Terrible Lizard 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 run/played in a game centered around dinosaurs or some other reptilian threat?Previous thread:>>97266292Please 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.
First time bringing a general back, hope I did ok at least, though I admit couldn't think of a better topic/question (got dinosaur horror on the brain) and I didn't change news/book club topic.
>>97684197Going to be playing in a DG campaign set in the 1970s. Anything out there that I can reference to get a good idea of what the USA was like in that time period? I keep having classic noir shit pop into my head despite that being the 20's or whatever, and all I can think of is Vietnam, disco, and piles of cocaine.
>>97684849Don't know too much about the 70s in general (wasn't a decade that I cared about too much), but I did find this after a quick search https://nightmarethoughts6.blogspot.com/2025/03/delta-green-and-1970s-part-1-testimony.html
I wanted to ask you anons, what game would be good for a Resident Evil setting and theme? My game group is a mix of experienced TTRPG players but most play D&D. I suppose playing D&D would be easy but I am trying to find an alternative. I was recommended: All Flesh must be eaten, Genysys with the fanmade RE supplement, Savage Worlds Horror, Delta green or Twilight 2000 with tweaks. Even Dread.Which game would be fairly thematic and also easy to teach a group of people willing to learn? Maybe one that is not too dice heavy but dice would be fun. Most likely for a One shot game session not long term. I have ran games before but only for D&D 3.5 and 5th ed, as well as Pathfinder 1e. So I would have to learn the system myself too. A game that lets them play like a regular person and/or agent against zombies and supermutant abominations like in the game with puzzle mechanics. Resource management too. Thank you.
>>97684208I've been missing this thread thanks anon!I've been thinking about why modern cosmic horror stories I've read inspired by lovecraft are just so boring and cliche compared to lovecraft, who should feel the most cliche and boring but just isn't. I think its because a lot of them have a flanderised view of cosmic horror,seems like there's a constant beat for beat of octopus/squid tentacled elder god, a deconstruction of american anti-black racism and some detective. Meanwhile Lovecraft himself has human ape inbreeding, ancient aliens who are smart and rational despite doing horrifying things etc. Hell the Eldar things are beautifully described and truly alien, I cant hink of any modern writer making such a distinct looking alien like them, or the Great Race of Yith. Even a lot of racism stuff that people condemn him so much for isnt as bas as they make it out, Red Hook makes it clear its a distinct group of fictional Syrians that every other syrian groups hates and distrusts are doing weird eldtrich shit.Does any anon have good recent cosmic horror they can suggest? Or at least something that isn't just indescribable tentacle horror with the words 'eldritch' 'gibbering' and 'antediluvian' thrown around
>>97686356If I were you I'd start with either All Flesh must be eaten, Genysys with the fanmade RE supplement, Savage Worlds Horror, Delta green or Twilight 2000 with tweaks. if you've already been given a bunch of recommendations, you should probably be checking out the books and seeing which one looks good to you, not asking for more recommendations.
>>97686356NTA but here's if you go with All Flesh Must Be Eaten, there is a giant homebrew doc for Resident Evil. It's called Resident Evil Regenesis and a 4plebs archive of it should be one of the first things that pops up on a google search.I had to search around for it yesterday, might as well save others the hassle
Also goddamn, having been around Delta Green long enough to see Caleb Stokes and how he does things has actually put me off another TTRPG I've been meaning to look at, Red Markets. Though considering what that's about, I don't think I'm missing much since with his track record of stuff I've seen, it's just going to be him bitching about current politics and shit with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
>>97687541I mean, it's an explicitly economic horror game about people forced to do horrible shit for money in the zombie near-apocalypse. I'd think you know whether or not you were going to like it based on the elevator pitch.
>>97688660Caleb has a way of overdoing it, to the point when I ran my Euro friends through God's Teeth that once it was over they outright refused to keep playing unless I promised I would do something that didn't sound like it ripped from the daily news on TV.I like Red Markets as a premise, it's just I don't trust the other to not grind me and my players faces in his personal views.
>>97688781It's about the grinding horror of poverty. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, I'd look elsewhere.
>>97686519>if you've already been given a bunch of recommendations, you should probably be checking out the books and seeing which one looks good to you, not asking for more recommendations.Not sure why you bothered to respond then? Useless waste of time on your part not mine. I already looked into all of these but wanted to know if there other options or input you had on your own experience with these games if you played them which you clearly don't since you're a no games.
>>97687505Thanks for an actually useful response anon. I will look into it. Did you play it and like it at all?
>>97689426>Have an entire thread that getsvl very little traction, several people tell you to use AFMBE>Decide to come shit up another thread to ask the exact same question even though you got an answerFuck off.
>>97686467"Cosmic horror" is perhaps the most misunderstood "genre" of modern pop culture (not even done badly per se, but really misunderstood) And this before apeing HPL proper with muh tentacles.I don't even think it's correct to call it horror, myself. while there is a lot of overlap, what we think of horror is basically about being hunted by a monster, at its core. Which... doesn't happen in half of HPL stories, if not for the chase at the end.HPL starts and ends with a very old concept: the sublime. Terrible sublime, but still. >>97684849Which is more or less what Fall of Delta Green is about. Well, heroine, but still, the big badass book of adventures is about an old pal of Curwen using heroine trafficiking to cover up his use of essential saltes. OOM: Ufos (actually, the whole classic paranormal milieu was established and popularised between the sixties and the seventies)Counterculture and the fear of it. Don't think hippies, think more terrorism.The "me" cultureNerd culture, amusingly enough (not just dnd or star wars but shit like comics, see heavy metal)Recession or at least shaky economyEcology and the fear of humans having fucked up the planetSexiness and obsession with sexIllegal broadcasting radio Generic love for exoticism
Honestly, with the small talk earlier of AFMBE, what are the better zombie survival horror systems out there? Or hell, what are some good experiences with AFMBE/other systems like it that people here have had?
