#Tons of Lovecraft stuff

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Eureka September Patreon update is live!

This might be another one of our biggest updates yet, with a pretty big changelog below! You can get this update right now by subscribing to our patreon, but itchio beta fans may have to wait a few more weeks or a month. The itchio beta won’t be updating until I finish the complete monster overhaul which could take a while.

Also a reminder for those who are a fan of our TTRPG Book Club, once we reach our patreon milestone of $310/month, we will be upgrading and expanding the book club to cover more types of RPGs, including one-page RPGs and GMless RPGs! At the time of writing this, we are at $298/310! Almost there!

For those of you who don’t want to read the whole changelog just yet, some highlights include:

THE GORGON IS NOW COMPLETE AND FULLY PLAYABLE!

Complete overhaul of the vampire

Complete overhaul of the wolfman

Overhaul and improvement of injury mechanics

Overhaul and improvement of almost every Trait in the game

TONS OF NEW ART!

Full changelog below

CHANGE LOG 

Copy-editing Progress: Thoroughly copy-edited up to p. 194.

WHOLE BOOK

Stuck most of the $42+ kickstarter backer submission info into the very back of the book just to get it out of our email inbox and to allow the whole team to be able to more easily see it and work with it. Going to be doing more to integrate this stuff into the actual rulebook soon. 

CHAPTER 1

Changed the limitations on how Comfort is used to restore investigator Composure. 

Fixed a typo in the investigation example of play. 

Made it so that Composure rolls for fears in the “Ridiculous” category don’t even always need to be rolled when these things are encountered. 

Moved Character Health and Status, Grievous Wounds, Healing, and Healing Example sections to Chapter 1. 

Changed Partial Incapacitation to give -2 modifiers instead of -1. 

Overhauled the rules for injuries, incapacitation, and grievous wounds completely. A ton of it is changed. 

Added codified rules for medical facilities and what to do in the case of investigator death. 

Added “The Creeps” optional rule. 

Tweak to When is the Party “Split” section regarding how long to go before jumping between groups.

Lots of new art has been added.

Tweaks to Be Prepared to Lose section.

CHAPTER 2

Changed the CQC skill to Close Combat, as this is more clear and obvious what that means at a glance

Made lots of copy-editing progress. Many paragraphs are shorter and convey the rules more clearly. 

Changed the way the Burnout Trait works. It now causes the investigator to lose flat Composure each day rather than affecting their Composure rolls. 

Changed the Death Wish Trait to not suck.

Changed the Elementary! Trait to use Visual Calculus instead of Social Cues.

Changed Go With Your Gut Trait to not suck. 

Added that wallets and like basic clothing and stuff have a WP cost of 0

Added glasses to item list

Added rope to item list

Added hand warmers to item list

Changed Arithmomania trait to where it only gives a +1 base bonus to Paperwork, and the bonus for having a lower Ignorance of Quantity Tiers of Fear rating is more investigation points. 

Changed Femme Fatale to add a +1 Seduce bonus instead of +2. 

Totally redid the Hardy Trait. 

Added -1 modifier to I’m Okay You’re Okay Trait

Redid the Just Built Different Trait. Now it allows a character “no sell” an incoming Superficial Damage attack once per Scene, reducing the damage to 0, among a few other things. 

Added Renaissance Man Trait. 

Removed Love Me Trait. Might try to reword it another time, but it was too similar to too many other traits and wasn't very interesting. 

Completely reworked Lover Trait. 

Many new snoops have been added.

Changed the Mad Genius trait to be called Lovecraft Protagonist and changed what it does. 

Removed the investigation point cap on Man of Action Trait. Also changed the name to Ask Questions Later. 

Changed My Glasses Trait to only provide bonuses to Knowledge Skill Investigative Rolls. 

Changed Nightstalker Trait so that it provides a bonus to all Interpersonal Rolls while trespassing 

Changed None of My Business Trait to suck less.

Changed Not Finished Yet Trait to suck less.

Changed Showboater Trait to suck less.

Changed Skeptic Trait to suck less.

Smalls is now a real Trait instead of just a joke Trait. 

Removed the +1 Bonus from the Unpredictable Trait.

Changed Wicked Trait to not suck. 

Changed Wizened Trait to suck less. 

Woo-Woo Trait no-longer based on Blacked Out Skill. 

Moved “Deadly Combat, Permanent Consequences” here and changed the title to “Disabilities are Disabling”

Changed Basic Physical Therapy on the Wealth Point Item List from 3WP to 2WP. 

Added new section “People Change”

Made Blissfully Ignorant trait immune to “The Creeps.”

Made the Technically… Trait have a +2 bonus instead of +1.

Updated the Hard Boiled Trait to work with the new way that injuries and incapacitation works.

Moved the Hardened Hearts snoop to be the Wicked snoop instead. 

Changed “Empath” Trait to be “Empathetic” instead. 

Made “Did You Know…” a better and more usable Trait

Made Hard Under Pressure a better and more usable Trait.

Changed how the WP cost of an item affects the modifier for rolling for it in-adventure. The modifier is now half the WP cost rounded down. 

CHAPTER 3

Moved the section “Deadly Combat, Permanent Consequences” into chapter 2. 

More art has been added.

Moved Character Health and Status, Grievous Wounds, Healing, and Healing Example sections to Chapter 1. 

CHAPTER 4

More art added

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

The Blacked Out Skill has been changed in two major ways. First we made it more obvious that the Blacked Out Skill applies even to knowledge of the supernatural that is not necessarily true. And also rather than working the way that every other Knowledge skill works, the Blacked Out Skill now gives leads to where answers might be found rather than immediate concrete answers. 

THE GORGON IS FINISHED AND FULLY PLAYABLE!

Added that Alt. Witches have to make their supernatural ability composure rolls at +0 instead of +3. The +3 was a typo.

Started work on the complete monster overhaul.

Vampires have been completely rewritten. Most of their abilities and themes are the same, but the way the abilities work has been overhauled and improved in many cases, as well as now being formatted and structured in a sane and easily-referenceable way. 

More art has been added. 

Changed the +2 Contextual Close Combat bonus for the Werewolf Trait to a +1 Base Bonus

Wolfmen have been completely rewritten. Most of their abilities and themes are the same, but the way the abilities work has been overhauled and improved in many cases, as well as now being formatted and structured in a sane and easily-referenceable way. 

Fairytale Witch is currently being rewritten/overhauled. 

Changed Incredible Strength Mage Trait to have a +2 Close Combat bonus instead of +3.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Poltergeist

Steven Spielberg: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, I call this the tale of the poltergeist Spielberg: now unfortunately, i'm kinda committed to tell a different story over at space coven tonight Spielberg: so my good friend tobe hooper is gonna tell this one for me Tobe Hooper: it's actually pronounced toe-bee Spielberg: Spielberg: what

Tobe Hooper: so this is a story about an average suburban family who suddenly finds a ghost in their TV Spielberg: hey can i add something Hooper: steve you said i could tell it Spielberg: oh yeah yeah definitely Spielberg: i just have Spielberg: just a little suggestion

Spielberg: hey tobe Tobe Hooper: actually it's pronounced Toe-bee Spielberg: Spielberg: what Hooper: it's pronounced- Hooper: you know what, never mind, what's on your mind steve

Spielberg: can we put in some jokes Hooper: jokes? yeah sure i guess Spielberg: like, maybe a guy could fall off a bicycle Spielberg: ha ha ha Spielberg: or maybe Spielberg: ha ha ha Spielberg: spill beer on himself Spielberg: hoo hoo ha ha ha!

Hooper: so this family includes coach from coach Hooper: and a sexy mom in short shorts Edward Lee: nice Hooper: and a dog Dean Koontz: nice

Hooper: ok so imagine there's this really creepy sequence where the dog wanders through the sleeping house, the world silent but for the static from the television Spielberg: spooky! Spielberg: ok ok my turn Spielberg: next some kids use RC cars to make a fat guy fall off a bike Spielberg: ha ha ha ha ha! Spielberg: ha ha ha ha ha! Hooper:

Spielberg: c'mon, tobe! laugh! It's funny! Spielberg: look, tobe, we don't want this story to be TOO scary Hooper: but Spielberg: in fact, i think it would be really good if, anytime something scary happened, then something goofy could happen to immediately deflate the tension Spielberg: i think that would be great!

Tobe Hooper: steve i think our story could really delve into the discomfort around the growing omnipresence of the television in our lives Spielberg: what? who are we, david cronenberg? Spielberg: just wait a year, let videodrome deal with that shit Hooper: but Spielberg: look trust me people are gonna love this RC car gag

Hooper: so this family has a ghost in their house Spielberg: hey tobe can i interject just a little thing Hooper: uh Spielberg: this family also has a crap ton of star wars toys Spielberg: like, all the kids toys are star wars related Hooper: Hooper yeah ok whatever

Hooper: so the family hires these psychics to help get the ghosts Hooper: and they bring in this expert psychic Hooper: no introduction or nothing, she's just there King: what's her name? Hooper: no time for that!

