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For years I could only imagine CoC in the 20s or 30s but recently, well maybe not really recently but over last decade or so, you find the Old Ones stirring up shit all over the place; Modern Day, Ancient Rome, Victorian Age, Dark Ages, WWII, Future and so on.

Whats your fav? Why? What period just doesn't fit, if you have one?

My favorite would be during the 'classic' (1920s) era. Though I've run CoC in the modern day (Delta Green) and in the Gaslight era, over the course of this year and in past years. And I'm very tempted to run it in the Dark Ages, or potentially in 18th century London (by way of Dark Streets (http://clockworkandchivalry.co.uk/games/renaissance-2/dark-streets/)) in 2017.

Call of Cthulhu is about the only Rpg I really run now. I have done some diversions into Scifi now and again, but I always return to CoC horror. It is far and away my favorite Rpg, and has been for decades.

In the past I've owned some CoC material that covered ancient Rome, but I was never that compelled to run it.

Quote from: rgrove0172;937713...but recently, well maybe not really recently but over last decade or so, you find the Old Ones stirring up shit all over the place; Modern Day, Ancient Rome, Victorian Age, Dark Ages, WWII, Future and so on.

To be a little pedantic, there are a number of historical eras of CoC play that have been around for a long time.

∙Cthulhu by Gaslight was first published 30 years ago, with a number of editions and supplements coming out for it over the next 10 or so years.
∙Cthulhu Now was published 29 years ago, and the original edition of Delta Green close to 20 years ago.
∙HPL's Dreamlands, also 30 years old.

UFOs, giant irradiated monsters, mad scientists - Cthulhu as Fifties Atomic Horror.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;937730UFOs, giant irradiated monsters, mad scientists - Cthulhu as Fifties Atomic Horror.

Funny you mention that. I was working on a Godzilla vs Cthulhu one shot a while back. :D

Quote from: Krimson;937738Funny you mention that. I was working on a Godzilla vs Cthulhu one shot a while back. :D

I also thought about Arthurian Cthulhu (https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?610745-campaign-idea-King-Arthur-versus-Cthulhu!) years ago.

That's got to be one of the worse-phrased thread titles ever. Or maybe I'm just a dirty old man.

I'm partial to the classic time and place, though: the US, after WWI and before WWII. Though I have run adventures in other times (Medieval and Victorian eras, the present day) and places (several places in Europe, the Belgian Congo, Shanghai, and hopefully Brazil some day).

I ran a CoC campaign vaguely set during the 'Summer of Love' in San Francisco... late 60s California already having enough weird cults and psycho killers that Mythos cultists weren't likely to stand out too much. Weird drugs and strange happenings... it was a psychedelic hoot!
Worked well enough that that's generally where I tend to set CoC games... unless I have a specific reason to pick a different era.

Classic 20s-30s.

Though I do really enjoy End Times near future setting with whats left of the human race hiding on Mars after the stars align and all hell breaks loose. Was a blast to GM.

For some reason for me straight up modern has fallen flat so far. Delta Green in particular.

Any era/location is good for him.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;937766Any era/location is good for him.

Yeah.  I fall in love with all of them.  My latest is '70s era cold war Cthulhu.

I can easily imagine a Call of Cthulhu game set today.

Some do not agree. In their hubris, they arrogantly believe their social networking and readily available data can dispel all fear of the unknown.

Bleeding edge advancements in automation make tenuous the role of man in today's capitalistic societies, while recent discoveries in the field of neurology call the role of our very consciousness into question.
Primeval drums call from beyond the peripheries of our wireless networks, while the pre-conscious urges of man's evolutionary history lurk outside the doors of our safe spaces from the dampened shadows of the deep web.

The best gaming I ever ran was a Cthulhu Invictus scenario set in the 150's AD.  I tend to turn to that whenever I need something to put on quickly.  Takes a fair whack of research though to hit the matter correctly.

Quote from: The Butcher;937749That's got to be one of the worse-phrased thread titles ever. Or maybe I'm just a dirty old man.

No, I was going to say something involving either Shub-Niggurath or Japanese Schoolgirls.

Quote from: The Butcher;937749I'm partial to the classic time and place, though: the US, after WWI and before WWII. Though I have run adventures in other times (Medieval and Victorian eras, the present day) and places (several places in Europe, the Belgian Congo, Shanghai, and hopefully Brazil some day).

