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Nessus posted:Unless you're a Buddhist or something. He and his buddies pretty much walk up the mountain, wax the horror, close the book, dust off their coats, and head back for a faculty meeting. Armitage owns.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:07
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Night10194 posted:He and his buddies pretty much walk up the mountain, wax the horror, close the book, dust off their coats, and head back for a faculty meeting.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:21
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Nessus posted:This is actually one thing I think CoC gets wrong, because people who read things like the Necronomicon for abstract academic reasons don't seem to suffer mental strain at the time, it only comes up when they find out stuff that validates all that medieval metaphysics. But like the professor in The Dunwich Horror was up on Abd al-Hazred's Greatest Hits. He wasn't ready for the nuthatch.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:24
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Servetus posted:Not really; that's pretty much every day with a y in it in the 21st century. We live on a fragile orb that is the only known place we can subsist, in a vast radiation ravaged void with a few balls or rock and gas and dust in our immediate vicinity. We are bound by the speed of light, we can see glimpses of other worlds that perhaps might hold life, but will likely never reach. Our one sanctuary is being destroyed by our overlords, who care nothing for human life, in their drive to slake their desires. But I don't spontaneously develop schizophrenia from realising that. Not only is he an elder god with vast and terrible power, but he's actively malicious even on the individual scale. He's a monster because he finds it fun. So basically, the fact that you have the misfortune to be in a Nyarlothep story.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:42
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Night10194 posted:When I finish WHFRP and WH40KRP's first book (I don't intend to do the whole line as I don't feel it's needed) I'm going back to Myriad Song. Yeah, Fragged Empire does a similarly good job of presenting a mysterious universe with a perfectly clear reasoning and justification. Also to be self-indulgent because I couldn't get to it yesterday, why do RPGs like Starfinger think they need rules for heroin or space PCP or other so-called "hard" drugs? Is there some deep well of people who play heroin addicts that I'm not aware of? I mean, it makes sense for World of Darkness games, because they need to get across a white suburban's view of Life on the Hard Streets, but I don't quite understand why it shows up in power fantasy games like Starfinger. I hate to bring Fragged Empire up as the example for all the things, but when they have their dangerous drug, it's a central mystery and leads to conflict and makes monsters for you to fight. But in Starfinger, it's just... there. I guess you could try and stop some drug merchants or something, but it doesn't seem likely you're gonna try the stuff, and if you do it's just a litany of punishments for PCs who are foolish enough to.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:52
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Yeah, Fragged Empire does a similarly good job of presenting a mysterious universe with a perfectly clear reasoning and justification. Of course, it's a central plot device and mystery in Dune. And in Star Wars just a cool sounding thing to be smuggling. Though I've always loved the fan theory that Han Solo was hauling space nutmeg and cumin.
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Oct 19, 2017 03:58
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The money to be made from selling drugs seems like a decent way to keep yourself stocked up on gear.
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Oct 19, 2017 04:08
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Comrade Gorbash posted:I think it's because of spice. Both Dune and Star Wars versions.
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Oct 19, 2017 04:10
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Nessus posted:His brother killed their dog. Eye for an eye. I think the dog lived. 
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Oct 19, 2017 04:15
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Kavak posted:I think the dog lived. But it was driven hopelessly insane.
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Oct 19, 2017 04:23
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Kavak posted:I think the dog lived. Whateley also probably hosed up the carpet.
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Oct 19, 2017 04:35
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Nessus posted:Whateley also probably hosed up the carpet. They're probably insured.
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Oct 19, 2017 04:42
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Comrade Gorbash posted:Of course, it's a central plot device and mystery in Dune. And in Star Wars just a cool sounding thing to be smuggling. Though I've always loved the fan theory that Han Solo was hauling space nutmeg and cumin. Hauling a theoretically legal product but not paying the (possibly very high) tariff on it is a classic smuggler strategy. Ask John Hancock about this.
