Vampire EditionTell us about your horror settings, games, etc. Share inspirational art, prompts, etc.>List of games:Call of Cthulhu, Chill, Cold and Dark, Degenesis, Delta Green, Don't Rest Your Head, Dread, Esoterrorists/Fear Itself+Book of Unremitting Horror, Fall of Delta Green, GORE, Into The Shadows, KULT, Little Fears, Mothership RPG, Nemesis (free on Arc Dream's website), Nights Black Agents, Silent Legions (Mostly for the tables), Stalker: The SciFi RPG, Symbaroum, Ten Candles, Trail of Cthulhu, Unisystem (All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Witchcraft, Conspiracy X, etc.), Unknown Armies, The Whispering Vault, Vaesen>Inspirational stuff:Caitlin R Kiernan, Castlevania, Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Doom Watch, Fear & Hunger, George Romero, Ghostwatch, House of Leaves, I Am In Eskew, John Carpenter, Kolchak the Nightstalker, Laird Barron, John Langan, M.R. James, Nick Cutter, Old Gods of Appalachia, Quatermass, Ramsey Campbell, Remedy Series (Alan Wake, Control), SCP Foundation, Scarfolk Council, Shaun Hutson, Silent Hill, Stand Still Stay Silent, The Evil Dead, The Magnus Archives, The Secret World, The Stone Tapes, Anatomy, Thomas Ligotti, Twin Peaks, Vault of Evil forums, toomuchhorrorfictionOther News:"The Sutra of Pale Leaves: Carcosa Manifest" coming later this yearhttps://www.chaosium.com/blogcoming-in-2025-for-call-of-cthulhu-the-sutra-of-pale-leaves-carcosa-manifest/Current Book Club Topic:"The Salem Horror" by Henry Kuttnerhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76108Questions for the thread:>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?>Do like the traditional methods to defeat them such as wooden stakes and sunlight?>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?Previous thread:>>96389557Please try to keep arguing to a minimum. Don't respond to bait/drama/politics posts.And as usual, try and keep it alive. Make a new thread if its not in the catalog.
>>96428273There should be more body horror with vampires. It's boring to always see them depicted in stuff as looking like normal people.
>>96428273>>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?RIFTS interpretation of them being servants of eldritch gods sucking life's psychic energy. The more powerful the vampire no need to suck blood, but straight psychic drainage (blood is merely a medium of transfer). >>Do like the traditional methods to defeat them such as wooden stakes and sunlight?Often corny, but integrating stakes into modern weapons are a classic challenge in this genre. Also like the use of natural barriers like rivers and houses. >>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?Isn't this like default yes nowadays?>>96428471I like bloodbornes interpretation on the creature as well. Having other-worldy blood corrupt the body ans such. I also like parasite-hybridization of Darkest Dungeon.
>>96428471We had a vampire worldbuilding project going on way back when. Wonder what happened to that.
>>96428273>>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?Let the Right One In, at least this century.>>Do like the traditional methods to defeat them such as wooden stakes and sunlight?Not much, honestly. I mean, vampires are a thing and you can't reinvent the wheel, sure, the wooden stake or the crucifix is a little too gimmicky. Stake them, but not necessarily with wood.Also, sunlight is like, a century old thing from movies. Cool vampires go into the street during the day like Drac, or at least wake up to glop cute girls a ten o clock like Carmilla.>>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?No.By all mean use other blood drinkers, but do not conflate with vampires. At least not easily. If just generates further confusion and bullshit, like hopping "vampires" from China.
>>96428471Fits into the usual "wolf among sheep" uncanny valley aspect though that's mostly more aristocratic wish-fulfilment these days. >>96428559 mosquito-vamps were indeed neat. Nice when animalistic influences go beyond bats.Cringey as the edge is I do like the technologically resurrected obligate-cannibal hominids from Blindsight. Sounds like the pseudo-plausible schizo stuff I could dump in a less overtly supernatural game for surprise factor (sorta like The Descent).
>>96428273>>96428471Star Vampires aren't exactly vampires like we all know, but I love how otherworldly they are. The fact you do not normally see them unless they have already drained a victim is creepy.
>>96428273>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?I thought their depiction in the movie Daybreakers was interesting. They are the strange product of a disease from vampire bats. The most interesting thing about the movie though was its exploration of a world dominated by vampires and why it would be unsustainable.>Do like the traditional methods to defeat them such as wooden stakes and sunlight?It's basic but sure.>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?I am not really familiar with vampires in different cultures and how they differ from each other.
Does Paranoia count? I think the mission Hunger is pretty horrific.
>>96428273More media should have hybrids between werewolves and vampires. It is a cool combination. I only remember the Underworld movies having one. I will post some art exploring the idea.
>>96429646
>>96429650
>>96429658
Yiffe
>>96428273>Vampires
>>96429170I mean, it's not. They concoct a substitute and only let things go to shit because of the real bloodsuckers' (ie corp execs) greed. On the technomagic side UV guns are neat though if you want a true non-celestial sun alternative some fusion reactor's probably mandatory.>>9643169330DoN Nosferatu remind me of X-Files / Delta Green Greys. The Descent's mutants too, almost a low-key >>96429121 vibe in that they're warped by extradimensional kuru.
>>96428273>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?Absolutely. I think some of them are interesting. For example, the Iso onna from Japan is a mix of mermaid and siren that drinks blood through its hair.
>>96428273>An African Vampire Hunter is about to pounce on his prey, an Asanbosam before it makes a meal out of it's next victim.
>>96394809I did not get a chance to respond to this post last thread. I remember hearing about the Hooroo. Once saw speculation that it was the aboriginals memory of the extinct giant kangaroo that used to roam Australia.
>>96429646>>96429650>>96429658>>96429664Shamelessly stealing all of these. Thanks for posting, anon.
fhtagn
>>96429646>>96429650>>96429658>>96429664Kinda reminds me of that one japanese manga with the loli vampire queen and the society of noble werewolv bodyguards? Dance in the vampire bund, I think?
>Pic related>Great two first chapters>Rest is terribleKind of a mess of a campaign. What were they thinking? The two halves of the book are totally disconnected.
>>96428471i like to have the human + fangs look be mainly a glamor, depending on how old and depraved the vamp is. having them be totally inhuman can be cool too but like the other anon said i dont wanna entirely lose the hidden aspect of themsick art
i'm looking into running kult: divinity lost but i can't find the GM guide "KULT: beyond darkness and madness" anywhere. not on trove or any PDF site. anyone have a clue where i could get a hold of it?
>>96436067Now that's a spooky vampire.
Dinosaurs should be used more in horror.
>>96428273Oh good, there's a related thread. I am having a hell of a time trying to wrap my mind around this Ship Mapping procedure; it lists ship types as having multiple decks, which I'm interpreting as horizontal levels. But then a "Raider" ship, the smallest listed, would have 24 modules, while a Colony Ship could have anywhere from 100 to 600 modules. I tried generating a Mining Frigate myself, and it ended up with 78 modules, and the thing looks like a giant floating banana. There's also no guidance for travel between decks. Am I misreading something? Missing something? The picture provided doesn't provide what kind of ship it is meant to represent, and the online generators using Dead Planet seem to all display the ships generated as simple, 2D depictions.
>>96441871To illustrate my difficulties, I illustrated this with difficulty over, lord a week on-and-off, overlaying the "decks" as they seemed to fit (Cargo bays linking to cargo bays, cabins to cabins/galleys, etc.), but it's still a nightmare to imagine, much less visualize.
>>96441871>>96441899Feels like you could have simply used another system's ship generation procedure/premade ships instead of actually taking anything in either Mothership edition seriously.
>>96442038Would you happen to have any recommendations? Believe me, at this rate I'm very open to it.
>>96442093Yeah, if you want a space station, there's only one you'll ever need:https://ss13.moe/wiki/images/3/38/Box_large.jpeg
>>96441871>>96441899Both of these appear to be laid out completely at random, with not a hint of rhyme or reason to the design. Which is perhaps not too strange given that the "random generation" bit means that's just what they are, but it's not how we humans have built any ship, aircraft or space station so far, and seems highly unlikely to be how we'll design spaceships if we ever get around to it in the future.You're probably far better off just making something on your own, perhaps stealing some ideas from ocean-going ships. Unless you're specifically looking to create a Tzeenthcian ship for 40k, or the USS Escher-on-Acid.