>>97684197this guy is kind of goofy and cute
>>97689918I like his joyful expression. There's real hope in those eyes
>>97689472>"Several people tell you to use AFMBE"And its just youSuck my dick bitchYou are retarded so let me explain again, I wanted more than a recommendation but some input and insight which you do not have because you are no games. Do you like All flesh or the other games you regurgitated?
>>97691072You're apparently incapable of skimming a book to see if it would suite your needs/tastes, so it really doesn't matter, does it? Your RE inspired game isn't actually happening, this is all closet drama.
>>97692014Anon it feels like someone hurt you, hopefully they do so again
>>97684197Well, we've been hunted by an eldritch mosasaur, if that counts.
>>97688781If the didactic political polemic doesn't appeal to you because its a didactic polemic how have you been enjoying horror so far?I struggle to name a piece of good horror that isn't either essentially someone's manifesto or someone working out their personal demons with the subtlety of H.C. Andersen. Well, that or its a slasher.
>>97698390Honestly that sounds cool as hell, how did that go?
Kinda worried about the state of my Grimdark Glasgow RPG.
>>97705843Eh, had fun, but definitely not my best game, GM had better stories for us to play. He tried to have us "game" whale hunting but it wasn't interesting. That being said, it was funny that we almost managed to get to safety from some sort of Atlantis
Ocean Game when.
>>97706954What is this?
>brainstorming potential character ideas for upcoming game>get a pretty nice and terrible background/origin idea>tfw can't help but think the overall character would work better as a ladyWould it be weird to play a female character in horror games if I'm a dude?
>>97710323SLA IndustriesYou can now be monke.Also a cowpoke(2nd edition came out a few years ago and I didn't like it and the subsequent supplements keep trying to pull it in different directions)
>>97710593No, it's common. Same with women playing male characters. It's roleplay who cares
>>97710593Why would it be worse than doing in (presumably) dnd?Actually in horror you can generally ground her more/make her of a fetish easily. No 20something busty tsundere redhead paladin, but a 50 yo single overworked doctor. Well, maybe you can make her busty as well, but you get the idea.
>>97710593no but if you have to ask then yes
Do you guys have any modules with strong theming around industry/mechanization/gears/fuel? I'm trying to build a creepy fuel refinery right now, but I'm having trouble coming up with hazards that aren't just "a big steel beam falls on you" or "oopsie, you may be squished by gears" or similarly gay and lame shit.I am aware that "rec me a module" is among the laziest forms of posting and promise that I am appropriately ashamed. Chasten me if you wish, I'll take it like a man
>>97718235Fuel refining it terrifying, anything could go catastrophically wrong at any minute in a way that could just merc hundreds of people. Is this an actual, modern refinery, fantasy, or historical?
>>97718725Pseudo-Industrial Revolution era, but only pseudo -- it's not a historical game, and none of my players are expecting absolute fidelity. Any of the above would be good, though, because I don't mind picking pieces from a module set in the almost-fully-accurate present day or kitchen sink fantasyland and reflavoring as necessary.I've been thinking about repetition, automation, being crushed or ground up, poisoning (of people, of the landscape), being driven to the brink to make a machine function, etc., but I'm not sure how to weave all that into a functional location that doesn't seem thematically confused.
>>97718235Falling floors, electrical wires, fires, fumes, pits of probably burning oil, just being lost and trapped. Hell, you've even chose pretty well, petrolchemical shit is nasty as fuck.Honestly it's way easier to do industrial sites as horror than most classic location if you want non-directly paranormal dangers to spice up the threat. I'd try to make use of them as a list of things going wrong than a uh, dungeon map or something.That being said I suppose it could help to have an actual factory plan to aid you, sadly I can't think of any that has a non-worker ready one. Oddly enough there is at least a small RPG that is all about industrial exploration (Murderous Ghosts) but it has nothing like that. Maybe try searching for a kid cross section and then add your villains? Biesty did nice ones for oil rigs.
Has anyone run or played in a campaign in a small town with a monster or mystery of the week format? For lack of better references, I'm thinking of something like Twin Peaks, X-Files, or Gravity Falls. What's been your experience with it? Essentially, the players are outsiders to a normal-looking town where strange things happen regularly that gradually build up to a greater plot.I really want to try running a game like that in Call of Cthulhu 7e, but I'm a pretty inexperienced Keeper and don't have the confidence to pull it off, so I'm afraid to commit to the effort of designing the campaign. Does the premise even work for a tabletop RPG? Does anyone have any experience with something like this?
>>97718235Here you go, watch any of these after accident reports:https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB/videos
>>97722783Esoterrorists 2e has a campaign frame for this kind of mystery with some of the players being agents and some of the players being locals, like in Twin Peaks. And the various versions of the Arkham book for CoC essentially revolve around the idea. RPPR has an episode about running small town mystery games that might be worth checking out. My group is about to do this very thing, it seems like a fun idea. I feel like it's probably just going to be a lot of prep to get a good cast of locals to draw on and horrible secrets for the players to uncover, but if you do it right, the game will almost run itself once you get going.That being said, if you're not feeling confident, run more one shots or smaller shit before you commit to the big game.
