Eldritch Skies -- Lovecraftian Sci-Fi

Pseudoephedrine · March 14, 2011, 03:02:27 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;445931The setting does seem interesting, likely better than cthulhutech...

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Anything without constant rape-related content is better than CT.

Dan Davenport · March 14, 2011, 08:19:47 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;445931The setting does seem interesting, likely better than cthulhutech...

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I hesitate to use the word "better" regarding games with different objectives. That said, I wholeheartedly agree that Eldritch Skies looks to be better from the standpoint of presenting a future for Lovecraft's world. Both Cthulhutech and Delta Green -- and even Cthulhu Modern -- try to shoehorn a future onto HPL's 1920s-1930s that doesn't really follow for the sake of the premise (i.e., mecha + Cthulhu or our modern world with Cthulhu).

What I haven't seen done before is taking HPL's premises and asking, "What would the future of this world look like?" That's what excites me about Eldritch Skies.

Simlasa · March 15, 2011, 04:03:51 AM

Also of possible noteworthiness: Chaosium has out their Tsan Chan monograph... the Tsan Chan Empire being Lovecraft's take on the far future of humanity on Earth... briefly mentioned in several stories... seeming similar to the Dying Earth/Book of the New Sun as science fantasy.
I haven't seen the Tsan Chan book but I've heard good things... out since last Summer but I only first knew of it last month.
Of course there are also the End Times/Once Men books... which feature part of humanity escaping to Mars when the stars come right. But I haven't taken a good look at those either.

J Arcane · March 15, 2011, 04:15:36 AM

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;445943Anything without constant rape-related content is better than CT.

I didn't know about that part. I just thought it looked stupid as hell, very 13-yo kewl powerz sort of shit.

A statement that got me my first Internet stalker, incidentally.

RPGPundit · March 16, 2011, 01:59:26 AM

Quote from: Simlasa;446237Also of possible noteworthiness: Chaosium has out their Tsan Chan monograph... the Tsan Chan Empire being Lovecraft's take on the far future of humanity on Earth...

That looks fucking awesome.

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crkrueger · March 16, 2011, 03:20:08 PM

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;445469A Unisystem SF RPG (Cthulhu or not)?

Now I'm all ears.

Cinematic Unisystem.

Cthulhu + Sci-Fi + Drama Points = Bleah

Dan Davenport · March 16, 2011, 06:41:50 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;446680Cinematic Unisystem.

Cthulhu + Sci-Fi + Drama Points = Bleah

Why do you say that?

And I should mention that there are three settings for Drama Point use, from standard to not at all.

Pseudoephedrine · March 17, 2011, 02:36:34 AM

Quote from: Dan Davenport;445726That's a good point. While I think horror obviously is a huge part of the Lovecraftian universe, so is the awe-inspiring scale.

The two Lovecraftian themes I think are the most underdeveloped in the supplementary materials (like the RPGs) are his themes of "purity" and "awe". Sadly, Cthulhutech is the only RPG I've even seen tackle "purity", and it does so in the most puerile way possible - by inserting lots of grotesque rape content. It touches on it in a few other ways - the Tagers, the cults infiltrating humanity, the genetic engineering, but these are hard to focus on with all that rape content.

So, good luck to Snead if he's able to find a way to put these themes into the game in a way that isn't just misogynistic fetish fuel.

RPGPundit · March 18, 2011, 12:09:33 PM

I hadn't looked into Cthulhutech that much, just glimpsed at the main book and knew right away it was stupid... so I wasn't aware there was quite that much rape going on, as people seem to be saying there is here.

WTF? How is this even justified from a lovecraftian point of view? RAPE was not a common theme of Lovecrafts, what you could say was a common theme was voluntary seduction into breeding with horrific subhuman things (like picts, or basques), and all kinds of issues of eugenics and race and the fear of having impure racial background.

Though I guess in consideration to that, just making it about rape instead may have been a step up?

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crkrueger · March 18, 2011, 03:17:24 PM

I can see a case for Deep Ones. They are capable of interbreeding with humans, so to spread their numbers rapidly, mass-breeding camps where rape is the method of conception makes sense.

Why 2 or 3 other factions also do it, I don't know. Maybe because they can, after all, humans do that quite frequently in war.

flyingmice · March 18, 2011, 03:46:57 PM

As I have already stated, Cthulhu =/= Bacon.

-clash

Aos · March 18, 2011, 03:52:29 PM

I am about equally tired of the HPL and JRRT influences on RPGs. There so much other awesome shit to loot; some of it is even by authors who were sexually aware.

Benoist · March 18, 2011, 03:53:56 PM

Quote from: flyingmice;447145As I have already stated, Cthulhu =/= Bacon.

The problem is in a postmodern approach to the mythos that sucks the life right out of it.

The Butcher · March 18, 2011, 04:46:33 PM

Quote from: flyingmice;447145As I have already stated, Cthulhu =/= Bacon.

Quoted for truth. "[insert any genre here] plus Mythos" is not necessarily a poor concept for a game, but has been overused as a premise for many a poorly-thought-ot game. Cthulhutech, being a weid amalgamation of anime SF and Cthulhu Mythos, saddled with a weird and barely functional system (with a stupid name to boot. "Framewerk"? Really? :rolleyes:) is possibly the poster child for this sort of fail.

Even if you want to play on Lovecraft's themes, there are far subtler ways of doing it without the Mythos name-dropping. Consider Eclipse Phase, which, if not to everyone's tastes, consists at least of an attempt at an original take on cosmic horror.

RPGPundit · March 19, 2011, 01:12:38 PM

The Mythos, if done right, can add a lot of good and interesting elements to the externals of a game. The problem is too many people don't know how to do it right.

Its a spice, and if you put too much, or you put it in the wrong dish, it really is going to cause more harm than good.

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