I think the Classic time is the best, just modern enough that you can not exactly globetrot...but you can globeshuffle.  There's still Deepest, Darkest Lots of Places, even Appalachia and Scotland.  There's enough information gathering capability to get to unraveling something, but its going to take time, money, and work.

Cthulhu is like gaming bacon though, it goes good with anything, even Star Wars...ok maybe not Star Wars.  But everything else. :D

Aside from Classic, I think Delta Green is my favorite "official" alternate time period.  I think Cthulhu Invictus would be a blast though, but Dark Ages Cthulhu almost too horrific to contemplate.  Pilgrim Era "Colonial Gothic Cthulhu" would be another one high up on the "almost too much" scale.  The various Cthulhu in Space versions work well, because Space is so ridiculously hostile, that nearly anything going wrong means horrific death, and that's just the janitor's job.  Plus in Space, you get to play up the alien races, and dimensional science angles as well.

Quote from: K Peterson;937728To be a little pedantic, there are a number of historical eras of CoC play that have been around for a long time.

∙Cthulhu by Gaslight was first published 30 years ago, with a number of editions and supplements coming out for it over the next 10 or so years.
∙Cthulhu Now was published 29 years ago, and the original edition of Delta Green close to 20 years ago.
∙HPL's Dreamlands, also 30 years old.

Pedantic is cool, you are right of course, I was such a stickler for the good ole Lovecraftian original period I never paid much attention to the options until recently.

Quote from: Future Villain Band;937779Yeah.  I fall in love with all of them.  My latest is '70s era cold war Cthulhu.

My first was Space: 1999 Cthulhu.

Quote from: The Butcher;937749That's got to be one of the worse-phrased thread titles ever. Or maybe I'm just a dirty old man.

I'm partial to the classic time and place, though: the US, after WWI and before WWII. Though I have run adventures in other times (Medieval and Victorian eras, the present day) and places (several places in Europe, the Belgian Congo, Shanghai, and hopefully Brazil some day).

You win the pervy prize! Laugh

Quote from: Simlasa;937758I ran a CoC campaign vaguely set during the 'Summer of Love' in San Francisco... late 60s California already having enough weird cults and psycho killers that Mythos cultists weren't likely to stand out too much. Weird drugs and strange happenings... it was a psychedelic hoot!
Worked well enough that that's generally where I tend to set CoC games... unless I have a specific reason to pick a different era.

That's really an awesome idea. I ran a Vietnam based horror campaign for a while, would be awesome to let the boys come home to what you describe.

Quote from: CRKrueger;937784I think the Classic time is the best, just modern enough that you can not exactly globetrot...but you can globeshuffle.  There's still Deepest, Darkest Lots of Places, even Appalachia and Scotland.  There's enough information gathering capability to get to unraveling something, but its going to take time, money, and work.

Cthulhu is like gaming bacon though, it goes good with anything, even Star Wars...ok maybe not Star Wars.  But everything else. :D

Preach it, brother.

Quote from: CRKrueger;937784Aside from Classic, I think Delta Green is my favorite "official" alternate time period.  I think Cthulhu Invictus would be a blast though, but Dark Ages Cthulhu almost too horrific to contemplate.  Pilgrim Era "Colonial Gothic Cthulhu" would be another one high up on the "almost too much" scale.  The various Cthulhu in Space versions work well, because Space is so ridiculously hostile, that nearly anything going wrong means horrific death, and that's just the janitor's job.  Plus in Space, you get to play up the alien races, and dimensional science angles as well.

Delta Green is great! I own the old version and missed out on the new one, which I want to pick up if only for the updated fluff (though Brendan's Terror Network has me covered on the real world info front).

Cthulhu In Space is sonething that just beg to happens. I've been eyeing this bad boy (http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-rising-pdf/) for a while.

I've run Dark Ages Cthulhu exactly once and went full-on Robert E. Howard on it with mighty-thewed swordsmen and depraved cultists.

As far away from me as possible.  Not a fan.  But that's just my opinion.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;937800As far away from me as possible.  Not a fan.  But that's just my opinion.

Every setting you're currently playing in is really Cthulhu, you just haven't found out yet. :D

Post WW1 Eastern Europe. One of the best CoC games I ran started in England and ended in Hungary, the PC's were all veterans of the Great War. If I ever run another CoC Campaign I will set it in the same area.