>>96442215Yeah, with some random generators it can be easy to make sense of the results you get, but the nature of this generator is such that you get some silly things like "the crew has to pass by the nuclear generator on their way to breakfast". I was planning on using the subsequent ships for solo play (now) and a future scifi game with my group when my turn to GM comes around, but these results require a lot of fiddling around to make them workable. I also dislike using other people's premade maps, it feels like I'm being lazy/cheating/I also just enjoy making this kind of stuff.
>A horrific beast made up of many souls amalgamated into one eternally suffering, ever changing body.https://x.com/hannahorca/status/1961523154242928941
>>96443754Man that's a cool design.
>>96428273>After Reuniting a trio of kids who saw some really fucked up shit, Cliomancer GPC tells him "I'll handle things from here.">PC refuses to leave>Table gets to witness him use some Significant Mojo to the poor kids, who now think their friend just went missing and they found him in an Impound Lot, not that he was sent to a void dimension by an actual wizard>They panic.I love Unknown Armies.
>>96428471Exactly. The mythical vampire wasn't sexy in a Twilight way or a Dracula way. It was a disgusting, bloated rotting corpse.
>>96448243Depends on what you call "mythical vampire". Hellenistic lamias were deadly sexy and they are at least entwined with the modern vampire.
>>96428273>>96428471What do you guys think about the SCP Foundation take on vampires? There is more body horror involved.https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2191
>>96436067Look's like Scorn's parasite which is indeed very "neural" (though overall visceral) in its approach.>>96440118Natural necromancy fodder which segues nicely into dragons + reptilians + K/T extinction as mass sacrifice schizophrenia.>>96447361Indeed. Looks like it's a style-change away from being some heraldic beast.>>96448243iirc some myths depicted them as peasants in ruddy good health. That extra vitality had to have come from from somewhere...
Do you have any advice on how to maintain atmosphere over several sessions?
>>96450121>introduced a pair of utahraptors on my players, resurrected by dark magic>none of them had weapons other than hand tools they could find>session ended up being the kitchen scene from jurassic Park They actually really loved it
>>96453146>maintain atmosphere over several sessions?Depends on what you mean by "atmosphere," and the system you're playing.Atmosphere is usually an umbrella term for the emotions the players feel and it can be categorized in several ways:1) Tension is how much the players feels stress in the current situation. This is usually measured by the PCs level of endangerment (i.e. low HP, challenging enemies chasing you, etc.), but can also be evoked by urgency to do something (i.e finding a lost child, etc.) For tension you don't want to maintain it 24/7, as it's very tiring/numbing and should be dosed with frequent moments of relief (i.e. safe points, etc.) 2) Dread is how much the players do not want to do something, due to their knowledge of potential consequences for doing it. Stereotypical moments of these are like several dangerous clues leading to a location/point that the PCs have to go (i.e. All murder and kidnapping evidence leads to an isolated cult complex in the wilderness; the cultists are also heavily armed). Dread usually builds up by the accumulation knowledge so usually it's the twist/reveal in a scenario.3) Horror is a response measured on how much one's personal/sacred space has been invaded. This can be a variety of things like the PCs personal car being stolen, kidnapping of a family member, or possession of their bodies. If the PCs have some emotions attached to it, violate it to give a response of horror. Usually the strength of emotional response is ranked ascending by: Items, friends, family members, one's surroundings, one's body, and one's mind.4) Psychological Horror is a unique situation where one is the violator of one's personal/sacred space; AKA. I was a bad guy all along! Easiest way to do this is by ignorance (i.e. The magic item that you been using to save yourself was just transferring the damage to someone you cared).
>>96453443Thank you, your breakdown was very helpful. I wasn't thinking of them as different things.Do you have any more basic tips for DMing horror?
I heard that the 7th ed. version of Horror on the Orient Express got "updated" for the "modern audience". Is it as horrible as it sounds or is it fine?
>>96443754Reminds me of some depictions of demons from the middle ages, where joints in their body were just limbs emerging from mouths
Finally beat art block so i'm back on the grind, worked on some non-CoC stuff before this tho. Working on the Zhar and Lloigor card
>>96453517Study the rule system you're using, as much as the setting you're trying emulate. Even between editions there's a big difference. For example, in Call of Cthulhu 6th edition the PCs have a clear binary on pass/fail-ing their checks, while 7th edition allows players to push their rolls (a reroll at greater consequence for failure), so atmosphere can change dramatically (generally 6th has more predictable tension cycle, while 7th can go erratic really fast).
>>96456614looking good so far
What are the best dark fantasy settings? Recommend me some, I would like to read some lore for inspiration. I really like the aesthetics of Symbaroum and Dragon Age. And I really like Warhammer Fantasy Battles, The Witcher and ASOIAF as generic fantasy settings (pseudo-European themes there).
>>96458767Berserk by Kentaro Miura
>The King of Oozes treasures dearly the gifts of his friends... As well as the bones of his enemies.https://x.com/poweredbygif/status/1933560289351344597
>>96458767Dark fantasy is an empty moniker, but try something like Lee's Tales of the Flat Earth for something that is not about killing and shit.(which is fine but pretty boring after a while)
>>96458980I have read the manga.>>96459239I want some RPG setting, not novels. Like "Shadow of the Demon Lord" (but I don't like its art style), etc. Maybe some pseudo-medieval horror fantasy? WoD has Dark Ages, for example, but I don't know how much horror is there.
>>96459311I see. Dunno, I prefer going full horror in the hobby.
>>96459365The best (tabletop) (pseudo-)medieval horror setting then?
>>96458767Try Memento Mori.
I've been reading the SoPL and honestly I sort of enjoy this depiction of the King in Yellow.Literally living in the heads of eveyone who has touched this version of his infection vector. He does not exist on the material plane as he is a foreign consciousness that is tapped into every mind that has been exposed to the Sutra. The cult deepens that connection until it's practically impossible to differentiate your will and actions from those of the Prince of Pale Leaves. The Prince cares for humanity in his own way, opposes the influence of other outer gods and his ultimate goal does involve the retention of Humanity in a recognizable state but ultimately completely subservient and all a part of a greater will moving all of them to reshape the world into a new Carcosa. I can actually understand why people would work for this cult and how they're so widespread as a lot of the book is dedicated to explaining the front of the cult as a charity and social wellness organization and even gives examples of when they would collaborate with investigators to stop a common enemy.
>>96459393You could check out Cthulhu Dark Ages. Or, if you're interested in OSR stuff, Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The default setting for that game is the Thirty Years War which is criminally underutilized in tabletop.
>>96462241Thanks. "Veins of the Earth" and "Frostbitten and Mutilated" have some potential too.
>>96459311Uh....The warhammer fantasy roleplaying game I guess?
>>96463395It has the same lore as in Warhammer FB. "Nightfell" also seems to be a promising setting.
>>96463927>It has the same lore as in Warhammer FBYeahThere was nothing in your post that implied you didn't like Warhammer FB lore.
>>96463967I am a retard who didn't read the post chain properly, don't mind me.
>>96463972Ok. Another question: what are the best cults in tabletop settings and which settings do them best? I suppose Call of Cthulhu is one of the answers. I really like "Last days" novel by Adam Nevill and his take on cults.
>>96429646>reduced weakness to silver and wolfsbane>no vampiric weaknesses>vampiric poison?anon, that's just a super mary-sue hybrid monster. that shit wouldn't fly at any table, whether it be from a player or a GM, player would hate to deal with that shit and for GMs,it'd be a nightmare to balance for.also, poison is defensive, as in coming from quills or a substance on the skin of an animal,Venom is the stuff that's injected through bite or occasionally spat by some animals.
>>96462966Some of those supplements are incredibly difficult to find for a decent price anymore. Thankful for PDFs, at least.
>>96428273How to run games in A Quiet Place setting?
I'm going to run The Dare at a Halloween party. Anyone else doing anything special for spooky season?
>>96464221Force the players to use sign language and kill anyone who farts at the table.
