/ysg/- Yog-Sothothery General

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Actually I played Trail of Cthulhu first, which I guess is kind of odd considering that of the two already fairly sidestream systems, it's the less known.

Nothing really spectacular, played a near-homeless detective drowning in late child support payments and demands for alimony three months overdue looking into a suspicious death with glaring breaches of police conduct that the coroner had been way too quick to rule an accident and 1PP was way too eager to forget.

Game fell apart just around the time the party had started to come up on solid leads because the GM just kinda vanished. Guess he went on vacation to Sarnath.

>>51375533
My first experience was just when I decided to get into tabletop RPGs. I searched the net for an RPG that interested me and wasn't too difficult and I settled on CoC since I liked the setting, Lovecraft and everything. It was a good first session and it's been fun playing it since.

First Cthulhu game I played was CthulhuTech. Not recommended. But it (and the Arkham Horror board game) helped light the already sparking flame of interest in all things lovecraftian, to the point where I now even wrote my own system! Well...okay, I expanded and modified someone else's system. Just look up "Cthulhu Grim" on RPGGeek.

Have never played - most I can get people to do is Arkham Horror: they played once, everyone died by turn 4 iirc. People don't even wanna play the shitty boardgames anymore, let alone invest in some ongoing roleplay. It's gotten so that I'm tired of even talking about it: they go on and on about how much they want to play; but they never ever get down to it.

So...not a lot of coc'ers here, either, it seems. Anyone here play regularly in real life?

>>51381723
I do. It's easy enough to find a group if you live in a cosmopolitan city like I do, but I can imagine it being impossible just about anywhere else.

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This thread should totally cover Clark Ashton Smith, too. Smith is probably one of the only writers in history to write everything from horror about a desert at the edge of the world to a funny story about a dude having a relationship with an 8 foot tall domineering Amazon. He was like Lovecraft but less operatically macabre and with protagonists who are usually willing to bang an alien. It's all very /tg/.

>>51375533
>>Atchung! Cthulhu
*Achtung
>>51381859
This picture may be nice to look at, but it is really really dumb and wrong.

>>51381859
Yes.

>>51381935
Apologies, missed that when I fixed up previous ysg posters OP.

>>51381833
>ssss
Good taste

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Protect your soul, remember your elder sign.

>>51381859
I just read Azombeii.
Fucking great.

>>51384104
Who here tree and who here stars?

>>51382646
no idea i had made a reference but the source seems pretty good so far

Has anyone tried out the Arkham Horror card game? I can't say I've ever played an LCG, but this one caught my attention. I was wondering what you all thought about it.

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How do you guys go about setting the mood and continuing it over sessions. I can do one shots very well but longer running cthulhu campaigns I run seem to turn into a mess, any advice?
Also has anyone played Pandemic Cthulhu? I've heard mixed things.

>>51386188
Pandemic Cthulhu is pretty nice, if you want something lighter and shorter. I prefer it over Elder Sign for that

>>51385454
I've played it on Tabletop Simulator (it's not yet out where I live) and I love it. And I heard from other folks who never played an LCG or were even Lovecraft fans that they really enjoy it.

>>51386957

>>51381859
What was the first CAS story you read? He's one of my favorite authors quite easily and I'd love if he was discussed in these threads.

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>>51387918

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>>51384104
>>51384465
Um what? This is clearly the elder sign

>>51388182
zadok go to bed

>>51385454
I researched it a ton and decided not to buy it. Still a really cool game and would play it in a heartbeat but IMO you have to be really interested in deckbuilding for it to be a worthwhile purchase. Somehow I feel like playing the same scenario over again will be much worse than in other Arkham FFG games

I'm running my first Trail of Cthulhu game with 4 friends next week, any advice?

>>51388182
Honestly, I prefer the swastika to the other two signs. It strikes me as better for some kind of universal anti-baddie icon. It's simpler than the other two, has geometric regularity, and it occurs in just about every culture across the earth in some permutation.

Fucking Nazis, ruining a perfectly good symbol. Could you image if their flag had been a square or something?

>>51390688
>has geometric regularity, and it occurs in just about every culture across the earth in some permutation
surely that's a mark against it, why would an alien race use the same symbol that commonly appears in earth cultures or share our ideas about what makes a shape 'geometrically regular'

>>51386188
drip feed the horror VERY slowly.
Make it mundane with "weird" aspects for the first maybe even second episodes.
Then drop in elements which are unexplainable. Slowly introduce a creeping sense of dread and/or conspiracy, make the weird aspects pop up more and more, and (with less frequency) the unexplainable too.
Always be sure to have a reason for them to keep investigating.
Delta Green is the best mythos system for this sort of thing as it can gradually force the player characters to have to investigate without any knowledge of the weird aspects to start with.
Finally when you approach penultimate episode crank everything up to 11, but don't necessarily reveal every single aspect of the horror.
The final episode should have that honor.

