Ian Absentia

Gee, @seneschal, is it any coincidence that you're trotting out your [REDACTED] nostalgist propaganda at a time like this? !i!

Yeah, all the cool kids are playing with depleted uranium now. 😝 !i!

I brought this very topic up in the Heortland Landscape thread back in September 2019... ...with much good input from @Joerg and a link to an even earlier thread on the topic. I was particularly impressed by the pairing of the Beysibs to the Waertagi (though the Beysib invasion occurred after my interest in the Sanctuary stories had waned). The more mundane upshot of that sub-topic was that, while the early days of the RPG hobby allowed for a wild and woolly cross-pollination, Karse and Refuge are officially divorced from their incipient roots. That won't stop you, though! !i!

😮 Hand to God, I hadn't even thought of that when I suggested a "game of personal horror and paranoia". Goes to show you, the stars may be right... !i!

Kubrick's The Shining, totally separate from its source material, is a work of art. There are certain films that rise above the book on which they're based (The Maltese Falcon also leaps to mind), and this is one of them, though it's almost an entirely different animal. !i!

Honestly, the more I think on the matter, the more an Antebellum-era, laudanum-soaked, Poe-inspired, tightly-scoped game of personal horror and paranoia, completely devoid of overwrought Mythos tropes sounds right up my alley. Quick! Someone give Chaosium the benefit of the doubt and write this thing under the BRP license! !i!

I saw Bierce get boxed here: So, being a matter of context, be careful of where you take Poe. !i!

Early commentary regarding the development of alien races in The Journal of the Traveller's Aid Society addressed this very topic, citing the alien suit with a zipper in back. GDW was pretty good with their aliens. I recommend the Uplift novels by David Brin. They're remarkable in the development of aliens as outgrowths of their environment and unique culture. Generally good reads, too. !i!

I also agree -- we should return to the topic without further digression. !i!

You mean like Magic World? Which is frustrating to many, because...there it is already, just sitting there. But yes, I welcome a "generic" fantasy roleplaying engine that isn't an emulator for a different sort of roleplaying experience. Something very close in mechanics to RuneQuest, but not tied to Glorantha. !i!

That old crutch? Gird your loins already, fella. !i!

I apologise for jumping on you publicly, but read and re-read that sentence until you see what we're saying. We appreciate the spirited discussion, of course. !i!

Nyarlathotep & Me: A Story. Now I'm really interested. !i!

I shall inform the media and await with baited breath. !i!

In all fairness, we're seeing you attributing those claims to people who didn't actually make them. !i!

That's more personal horror, regardless of the catalyst. You mean like the Book of Job? In all honesty, I love that story, but it's still not cosmic horror. Job's stuck piggy-in-the-middle between God and His QC analyst, and he doesn't understand why any of this is happening, but he still understands his place in the divine hierarchy. And then there's that inexplicable happy ending. It's a matter of where the author (and reader) chooses to draw the line, yes. Providing an exit strategy is like tacking on a happy ending -- some feel that it undermines the integrity of the "horror". Cosmic catharsis, maybe, but not "horror". !i!

Genpei was mine, under Arthaus, so that gives you an idea of how long ago that was. There was at least one later that Greg was coordinating with another author, but that didn't move forward last I heard. I don't think there's one currently on the books, but now would be a great time to put in a place keeper. !i!

My apologies, really. Oh, c'mon! I was constructive straight out of the gate. I was just building a gallows for crap manifestos like "Without a Higher Power there is no morality, only survival of the fittest" that someone thought he could drop uncontested. !i!

Who claimed this, out of curiosity? "[Author Sandy Petersen] has left out the concept of a "war in heaven" in which the Great Old Ones battled and were defeated by the Elder Gods, supposed deities of good opposed to the cosmic evil of the Great Old Ones. This idea of a cosmic war is never found in Lovecraft's own works; more importantly, it vitiates some of the stark horror found in the original ideas." ~ Call of Cthulhu RPG, "What Was Left Out", all the way back in the 1st Edition, 1981. Not that Sandy had the last word on the matter, but that's been in every edition of CoC I've ever looked at, including the most recent 7th Ed, and he scores a valid point. In fact, I more or less paraphrased him earlier by invoking God with a fire extinguisher ready to save the day. Derleth has his fans, perhaps largely because he introduces hope where Lovecraft offered none. I did it myself when I was playing CoC as a teenager. I'd make different choices today. Different strokes and all that. !i!

Not hostile at all, but that's often the impression caused by attempting to convey irony via the Internet. Mea culpa. But you take away what you bring to the conversation. Right on the money, though only one in particular, and I take exception to characterising it as juvenile! I personally don't think so, but that's exactly point I was making. The debate is frequent and widespread regarding "authentic" voice. As I actually did write above, I dunno -- can a man write believable female dialogue? Depends on the writer's talent. Depends on the writer's agenda and bias (if any). Depends on the reader. !i!

I'm far more intimidated by his cocaine-fueled brickwork. But, yeah, I understand how wading hip-deep in someone else's agenda can spoil the enjoyment. By contrast, I recently finished watching a VERY good television show (FX's Legion) wherein the final season several characters were espousing personal views that I found highly objectionable, and it was nagging at my enjoyment of the show...until I realised that they were voices in a chorus of other characters that made the whole show work, and didn't represent an overarching agenda meant to alienate anyone watching it, much less me personally. Frankly, it was believable writing, and I could appreciate it without identifying with it. I loved me some C.S. Lewis when I was a young reader. And I recall my surprise when I discovered the Christian allegory in most of his writing. I mean, it was right there in front of my face, but subtle enough to not get in the way. Never succeeded in converting me, either. Just darned good storytelling. A good story is a good story. It doesn't have to affirm one's personal beliefs and desires to have a positive impact. !i!

Then it's a race to print! But you're right: He who holds title to the license holds the fate of worlds in his hands. !i!

Lots of perfectly nice people do. You know, when they're not constructing their own fictitious moralities. Don't let it ruffle you. Although a person of a particular faith might disagree, writing is an intellectual process that can be entirely hypothetical noodling, though focused through the lens of your personal perspective out of necessity. Can one write about xenophobia and racism without being xenophobic or racist? I dunno -- can a man write believable female dialogue? The issue of writing about The Other is an age-old topic of debate in the circles of literary criticism. It's certainly been tried, with outcomes of varying degrees of success. Questions: Do your characters and events pass the sniff-test of realism for behavior and dialogue? Can they and do they act in contrast to your personal values without necessary moral consequence? Do you have an agenda in writing the story that contradicts its ostensible framework? (i.e., is it really Cosmic Horror if YHWH's waiting in the wings with a fire extinguisher?) !i!

If it never saw print, I wouldn't worry about it. !i!

"Ia...ia...i...oh, ftugh it." !i!