>>96464221Just watch the movies and follow the examples. Maybe put up a decibel reader and penalize anyone that goes over a threshold
>>96464221>A Quiet Place settingDoes anyone find that the movie had good a premise in the beginning, but really fucked it up in the end and makes the whole world look stupid. Really no one thought to use a sonic-based weapon on creatures whose only mode of perception was hearing? Especially that the said weapon is like made from common radio-parts and a hearing aid? Also I thought that the world ended in 1980-ish, but the sequel had smart phones so I guess not... >>96464405Damn anon it's still 2 month-ish away, you're getting prepared.
>>96467022These are the same guys that somehow never discovered that loud ambient noises create safe spaces. I imagine that would have been discovered very early on, just like you say. But honestly we're not supposed to think that way like with most monster movies. They just show up one day and destroyed the entire world. That'st he axiom axiom we have to accept here
>>96467022I want it to be a two month affair like Christmas is. Also trying to get my friends to celebrate Walpurgis Night so we can have a 2nd Halloween each Spring.
So /tg/ I did two games with different settings and systems, but using the same ideas. They were Delta Green and Chronicles of Darkess (which we later changed to Hunter the Vigil and Vampire).The concept was to make a chronicle inspired by Twin Peaks but using that "Mandela Effect" conspiracy theory. I'll try to summarize months of sessions. The players had to go to a small town in Maine called Honeyville and discover who killed the daughter of the CEO of a mega-corporation. They discover that not only does a cult that worships a spiritual creature with Lovecratian elements, called "Mr. Nobody," control the town, but also the corporation (something like Pentex from Werewolf: The Apocalypse). The cult is having a "civil war," and one of the factions sacrificed the CEO's daughter without the approval of all the members. Where does the Mandela Effect come in? Well, both players and cultists learn to enter a shadow world, a temporary reality far less detailed than ours, but similar to the Umbra or the otherworld in Silent Hill. Every time someone enters this world and interacts with anything there (even opening a door counts), it affects our reality. The world's history changes, people disappear or are replaced, and the memories of those who didn't enter this world also change. People who manage to enter this world are called "jumpers." So, both players and NPCs caused changes and only realized it when it was too late. It was amusing to see the confused faces every time they returned to town and realized something had changed. In the end, the players prevented the cult from sacrificing an albino girl with Rh-null blood, the rarest blood type in the world. The ritual would have made the spirit become a full-fledged god. Oh yeah, and the NPC that summoned the player characters was basically David Lynch, so I had to constantly imitate him.
>>96470197Tell me he was there just listening to Rammstein.
>>96470197Sounds like a great time anon. Wish I could get people to run a game like that.
alright, finally going to run that straya adventure>plane crashes in the outback>players are the survivors, with 2 NPCs to act as sign posts to bring up looking for shelter or get a radio working>plane crashed near a billabong and if they try to drink from it, they notice something stirring at the bottom>if they stay at the crash site and wait for rescue, the siege starts when one of those NPCs is dragged away and eaten by a bunyip in the middle of the night >if the players move away from the crash siter, they eventually find an abandoned house, with signs of a struggle and drag marks leading to a nearby billabong>the house is a more defensible position, but rescue wont find them unless they take active measures to call for help>scenario ends with the bunyip jumping back into the billabong when a rescue posse arrive
I ran Chariot of the Gods for my group and it went pretty well. I think I kind of mucked up the tension at the end since I was trying to keep it within one six hour session. The initial contact with the abomination was great and ended up with one dead player and the corporate stooge missing a leg. The second half was a little messier as the group began to split, leading to the Weyland Yutani guy sealing himself in the Muthur room and entering the cryosleep chamber there while the rest of the group ran off to help the other Wey Yu agent secure the black goo. They did, killing a neomorph along the way while the rest of the Cronus' crew got wiped out. One of the PCs got infected and, beginning to mutant, remained on the Cronus. I think my biggest issue with CotG is that while the first and second act have great looming threats, the third act is really just more monsters attakcing the players. Oh also, I cut the space pirates, because that's dumb. I'm going to run Heart Of Darkness next and have some ideas of how to better tie it into the ending of our first session. Has anyone run that before and what advice would you give?
>>96464405I want to play "don't look back" with some friends.I hope i get to finish all my forest terrain projects in time.
>>96461389What does SoPL stand for?
>>96502739Sutra of Pale Leaves, anew CoC supplement about the King in Yellow in 1980s japan.
>>96461389I've been reading the book and I sort of agree. It does this thing I don't like where it tries to assert this version is factually more real and pure than the Chambers KiY, being an older version that creates a mind hive of everyone plugged into the same reservoir that is overseen and managed by the Prince and essentially being eroded away until only He is left as opposed to what we normally see when the play gets trotted out. Also the writing is kind of shit at points. They legitimately have a villain begin a speech by saying WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY and THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM before exploding into a giant tentacle monster. So a mixed bag. It's okay, and definitely not a guide on playing in Japan in the 80s. Extremely narrow look at locations and history so you got to do a lot of legwork if you want to do Japan in the bubble. >>96502739Yeah as other anon said. It's also worth noting that in its current state it is incomplete. There is a second part to deal with the main threat and to explain more of what this planet of Carcosa is like. In fact the Sutra actually says to consult it multiple times when talking about the Prince and his goals. But it's not available yet. Kind of a shit move
>>96499601I bought that game last year and still need to paint/try it. Also bought into the Kickstarter for the new starter.
>>96428273So I’m going to be running year of the rat for mothership soon Any advice?
>>96464405Working on some stuff for Silver Bayonet. I think I can sell it to my wife and friends as a spooky board game night.
My friends all love the Alien franchise but it can be like herding cats getting them to do something or focusThat said, how exciting and captivating is Nemesis? And is it easy to play/teach if I learn it and walk them through a playthrough?
Currently airing anime.
Anyone have any spooky circus games, any system offical or fan don't care. I still have no confidence in my writing so I wanna at least shop around to get ideas.
>>96432033The substitute is only made viable after vampire society has started to collapse and doesn't address the other issues in the film, like the degeneration into a more animalistic form of vampire or psychological issues accompanying agelessness. The film practically beats you over the head with the theme that being a vampire, never mind vampire society, sucks by opening with a vampire committing suicide because she couldn't live with being stuck in the middle of puberty forever.
Recommendations for vampire literature?
>>96507345Your players will end up being a far larger threat to each other and the ship than Shun-Di could ever be, so try to play around that. Or alter the circumstances of the scenario to make the horrible mutant rats a bigger danger if you don't just want a classic "everyone sabotages each other to get ahead" style plot halfway in.
>>96511431There's Unland and Carnival of Madness for CoC, with the latter having an actual circus from what I recall.
>>96514407Fictio? Maybe read classics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_literature
>>96514407Let the Right One In might be the best vampire novel written in some time
>>96516771>Let the Right One InUnfortunately the movie kinda sucked (compared to the novel at least)...
>>96514407I loved Gautier's La Morte Amoureuse as classics go. >>96517193The swedish movie is cool as fuck.>>96516627Well it might be harder to find documentaries on the thing...(I mean, in the 1700s people LOVED writing about vampires as they were real, but)
>>96518823>The swedish movie is cool as fuck.It had the right atmosphere of Swedish dread, but the film concentrated on the MC's hardship and romance while omitting the more supernatural subplots. It was more mundane drama with a vampire IMO. Though both the book and movie kinda show that taking care of a vampire is a fucking nightmare even for a relatively docile one. Also that bathtub scene was nice and graphic Speaking of movies I saw pic on a plane, it was a surprisingly decent popcorn flick. Not award winning, but entertaining. Could be an inspiration for a session.
Not my best but at least i finished it
>>96523188Nice work, anon!
>>96498912This SK art goes so hard, holy shit
>>96520987But anon, vampires are all about mundane characters thrown in with a disturbing sexual "stranger".This is way they are almost (AH!) dead to us now. We generally accept every kind of sexuality, or at least people that actually read books are.Let the Right One In is a good example, having to resort to irksome kiddy matters or even paedophilia, that are the big execptions.That being said I didn't read this one, so I can't make a comparision.
>>96499601Why do all of them look like skinwalkers.
CoC 7eOne of my players just rolled a character with 25 sanity.Which creates a situation where their temp and indef sanity threshold is the same.How is that best handled? Trigger temp and indef at the same time?
>>96505853>But it's not available yet.>Kind of a shit moveThank you chaosium, very cool.Also skimming it, what's up with having the main characters be in a manga-ish style and having the other half (and pregen PCs) use realistic portraits?