Shemek.

Quote from: rgrove0172;937713For years I could only imagine CoC in the 20s or 30s but recently, well maybe not really recently but over last decade or so, you find the Old Ones stirring up shit all over the place; Modern Day, Ancient Rome, Victorian Age, Dark Ages, WWII, Future and so on.

Whats your fav? Why? What period just doesn't fit, if you have one?

I prefer it in my bowl, with boiling water and spices:).

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As for the setting of a CoC/ToC/DG game, I don't care, as long as it's the real world and not cameos in some other setting. I actually like the 30ies the least, but that's because I'm not a fan of the decade in general, and not because of anything pertaining to the Mythos;).

Quote from: CRKrueger;937806Every setting you're currently playing in is really Cthulhu, you just haven't found out yet. :D

Oh shit, you mean I'm headed for this?!?

(https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/001/269/577/c0c13defddeaa941a01c9d65f7e26021_large.jpg?1383351768)

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;937821Post WW1 Eastern Europe.

That's a really interesting place and time. For some period inspiration, you might want to check out Bertrand Tavernier's Capitaine Conan (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115822/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl)

I'd probably go with modern and set it in a fictional city I use called Heritage. which in Alberta near Crimson Lake. The location is from taking Calgary, Edmonton, Banff and Jasper and marking an X. I even made a map (http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp233/KrimsonGray/Pretty%20Guardians%20of%20Heritage/HeritageCity.png). I originally created it for a short story I wrote years ago, and serves the same purpose as places like Innsmouth. Sometimes the fog rolls in and there are Wendigos and I probably don't even need to add in Cthulhu. Modern technology may or may not help you. In the Rockies and foothills, you can't always rely on phones though newer phones are certainly have way better GPS than they did, and this is from someone who used a tiny Blackberry to find his way back home after drunkenly wandering on to the reserve. :D

Horror works well with isolation. Not everyone with a smart phone is tech savvy. Isolation comes in many forms, such as working a late night at the officer when everyone else has gone home, or getting lost in the fog or turning down the wrong street. I don't mind if players use technology to survive and succeed. After all, they now have to continue on knowing that the things man was not meant to know was real.

If I ran Call of Cthulhu, I would run it in Heritage. However, having the feeling of Lovecraftian Horror can work in many settings, as has already been mentioned. My copy of Deities and Demigods has the Mythos. I've run Buck Rogers XXVc and there are Mi-Go on Pluto. Heh swap the Arachnids out for them in a Starship Troopers game and even if you went the Roughnecks route and had mechs and stuff, your squad would probably be boned. Or I could run Aliens.

Quote from: CRKrueger;937806Every setting you're currently playing in is really Cthulhu, you just haven't found out yet. :D

Even Bunnies & Burrows! Just read "The Horror Under Warrendown" :eek:

I like playing it in the '20s just fine, but I would argue that playing it modern day is the true purist way to do it. Lovecraft was playing with the idea of these ancient horrors existing in the modern world of his time. To get the same effect, we need to set it in our modern day.

However, I'm not suggesting that it being more "purist" would make it better. Part of the appeal of the mythos is being able to set it anywhere.

Quote from: Omega;937843Even Bunnies & Burrows! Just read "The Horror Under Warrendown" :eek:

(http://www.cullenbunn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/lbc2.jpg)

Quote from: rgrove0172;937713For years I could only imagine CoC in the 20s or 30s but recently, well maybe not really recently but over last decade or so, you find the Old Ones stirring up shit all over the place; Modern Day, Ancient Rome, Victorian Age, Dark Ages, WWII, Future and so on.

Whats your fav? Why? What period just doesn't fit, if you have one?

I've played Call of Cthulhu in basically any setting imaginable. I like that the base game is set in the period of Lovecraft's stories, but I have no specific preference beyond that.

I prefer my CoC in space.

If I run CoC on Earth, I bounce around in time. I like using the 70s. It's the 20s for modern gamers. Also, I often don't run CoC in the USA.

As a caveat, my CoC play is 90% one shots.