Hooper: so now the ghost attacks the sexy mom Hooper: while she's wearing her oversized football jersey as a night shirt Piers Anthony: can we um Anthony: can we see her Anthony: can we see her um Anthony: you know Hooper: oh yeah Anthony: [pumping fist] YES!!!!

Hooper: so the house, in fact, was not clean Spielberg: hey tobe what if the beast looked like a big giant skull Spielberg: just huge Hooper: that's a little on the nose steve Spielberg: maybe like one of those giant Spirit superstore inflatable yard decorations

Hooper: i'm trying to build a scary atmosphere here steve! Hooper: and you're just goofing it up! Spielberg: i'm just trying to help Hooper: well, you're not helping! Hooper: if it was up to you, we'd just have skeletons blasting out of the ground all over the place like goddamn gophers! King: ooh that would rule! Poe: yeah interesting idea Koontz: i want to see that! Hooper: Hooper: you've got to be fucking kidding me

Hooper: you know what Hooper: who cares Hooper: who cares about anything Hooper: skeletons just start popping out of everything Hooper: you guys like that??? King: yeah that's great! Poe: it's good stuff Barker: nice Koontz: i like when the skeletons are there Lovecraft: its pretty scary! Hooper: Hooper: i'm done with you guys Hooper: DONE

[violettransgressions]

Ugh, I'm tired of hearing people say 'Atsushi shouldn't be the protagonist, he's hardly even relevant anymore!' and stuff. Listen to me: BSD is an ensemble story. There are four or more main characters, with alternating POVs, no clear protagonist, and the audience can (and are intended to) get invested in any and all of the characters, since they're all unique and have interesting dynamics and appeals.

I see everyone thinking about it in terms of just 'Atsushi can't be considered the protagonist' or 'Dazai should be the protagonist'.

No, Atsushi was our starting POV and generally the main character for the first season or two, because we had to get introduced to the world and our ensemble's characters. Atsushi starts out as the audience meeting all the ADA's characters and understanding abilities and the rules of the Agency, and then we start panning out to other characters, like how there are a few scenes, even in season one between Dazai and the Port Mafia, because more can be told about them and their backstories in scenes between them, or like in season two in the fight with Lovecraft and Steinbeck vs. Naomi, Haruno, Tanizaki and Kunikida. Atsushi wasn't relevant there at all, he was just supposed to pick Naomi and Haruno up from the station before Q intervened and started a whole different fight. Then in season 4, everyone got separated and Atsushi couldn't always be in the spotlight because we had to continue telling the stories of other characters, but he couldn't be there to watch them.

Not to mention, another reason for Atsushi losing relevance is because more and more characters are being introduced. Characters like Atsushi, Yosano, Kyouka and so on are being pushed out of the spotlight because new characters, like the Decay and the Hunting Dogs, are taking the spotlight with all their infighting and interesting characters the audience wants to know more about.

Don't get me wrong, by the way; that IS a problem. Asagiri has put in so many characters he doesn't have time to develop all of them. But people saying Atsushi should be included more just because he's the main character, or that he should have never been in the story, don't seem to understand that he's only one protagonist. He's served his purpose of introducing the starting characters to the readers/viewers. Do I think he still has tons of character development potential and that he shouldn't just be thrown away? Hell yes, but most people are picking sides on this based off of the black-and-white assumption that Atsushi is THE protagonist and that he should either be gotten rid of for a different one or stay that way.

[paintingpuff]

Netflix ATLA and the Air Nomad Genocide

I've started watching NATLA, and though I'm not really enjoying it, I've found it really interesting to compare its writing decisions to the show as a way to break both down and see how their parts tick. Since NATLA is trying to be more faithful than some other adaptations, the changes it does make stand out more and reveal the mechanics of the storytelling.

While I overall think a lot of NATLA's changes--even the minute ones--made the story execution weaker, the more complicated and interesting change of theirs is the intro, showing the day the Fire Nation ambushed the Air Nomads.

Pacing Criticisms

Cards on the table, I think that putting this sequence at the very beginning was a mistake. Watching Aang's emergence from the iceberg in NATLA made me realize how much the original cartoon imbues its beginning with mystery that makes for a much more active viewing experience. Aang doesn't know much about the present, Katara and Sokka don't know much about Aang's origins, and in their back and forth of information, we the audience organically learn both. Watching Katara and Aang piece together how long he's been frozen in ice was more satisfying and natural than Grangran deducing everything immediately when Aang showed up.

But Sherlock Grangran was kind of the only decision the writers could do, because if they tried the build up the cartoon did, it would just feel tedious to the audience, because we already know everything from the start. They kind of wrote themselves into a corner there.

But let's ignore that problem. We could imagine in another draft that this sequence of the Fire Nation attack shows up as a flashback, kind of like what happened in ATLA with The Storm.

That then begs the question: How does this sequence’s inclusion change the audience's experience, and is it for better or worse?

Facing Vs. Hiding the Horrors

Both series portray very dark and horrific situations, but the way they try to evoke horror from the audience are very different approaches, and for me raises a question I've been asking myself for a while: When wanting to display discomforting violence, is it more effective to imply/hide it, or to show it in detail? Somewhere in between?

(I specify discomforting violence, as opposed to violence meant to be catharsis or spectacle.)

There are arguments for both. Explicit violence can create a visceral, physical reaction to an audience member (especially the squeamish ones), though for some it can come across as gratuitous and even exploitative.

Whereas hiding the violence can horrify the audience by leaving a lot to the imagination (insert that quote about fear of the unknown from Hack Penmanship Lovecraft), or give the sense that the events are so awful that even the camera has to look away. Some also say this gives the characters more dignity, though others think this softens the emotional reaction almost as a form of self censoring (there's a reason kid's media often tries to show horrific stuff off screen, such as the original ATLA).

Ultimately I've come to the conclusion that the former approach works for some stories, whereas the latter works better for others, all of it based on a ton of factors.

So I don't think NATLA's choice to delve into more detail about the Air Nomad genocide is an illogical decision. I wasn't sure about it when I heard it, but I thought that maybe I'm just attached to ATLA's off screen approach, so I kept myself open.

And dialogue issues aside, I don't think the scene is that poorly done. But it did ultimately solidify for me that ATLA's narrative is stronger without an explicit depiction of the Air Nomad genocide.

The Grief of Never Knowing

The image of Gyatso’s skeleton from ATLA has haunted me ever since I saw it as a kid. It was an emotional gut punch in a very well done episode, but this particular screenshot has stuck with me, and that is because of the Fire Nation soldiers. A lot of people have pointed this out, but there are a lot of bodies here, and it implies that Gyatso managed to not only kill these soldiers, but do it when they were strengthened by the comet. That image is very discomforting--Gyatso is always seen from Aang’s perspective, and thus we only see him as the gentle old mentor and friend, one who cheats at games and throws pies he meticulously baked.

It also puts into Aang’s position and the grief he has to face. From his perspective, he was gone only a few days as 100 years passed. He never gets to see the interim, and thus neither do the audience. He is left with the same implications as we are, and has to face the realities of grieving the fact that sometimes you’re not there when they leave.

An excellent point from @endless-nightshift here is how one of ATLA’s core themes is coping with the aftermaths of atrocities and war, analyzing their long-lasting affects rather than just the initial shock of violence--something I had never consciously realized but once said out loud makes a lot click into place for me. There is a reason the show starts a full century into the war rather than just a few years. 

François Truffaut once said that “there is no such thing as an anti-war film,” because the medium of film is inherently better at elevating and glorifying what it shows rather than deriding or deconstructing it. While I don’t think it’s impossible to do the latter, the extended action sequence that is the intro to NATLA causes that sentiment to echo in my mind as I watch, rather than invest me into the story. 

The implied atrocities of ATLA draws me in to empathize with the wounded characters and world, whereas the explicit action of NATLA pushes me away. 

…and that’s where I was planning to end this analysis, but there is one thing NATLA’s intro adds into the canon that I think is actually genius--if they take advantage of it in the future. 

The Air Nomads are Joy

When I first saw the addition of the Comet Festival, I saw it as a purely mechanical decision to have all the Air Nomads in one place for the attack, as well as to make the act even more scummy. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized how it could tie into one of my favorite themes of ATLA: the Air Nomads (and especially Aang) as the joy and hope of the world. 

(I saw an old tumblr post about this theme that inspired this section. I wish I could link it but I can’t find it anymore, I’m very sorry and if anyone can help me find it tysm)

There is a recurring motif of associating the Air Nomads with humor and fun. Iroh mentions their good humor; Gyatso baking pies just to prank the other masters with it; Roku’s first airbending flashback being him using it to mess with his friend. This is a core tenet to Aang’s character as well. The first line he has in the show is inviting Katara to go penguin sledding with him. Half the stops he makes in Season 1 is purely to have fun. He excites Kyoshi island with an airbending party trick. The humor in ATLA’s tone isn’t just there because it’s targeted towards kids, but is the bedrock of the series’ themes. 