>>96533602Each chapter has a different art style depending on what the current version the sutra is being presented as. The first chapter is in the version of a direct translation of ancient japanese into modern day parlance, so it has the classical illustration Tale of Genji style.The second one is about a manga adaptation so it turns into that styleThe third ones a little weird, it sort of looks like Patrick Nagel? I guess that's because it's infiltrating the club and yakuza scene through extensive body tattoos. Either way it's not a terrible design decision, kind of fun.
>>96533279It almost doesn't matter because they aren't going to last very long.
Ocean Game when? Ocean Game NOWhttps://gamefound.com/en/projects/pelgrane-press/fear-itself-shattered-veil-edition/updates/10
>>96514904I might cap the damage most weapons that are not blast attacks deal to the rattling swarms 1d5 for most and 1d10+1 for automatics, bullet size does not really matter when you are dealing with spread out swarms
I need your help remembering a title. It's kinda scifi but not heavily, you're stranded in a cold planet with no sun. It has some scifi aesthetics but you weild medieval weapons.The cover is mostly blue with a dude in it.I know I downloaded it and read a bit, but that was like a month or more ago.
>>96429646>>96429650>>96429658>>96429664Over-explained bullshit that misses the point of these old dark stories.I'd rather media go old-school where there is no significant distinction.Dracula transforms into a wolf-like creature because it's a fellow creature of the night. He does it because he can, no scientific "If X, then Y" bullshit.
>>96535630>Each chapter has a different art style depending on what the current version the sutra is being presented as.Oh naru hoedo.
>>96507345I had a player that got unlucky in 80% of his random rat attack rolls. He just kept getting rats to the face. If players get a heavy load out the main rat is very easy to take down, if they don't they're gonna be sitting ducks until they find the small cache and even then the numbers are tough. Take that in consideration.
>>96537232>new Ocean Game artOh no
>>96542001>using Outer Dark entities in my SLA Game because the full ghost/demon book took forever to come out (and when the ghost book came out it was kinda eh)>New Fear Itself uses non-alsop art.Guess I'll train an AI on his art to make Alsop AIslop.
>>96432725Nigga that's a Womp Rat, and they're native to Tunisia, not Austria.
>>96537232>Membrane Ants don't care about Membrane strength. Even powerful Outer Dark Entities can be carried across the Membrane>tfw a Membrane Ant dumps a Mammoth God on top of you
What do you guys think about special weapons being the only way to defeat a supernatural threat?
Any modules that uses a manor as the setting with pre-written rooms descriptions?
>>96548973That one haunted mansion in tales of tsanthoggaThat one OSR haunted house book. (The Price of Evil)A bunch of other ones I can't remember the names of.
>>96549013>That one haunted mansion in tales of tsanthoggaWas it rebranded to The Haunting in CoC or am I misremembering
>>96548973Saturnine Chalice has some good descriptions for the mansion if I recall correctly. It's in The Deadlight book.
>>96549333No, it's called The Haunted House and it's different from The Haunting since it's supposed to be more reading oriented and you're likely to never find the hidden poltergeist.Also it's TRAIL OF TSATHOGGHUA.
>>96548239Unless you have a very good reason it comes off as an asspull.
>>96518823>Well it might be harder to find documentaries on the thing...Perhaps he >>96514407 wanted some tabletop lore books, like World of Darkness corebooks or Warhammer Vampire Counts army book.
>>96533279I would say go to the most severe sanity effect and have that take precedence. So Indef overrides the temporary insanity.
I really wish I saved that one post where it explains how to use filters to make Dungeondraft maps less cartoony.
>>96548239That's basically how many ODE's Special Means of Dispatch work in Esoterrorists/Fear Itself.
>>96555077What a weird show.
>>96428273>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?It's kitschy, but I gotta hand it to Underworld for getting me interested in vampires to begin with. It'll always hold a special place in my heart.>Do like the traditional methods to defeat them such as wooden stakes and sunlight?I do. I especially like when there's a list of specific steps you have to take. Stake the body, cut off the head, burn it all, spread the ashes on holy ground, etc etc. Feels like a ritual. Folk magic.>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?Naturally. Some of them are just random crap that people decided to call vampires on some shaky connection, but some of them are genuinely cool ideas for what vampires might be like in different parts of the world. The Sasabonsam is a particular favorite of mine.
>>96570679I started watching it and the way they pronounce Cthulhu kills me.>Kuh-two-lou-whoAlso, it's funny Japan keeps making Cthugha and Ghatanothoa into major characters.
Had my first multi-part Call of Cthulhu game where I was a player instead of a Keeper. Managed to get out alive and sane, but barely. The plot involved us getting manipulated by a Mi-Go cult disguised as Pinkertons to help them find a secret mine which was actually a Ghoul Warren with a temple to Tsathoggua and an entrance to N'kai in it. I was playing a German-American Great War veteran who specifically served as a medic and now works as a doctor.The finale saw us trying to blow up each of the entrances to the warren while trying our best to survive the Mi-Go cultists and a Hound of Tindalos the ghouls summoned to defend their home. One of our party stayed outside the warren and tried to blow up our only remaining exit from there, but he got taken down by a Mi-Go and his brain put into a cylinder.I, meanwhile, ended up having to gun down one of the PCs because he was going to blow up our only escape route while we were still on the inside part of it. I managed to escape with the other two PCs, but only after deploying a liberal amount of TNT, getting shot and losing a bunch of sanity, including 9 in one go from seeing the Hound of Tindalos.T'was fun, though I think I'm one of the rare people who prefers being a GM to being a player.
>>96570892I personally really like that Japan loves using the more obscure GOOs.
>>96513544I'd say that the substitute is a major immediate step. Humans make for shit cattle meaning the space atop the trophic pyramid was always going to be scant, with so fundamental a bottleneck removed I don't see why a "sensible" vampire society couldn't make a go at tackling the others. There is in fact a UV therapy cure after all which is presumably as rules-lawyerable as "you can only drink human blood" turned out to be. Granted it's not the easiest time to start that research but antagonizing the human resistance for something as petty as premium food isn't the smartest move.>>96548239I have a thing like that to justify PCs lurching from Foundation / Dune generation-spanning intrigue back into Alien survival-horror. Gist is that the current lawlessness makes the creation of sufficiently advanced AI a matter of when, not if. These inevitably flare into (mercifully short-lived) singularities which can only really be outrun and outlasted unless you have Clarketech weapons of your own. The best source of those are the burned-out ruins of prior AI apotheosis, something like the Zone where cache weapons can be scrounged.
>>96570892Derleth and his long influence, I fear.
>>96428273>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?I prefer fantasy settings and really don't like "normal looking" vampires there, because pseudo-medieval societies could be easily subdued by such vampires, so fantasy settings just become vampire setttings. Vampires in medieval fantasy should be deformed and easily recognisable, like the Nosferatu clan in WoD, the Reapers from Blade 2 or even Vampires in The Silmarillion.
>>96576383I can understand for Cthugha, but Ghatanothoa is a Lovecraft creation. And a rather cool Great Old One that honestly deserves more attention.
>>96577578I always liked the idea of Ghatanothoa. I had the seed of an adventure idea banging around in my mind about a specific cult using the powers of living petrification to make time capsules of sorts. So a museum that is hosting a mummy unveiling could be broken into would have the star, a fascinating specimen from the south East seas that shows remarkable preservation, because it's actually a preserved shaman that can be used to extract information from like a living spell book.
>>96428273Do you prefer the vampire to be the original person or like Buddy where the soul passes on and a demon possesses the new vampire’s body?
>>96583842Original, but with great overwhelming addiction and total mental breakdown/degradation.
>>96583842Original, though Buffy vampires are pretty neat.
>>96428273How easy is it to make new vampires for you? Obviously having everyone bitten by a vampire becoming a new one is untenable for multiple reasons, but what do you prefer, in your own settings or otherwise?
>>96548239The issue with this is that 9/10, all the monster has to do is try to target/destroy the weapon and the person is fucked. Silver works on werewolves because werewolves turn animalistic and crazy and it's common enough it can be relied on.If you're hunting something even mildly intelligent with a wooden/plant gun, it's going to destroy the gun and then kill you horrible for daring to threaten it.
