honestly im tired of muh eldritch cults and the - /tg/

Anonymous10/15/25, 14:45No.96758937

Honestly I'm tired of muh eldritch cults and the lovecraftian mythos in horror. No one is genuinely scared or creeped out by them. People may gloat about how much of an intellectual idea cosmic horror is; being overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe and feeling powerless, blah blah blah. Satanic cabals, witch covens and pagan cults do give people the creeps. Voodoo dolls, human sacrifices, blood rituals, hidden groves with celtic ruins, secret societies, actual ghosts and demons instead of otherworldly beings who don't give a shit about mankind. Horns and blood scare people more than tentacles and ooze.

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Replies

Anon10/15/25, 14:47No.96758951

It’s all the same superficial shit you huge retard. Just pick the superficial shit that creeps you out the most. For me it’s Mao.

Anon10/15/25, 14:50No.96758959

Lovecraft has been ruined by gormless basedsuckers that have no ability to stand out on their own propping Lovecraft's corpse to sell their own mediocrity, all while dumping shit on the man for being racist early in his life. It's tiresome.

Anon10/15/25, 14:50No.96758960

Neither of those things are scary. Real world cults are scary, cartoonish fantasy ones aren't.

Anon10/15/25, 15:33No.96759229

>Satanic cabals, witch covens and pagan cults do give people the creeps. Not really.

Anon10/15/25, 15:37No.96759246

Retarded. What people fear is the unknown, that which they don’t understand—and familiarity breeds contempt. If you’ve been overexposed to cosmic horror, you’re going to think it’s pedestrian precisely because you understand the genre conventions and story beats. But someone who’s overly familiar with cabals, covens, or cults—or, worse, actually knows things about Satanism, historical magic beliefs, and pagan religions—is going to find them to be pretty lackluster as far as horror goes. Bloodletting rituals weren’t exactly that uncommon, after all.

Anon10/15/25, 15:38No.96759249

>Satanic cabals, witch covens and pagan cults do give people the creeps. Maybe old people 40 years ago but does anyone still believe in that shit today?

Anon10/15/25, 15:48No.96759295

None of those things are scary.

Anon10/15/25, 16:19No.96759458

Survival Horror is the best way to get people creeped out. Doesn't really matter what the thing you make them afraid of is. You gotta: 1. Give them limited resources and force them to make decisions with only bad outcomes 2. Provide an anchor for empathy 3. Alternate quiet/peaceful and sudden panic, but never sustain prolonged, sloggy combat 4. ForeshadowLet your players feel like they're gonna need to use their resources. Make the resources feel precious enough that they've got to make sacrifices based on what they choose to spend them on. Food, ammo, hit points, spell slots--whatever. Using it now has to mean "ok but we're going to fail at something else, later, and the story will suffer because of it."They've gotta have something to care about. Toss some pets, a handful of sympathetic NPCs, a magic item with limited charges, or a vehicle or something in their path. Whatever they take the bait and care about? That's the thing you gotta threaten.Keep the threat on, but out of reach. When it hits, have a countdown timer running that disengages after X rounds. Don't let combat become a slog or it's not scary, any more. Any moment could be two more devestating rounds of combat for whatever reason. Never long enough to kill them. Never short enough to preserve all of their resources. Never long enough to let it become mechanical. Use environmental hazards.And just some basic-ass foreshadowing so that they feel like they're learning new things. Whatever--this shouldn't be hard. It doesn't even have to be complex. There's a journal and pages fell out one at a time through a 100% linear dungeon, with a new page in each room. It can be that fuckin' simple and it'll still work.

Anon10/15/25, 16:20No.96759465

Imagine being actually scared of things that don't exist.

Anon10/15/25, 16:58No.96759700

Whenever I see media claiming to be Lovecraftian I immediately skip it. Reddit as fuck.

Anon10/15/25, 17:10No.96759806

>Satanic cabals, witch covens and pagan cults do give people the creeps. Voodoo dolls, human sacrifices, blood rituals, hidden groves with celtic ruins, secret societies, actual ghosts and demons instead of otherworldly beings who don't give a shit about mankind. Horns and blood scare people more than tentacles and ooze. All of these things exist within Lovecraft's style of horror and you're a retard who doesn't know what he's talking about.

