Last year, my brother finally said to me, “Hey Matt, what’s the deal with all that Lovecraft stuff?” So, I sent him every story I had and he read them all. He became a man possessed and it was awesome. Suddenly, he had story ideas. He was writing up plots and sending them to me. Weird Fiction was his weapon, and he was slaying me with ideas.
Continue reading
The South Korean series Hellbound, produced by Netflix, is a show best watched without any real knowledge beyond its basic premise. Sinners in South Korea begin to have visions of Angels, who proclaim they will face judgement at a specific time and will face damnation to hell. Continue to read at your own peril!
Continue readingControl has been one of the best games I have played in some time, the combat, the atmosphere and the ambiance has really shown how well concept can be polished to make a game that makes you say “one more mission, one more checkpoint”. It is a game that leaves you wanting more and still wondering what will be around the next corner.
From the start you are thrust into an uncanny office setting that feels aggressively corporate and then you discover the catalyst for the madness to come, the current head of the Federal Bureau of Control has been murdered and in a simplified job application process you pick up his mantle, are found worthy and have to deal with the incursion besetting the Old House, the Hiss.
Continue readingThese pod people are awesome. Their play style is one I can virtually never tolerate in a horror game. They constantly interject humor, and make boatloads of out of game, character, genre, and period, comments: aaaaaaand they’re wonderful.
The GM’ing (Keeping), and play is great, they are genius, their timing is impeccable, their humor is gut-busting–they’ve made me laugh so hard I stopped breathing–and the production value is fantastic.
In addition to live play, they suggest games, movies, bands, etc., and present advertising for the most hilarious faux products, or perhaps they are real . . . Dum dum dum!
It’s very much like listening to The Firesign Theater play Call of Cthulhu.
The protagonists in most Mythos stories are, or become, insane. This is because they see things, learn information, etc. beyond the capacity of the human mind to cope with and/or understand. Why does this result in madness?
Cthulhu is described as the ruler and high priest of his kind, and able to garner and maintain human followers through dream projection while asleep/comatose in his city of R’lyeh, immersed beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Cthulhu is a member of a group of beings, all immortal and extremely powerful, referred to as the Great Old Ones. The two other primary classes of entities in this mythology are the Elder Gods, and the Outer Gods, however the nature of these two groups is largely not within the scope of this essay. The same is true of the rest of the Great Old Ones.
More recently, these distinctions have been viewed as unnecessary.
“We can only avoid assimilation by writing hermetically; by not making ourselves clear to every department store shop-assistant. Mystery is frightening…”
––Unidentified Trotskyite speaker sampled in Greater Than One’s “Fear Is The Agent Of Violence” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAn2_Jfw7eo
Much rhetorical blood and literal ink has already been spilled over the question of graven or implushed images of Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones; but, while the argument may have fallen away unresolved as a relic of the halcyon days of sane public discourse, the failure to address the true scourge afflicting our dreams of hegemony haunts us still, and shall grow ever worse unless and until we cleanse it with purifying (albeit figurative, for now) fire.
Continue reading(No spoilers)
Coming in at a good duration of 93 minutes, The Babadook is intelligent, dark and frightening. Claustrophobia and gut-wrenching stress are intruded upon by a well meaning(?) outside world of school staff, social workers and haughty housewives. There is enough ambiguity to keep the viewer guessing as to what is actually going on, and the hero of the story is most unlikely–though always close by.
“Fear’s Sharp Little Needles” is a book of short scenarios, by Stygian Fox, and written for the Seventh Edition Call of Cthulhu role playing game published by Chaosium.
The cover art has elements I like, but is so dark it gives the impression you’re missing detail. That said, it’s very well executed.
The pages have a very cool parchment look. It’s bold enough to be noticeable, yet subdued enough to not interfere with reading. The table of contents gives the scenario titles on simulated scraps of paper, which is a nice touch. The text is Times New Roman, with the section headings bolded, and in some sort of sans serif font, making for an easy reading experience.
The interior art is beautiful. Also, not only does each scenario start with a full-page illustration which is a teaser for what’s in store, but there are also maps galore. The scenarios are intentionally brief. They are all set in the modern era.
Now, on to the scenarios, with an effort to minimize spoilers. Unfortunately, this leaves me only room for introductions. The cover page of each scenario contains three or four words which give an even briefer idea of what is contained therein–nice touch.
Copyright 1996 - 2024 Shoggoth.net,