>>96590286>Silver works on werewolves because werewolves turn animalistic and crazy and it's common enough it can be relied on.Depends on the werewolf.
>>96428273Vampirella is my favorite depiction.
>>96546237Wonder where I could actually ask about this since everyone involved has retreated into hidden or inactive blusky accounts...
Just a recap for me to see if I “get” the Cthulhu Mythos enough to write up my own CoC “adventures” and have the right vibe to them:1) the BIG cosmic horrors (Cthulhu, Hastur, Azatoth, yogsototh, etc…) aren’t specifically “evil”, at least not as we traditionally understand it. In the sense that when we step on an anthill, do we do so out of malice? Hate? Spite? Did we do it out of some esoteric need? Or as part of a larger plan? Or did we just not see it? And what’s more, are we going to be all that upset afterwards? Of course this is all of little comfort to the ants (ie us). 2) the cults to these things are a completely different story: these groups are ill-meaning as their members are among the emotionally unstable who have intercepted the dreams of cosmic beings (which the dreams of emotionally sound humans are strange and unsettling as-is, one can only imagine trying to make-sense of the dreams of a wholly alien mind), and the bitter and angry who have become aware of their existence through other means and see the cult as both community, a sense of greater purpose, and the excuse they wanted to go forth and burn the world down (really for their own personal and sometimes petty reasons). For them the scale of destruction their cult seeks to unleash is perfectly understood, they just don’t care.3) the lesser horrors (mi-go, and Elder things) they are like the cosmic horrors in their oblivious indifference towards humanity, but on a smaller scale: they acknowledge our existence as much as one would acknowledge that wildlife exists in the area when working in a wilderness environment. Sometimes that’s to our benefit, and sometimes not, there’s no easy way to predict. As such any human “allies” they may have are going to be strange and unsettling to us as they are, functionally, and possibly literally, domesticated by the entities.
>>96596742Nah, ol' Nyarl is DEFINITELY actively malicious, but most of them really don't tend to care about humanity. Nyarl's just a dick like that.
>>96596941> Nyarl's just a dick like that.So he’s the exception that proves the rule.
>>96596742Secondary interpretation. For example Mi-Go care too much about humans, if anything.Understand gods/creatures as themes, if anything else.
>>96596941Ngl I always liked that even with the deities who interact with humanity there's still a sense of otherness, where even when speaking to a human their reasoning and actions dont make sense at all to us, and those who wish to get close risk going insane, with the most devote cultists abandoning all sense of humanity. But no matter how close they try to get they will never reach their beloved god, and all is left of them are rambling husks. What makes mythos deity scary isnt the deity itself, but rather what the idea of it does to a human.
>>96597111> For example Mi-Go care too much about humans, if anything.Ehh… no, I disagree.The Mi-Go do absolutely see us as just part of the local wildlife. But that can have wildly different effects depending on the specific encounter. For some that makes us another hazard/obstacle of the environment that must be accounted for; for others that could make us the subject of their mission here, or at least a resource. Now whether that focus is going to look like Jane Goodall coming down to observe and research our day-to-day activities, or more like Dr.Moreau “I’m going to cut this human open while it’s still alive to see how it’s organs work, then put it back together, but with all the bones and muscles rearranged to more closely mimic Mi-Go anatomy just to see if it’s possible” is going to be based on what’s going on in the brain of the lead Mi-Go, and no one wants to know that.Though the idea of imagining the “otherness” of humans domesticated by cosmic entities might be an interesting element to consider.
>>96596742Just remember that the lore is secondary to what the players are meant to interact with and due to the Cosmic nature of it is often unknowable.But sometimes it's just an evil wizard or something.
>>96599816Well, yeah, but as the GM I kinda need to know what’s really going on behind the curtain to inform what the relevant NPCs and such are doing while the investigators stumble around and how those same npcs may respond if the investigators get too close.
>>96597111The Mi-Go either want to enslave us, or study us before killing us and turning Earth into a mining colony.
What would be the best system/setting to run a fun, Halloween horror type campaign for October? I’m thinking about Call of Cthulhu but wondering if I could get any other suggestions
>>96428273>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?This is a boomer-ass take, but I Am Legend. Even if the zombies were stupid idiots, at least there was some reasoning, and as someone who really loved zombies, it felt like a breath of fresh air. I'm also a sucker for 'rational explanation for supernatural things', even if it's 'bacteria causes vampirism' - something about supernatural creatures believing their own hype and myths is also really cool, too.The Last Man on Earth is pretty cool, too, but then again, it's got Vincent Price.
>>96605011The Dare for Call of Cthulhu is probably the best Halloween adventure. You play as 80s kids on Halloween dared to go into an abandoned house.
>>96596742Also, hear me out: but after listening to “The Call of Cthulhu” again, CoC might also be a good choice to “correct” players that try to be genre-savvy. Because mythos cults and those that independently try to exploit such forces do frequently flip back and forth from a passive to proactive antagonist in stories. So if the players decide “Oh this shit’s getting serious and I don’t know if my character will survive, so we’re gonna skip town and abandon this plot for someone else to deal with”. As the GM, it’s perfectly within the lore to just lean in and say “well that’s going to be a problem. See the cult doesn’t want you to leave, yeah, they want you to stay, they think you’ll like it here”. So it turns into a choice between 1) confronting the cult to thwart whatever their trying to do, or 2) fight through the cult anyway to escape, and they might have otherworldly backup if the latter is chosen.
>>96605011Fear Itself is perfect for this.
>>96605011How short is the campaign? I'd suggest Dread even if that's more tuned for one-shots; one of the best games I've played (and the DM and I didn't like each other lol)
Using the idea of a Vampire Intelligence from Rifts,i created one that had been feeding off the energy of it's victims for centuries until it reached the size of a large planet, over the ages it had been called Gehenna and was preparing to breach the multiverse and consume any and all of it's former Master Vamps and anyone/anything else that they hadturned.It took the combined effort of several planets, several races of beings, Vampiric Gods and such and killed off a PC that a buddy of mine had been playing since 1989.Great frigging game.
Ran my homemade CoC scenario I plan to use at conventions for the second time. This go around, only a single player survived but they managed to complete the scenario. The finale involves having to banish a Star Vampire to a pocket dimension by making it touch a floating tesseract sigil. However, two of the players were grappled by the Star Vampire when it touched the sigil, so I had them roll Luck to see if they got banished with it and they both failed. Unsure if I should change that part up. On one hand, I really play up that touching the sigil in anyway is dangerous and that players should avoid making contact with it in any way, shape or form. On the other hand, dying on a Save or Suck roll can be deflating. I’m probably over thinking it, as none of the players complained and all liked the scenario.
>>96614797>>96615403>two eldritch Vampire anons show up at onceNice.
>>96615403> On the other hand, dying on a Save or Suck roll can be deflating.Only if it’s presented anti-climatically. Sounds like you didn’t and it tied well into the finale of the adventure. Besides, a key element of horror in general is SUPPOSED to be that survival is not guaranteed more so than in other genres. And Lovecraft is widely accepted as part of the overall horror genre.They surely had to know what they were signing up for.
>>96619645Oh i killed PC's by the dozens, this thing went on for over a year, the rules were fluid, we didn't stick to a known system, just went with the whole "roleplay" aspect, in character for sure.It went great, the one PC didn't expect to have his character killed but did it to preserve the lives of his group, which made it more heartbreaking for them.
>>96619732I don’t think he’s responding to the post you think he’s responding to. Because he’s responding to my post about my one-shot scenario.
>>96622190I know, my bad, it was one of those days.
>>96612091I was planing on doing multiple sessions throughout October.
>>96626690NTA but it's okay.
>>96596941Given that Nyarlathotep is their autonomous heart and soul, I think he's representative of the inherent malice in all of them that has simply gained a life of its own.
>>96596742Basically:>The Outer Gods (Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath, Yog-Sothoth, etc.) are completely mindless. They're more like living natural disasters than anything else. There are occasional exceptions -- Nyarlathotep is infamously cruel and intelligent, while Yog-Sothoth seems to be able to communicate with humans, but only through using avatars.>The Great Old Ones are more intelligent, but have their own motivations largely irrelevant to anything humanity does. Mankind's worship is, at best, an occasionally somewhat useful tool that they can use to further their goals; otherwise, they might not even notice it.>The Elder Gods are not exactly a specific type of entity, but are instead just a collection of Outer Gods and Great Old Ones opposed to the "main" pantheon for whatever reason. Kthanid is sentient, while Bast's "messages" to its followers are basically the equivalent of a monkey smashing the keys of a typewriter until something happens that it likes.