BTW, as a side note, if you like CoC, but want more pulpy action and OSR rules, definitely check out Amazing Adventures from Troll Lord Games and Silent Legions by Sine Nomine. I backed both KS and I've been happy with the books. While AA supposed to be about more pulp era adventure, I have been happy how it does Indy Jones vs. the Mythos. As for Silent Legions, its a must have for CoC GMs who want to expand their horizons.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;937850(http://www.cullenbunn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/lbc2.jpg)

I just lost 1d6 SAN.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;937830Oh shit, you mean I'm headed for this?!?

I ran an Old West Call of Cthulhu "campaign" back in 2012 for some CoC newbs. Lasted 3 sessions and ended in a near total-party-kill. The only survivor: the guy that outran the rest of the posse (players) and dynamited the mine shaft before the summoned horror was loose.

Quote from: K Peterson;937889I ran an Old West Call of Cthulhu "campaign" back in 2012 for some CoC newbs. Lasted 3 sessions and ended in a near total-party-kill. The only survivor: the guy that outran the rest of the posse (players) and dynamited the mine shaft before the summoned horror was loose.

Always the first things to make sure of in CoC - new boots, fastest bike/car/zeppelin/horse, insurance policy.

1920s New England as the starting point.  It helps that I live here, I think.  I prefer pre stock market crash to post stock market crash, but it's all fun.

Quote from: CRKrueger;937784Cthulhu is like gaming bacon though, it goes good with anything, even Star Wars...ok maybe not Star Wars.  But everything else. :D

The very first Star Wars Novel (by Alan Dean Foster no less) had the gang encounter an ancient, ruined temple that was obviously dedicated to ol' tentacle puss.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;937821Post WW1 Eastern Europe. One of the best CoC games I ran started in England and ended in Hungary, the PC's were all veterans of the Great War. If I ever run another CoC Campaign I will set it in the same area.

Is there much material for Hungary?  Magyarorsag is so alien to the rest of Europe that it would be fascinating to take a campaign there.  (Note:  Mysteries of Hungary was a bit disappointing).

Quote from: AsenRG;937828I prefer it in my bowl, with boiling water and spices:).

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Hey!  Country Calimari!  We put a dollup of ketchup or mustard on top for hair, and poke two holes and put Red Hots or peppercorns in it for eyes.

Quote from: Spinachcat;937858I prefer my CoC in space.

If I run CoC on Earth, I bounce around in time. I like using the 70s. It's the 20s for modern gamers. Also, I often don't run CoC in the USA.

What I came on to post for.  The first "modern" scenarios are over thirty years old.  Playing them as is counts as classical.  "To do research at the library you use something called a 'card catalogue'..."

All eras are good, though I do favor the 70s and 80s.

If you consider when Lovecraft lived, a great many of his stories were contemporary to him. That's the spirit I want to capture, because I think many of his themes weren't era specific.

- new advances of science are suggested, yet a lot of old world religious belief still persists, and it can disguise ignorance or degeneration
- people tend to cluster together in somewhat xenophobic groups, each of which 'otherize' the others
- science should be blazing a trail of hope for the future, yet certain key discoveries suggest something horrible instead
- no matter how much you try to hide among the herd, no trappings or tools of modern day life will save you once you get on the radar of the horrible
- the horrible is either sickening degeneration, or it is so advanced or ahead that the authorities either cannot recognize it or disbelieve it, or a combination of both
- physical death is a risk, but madness is even worse
- the active, intelligent horrors keep scaling up, and only the artistic, insane, creative, or odd can begin to piece together what's happening
- those that perceive the horrors are somewhat envious of the every day joe who lives in blissful ignorance

If unraveling a mystery is as easy as doing a Google search then the mystery isn't much of a mystery. So the horrors have scale forward or, modern contrivances have to be rendered mostly useless.

On the side. I find Lovecraftian horror more interesting as an occasional change-up than as a main course.

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;937933Is there much material for Hungary?  Magyarorsag is so alien to the rest of Europe that it would be fascinating to take a campaign there.  (Note:  Mysteries of Hungary was a bit disappointing).
.."

I'm not sure how much is out there. I basically used the REH story set in Hungary as inspiration, an encyclopaedia, an atlas, and asked a school mate, who was Hungarian, a tonne of questions. I ran this campaign in the late 80's, no internet, so I had to be creative.  I don't know how  "authentic " it was but we sure had fun. I've never seen Mysteries of Hungary, so can't really comment on its merits, or lack of them.