Ultimately: take the pacing you have for a one-shot and divide each story beat into its own episode and use that as a seed for fleshing out the story

hope that make senses as i'm just channeling my horror GM mind right onto the keyboard

MEN SHOULD NOT HAVE THE HEADS OF CROCODILES!

>>51391549
I'm sure the crocodiles aren't thrilled about seeing crocodiles with the bodies of humans either

>>51391042
Stars (with human eyes inside) and tree branches are less otherworldly than a swastika

>>51375533
First experience was the shit d20 CoC. Damn the glut of ogl shit. Still, love the shit out of mythos stuff.

So I'm running delta green this weekend, we've played three one shots so far with the same agents, no one has read lost too much sanity, it was more so to introduce the system and one of the players to a more investigative rpg.

This session, instead of doing a full investigation, I want to run a series of short missions that are pretty up front, but lead to some sanity rending results (the solid ideas I have are going to a recently recovered green box to document the contents, and a short investigation to find a scientist who twisted himself out of the universe with hypergeometry.)

I want to run vignettes between each miny mission, and basically play up the more crazy weird shit and role play and less a straight up conspiracy. How do you fellas this that sounds?

>>51387918
Was great God pan cas? I liked that one, very /ysg/

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoFaEeuQjuM

what is your guys opinion on link related?

>>51392822
>dime a dozen first person defenseless protagonist horror game

I think it's time we stopped doing that.

>>51392850
Not enough guns for you?
Your logic is what made the few actually lore based Lovecraft games all turn into shooters.
When do protags in the mythos "fight back", anon? A handful of times in dozens of stories?

>>51392896
nowhere did he say 'turn it into a shooter' just that there are a lot of horror games which revolve around walking around in first person looking at scary things

>>51392822
Could be interesting. I'm waiting for footage of what you'll be doing in the game before I pass judgement.

>>51393025
How would you do it then? I'm honestly curious, because it actually seems pretty difficult to do raw horror games in ways other than that.

>>51393062
Are you at all familiar with horror games? There are dozens of titles which approach terror very effectively without a focus on action, or without being an Amnesia clone.

>>51393104
Honestly I'm not. The only horror games I ever played were the original resident evil and outlast. Unless you're one of those people that counts Bloodborne as a horror game.

>>51393132
You're missing out by not having played eternal darkness.

>>51393132
I do, from a content point of view at least.

I'm not sure what kind of gameplay this new CoC title's going to rock, but considering the genre, I wouldn't be surprised if it contained some more classic survival horror tropes, like puzzle-solving, inventory and resource management... you've played Resident Evil, you know the basic ins and outs. Now, that might just be wishful thinking, but I can dream.

And yeah, like the other anon said, if you're at all interested in Cthulhu games, give Eternal Darkness a shot. And Alone in the Dark.

>>51393147
I never had a GameCube actually. That said, I've never liked third person horror games conceptually. It always felt like it takes you too far out of the characters POV and provides you too wide a field of view.

Unfortunately in general though I'm not sure how well Lovecraft translates to video games. Let alone translates to the modern era. It's a lot harder to prey on anthropocentrism when it barely exists anymore.

>>51393186
>I've never liked third person horror games conceptually. It always felt like it takes you too far out of the characters POV and provides you too wide a field of view.
Good horror games know how and when to control what you see, to create a greater feeling of dread and paranoia. Just like a movie, I think framing plays a pretty major role in establishing mood and feeling.

That said, I can understand people who press for first-person views out of a need for immersion, but I think if you work your third-person magic well enough, it can be more immersive than first-person.

>>51393186
It's definitely pulpy, too much so to be truly Lovecraft, but it uses the conventions of the medium and convey creepiness real well, and the game spans hundreds of years in a really, really cool fuckin way.

Honestly, the first part of... was it called dark corners of the earth? The Lovecraft game for Xbox was really good. Then, in the aster part of the game, you kill Dagon with naval weapons, which is fuck8n stuopid

>>51393233
Fuck I hate the God damn autocorrect on this phone

>>51393233
I dunno, Dagon's just some busta bopped up Deep One. If the Elder Things could do it, so could we.

I agree it kinda defeats lovecraft though.

>>51393212
The few that did so also had something strong besides resource management and that manner of nonsense.
RE was never anything but a B movie game with jump scares and science gone mad.
Demento/Haunting Ground took the Clocktower formula and added rape to it, it was very effective.
Fatal Frame is godly.
Early SH billed itself on incredible sound design with western horror novel ideals.
Eternal Darkness... had a good gimmick, but it didn't scratch the same itch for me.

>>51393062
Check out The Consuming Shadow on Steam. The graphics look like shit, but the gameplay, writing and horror are pretty good, in my opinion. Despite the fact that you carry a gun around and can kill stuff.