>>96596941It depends - sometimes he's a huge dick because being human-like is being a huge dick, sometimes he has an interest in humanity because they're just so fascinating and wants to uplift them (enough that he jumps the bones of human chicks, then dumps them - there's also a Delta Green scenario where he specifically "rescues" the PCs and puts them in the far future after an apocalypse to ensure they continue to exist), and sometimes he's just the kid burning the ants with a magnifying glass. Also, he's apparently the soul and/or brain of the Outer Gods.
>>96633838NTA but adding to this>The Great Old Ones are not gods but alien beings of sufficient power to appear like gods to mortals. Namely, the big difference is that GOOs have physical bodies they exist in and can be trapped somewhere, while Outer Gods exist in multiple places or have existences so vast that you’re only interacting with parts of them should they appear.
I am hunting for a really light Sci-Fi Horror system. Something that lets me keep a character sheet and constrains me with items/inventory, but that isn't crunchy like A Thousand Dead Worlds. I do lots of Solo stuff and have the actual gameplay elements down outside of something for combat and an actuall character sheet. An example without a good character sheet, but in the same vein would be 24XX
>>96428471i like the vampire progression in power that goes from being some guy with fangs, to a pale, more undead looking guy, to the ultimate vampire, a gross bald nosferatu. seeing a bunch of vampire tropes in witcher 3 all at once was super fun, as a vampire dork. the elder vampire being this unbelievably powerful monster that the higher vampires were like "we should definitely just leave as fast as possible" was great. love a clear discrepancy in power levels.
>>96514904I ran it Gave the rat swarms more hit points (but not all of the swarms) halved firearms damage VS them and imposed disadvantage to hit the swarms with firearms Made the damage from the rat bites be treated as culmative over several rounds and gave them a nasty regen disease that regenerated health but made an increasing chance of a death save Players were anxious whole way through We had two marines one had a heavy machine gun the other had a flamer one android who only got a knife and a criminal (custom class) with a vaccsuit and SMG They had a six legged robo mule Players were running scared corridor to corridor trying to extract enough loot to pay off their quota “I advertised it like lethal company seemed to work well” Even though the marine with the flamer bought extra fuel there was not enough to last vs some of the angry rats Though the machine gunner could kill most rats it was just not accurate enough in most cases, when the shu di showed up it was killed by combined machine gun flamer fire and a grenade from the android but not before ripping off the armour of one of the marines Criminal decided to put his vaccsuit back on when I described how horrible the smell of some things were, and the fact that players that could smell would be making fear saves even after the suit was penetrated he tried to keep it on to keep the smell of the place out After realising that their guns were not accurate enough they tried to scavenge for melee weapons Rat bite timer was fairly generous (I did every 30 irl minutes) but it made the players very anxious the criminal made an unlucky death save and got super lucky on the death save I saw them panicking irl a little when they realised that the black box was not in the main safe Eventually the PC’s decided to bail without the black box as after they killed the shu di they saw rats migrating somewhere even if that did not entitle them to quota or all the loot they nabbed
>>96597319In the same way an hunter might care too much about animal trophies. Or, perhaps more apt, a 1800s zoo collector might genuinely care too much for a specific charismatic species.>>96597111Caring doesn't mean being nice. Altough even if they have something akin to our ethics, you might say that they care about their friends in metal boxes the same way australians cared about the stolen generations kids.
>>96635335Sounds like it went really well. Happy for you and your table anon.
>>96640392yeah session ended on a cliffhanger after they managed to fend off the last mega swarm wave of rats spending their last flamer fuel as the party entered cryosleep with the rat sickness uncertain if the condition would be treated or not it was a harrowingly stressful session for the players and they seemed to enjoy it
Honest opinion: do these seem like they’d work for CoC monsters?Or do they seem too… “goofy”Because I happened to make the minis a while ago for Frostgrave, but now I’m wondering if they couldn’t work as some kind of original monster for a Call of Cthulhu game. But part of me also wonders if they are a tad too silly-looking to really match the tone.(15mm mini included in picture for scale)
I want to get better at writing horror. Can you give me any tips?Story:https://novels2.com/novel/infierno-a-series-of-horror-stories-87998/ed-at-colonus-2657212Audiobook:https://voca.ro/14IQOfcH3wyl
>>96643780They'd work fine. A lot of monster minis look equally silly until you see what they do in-game.
>>96643780In all honesty, those models look great. Better than some official stuff I've seen even.
>>96428273Stumbled upon a game yesterday. Called colonial gothic. Can’t say it doesn’t peak my interest, so I was hoping someone around here might have experience with it. Any particular strong or weak points I should know before trying it out?
>>96649171>colonial gothicHaven't heard about this. Seems interesting jsut on a glance, though.
>>96643844Some of those names seem a bit silly. Which is fine for horror, but could end up turning people away.
>>96653256Which names? Thanks.
>>96431693I always liked the sun making them weak and dizzy and easily killable more than the "they just burn lol"That said, I found the Bram Stoker book terribly dull.
>>96429646>More media should have hybrids between werewolves and vampiresENTER
>>96431693>vampire diaries>a cross will repel them if the person has faith in the objectWas that the one where somebody used their faith in capitalism to repel a vampire with a credit card, or am I thinking of something else?
>>96653281In His Dragon World stands out.
>>96643844That's a very broad request friend. It'll be easier to get advice if you were more specific, what type of horror are you going for? What are tge horror elements have you written that are you not sure about? What execution of the horror reveal do you think might need work or be more effective via foreshadowing or some other way?
>>96656385That’s a title, not a name. It’s a crib of Ezra Pound’s Pisan Cantos. I didn’t come up with it. I specifically linked Ed at Colonus. >>96656558I meant a critique of the short story. It means: read the story and give me feedback.
>>96653493
>>96643780This looks goofy and ridiculous, sorry. Makes me think of 6-year-olds doing school art projects. Try again. (sorry to be harsh but you asked)
>>96635335>dat imagePost the rest and the ending, I dare you.
Glad to see the thread still alive, anyways finished the Hypnos card, probably went a bit overboard with the whole poppy flower stuff
>>96661073Came out great anon!
>>96661073I really like this design. Nice work anon.
>>96634368Mothership and Alien have been chilled to death recently.
Stat Me
>>96667043Considering the demon there slaughters and devours an entire neighborhood in what would have been minutes at most after leaving the hospital, including ripping off whole doors to enter homes, I'm thinking it would be pretty high level in most systems. Though I'm not sure what exactly to give it.
>>96661073Oh that’s really unique. Nice work!How many cards remain?
>>966701656, still havent decided on temperance but I could probably do an elder god, already done Bast and Nodens
>>96671354Godspeed anon.
>>96655538I think that was actually one of the Vampire the Masquerade splatbooks.
I wanna FUCKZOMBIESthat is all.
>>96679170Do not the undead.
>>96663983Chilled?
>>96653493>>96659511Kek.
>>96667043Can spend Abberance to sõyjack someone to death.Vulnerable to iron.
Stop wasting your SFF stories by posting them on 4chan. Write a short story once a week or once a month and try your hand at making it as a writer.>Clarkesworldhttps://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/1000-22000 words, no exceptions12c (USD) per word. No horror but dark SF/F permitted.No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowedNo simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).Stories must be well-written, suitable for audio (since there are narrated audiobooks), and convenient for screen reading (so no weird formatting).Rigor in science fiction is appreciated, but it does not need to be "hard."There can't be any of the tropes listed on the site.>Asimov'shttps://www.asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelinesup to 7500 words, at 10c per word (USD)Character oriented stories, but there is also some poetry $1 per lineAbsolutely no use of Chat GPT nor AI allowedNo simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).>Fantasy & Science Fictionhttps://www.sfsite.com/fsf/glines.htmNo simultaneous submissions (do not send somewhere else).Up to 25,000 words in length. 8-12 c (USD) per word. You must read a sample of the magazine before sending.>Interzone Digitalhttps://interzone.digital/submissions/Simultaneous submissions accepted (you can send somewhere else).Maximum of 5000 words. 1.5c (EURO) per word.>Beneath Ceaseless Skieshttps://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/Up to 15,000 words, 8c per word (USD)Provides feedback on rejectionsNo use of Chat GPT nor AI allowedCharacter-focused, adventure fantasy (no sci fi nor horror) that has a deep sense of world.>The Dark MagazineHorror magazine.We pay 5 cents/word for original fiction up to 6,000 words on publication for first world rights; and 1 cent/word for reprint fiction up to 6,000 words on acceptance for nonexclusive reprint rights.https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/
>>96561515Did it myself, kinda meh but looks better with Foundry lighting.
