Human beings are, without a doubt, among the scariest shit there is.

But in large part our failure to connect to the kind of "cosmic horror" that Cthulhu represents is because this culture has shut itself in a box, philosophically.  The average person in the western world doesn't just fail to ask "Big" questions (about the reasons for our existence) anymore, they don't even realize such a question exists in any meaningful sense.  They are so distracted by what the Buddha might have called Maya, by comforts, and with the convenience that modern society has in covering up the very real truth that sooner or later every one of us will cease to live, that they really just can't connect to something like the Cthulhu mythos as anything other than "godzilla with tentacles", because they can no longer understand the symbolism that the mythos was meant to convey, and it was the symbolism that was really and truly horrifying.  It was existential horror.

And of course, the really scary part is that we are "vaccinated" against this kind of horror in the way we are in our society because after the utter collapse of our ethical makeup in WWII, most of us would be completely incapable of putting up any kind of defense against this horror: something we truly hold as a real conviction, or at least a belief system.  

You see, in the past, the average person would cling to their belief systems, dogmas that would see them through.  And certain people, ones that were too educated for dogmas, had convictions instead, the sorts of "self-evident truths" that the Founding Fathers of the United States had.

But now most people don't have any convictions anymore, and don't REALLY believe in anything anymore, even if they claim they do.  Moral relativism and deconstructionism have destroyed that.  So our entire society now not only has turned its back on asking the big questions, but it absolutely DEPENDS on no one doing so, for its own survival.  That's an end-stage society, one that is on the brink of collapse, because it no longer has any kind of a raison d'etre either.

Zarathustra was right, and Nietzsche was the greatest prophet of our age.  One hundred years later, we live surrounded by the "ultimate man".

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit... But now most people don't have any convictions anymore, and don't REALLY believe in anything anymore, even if they claim they do.  Moral relativism and deconstructionism have destroyed that.  So our entire society now not only has turned its back on asking the big questions, but it absolutely DEPENDS on no one doing so, for its own survival.  That's an end-stage society, one that is on the brink of collapse, because it no longer has any kind of a raison d'etre either.

Zarathustra was right, and Nietzsche was the greatest prophet of our age.  One hundred years later, we live surrounded by the "ultimate man".

RPGPundit

From dissing the upcoming Cthulhu game to an 'Allan Bloom' style analysis of the shallowness of early 21st century civilisation...

Quite the leap, Pundit.  And yet ... not entirely implausible.  :pundit:

(Any post that attacks moral relativism and/or deconstruction will always get some sympathy points from me. :cool: )

Pundit, I know Ken Hite. Ken Hite is a friend of mine. Ken Hite does high weirdness better than most people do ordinary weirdness.

Seriously, you ever get the chance give GURPS Cabal a read. Makes world spanning conspiracies sound plausible.

Can't I just be bored with Cthulhu?

Quote from: droogCan't I just be bored with Cthulhu?

Thank you.

Quote from: droogCan't I just be bored with Cthulhu?

Stop this needless attack on Cthuhlu :mad:

Obviously you and most of the folks around here have not played it as it was meant to be played :snooty:

How is it supposed to be played? Well, you should base all you campaigns on Stuart Gordon's  Re -Animator*...:killingme:

*Giving head never had a more literal metaphor :grumpy:

Regards,
David R

Quote from: droogCan't I just be bored with Cthulhu?

Ummm ... yeah.  You can be that.

But if you're so bored with Cthulhu, why bother reading or posting in threads about Cthulhu?
:confused:

Quote from: AkrasiaBut if you're so bored with Cthulhu, why bother reading or posting in threads about Cthulhu?
:confused:

Something to do? I'm just having my morning coffee.

Quote from: RPGPundit...in large part our failure to connect to the kind of "cosmic horror" that Cthulhu represents is because this culture has shut itself in a box, philosophically.  The average person in the western world doesn't just fail to ask "Big" questions (about the reasons for our existence) anymore, they don't even realize such a question exists in any meaningful sense... Cthulhu mythos ... was existential horror.

And of course, the really scary part is that we are "vaccinated" against this kind of horror in the way we are in our society because after the utter collapse of our ethical makeup in WWII, most of us would be completely incapable of putting up any kind of defense against this horror...

Taking out the doom-saying, and implications of yearning for a past Golden Age, this reminds me that a gamer friend of mine, Ian, is planning on doing a post-apocalyptic game, using Call of Cthulhu rules. The apocalypse will be some kind of combination of environmental and economic, a collapse over a few years rather than overnight. The focus of the game will be on rebuilding.

For this reason, he's using CoC rules, and in place of "Sanity" is going to have what he first called "Will to Live." I asked him about that, and he said that Will would be knocked down by things like a despot taking over your town, crops being stolen by raiders, or the character killing someone "just because he looked dangerous." It'd be improved by things like raising a barn, the birth of a calf or lamb, organising a town council where everyone could have their say, saving the life of a stranger, and so on. I said that his "Will to Live" didn't sound exactly right - for example, plenty of players would argue that whacking someone threatening-looking, even if they were actually harmless, shows a strong will to live. He seemed to be talking more about human decency and community, so perhaps "Humanity" was a better name for it - setting aside the nonsense "Humanity" we had in a certain White Wolf game. Not the perfect name, still, but closer.

At first I thought this was just him using the system he was most familiar and happy with - running horror games is a strength of his as a GM. But know that I read RPGPundit's little piece, I think perhaps Ian's actually hit on the essence of Lovecraft's stories. He was just using the Cthulhu mythos to make it all more clear, but that fear, that existential dread of horror and the unknown, of what science and humanity may bring to themselves, can be had without anything supernatural. I don't think I could bring it out as a GM, I've never been good at horror (except for one particular adventure I've run nine or ten times), but I'll be interested to see how he does it.

Quote from: droogSomething to do? I'm just having my morning coffee.

You slept in till noon, too, eh? I've haven't slept in this long since I was a uni student!

Quote from: YamoI predict a mess to rival Bruce Baugh's Gamma World.

Quote from: SettembriniHite has lost his touch several years ago. he´s totally a nineties person, and doesn´t get his reviews straight.

Quote from: Melan{Cthulhu} has become a cutesy pop culture icon along with Dracula and Frankenstein; you can buy his effigies as small plushy dolls and slippers*. However, there are still possibilities in Lovecraftian horror

Taken in aggregate, these three quotes summarize my opinion on this matter.

I agree that our culture is pretty much out of touch with HPL's idea of horror.  

These days when we want to be scared, we dream up torture houses and armies of the walking dead.  Horror is very much a thing of the flesh in the 21st century.

An Orthodox priest of my acquaintence came up with the following line which might be appropriate for this discussion:

"If you don't feel a sense of vertigo when you say the word 'God' you have not named Him."

Pundit's right - we've lost our sense of awe - one part joy, one part horror

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonAn Orthodox priest of my acquaintence came up with the following line which might be appropriate for this discussion:

"If you don't feel a sense of vertigo when you say the word 'God' you have not named Him."

Pundit's right - we've lost our sense of awe - one part joy, one part horror

That is a really cool phrase indeed, and sums things up very nicely imho.

Why does CoC need a new edition anyway? Pretty much every version rocks.

Like others have said, I think CoC is past its RPG prime and a new version isn't going to change that.

Necromancy at it's best!

Umm, the way I'm reading it is more like a genre shift to all investigation, all the time using GUMSHOE.