The Eulicid Foundation: a Gaming Project. Part 1. The Concept

So this is a gaming/writing project that I have been driven to do. I have to make myself a tabletop gaming world to play some of my specifically themed tabletop games in. I will be using the New World of Darkness storytelling system, but I will theme the world and the games more on the Call of Cthulhu variety of Horror fiction, and because I have no intention to publish my written material for money I'm going to outright say what I'm borrowing and what I am not. Though in this light I'm saying now that I will noticeably state what is borrowed from White Wolf's World of Darkness line of games and what is not, as I have no intent on either being sued for stealing copyright infringed martial or being accused of plagiarism I make this preface.

So why don't I just use the NWoD world of darkness Hunter the Vigil line, they certainly have created a brilliant system and a great world to work with? Well, because I want to make something in a world that is notably NOT within the World of Darkness cannon. As most of my friends are used to the game, and most notably have read many WoD books I want to distance myself from much of the published product without leaving what I like about NWoD: The Storyteller mechanic and the massive amount of work they've done already. I'm original but I'm not so stupid to give up something that other people have already worked on, that's just silly. There is another reason why I would step away from the "metafiction" and setting of NWoD, so that when I use material in similar ways or introduce ideas that seem familiar I can feel free to ignore the meta and setting without feeling obligated to what has been written. (Anyone who tries to argue that NWoD has no meta fiction needs to go 1) lookup the definition, and 2) go suck eggs. )

But what about good ol' Call of Cthullhu? The answer is complicated. First of all Howard Phillips Lovecraft is a staple of geek culture, if I say "Cthulhu" and you think of an abomination that combines octopus head with batwings and a body that seems more apropriate to a Kaiju film than a piece of modern horror, you've got half my point. H.P. Lovecraft's work and the Cthulhu Mythos that his work has spawned is now so ubiquitous with Horror media that the best work done in his particular motif is that of an homage. Because really, who wants to spend minutes describing a monster, trying to raise the tension and maybe get the players nervous, only to have someone say "Oh! It's a Hound of Tendilos! We're Fucked!" While partially the correct reaction some of the tension is released by the players knowing what they are dealing with, further more that what they are dealing with has a name. Once more this is a departure from the metafiction and the plethora of things that the mythos represents.

For the Simple Answer: I don't want to run a game that complicated mechanically, I cannot homebrew or play with the system as I could with NWoD which would allow me much more leeway in figuring out what is "fair" and what would munch on the player's sadness like sweet sweet fruity candy.

So what do I want? I want a game that plays with modern horror, I want a game with eldrich horrors that are unknown, I want to make monsters that make people go insane, I want Player Characters that are not stuck within a tight paradigm of options. I want to take inspiration from the Films Nightwatch and Daywatch, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, the Delta Green supplement for Call of Cthulhu, Warren Ellis' comics Global Frequency and Planetary, Mike Mignola's Hell boy, The X-files, and Men In Black.

So thus, I make The Eulicid Foundation. A Non-Government Organization that no-one knows about but every government dreads having operating in their countries, but the foundation is given highest clearance for fear of what might happen if they don't. Foundation Agents can appear to be those ubiquitous Men In Black of conspiricy fame, or they might be a parapeligic genius with a particular talent or a person who is so deep in the strangeness of the world that there is no way to have a life otherwise. The Foundation takes in agents based on talent or experience, agents are the most paid on the planet if they can live long enough to spend it.

Most people in the modern age don't really know what goes on in the world, they don't pay close attention to world events, and most people are not inclined to look into those places that seem truly abandoned by humanity. Sometimes humanity hides things, sometimes we look the other way in some unconscious desire to stay safe, those of us who look deep into those places are changed. It's like opening your eyes for the first time, seeing the planet for the first time, and seeing that most people live in comfortable lives unaware of what horrors exist under their noses. The world is both more complicated and more simple than we think. Gods are real, so are monsters, it's just that most people can't understand them, they are the monsters that are moving in Nietzsche's abyss, and the sane don't want to get a close look. But then some people take responsibility for humanity, because civilization and the great delusion of reality are truly precious things.