The Most Fucked Up Setting Edition Tell 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, 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 Fall of Delta Green" has been reprinted.https://pelgranepress.com/product-category/gumshoe/fall-of-delta-green/Current Book Club Topic:The Great God Panhttps://www.gutenberg.org/files/389/389-h/389-h.htmQuestions for the thread:>What is the most fucked up setting you've ever used for a horror game?>How did your players react to it?>What is the best way to construct an existentially terrifying setting?Questions for Horrorverse refugees:>What is the most fucked up horror setting to live in? >Do you think you could survive there?Previous Thread: >>92460247Please try to keep arguing to a minimum. Don't respond to bait/drama posts.And as usual, try and keep it alive, or at least undead
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?
>>92553516>What is the best way to construct an existentially terrifying setting?Spend a decade as a civil servant. It's a strange and unsettling liminal world of deja vu, where the passage of time is irregular, disjointed, and sometimes out of sequence. The rules are illogical, common sense no longer applies, and your sleep-deprived vestiges of sanity begin to erode even as your soul is devoured. Worst of all, there is no longer a consensus on reality; five people in a room can no longer agree on the sequence of events and whether something actually happened. It is sheer existential terror.If that doesn't scare the hell out of your players, maybe they should go back to silly mock-horror, the kind of thing with buckets of blood and extraplanar horrors.
>92553941Absolutely terrible post. We are off to a great start.
I am thinking of starting a campaign using CoC rules that is set in a colony ship with PCs are the only awake people with thousands frozen on board. Like the Chriss Pratt's movie's setting. They will be alone in a very, very huge ship and something is wrong on board.I need some ideas on how to not get it boring after the first session. Also how is Cthulhu Icarus?
>Want to start CoC>Never played TTRPG's ever>Go to new chill local store that just opened 1 minute from me and ask if I can leave flyers to run a CoC game and get players>Not only do they say yes, they pitch it to everyone who comes in>Run out of flyers and they ask for more>Store owner and son express interest in playing.OH GOD I'M ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH THE KEEPERS BOOK. GIVE ME YOUR MUST KNOW THINGS FOR COC OR I'LL PANIC AND DIE.No but like, what are some good things to focus on? I'm gonna do The Haunting for the first session, I ordered a keepers screen and investigators book from the store but it will be a couple of weeks before they are in.
Read this book.
Hi, new GM looking for tips. My group wants to play a horror game, so I'm looking for suggestions for an easy scenario/system for a first timer. I'm not too confident on my ability to make things scary, so tips on that would be appreciated as well. If it helps, my players really like psychological thrillers, as well as twist reveals (like in the first SAW).
>>92555713I think you might have bit off a bit more than you can chew anon. Like, that flyer alone makes it seem like there already are multiple people part of the gaming group, and not just you.> ordered a keepers screen and investigators book from the store but it will be a couple of weeks before they are in.You can find the core rulebook, the investigator handbook, the monster books and like a zillion scenarios online for free in pdf form, so you can just use those while you wait.
does anybody know of any good systems/scenarios for a "death game" style horror scenario? like the OG battle royale or danganronpa.
>>92556119Flails Akimbo but it's for Mork Borg
>>92556059He bit off more than he could chew... How? Don't be an autist.
>>92556059Why are people like this?I already had the PDFs of everything CoC related before I bought the book.The flyer tells people to contact me and I can tell them it's a new group and game, they don't have to play.Are you OK?
>>92553516>Book Club TopicHow humorous, I had just started reading The Great God Pan last night.>>92555903Read it last year and absolutely loved it. It was my second Hodgson read after previously doing the Carnacki stories. Planning to get to The Night Land at some point.>>92555713Watch this video for tips on The Haunting.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61MnmKbmD1sMaybe look up some actual plays as well, anon. And try not to panic, you'll do great.
>>92556869That video helped a lot! I really like the idea of encouraging more role playing and giving an NPC to help guide new players in the game instead of just telling them as a GM.
>>92561068Glad it helped. Seth Skorkowsky is really great for Call of Cthulhu advice and reviews of adventures.
>>92555903Already did. Still some of the best horror I've read.
>>92553516Independent horror TTRPGs my beloved
How do you feel as game runners about using art and maps? I almost feel like it takes away from the horror of the mind.You imagine a spooky house and then get this cardboard cutout of a goofy top down look at the haunted mansion.
Please assist me, African-American Feline.
Is there any difference between this version of the 7e Starter Set and the one Chaosium put out later? I know the artwork is different, but what about the contents?
>Half of CoC group can't come>Make up a one-shot on the spot about a story you read>''The Wide Carnivorous Sky'' by John Langan>The entire group loves it so much they ask if their characters can be saved for later even though one is missing an arm and the other had both legs torn apartReading horror/weird fiction pays off so big. I'm glad I liked it before I started GMing. I literally have hundreds of oneshots in my head from all the short horror I've read over the years. It feels like it always turns out better than the precons I'm running for CoC.
>>92563708I have the newer one, I think it omits ''The Haunting'' and adds 2 more scenarios (a solo run and another group setting one).That said the 7e one i BELIEVE is hosted on their website for free which is more of a ''quick start rules'' thing.I'm not 100% sure though.I will say after getting the starter set, I wished I had just got the Keepers book since the scenarios are easy to find online and much easier to digest. The newer starter kit also glosses over character creation rolling and has them do a ''number assign'' thing that doesn't really lead to interesting role play.Also the dice in the starter set are probably the cheapest dice I've ever seen in my entire life.
Smidge of a question to ask, has anyone worked on translating the Japanese made fan-modules by any chance?Curious on them.
>>92563830>Me imagining a campaign set in Japan using their fucked up yokai/demons and shitOh man why have I never thought about this.
>>92563865What I kinda ment was these supplements.https://booth.pm/en/search/coc%E3%82%B7%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AA?max_price=0&sort=wish_listsalso dunno if that was sarcasm or not.
>>92563708I believe it's just the art and correcting some mistakes in the first version. It's still the same scenarios in both
>>92564059My apologies, your post just made me think of running Japanese lore CoC stuff, I don't know about the translations as I sadly don't know Japanese.