(On a personal note, the humor is also what got me and my family into the show. We saw the intro sequence with Aang crashing into the statue and it made my mom laugh so hard that we watched the whole series, and years later we’ve rewatched it dozens of times and own all the DVDs)

Joy and fun and hope were the first things to die when the Fire Nation attacked, and part of Aang’s job is returning that to a world that has been scarred by decades of war. You may already be seeing where I’m going in regards to the Comet Festival. 

A core conflict in the cartoon finale is Aang wanting to keep to the principles of the Air Nomads while still finding a way to stop the war (side note: I think the resolution and Aang’s decision to spare Ozai was a good one, I just think the execution was a little janky). Beyond the surface level conflict of who wins in the battle between Aang and Ozai, there is the additional tension of who will win ideologically. The return of the Avatar State is an interesting development in this dynamic, having Aang suddenly physically winning the fight, but spiritually losing up until the last moment. In the end, it is a triumph where Aang manages to find a third option to win both conflicts, despite them seeming diametrically opposed. It is about defeating Ozai and the Imperial Fire Nation by wholeheartedly rejecting their ideology of violence and might-makes-right. 

But now I see a really cool opportunity for NATLA with what they’ve established in the intro sequence: What if Aang reclaimed the symbol of Sozin’s Comet for his people? That day of the Fire Nation attack, centuries of the Comet Festival were wiped over in history, with people now naming that event as Sozin’s Comet and the beginning of the war. Wouldn’t it be poetic for Aang to mark the ending of the war by wiping away that stain done to his culture, taking it back from the Fire Nation in what ways he can? To turn a tool for genocide into an event of joy and fun once more. 

I’m reminded of moments from the cartoon like Suki commenting how beautiful the comet looks. It would just tie everything up beautifully, and I really really hope the NATLA writers--if Netflix does give them enough seasons to get there--take advantage of this.  

So, to sum up what I think of NATLA so far: I think a lot of its changes have made the story weaker, but I don’t want them to stop trying changes. If I wanted a 1:1 copy of the cartoon, I’d just watch ATLA--it’s also on Netflix, after all. With more work, I can see the writers making changes that accentuate and build on the beauty of the original. 

(Note: These are the thoughts I’ve accrued from just watching the first episode. I plan to watch more, but it does exhaust me at the moment. Still, I hope I can do more of these kinds of analyses, it’s a really fun writing exercise for me)

[saltineofswing]

Hello! I'm the person that made the rant post about my dislike on the lack of natural dichotomy of the Pyramids and Traveler since the introduction of the Veil that turned into a whole thing. You mentioned a lack of pulp in your reblog and it's stuck with me since then. I wasn't familiar with the term and did some research on it, but I still don't think I get what it is. I tried looking it up but a lot of articles and videos I could find explain the history of pulp and its influences in modern day sci-fi but not necessarily what it is, especially in a way that would give me context to better understand your reblog. If it's not too much trouble, can you explain a little more what the "pulp" is that destiny is lacking?

I’d be happy to try and give you a little more insight into what I feel are important tenets of pulp as a genre/concept! I decided this might be a good opportunity to talk a little about it generally because I am really feeling its absence generally in the past couple years, so I included some historical backing which you’re probably already familiar with – hope that’s OK.

I did a little digging personally, for some good places to familiarize oneself with the basics of pulp as a concept and/or genre. It was nice to re-affirm some info that I’ve felt secure in holding as true without a ton of evidentiary support, and I also learned some cool new stuff as well! I think a good place to start would be to link to the TV Tropes page about pulp magazines, which does a pretty good job of explaining the origins and foundational aspects of the concept in a way that is easy to digest. It also has a lot of examples available to peruse. I also found this cool article on the golden age of pulps, which is an interesting read.

This got long, so below the cut!

To reiterate, the original ‘pulp’ terminology and vibe comes from early/mid-20th century magazines, which were cheap and easy ways to access genre fiction and action/adventure stories before comics, paperback novels, and TV/movies were really on the scene. Pulp magazines spanned a very wide array of genres, but because of a lack of appreciation for the medium, a majority of pulp magazines and aspects of what I would consider to be pulp as a genre have been allowed to fall into obscurity. There are places where I feel it is particularly obvious, especially the superhero genre (don’t get me started we’ll be here all week) but also in fantasy and science fiction – a term which was, in fact, coined by Hugo Gernsback, an editor for pulp magazine Amazing Stories.

They were cheap to make, cheap to buy, and easy to serialize; they could be really schlocky, crass, and unpolished. They could also be fucking incredible! The Shadow is a good example of an early pulp property with screaming highs and frankly peat-bog lows. Lovecraft published a lot of what is considered to be his ‘best work’ in Weird Tales! Conan the Barbarian, too! They kind of came out of the gate with a somewhat negative connotation associated with ‘low-brow’ forms of literature like dime novels, but where other magazines of the time tended to incorporate non-fiction articles and photography, pulp mags tended to be fiction stories only – short stories, or longer stories split into serialized chapters. Early on, not many of them had art, though with the advent of comic books that changed (you could argue that books like Creepy and Eerie are direct offspring of early pulp mags). Similar to what Weekly Shonen Jump does with manga.

If you think of a genre as a toolbox, pulp is a box full of tools that function fine alone, but excel at assisting the function of other toolboxes. I would almost liken ‘pulp’ to the concept of ‘camp’, which are also two concepts that can and do overlap with a high degree of synergy. Pulp has its own foundational attributes that are distinct from camp – for example, camp is gay relies a lot more on its self-awareness, at being able to wink at the viewer or participant, and telling you ‘yeah, we know it, but isn’t it fun?’ Pulp, on the other hand, is the (no pun intended) straight man counterpart to this aesthetic sensibility; pulp is at its best when it is being completely earnest. The quippy lines and dramatic proclamations are meant to be taken on their face. Nowadays it’s the kind of stuff that memes are made of – ‘That Wizard Came From The Moon’, ‘I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain’, ‘Whether we wanted it or not, we’ve stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars’. Saying shit that has no explanation with your whole chest. Trying to be cool on purpose, the ultimate cringe move.

Nowadays I think that this kind of thing has mostly died out of modern media, but the counter-motion is still prevalent in mainstream superhero movies. A good example is the ‘Would you have preferred ~YeLlOw SpAnDeX~’ line from the OG X-Men movie. Hey dickhead! The yellow spandex is cool if you, the guy making the movie, believes its cool! Crucially, while a lot of modern superhero stuff is quippy and irreverent, it often uses these tropes in a self-aware or cynical manner – afraid of being earnest, committing the aforementioned cardinal sin of trying to look cool on purpose.

(God damn it, I’m talking about superheroes again. Sorry. Before I get back on task this is why I loved the recent Moon Knight run so much; Jed MacKay is NOT afraid to have the characters say some absolutely batshit thing but it comes off as so, so cool. And yes, a little cheesy.)

And then, where modern sci-fi typically has an ultra-detailed explanation on-hand, I think a lot of early pulp stuff just… didn’t. Ask a sci-fi property for an explanation on, oh I don’t know, ‘where did these super-humanoid sapient machine warriors come from’ and it will likely have a molecule-deep explanation of how those unnamed machine people were created. Ask a fantasy property for an explanation on the same and it might say, ‘no’. It’s not that a pulp-leaning property won’t give you the answer to that question… it just might not have it. The ‘why is it/how is it’ is not as important as the ‘what is it’ and ‘how is it relevant’; a writer had a limited amount of page real estate, as multiple features were typically crammed into a single magazine. Even if a feature was serialized, much like television episodes (before the binge trend), one had to keep information digestible, and not too reliant on a prior or later edition that a reader might never see.

Explanations tended to be in service of an emotional beat, or to a theme, versus as a grounding agent to immerse a reader in the world. For the record I don’t necessarily think of either method as being better or worse, and heavy worldbuilding can still utilize pulp as a veneer or filter to engage audience expectations in different ways. Pulp stuff relies a lot on suspension of disbelief without utilizing a rigid lore-based framework to – though, you know, your story/setting still has to have its own internal logical consistency.

(I feel that it is important to note, as a partial consequence of the time period in which these magazines were being made, and when pulp fiction was most heavily consumed, xenophobia and racism are also heavily present in pulp works. I think everybody knows at this point about how much Lovecraft sucked but it’s a valuable example of how a lot of ‘fear of the unknown’ in that time was transliterated into ‘fear of the different’, in general but especially relating to genre fiction. If you decide to explore material in this genre, in this time period, be forewarned! Some of it was pretty glaring!)

So, let me tie some of this stuff to my previous statements about Destiny. I think that Destiny is an excellent example of how pulp tropes, aesthetic, and genre conventions can be used to enhance and streamline a setting… and how stripping too much pulp away can have a detrimental impact on the depth of a narrative.