>>97686467I'm not going to pretend I can define "cosmic horror", but I quite liked some of the stories from the "A Season in Carcosa" anthology. The quality varies massively, but there are quite a few gems in there that do good work reeling Chambers' King in Yellow mythos back into symbolist mystery and away from ooo le spooky tentacles which infested the mythos ever since Dereleth got his clumsy paws all over it.
Has anyone played or at least read those Liminal Horror modules or played the system?Gendervalids aside, Seems high effort but I don't know if they work in play 2/4~ were also some sort of town adventure. Wondering if the framework is good enough to copy since my own forays into quaint little towns are frustrated by it being hard to design the scenario so you have a reason to walk around interacting with random people or spend long enough there that they interact with you.
>>97719716>>97723314Thanks, guys. I think I have a clearer idea of the mundane hazards now, and for the creepier stuff, I'll probably theme the whole location as a human heart -- ruptured pipes as broken veins, toxic "blood," the regenerator as a ventricle, thudding heartbeat in the bg the whole time, etc.>>97722783I wasn't GMing it, but I was a player in one. Because almost every NPC had known every other for ages, there was a constant sense we were unwelcome interlopers, which was cool. If you can create and build on that atmosphere with the freakier stuff you're introducing, it should go well.
Spoogy
>>97728361I haven't run it, but I like the premise of the metro time loop one. The thing that kinda irks me is that it looks like the central gameplay mechanic is just the players making their way to the front of the train six times, which makes it highly linear in a very literal way.I'd have to double-check to make sure I didn't miss alternate resolutions, but my gut instinct is that there may be room for improvement there
>>97728361>Liminal HorrorUgh
>>97734647>I haven't run it, but I like the premise of the metro time loop one.Which one was that?Also to clarify this is the thing I'm talking about.
>>97684197Such a generic monster design I feel like I’ve seen it a thousand times before. Zoom in past the head until it’s off your screen - the only distinguishing feature - and examine only the body and tell me you haven seen the exact same skin, torso, and limb design with the exact same colouring in too many movies and video games to count
>>97733936Aaah!
Book Club starter questions:>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?Didn't even realize we were back.
Nyarlothotep is a jerk
Anyone played SCP inspired scenarios?
>>97684197Anyone got any Arkham Horror LCG expansions in a pnp format? I just want to be able to play Path to Carcosa campaign without dropping £100+ on OOP mythos packs. Even in the new format it's impossible to find without getting scalped.Why did they even bother reformatting all the expansions if they had no intent to continually reprint them?
>>97748946That's kind of self evident ain't it.
>>97751289Delta Green
Whatever happened to Delta Green? Why aren't they publishing materials for it anymore?
>>97752570Lol they are, tho?
>>97752623They're not. It's over.
>>97752641Arc Dream is working on a new game: the Black Company TTRPG. 2nd playtest is out. I don't care much for Delta Green nor about the company, but I'll happily shill awareness of anything Black Company related for any reason.
>>97752641Dunno what to tell you, bud, they've put out plenty of shit since 2019, which is where your list ends. They've already released a scenario this year. In theory the next big release is gonna be something by Adam Scott Glancy, but that guy is slow as hell, and Falling Towers is supposed to finally come out this year.>>97753406To the best of my knowledge The Black Company is Shane Ivey's baby specifically.
>>97753450>To the best of my knowledge The Black Company is Shane Ivey's baby specifically.Yes that's correct. Isn't he one of the Arc Dream folks? Really don't know anything about them except that it keeps saying "from the Delta Green people."
>>97753467Yeah, I just meant to say, I don't think that the entirety of Arc Dream has moved away from DG to work on TBC. I thought that was the implication, I apologize if I misunderstood.
>>97753478>I thought that was the implication, I apologize if I misunderstood.Nah it was. Was just born outa my ignorance of anything about Arc Dream. Seems like it's just two of them on TBC whenever they talk so I'd assumed the company was tiny, but I have no problem admitting I'm ignorant about their company and DG.
>>97753507It's four or five dudes. They just hired a new guy to tard-wrangle them, and I'm not sure if Stokes is a permanent employee or just a freelancer. So, yeah, small company, but they're still working on both.TBC does sound like an interesting game, though, I'll be interested to see it in 2031.
>>97753515>I'll be interested to see it in 2031.Gut punch. It was super effective.
>>97753515That's a very generous estimate, considering they haven't put out a ton of the books they promised back in 2016.
is arkham horror RPG any good, or just stick to CoC?
Working on a new CoC scenario involving one of my favorite Great Old Ones and a race I’ve always struggled to incorporate into investigations. It’s going to center around the construction of a new observatory in the PCs’ city. An astronomer running tests on the observatory’s new telescope and using it to take pictures accidentally views Ghatanothoa and is petrified as a result. However, the telescope succeeds in photographing the god, creating a potentially very dangerous doomsday weapon by capturing its image. A Yithian sent to the future to prevent this photo from destroying life on the planet breaks in and steals the photo, intending to return to the past with it where it can be secured properly and potentially used against their enemies. I’m trying to decide whether it also takes the professor’s petrified body as well. PCs will be called in to investigate the break-in. Trail of clues will involve several break-ins and thefts from local scientific research facilities over the past few months (the Yithian stealing equipment for its time machine) and potentially some hapless victims also getting exposed to the photo by accident before the Yithian can return with it. Thoughts?