Getting ready to run The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse for my group this Wednesday. Any tips? I’ve seen the Seth Skorkowsky video on it already, but just wanted to see if anyone else here has run it.
>>96432725One of my players fought a kangaroo in-game, but it was a regular kangaroo that had its brain swapped with a murderer by an evil doctor. We're playing with Terror Australis, with Pulp Cthulhu.
>>96692389Though to make it sound less stupid, one of the investigators was kidnapped by the doctor and almost had his brain removed. The others had to look for him by using the ghoul-infested tunnels beneath Adelaide, where he was taken.
>>96692389Cool
>>96428273>What is your favorite depiction of vampires?I'm torn between folkloric, otherworldly revenants bound by seemingly irrational and arbitrary superstitious weaknesses (think vampyr, strigoi, vrykolakas) and the glamorous, gothic aristocrat. I don't like settings in which vampires are the heroes or romanticized, vampires should always remain villains, either an undead or a psychopathic blood-addicted maniac.>Do like the traditional methods to defeat them such as wooden stakes and sunlight?Yes, but mostly for the first kind of vampire (the undead one). The idea is that these methods are symbolic; sunlight and the cross represent good and God, garlic is purifying and apotropaic, a stake made of ash wood or an iron poker through the heart can kill them because that material is inherently sacred and the heart is thought to be the core (no pun intended) of life, mirrors don't reflect them either because silver is sacred as well or because mirrors are believed to reflect souls, which they no longer have. They suck blood because it was believed to be fluid of life carrying the vital essence and they can't enter your house without permission because it's not about a physical barrier but rather a symbolic or metaphysical one, perhaps an allegory of how evil can't affect you unless you invite it in.Nowadays, fantasy is naturalistic. Vampires are natural, biological beings rather than supernatural ones. They became a species, for rather than "the legendary revenant that haunts the graveyards thirsting for blood" (notice how I said "the" and not "a" revenant, because usually in mythology and legends creatures tend to be unique in their kind). In modern settings, sunlight kills them because ultraviolet frequencies are toxic, garlic is too smelly, crosses trigger their phobia of right angles (like in blindsight) and vampirism is just an infection (I am Legend, The Strain, etc.)>Would you like see different vampire types from other cultures?Sure!
>>96699738Can't wait for an "umm actually..." fag who'll remind me the sun didn't kill Dracula and was invented with the Nosferatu film.
>>96701138To be fair I always felt in RPGs the sun blight was too frustrating
>>96701138I believe it was moonlight that strengthened Dracula or something.
>>96701438You’re thinking of Varney, who could only heal under moonlight. Dracula was incapable of transforming in the sun and, iirc, was generally weaker during day.
>>96701708Truish for the transformation (Van Helsing says he can transform once ad dawn, twilight and midday + unlimited at night) but he retained his superstrenght. Which is actually a pretty big deal, as oddly enough it might be his second greatest power (after immortality itself). He does seem to be less comfortable doing shit during the day, he doesn't really go through his plans execpt at night, but he does walk, talk, and try to seduce women under the sun.I THINK he didn't retain his mesmerizing powers but this is not spelled out in the novel - he just didn't happen to use them during the day.
>>96690717I have but it was a while back. From what I recall they really did a decent job turning the place over. In classic player fashion they were doing anything they could to not actually look into the house itself but in everything else that wasn't actually written in the book. If I remember right there should be a reporter type character in the book there. I used him as someone that kept tailing the player characters, letting them stir the pot so to speak so he had a story to write. It's also how I managed to corral them back into the estate, had him mention the fact that there were mutilated cattle remains and minor vandalism in the area (the monster ranging out of the house and into adjoining properties. I can't recall the season it's supposed to be in but I had it be mid late autumn so I made sure to draw attention to the property of the house they're looking into just look nasty. The thing nesting there is poisoning the land and there almost looks like a flattened path leading from the house to one of the terrorized properties nearby that is starting to curdle in the same fashion. I also had the reporter character sneak in after the players when they did the final look around on the top stories after reading the book. He was the first to go when a pseudopod angled out of a bathroom drain and starter throttling him/trying to break his neck ans draw him into a tub rapidly filling with itself. That was pretty fun. Honestly it's a really simple adventure with just that one Gotcha moment. There's little the players can do, you're essentially lining them up for a big mouse trap to go off and that's it. There's a lot of information in the book about past owners being insane and killing themselves or their families and they want you to think the current owner was killed by a ghost but there's a lot of work for that and honestly the players won't be in for long so only pump that well if you want. Just focus on keeping unease up and it'll be fine.
>>96699738>I'm torn between folkloric, otherworldly revenants bound by seemingly irrational and arbitrary superstitious weaknesses (think vampyr, strigoi, vrykolakas) and the glamorous, gothic aristocrat. My man.
>>96688569Kek
Crack'd and Crook'd Manse anon here.Just got back from running the scenario and it went great. Players really got into and bought the supposed haunting and ghost story, even as they got more and more convinced of the need for salt. Got to pull off the suggested appearance of the monster perfectly, with it flooding the lower levels while they're reading a hand out on the second floor.Used the chase rules for the finale, which was handy since all but one of my players was unfamiliar with them, so this was a good primer. They all managed to survive, despite two of them being slower than the monster's pseudopods (which it quickly rolled to spawn 10 of), but it was really touch and go there and two of them nearly died.Hilariously, our only casualty of the game was caused at the very end, when they dumped the sale into the basement of the house. The monster broke apart any of the remaining house rubble in its death throes, and one of the PCs got crushed under a door that got flung into the air and came down on top of them.Pic is from the chase. That Darkest Dungeon board game may have been shady as shit, but its minis are great for CoC.>>96703070Thanks for the advice, anon!
>>96712526Glad to hear everything went well for you, anon.
>>96428273Any Halloween-themed horror adventures you guys would recommend right now?
>>96717556I'm planning on running The Dare for Call of Cthulhu with one of my groups. You're a group of kids in the 1980s dared to spend the night in the local abandoned, creepy home. Surprise, there's a witch inside!
>>96699738>vampires should always remain villainsI actually disagree with this in principle. I think vampires work best as neutral to good beings.And the reason for this is their deadliness and infectiousness. And by that I mean if you want vampires that can kill easily and/or infect easily then them being villains conflicts with that.A villainous vampire that can kill easily would stick out like a sore thumb unless they are in an environment with a lot of death or always on the move and not traveling under a human guise. So you'd need to turn them into the kind of bullshit vampire that slowly drains the life of targets over an extend period.A villainous vampire that infects easily would meanwhile just be a worse zombie apocalypse in short order.Basically if you want modern vampires they need some element of self-control if not humanity to really work without major worldbuilding holes (which is not to say you couldn't still have villainous examples, they would just need to be the exception). There is a reason werewolf stories, which equally involve highly deadly, highly infectious monsters, often involve the afflicted imprisoning themselves on full moons or else giving their werewolves self-control. Obviously plenty of stories get by on vibes and don't really try to hold up to analysis, but I would hope we can agree it's better when they can do both.That or you need to remove a vampire's need to feed (and what is the point then?) which if you want it to be at all traditional would push you towards old school, malevolent, bloated, plague-spreading corpse versions. Or use the kind that only target family members.
>>96720509>So you'd need to turn them into the kind of bullshit vampire that slowly drains the life of targets over an extend period.So Dracula? Cause Dracula had to feed on Lucy and feed her his own blood SEVERAL times before he could turn her into a vampire. What’s wrong with it taking time for a vampire to turn someone else? It’s not like they’re going to do that to every victim, considering it also requires the vampire feed the victim their own blood.