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Oct 19, 2017 04:46
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 Last Exodus the Interactive Story Arc of the Third and Last Dance is a roleplaying game from Synister Creative Systems published in 2001 and designed Sean and Joshua Jaffe. Its a metaplot heavy, playing card deck using, religious themed urban grunge game. Unless I am otherwise notified it appears to be completely out of print with no digital versions available. Should this be incorrect I will update to include where it can be bought to give the original developers income. Part 4: The Metaplot As She is Vomited Forth Finally, time to get to this games precious metaplot. TLE splits it into three sections, with only the third really having any bearing for players. Since my eyes glaze over whenever I try to read these massive blocks of uninspired text, and there is genuinely about 6 pictures across all 18 pages, lets instead do highlights of each section.  Pictured, literally Za Warudo Art: Larry Chy The First Dance, Eternal: Parthenogenesis
 If they were so smart, why do they have so many obstructed view apartments? Art: Larry Chy The Second and Penultimate Dance: Testament
 Im not sure why this art is in this section at all. By the way, the second song was off the soundtrack for Blade Art: Larry Chy The Third and Last Dance: Prelude to an Exodus
 Pictured the 12 Apostles and their [insert anime power up form reference] Art: Larry Chy Now that weve finished the Metaplot you may be wondering Why do I have to side with either Ahura Mazda or the GODHEAD? They both seem like manipulative, destructive, cruel idiots. Well my friends, the answer is TLETISAOTTALD. Next Time: These Characters Will Judge You *The index confirms these three pages are the only pages these beings older than God and an enemy of all creation are mentioned **GODHEAD could stand for a lot of things, really. Ill round up any suggestions and include them next update ***ʿalayhi as-salâm/PBUH Barudak fucked around with this message at 04:55 on Oct 19, 2017 |
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Oct 19, 2017 04:50
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To me, a lot of the Lovecraft treatment of madness comes from the presumption that learning that there is no divine sponsor of humanity and that the universe is an uncaring, hostile place filled with uncaring, dangerous beings would, in fact, drive one mad. It strikes me as the horror equivalent of the "there are no atheists in foxholes" sort of argument, that one needs faith in humanity, at the very least, having a central place in the universe if one is to remain sane. And anything that chips away at that notion risks one's ability to keep a grip on things. If everything is not explicable, one loses touch with reality. This is, of course, complete nonsense, but "complete nonsense" is generally a very good descriptor for most of what Lovecraft wrote.
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Oct 19, 2017 05:11
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Holy poo poo at this complete mess of a backstory. 
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Oct 19, 2017 05:16
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Barudak posted:[*]The Apostles control the world's 12 religions, one per religion, most of which dont meet the qualifications to be a religion unless you believe that the Crips are an religion. I kind of want to see the list of religions now.
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Oct 19, 2017 05:24
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This is certainly the point in a game where I start to mumble "but what is the game loving about?" It makes me think of Eoris Essence, which I still haven't read far enough in to answer the question "but what is the game loving about?"
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Oct 19, 2017 05:27
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wdarkk posted:I kind of want to see the list of religions now. Don't worry, as part of the character creation process you have to join one of those 12 religions so I'll be covering them. Alien Rope Burn posted:This is certainly the point in a game where I start to mumble "but what is the game loving about?" It makes me think of Eoris Essence, which I still haven't read far enough in to answer the question "but what is the game loving about?" It's genuinely not in the game. There is an implied goal for the good guys of "Lead humans to Eden" but there's no description of how that's done and as a standard gift for being a PC you can freely warp to Eden yourself so... mission accomplished? Barudak fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Oct 19, 2017 |
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Oct 19, 2017 05:29
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Alien Rope Burn posted:To me, a lot of the Lovecraft treatment of madness comes from the presumption that learning that there is no divine sponsor of humanity and that the universe is an uncaring, hostile place filled with uncaring, dangerous beings would, in fact, drive one mad. It strikes me as the horror equivalent of the "there are no atheists in foxholes" sort of argument, that one needs faith in humanity, at the very least, having a central place in the universe if one is to remain sane. And anything that chips away at that notion risks one's ability to keep a grip on things. If everything is not explicable, one loses touch with reality. Armchair litcrit time, but Lovecraft was writing in the aftermath of the First World War, where a lot of beliefs about human nature, progress and, well, everything had been blown to smithereens along with half of Europe. As the 20th Century delivered further horrors and the world spent forty years with a nuclear Sword of Damocles hanging over it (To be replaced by the 1000-ton weight of Global Warming), cosmic horror lost most of its impact. I still think there's a place for it- just look at Delta Green- but Mythos adventures set in Lovecraft's times should definitely hew to the pulpy side of things. Anyway that spoilered entry in the timeline was edgy enough it cut me through my computer screen. This is gonna be a fun review.
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Oct 19, 2017 06:00
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God I am just such a loving sucker for allcaps names that aren't acronyms, they're just inexplicably allcaps. GODHEAD would have totally bankrolled B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. and the Chaos Dunk.
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Oct 19, 2017 06:06
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Kavak posted:Armchair litcrit time, but Lovecraft was writing in the aftermath of the First World War, where a lot of beliefs about human nature, progress and, well, everything had been blown to smithereens along with half of Europe. Yeah, that's the thing. It made enough sense at the time when a lot of those notions were held as common wisdom even though they were being shat all over. In a time where I comfortably feel the universe is not anthropocentric or divinely guided in the slightest, though, it feels awfully quaint. Barudak posted:It's genuinely not in the game. There is an implied goal for the good guys of "Lead humans to Eden" but there's no description of how that's done and as a standard gift for being a PC you can freely warp to Eden yourself so... mission accomplished? Whups. I always wondered why there weren't more White Wolf-styled heartbreakers than there were. I mean, there are a fair number, but a lot of them like Delirium or Everlasting are just ex-White Wolf employees to begin with. It could be just because White Wolf worked so hard to corner every edge of their little genre, but it always felt like a pretty easy formula to look at and think "oh, I can do that better!"