>>97755470> using it to take pictures accidentally views Ghatanothoa and is petrified as a resultWasn't Ghatanothoa sealed beneath the ocean that an earthquake once lifted its prison to the surface for a short time. howd it get to space? >A Yithian sent to the futureThe Great Race of Yith (whose true form we don't know, that iconic look was just another species wide victim race) when they teleport through time and space hijack a body. So it will be a human with the mind of an alien doing all that shenanigan's. The great race of Yith uses the time machine from tens of millions of years in the past to return the person into their body when their job is done. The Yithian sent to the future does not need to construct any machinery to get back to its original body.>hapless victims also getting exposed to the photo by accident before the Yithian can return with it.You know I never realised Ghatanothoa is like the OG SCP-149 shy guy creature. Turning into a leathery mummy but alive AND immortal on sight is more spooky than tall skinny guy thats invincible tearing things apart and screaming like a moron,I don't want to seem overly critical I do like your bones for your ideas,
>>97755886>Wasn't Ghatanothoa sealed beneath the ocean that an earthquake once lifted its prison to the surface for a short time. howd it get to space?Fool that you are, to believe the Great Old Ones are confined to only a single physical presence! They are gods, and can appear in many places. Also, I’m the only person who is really well read on Lovecraft in my group, so they’re not going to know the difference.As to your second point, that’s what I meant, sorry I wasn’t more clear. Yeah it will be a Yithian possessing a human doing this. IIRC though, didn’t the Yithian inside of Peaslee build a lot of strange devices and one of them was a machine to return his mind back to the past? I may be misremembering that. But I could make the excuse he has to build it in order to take the photo back with him, since otherwise Yithian time travel only involves the mind.
>>97753922They're both bad. Go Trail.>>97755470Why would one single photo destroy life in this planet? I mean, I would assume it's a sapient-only weapon at best ("No human eyes, it was said, had ever glimpsed Ghatanothoa"), but even if somehow that was seen by every critter on this planet and petrified them because reasons, blind creatures would still be there, wouldn't they?(also I just realized this scenario is close to Doctor Stone's beginning, which is pretty amusing)>>97756513>As to your second point, that’s what I meant, sorry I wasn’t more clear. Yeah it will be a Yithian possessing a human doing this. IIRC though, didn’t the Yithian inside of Peaslee build a lot of strange devices and one of them was a machine to return his mind back to the past?Peaslee-Yithian did that but he didn't seem to have had problems in retriving materials. Considering the Great Race did their tricks with prehistoric human I would assume in general terms the agents can remake their machines with great ease. Peaslee speaks about "rods, wheels, and mirrors" so I would assume you don't even strictly need metals (maybe some translucent mineral? I picture a skinclad "mad shaman" looking for good rock crystals and telling himself next time he's gonna time-hope in a fucking post-neolithic society).So if you don't want to get out of "canon" (which is always a possibility, mind you) you'd need an explanation as to why the Yithian agent need to do particulary hard SCIENCE! with the observatory tools. Indeed, some way of taking the photo in the mesozoci past (without himself seeing it, I guess) is a good idea and I like the general outline here, but I don't see why he would need to professor's body. Maybe he would need to interrogate him to be sure how this whole Ghatanotha shit works? Remember that the petrified victim is still alive in the mummy. Perhaps the hard work for the agent is make go with 1920s tools a system to interface with the still living brain.
>>97758518>Why would one single photo destroy life in this planet? I mean, I would assume it's a sapient-only weapon at best ("No human eyes, it was said, had ever glimpsed Ghatanothoa"), but even if somehow that was seen by every critter on this planet and petrified them because reasons, blind creatures would still be there, wouldn't they?The image of Ghatanothoa also imprints upon reflective surfaces. Remember how it was in the mummy's eyes in the original story? Everyone who sees the picture would also get the image imprinted on their eyes? It's possible it might even show up on things like mirrors and such. Even if it doesn't wipe EVERYTHING out, it's still going to be a major danger to life on Earth.I also don't recall the Peaslee-Yithian taking back materials. I thought the Yithians only collected knowledge and brought it back with them. So I'd be fine going with "He needs a more complex machine to bring the photo back with him" explanation. A good reason for him to collect the professor's body is because the image of Ghatanothoa is imprinted on it, so a risk of info about this leaking out.
>>97758767This is just me, but I dislike the "taking it back with him" aspect. I'd make it so he actually has to make sure that the picture is sealed away so that the next bodies the great race inhabits after humans have died off can utilize/dispose of it.
>>97758767Hrm. I see where you're going. I would still think the printed/impressed photo breaks the chain, and even if we have a stone-transforming photo... how would other people see that? This is nitipicking, I guess, but.Notice that actually the "human photo doesn't do shit" makes sense if we take the future history in Shadow for granted, as there we have future humans.(mind you, the Yithians would presumably not give a shit about us anyway in a hypotetical different timeline, but I think that is the "save humanity" angle you're correctly using for the PCs)>A good reason for him to collect the professor's body is because the image of Ghatanothoa is imprinted on it, so a risk of info about this leaking out.Wait. If the Yithian agent just takes the body back because the body is the basis to manifacture the weapon in the past, the photo is not needed, right? Not for yithian to care about, not for the professor to be mummified. It's just there because you need something for the PCs to fear of in the case it IS good to kill people.Is that even needed? You know your players and I don't, of course, but I see enough material for a mystery without it. We have a professor that was dead stoned (ahem) just because he has seen some stars, potentially some other guys that tried opening his lids and were dead as well; and then the agent trying to retrieve the bodies that is the actual guy to track. The killer photo per se IS a cool variation, but as it stands the mistery doesn't need it.