The original narrative and worldbuilding of Destiny drew very heavily on pulp aesthetics to create a foundation, both in its appearance and its lore. The ‘Golden Age of Science Fiction’ was a period of time in the mid-20th century that sort of transitioned sci-fi out of pulp magazines and into its own thing, but the foundational structure of science fiction at this time was still heavily pulp-influenced. I think this is very well-represented by the portrayal of Venus as a ‘garden’ (jungle) world, very lush and with sulfurous and sometimes acidic rains. Before advancements in astronomical technology went and fucked everything up for us writers, Venus’s opaque cloud-covered atmosphere was impenetrable enough that there could be anything under there – and a popular portrayal of Venus was a muggy, humid, rain-heavy world that sometimes also included lush jungles. In Bradbury’s short story The Long Rain (WHICH ran in Planet Stories, a pulp mag, by the way!) this portrayal is a central obstacle to the narrative; it’s also used in Heinlein’s novel Space Cadet.

The color scheme that Destiny uses for Venus also matches a common color scheme for Venus in this era – see this cover for Fantastic Adventures. Visually, I think that this comparison between the postcard that went out with the D1 limited/collector’s edition and this Planet Stories cover for The Golden Amazons of Venus demonstrates the influence, at least regarding terrain and biome.

In fact, I think that you can see from this Eververse postcard – which could have been peeled off of any era-appropriate paperback novel – that the influence goes bone-deep. Destiny even refers to humanity’s halcyon age as ‘The Golden Age’.

(Below: Is this image from Destiny dev, or a science fiction paperback from the 60s? Who knows! I know. It’s Destiny.)

In the modern era of Destiny storytelling, though the visual elements of the universe remain largely rigid relative to this early framework, the pulp underpinning of the narrative has been largely left behind. The original game’s story, and the stories of subsequent DLCs, felt very pulp-inspired – this ranged from ‘sort of effective’, like in House of Wolves, to ‘game-savingly effective’, like in The Taken King. Pulp lends itself to straightforward conceptual executions, and brisk narratives, because of its roots as short-form literature. The narrative of D1 was simple and to the point; Light good, Dark bad, humanity is in the shit, think you can kill a god? The surrounding world scaffold was rich but not deep. As I like to say, sometimes a river can be wide but shallow. This is not a commentary on its quality – something can be good but not complex, and IMO, sophistication is not necessarily synonymous with complexity. Destiny managed to pull off a trick that many high-quality pulp stories employ: it made the river look deeper than it was. This is the whole reason that Lovecraft’s oeuvre has the staying power it has: other writers got to play in the space because it felt very deep, even though the stories themselves were fairly straightforward.

I also don’t mean to say or accidentally imply that ‘morally grey storytelling cannot exist within pulp stories’, because that would probably get me torn apart; that’s just not the kind of straightforward foundation that the original Destiny was built on. ‘It is what you see, but what you see could be anything’, you know? The problem that began to muddy the waters in the Destiny narrative is that they started to say, ‘You know, actually, it ISN’T what you see’.

Tentpole narrative additions to the Destiny 2 game employ varying levels of pulp. As I said in the other post, the Hive have a potent pulp influence built into their foundational coding, and so subsequent portrayals of the Hive as a main antagonist have higher degrees of pulp genre naturally present in the narrative – it’s hard to separate the two of them. Shadowkeep and The Dark Below draw strongly on the ‘sword and sorcery’ convention, a subgenre of fantasy that is a heavy (perhaps 1:1) blend of fantasy and pulp; think Conan, or Elric of Melniboné (who, hey! Showed up in a novella feature, in an issue of Science Fantasy magazine, named… THE DREAMING CITY). The Witch Queen leaned away from pure sword and sorcery and more towards noir/detective pulp – though, I think, TWQ is a good example of the pulp slippage in its narrative, resulting in some more bland moments and things that feel ham-fisted in a bad way. Part of it, I think, is the need to make these expansions ‘long’ and complicated without making the player feel like they’re slogging; in a more pulp-forward TWQ narrative, the reveal that Savathûn is actually NOT evil-aligned and is a potential ally would come much earlier in the story, and the central mystery would be MORE about ‘what the fuck is she trying to do/prevent’, leading to the Witness reveal as the centerpiece of the finale and the ‘solution’ to the central mystery.

The decision to start retroactively appending more complex connections between disparate pieces of content naturally leads to a reduction of pulp prominence, in my opinion. If you imagine Destiny as a vessel that is mainly full of three component liquids – Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Pulp – you can say that adding more of one genre pushes out another to make room. You can always pour more of one genre in to re-balance, but in response to increasing levels of sci-fi the narrative seems reticent to reintroduce pulp back into the mix, instead favoring fantasy. But another problem is that once you take it out, Pulp is really hard to put back; once you solidify and unionize world-lore, every subsequent retcon risks diluting and destabilizing that world-lore until a) nobody cares about it anymore and b) it stops being mutable at all, and becomes sludge.

The lore behind the existence of the Exo was originally very pulp, with no real explanations given for exactly what they were and where they came from, and how they attained sapience. Early hints that Cayde and a few other Exo having once been human didn’t preclude other Exo from having other origins – for example, implications that Exo war-frames eventually achieved sapience as a result of the ‘Deep Stone Crypt’, and that they were originally simple AI-equipped warriors designed and overseen by Rasputin to minimize human casualties. This early mystique around the origins of the Exo is classically pulp: we don’t need to know how the hyper-advanced robots were made, we just need to know what they are, why they are relevant to the story. It allows You, The Player, to engage with it at whatever level you want. In a game where You, The Player, are also being asked to step into the role of You, The Protagonist, this is beneficial to engagement for people (like me!) who like to think too much about the backstory of the your-name-here protagonist on-screen. It is also beneficial to not distracting the player with conflicting information, or accidentally contradicting previously-established lore.

Enter Big-Head Bray. The Beyond Light-era explanation of why Exo were created and how they were made is a retroactive nuclear strike on the Exo lore; it strips away a lot of flexibility and thematic richness from the concept of the Exo, shoehorns them into a single narrow use case, and directly conflicts with early-game Exo lore implying their connections to Rasputin (which they then had to go back and hastily shoehorn back in later) or existence as war machines for the Collapse. If D1 lore is wide but shallow, the D2 lore is narrow but deep. Just because something has a lot of ‘depth’, I.E. many layers to traverse before you reach foundational bedrock, it doesn’t make it good.

Same thing with the Fallen. Season of Plunder felt to me like an attempt to reintroduce pulp genre back into the setting, but it fell flat because of two reasons: it didn’t really want to be pulp, and it was more concerned with its tethers to the science-fantasy exterior world than it was with creating its own cohesive narrative. Why was Mithrax doing evil pirate shit when he was young? Because he comes from a race of fucking evil space pirates! It Does Not Need To Be More Complex Than That! But the exculpation of pulp from the D2 narrative means that if Mithrax doesn’t have a good enough reason, WRT the larger narrative, it would be a glaringly obvious plot hole. By Plunder, Destiny had already undertaken the task of filling out the Eliksni lore with sympathetic science-fantasy excuses for why they were trying to exterminate humankind – the more earnest, pulp-forward explanation would just be that desperate, hurt, suffering people will do desperate things, hurt people, and may perpetuate the cycle of suffering.

Oy. There’s a lot you COULD get into. How the Destiny macro-narrative seems to be decaying the rigidity of good and evil in its original lore vs. how the micro-narrative is obsessed with trying to recapture that good/evil dichotomy in order to give players a reason to like the main characters. How the determination to connect and explain everything has resulted in a general flattening of the background lore, and the subsequent trivialization of many things the game included in earlier iterations of the narrative/lore. How the narrative has basically nothing to do with the Vex because they wrote themselves into a corner by trying to explain them too much while simultaneously not altering the foundational lore of the race, meaning there were too many things they can no longer do without retconning again.

Overall, I guess I will just end by saying that many of the things that Destiny is CURRENTLY doing, feels like the game is straining to rip the part of it out which proudly asks its audience not to think too hard about sweeping, dramatic statements that built a lot of the things people love about the game’s setting and narrative… and in doing so, is just ripping itself to pieces.

[racefortheironthrone]

Hi! I was looking some of your old stuff and, in some, you mentioned writers and series that influenced Martin in creating some places in the World of Ice and Fire. I remember you mentioning some specific Conan stories to understand Yeen; Edgar Rice Burroughs for Bayasabhar, Samyriana and Kayakayanaya; Elric of Melniboné for Valyria; and Lovecraft, Lost World, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Heart of Darkness for Sothoryos.

I was wandering if there is any other influence that you caught and if you could tell us which one they are.

In addition to those, as @goodqueenaly has pointed out there's a ton of Maurice Druon and some Thomas Costaine and some Robert Graves.