Shemek

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;938111I'm not sure how much is out there. I basically used the REH story set in Hungary as inspiration, an encyclopaedia, an atlas, and asked a school mate, who was Hungarian, a tonne of questions. I ran this campaign in the late 80's, no internet, so I had to be creative.  I don't know how  "authentic " it was but we sure had fun. I've never seen Mysteries of Hungary, so can't really comment on its merits, or lack of them.

Shemek

Do you have it written up?

As far as Mysteries goes, the author's English is much better than my Hungarian, but it is obviously his second language.  For example, because Hungarian has a tiny thesaurus, some of the choices he made for English were...unfortunate.

Quote from: Lynn;937946All eras are good, though I do favor the 70s and 80s.

If unraveling a mystery is as easy as doing a Google search then the mystery isn't much of a mystery. So the horrors have scale forward or, modern contrivances have to be rendered mostly useless.

Use them for the horror, or as part of the horror.

For ex, I know of one story where "Cthuthu" is a world ending computer virus.  His cult has been waiting for enough computing power worldwide to run the program.

Or one Supernatural episode had a MotW who could fake anyone's voice on the phone:  Including dead and gone John Winchester.

Quote from: Lynn;937946- new advances of science are suggested, yet a lot of old world religious belief still persists, and it can disguise ignorance or degeneration

That hasn't changed at all. See: Anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, pro-lifers, ISIS, etc.

Quote- people tend to cluster together in somewhat xenophobic groups, each of which 'otherize' the others

That hasn't changed either. Tumblr, Reddit, 4chan, rpg.net, The RPG Site, Liberals vs. Conservatives, OSR vs. Story Games...

Quote- science should be blazing a trail of hope for the future, yet certain key discoveries suggest something horrible instead

Read Being No One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity by Thomas Metzinger. Contemporary neuroscience suggests that free-will and consciousness are illusions. Your self-awareness is just a black-box; "you" are not the part that flies the plane.

Quote- no matter how much you try to hide among the herd, no trappings or tools of modern day life will save you once you get on the radar of the horrible

Ubiquitous surveillance, social networking, doxxing, etc.

QuoteIf unraveling a mystery is as easy as doing a Google search then the mystery isn't much of a mystery. So the horrors have scale forward or, modern contrivances have to be rendered mostly useless.

Try Googling CP, or instructions for pipe-bombs, and tell us what mysteries you unravel. Not everything is easily accessible on Google.

(Hell, try Googling anything from where' I'm living; I have to use a VPN to bypass government censorship.)

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;9381721. Do you have it written up?

2. As far as Mysteries goes, the author's English is much better than my Hungarian, but it is obviously his second language.  For example, because Hungarian has a tiny thesaurus, some of the choices he made for English were...unfortunate.

1. Unfortunately not. That was almost 30 years ago, and alot of that stuff has disappeared. I still remember the arc, and specific events, but no notes.

It's hard working in a language that's not your first. I'll give him credit for trying, and getting something published.

Shemek.

You know, now I really want to run a contemporary Call of Cthulhu game just so I can play off of the Millennial Google-hubris.

You want to type the search string: necronomicon+cthulhu+summon into Google? Sure thing, the Delta Green agents will be knocking at your door within an hour, assuming the cultists don't find you first.

You need at least a VPN and a dozen proxy servers if you want to safely search for mythos lore online, and even then you aren't sure to find anything of use because:
a) Most of the relevant information is password protected, or hidden on unsearchable onion sites
b) The few snippets of relevant information you can find are buried under mountains of useless garbage. The next time your computer has an error message, try Googling the solution yourself. High tech search tools are only useful if you know what to search for, and even then they might not be so helpful if your problem isn't very common.

Quote from: Shemek hiTankolel;9381911. Unfortunately not. That was almost 30 years ago, and alot of that stuff has disappeared. I still remember the arc, and specific events, but no notes.

It's hard working in a language that's not your first. I'll give him credit for trying, and getting something published.

Shemek.

Too bad.
Plus one.  I make it a habit never to completely trash anything published, because hey, at least the author did the work of putting something out. Unless I'm feeling churlish (not that uncommon, sadly), the worst I will say about somebody's work is "You should have found a better editor."