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Oct 19, 2017 06:20
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Fortunately, we are still well clear of the return of the Great Old Ones, because those require people to be reveling with joy, and that is out of fashion lately. I may just be an old man now but I don't get Delta Green at all. I may have been turned off by that con experience. Is there a setting element people like or is it because of its harmony with things like "Men in Black"? Hostile V posted:God I am just such a loving sucker for allcaps names that aren't acronyms, they're just inexplicably allcaps. GODHEAD would have totally bankrolled B.L.O.O.D.M.O.S.E.S. and the Chaos Dunk.
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Oct 19, 2017 06:27
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Barudak posted:
It wouldn't happen to be "Confusion" by New Order? Young Freud fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Oct 19, 2017 |
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Oct 19, 2017 06:40
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Nessus posted:I may just be an old man now but I don't get Delta Green at all. I may have been turned off by that con experience. Is there a setting element people like or is it because of its harmony with things like "Men in Black"? It imparts the despair and impossible, desperate odds that Lovecraftian heroes are supposed to be feeling much better than vanilla CoC. I don't know if it's the black ops aspect or just the writing focusing on people's experiences more than the Mythos and setting.
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Oct 19, 2017 06:42
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Hey remember when I said the metaplot says dying doesn't send you to Eden? Well in a later section discussing how to travel between the worlds, any form of death will work and there's no implication Ahura Mazda will reject suicides. This means a) starting a death cult or being mass murderers is the most efficient way to get people to Eden for good characters and b) evil characters should spend the entire game trying to keep everyone on Earth alive at all costs Young Freud posted:It wouldn't happen to be "Confusion" by New Order? While that would be absolutely hilarious, no sadly it is for the song "Fightin a War" by Down 2 Earth feat. Rome. Lyrics are "Fighting a war in the dark side/tryin' to make it over cause I can't hide/gotta cross over the light side/to save my people"
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Oct 19, 2017 07:14
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Nessus posted:Some of this is probably typesetting and layout. The 2E PHB did not meaningfully change content but it was re-laid out and produced a longer book between "the one with a charging cavalier on the cover" and "the one with a barbarian kicking open a door on the cover." Def. I sold my Green Reprints because of how ugly the insides were compared to the old ones. Also the old ones had far more female characters in them - you have to go to page 130 in the 1995 PHB to find a female character; there's two by page 7 of the 1989 books.
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Oct 19, 2017 07:25
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Angrymog posted:Def. I sold my Green Reprints because of how ugly the insides were compared to the old ones. Also the old ones had far more female characters in them - you have to go to page 130 in the 1995 PHB to find a female character; there's two by page 7 of the 1989 books.
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Oct 19, 2017 07:32
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Maybe lovecraftian horror for today should work on different principles. Judging by the thread, finding out that Sithrak like divine entity exists, wants to torture you forever, people are working to actively bring it about and there's only so much you can do to stop them. Ultimately, it should be totally alien and horrific to you, but we're kinda having a hard time coming up with something totally alien to us.
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Oct 19, 2017 09:49
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TLD questions: So how did the Nazis lose if they were antiGod's favored in antiGod's realm? Why does it matter that it all started 200million years ago, aside from a desire to upset Biblical Literalist Dad? So you have aliens ensouled in Eden and then embodied on Earth? Where does this metphysical turducken end? If only Eden and Earth were specifically created, why does the rest of the physical universe exist? Is there space in Eden? How did Eden not get exhausted in 200 millio years of exploitation? Can Mazda just miracle up resources for them? Who do messiahs keep reincarnating as nee people, instead of going "yo, it's me again?" Is this game just meant to trigger WASPs?
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Oct 19, 2017 10:08
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JcDent posted:Maybe lovecraftian horror for today should work on different principles. Judging by the thread, finding out that Sithrak like divine entity exists, wants to torture you forever, people are working to actively bring it about and there's only so much you can do to stop them.