>>97758932ETA: what if the photo, possibly killer but not necessarily (and made with our technology or a slightly ythian pumped variation of) was something the yithians themselves made and now want to retrieve?Shadow out ot time hints that there is a network of time agents out there, and I always liked to think they're not solely mind-transferred Yithians but normal humans in the vast majority.Picture this: the network get news about Hellstar Ghatanothoa, or more precisely, that a professor was turned into stone. Which is interesting because it means in our human civilization we have a fucking scifi Basilisk in the sky - RIGHT NOW- and catchable by all.This would mean the network needs to confirm it is what it think it is (without killing the very few yithian transferred agents), photograph it or something akin to that, get the photo back in the mesozoic, and destroy every other possibility for someone else to do the same in the (hopefully) small timeslot this shit is Earth's skies.So: the first thing the investigators' get wind of is that there was an assault on the professor's sealed coffin- with a slew of other guys that ended up mummified. These are the human agents KIA. The Yithian himself, a distinguished academic, got the corpse away to interrogate the brain (the PCS would probably find that, a mummified corpse with a destroyed recently dead brain). He got bad news tough: what he needs to time transfer back home is a decent photo and he has no direct info on where in the sky this shit is. So, he tried hastily to infiltrate the observatory to get intel and operators on the field (remember, he's human and can't see directly the planet, at least if not as a last resort) and possibly is building some shit to time transfer the final photo.But when the PCs catch up, something bad happened (for which the GR doesn't care much): someone did leak a first photo. A killing photo.(suppose this idea kinda is counter to the Great Race omniscience, but still)
How would you do a scenario with living toys?
>>97759616Der Sandmann and playing with the idea of someone that is not clearly human OR dollPic not necessarily unrelated actually
>>97758808I could work with that too. Just him having to seal it away. I did want to have the Yithian be stealing a bunch of equipment (mostly to make a trail of clues to follow) but it could be to create some kind of dimensional sealing box or something to keep the picture secure.>>97758932>>97758932I was mostly thinking of having the Yithian take the professor because "a scientist has gone missing, go find him" is a more mundane start than "we found a mummified body in an observatory where a professor was running tests." In the latter case, I feel like the players would figure out what happened much faster than in the former case.I do like the idea of involving Yithian agents though, so I might involve that. I might shift it so that the professor just saw Hellstar Ghatanothoa, but the Yithian is the one trying to get a photo to seal away as a future weapon. That way, it's more of an antagonist than my initial idea, where the Yithian is ostensibly just a good guy.
>>97684197Playtesting a scenario I made over 36 hours. It is a southern gothic 1920s CoC setting in New Orleans, Louisiana. The backdrop is that a man was lynched by what looks like the Ku Klux Klan, but is actually a cult called the White Legion. When the body was stolen away by the hooded mob, it turns out that they steal away with him to do all sorts of rituals. In the meantime, the KKK has been infiltrated by a cult that worships Shub-Niggurath; they are using vigilantism and lynchings as a front to make sacrifices to their elder god. The Grand Wizard, known as Jenkins, has corrupted into a creature that is part-altar and part-humanoid, a horrible and obscene mass of mist-like flesh and ropy horror. He is a veritable mother to scores of hooded children, known as the White Legion Children, who suckle from his weeping sores and teats and ropy mass of tentacles, healing them and making them devotional to the Black Goat of the Woods. Everyone corrupted by this elder god also has hooves for feet and pseudopods writhing underneath their KKK-styled hoods and cloaks.All the plot points are hinted at vaguely through Madame Laveau's tarot reading, and she imparts the investigators with special tarot cards that act like tomes and can be used for spells like Dispel Deity and Elder Sign. The investigators have to trek through bayous and dilapidated churches, as they fight with horrors hiding as klansmen, particularly what looks like a Klansman on a hooded horse, but which is actually one body of centaur-like dread, made of pustules and tentacles and rot.
>>97760559Don't want to be that guy, but I would hesitate before making the klan infltrated by the evil guys and make the bad shit they historically did seem, uhm, readable as "akshually it was the mythos all along!".Also Laveau has been dead for half a century or so in the 20s. Am I missing something?
>>97758518>They're both bad. Go Trail.what makes trail better?out of curiosity
>>97760632I didn't see that angle but I wanted it to be more about how the Democratic Party had ties to the KKK and how malevolent forces like racism can be normalized and forgotten by history. It's Madame Laveau's ghost, sorry for not making it clear.
>>97760632It's no different than doing something like a pulp WW2 game and having Lovecraftian Nazi enemies. And if you want to go more towards historical accuracy, the Klan of this era was very much an open social organization espousing what was at the time mainstream talking points about blacks, foreigners, and Catholics.
>>97760559Wait, is the White Legion the cult that infiltrated the KKK? Or is that another cult? It's confusing whether there's supposed to be two cults or a single one.I would maybe just stick with the White Legion as the actual cult and have the KKK be the red herring, instead of having them be infiltrated. Could still have the White Legion be scape-goating them.
>>97760559My player wrote this as a flash fiction piece for his experiences. It’s supposed to be frenetic and crazed, because he lost heaps of sanity playing this session. He loved it and wants to play every week now, because I am just getting him into CoC.>>97760977White Legion is the single cult that infiltrates the KKK but I based them on the White Man’s League, which was a white supremacist terrorist organisation. The KKK still ideologically align with a form of religion and white supremacy, but they would freak out if they knew the White Legion were cultists. The atmosphere is that cops don’t care if the Klan are carrying out lynchings or vigilantism, but they’re not aware the White Legion are corrupted by Shub-Niggurath. I might just make it simpler by saying the KKK and White Legion are separate but look similar.
