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SCP Foundation

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17 Oct 2016 23:10 #236370 by The King in Yellow
Sorry if I'm behind the times on this and this is old news to most of you (apparently it's been around since 2008), but I recently discovered a website called "SCP Foundation." Instead of trying to describe it, I'll just pull Wikipedia's description:

"The SCP Foundation is a collaborative writing website that describes the exploits of the SCP (Special Containment Procedures, though it also refers to the slogan of "Secure, Contain, Protect") Foundation, a fictional organization responsible for containing entities, locations, and objects that violate natural law (referred to as SCPs). The majority of the written works on the SCP Foundation website consist of "special containment procedures", each of which purports to be the containment process for a specific SCP. The website also contains several hundred "Foundation Tales", which are short stories set within the universe of the SCP Foundation.
The SCP Foundation series has received praise for its ability to convey horror through its scientific and academic writing style. The SCP Foundation has also inspired numerous spin-off works, including the video game SCP – Containment Breach."

It's fasci-horrifying and contains some of the best modern Lovecraftian writing that I've ever encountered. The featured organization is tasked with dealing with reality-breaking items and intrusions into our world. There is a strong parallel between the foundation and a group of "Call of Cthulhu" investigators (or more specifically, Delta Green). The foundation, like player characters, is familiar with these dangerous phenomena, but you get the impression that they are only getting to see the tip of the iceberg, and that exposure to everything would completely melt their brains. Also, the organization is capable of utilizing some of the reality-breakers against the others, but have to rely on normal technology for the most part. There is a wealth of ideas here for anyone wanting to run a Delta Green campaign. Here's a few of my favorites so far:
www.scp-wiki.net/scp-087
www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2669
www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1981
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18 Oct 2016 05:41 #236374 by Chaz
Replied by Chaz on topic SCP Foundation
Yeah, this site's great if you like horror, and need to kill some time. I haven't read nearly as much of it as I'd like, but I read through a few entries from time to time. I'd absolutely read/watch a longer form work set in that universe.
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18 Oct 2016 08:11 #236377 by hotseatgames
Replied by hotseatgames on topic SCP Foundation
Reminds me of the old RPG Chill, in which you worked for a group called SAVE.
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18 Oct 2016 16:22 #236415 by Matt Thrower
Replied by Matt Thrower on topic SCP Foundation
If you like SCP-1981 you might like this too:

www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1733
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18 Oct 2016 17:23 #236421 by SebastianBludd
Replied by SebastianBludd on topic SCP Foundation
I love Delta Green's setting; it's a pitch-perfect combination of 1990's conspiracy paranoia and Cthulhu Mythos nihilism and hopelessness. I own almost all of the source books (despite never having played it), as well as the novels and story collections. I've also read Tim Powers' Declare as well as most of Charles Stross' Laundry series (I haven't gotten to the two newest books).

Declare is okay but kind of a slog and not really worth it. The Delta Green fiction is generally pretty good but sometimes - in the novels, especially - characters will appear that you won't recognize unless you're familiar with the RPG source material. I highly recommend the original DG sourcebook. The background is interesting and it comes with some great intro scenarios that are fun to read through.

That being said, out of everything I've read I think Charles Stross' Atrocity Archives is head and shoulders above the rest (the trade paperback comes with a novella, The Concrete Jungle, that is also really good) and it's the one book I would choose if I could only have one. Simply put, it's a british Delta Green (if DG were still legitimate) with a relatively lighter tone. Stross' conception of higher mathematics as magic is fun, and he achieves the not-inconsequential feat of coming up with an interesting world-ending threat with specific consequences that are a little more creative than "everyone will die and go insane."

The rest of the books are up and down as far as quality goes. The Jennifer Morgue (James Bond pastiche) was disappointing (I need to reread it) but The Fuller Memorandum, Apocalypse Codex and Rhesus Chart are all worthy additions to the series (in the 6.5 to 8.5/10 range), while not being quite as good as the first book.
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18 Oct 2016 18:59 #236427 by The King in Yellow
Replied by The King in Yellow on topic SCP Foundation
Matt, that one is chilling. Especially the red light that starts appearing at the end, implying that they might be somewhere south of Heaven...
On a lighter note, it puts me in the mind of a certain Monty Python sketch. One that you might of seen before...
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18 Oct 2016 19:17 #236428 by The King in Yellow
Replied by The King in Yellow on topic SCP Foundation
SB, our tastes are so similar, it's uncanny. I read the first Atrocity Archive book last year, and I'm currently finishing Jennifer Morgue. My favorite work of his so far is the short story, "A Colder War," which might be the best Lovecraftian short story set in modern times.

www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

I too have played Call of Cthulhu, but never the Delta Green setting. But I bought the campaign books and absolutely devoured them. Just some of the best, most creative writing out there for anyone into modern conspiracy, X-File stuff. What connected SCP and Delta Green the most for me was the DG inclusion of items that are just "weird;" not necessarily threatening to body and soul. For instance, there's a museum curator in Delta Green that serves as a possible ally. Over the years he has acquired several odd objects that he keeps hidden away because they seem to violate natural laws. Most of them are harmless but peculiar. There's also an underground kingpin, afflicted by Glaaki, that sends people to do odd things, like count the number of times a particular word appears on a bookshelf. It's those strange touches, that make you feel that the reality there is a little "off."
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19 Oct 2016 00:44 #236446 by SebastianBludd
Replied by SebastianBludd on topic SCP Foundation
A Colder War is great, I need to read that one again.

In addition to what you mentioned, I really like whenever mention is made of the storage lockers that cells use to store supplies, artifacts, weapons, etc. The one that always stuck in my head was a weird statue that had a note affixed to it saying that it should never be uncovered, or turned around, something like that. Details like that really reinforce the setting for me by driving home the fact that DG is always in over their head and scrambling and scratching and clawing to barely keep up.

I also find DG's scorched earth policy regarding Mythos artifacts interesting. Is it dangerous and you don't know what it is? Don't take the chance, burn it. It's this point that I think is the biggest difference between the Laundry and DG. In the Laundry you get a sense that there is a large archive of forbidden knowledge that is contained and being managed, whereas in DG the information is sparse and what info there is, is incredibly dangerous and probably shouldn't be in the hands of the unstable DG psychos that have it.

Apparently there are some DG sessions on Roleplaying Public Radio so that's going to be my next stop. I read that one of the campaigns on there, "God's Teeth," is being adapted for publication by Arc Dream so I think that'll be a good starting point.
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