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Oct 19, 2017 10:12
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You start reading Time Cube and realize that its true 
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Oct 19, 2017 10:25
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One of the themes that crops up in Lovecraft is stuff like non-euclidean geometry, because that was a newish branch of mathematics at the time (hyperbolic geometry in particular), and the entire concept of it freaked Lovecraft the gently caress out. (Euclidean) Geometry was one of the few areas of math that he could kind of sort of get his head around, and I get the feeling the very thought of the 5 Euclidean axioms possibly sometimes being invalid was terrifying to him. That's the kind of eldritch knowledge eroding your concept of reality and breaking your mind that he's envisioning. The poor bastard never even heard of quantum mechanics. We've long since established that all the sensible, intuitive, reasonable laws of physics that we'd been operating under for centuries are really just a crude approximation of the TRULY loving WEIRD math that's actually going on. And humanity, faced with this revelation of truths incompatible with traditional wisdom, promptly harnessed this new knowledge to trick rocks into thinking faster. The effect on our sanity is debatable, but we didn't all get locked in sanitariums. Point being, "Lovecraftian Horror" is stuff that's scary to Lovecraft in particular. He wrote convincingly because he really was horrified, but that doesn't mean the stuff that scared him is universally terrifying. We'll never really get the same impact, because we're already comfortable with the universe being weird as hell. The doofy theory that reality is actually a COMPUTER SIMULATION is just as existentially terrifying as Azathoth, but even the true believers just keep making electric cars instead of curling up into a ball and gibbering about how someone could trip over the universe's power cord at any moment.
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Oct 19, 2017 10:26
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Why has nobody ever used Warren ellis' idea that heaven and hell are just two war engines powered by souls? Learning that after my death all my individuality and personality would be broken and rendered down to metaphysical fuel would be plenty horrifying.
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Oct 19, 2017 10:27
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Maybe something about societal forces and how itīs mere influence ignores any attempts to steer it away from self-destruction and only the tendency of radical individuals has the ability to change course, but itīs basically a never ending train-wreck? (Also very much a fitting analogy) Otherwise, something for those more outspoken and hypocritical, maybe how about that universal forces in existence not only exist, but that they favor the general jersey-shore edutainment favoring manchild and you (the nonpersonal game-character you) as the shining outspoken example of intellectual prowess are actually making things more miserable for everyone around you? Or is that too harsh as satire? Man, existentialist horror is difficult.
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Oct 19, 2017 10:28
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Would the socioeconomic alienation described in the works of Marx count as existentialist horror? I'm only half-kidding. It's certainly not fictional that a proletarian existence stresses people the gently caress out.
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Oct 19, 2017 10:34
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Why has nobody ever used Warren ellis' idea that heaven and hell are just two war engines powered by souls? Learning that after my death all my individuality and personality would be broken and rendered down to metaphysical fuel would be plenty horrifying. Mr.Misfit posted:Otherwise, something for those more outspoken and hypocritical, maybe how about that universal forces in existence not only exist, but that they favor the general jersey-shore edutainment favoring manchild and you (the nonpersonal game-character you) as the shining outspoken example of intellectual prowess are actually making things more miserable for everyone around you? Or is that too harsh as satire? Man, existentialist horror is difficult. I actually think this came up in The Maxx, the hipster girl broke down in tears at the prospect that her big cosmic revelation was basically a Hallmark Card about goodness and understanding and love.
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Oct 19, 2017 10:35
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Nessus posted:The idea that gods are literally powered in some way by belief or souls is like a generation old at this point. If you think "shadow manipulators of the night are behind all the evil men do" is trite, I think "gods get MP from people doing praise rituals' has to be like doubly so. Not power from praise, but the souls of the dead - when humans die, their overall moral weighting (  ) pushes their soul towards "Heaven" or "Hell". Whichever side gets your soul, it's broken downed used as ammunition for extraordinary weapons in an endless war.Praise doesn't matter, behaviour only changes what colour of laser comes out of the gun you're powering, and all of human morality only has any effect on which side gets more ammunition out of this particular factory-planet.
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Oct 19, 2017 11:19
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DigitalRaven posted:Not power from praise, but the souls of the dead - when humans die, their overall moral weighting ( Let's move it up a notch by saying things suck because Hell wants Bad Flavor Frag Rounds out of our immortal souls; it's just that any improvement would be just as bad, because we'd just be putting out Good Flavor Frag Rounds instead. Both sides are equally bad, when you get down to it. vvv- the thing with Cthulhu is that Cthulhu doesn't give a gently caress about you. He's in a coma on Earth but could give a poo poo about humanity. At best his cult is some of his hangers-on having manipulated humanity in pre-history; more likely, it's just everyone periodically getting a big dose of his cursed dreams semi-regularly. The guy who drove a boat into him was the equivalent of banging your head when you stagger out of bed to take a late night piss. Nessus fucked around with this message at 11:37 on Oct 19, 2017 |
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Oct 19, 2017 11:25
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You mean that the revelation was that simple? Also, quantum mechanics aren't actively working to kill you. Cthulhu sorta is. Besides, we might now about horrible things like war in the abstract, but the lived experience of them can still break the man. Non euclidean geometry: you might now about it in the abstract, but appearing in a location made with it might still literally blow your mind.
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Oct 19, 2017 11:29
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