>>51393288
This. TCS is a terrific Lovecraftian game that preserves its cosmic overtones even in the face of action mechanics. Like Bloodborne (I'd argue, at least), it holds back on falling into a zone too campy or optimistic simply because of its godtier atmosphere and story.

You're constantly immersed in a thick, brooding world of insanity and horror that your immediate actions only serve to push back temporarily, and greater cosmic forces can still stand up to all of your attacks while playing with your sanity simply by being near you.

The nature of the game and its presentation make you paranoid and manic, and you're never comfortable in any sense of the word, even if you're alone in your car. Especially if you're alone in your car.

All-around amazing delivery of cosmic horror, even if the content itself is pretty watered down. It goes to show how atmosphere really makes horror, even if the graphics themselves are fairly simple.

>>51393348
You know, I actually think that if a game gives you the possibility to defend yourself, it just makes failing even worse. If the game just never gives you a chance, you could always think "if I had a gun, this wouldn't be so bad!" but if it gives you that gun and you're still overwhelmed (which TCS definitely can manage to do), it just feels worse. in a good way.

>>51393451
Oh, I definitely agree.

When you play a game like, say, Outlast, even if you don't realise it, you're lulled into a sense of predictability simply because of how the game works and plays - without a weapon, you're expected to flee from hostile creatures and characters, hiding in specific locations and using cunning or speed to escape. You're locked into one path, and gameplay doesn't allow you to deviate from that without compromising your victory. As a player, you can assume fairly reasonably that you're not going to be given a gun, or dispatch enemies in a way that hasn't been written as part of the story.

This predictability is the death of horror, because once it's found by players, it mediates our uncomfort by giving us a routine to follow.

Horror games which give you weapons immediately grant you a choice, and with that responsibility for your actions. Should you stay and fight, expending your limited resources, or should you run? Would running even make a difference, or would you end up losing even more supplies because there might not be a 'safe' place to escape to?

It's a simple level of player choice, but the effect it has on horror is palpable because it means you have to think for yourself and make your own choices, all of which you should be unsure of.

Now maybe comparing a game like TCS and Outlast this way is unfair, considering Outlast is made to be cinematic. It's meant to be a linear haunted house attraction with 'boo's and jumps and shock. There's nothing wrong with that, but for me at least, it's nowhere near as terrifying or chilling as something which makes you responsible for your own safety. Makes you think in the moment and forces you to make decisions, like TCS does. Do you penetrate further into the dungeon for clues and more resources once you've completed your main objective, or do you flee and preserve what resources you have?

It's surprising how many devs miss out on this kind of thing.

>>51393551
exactly! and I think the fact that TCS is a roguelike helps, too. Jordan Underneath (pretty good Youtuber, check him out) once said that the fundamental difference between games and any other horror media is that, in a movie or book, you give the viewer or reader a monster to jump out at them. but in a game, you give the player a monster and *set it loose.* Games are, by their nature, more unpredictable than other media, and unpredictability is what fuels good horror.

Btw, has anyone here heard of "Stygian: Reign of The Old Ones"?

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>>51386188
Get ready for the hose.

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>>51394107

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>>51394122

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>>51394186
This one is very niche but it is hands down the BEST way to start thinking about scenario writing and structure.

>>51394200
I love Cthulhu Dark. I actually modified it a bit and run it with my group currently.

>>51375533
Excellent collection of CoC books you got there. I've been heavily considering just biting the bullet and getting a 4th edition rulebook and taking it apart and scanning it in. It's a fucking shame neither 4th or 5th core rulebooks are available in pdf format.

BTW, I have some books not featured in your link. Like the first edition of Trail of Tsuthugga. If I go grab them later, want me to scan them in and post em'?

Do you guys have any ideas on how to work the Mythos into Judaism or Jewish mythology or anything else of the sort? I want to run a Delta Green scenario with some (possibly former) Mossad guys involved, either as the villains or as helpers to the PCs.

>>51395313
Elder Gods assigned places in the Sephirot seems like a starting point for me. Wrapping up the Qabbalah in Mythos business seems like the logical thing to do, but I'm not really that familiar with Jewish culture beyond the mysticism.

>>51395313
Really not an expert on Jewish mythology, but isn't the Leviathan from there? I mean, you have the Leviathan, you have several big evil Mythos monsters living or sleeping underwater...

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This might be sort of an uncomfortable or touchy subject, but how do you guys handle sexuality or sexual stuff in relation to Lovecraft? Things like the implied relations between humans and deep ones, or even stuff like the Wilbur Whately's parentage, are treated pretty scarcely in the original works because talking about sex just wasn't really done. Now, in modern settings mainly, how do you handle that sort of thing in games or how would you treat it in fiction? The Alan Moore comic used it basically to just rip on Lovecraft, which frustrates me.