I'm starting a CoC session at a store near me and I asked my wife to do a one player thing so I could know what to do better.She said scary creatures don't speak in a high pitched voice?She also said not to make stereotypical accents even though I thought I was pretty good?I don't really know how to improve now, she said I shouldn't ask people to roll if they need to use the restroom, but I've been keeping an eye on the restroom and know if it's full or not, since we are playing in a taco bell, why doesn't my wife trust me?
didn't find much other info about any active translations of Japanese modules......did find this at least.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmZH2hYDaqE
>>92561979It’s really not necessary for CoC or DG if you’re a halfway decent GM who can paint a shared mental picture of the scene using words. Whenever I realize that a player has a different vision of what’s happening, which is rarely, I pause and clarify and let them adjust their approach. >>92563865I wrote a DG one shot involving an Oni, and I know of at least one other using the same bad guy.Book club rec: Radiant Dawn by Cody Goodfellow. It’s basically a delta green novel just doesn’t have the branding.
>>92561979I like using town maps, as I find they can add to the atmosphere. But for interiors, I prefer to just use simple grids and narrate the rooms.Fortunately, I mostly play in-person these days.
>>92556059>You can find the core rulebook, the investigator handbook, the monster books and like a zillion scenarios online for free in pdf formYou can?
what the fuck is a cuckoo mother
>>92568627Not only does it give a book and page reference it also describes what it does and what the stakes are, which are usually the most pertinent things to know about a monster other than its weaknessesIf you need further information I refer you to the first defining quirk
>>92568832I've been sifting through for a correct copy of Fear Itself, but none of the files I've found have a page 94. The idea of someone being born into the world retroactively catches my attention. Where does the mother go? Do its children pop up fully grown without knowledge of their origins? Does the father intend to possess his son, or is this something he's fated to do without any way to stop? What does possessing him even mean?
>>92566889LOL.
>>92568891Not that anon, but I remember seeing it in second edition after some of the copy-pasted unremitting monsters. Basically, it's all goofy time travel bullshit that only works if the cuckoo mother is alive and all the specifics of the transfer are left to the GM.
>>92569146Neat stuff, thanks for the explanation. Looks like I was reading the wrong edition. In my search I looked through some of the Unremitting Monsters and they've got some really cool concepts.
Why isn't there a CoC videogame that's just a CRPG with no combat like Disco Elysium? All tension does once you're shooting at gribbly thingsI know this is /tg/ but I hate /v/
>>92553525I really like Transition Dreams by Greg Egan. Can't discuss too much because spoilers but it captures a sense of existential vertigo better than anything else for me, especially since I tend to have recurring nightmares about similar subjects. The tipping point is when the unpleasant realities of minds simuated in silica are implied to be as applicable to regular existence, all of a sudden the theme goes from "don't upload yourself bro" to "don't exist" except because of infinities some Boltzmann variant will always be stuck out there somewhere suffering.Haven't really used it as inspiration as such but given AI are meant to be freaky and ambiguously summoned as much as made some sort of perpetual panpsychc existence would be a good theme to explore should the players ever (foolishly) try to look into their fundamental essence.>>92553941Would genuinely run the following as a san-atritting dungeon:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtEkUmYecnkStill, tf are you doing shitting on camp in /tg/ of all places? Go back to your cubicle if flights of fancy offend you.
>>92571679Not every light-hearted tongue-in-cheek post is shitting on things, anon. Just thought that it was a way of describing the job which had kind of a Night Shift kind of vibe to it - in other words, based in reality but with the weird turned up a few notches. Although in hindsight it probably isn't as playable a setting as Night Shift, or Asterix, or CoC.
Why do they keep trying to remake this game? It hasn't worked yet but it keeps on happening. This one at least looks pretty and the jazz soundtrack was nice but the gameplay, puzzles and mystery fucking sucked.
>>92573414I’m just glad they went back to using Yog-Sothothery. Always hated that the first game was big on the Mythos, but every other one switched to demons or zombies or other basic shit.
>>92573615I mean the primary enemy in the 24 version is just a zombie. You fight three variants of the standing zombie, a crawling ribcage, and some leech men.
>>92572549My mistake then, sarcasm is hard to parse in text and I took >>92554379 at face value.>>92554530Very much depends on the nature of the disruption. Unlikely to be a 1-to-1 equivalent but the Freeze Frame Revolution is worth checking out, especially since it does the "deep time" of colony ships justice. For my part the idea is that PCs awaken from cryosleep on a lighthugger that's suffered from memetic attack which is especially bad as the engines rely on observation by specially-indoctrinated generation-crew.Preventing meltdown and reawakening that AI meant to oversee indoctrination (most importantly ensuring that it remains contained) would be the meat of the intro adventure with the real meat of the campaign being toying with humanity for fun and profit. It's not fully horror at that point but dehumanising as anything. Existential-wise >>92553516 it takes the "what if consciousness isn't strictly speaking better?" conceit and adds "what if we're not especially conscious in the first place?".
Has anyone read "The Secret of Ventriloquism"? I've always been a big fan of incorporating Liggoti-esque themes into my games, and I'm wondering if this would scratch that itch.
>>92576027I have,.and it's pretty great. Theres lots to take from it on face value without getting into the deeper concept of overwritten consciousness not just for people but for places too.
>>92576027>>92576150Heard of this being discussed here before. What is it about?
>>92576150Yeah, I really want to use Greater Ventriloquists in something one day.
There a mega for any of the delta green stuff?
>>92576182It's about the secret of ventriloquism.Easily my favorite weird fiction book of all time.
>>92576182It's an anthology of stories, some are more connected than others, about a dying town and what goes on in there >>92576189>The dummy is nothing but a trifleI love the idea of Greater Ventriloquism and how the thoughts behind it get more and more alien and emphasizing this sort of emptying of the self. That and the treatment of 'animal dummies' ,ade the entire thing a slowly unfolding look into some real fucked up mentality that would be used to great effect
>>92569049Found them, cheers!
>>92577926I can't figure out if this guy is serious or not.
