We are often told that the Mi-Go have technology vastly superior to our own. But, how do you go about making suitably advanced and alien technology, without your game losing the Lovecraftian atmosphere, taking on the atmosphere of a BLOOD BROTHERS-style game? The guidelines below can help you create the sort of devices you want your Investigators to run from, steal, or wonder at in your Call of Cthulhu game. 

GUIDELINES FOR CREATING MI-GO TECHNOLOGY

1: No Mi-Go Should Be Without One
No intelligent life form would make something it couldn't use unless it was part of a trade agreement. For example, since the Fungi can fly through space, they don't need to build a rocket. And, since they don't build rockets, they need a way to take entities back through space with them, hence the brain-cylinders.

2: Anything Earth Can Do Yuggoth Can Do Better
Since the Fungi's technology is much more advanced than our own, we can assume that they invented all the things we have now long ago (within the bounds of guideline 1, of course). The "speech machine" and the machine used to give "tubed" brains sight that appear near the end of "The Whisperer in Darkness" are obviously adapted loud speakers and video cameras, for example. Many examples of Mi-Go technology can be created by improving our own.

3: Make Sure That the Mi-Go Can Use It
Take a look at the picture of the Mi-Go in the _Call of Cthulhu_ rulebook. How will something like that use machinery? Buttons can be used, and levers, but dials will be harder unless they're of the type found on old telephones. It probably won't be able to push something along using a bar like on a supermarket trolley, but with proper grips on the top a Mi-Go could fly about with it.


TWO EXAMPLES
Here are two examples of Mi-Go technology, created using these guidelines.

The Spellcaster
Sold to cultists who can't properly pronounce such mouthfuls as "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn". The cultists simply give a sample of how their species speak, type in the spell, and then start the spellcaster. Whilst they do the actions, the spellcaster intones the incantations.

(Note: No Outer God will ever let itself be Called or Contacted by a machine. Minor Great Old Ones might if the spell was cast for a sufficiently good reason.)

The Educator
This looks like a small box with sticky pads on it. Whenever a baby Mi-Go is born, the pads are stuck to its sensory feelers. This fills the young Fungi with all the knowledge known to the Mi-Go, giving it the equivalent of an EDU of 25/Mind 6. This means that baby Mi-Go can live independently from a few minutes after birth, so "nurseries" are not needed.

Because of this, there are no Mi-Go teachers. But then again, you can imagine a classroom full of Fungi, with an adult at the front. The adult pushes a button, projecting onto a nearby screen a picture that would drive most humans mad. It speaks, in a buzzing voice... "And this Great Old One's name is Cthulhu. Can you say kuh-THOO-loo?"


Copyright Arthur Boff 1997
Writing from Ulthar, beyond the River Skai.