>>51395313
Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz all become Great Old Ones.

Easy-peasy.

>>51393551
This is why Isolation is considered one of the best horror game in our times.

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>>51395611
>The Alan Moore comic used it basically to just rip on Lovecraft

What are you talking about? The Alan Moore comic used it to scare the reader. It's one of the few subjects that can still make people genuinely uncomfortable.

>>51392676
No, The Great God Pan is Arthur Machen

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>>51395313
http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/a-tale-from-the-mukhabarat-basement
http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/cthugha-based-missions
http://fairfieldproject.wikidot.com/safe-house-dark

>>51396752
I mean, look at the section where he accuses Lovecraft of having sex with gloves on and being totally grossed out by any sex, when in reality we know that he was perfectly happy to fuck his wife. It just struck me as slanderous, and knowing Moore it seemed weirdly pointed.

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>>51393288
one anon from amateur game dev general at /vg/ is making a cosmic horror game

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>>51395313
See Stygian Fox's Ladybug Ladybug Fly-away home, in Things We Leave Behind.
It has the Passover Angel as an Avatar of Nyarlathotep

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>>51396815
I don't think "Happy to fuck his wife" is an adequate description. All indicators say he found sex uncomfortable and pointless. Moore admitted he didn't do too thorough research for Neonomicon and that was wrong. But he loves the man at least given how lovingly Providence makes him. He just has no qualms showing us all the less seemly parts of his life and work as well as the good.

>>51394759
Thanks although not my collection, I've been using it for a while and tried to find the actual author (NeonSamurai I think his name is) but to no avail.

Also cheers for the offer but double check to make sure it's not already uploaded somewhere in the PDF sharing thread/

>>51394759
Is the fourth edition book expensive? I bought one not long ago at a used book store I frequent.

>>51398015
>Moore admitted he didn't do too thorough research for Neonomicon
Of which he would fix in Providence by doing ALL OF THE RESEARCH

Has anybody got any advice for converting a Call of Cthulhu scenario to Trail of Cthulhu?

>>51402724
Isn't there advice in trail of cthulhu?

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>>51402724
This is not spoon feeding it is a cleverly disguised bump

http://site.pelgranepress.com/?tag=download&cat=10

Scroll down

So I was wondering what you all thought of Cthulhu dark ages, I was thinking of running a dual campaign, one set in the dark ages one set in the present with the characters in the present being the descendants of the characters during the dark ages, and was wondering how best to exicute the idea.

>>51405333

Alternate between them each session? Would definitely require at least weekly sessions if not twice a week or more often, lapses in scheduling mean people are going to lose their place in the story super quickly since there's both more to keep track of and more gaps between events. It's a cool idea though, I kinda want to do something like that now.

>>51405783
Yes, I am fortunate enough to have a group with weekly sessions, unfortunately I will be moving soon and so will have to find a new gaming group if I want to run this campaign, but on the plus side I have plenty of time to prep. Do you think this would be a good idea to use for a relatively new group?

>>51405867

Sure, I don't think it really adds any difficulty other than the heavy scheduling requirements you'll need to keep it rolling cleanly. Of course the risk with new groups is that you don't yet have a sense of who might flak out, so it might be wise to break them in with a one shot or two just to feel it out first. If someone fucks the campaign up for you then it's twice as much prep work wasted.

>>51405919
>>51405783
Thanks, as far as the scenario goes, I was thinking of using a hound of tinderlos, as with it cutting throw the angles in time it would make a useful villain for both parties to fight simultaneously, as it goes after both the original party and their descendants, I was wondering though, what other myths entities have the ability to travel through time?

>>51405985

Daoloth.

>>51394759
>I've been heavily considering just biting the bullet and getting a 4th edition rulebook and taking it apart and scanning it in.
You would be the hero of internet for doing this.

>>51406275
Seems interesting, not certain how I could use him in a campaign aside from perhaps one of his astrologer priests traveling between the timelines, whereas the hound could be hunting the dark age PCs and their decendents.

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>>51384104
>not wielding that Elder Sign as an unholy mockery of a blade made from star-quarried stone that flays the light from the hand which grips it
>not wielding a giant adamantine version of the other style of sign as a grotesque mimicry of a shield
>not getting these in your greenbox along with a note telling you good luck

>>51405783
How are you planning on ending the story in the past? It might make the story a little less tense if they know the ancestors will be healthy and sane enough to have children.

>>51409837
I mean, they could already have had children before the story starts

>>51409837
>>51409932
I hadn't considered that, I thought that the campaign in the past might focus more on the characters establishing there power base, becoming important members of the community etc. dealing with more common dark age problems, with sudden bouts of horror and weirdness, culminating in a sorcerer cursing their lineage or a hound suddenly attacking them while they are guests at the home of their liege Lord.