>>92576389Mega's are stupid.1. Download an IRC client (Hexchat, mIRC)2. Connect to "IRCHighway" server3. /join #ebooks4. @search Delta Green5. Open search results6. Copy/paste a line in #ebooks7. Profit
>>92576389There is, search green box on 4plebs.>>92579591Why do you push this so hard? It's annoying in the share thread and it's annoying here. And I'm the guy who ran fserves since the 90s.
>>92580074Cry about it, I guess.Oh wait you are.FYI I posted it twice in the share thread but evidently I live in your head rent free.lol.lmao.
>>92563728>John LanganI read The Fisherman 2-3 years ago and remember overall enjoying it but I can only vaguely remember the plot points now. Guessing Wide Carnivorous Sky is worth reading?
We have player playing Call of Cthulhu for the first time with our group, and we wanted him to have the classic CoC Experience.I've run most of the classic one for the other players: The Haunting, Edge of Darkness, Dead Light, Lightless Beacon.I'm torn between The Cracked and Crooked Manse and Mr Corbitt.Which one would you recommend to give a new player the best taste of CoC?
>>92581824I've run Manse, it's pretty fun because it goes 0 to 100 in no time once they reach this certain trigger. But until then there really isn't a lotYou can run some fun stuff with if you want to play up the haunted house aspect but there's not a lot other than getting to the point where the slime monster attacks. Mr Corbitt I haven't run but other than a sort of awkward start in trying to make your players wants to poke your heads in the neighbors business there's a lot of fun to be had there. Take into account what your players styles are like and if they're more proactive go for the latter I would say.
So an issue I repeatedly run into in pre-made Call of Cthulhu scenarios is like, most scenarios begin with>"Your old friend so-and-so from Arkham sent you a mysterious letter before disappearing entirely."And it always feels awkward to introduce an NPC that most of the PCs haven't met before and being like "Oh it's your buddy, Bob!" Coupled with that is how in scenarios where there isn't that "your old friend is in trouble" motif, figuring out how or why the investigators get contacted and form a group can be confusing.I'm thinking of resolving it by maybe giving them some backstory like "You all joined the same Miskatonic Occult Research Group after individually encountering some weird things."Another thing is my buddies still have issues with the system and so, y'know, one of them envisions their character being a stunt driver. Another thinks their guy is a professor. A third rolled an accountant. But the premise of CoC seems to be Investigating spooky shit followed by pants-shitting horror. Though at times I have trouble figuring out why an accountant or stunt driver would be contacted by some wealthy heiress trying to find her lost daughter or what have you. Feels like a job for a detective or PI more or less. How do y'all run it?
>>92583602Honestly that's a big part of why I prefer to run Delta Green, at least as a premise>"Go investigate this spooky occurrence and make sure it's mundane"Sometimes I even throw in the occasional scooby-doo plot or regular serial killer in, just to keep things fresh and establish that false alarms are a thing.
>>92583652Yeah, Delta Green works since being part of the same agency resolves issues in storytelling; "Who's this new guy coming in after Jack died?"Also another thing I realized was the few times we've played it, my PCs have always tried to keep the party together. It's good horror movie logic, but it was only after they all saw a horrible monster and failed their SAN rolls that I realized maybe I should warn them that staying together also increases the odds of a total party kill
>>92583785Back when I was running a game based on PISCES, the team would usually split in two, with a 'Shooter' and a 'Specialist' each. That way they could handle most puzzles and still stay alive long enough for help to arrive if they met serious opposition. It didn't always work.
>>92583602You can always try to think of ways to connect the PCs that aren't direct. Like your wealthy heiress is trying to track down her lost daughter so she contacts her accountant to look into mysterious charges to her accounts that might be her daughter and gets ahold of her daughter's ex, who is a stunt driver, to look for her since he knows her habits and interests best. Really though, this is what session zero is for, making sure everyone is aligned with the tone, content, and setup of the game.
>>92583835>Back when I was running a game based on PISCESInsect tendrils wrote this post
Have any of you involved the Great Race of Yith in your games?I feel like they're the hardest of Lovecraft's aliens to incorporate, given they don't physically exist in the time period of the game, and they're not exactly hostile. All I can think is having the players all having gotten replaced by Yithians and starting the adventure with them returning to their senses, but that's just rehashing the original story.
>>92587251They are the hardest to write for the reasons you have outlined. DG did the right thing by giving them a motive but unfortunately the motive is shit. They are one-note.The real issue is the reveal is bound to fall flat. Say you have a serial killer on the loose, and the serial killer ends up being a Yithian and the killings are important to ensuring their grand designs come to pass. Well either the players have no idea what a Yithian is and there's no decent way to explain all of their lore without it just being an info dump. Or the players do know what a Yithian is and they just roll their eyes because Yithians are boring.That said, you can do a lot with the ruins of their civilization.
>>92587251The Yith are all about playing a long game that seems inscrutable at first and up close, but comes into focus as you study it and the events related to it. I don't see them being very impactful in the course of one session for the same reasons >>92588264 said. Either it becomes an infodump or it just falls flat. What you should do is inject insane shit into anything with the Yith. I had the idea for a series of seemingly unrelated campaigns and sessions that have, over their course, the chance to see a PC who would just be killed go missing mysteriously. After enough PCs have been captured over time, have them wake up in the middle of a massive, apocalyptic Unnatural awakening. Instead of saving humanity, they're given the goal by the Yith of turning the Earth into the radioactive wasteland they need it to become.
>>92555713have fun, anon
>>92580837Definitely, there are a few other good stories in there as well, but the title story is pretty damn good.
>>92588264I’m not as familiar with Delta Green fluff. What motive did they give the Yith?
>>92579591Thanks anon, this is the first time I ever bothered with IRC. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the evening figuring out how to do it without mucking something up.
I got this one shot I want to run, it's a simple 10 hr playtime business over one night. Now this one shot I want to advertise it as being all about this one event in this city that may go wrong. What I'm planning is that the players, due to the road conditions, won't be able to make it all the spot but they ARE going to be assaulted by something sinister at where they are instead.What I need to know is: what are some good foods and drinks to keep a bunch of people awake till 4am?