[digifandom]

I see people write Takeru as a children's book author all the time but I've always seen him as a mainly horror and mystery writer. Like he writes variety (adventure 01 and 02 are published as children's books) but I just want the little guy to have fun with some pyshcological horror or just general horror

I think he deserves to have a creepy little corner of his bookshelf with tons of Goosebump and Lovecraft mythos stuff, let him have fun unleashing his dark thoughts in a sort of semi healthy way.

Also to anyone else that think Takeru is on the spectrum,

I feel some of his special intrests would be Sherlock Homes, Cathulo, and SCP foundation.

He also had a titanic phase but it only lasted like 4-6 months.

[meow-town]

Finished!!!! (My art is bad, and I’m fairly new to digital art, so let me down slowly)

And as promised, a pair of HCs to go along with it!

Metal Family Halloween HCs! (General and x Reader)

-Dee acts like he doesn’t like dressing up, but he gets really into it. He was that one kid who always had the best, most original, most niche costumes (and you could always tell his parents would help him). He went as Cthulhu for Halloween once when he was 6 and he just looked adorable <333

-He really enjoys scary movies and actually doesn’t get easily spooked by them too, he crapped his pants watching Insidious though. He’s one of those people who reminds themselves that it’s not real, and it actually works for them.

-Doesn’t like gummies, just hard candies and chocolate bars. He thinks gummies are too sweet. So instead of trick or treating, he just goes out and buys a whole bag just for himself. (Also he thinks he’s way too old to go trick or treating) Much prefers handing out candy to the neighborhood kids in matching costumes with you, you were Victor and Emily from the Corpse Bride that year.

-Heavy is just in it for the candy, and he likes seeing black cats pop up on his instagram during October times. He also likes scary mazes and all that kind of stuff. Doesn’t mind dressing up and likes doing Halloween escape rooms with his friends. He’s the type of person who likes getting scared.

-Although Heavy has a huge thing for overly obscene Halloween masks, he loves the classic werewolf look. With his flannel and clip on cat ears. Dee always teases him saying he looks like a furry 😭

-Heavy will always join people to watch creepy movies, even if he watches them through the spaces in between his fingers. He’ll have his chest puffed out and say he doesn’t get scared easily, only to not be able to watch Chucky. Put on the most disturbing documentary about a serial killer who never got caught, and he’ll watch happily. Now, put on a crappy horror movie with the least scary antagonist you’ve ever seen, and he won’t be able to finish it. Unless of course, you’re there for him to cling onto at every screamer on your movie nights.

-Glam goes crazy on decoration and the spooky shit. I mean, his house has a replica of a ram’s skull on it. And that’s on during the whole year. He has impeccable taste in decoration, my man isn’t going to settle for plastic jack o lanterns scattered across his lawn, no.

-He will sculpt entire statues for Halloween, he’s good at everything so-

-Sculptures of fallen angels, imps, headless horsemen, characters from Lovecraft… He is also a big fan of fancy candles! He’ll have electric ones out on the orch to prevent fires, but inside the house he’s got tons of them. In really nice scents, as well. During Halloween season, the whole house smells of smoked sandalwood and lotus.

-Speaking of what Halloween season is to Glam, he puts up decorations as soon as September rolls around. It’s his favourite time of year. He also likes wearing cozy wool sweaters. Likes it even more when you’re piled on top of him with a weighted blanket, stroking your hair lovingly.

-He loves the history of Halloween but strongly dislikes the marketisation of it all.

-Victoria doesn’t have much of an opinion on it, but she enjoys watching scary movies with the family. For two reasons, they’re like the perfect date night movies for her and Glam, and because she loses her shit watching Heavy’s reactions.

-Victoria has this habit of going through Heavy’s collection of Halloween masks. She’ll scare the kids every chance she gets with them, spooking them whenever they turn a corner. Don’t worry though, she wouldn’t dare to scare you, she wouldn’t want to submit you to the Jigsaw mask Heavy has dug away in the attic.

[well-dressed-sewer-rat]

bsd hc dump except they’re all either thoughtful ideas of actions/opinions they would do/have or the stupidest things you’ve ever read!!

no these are not in any order :) enjoy

alongside his whole cleanse-the-world-of-sin thing, fyodor’s secondary life goal is to learn as many string instruments as he can, own at least one of each, and dedicate an entire room to them. the only other one that knows is sigma, and they’re… honestly not even surprised

kunikida can speak spanish well enough to have an everyday conversation with someone, but he’s not totally fluent (i also like to think he’s very fascinated by the different dialects and knows a ton of variations of certain phrases)

because of this, dazai has committed exactly 5 spanish words to memory. all of them are insults. he uses them on chuuya sometimes thinking he doesnt understand (alas, he’s close to fluent and often returns these tiny insults with entire vulgar speeches in spanish)

while we’re on the topic of languages, sigma is completely fluent in both japanese and russian. fyodor and gogol (both non-native japanese speakers) are pretty good with the speech and pronunciation part, but they have a hard time reading and writing kanji, so they’ll often go and use sigma as a walking google translate

kyouka likes rock music! atsushi found her with headphones on once, asked if he could hear, and immediately got blasted to the other side of the room by mcr

atsushi, however, likes actual rocks. he has a little collection on the windowsill by his desk in the agency <33

the black lizard have game nights together once a month. higuchi caught them all heading to hirotsu’s place together and asked what they were doing, and when they told her, she immediately asked to join. a few months after she started tagging along, akutagawa was soon dragged into it as well. this is how they found out akutagawa is a huge rage-quitter (hirotsu has had to buy three new game tables since)

louisa and poe occasionally go out for coffee together. not on dates or anything, just to sit in each other’s quiet company and get work done together alongside delicious beverages. one time while the guild was still assembled, lucy asked louisa if she wanted a certain kind of coffee (she was practicing so she could eventually land her current job), and poe answered with her exact order before she did

during the dark era, dazai jokingly made a set of those neon loom friendship bracelets for oda, ango, and himself. today, ango still has his and oda’s, which he managed to save. it’s one of, if not the only remaining physical object that could ever prove oda’s existence.

anyway, back to the happy stuff- gogol and sigma are huge reptile nerds, especially lizards! gogol caught one once, and they spent hours playing around with it. fyodor passive-aggressively stared at them from across the room while reading a book on rats the whole time.

despite this, sigma can’t stand snakes. anything else scaley is cool, just not snakes- they do find most spiders adorable, though. gogol, on the other hand, is the complete opposite; he loves snakes and will burn the entire sky casino down if a single spider comes within a 2 mile range of it.

50% of mori’s obsession with elise comes from… y’all know what… but the other 50% is from his love for fashion and need for a model. apparently, he decided elise was the perfect candidate, and spoils her rotten trying to find her an outfit that not only he believes is stylish, but she finds agreeable as well (so far, he’s had no success)

one of steinbeck’s sisters is a professional hairdresser, so he knows a lot about hair care. as soon as he saw the state of lovecraft’s hair, he decided he absolutely would not have this and proceeded to spend the next three hours thoroughly detangling and cleansing it. other than steinbeck himself, louisa was the only one who got to touch it before lovecraft immediately jumped into the ocean again (she said it was perhaps the softest thing she’d ever felt with her own two hands. poe is secretly dying to feel it too someday)

ranpo often takes kenji, atsushi, and occasionally tanizaki out with him on snack shopping sprees! they all usually get addressed as “young boys”, despite only one of the three actually being a child- unless tanizaki comes along, in which case he is usually assumed to be the oldest in charge of the group.

ok that’s all my stupid tiny hands can type for now. please rb with some of your own hcs if you like, i lovelovelove seeing other people’s ideas on these stupid little guys

[cryptidsncurios]

@cursedfortune sent: belated/early munday question: horror stories you're ride or die for? it can be from any media.

Eyyy, guess what, it’s munday now, so thanks for the question friend! To start, my blanket statement concerning my faves is that I absolutely love any story that explores the unknowable, the unexplainable, and the extraordinarily eldritch. Cosmic and monstrous horror is MY. JAM. I’m into the gore, the body horror, the things that are just TOO. BIG. for our brains to comprehend so they just.. yknow… explode. Bonus points that I am a notorious terato and appealing monster designs are just……. hhhh

So in terms of specifics: it’s sad that Lovecraft was such an asshole, bc honestly some of his stories serve as the cornerstone for a lot of my inspo, primarily his works like Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Dagon, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and etceteraaa. Thankfully, his ideas have since been better adapted for people who AREN’T raging bigots like himself, which is why I HAVE to give a big shoutout to Lovecraft Country, of which I’ve only read the book but I hear the show is awesome too.