Quote from: Crawford Tillinghast;938234Too bad.
Plus one.  I make it a habit never to completely trash anything published, because hey, at least the author did the work of putting something out. Unless I'm feeling churlish (not that uncommon, sadly), the worst I will say about somebody's work is "You should have found a better editor."

I completely agree with the sentiments you've expressed. Too many people these days seem quick to slam another's work, and yet they have nothing to show when it comes to their own endeavours. Constructive criticism is useful, criticism for the purpose of belittling is useless. Your comment regarding editors certainly is indicative of the former.
I really should look at starting a CoC game this year. I had considered doing something with B-tech, but CoC might be more interesting.

Shemek

Quote from: Cave Bear;938194You know, now I really want to run a contemporary Call of Cthulhu game just so I can play off of the Millennial Google-hubris.

You want to type the search string: necronomicon+cthulhu+summon into Google? Sure thing, the Delta Green agents will be knocking at your door within an hour, assuming the cultists don't find you first.

You need at least a VPN and a dozen proxy servers if you want to safely search for mythos lore online, and even then you aren't sure to find anything of use because:
a) Most of the relevant information is password protected, or hidden on unsearchable onion sites
b) The few snippets of relevant information you can find are buried under mountains of useless garbage. The next time your computer has an error message, try Googling the solution yourself. High tech search tools are only useful if you know what to search for, and even then they might not be so helpful if your problem isn't very common.

c) There is no reason ritual magic needs to be easy. It requires discipline and will to establish an altered consciousness that allows the caster to use it. If a giggling Internet troll reads the Necronomicon to his buddies off of his phone, nothing is going to happen. The magic words aren't the spell. They are a component of the spell. In the CoC rules, you usually needs to spend months with a tome to yield a spell. That doesn't change because it's on a PDF instead of dubiously-sourced vellum.

CoC presumes anyone can cast a spell once they know it. In some games I have run, you can't use magic until you fall below a certain Sanity threshold. That gives a purpose to undergoing sorcerous rites of passage, such a burying an initiate alive for a number of hours to rattle their mental well-being.

Ritual magic often calls for a congregation as well. Using the COC system, this means a spell has an enormous Magic Point cost. It's unlikely one caster can manage a 100 point cost. They need a whole congregation of initiated people that can share their MP with him. That takes time and effort, of the kind that can draw Delta Green investigations. It's not impossible, but it is hard, and it gives an easy avenue for PCs to step in.

Face it, over 99% of people that manage to download a real copy of the Necronomicon, and not one of the hundreds of decoy versions, are not going to approach it with the degree of seriousness to succeed in using it.

There is also the idea of using mythos texts on the web to spread insanity. Based on Lovecraft, that isn't easy. A character in The Mountains of Madness has read the Necronomicon. He isn't insane. It's a book of weird mythology, but it didn't melt his brain. It is only when the expedition to Antarctica verifies the Necronomicon for him that he has his breakdown. WIthout verification, it is just another unpleasant horror book in a world full of them. In The Dunwich Horror, Armitage is familiar with the Necronomicon, and seems a stolid sort at the beginning of the story. He does suffer a nervous breakdown reading it later in the story, but that is when he is reading with the intent of using it to fight a monster, with the knowledge what it says is real. And even then, he doesn't go completely mad.

Moving to Chamber's The King in Yellow, we do have something that can really drive you mad from just reading it, bur really, who is going to? If it gets loose on the Internet, are there really enough people that will put in the effort to read an old play? Have you ever tried to get your players to read a two-page handout? Sure, there will be isolated nutballs that have read it out there, but its never going to be an epidemic.

This isn't the first time the world has had easy access to esoteric lore. The 60s and 70s had plenty of people delving into these things. Lovecraft's own era had a thriving spiritualist movement. It is noteworthy that characters in his books are frequently already versed in the tomes they name-drop. It is just that that it is just that magic is hard. Owning a spellbook doesn't make you a wizard.

I really like the vibe of Cthulhutech.  Unfortunately the mechanics were a hot mess.

Quote from: Cave Bear;938186That hasn't changed at all. See: Anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, pro-lifers, ISIS, etc.

Exactly my point. Many horrors remain. What I would want to avoid is having a 'meta-Cthulhu' game that turns into a big meme joke.

Quote from: Baulderstone;938245Have you ever tried to get your players to read a two-page handout?

Been there. Its makes me sad as a person.