>tfw Fall of Delta Green isn't out yet

At least Cthulhu Confidential is really fucking good.

>>51412085
>Cthulhu Confidential
What is this even?

>>51412714

Same people as Trail of Cthulhu and similar system, but 1930s noir stories and aimed at one player and one GM. Very good stuff.

>>51380481

This seems to be a common problem in all /tg/ -related... Be it board games, ttrpgs or wargaming people love the idea of it but in the end all of them require more work than playing video games or watching netflix and thats where people draw the line.

I had a friend who was really interested in cthulhu rpg, so our gm sat down with him to talk about character creation and he just gave up after like ten minutes, stating that it was "way too much work for a game or whatever".

After that a few friends and I invited him to play Mansions of Madness 1e with us and in the end he didn't want to come because "the rules are like super complicated and theres too much stuff to think about lol"

At this point I started to question why I was friends with these people...

Thats what people are like, sadly.

>>51397889
As I understand it's not exactly cosmic horror. More like cosmic horror and magical realism mixed together. It has a lot of weird dark humour mixed into it.

>>51412737
>>51412085
Anon, if you have a pdf to that shit i will bless your lineage to eighth generations.

>>51405333
I really like Dark Ages, it's a shame nobody really uses it.

I had an idea a while ago for a Dark Ages scenario about a group of Viking explorers stumbling on a sort of Native American proto-Innsmouth. I really need to finish writing that.

\bump/

Anyone else read the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion yet? Despite having some fluff it's really well done and exactly what I needed

>>51415076
Bumpinero, i need this so much.

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things that go bump in the night

Anyone have any short stories that would make good one shots? I've a few ideas I'll list in the hope of getting things going.

Count Magnus by M. R. James
Number 13 by M. R. James
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
Nethescurial by Thomas Ligotti (very interesting tearing apart of traditional Lovecraftian tropes)
The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft.

I'll be running something in about a week with a few friends.

>>51426954
>The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
Tricky one that. I suppose the story would revolve around stopping Mary?

>>51426967
That's what I was thinking. It's pretty simply set up as far as narrative momentum goes, the trouble just comes from exchanging the rather reactive protagonist for active players.

Any good scenarios for a newish keeper and players? I normally just do my own thing bit I'd prefer running a pre-written one this time. At least something to draw inspiration from.

>>51429656
The Haunting is a classic

For some more Lovecraftian fun: >>>/trash/7426418

>>51426793
>>51397965
Did the man smile for any reason other than to be smug?

>>51429656
Edge of Darkness
In the 6thed book.
It's great and easy, better than the Haunting IMO. Basic summary follows.
>Old Man Dies, Leaves will to players.
>Players go to house and read journal of Old Man
>Turns out old man and friends summoned a monster in this old house. Monster killed all friends.
>Counter Spell is in house investigators need to preform ritual while avoiding monster to win.

Fund this

>https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stephaniemcalea/fears-sharp-little-needles-adventures-for-call-of

It is made by people who have made other very good things.

IB4 Shill

>>51387918
I think City of the Singing Flame, which is phenomenal, but Seven Geases is a more lighthearted and succinct introduction. I love how CAS mixes in some understated comedy with the Lovecraftianisms.

He wrote about so much shit that you could drop right into a game, especially a lot of his Averoigne cycle.

I'd throw out some links to stories with interesting things like familiars, zombies in loving relationships with each other, a convincingly written half-demon, the Laurentide ice sheet as a villain, and other things, but I'm on mobile.

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what other major historical figures are actually Nyarlathotep?

>>51434632
Nixon is the only other one I've heard of.

Is 5 too many players for a Trail of Cthulhu arc? Usually when I listen to podcasts there's 3 or 4 players and I haven't run a game before.

>>51433867
He was the elder smug.

>>51434624
No, I was asking what story got YOU into reading CAS. I've already read him plenty myself.

I'd also say The Last Incantation is the best introduction to him.

>>51437113
In my experience 3 or 4 is the sweet spot for CoC. 5 is perfectly manageable though. Your players just have to understand they can't be in the spotlight all the time.

Is it possible to create a lovecraftian feeling game with machines?

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Sup, /tg/. My players and i want to run a Chtulhu mythos games about private investigators/government agents. What's the best system to dive in? Everyone is fairly experienced with different role-playing systems. I was thinking about 1950s-2000s with a healthy mix of combat and social stuff. There's tons of systems and i don't think it's possible for me to check every one of them, that's why i'm asking help here. Thanks in advance.

>>51438906
you mean where the protagonists are machines or the cosmic horrors are machines?

because the first case could be kind of interesting, you're an ai, your body and programming are both easily adjustable and yet are an inherent part of you identity, the idea that your mind and body can both be changed by these creatures who think along lines you can't understand, and who will destroy your identity for reasons you'll never be able to figure out, living with the knowledge that everything that makes you who you are is completely fragile. Could make for some good horror.

