhaps a variant of the Voodoo from Vice City?

And some cults of my own invention:

- a pseudo-Satanic "dark magic" coven which recently has discovered that Satan and Nyarlathotep are one and the same. Led by a guy who, despite his eccentric manners and resemblance to Ming The Merciless, is NOT Anton LaVey. They drive ominous black sedans, even more ominous than the Mafia Sentinels and the Men-In-Black cars.
- a group of scientists who practise vigilante justice against the cults, headed by the descendant of Dr. Armitage from "The Dunwich Horror".Sorta like the Cthulhu Mythos equivalent of the SRS from GTA2. I haven't decided on a car for them, but perhaps they'd drive some modern-day equivalent of the SRS Meteora?

Thoughts? Is the whole thing un-Lovecraftian, or zany enough to be interesting?

YT300000 · Post by **YT300000** » 2004-04-03 01:29pm

As long as the main character is C'thulhu

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2004-04-03 04:50pm

Definitely "Zany enough to be interesting." You'd need design it in a very different style than the other games, as they're much too light-hearted to be used in a Lovecraft setting. But the engine wouldn't be bad, and I like the idea of a cultist feud.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-04 03:01am

PrinceofLowLight wrote:Definitely "Zany enough to be interesting." You'd need design it in a very different style than the other games, as they're much too light-hearted to be used in a Lovecraft setting. But the engine wouldn't be bad, and I like the idea of a cultist feud.

Are there already GTA3 mod packs out there other than Vice City? I know there's programs for designing you own GTA3 cars and installing them... but I'm not sure whether there's level designers.

And I don't own the game yet, BTW...

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-05 11:25am

Update - I have now decided for the names and types of the Cult Cars:

EOD car: Hydra (modified Citroën DS-21 with black windows)
Louisianan Cthulhu Cult car: Cthulhoodoo (the Voodoo from Vice City, but with a psychedelic paint job and a squid's head emblazoned on the hood)
Satanic cult car: Nazgul (think a MUCH SMALLER version of the ZIL-41041 or perhaps a four-door version of the Idaho car from GTA3 - in any case, it'll be painted jet black)
Starry Wisdom cult car: Star Caddy (old Cadillac 2-door with a snazzy paintjob)
Vigilante Scientists car: Meteor (either a modified-so-much-its-inrecognizeable Infernus, a DeLorean clone or a from-scratch futuristic sports car... it will probably only share its name, top performance and affliation with the GTA2 Meteor)
Whateley Family car: Whateley's Z-28 (rusting old Camaro with a souped-up engine with visible engine air intake)

Oh - and I am most likely not prepared for lawsuits from New Englanders who think my hypothetical "GTA Cthulhu Mythos" portrays New England in a bad light.