Quote from: Cave Bear;938194You know, now I really want to run a contemporary Call of Cthulhu game just so I can play off of the Millennial Google-hubris.

Oh fuck yes.

Oh, there's another place where I want Cthulhu.

There's an entire genre of anime set inside of MMO', like Hack/Sign, Log Horizon, Sword Art Online, etc.
I like Overlord's take on it; it's implied that the world outside the game is some kind of cyberpunk dystopia where people need synthetic lung transplants from the pollution, the vast majority of people are unemployed due to all the jobs being automated, and a significant percentage of the population lives in neural-interfaced virtual worlds 24/7.

I want to run a Call of Cthulhu scenario where the PC's are playing an old-school MMO emulated on cortical-modem interfaces (with some mods installed to make the experience more immersive.) The game is called Carcosa Online; it's a fantasy MMO RPG that had almost one billion players at the height of its popularity, but has since dwindled into obscurity. The derelict server the players find themselves in is bereft of player activity...  but for one other player, evidently still using an ancient desktop, and his name is 「ＫＩＮＧ＿ＹＥＬＬＯＷ」. And now the players find that a critical error has occurred, and they cannot log out.

Quote from: Cave Bear;938356Oh, there's another place where I want Cthulhu.

There's an entire genre of anime set inside of MMO', like Hack/Sign, Log Horizon, Sword Art Online, etc.
I like Overlord's take on it; it's implied that the world outside the game is some kind of cyberpunk dystopia where people need synthetic lung transplants from the pollution, the vast majority of people are unemployed due to all the jobs being automated, and a significant percentage of the population lives in neural-interfaced virtual worlds 24/7.

I want to run a Call of Cthulhu scenario where the PC's are playing an old-school MMO emulated on cortical-modem interfaces (with some mods installed to make the experience more immersive.) The game is called Carcosa Online; it's a fantasy MMO RPG that had almost one billion players at the height of its popularity, but has since dwindled into obscurity. The derelict server the players find themselves in is bereft of player activity...  but for one other player, evidently still using an ancient desktop, and his name is 「ＫＩＮＧ＿ＹＥＬＬＯＷ」. And now the players find that a critical error has occurred, and they cannot log out.

Just wanted to say nice, really cool idea.

Quote from: Nexus;938383Just wanted to say nice, really cool idea.

Thanks!
I have another thread where I am laying out some more rough ideas for the scenario.
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?35854-Carcosa-Online-(Call-of-Cthulhu-Adventure)

I like a bit of Cthulhu just about everywhere. But only in controlled doses.

Quote from: Cave Bear;938356Oh, there's another place where I want Cthulhu.

There's an entire genre of anime set inside of MMO', like Hack/Sign, Log Horizon, Sword Art Online, etc.
I like Overlord's take on it; it's implied that the world outside the game is some kind of cyberpunk dystopia where people need synthetic lung transplants from the pollution, the vast majority of people are unemployed due to all the jobs being automated, and a significant percentage of the population lives in neural-interfaced virtual worlds 24/7.

I want to run a Call of Cthulhu scenario where the PC's are playing an old-school MMO emulated on cortical-modem interfaces (with some mods installed to make the experience more immersive.) The game is called Carcosa Online; it's a fantasy MMO RPG that had almost one billion players at the height of its popularity, but has since dwindled into obscurity. The derelict server the players find themselves in is bereft of player activity...  but for one other player, evidently still using an ancient desktop, and his name is 「ＫＩＮＧ＿ＹＥＬＬＯＷ」. And now the players find that a critical error has occurred, and they cannot log out.

Cthulhunet. You could get that in the original TORG if you combined the Cyberpapacy Cosom with the Orrorsh one. Tharkhold could have been. But they dropped the ball there.

Or. Have a look at Nights Edge, the CP2020 horror setting. Just jack up the horror part.

Or pick up Deathnet for d20 and ramp up the horror aspect.

It doesnt take much to turn a VR setting into a horror setting.

Quote from: RPGPundit;939747I like a bit of Cthulhu just about everywhere. But only in controlled doses.

I like Cthulu under the sea.

Where everythings better.

Down where its wetter.

Quote from: Omega;939903I like Cthulu under the sea.

Where everythings better.

Down where its wetter.

(http://fashionablygeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/my-little-cthulhu.jpg)