>>92587251If you put the goals of the Yith into specifics, you'll lose the qualities that make them terrifying. They should only be understood in the broadest strokes, that they act to ensure the extinction of mankind and the proper flow of time so that they end up inheriting the Earth. If you want an understandable goal, have them hunting people who could possibly save humanity's future. Energy experts, diplomats, scientists, up and coming politicians. People who could make a difference, no matter how great or how insignificant. They're also a great choice for killing off cults or culling them, to ensure they can't further their plans and destabilise Earth in the wrong way.
>>92591026Long story short: they mess with things across time to ensure a nuclear holocaust in our future which will leave a race of giant beetle creatures as the only inhabitants on earth, which are the future vessels for the Yithians minds. Which leads into the other problem with the Yithians: since they exist outside of time they've either already won or have already lost.
>>92591663Considering the sheer number of Old Ones, cults, present inhabitants, primeval inhabitants, and alien races that are squabbling over Earth at any given moment, one has to wonder why the Yithians even want to stay here.
>>92587251I only used them once and changed them into beings that never existed but were instead dreamed by some great old one and leaked out into an accessible dimension. They have memories of events that never occurred and consequently suffer a kind of racial insanity like D&D's derro. Any technology they claim to have invented was stolen from other species lost in dimensions and unfortunate enough to run into yithians.I had plans to create other similarly dreamed up races, but the campaign ended before I could use them. Was looking forward to that scuffle, too.
Anyone remember the name of that Gumshoe Cthulhu monster book that gave you alternate versions of each monster?
>>92563708I own both. Just art. The new one has a nicer cover and the internal pdfs are a bit greener to match the new design.That's it.>>92563728Caleb Stokes tried that in Delta Green but it was sort of unpublishable since they decided to do psychedellics and shit into adult diapers. Don't ask me why
>>92594001Nigga you can't just drop that shit with no context, give us a quick rundown
>>92576182>>92576189>We Greater Ventriloquists are acolytes of the Ultimate Ventriloquist. We Greater Ventriloquists are catatonics, emptied of illusions of selfhood and identity. We Greater Ventriloquists no longer toil in any physical way. We think nothing and do nothing. But we Greater Ventriloquists are active. We are active as nature moves us to be: perfect receivers and transmitters of nothing with nothing to stifle the voice of our perfect suffering. Yes, we Greater Ventriloquists speak with the voice of nature making itself suffer. Nothing could be more normal than that.>This head is a useless mechanism. Cast it aside. We do not need it anymore. There is nothing but the voice of this pain and this panic thrown into the darkness. It all starts when someone like you begins to suspect that everything is a trifle. When someone like you looks at itself in a mirror too long. When someone like you melts the flesh of a street bum into a quivering puddle on the pavement. When someone like you brings a plane down. When someone like you reads these 20 simple steps to ventriloquism. When someone like you is put together. When someone like you is put together. When someone like you is put together.
>>92593880Trail of Cthulhu?
>>92593550I think it's because it's easier for them to travel through time than space and they can't choose just any creature to inhabit, so they have to be picky.>>92591663Well, there are some futures where they don't end up as the survivors on Earth, so it's quite possible they can be paracausal.
>>92594664Okay so uhhh basically they had a few options during Sanguine thorn on how to deal with the creature and they ended up deciding to try to use psychedellics they tried to get from a pharmacy to try to hijack the brain connection and induce a state where they would be able to more tap in and control the creature to make it crash and fall. The alternatives were brain surgery and some other options and I don't recall why they chose this one. The idea was the doctor PC would watch over them while they were all brain diving at the same time with psychedellics and shitting and pissing into adult diapers to try to bring the creature down so they could kill it. They had to roll a 0/1 to helplessness I remember.Also there was a plotline with delta green trying to kill the agents because of course there was.
New keeper here, reading through the book and got to combat and, jeez it seems like every advantage is given to anything the players encounter. It almost seems really unfair, and it feels like most of the combat section was just explaining how players get hurt, almost die, heal slowly, or die period.Should I take it easy on the players, at least a LITTLE more than the book says? Because it sounds like it fucking hates all player characters.
>>92597029If your players are in a protracted combat in Call of Cthulhu with anything above a Cultist, they're doing something wrong. Combat basically is explaining how your players die horribly, and often the way they win an encounter is to do some kind of secondary objective not related to combat (such as throwing an artifact into a fire or completing a ritual or something like that).There's a reason the chapter after combat is chases, which is what most players should do when they run into a fucking Shoggoth.If you want extra comedy, get Malleus Monstorum. The second volume has expanded stats for all the Mythos deities. An entire book dedicated to "You fucking die."\If you want a game with easier combat, try the Pulp Cthulhu expansion.
We often talk about inspiration from great horror authors, and how we'd run their monsters/scenarios. Let's do a bad one.You have to run an adventure based off the works of Dean Koontz, the poor man's Stephen King. How are you doing it?
>>92597029Combat is not the focus of CoC. When I started running CoC for my pals who played either D&D or PF (see: power fantasy) I advised them that running is an option they should strongly consider. Mentally prepare your players for the fact they will more than likely die, Especially, if they are used to power fantasy games or have only heard of D&D and that has set their expectation.
>>92591663Kinda lame to imply the beetles directly come after humans. My impression from Shadow Out of Time was that the beetles taking over was something that happened millions of years after humanity, and there would be other dominant races in between.
So, among the intelligence races, which ones reside - ie, have settled on not just visiting - on Earth? The Elder Things are the original settlers, but are they still around on Earth, ie, undersea cities their descendants may still inhabit or have they all been genocided after devolving and losing their interstellar flight capability? Were the ones found in Antarctica the very last members of their species left on Earth? When they thawed out did they ever figure out what was going on or did they die trying to ascertain that in their abandoned city?
>>92595026That's the name of their Cthulhu line, I'm looking for the specific book
Anyone played Mothership? Been my table's warden for few sessions now, just running prebuilt one shots. I've had fun with it but it's not nearly as high lethality as I was expecting. Part of the problem is that my players have figured out that shoving things out airlocks is a pretty effective solution to everything in a ship or station. So far, they've dealt with >Ypsilon 7 >Year of the Rat>Terminal Delays >The Haunting of the AlexisYpsilon was the only one with casualties. I'm trying to run Gradient Descent next.