>>51439677
Delta Green is set in modern times about ex-intelligence agency employees turned rogue special ops dealing with Mythos on earth, and probably has enough rules for combat that you're looking for

Call of Cthulhu has enough information in the rulebook to let you run a modern game (1890s, 1920s and 1990s are the three recommended time periods) but it might be lacking in terms of complex rules about combat.

Personally I would say start of with CoC and move onto Delta Green if it doesn't work for you.

>>51426954
If you haven't read it already, Algernon Blackwood's Wendigo story is excellent.

>>51441574
Not exactly fit for a roleplaying scenario, but Blackwood's The Willows is also highly recommended as a masterful example of suspense and atmosphere.

The Willows alongside The Wendigo are my two absolute must reads when someone asks for good horror stories.

>>51434632
>>51440834
>about ex-intelligence agency employees turned rogue special ops dealing with Mythos on earth

These two posts make me want to run a campaign about Donald Trump being Nyarlatotep in human form, and instead of specifically ex-intelligence agency employees, they're all just random ex-government agency employees.

Some people from NASA, some from environmental agencies, some ex-intelligence, military planners, etc. Kind of that CoC idea where all kinds of widely different characters come together.

Maybe some inhuman goons are hard at work doing some secret shit in a park that is the REAL cause for the NPR Twitter ban.

>>51443567
he's not smart enough
also my original post was making fun of bad writers. "____ is actually nyarlathotep!!!" is a shitty hook

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>>51440281
Reminds me of the movie 9.

Gonna run edge of darkness for the first time, any pointers on making it extra spooky? Could I add a cult if I want to turn it into a campaign?

>>51375533
Firsf experience was a humorous Trail of Cthulhu game at PAX East. It was Scooby Doo, with special guest stars Davie Jones of the Monkies and The Entirety of the Harlem Globetrotters.

First real experience was a CoC game set in Reconstruction Lousiana. My character was a Haitian Voodun practitioner who, after a ritual went south, escaped to America, where they opened an occult investigations business in New Orleans, eventually taking a former soldier (they thought Union, actually Confederate) in as a partner. Had some neat moments, like the soldier backing up that the black immigrant really did own the building that was burned down, kicking in a door and shooting a guy's gut out with the shotgun of a LeMatt, and incorporating an Elder Sign into a holy symbol. Game sadly fell apart due to the GM becoming a literal Nazi halfway through and not being able to keep politics away from the table.

The REmake soundtrack is pretty great for Cthulhu. Ambient and spooky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFn4m8gBfk8&list=PL1Drm6nb14-kmvcNsTgmnfXDQQU9PUCJP&index=1&spfreload=5

So, /ysg/, I plan on running a horror themed game, with supernatural elements, set in an up-scale New England town.

The main horror isn't Lovecraft, and it's not set in the Mythos, but what are some good creatures to throw in? Nothing too powerful like a god or something, but a good monster-of-the-week and setting for it?

>>51441574
The Wendigo is indeed quite excellent. Much better especially than any of the subsequent stories dealing with wendigos, yetis, Ithaqua, and similar stuff.

>>51442100
I'm not really too keen on The Willows. It has its moments but the sustained nature of it just doesn't work for me. I do enjoy the Wendigo quite a bit but for whatever reason The Willows just doesn't click in the same way.

Either of you two read The King In Yellow? I recently read through its entirety for the first time, having read The Repairer of Reputations about a year ago in a collection entitled Shadows of Carcosa, and The Repairer of Reputations really stood out especially so in light of how the following stories related to it.

>>51447231
That movie was the tits. Good taste.

>>51451182
Coastal: Deep One
Inland: Hunting Horror

>>51451855
They don't really relate to it at all. The second story is also a "weird tales" type of story, about a sculptor that develops a method that can turn living beings into stone, but has no real connection to first story. Then there's a pretty standard ghost story about a man visiting a manor and talking to the people there, only to return the next day to find the place has been abandoned and in ruins for decades. The only connection that one has to the King in Yellow is that one character is named Hastur, the the actuall- a-ghost woman the protagonist falls in love witht is called Jean d'Ys (jaundice, continuing the theme with the colour yellow). Then there's some stuff set in WW1 era Parins being besieged by the Germans, which drop the whole supernatural angle entirely.

Anyone give the Void RPG (Lovecraftian hard sci-fi apparently) a whirl? If so, what're your thoughts?

>>51454512
No, I was talking more about how the main character of The Repairer of Reputations is mentioned in another of the stories and there's definitely an internal consistency behind it all. The new gained appreciation for the first story that I'm talking about is how it's all just a bunch unreliable narrator nonsense. The suicide booths, the future setting, the totalitarian government. None of its mentioned again but Hildred is and he's clearly much more insane than The Repairer of Reputations makes him out to be.

