I’ve written about the importance of how you describe the rules being as important as the rules themselves before, but it’s worth revisiting. As I finish up The Magnus Archives RPG, I am constantly thinking about this. Sometimes things that are presented in one way in one sort of game need to be presented in a different way in a different game. Here are two broad examples to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
“A fantasy monster has a place in the world, while a horror monster has no place in the world.”
So maybe that’s the root horror of cosmic horror: at first you think you’re in a typical horror story, investigating some horrific and unnatural yet rare incident...
...but the more you learn, the more you realize that actually those monsters DO have a place in the universe, and it’s way more solid than humanity’s. You thought you were living in a human-centric horror world, which is bad enough, but it’s even worse when you realize you’re actually living in a Cthulhu-centric fantasy world. And the entire humanity is just a bunch of level-0 goblins.
“A fantasy monster has a place in the world, while a horror monster has no place in the world.”
So maybe that’s the root horror of cosmic horror: at first you think you’re in a typical horror story, investigating some horrific and unnatural yet rare incident...
...but the more you learn, the more you realize that actually those monsters DO have a place in the universe, and it’s way more solid than humanity’s. You thought you were living in a human-centric horror world, which is bad enough, but it’s even worse when you realize you’re actually living in a Cthulhu-centric fantasy world. And the entire humanity is just a bunch of level-0 goblins.
Again, very lucid and well written. Thanks for these gems!
this is now on the Minds platform.
https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1601394194008510469?referrer=flyingaxblade