>>97760559What VTT is that?
>>97761723Foundry
>>97760007Well, true dat, but I tought your players were relatively ignorant about HPL.>>97760944Yeah, I don't like that either. Hell, even I was to, I would probably not use nazi because of simply overuse.Not that you can't do it because I don't particulary like it, just pointed that maybe it was a little more on the face the other examples (people reading about demonic nazis usually don't get the wrong idea, or at least they didn't until recently).>>97760667The system actually gives some tought about doing investigation and not simply "try to roll high to get clues", which is rare as fuck. There are other good lovecraftian games, but this is the one which makes you go into that direction.Other than that, it has a good thematical grip on Lovecraft and the other (good) writers in the circle, it's not about literally bombing Dagon (Escape from Innsmouth) and I would say generally on horror, especially from the period. Certainly the research is better than most chaosiumshit, altough that's a low benchmark. I like most adventures they did.
>>97758518>They're both bad. Go Trail.Waiting for 2e to come out. Although looking at the backerkit page it looks like they're going to split it into two books, which annoys the fuck out of me.
>>97764862That is no good news indeed. Why would they?
>>97764983Per the update on backerkit from 3 months ago:>Now that I've seen the layout, the book is big. It's currently at ~425 pages, and will only increase as we add back matter. I need to confirm the pricing with our printers (who are also now on a holiday break) but I think it may end up being...*drumroll*... two books.The rest of the update is either about splitting it into core book and campaign frame stuff, or a player book and a GM book. Apparently it isn't going to effect backers at all, but it annoys me as someone who was waiting for the book to come out.
>>97764805>The system actually gives some tought about doing investigation and not simply "try to roll high to get clues"CoC stopped doing that a while ago. The book outright tells you to avoid putting plot-necessary clues behind skill rolls.
>https://drive.google.com/file/d/14v9PEnOWORDuYg1v6KHjZ0isI0hQiDDX/editDelta Green - The Millennium preview of the Shan
>>97765091Hrm. Well, at least it IS 400+ pages.Maybe I'm just coping but at least for me (never cared much for 1920s, mostly go for oneshots in various periods) a core + campaigns doesn't sound too bad.>>97766287Just telling them everything isn't much of a solutiuon either(not even saying that TOC method is genius. If anything, I might like quickshot gumshoe more. But still, at least they made a system catered to that genre - not even sure what is there that tries doing it)
>>97766498>Just telling them everything isn't much of a solutiuon eitherAgain, that's not really what you're supposed to do.If the players search in the right spot or ask the right question, they get the clue. Rolls can be used to provide supplemental info, but necessary clues require the right player decision, not dice.
>>97766523Yeah, got that much. Still not like it.
>>97766498I would prefer core+campaigns myself, if they have to do it, but it sucks that a 40-60 dollar buy has now turned into a 80-100 dollar buy. The small town campaign frame sounded like exactly what I want to run. I guess all we can hope is that the amount of pages means that shit is really worked out. I trust Hite and Hanrahan.
>>97766597Honest question, what about it don't you like? I know that some people are just immediately turned off by Gumshoe but I don't really understand why.
>>97766597>>97767715Oh wait, nevermind, I think I misunderstood the what it was you didn't like.
>>97766469Thanks for this. You can add Ramsey Campbell on Facebook if you want. He's a nice guy.
>>97766469Neat.
Recently picked up the CoC 2nd edition anniversary box. What scenarios out of it are considered best? Also, what are some great older CoC modules that haven’t been reprinted?
>>97689736>what people think cosmic horror isAaaaa spooky tentacles, I'm going insane>actual cosmic horrorMY GOD THE EDIACRIANS HAD THEIR OWN CIVILIZATION AND WORE LITTLE TOP HATS JUST LIKE US BEFORE THEY WERE EXTINGUISHED BY THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF ALIEN SPACE CLAMS, AND I'M WELSH
>>97689736>HPL starts and ends with a very old concept: the sublime. Terrible sublime, but still.Well put>>97785377you're memeing, but the horror of realising that there was entire alien space faring civilisation that predates our own by millions, tens of millions of years is pretty mindblowing. Lovecraft was writing just decades after evolution was discovered and understood. So we were not created by god but came from animal ancestors our intelligence being a tool of survival and not a divine gift. Going further and saying how we define ourselves as as the sole intelligent species isnt even true, there are much older terrestrial and extra terrestrial intelligences would drive a 19th and early 20th century person to maddness. They cannot cope with the terrible sublime that we are not made in gods image but just one of many intelligent species and the powerful god-like and god beings do no care for us.But we get >OMG A TENTACLE SAVE ME EMPOWERED BLACK PERSON BECAUSE RACISM IS ICKY AND LOVECRAFT WAS SO TERRIBLE A RACIST THE KKK THOUGHT HE WAS EXTREME.I quite like this pic because to me its a crew of humans and a giant alien being both worshipping at a symbol of the same alien god. Vaslty different organisms, one much stronger than the other but both equally below the same higher power
>>97785624I'm memeing, but I'm also serious and agree with you. Cosmic horror isn't horror with tentacles or cultists, it is horror with an interest in geology and antiquarianism.