>>51457492
>>51454512
Other than that, though, you're right that they really don't relate at all. It is a shame in a way but not really all that great a loss. There are plenty of other quality works of terror and supernatural to be found and read.

why so ded?

>>51461386
That is not dead which can eternal lie.

Any good recordings of Call of Cthulhu sessions? Looking for examples of The Haunting, Edge of Darkness, Crack'd and Crook'd Manse, etc.

>>51440281
That's kinda what Lost Source was about.

>>51413178
Hey, thanks for responding to my rant! And I see your experiences are similar to mine....sorry about your/our luck, anon!
But you are correct: people are just like that. Stupid? Lazy? Unthinking starspawn? Slaves of pleasure and convenience? We just don't seem capable of putting in the effort required to do a given thing. It used to be, if you loved a thing, then you would expend all of your efforts toward that thing. Now, nobody seems to love anything enuf to distract them from the vidyas and the netflix. We seem to be confused and befuddled, now, giving in to distractions and shiny screens.

>>51465820
I blame the internet, and specifically places like this with constant stimulation and that simulate human interaction.

>>51465870
Good and true points - got any more?

>>51393551
Speaking of that, I remember a similar feeling in Alan Wake, essentially that until the game provided weapons, I knew I was safe from the monsters. The second you pick up a gun in that game, you know that you're in for some shit. I actually think that's kind of an interesting mechanic, a game that makes you feel safer when you have no way to defend yourself, and then terrifies you when you do.

>>51417610
Out of curiosity, have you read the Blackfish Island stuff from Delta Green? That's a modern day Native American Deep One Tribe, but it talks about their past and almost being wiped out by the other tribes pre-European contact. Might be something that you could build off of.

>>51411850
You could also not tell them that these characters from the past are their ancestors, at least initially.

>>51465235
https://soundcloud.com/howwerollpodcast/sets

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>mfw even the scientists know.

>>51467057
what the

>>51467118
It's from The Future is Wild.

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>>51395313
Actually, you wanna see something cool re: Lovecraft and Judaism?

See this? >>51384104

This is Lovecraft's Elder Sign.

See Pic Related? This is the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, all the things that make God good.

Turn the Elder Sign left about 45 degrees and compare to the tree of life. A branch on the Elder Sign, plus top and bottom, matches 1-3 and 5-10. Crown, Wisdom, Understanding, then Severity, Beauty, Victory, Splendor, Foundation, and Kingdom.

What is missing? Mercy.

As a sign of the Old Ones, one can do worse than to show their aspects as a warped mirror of an all-benevolent God. The Old Ones are all things...except merciful.

>>51429656
Doors to Darkness, niqqa.

>>51467648
just came out, are there pdfs yet?

>>51467520
Oh yeah. In Providence, Alan Moore incorporated the Tree of Life into the design of Yog-Sothoth, I thought that was kinda cool.

>>51467874
I don't think so, I sometimes forget I bought mine.

>>51466045
It's all game logic your mind picks up on. Once you're put in a situation where you only have one reasonable way to progress, you settle on it and there's comfort in that.

Give a man choice and you breed uncertainty.

>>51396661
I'd say that it was definitely terrific.

The medical section when you first encounter the alien in 'hunting mode' is one of the most chilling sequences in a game I've played in a long time.

Would it be interesting to put "Tatterdemalion" and "Tell me, have you seen the Yellow Sign?" into the same campaign? Obviously with a few scenarios in between.

>>51381935
What makes it wrong?

>>51393233
The developmental (even post-developmental) shit that Dark Corners of the Earth went through was retarded. It's one reason why I hate Bethesda as a publisher. We're just lucky that one guy on the dev team cared enough to help make a patch to make sure the pc patch wasn't totally broken.

Also

>tfw I can't run it anymore even with the patch

I keep crashing in the prologue level when I'm about to enter the hidden cellar in the library.

Ran a really fun scenario in Delta Green over the weekend, instead of a single big mystery I ran some shorter scenarios with vignettes in between. I'm really enjoying the system from a role play standpoint, I like that it gives a little bit of an option to ease some sanity loss at the cost of the agents relationships. One of my agents started the session fairly sane, and ended with some serious alcoholism and a failing marriage, while the other ended up having to be medicated for serious agoraphobia. It was intensly fun.

Anyone else playing DG? I need the fuckin good core book and adventures to hurry and get published, I want too run the carCosa one that's dropping soon.

>>51473472
no-one hastur get hurt

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>>51434632
Do you read Sutter Cane?

>>51467520
Oh that's devilish. I adore it.

>>51467520
While that's a really cool idea...the Elder Sign is a symbol meant to *ward off* the Old Ones, not a symbol of the Old Ones themselves.