>>92598269Remembered I had the link to the (still working) trove.Conveniently the book had "bestiary" in the name.
>>92597347>>92591663>>92587251Y'know I'm not as well-versed in aspects of the Great Race of Yith lore as I am with others, but it seems to me that you can make them terrifying by focusing less on their motives and more on their methods.Like if their whole thing is they can take over your body and mind as their own, there's plenty of room to play around with there. An example would be a story where the PCs family or friends get taken over by Yithians. Or an investigation that takes after "Invasion of The Body Snatchers"Play with the PCs paranoia. Is the helpful librarian who finds them a book on Occult Knowledge a Yithian spy luring them into a trap? Maybe hand them all envelopes before they play, and every envelope can say "You are *NOT* a Yithian" they'll start to suspect the other plays are Yithians. You can go even further: have a dog that just stares at them intently. It doesn't have to be possessed, it could just be a weird dog, but they'll start to get paranoid and shit. Once they start suspecting everyone is a Yithian spy, they'll come across as crazy to locals at worst, or at best can get them riled up into a lynch mob.
>>92598360>weird dogPlease don't give people ideas like that. Next thing you know, the furries will have started an anthro CoC game, and then we'll have to put up with the Great Race of Yiff.#sorrynotsorry
>>92598650Dear god, what have you done?! The Mythos and that thing should never be allowed to touch, I knew that the Hounds of Tindalos were already near the edge!
>>92598650I'm going to be honest with you, I have had multiple dreams of what would happen if a hypothetical furry world was faced with full-blown mi-go invasion.It was the weirdest shit, because it wasn't just "oh it's our world but dog people", no, it was full-blown furry world, and all the fetishes that came with it.You had vore furries swallowing mi-gos, goian furries crushing mi-gos under their paws or hooves, furries with transformation powers, furries with hypnosis powers, inflation furries that worked like that one bird from angry birds, every manner of deviant sexual fetish you can think of working together to overcome this extraterrestrial invader.They got crushed, obviously, within a month, but they gave a valiant effort.
>>92598917Were you one of the furries or one of the mi-gos in your dream?
>>92598963Neither, I was a third-party observer, like a ghost or specter.I was rooting for the furries because they just wanted to be left alone, but the dream was making the mi-gos win so I guess subconsciously I was rooting for them.Most of the dreams were focused on the creative application of fetish based powers, but no amount of yiff is going to help against beings that bend time and space as a hobby. Especially since they would kidnap powerful furries and perform brain surgery on them to make them join their side as slaves and utilize their powers to the mi-gos advantage.
>>92598842I think we both need to roll for SAN loss, anon.
What I don't fully understand about the Great Race of Yith is whether the race itself can perceive and observe outside their hosts/vehicles. Do they even exist outside? This is the difference between having knowledge specific to the lightcones of spacetime slices that are part of the Construct (which is still inconceivably large) versus possessing TOTALITY of knowledge. While humans can only ever interact with a Yithian that was cut enough to fit inside their host/vehicle, I wonder what Yithian society would really look like, if there really was nothing new to discover.
>>92597141I know nothing of Dean Koontz, what are some of his more iconic monsters so I at least get the gist of them? Unless this is like meta, and is the horror of failing at creativity. >>92599003>>92598917We're shitposting, but I think the future of furries is honestly terrifying, as less and less self aware humans get access to body mods and descend further into their fantasy. Imagine a future where vast swathes of the population have gene modded themselves into drooling retarded living fursonas acting out their basest impulses.
>>92600246Don't encourage the furries. It's bad enough dealing with that kind of body-mod/gene-mod shit in cyberpunk games, Eclipse Phase, or anything with mutations. If we get it in real life I might have to quit my job and stand for election as dog-catcher. (And you don't want that, because I'll take my inspiration for doing the job directly from Matthew Hopkins and Frank Castle.)
>>92587251>>92588264>>92588586The TVA from the Loki tv show are a good inspiration for using the Yith. The thing about a Yithian plot is that it's conspiracy, so if you're playing DG then you need to run it as conspiracy versus conspiracy.
>>92597141Koontz is very much a thriller writer who uses horror elements than a horror author. That being said I'd crib from Phantoms so that rather than an ancient tome of unspeakable knowledge, the information the players need is found in a poorly supported book of psuedoscience that happens to be correct.
>>92598270Mosh doesn't have super lethal combat - it's just that any wound has a chance to be lethal. It's mostly just swingy. But also, it sounds like you're making it too easy to push things out of airlocks, maybe.
>>92583602>I'm thinking of resolving it by maybe giving them some backstory like "You all joined the same Miskatonic Occult Research Group after individually encountering some weird things."That's a neat idea: it explains why a disparate group of people are working together and the players can have extra fun thinking up an individual spooky experience for their back stories.
>>92602570I do this for a lot of different games, not just horror>Who is your Character>What is your most important memory>Why are you [Initiating Plot Point]Of course this only works if your players actually WANT to flesh out their characters.
>>92600246As someone who only wants to be healthy and mentally sound as long as possible, I hope it happens when I'm in good enough condition to partake in at least some of my /d/ fetishes.
>>92602570>That's a neat idea: it explains why a disparate group of people are working together and the players can have extra fun thinking up an individual spooky experience for their back stories.I also like the idea of a kind of Loser's Club pact coming into play. Like maybe the Character's saw *something* as kids all growing up in the same town, and while they repressed the memory of what that thing was, they made an oath to come together if any one of them discovers spooky shit again.I even thought of a neat blurb that could be the start of a campaign, something like;>"Our story begins with the crunch of shovels against dirt, and the slithering of soil. Five children dig a hole in the middle of the woods.">"They dig with their parents tools. They dig deeper than they've ever dug before. They dig until a sickly moon parks itself in the middle of the sky.">"Inside it, they place something... awful. >"Something they want to forget.">"Once they bury the awful thing and wipe the sweat from their foreheads, they cut their hands and mingle blood.">"From this day until the day they die, they'll try their best to forget about the thing buried in the woods.">"But if something were to happen. Something like what made them dig late into the night. They'd all come running to help each other.">"Because what's down there can never see the light of day."You can even play around with what's buried there and tease it to players. It could be anything from some mythos artifact to one of their friends who was murdered by a cosmic horror.
