Halloween 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:H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society releases "The Spark Devil"https://www.hplhs.org/sparkdevil.phpCurrent Book Club Topic:"The Hunters from Beyond" by Clark Ashton Smithhttp://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/93/the-hunters-from-beyondQuestions for the thread:>Have you ever run a game set on Halloween?>What are your favorite themes to include in a Halloween game?Previous thread:>>96428273Please 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.
BOOK CLUB>What works?>What's cool about it?>Why is it so effective?>What is the best part of it in your opinion?>Thoughts on the characters?>Is the villain effective?>If you had to pick a moment that really scared you, which would it be?>Is there anything you feel could have been expanded upon?>What would you change?>Would you use it as inspiration for a game?Questions for Horrorverse refugees>What's your favorite Halloween special?>What's the worst Halloween special?
>>96863126>What works?It has a sort of faux suspense. You know something is going to go wrong, but it’s about finding out how exactly it will go wrong. >What's cool about it?The monsters are very unique. Having them able to be seen but not interact is a good way to build horror while having a reason they haven’t killed the main character yet. >Why is it so effective?The knowledge they can be watching you at any time and you can’t really do a thing about it is unnerving. >What is the best part of it in your opinion?The set up for how the Hunters work. >Thoughts on the characters?Pretty standard. Just there to experience the horror. >Is the villain effective?Yes>If you had to pick a moment that really scared you, which would it be?The first time a hunter appears so early into the story. >Is there anything you feel could have been expanded upon?I feel any expansion would ruin the concept. >What would you change?Give the hunters a more creative appearance than just hairless apes/baboons >Would you use it as inspiration for a game?Having a monster that can appear anywhere and just follow the PCs around without them being able to do anything about it would be really unnerving. I could see this as a countdown timer thing. You have to stop the summoning before the Hunters can fully manifest, but they’ll be watching over you all the while and occasionally popping out to scare you and inflict sanity damage.
>>96863113what do you all think of the Hatchetfield Universe. I like the idea of a toyline made by Eldritch Gods to drive parents insane and kill each other who aren't beyond comprehension. They just like making people suffer because its funny to them.https://youtu.be/-Bkp8qGOinY?list=RD-Bkp8qGOinYEveryone is a little insane and with a little push they do shit like-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4F3AaHgXVAhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juq0coCVleI
>>96863113>Have you ever run a game set on Halloween?Yes. The Dare for CoC is a classic. Actually had enough interest this year that I want to run for a different group next year. >What are your favorite themes to include in a Halloween game?I'm cooking up this idea about existential dread in Millennials(look how insane becoming middle-aged and then elderly drove the Boomers) and personified nostalgia as a sort of monster. I saw a bit in an article about Hocus Pocus about how residents of Salem are super annoyed that there are constant tour buses going through the city to visit the filming locations. And it occurred to me that if we weren't caught in such a cultural and economic death spiral that decades-old pop culture stuff would be a pleasant but faded memory from childhood and not a core component of our identities. I suppose the story would involve a slasher trying to become young again by sacrificing kids on Halloween. But he or she is a pawn of a demonic or fey entity trying to pull middle-aged Millennials into a parallel dimension that at first just seems like an idealized 90's childhood in order to feed off their emotions.
Ran DG for the first time last week. Used the Shotgun Scenario BURNER. Players had a great time and now they want me to run DG as our primary game for a while.Of the four characters, two survived; a computer scientist who had been working at a mobile phone store for whatever reason (in between jobs, soft retirement etc.) and a joke character that I made for my friend who is a community college dropout who sells weed. Having DG contact the survivors to bring them into the conspiracy is easy enough. They contacted A Cell during the op, and the session ended with them getting arrested, so having some legal strings get pulled to get them off the hook makes sense, and the computer scientist is very competent so he could be a real asset for DG. What I'm struggling with is what to do with the Burnout. He can swing a melee weapon, knows Tattoos, the criminal underworld, speaks Mandarin and managed to help banish some sort of entity. Maybe he could be valued for his experience in dealing with criminals? Hard to say.
>>96870544Why do people always forget Cthulhu has six eyes?
Happy Halloween from Australia bros!>>96876734To be fair, no where in the story itself is Cthulhu described as having six eyes, only the drawing Lovecraft made had that detail. So just by going by the description from the book its not wrong. What very few people do is actually make Cthulhu flabby. Lots of art makes him look really tight and buff when he should be rotound and kinda fat
>>96877066Fair, though I imagine Cthulhu being one of the only creatures we definitively know what Lovecraft wanted him to look like, at least vaguely given the statue, is part of his popularity. So it’s odd for people to miss definitive details from the author.
On the topic of Cthulhu/ CoC... Can anyone give some good recommendations for one-shots or short (to medium length, at most) adventures? I'm familiar with the rules but it'd be my first time running anything. Most of the recs online seem to focus on the larger campaigns, but I don't think my group can meet regularly enough to justify those. Official or 3rd Party are both viable.>>96871398Nice. I was considering The Dare as a first time pick to give everyone a taste of the system.
>>96881271The Haunting is kind of a gold standard for one-shots for a reason. It's a ton of fun. CoC is something that I haven't been able to play for a while because my group moved away from each other and I like using props for that campaign. Distressing notes, handing out photos and newsprint. That sort of thing really lends itself well to CoC.
>>96881271As this anon >>96882270 said, The Haunting is the usual go-to. It’s designed not just to be easy for first-time CoC Keepers, but also first-time CoC players, while setting a good expectation of what the game is about. The only other one I can think of that works equally as well is Paper Chase. That one has a particular advantage in that it’s almost impossible for the player characters to get killed and combat isn’t necessary whatsoever. If you have players who have never played an RPG before at all, I’d recommend Paper Chase. If you don’t, go with The Haunting.
I've been considering running Edge of Darkness but times didn't line up for a Halloween game. Any tips for that while we're discussing CoC? I think I'll space out some of the info/exposition dump early on and will keep Bertrand around as a greedy chump who shows up to the farmhouse with solicitor in tow to investigate the PC's suspicious activities.I'd run Haunting but one of my players has already experienced it.
>>96871557Ive seen shotgun scenarios mentioned before (especially Burner) and the only link to the fairfield wiki. How does it work? It looks really barebones but doesnt give me enough of a hook to imagine beyond what is written, how should I flesh it out? Are there any other resources out there?