>>97785642>Cosmic horror isn't horror with tentacles or cultistsIt's funny, but the whole idea of cultists with robes, masks and knives that performs a blood sacrifice of a person/ themselves/both to summon an eldtrich god or being is so firmly lovecraft coded, yet he doesn't have a single story where that is the plot. I havent read them all but ive read all the big ones. There's never a plot or story that has dark room full of robbed figures with a symbol made in blood on the ground trying to summon something.
>>97785680Call of Cthulhu and Shadow Over Innsmouth are to blame. Both allude to cultists and rituals, even if they're completely irrelevant in the wider scheme of things. Innsmouth for example falls to the US government in what is easily covered up as an anti-bootlegging police action, but you'd never think that from modern Lovecraft media. You'd think cultists were somehow unknown to authorities and if authorities knew they'd get their asses kicked.The real villain of Lovecraft isn't Cthulhu or Nyarlathotep or Hastur, it is time. Time is what will cause Cthulhu to one day rise, time is what will ultimately destroy human civilization just as it did countless civilizations before, time is what will reduce everything into a meaningless layer of pottery and plastic in the rock layers. Lovecraft wrote during a period when belief in human progress and invention was at an all time high, when people believed we could achieve things like world peace or world government or a lasting immortal civilization, and cosmic horror is there to tap you on the shoulder and remind you that it is all vanity.
>>97785707Very well put anon I totally agree.Off topic a but since you posted art of an Elder thing I just wanted to say that anyone who accuses Lovecraft of being so racist he was scared of everyone and anything and being a close minded bigot has never understood the Mountains of Madness. In story the Elder Things are praised for their culture and society and science, even going so far as saying the human scientists and the Elder Things were both 'men of science'. Lovecraft writing about mutual understanding and respect for an alien being flies in the face of him being some totally close minded bigot. And this is after the humans find the previous teams corpses with lots of them dissected by the Elder Things and understand it was a misunderstanding by both sides. Very diplomatic and understanding of his characters. Lovecraft renounced the very concept of racism in his letters in the last years before he died, calling them a tool of the bourgeoisie to divide the working class, but no one left wing who makes a video about cosmic horror or Lovecraft know that and it pisses me off to no end. He ever praised the Elder Things for having a socialist style of government in story.
>>97785743I would love a source on this, because everything I have seen and read an some light googling says that this is absolute bullshit.
>>97739032I ran this for some friends. It was really casual but a good experience. The Doom clock helped guide us through, and it was fun GMing the slow degradation of the place and rising paranoia and barbarism among those trapped inside.
>>97785881Someone on twitter years ago was publishing letters of his and had a massive thread of them. I distinctly remember his political takes in the last years of his life. There was also their theoretical he talked about, if you took a non Japanese baby and raised it in Japan with Japanese parents, did whatever cosmetic surgery needed so that no one in Japan would see it as non Japanese or treat it any differently, then by adult hood that non Japanese baby would be entirely Japanese and no different from someone 'biologically Japanese'. I remember it so clearly because it was so different to what I thought about HPL. He had a real political awakening in his last years of his life
>>97689736>>97785377>>97785624I don't know how controversial this interpretation might be, but it seems to me like a great deal of Lovecraft's horror writing can be largely reduced to just himself (a pre-consoomerism atheist) trying to come to terms with the meaningless futility of existence; perhaps this is part of what his imitators are missing.
>>97786526I think that's a reasonable opinion. I do quite like >>97785707>Lovecraft wrote during a period when belief in human progress and invention was at an all time high, when people believed we could achieve things like world peace or world government or a lasting immortal civilization, and cosmic horror is there to tap you on the shoulder and remind you that it is all vanity.Because I do think that was the main conscious idea he had when writing his stuff. But his atheism certainly played a big part in being able to imagine uncaring hostile alien gods, which later writers couldnt do thus the idea good alien gods vs evil gods
>>97684197Can we add Over the Edge and Public Access to the OP?
>>97786965Maybe also the Alien RPG since that's getting popular.
>>97786965How is Public Access? I’m not usually into Analogue Horror, but I’ve heard good stuff about it.
I got asked to run a Call of Cthulhu one-shot in the Wild West. I'm thinking of a group of bank-robbers hiding out in an abandoned boom-town after a heist and there's a prowling wendigo but it needs to be fleshed out more if any anons have ideas. So far I have a group of pursuing bounty-hunters(a couple of them arrive early so the group can have a stand-off and early battle, the rest show up later and get picked off by the monster or complicate the end battle). They'll need to forage for supplies so they can't just hunker down right away. I also want the area to be cursed in some way so one of the survivors has to become the next wendigo.I guess I want to add some weird whimsy too. Like maybe if the group enters the ruins of the saloon they clip through space/time and find themselves in the middle of a crowded night(ala the ballroom scene in The Shining).
>>97787171Maybe do a twist on the classic “built on an Indian burial ground” trope by having the town by built on the burial site of a weird Lovecraftian species or even a sleeping Great Old One? Could have a mine near the town that the monster uses as its lair, and when they venture into it, they go deeper and deeper into the Earth and start finding strange, ancient buildings of impossible architecture.
>>97786415Oh, so you have absolutely zero evidence, then. Got it, thanks for clarifying.