And nooooow let me kinda do this by categories with some of the highlights off the top of my head:

Movies:

The Thing (or anything John Carpenter tbh)

Hellraiser (plus the book Hellbound Heart, and just Clive Barker in general)

The Ritual

The Void (the ultimate love letter to practical effects horror, would recommend 10/10)

Color Out of Space (also the short story, plus I gotta credit Nic Cage, his performance was actually fantastique)

Shows:

EVERY. SEASON. OF. CHANNEL. ZERO. No lie, it's AMAZING. (And it's not like American Horror Story that's like.... icky to me, ngl. Some parts of that are cool, but then others are.... yuck. iykyk

Uuuuh tbh haven't watched too many shows, but I do have every intention to watch The Last of Us (as well as play it)

Books:

Tomie (and like, ALL of Junji It's stuff... so can we get some love for Junji Ito heeere!!)

Frankenstein

Camp Damascus

And I'm working on reading Shadows Over Baker Street now, which is like, if Sherlock Holmes was in the world of HP Lovecraft and so far it's WICKED SICK and Neil Gaiman writes the opening short story A Study in Emerald and I love that man, he is a fantastic human being)

Also since I'm on the subject of Gaiman, Coraline gets a mention

The Turn of the Screw (read in college and the first paragraph is a doozy but the ending HIT ME)

Video Games:

Silent Hill (any time it's foggy I'm like "i..it look..looks liiike....... o_o u know what... O-O )

The Evil Within (both games---they have their problems, but the haunting atmosphere is A+++ (well, in-between all the... horrific dying... pffff))

And like……. whatever it is that’s going on in Kojima’s silly little mind

Also I would like to give a shout out to the comedy/horror genre, like the Evil Dead series (Bruce Campbell, pls slide into my DMs), Dude Bro Party Massacre III (I'm not sure this counts as horror??? but OH lord my brain is still trying to wrap around this insane mess and I need people to watch it), and Tucker and Dale vs Evil.

So yeah, is a messy list tbh and there’s a ton more, but these ARE my ride or die picks and I'm sorry that this got so long but I have FEELINGS for horror aaaaaah

[altocat]

So in an earlier post you said Seph would read H.P. Lovecraft and not think of it as horror. There’s tons of racism in Lovecraft books so would Seph recognize as what’s happening in the books as racism or would that not register in his mind?

OH yeah. Can't forget about that. Big yikes.

I'm honestly not sure. It's hard to tell with Seph because his life has been extremely sheltered and, if we're being honestly, REALLY problematic given the fact that Shinra has forced him to fight against different nations and cultures for the sake of capitalistic gain. Really messy stuff there. I'd like to think that Sephiroth is aware of this and that it personally disgusts him. And no doubt he's smart enough to understand these concepts across works of fiction as well. But it's hard to say. He seems to know what's going on with Shinra, and how wrong it all is. But I wonder if his own awareness of his unfortunate set of circumstances ever bleeds into how he perceives certain works of art and literature.

[otakween]

Digimon Anode/Cathode Tamer: Veedramon Edition - 5 hours in

Another long-ass title I have to type out. Also, another name that only sounds cool to Japanese people, but to English speakers it's just like "wtf am I looking at?"

Anyway! I started playing the Wonderswan Digimon game! I think this game was an attempt to use the Pokémon model of having two versions of pretty much the same games with a different variety of mons in each. (Only ever seen Pokémon and Yokai Watch do that). I honestly can't remember which version I selected, but I'm only going to do one of them. Judging by the walkthrough I'm using, it seems like this will be a short one. That's already a plus in my book. I'm enjoying myself so far.

Notes:

-First impressions of this game were very much a mixed bag. On the one hand, I really like the art/graphics, but I was very frustrated to not be told wtf was going on, like with Digimon World 1. I did end up picking things up pretty quickly, but I don't think a newer kid's game would ever be this vague. Also, the music is very annoying and repetitive.

-I didn't expect poor Ryo to get so ripped off! Gennai calls him a "chosen child," but then is immediately like "here, have this hand-me-down digivice and Agumon." Lame! I get they're trying to tie it into the anime, but they still could have given Ryo his own stuff. Oh well, maybe that changes later.

-Plot-wise we have a similar issue to Digimon Adventure 02, why can't the OG kids just help? -big shrug-

-I groaned when Gennai welcomed me to the digital world lol. Hate that dude.

-Now that I've gotten used to the battle system I'm having a lot of fun. I haven't played a ton of tactical RPGs (I briefly played but didn't finish Disgaea) so seeing that that was the play style made me a little nervous.

-Already some improvements over Digimon World 2 (even though this game is older): taming digimon is less painful, when you lose in a dungeon you can just try again instead of getting a game over screen, very easy to fast forward through things and the battles aren't as painfully slow, and I haven't hit any annoying storage limits (yet). Earning money, skills, and stat increases come pretty quickly so grinding is satisfying too.

-There's a lot of extra stuff in this game I'll probably just ignore. It seems they wanted this game to be very social, but I don't have anyone to play with, so I obviously won't be exploring the multiplayer features. No clue what the analyzer does.

-I'm 4 dungeons in and there are only 13 of them. It's still kinda tricky for me to predict how long this game will be though because I'm assuming future dungeons might take many tries.

-Sooo this game was officially released in English by Bandai Asia, but I don't think the US ever got the Wonderswan, so I guess it was for English speakers in the East only. Weirdly I was watching an anime the other day and they suddenly mentioned the handheld. I was like "what are the odds!?" (Anime is Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Lovecraft-sensei. It's really bad, don't watch it lol)

[secretgamergirl]

Have I done any serious Lovecraft bashing in the last year or two? I feel like I’m overdue.

I’m almost positive I’ve sat down and written at least one big long post on the general subject of how there is nothing redeemable or interesting about H.P. Lovecraft, but I’ve also definitely seen another like hundred examples of people misrepresenting his influence and talent since, so, here’s another one.

See, there’s this popular myth that H.P. Lovecraft, despite being one of the all-time most virulent racists and quite open about it, was some kind of grand visionary who made all kinds of super important contributions to the horror genre, and... he just didn’t. Honestly I’d kinda want to burn down his legacy even if he did, because no for real, the racism was absolutely astounding. People’s jaws were on the floor about it even when he was alive. I feel pretty good about just completely throwing the whole output of right wing extremists in the dumpster like nazi game devs and such, so I don’t see why this should be different, but also for real, nothing of value is lost in doing so.

Like, first of all, he’s just a really bad writer. Really formulaic structure to all his stories, they all have basically the same protagonist and he sucks, tons of purple prose setting things up and then just kinda glossing over the main events, and dude really did just abuse the hell out of a thesaurus. And the subject matter’s not great either! In pretty much everything he ever wrote the big scary thing is kind of always just privileged white dude anxiety. “What if I’m not the center of the universe? What if I’m not actually a pure and noble white guy but I’m secretly the product of the dreaded race mixing? What if, like, a trans woman was kind of into me? What if I ad to deal with some other culture doing stuff I’m not comfortable with? There’s a couple that are more “starfish are just creepy” but it’s not a huge element in those and also I mean that’s just true.

There’s still the big influences though, right? Well, not really, no. Evil cults trying to bring back evil gods/monsters was totally ubiquitous way before Lovecraft. Super advanced space weirdos were too. Big freaky monsters doing sexual stuff with tentacles simply does not happen in any of his stuff. There’s no cool monsters really. Or people doing cool magic rituals. Just glancing at things and running away really. Like, guy wasn’t just unpopular in his day because he was a white supremacist scumbag, he also just couldn’t write well. I’m always pointing this out, but you realize Cthulu isn’t even actually much of anything in Lovecraft’s actual stories? The Call of Cthulu is mostly just this all build-up kind of story, with a couple people piecing a few random incidents into a vague semblance of an investigation, and at the end some big goofy sea monster starts to wake up from a coma and then... promptly has a ship plow into its head causing it to pass out again. That’s it. That’s the whole story. No big evil plans or minions or eating 1d6 investigators, no referencing in other stories. Basically everything in the pop culture “Lovecraftian” bubble is fan fiction, mostly tracing the route of “someone made a tabletop RPG vaguely inspired by other authors’ playing with this guy’s stuff which ended up being popular enough in Japan to be name dropped in some porn VNs, and people just kind of assume tracing that all the way back must lead to something good.”

This all made a lot more sense before/in the early days of the internet, where there was a sort of weird nerd elitism in knowing certain bits of obscure trivia and catching the right references. A lot of actually really talented horror people back in the day kind of got in the habit of referencing some memorably weird terms this one old racist tossed into stories that sometimes showed up in one of the oldest horror magazines one could find copies of if they really looked. In particular people found it really fun to keep referencing “the necronomicon” as like a pokedex for weird ancient monsters and occult stuff and made it enough of an in-joke to mislead people into thinking this was a real book. But the whole idea was you had to have access to this magazine from the 1920s to really be in on the joke. Stuff just kinda doesn’t work that way anymore. Wikis kinda killed being in the know on weird trivia connections.