>>96722077>So Dracula?Yes. That was what I was referencing.>What’s wrong with it taking time for a vampire to turn someone else?Modern vampire tropes have moved on from Dracula. If you filed off the serial numbers and tried to do a Dracula style vampire today, people would reject that shit.>It’s not like they’re going to do that to every victim, considering it also requires the vampire feed the victim their own blood.Speaking of tropes that have fallen by the wayside.Seriously, when was the last non-Dracula protracted turning/feeding project? Once Bitten? Ooh, much scary, so villainous.
>>96699738>>96720509I personally enjoy the idea of a story with vampires or werewolves having the vamps/woofs be defenders protecting the humans form something far worse. It's part of the reason I enjoy Kemono Giga so much, because it's one of the only settings to really do this adequately.
>>96724490I feel like having vampires quickly turn people makes them feel more like zombies and makes them less interesting. There should at least be the requirement of them giving the victim some of their own blood.I mean, I hated that shit in 'Salem's Lot, because the vampire is just making infinite amount of competitors too quickly and making them too obvious. A vampire should be more subtle than that.
>>96729052Salem's Lot vampires were thralls to Barlow, so they don't really create competition. Also, Barlow was deliberately trying to create a colony for some reason. He wasn't trying to be subtle. Also, Barlow couldn't create the kind of vampire he is from his victims.>There should at least be the requirement of them giving the victim some of their own blood.Also this was a requirement for Barlow.Honestly Stephen King's vampires are kinda shit. Type 1s are underpowered for your average vampire (most normal weaknesses, can't reproduce properly, and even making thralls is a chore). Type 2s are glorified vampiric ghouls with extra powers (dumb, violent, short lifespan). Type 3s never get used and are for some inexplicable reason objectively better in almost every way than the Type 2s that make them and the Type 1s that make them, but come across more as dhampirs (daywalking, don't need blood, etc). This is your worldbuilding on cocaine.
>>96729408>This is your worldbuilding on cocaine.This is nothing compared to how schizo Stephen King's demons are.
>>96720195Good luck anon.
So we kinda have a complete contemporary frame for Trail of Cthulhu now (skills + tools + professions revised)https://pelgranepress.com/2025/09/30/call-of-chicago-trail-of-cthulhu-today/ https://pelgranepress.com/2025/10/10/call-of-chicago-postmodern-occupations/ Thoughts? Seems pretty good to me. Just wish they'd add more examples of how to tackle the smartphone/chatgpt problem with creating Clues (in new edition, I guess)
>>96739346Seems neat so far.
>>96701138Kek
>>96428273Anyone got the Mothership Gradient Descent blank map by any chance? All the floors on one page without the colored background so it's easy to print.
>>96746787For those interested someone got it in another thread.
>>96429646>Nobody mentions Adventure Quest.God, I feel old.>>96433722Yeah it was Vampire Bund. Last arc fell off a cliff IIRC. Wonder if they ever got that maid out of that crystal in the sequel.
>>96750671Man, the Adventure Quest Werepyre had the best design.
Beyond Anne Rice and Brian Lumley, give me good horror vampire novels.
>>96755555It’s a cliche to say this, but Dracula is a classic for a reason. A lot of people like ‘Salem’s Lot, though I didn’t care for it personally. If you’re also taking short story/novella recommendations, The Night Flier and The Wide Carnivorous Sky are both excellent.
>>96750671>>96751064>AdventureQuestThat's a name I haven't heard in a long time.
The Great Old Ones by ChaosiumIncl. Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Call%20of%20Cthulhu/Cthulhu%201920s/Call%20of%20Cthulhu%20-%20The%20Great%20Old%20Ones.pdf
>>96712526>Hilariously, our only casualty of the game was caused at the very end, when they dumped the sale into the basement of the house. The monster broke apart any of the remaining house rubble in its death throes, and one of the PCs got crushed under a door that got flung into the air and came down on top of them.Damn.
>>96762687Neat.
>"now we begin." He sketched in the air with his blade. He put his bootie on my picture. He looked into the golden brown fire>"I made my wish before this," he spaced out his words. "I make it now. There was no day when I did not see my wish fulfilled". His eyes shine, paler than fire. "no son to follow John, no daughter to mourn him.">One hand pointed at me, the other to the fire. It blazed high up the chimney, wood had come into it without a hand to move it there. It shot up long fierce bright tongues of flame. The floor of hell was what it looked like>"Look in it" Becky Till Hoppard bade me again. "I can send you into it. I made my wish before " she half sang " I make it now. I nair saw the day that the wish I made was not true"Was rereading some old stories and I really enjoyed this little incantation that showed up in two unrelated stories other than dealing with some mountain hoodoo. I think witchery can still be effective as a horror device. Maybe partly because we've reached the point where you mention such a thing and people only figure green skin warts and brooms with maybe a side of baby eating.
>>96542001>>96546237>inverse Shadowrun, set in scifi corporate Best Korea ruled by a demiurge CEO, incorporating tons of horror to its action premiseWhat a weird and wonderful game and setting! The system kinda sucks though. When I'll get around to putting a gorillion dollars into video game development I'll hire the Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children team to make a SLA XCOM (with some Darkest Dungeon to the team management). TS:AC already was SLA: the Vidya, only with high school animu visuals, rather than dystopic urban grime and gums & teeth everywhere.
>>96428471
>>96712526Neat, sounds like it was a good time!
Are there any settings built around a werewolf apocalypse? That's a bit hard to search for for obvious reasons. I'm not counting the Marvel universes since one was like just a page and the other was more of a cannibal superhero apocalypse and the cannibal superheroes just happened to be insane werewolves instead of the usual insane zombies.
>>96448243>The mythical vampire wasn't sexy in a Twilight way or a Dracula way. It was a disgusting, bloated rotting corpseActually the modern western vampire and the modern western werewolf evolved out of a Slavic creature called a volkodlak which was sort of a mix between the two. It is also is the origin of the non-djinn ghoul by way of Greece where it become more of a non-werewolf corpse eater which was itself the origin of the modern western zombie via Romero and Russo.The bloated corpse vampires came later. Albeit volkodlaks were by no means sexy.
Has anyone else toyed with the idea of the Mi-Go being a mutualistic organism, it, an animal host and a fungal 'rider?' Some of the art makes me think that's what they are. Might explain why they're so intensely interested in alien brains, too - maybe they can't or won't adapt to such a host but thoughts are inherently of particular interest to them.
>>96772993Closest you'll ever get is WTA (which I imagine is the entire reason why finding good werewolf apocalypse settings is so hard) or that one setting where everyone - barring like a rare minority - turn into feral werewolves at night. IIRC I think it was called Barebacked or something like that.Either way, very few people tend to do werewolf apocalypse settings over vampire ones for some reason and it's deeply painful trying to find settings with werewolves as the focus over anything else.
>>96773046No, but that does sound like an interesting way to take them and their motivations.
>>96775476Vampires are preferred because they’re more of a power fantasy for people and are able to speak/interact. I prefer werewolves personally because becoming one is scarier than becoming a vampire. You’re fundamentally an innocent person forced to become a serial killer every three weeks.
>>96773046There is a Delta Green scenario called Extremophilia that involves a dude getting infected with mi-go spores that sort of hijack him cordiceps style and make him do shit like eat batteries so his insides are more conducive to growing the spores. Slightly different than what you're talking about but in the same ballpark.
>>96783367Fair enough.
I need a one-shot for this week's Halloween session. Players have expressed some interest in Victorian or black powder horror. Needs to be something I could finish in under four hours. Any recommendations?
>>96790748Specific one-shots for Victorian era horror are hard to come by, but if you're willing to adapt something form them, The Between or Cthulhu by Gaslight are good ways to pull it off.
>>96794157Yeah that's kind of the problem. If it were an in-person session we could just play some Devilry Afoot or something and call it a night.I'm considering Delta Green instead at this point. My players have offered zero input into what they want to play for a spooky game and I know I can get a 3 hour session out of one of the scenarios. I just need to put it together. I'm looking at the Shotgun Scenario "Burner" at the moment, but open to recommendations.I've played DG once, but my players never have. Though we did play a bit of CoC so they at least understand the idea. It's a tight timeframe so I'll likely provide pregen characters and kick things off quickly.
be honest, anon
>>96798541Made for BBCBeheading, Burning and Consecration of soil you dump her ashes into