>>97787171Oddly enough there are some good "western" TOC adventures, set in the area. Hardly cowboys vs indians vs mi-go or whatever, but can be pulpy.Anyway Wendigo? What is the area? I mean, I do know southern rockies can be pretty chilly in winter, but.>>97787549Not him, but given HPL's clear mellowing in his later years (hell, he gives us clear GOOD magical etnical migrants! Which is no bullshit pretty progressive for his times) and his vast epistolary I wouldn't be surprised at all he wrote something on those lines.>>97786526I agree, but I would venture to say HPL is an actual turning point in literature for the reason it's a universal feeling of sorts. Even if you believe in a caring god the... proportions of the universe science gave us are very, very "inhuman". Not evil: out of our immediate understanding. Hell, out of our "middle" understanding, for that matter.>>97785680>>97785707You guys are right (it's especially funny how in the end even the cthulhu cutlists are "just" dumb murderers with very bad oniric instructions - at least the innsmouthers are intelligent enough to have plans and self survival as a priority), but as a note I'll add that HPL for all his innovations did riff on older gothic signifiers for all his career. Think about Keziah who even criptically kills infants (your mileage may vary if that was a good story development, just saying she does).Honestly it is pretty sad when people just don't get the crux of the stories but I wouldn't say it's a case of people JUST adding shit that totally wasn't there.>>97785743A very good point about the Elder Things. It's a clear metaphor about OUR possibile downfall.(the shoggoths maybe are still a tiny bit too much reminding us of slaves and "inferior races" these days, but yeah)
>>97787453Fun fact not really related to the post: the haunted indian burial ground trope is incredibly recent. We're talking later seventies with Amityville Horror. Interesting how fucking dominant it become in such a small time - I'm thinking it was difficult to take seriously not even fifteen years later.
>>97789315>Anyway Wendigo? What is the area? I mean, I do know southern rockies can be pretty chilly in winter, but.I was thinking Wyoming.
>>97791738I feel like that’s a little too warm weather for a Wendigo, which is traditionally an ice creature. What about a Cthonian? That way, it can be like Lovecraftian Tremors.
>>97791927Wyoming gets cold and snowy as fuck.
>>97792145Yeah, I was thinking about the beginning of Wind River where the girl has drowned in her own blood because the cold air burst the air sacs in her lungs.
>>97792145Huh... didn't know that. Guess I just thought it was too far south. I associate Wendigos with Canada.
>>97684197Dinosaur hybrids need to be used more in media.
>>97787171something left over from the western interior sea, maybe cursed gold or huge fossils in a minedynamitepartially derailed train on a bridge that they have to navigate precariously to add an extra twist to whatever they're trying to accomplishstranded homesteaders/stagecoach/train passengers/wells fargo crew/whatever that have been driven a little crazy or are not what they seem or maybe even outright cultists idkEver played Blood West? Sounds like a similar vibe.
>>97785743tbf so much of Lovecraft's life was defined by his extreme neurosis its hard not to see some of his most extreme racism as a part of it. I think its why there always elements in the end of his stories with self identification with the cosmic horrors and shit be it in The Festival or Shadow Over Innsmouth or how characters like Wilbur Wately contain elements of Lovecraft's experience/self perception
>>97795190Shadow Over Innsmouth was less Lovecraftian racism and more his fear that he’d go mad like both of his parents did and get consigned to an asylum. It’s about inherited curses.
>>97795190>>97795922I think both the racism and the "neuroses" are one size fits all commentaries. While Innsmouth has more racism than you might think of at first sight (the infamous coastal NE capo verdians) I think the economic angle of the absolute ruin of small cities in the wake of depression is more on point in this case. He's seeing descending into "barbarism", yes - but not (only) because hillbillies being hillibillies.
>>97793900This.
>>97796246It sucks that Agartha and Yakub got no time to shine
>>97795922>>97796246It's the proper response to finding out there's Welsh blood in the family tree.
>>97684197Any recommendations for the next Book Club?
>>97706954They just changed the TRUTH's meds to something a bit more upbeat.
Do these count as horror?Also has anyone played any of them?
>>97807669I remember a lot of hype around these when they were coming out, but that seemed to have fizzled. Not sure why, as I didn't get a chance to play them.
>>97807883>Not sure why,Shill farm budget ran out anon
>>97807883It was a latter day FFG product, it didn't receive a very large print run and they shot up in price almost immediately. The system also was very good, if I recall correctly. Also, "the players are the characters," has traditionally been a great way to start fights and end gaming groups.
>>97807286This one is short enough that everyone can read it and it has a pretty good take on cosmic horror.https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2026/02/17/the-great-freeze/
Would traveler work for a horror setting? What expansions would be good for that, and what expansions would be good for traveler in general I suppose. I am kind of stuck deciding between mythras or traveler.
>>97814004Mongoose Traveller had a few horror settings for it, and the companion has rules for a sanity stat. (Not that sanity stat=horror game, but it's there for a more CoCesque game I would imagine)
Here's a bunch of Delta Green fan intros...https://youtu.be/Albop3XB8-o?si=9KRPEuJWm4pBYzVjhttps://youtu.be/MY2KCMmRdF0?si=NQRm6fDYB-TS--yKhttps://youtu.be/i_da0chz31s?si=epUBhNf_R85dudsHhttps://youtu.be/WMIJDzDc4Mc?si=Cte52xyVmBp42cSd
>>97801766I wonder how much the Kairotechia would be upset if they actually went back to Point 103 and found Yakub among the Vril-Ya chilling with the Elder Things.
>>97816741How do you think we got to this part of the story?
>Someone is making a Lovecraft game using the Daggerheart systemWhy do people think shit like this is a good idea?
>>97820659“What is Candela Obscura?” I can hear them ask.
>>97814091Neat!