Is there a good program for making a soundboard or something? I like the sounds they use in How We Roll and it would be fun if I had a few thunderclaps/foot steps prepared for my game.

Links I'd like to see:

The 2016 Delta Green Agent's Handbook. I'm a little broke right now, and I'm sort of new to DG in general, so I don't exactly want to commit lots of funds to it.

I first encountered CoC through the googling of a handname I had which sounded like Alcatraz. Upon google imaging Alcatraz I found images of a weird, tentacled creature, with some more searching I found it to be Cthulhu.

Things sort of slid downhill from there.

The rest is history.

>>51474516
It's meant to ward off the servants of the Old Ones, not the Old Ones themselves. What better to inspire fear in the heart of a slave than with the threat of its master?

>>51475831
The Soundpads on TabletopAudio are awesome. I get a lot of use out of House on the Hill and Dark Forest.

http://tabletopaudio.com/

>>51476907
Welcome to the fold.

>>51478098
I'm pretty sure it's called the Elder Sign (as in "Sign of The Elders") because it's the sign of the Elder Gods, which are opposed to the Old Ones

>>51478371
What is this post Lovecraft fanfiction?

>>51474283
I saw that movie for the first time yesterday, can't believe more people don't talk about it. The ending is genius.

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thoughts on your oldest relative?

>>51479439
Looks like a toothed anus.

>>51405333
this is a really cool idea and something I've always wanted to try. I know there was a Dark Ages (possibly Invictus) campaign that jumps to the year 2020 in a timeline where the serpentmen regained control of earth but I forgot the name. Anyone remember?

>>51467520
Ah yeah, because incomprehensible beings from beyond space and time totally fit the attribute of "Understanding"

>>51478554
>is in a thread about lovecraft rpgs
>complains about "post lovecraft fanfiction"

>>51479745
>completely misses the point
>doesn't know that the 'elder god' nonsense was invented 'post-Lovecraft'
wew lad
e
w

l
a
d

>>51479342
Check out the rest of John Carpenter's apocalypse trilogy: The Thing and Prince of Darkness. Also a bit lovecraftian (tho not as lovecrafty as MoM).

>>51480543
Well, I do know. But so were most gods and creatures of the Mythos. And *anything* in an RPG campaign is "Lovecraft fanfiction." If you're a purist lore-nazi, you shouldn't play RPGs.

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>>51480642
Oh, that's news: so we shouldn't play rpg's if we don't play them the way you dictate - thanx, anon! I almost had fun there. You saved me a lot of time and effort. Wow. So, if I want to play in Lovecraft's world, I can't use the rpg, because that would be wrong. Good to know.

>>51480642
Fuck off.
There's a difference between using extra-canon elements and elements that directly contradict the tone and themes of Lovecraft.
Daoloth, Shaggi, Eihort there all great and Lovecraftian.
HPL would find a lot of new stuff to be very much in keeping with his ideas.
It's Dereleths Christian themes that are off.

>>51479745
There's a difference between non-lovecraftian and post-lovecraftian.
Plenty of pure lovecraftian stuff has been made by people who weren't lovecraft or lived long after/before him.

>>51468344
yeah, it's not that expensive but I'd rather read it first in pdf and then run it in paperback if I like it, but I'm not buying it twice

>>51479695
>>hurburr what's the entire setting about
>>Learning forbidden knowledge and discovering everything you knew is wrong, this /understanding/ the true nature of reality?
>>no, it's about loltentacles and cuhraaaaaaazy aliens hrurrrrr

>>51479695
I-I don't think you understood what Lovecraft was on about, anon...
see what I did there?

>>51473838
>I want too run the carCosa one that's dropping soon.
>soon
That book was one of their last stretch goals, it's probably gonna be a while.

>>51482866
Don't pass on my parade. IT WILL BE SOON!

Any of you fellas have a suggestion for a good longer published DG campaign? I want to run something for my group that'll last a few sessions.

>>51483214
As far as I know there aren't any campaigns in the sense that they've released a single campaign book but there are usually two or three separate scenarios in every DG book that are pretty easy to connect into a bigger narrative.

I forget the names but I know there are at least two scenarios that can be connected directly to the events in Convergence.

b u m p

>>51483327

Future Perfect by Dennis Detwiller is the only "official" campaign (consisting of 4 scenarios) I'm aware of - and it's totally free online and quite good.

Impossible Landscapes is a Hastur-related campaign that is coming out later this year (we hope) as part of the Delta Green RPG Kickstarter.

Convergence (which is one of the best and nastiest DG scenario out there) can be linked with both the 2-part mini campaign The New Age (from the original DG book), and with The Music of the Spheres (from the modern scenario collection The Stars Are Right).

>>51443567
>a campaign about Donald Trump being Nyarlatotep in human form
Nyarlatrump

Don't ask what Kek actually is.