>>92587251Used the Yith as written in my scenario where they had built a containment trap for a flying polyp and some locals fucking with the pylons caused it to fail. Half of it was intended (Wendigo cultists thinking it was keeping something of interest to them locked away and the other half a dumb yokel fucking with things). Anyway the sudden burst of T-Radiation was the initial hook. I built in a time limit of ten days and that things would get progressively worst involving weather and electronics with several different outcomes based on the choices the PCs made.Pcs managed on the best course of action which had them directing HARM missiles fired from an F15 at the polyp and wiping them out in true Program fashion. The Yithian had been sending dreams to the highest POW character to try and give clues to what was going on. Having fixed the anomaly the yithian saw them as "marked as servants" and the PCs got either a +20% to any unlearned (i.e. base) academic skill or + 5% to any skill they knew (based on the premise that fundamentals are easier than refinement). So the Yithian sent their consciousness through time to learn at the hand of a historical master. Like the guy who chose mechanical engineering learned from Henry Ford, etc.The Yith really aren't inscrutable - their goal is rather clearly outlined. Whether you think it's good or bad plotwise is another story. But they're one of the few races who aren't default hostile and actively oppose other mythos beings who are. In this case regardless of why the agents did it, the Yith marked them as effective servants who could be of use in the future.In sum, the Yith either can be benign or antagonists all based off what the PC goals are and what their goals are.
>>92583602In the 20's, spiritualism was making a huge comeback in American, so an occult club or fringe church, while not *normal*, shouldn't be totally immersion breaking. Weird churches, yoga clubs, small cults, spiritualism circles, all of these things were seeing a boom. That's part of the reason HPL was writing about the occult, it would have been in current events while he was alive.I think it's a good idea because it forces the players to make a character who is explicitly interested in the occult, whether as a seeker, a true believer, or a sceptic.
>>92597141I'm not an expert on koontz but as a fan I would say>Government and Civilization seems to be bigger element, Secret labs, wunderwaffen gone wrong, etc. I think probably the thing that stuck with me the most is just the very palpable despair that the youngin's were worshipping corn.>Likes to subvert "We are the problem' Always seem to have a sort of a red herring where it really seems like the person going 'This is a ricktatorship' or 'Humans are the problem' is very much the actual threat. But not actually>a lot of this things are suped up normal thingsmaggots crawling around bodies, cancer, even just flora and fauna all become monstrous. They end up dragged in from other dimensions, infecting ours, rebuilding your body in a moment of hubris turns tragic or even just a legit dimensional alien encounter but their dimension's entropy is so cut throat compared to ours that everything in the dimension is essentially carnivorous/parasitic.Its all pulpy stuff, just run it flat. Pick something that would be legit terrifying (worms/intestional worms ,etc) and make it wierd but not gross. Mind controlling worms from outer space works, like other anon said its a thriller. It's not so much if the PC's figure out it out but when. Will they figure it out in time to save the town? Their friends/Family? Themselves? End it with a fist fight or maybe a suicide and try it again. Have the first villain mark or curse the pc's so that they can find more shit like this.
>>92600246Dean Koontz mainly deals with serial killers and psychics trying to catch them. Like >>92601845 said, he's a thriller author with horror trappings.But in terms of his more straight up horror monsters, I'll name a few examples:>PhantomsMassive amoebic shapeshifter which is responsible for several extinctions and disappearances of civilizations. It can create small split offs of itself which can mimic other creatures. May or may not be Nyarlathotep.>Darkfall/Darkness ComesDiminutive demons summoned by a Voodoo Priestess who tear people apart but don't eat them. Later, a giant tentacular demon trying to escape hell, but is too large to get through the portal and the bit the characters fight is the equivalent to the creature's finger.>WatchersGenetically engineered super baboon with a hatred of humans who mistreated it in its creation. Called "The Outsider">InvasionAlien entity called The Giver which can only move around by "riding" the bodies of other lifeforms. It has no concept of death, thinks all living things exist to serve it and can split itself into multiple bodies.
>>92597141Servants of Twilight, Darkfall, Eyes of the Dragon, Strangers, Watchers, and Shadowfires obviously have very strong DG themes and could be adapted to a game. It helps Koontz has a lot of his male protagonists be some form of elite military type. Fear Nothing and Seize the Night are also good for this.
>>92606804 Good summaries. From my list> Shadowfires 80s Elon Musk dies, but has injected himself with some formula that turns him into a monster slowly but surely. Laid back Force Recon commando and Musk's swarthy yet sexy ex wife have to stop them while staying ahead of an insane FBI agent.>Eyes of the DragonSeveral people from multiple walks of life and one dog work together to stop a more immature version of Alzis.>Servants of TwilightA boy is targeted by a cult that declares him the Antichrist and stops at nothing to kill him.>StrangersA group of seemingly unrelated people begin having weird phenomenon occur to them, and turns out aliens are involved.>Fear Nothing/Seize the NightA man who can't be in the sunlight learns his sleepy town is ground zero for weird experiments that his mother was working on. Features intelligent evil monkeys and an intelligent dog.
>>92606890>80s Elon Musk dies, but has injected himself with some formula that turns him into a monster slowly but surely. Current Elon Musk would probably do the exact same, let's be honest.
>>92608796Honestly yes. Also thinking deeper, Shadowfires was a pretty good cutout of a Conspiracy versus MAJESTIC operation, with Benny (Marine) as the DG stand in trying to destroy the technology and the FBI agent as the MAJESTIC operative trying to recover it.
>>92608796To explain a little, the not-Elon Musk injected himself with a formula which gives him rapid regeneration in order to avoid death. However, it cannot properly heal the brain, so he becomes a crazed unkillable creature after he dies in a car accident and heals wrong.