The other thing though is people used to just do a little name drop of a book or a monster while doing their own stuff, and that’s fine, but now you have so damn many people doing “Lovecraftian” stuff where they more directly reference his better known stories, and there’s kinda this whole subgenre where people just run down that checklist. There’s dozens of “Lovecraftian horror” games where ooh, you’re some reedy nerd or detective and you go to this town called Innsmouth and people are suspicious and oh no they’re like fish people and they chase you around and you pass out or maybe find some weird idol and somehow or other you’re on this big mystery island and we’re directly quoting that “even death may die” line without context, and whispering voices tell you to poke at 7-pointed star symbols and oh no, you woke up Cthulu and he comes and eats you, credits. And like... it’s just running through the same checklist every time. It’s never informing a more original work, or putting interesting twists on things. It’s like how you used to have nerds just quoting whole scenes out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail or quoting catch phrases from Austin Powers or Borat. Just so incredibly tedious and pandering to people who don’t ask for anything more than having the references they know quoted back endlessly.

Anyway, point is, we really wouldn’t lose out on anything if we just freaking buried this one old racist hack. If you want to do some referencing and name dropping to weird spooky stuff that’s maybe from space or the ocean or whatever, there’s plenty of stuff you can shout out that’s actually good, and isn’t giving a certain kind of people to start grinning smugly and referencing what this guy named his cat. Like for real, any time you feel compelled to drop in some kind of Lovecraftian reference somewhere, just namedrop Junji Ito instead, or directly reference a short story of his. It’s all way more interesting and fleshed out and you’re just throwing a spotlight on someone who as far as I can tell is just a really nice talented artist who likes cats. Cats with names you can say out loud, even.

[eriquin]

The Prophetic D&D Game, Part 9

We begin the third session of the game. This time, Mike is missing, os they're down a paladin. I'm sure it'll be fine.

(master post)

Part 9

The next person to miss a session was Mike, to the consternation of his two close friends. Dustin had clearly told them the results of his conversation with Eddie, and the three of them regularly whispered with each other about the game. Eddie could tell that they were still suspicious about his character designs, but it was Grant who came to his rescue on that front.

“There’s a little bit of the people you know in every character you make up,” he said when it came up at a Vecna game. “You can’t help that, if you’re creative. Didn’t you have a friend who liked to DM before he moved away? Write to him and ask about it sometime.”

But Grant actually pouted about Mike being missing at their next Cursed session. When asked, he told the group that he’d had a ton of great ideas on how to exploit the fact that Mike was convinced that Natalia was based on his sister. “I was going to torture him with it,” he said, grinning. “You know. As a lesson on the difference between reality and the game.”

“Now that we’ve all established that Grant is chaotic evil, let’s move on,” Eddie said, eliciting snickers from his players. Grant even provided a deep, evil laugh for game ambiance, which led to the players speculating about Natalia being the real killer. 

“He wouldn’t do that to us,” Dustin said, glancing at Eddie.

“I think we all know that he would,” Gareth said, “but that makes it equally likely that he won’t, just to spite us. There’s no use metagaming it.” 

“It could be that someone’s possessed,” Jeff said, waving one of pages with character history on it. “Just like the last body-snatcher stuff he had written up. You know, the one where one of the bad guys broke free of the mind-control at the last minute? Maybe we’re dealing with another, uh... What did he call the pod people in this?” 

“Flayed,” Lucas supplied with a hint of dread in his voice. “They were flayed.”

Dustin gave him a surprised look, then glanced back at the rest of the players. “Yeah, like they were victims of a mind flayer, you know?”

Eddie crossed his arms but tried to keep his face from giving anything away. He’d never said anything in his notes about a mind flayer or used the term flayed. He suspected that the boys were throwing in their own interpretation of the demonic realm as being part of the Underdark, but that wasn’t what he was going for. If the other players took them at their word, he would have a good chance to surprise them with the actual villain. 

But Grant was better at remembering fine details, and he shook his head. “No, it wasn’t a mind flayer. Illithids are monstrous creatures with psychic powers in the Underdark, but they’re human-sized. I can see how you’d get confused, since they have a hive mind that controls their colonies. But the thing that our cleric saw was something gigantic, like a huge spider creature made of smoke that infected everything. It reminded me of something out of Lovecraft, really... And the weird pod people were each like the Blob, or the Thing, you know? But more cohesive and menacing.” He grinned at Eddie. “Honestly? Creepy as fuck, man. I like it.” 

Eddie couldn’t help but grin back. “Yeah? It’s like something out of my nightmares, you know? Melting people down and reforming them as its puppets. Glad you liked that one.”

“Yeah, I don’t want any deeper look into your brain, freak,” Grant said. “And yet, I keep coming back to your games.” 

“You love it,” Eddie said. “But anyway, I didn’t write down a name for the pod people. You can call them whatever you like.” 

He saw Lucas and Dustin exchange significant looks and mouth something. They seemed to be having a silent argument. Gareth was the one to call them on it. “Something you want to share with the group, boys?” he asked. 

They looked embarrassed to have been called out, but also did another bit of silent communication before answering. “No,” Lucas said. “It’s nothing.”

“Yeah,” Dustin added. “Nothing important. Let’s just play.” 

So they got started. Everyone picked the same characters. Gareth asked if he could play both Maya and Joe, but Eddie refused. He didn’t want to see what Gareth would do with Mike’s character in his absence. This meant that Eddie had to play him, though, because he also wasn’t going to put up with any of the guys making a crack about shoving the character in the closet. So when Grant and Gareth had their character come up with a plan to infiltrate the insane asylum and talk to Sir Englund about the last set of murders, he proposed that Joe go with them. 

“Eh, no,” Grant said flatly.

Eddie boggled at him. “And why not? Joe’s got the charisma you need for a caper like this. He would be useful.”

Gareth snickered. “Yeah, I’m sure he’s very charming,” he said. “We need stealth, and he’s a big dumb paladin. Let the illusionist handle it.” He waved his hand gracefully at himself. “Besides, Natalia’s got brains and charm. I think we can deal with this without Joe.”

Grant smiled. “I think it would just be better if Joe stayed behind with the other characters. They’re more likely to get into trouble, you know?” 

Eddie sighed and rolled his eyes. “Whatever, fine. Sadie, Gaten, Caleb? Joe is at your disposal if you get into combat, but until then he’s just gonna be chilling out nearby. Okay?” 

Lucas snickered and elbowed Dustin. “Babysitter.” 

“Oh my God.” Dustin cackled, pulling his hat down to cover his face briefly. “I can’t wait to tell Mike about this. He’s gonna hate it so much.” 

Eddie glared at them. He got up halfway out of his seat and clapped his hands together, twice, to get their attention. “So what are you doing, babies? Chop chop, what’s your plan?” 

Dustin and Lucas jumped back a bit at this, but Jeff leaned forward to help them get back into the game. “We have to deal with Sadie being cursed, right? What’s she doing to deal with that?” 

Lucas furrowed his brow. “Well, we don’t know any cure for it, right? She’d probably... Man, I don’t know. It’s kind of terrible. What would you guys do if you knew you might die and there was nothing you could do about it?” 

Dustin got a blank look on his face. “Jesus,” he muttered, giving it some serious thought. “Uh, I don’t know. Probably tell my mom that I love her?” 

Jeff nodded. “Yeah, me too.” 

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “That sounds about right. Sadie’s going to try to go see her family. She still has family in town somewhere, right?” 

Eddie shrugged and nodded. “Yep, her mom at least. Are you all going?” 

The three of them looked at each other and nodded. They discussed for a little longer what they’d do in Sadie’s place to generate more ideas on how their group would kill time while Eddie moved over to working with Gareth and Grant on their trek to the madhouse. 

Tagging by request: @weirdandabsurd42, @10moonymhrivertam

[neon-green-reagent]

Yet Another 50 Underrated Horror Films

I guess most people would want to talk about the best movies they watched in the past year, but I thought this would be a more fun way of ending 2022. Let me give you some links to other lists before I get started, in case you are into this and just cannot get enough. Well, allow me to be of service.  

The First 50 

The Second 50 

UFO Movies 

Mad Science Movies 

Aquatic Movies

Found Footage Movies 

Heavy Metal Movies 

Werewolf Movies 

Eyes of Fire : Back in old timey pioneer days, a group of people get cast out from their community because their preacher is a sex fiend. So they find their own place. That is full of evil fae magic and ghosts and stuff, and things get wonderfully weird. 

Highway To Hell : It’s Orpheus but full of puns and dumb jokes and incredible special effects. My favorite bit is about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. Also, Adam Storke is in this... You know, Larry from the 90s Stand miniseries. That guy. He’s great here. 

Shallow Ground : Ghosts. But so so so much cooler than just that. I don’t want to say too much. This one is all about the reveal. This teenager shows up naked and covered in blood, and everyone goes what the hell happened to him? And shit gets STRANGE.

Nightflyers : Adaptation of a George R.R. Martin short story that really needs a blu-ray release, like, yesterday. Beautifully 80s SF horror film full of weird, futuristic bullshit that I can’t get enough of. 

Beyond Dream's Door : What if A Nightmare On Elm Street were made on $3 and a ton of LSD? Take this trip, no pun intended. 