I know it´s a bit off topic but what´s your favourite Child-soldier Birthing Unit (C.B.U.).In regards to at least a semblance of morality I´d pick the Axolotl tanks from dune.In terms of horribleness the Demonculaba from Warhammer 40k.Lastly if asked for the most effective one(and decently horrible) , I´d answer the Units that the ICOG from Xeelee- Sequence use.The positions of the last two are debatable, but do you know some more C.B.U.´s or horrible fates one could suffer?Bonus points if it is a fate that even god like beeings have to deal with.
Anyone checked out Memento Mori yet?https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/464206/Memento-Mori--Quickstart-Guide
>>92600555Okay buddy. Kill other humans. See where that gets ya.
>>92597029Honestly smart players can survive a lot. There are a LOT of ways to beat a lot of things, especially other people.
>>92613814This is the first I’ve heard of it but the premise sounds really interesting.
So….finding the Yellow Sign. What does mean, exactly? Is the Yellow Sign an object that triggers your descent into madness, or is it more of signpost of your journey into crazy-town? Or, is it sort of both? So, if some weirdo crosses your path and asks if you’ve "found the yellow sign" it’s already too late? But you do seem to have to find it, like taking a necessary step? It does appear to be a real, physical object but, outside of the context of the King in Yellow, does it actually have any meaning / potency as the Yellow Sign?
>>92600555Real life furries are a self-correcting problem. They hate themselves so much they think they can make themselves "interesting" again to themselves, but end up broke and miserable because the mental health issues they have that drive them to these extremes, coupled with the poverty from modifying themselves into a limited career path, don't allow for anything else.So you either end up a circus freak of mods and drama like "Tiamat Legion Medusa" (Richard Hernandez), or you end up a circus freak of mods and drama and kill yourself like "Stalking Cat" (Dennis Alver).It's really sad.Now, if you want real shits and giggles, go read up on transgender supporters attacking transracial activists. The mental gymnastics as they apply "trans(gender)phobic" logic and language to transracial people, while falling back on "transgenderism is different just because" arguments is hilarious and depressing at the same time.
>>92618322Much like the King in Yellow itself, the Yellow Sign is a memetic virus. Asking someone “Have you found the Yellow Sign?” Will lead them into an obsession of trying to find it. This will invariably lead them to researching the occult, and driving them to madness as they fill their minds with things best not understood. Similarly, seeing the Yellow Sign without the above phrase will still cause you to obsess about it, though maybe not as overtly at first. I imagine it’s like the guy who becomes obsessed with spirals in Uzumaki, where it becomes such a focus for him that it consumes his life.
>>92555713Sounds like a nice store. I'm jealous.
Does anyone else find the combat, chase, and sanity rules in CoC a little.... stupid and confusing?
>>92621579They're great! Awesome! Wonderful even!Just don't look at any other game design in the past 40 years or so.And that's the kicker: for their time, they introduced ground-breaking new concepts to TTRPGs, by which I mean "when compared to Dungeons & Dragons". But since then there have been better options for handling such things. Personally, I find the Madness Meters of Unknown Armies to be a better take on the concept of "losing Sanity", and easier to game with. Exquisite Replicas is another one worth looking into; losing sanity makes you better at stuff, while also making you less functional in society (been literal decades perhaps since I last looked though). Hell, Exalted has better sanity mechanics with its Limit system, and that kind of sucks.
>>92621579I’m surprised you lumped the chase rules in there. I fucking love those and wish more games had them. Only thing I don’t like about it is how anyone getting chased with a faster movement than their pursuer automatically gets away. I mean, there are usually obstacles in the way that prevent progress, and a faster person might not necessarily be good at the skills needed to get around that obstacle. Plus, it’s no fun to have a player sit out an encounter just because they’re too fast. But it’s really easy to just ignore that and still set it up with them involved. Also, in regards to combat, the “fight back or dodge” mechanic is fucking great and again is something more RPGs should use. It really helps mitigate the action economy advantage players get over bosses.
>>92621579A little derpy but functional other anon mentioned UA's take on it and I don't hate that at all. D100 UA may be a personal game goal for me now.
>>92621579How the hell are the sanity rules confusing? It's like, 3 things you have to remember.
>>92622308It's hard to remember rules when you've gone completely insane.
>>92622732You don't have to ACTUALLY be insane whenever your character is but I appreciate your commitment to roleplay
Speaking of the King in Yellow, I had a thought the other day, wondering if Hastur really was the KiY or if it was just another entity that has been trapped and taken over by Carcosa and the forces therein, said forces being far and above even a Great Old One or Outer God. It might be an irrelevant splitting of hairs in the grand scheme of things, but the way that everything wrapped up in that particular branch of the Mythos behaves, it doesn't quite feel like the rest does.
>>92622849Probably because it was worked in on retrospect. Most other Great Old Ones were created by people imitating Lovecraft, while Hastur and KiY existed beforehand and Lovecraft worked them in. I always thought the King in Yellow was supposed to be Hastur’s projection/Avatar. Like, Hastur is trapped in Carcosa but he can send out the King in Yellow in order to respond to invocations. Ever noticed most Mythos authors tend to make Great Old Ones and not Outer Gods? Feels like we have a ton of GOOs by other authors like Gla’aki, Y’golonac, Tsathoggua, Chaugnar Faugn and Shudde M’ell, but I can’t think of any Outer Gods made by anyone other than Lovecraft.
>>92621759UA really does have the best sanity system because passing it gives long term armor but too much is a demerit in and of itself. Honestly transplanting that I to CoC would really improve the game but I feel like they're sort of married to the whole temporary, indefinite, and then rolling on the table for a new phobia which is fun in and of itself but a lot of it just seems arbitrary and removes player agency. I've personally always kept the rule of players being able to keep the option to Fight, Flight, or Freeze (also from UA)>>92621826Seconding this though. Chase rules are genuinely fun and can make a interesting encounter that isn't just take turns beating someone or getting beat.It's a little weird to wrap your head around at first because you have to do all this fiddling with movement values but once you get it down solid it's a good time.
>>92621579Not really. What RPGs are you used to?The chase rules sound clunky as all fuck when read, but in play they work pretty well. It's better if you have a chase generator for obstacles and etc.