Night Vision : A guy that literally just fell off the turnip truck decides to be a writer in in THE BIG CITY. Which supernaturally chews him up and spits him back out. A cool, low budget time.

The Murder Mansion : Giallo! Two rather attractive people meet, fall in love instantly, and then get trapped in a murder mansion. That’s all you need for a giallo masterpiece really. 

Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell : An alien invasion that goes super hard. A plane crashes due to alien interference, and the survivors are faced with just... the scariest alien invasion of all time. This movie fucks. 

Island of Terror : Lil goo monster that kills you the moment it touches you. It feels like they were trying to do a Lovecraft thing, and it’s quaint and British with Peter Cushing. 

The Majorettes : One of those late 80s slashers that just keeps on giving. The first fifteen minutes were hilarious enough, and then the third act happens. There’s a siege? On a trailer park? In my slasher? 

Sometimes They Come Back... Again : Alexis Arquette (RIP) gives the performance of a lifetime as an undead thug who will fuck your daughter and your dad. Watch it for her. 

Sweet Home : Nothing is quite like a Japanese ghost story. This one throws some slasher tropes in there, too, with very over-the-top kills. Then it lands the dismount. Give me a blu-ray now please. 

Creature : Alien rip-off! Now hear me out. I am a sucker for those, but this is probably the best one in existence. Watch The Titan Find cut, as it’s the director’s preferred version, and I think it slaps. 

Candy Corn : Why isn’t this a Halloween classic? It’s like Trick r Treat meets Dark Night of the Scarecrow. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s an incredibly good thing. Also, the kills are brutal. 

Auntie Lee's Meat Pies : Auntie Lee has lots of BEAUTIFUL nieces who attract dumb men that she puts into delicious meat pies. Good for her, right? Some rockers in bad wigs show up and... predictably become pies. 

Skinned Deep : If Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 had no limiters on. If they were ALL off. All of them. I mean, just all of them. Warwick Davis is having the time of his life here. And Surgeon General’s mask is made out of what you ask? Boyfriend material. 

Werewolves on Wheels : A biker gang stumbles across a cult having a ritual. This makes them become werewolves. And that’s awesome. 

Distortions : Olivia Hussey and Piper Laurie attempt to out act one another while both going completely out of their minds. Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss. 

Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge : When you’re such a simp for The Phantom you’ll watch a hunky version kick ass underground in a mall. Also, it’s a good slasher. With Pauly Shore being... actually a fun character. 

The Marsh : A children’s book writer moves to the country to rest and get inspired. Then ghost shit starts happening. Trust me, this movie goes around some bends I didn’t expect, and it’s really worth taking the ride. We love a good ghost mystery in this house.

Dead and Buried : The story kicks off with a photographer getting set on fire at the beach by an angry mob. And it doesn’t get less weird. Definitely more weird. It blew my mind, and I didn’t think that was possible after all I’ve seen. With Robert Englund before he was Freddy. 

Clearcut : Native American horror. This one is all about Graham Greene playing Arthur, a gleefully violent fellow with a lot of secrets. I kept thinking of Severen in Near Dark. The performance is that good, yes. 

Satan's Triangle : Made for TV movie about the Bermuda Triangle. But also the devil. With an ending that I’ll never stop thinking about. 

Night Shadow : A werewolf movie! Where the werewolf and some lady have a psychic connection. I think. I mean, I guess. And her brother knows kung-fu, but doesn’t use it to fight the werewolf. Some bad choices were made, but ultimately it’s a good-bad time. 

Tales from the QuadeaD Zone : From the maker of Black Devil Doll From Hell comes... this! A horror blaxploitation anthology that really... It really is real. Also, what’s a QuadeaD? Dunno. And that’s not a typo. That’s how it’s spelled. Watch this. You’ll thank me. Or hunt me down, not sure which.

Alien Predators : A horror comedy that is heavy on the goofball antics and low on the scares. But damn if those antics aren’t cuter because it’s Dennis Christopher partaking in them! 

Too Beautiful To Die : A late 80s giallo full of fucked up shit, a crazy murder weapon, and giallo’s favorite victim: fashion models. And I need to say 80s one more time to emphasize the true magic of this film. Okay, one more time: 80s!

All-American Murder : Christopher Walken. Ahem. Oh, you needed me to say something else? Well, murders. And lots of silly, silly, silly dialogue. And Walken gets to say a lot of it, too. 

The Killer Is Still Among Us : Another giallo. This one is all about the ending. I find a lack of resolution to be one of the scariest thing a horror film can do. Very effective. 

Slime City : A man has to eat people to keep from melting. It’s a tale as old as time. He goes full goblin mode by the end. Good old-fashioned melt movie. 

Flesheater : Directed by the guy who played the first zombie in Night of the Living Dead. The cemetery one. Not sure why that made him qualified to direct a film, and when you watch it, you’ll see that it didn’t. But that’s why it’s good. Because it’s amazingly bad. Also, directed The Majorettes from up there, if that’s any indication of what you’re getting into. 

All About Evil : Directed by Peaches Christ, this is an absolute love letter to horror cinema. Right down to the very theaters the movies play in. Cassandra Peterson stares at an Elvira poster. It’s that kind of movie. 

I, Madman : There need to be more movies like this. About the power of stories to come alive. One minute you’re reading a book. The next minute, the book is happening to you. Stars Jenny Wright, who deserved a better career. 

Grotesque : Linda Blair versus a gang of punks. Oh, excuse me. Punkers. That was one of my favorite parts, that they insisted on calling them punkers. Home invasion that goes completely WTF by the end. WTF endings are a theme with me. 

Hell High : A group of high school outcasts decide to terrorize their teacher. Not realizing a nudge will make her go postal. This movie is way better than it has any right to be, quite frankly. 

The Untamed : A Mexican SF horror film that is all about sex. It’s not SEXY. It’s ABOUT sex. And the need for it, the way it wrecks relationships, addiction to it, cheating, not being able to be true to yourself about your own identity or needs. It’s a lot. I love it. 

Death To Metal : I love to see heavy metal horror alive and well. An evil priest gets a toxic waste makeover and decides to take out his religious frustrations in a local dive hosting a rock concert. It’s low budget and full of love. 

Tropic of Cancer : Giallo! Again! With voodoo. Not accurate voodoo, don’t ever look for that in a horror film. But with magic and antics is what I really mean. And those antics are quite wild and fun. 

Final Judgment : Brad Dourif as a priest with a gun trying to catch a serial killer. Also, lots of strippers. If nothing about that makes you want to watch it, may I check your temperature? 

The Mangler : One of those bottom-of-the-barrel Stephen King adaptations with so much to give. Directed (well, in part, it sounds complicated) by Tobe Hooper. Starring Ted Levine. With an absolutely gigantic, evil, designed-by-Dracula laundry press.

Deep Blood : I haven’t seen every Jaws ripoff known to man. But why do I have the feeling this is the worst? If you want to relax with friends and laugh heartily over a multitude of poor choices and production mistakes, have I got the movie for you. 

Identity : How unknown is this? I mean, it has John Cusack and Ray Liotta in it. But I still feel like no one talks about it. Still needs way more love. And Then There Were None, but twists galore. And lots of great, fun performances. 

Retribution : A man attempts suicide right as a murder is taking place. The soul of the victim enters him and uses his body to exact vengeance. With a fantastic performance from Dennis Lipscomb and a lot of heart. 

The Devil's Men : Priest Donald Pleasence versus cult leader Peter Cushing. In a fight to the death. With a minotaur there as well. Place your bets!

The Stone Tape : Do you like Halloween III? The same guy wrote this. It has a similar blending of technology and the supernatural. And the supernatural tends to win in those scenarios... 

Benny Loves You : This is a flawed movie, but one thing is for certain: Benny is perfect. Benny loves us, and you’ll love him, too. A killer toy movie that’s a cut above the rest. 

It! (1967) : Of course, I had to include the year, because, no, I’m not talking about one of the most popular horror stories of all time. I’m talking about Roddy McDowall (doing a Psycho) and a golem. And murderous hijinks! 

Wind Chill : I know Christmas is over at the time of writing this, but this was a fantastic, underrated Christmas horror. A guy and a girl drive home from college in the snow and get stuck. Where a lot of people have gotten stuck before. And died. 

The Shuttered Room : We’re in Lovecraft country here. Yog Sothoth doesn’t show up, but a lot of other gothic trappings sure do. People locked up in attics. Getting harassed by locals who are itching to say YOU AIN’T FROM AROUND HERE, ARE YA? Covered in a layer of creepy sweat. With Oliver Reed! 

The Dead Hate The Living : Gotta end on a total banger. An independent film crew gets a little too zealous in making their horror flick and unleashes zombies upon themselves. With a ton of shoutouts and horror nerding, enough even for little old me. 

That does it! These are always a labor of love for me, and I hope there are those of you out there that get some mileage out of this.