>>92622896>spoilerThere are quite a few Outer Gods made by other authors, like the Hydra or Daoloth or Ubbo-Sathla and Abhoth. It's just easier to write GOOs since you can at least vaguely inconvenience them.
>>92622896>Ever noticed most Mythos authors tend to make Great Old Ones and not Outer Gods? Feels like we have a ton of GOOs by other authors like Gla’aki, Y’golonac, Tsathoggua, Chaugnar Faugn and Shudde M’ell, but I can’t think of any Outer Gods made by anyone other than Lovecraft.Well, Abhoth was an Outer God in CoC at first before later editions changed it to GOO. According to the Lovecraft wiki other OG made by the Circle include Cxaxukluth, Ubbo-Sathla, Xexanoth, Ycnágnnisssz, and Yhoundeh. However, there's definitely more Great Old Ones around.
>>92624234>HydraWait, is there a second Hydra in the Mythos besides the co-leader of the Deep Ones?
>>92624590Yes.https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Hydra_(Henry_Kuttner_entity)
>>92622849Is Carcosa an actual place? Could it be argued that’s more of a "state" (state of mind / being)? Sort of like how Thin Mountain is thought of as an actual place but it only resides in the brain as a cognito-hazard? That could explain the strange, nonsensical aspects like "black stars", "cloud waves breaking on the shores", etc. Or, is it an ACTUAL "place’, just not in our reality / dimension and the strangeness is just our minds glitching out over trying to comprehend it?
>>92624686Carcosa is as real a place as Thin Mountain
>>92625274Based Ligotti poster.I've been wanting to run a one-shot based on his story about a man who loves clown history goes to a small out of the way town to observe and partake in its festival, which is said to have many clowns.
>>92625274It's funny that in this thread you have people discussing Koontz and Ligotti, which are about as far away in actual talent as it gets.With Koontz being the obvious bottom feeder shlock garbage writer and Ligotti being transcendent and a once in a lifetime talent.
>>92625363To be fair, the original post about Koontz referenced him as being a bad writer.
>>92625340"The Last Feast of Harlequin." Good story - the main character's intellectual hubris is quite comedic at times, and sets up the reveal nicely. It seems a little thin for a game scenario, though, so you'll probably want to bulk it out a little.
>>92625554I think between the research, the hotel, the main part of town where normal festivities go on and then the other part of town where there are more... clowns, and then the last scene, it should be enough for a 2 hour oneshot... maybe.
>>92593782Neat, It'd be interesting to see how dreamed races would interact with Dreamlands and Azathoth's pipe-fueled fancies.>>92598842Think you meant "dear dog" anon.>>92598917Honestly sounds like Eclipse Phase. Some decadent Scum hab battling an Exsurgent outbreak and losing.>>92598270Any tips for running space horror anon? I've got a three-shot coming up which is somewhat fleshed out (it's an intro so probalby about as lethal as your MoSh),
>>92625363Koontz isn't a bad writer. He writes mass market paperbacks but that doesn't make him bad at what he does.At the least he's never had to explain why he wrote a juvenile gang bang as a plot point.
>>92587251>All I can think is having the players all having gotten replaced by Yithians and starting the adventure with them returning to their sensesI think it'd be more interesting if players try to escape after they've been involuntarily body swapped. Theres a lot you can do with this premise, explore the ancient past, try to change human history or try to escape to the far future. Anythings possible.
>>92625554The idea of a Festival within another Festival is really quite a rich topic I love the idea of and you can easily have it be the subject of an investigation. You would need a reason for the players to get involved, but them first making the discovery that there's a second, secret celebration going amongst the first and being able to spot the movements and threads within would be quite an experience
Why is the thread autosaged?
>convention I'm going to next month will have a game thats a CoC/The Shield crossover scenario where you'll play as Vic Mackey and the Strike Team>I'll miss it by an hour because I'm running my own game at that timeFucking gay, thats a mix of my 2 of my favorite media
Anyone here a Dreams in the Witch House enjoyer? Pretty cool other-dimensional scenery and concepts in that story. Kind of Doctor Strange-like.
>>92627848All threads on /tg/ auto sage after a week because reasons. The mods delete every meta thread and we haven't had an answer so the reason why is beyond our Ken. >>92627949I think it's a really good story. Pretty dark even by Lovecraft standards what with the protagonist becoming party to child sacrifice. It's a really good example of what knowledgeable sorcerers can get up to on Lovecraft world. Also I really love Brown Jenkins, I've always wanted to work in a rat thing into a campaign because he's a nasty little shit and seems a good low level source of danger.
>>92627949I’ve always had an affection for Lovecraft stories that are “weird sorcerers doing weird shit.” I mean, I love the Mythos, but it’s nice to have a break every so often. That said, I feel like Dreams is one of the weaker examples of these. Doesn’t help every adaptation of it sucks dick. Especially the Cabinet of Curiosities episode.
>>92628832Pretty much every adaptation of it doesn't even DESERVE the title it was based on. I'm starting to think Del Toro is a hack. The story needs trippy, occult, extra-dimensional scenery prevalent. There is a decent-looking point-and-click adventure game of it but it still doesn't really do justice to the visuals.
this is your investigator for today. japanese coc is something else, man.
>>92629291>only 11 powNot gonna be an investigator for very long...
>>92627937This would actually be pretty entertaining.
>>92629241It’d weird because the Pickman’s Model episode was pretty decent. Yes it had its differences, but that was in how characters reacted to their situation. The details were still the same, and the ghoul art was great. >>92629475Maybe it’s pre-7e stats, where they weren’t percentages?
>>92625340>>92625554>At first I thought it was a clown's trick.>The transformation of Harlequin, throwing off his fool's facade.>O God, Harlequin, do not move like that!>Harlequin, where are your arms?>And your legs have melted together and begun squirming upon the floor!>What horrible, mouthing umbilicus is that where your face should be?>What is it that buries itself before it is dead?>The almighty serpent of wisdom.>The Conqueror Worm.
>>92631619Japan is stuck playing 6e forever.