Anon10/15/25, 17:27No.96759929

Place your bets whether the thread will degenerate into caths vs atheist shitflinging or "magic and wonder" semantic pilpuling.

Anon10/15/25, 17:28No.96759932

Celtic paganism and paganism in general I don’t really get the horror vibe from. Maybe it’s because I think nature and deer skulls are cool looking and not scary? I don’t like people larping as pagans but the aesthetic isn’t conducive to horror for me. >inb4 what does? The majority of horror isn’t really my thing (I don’t get frightened by movies, so I tend to watch horror like a snob would and judge it by its merits). That said I find the concept of things that imitate humans to be unnerving. Like for example The Thing is my favorite horror movie even if it’s not actually frightening. It just feels more like a mystery than a horror movie. Even if it doesn’t play out this way in the later half. There should be more of that within the genre. Skinwalkers or shapeshifters. Speech mimicry. That sort of thing. Especially uncanny valley stuff. Where you know something is wrong with the mimic but you can’t really describe it.

Anon10/15/25, 17:32No.96759960

The issues with Lovecraftian Horror, are that;>A lot of people mistake "lovecraft's horror settings" for Lovecraftian Horror. For every "Dead Space" or "Bloodborne" you get, where the monsters are quantifiably that kind of eldritch, alien horrors, massive in power and removed entirely from the experience of mere humanity so as to be akin to gods in the outer voids of space, you get something like DnD or Pathfinder, where they make a race of funny octopus people and creatures and go "hey look, we've got lovecraftian themes here too" because tentacles are Lovecraft, right?>Lovecraft didn't always write 'Lovecraftian' horror. He was a great writer, but he and others in that sphere, writing in the similarly shared fantasy/alt-history setting of 'The Cthullhu mythos', were more akin to creepypasta writers than greek epicists. And while a lot of his works had subtle supernatural themes, a LOT were just scary stories with barely a hint of anything otherworldly.>Lovecraft was a bit of a patsy. A phenomenal writer, yes. And a remarkably learned man for someone who never traveled. But the man was genuinely scared of air conditioners, bream, vaguely surrealist (and entirely unoffensive and understimulating) paintings, and non-euclidian geometry. He was the kind of man to genuinely be unsettled at the sight of the Sydney Opera house. And this influenced his horror writing, and his ideas, so that so much of what made his works horror, was just not going to land as utterly terrifying to people who are comfortable with seeing strange things, or going outside their comfort zone.Actual Lovecraftian horror is pretty good. It makes you both horrified, and captivated, wanting to both see and understand the thing, and get away from it. It has scifi elements, depth, and a believability to it that 'angry obsessive stalker with a knife' or 'spooky dream demon with a smoker's cough' doesn't have.

Anon10/15/25, 17:32No.96759962

I disagree, I find Cthulhu way scarier than Satan.

Anon10/15/25, 17:38No.96760012

>Honestly I'm tired of muh eldritch cults and the lovecraftian mythos in horror. No one is genuinely scared or creeped out by them. People may gloat about how much of an intellectual idea cosmic horror is; being overwhelmed by the vastness of the universe and feeling powerless, blah blah blah.I agree with you. I've felt this way ever since I was introduced to the Cthulhu mythos and I was trying to understand why it's gained such a cult following over my lifetime. I genuinely listened to all their arguments about why it's so genuinely horrific, and considered them, but I just can't get on board with it. I'm sorry, Cthulhu is just some big man-octopus to me, and so is all the minions. Wiggly squirmy things I've seen in horror movies and art for my entire lifetime - as far as I know, I never had a mental breakdown over these things.Finally, a wise (and literally insane) man came out and gave the internet a good metaphor for my take on the Cthulhu mythos: His pet bird looking at his computer monitor as he codes, not even beginning to understand what it all means, and yet the bird doesn't panic or go insane. It just carries on being a bird.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j820vlCc03k

Anon10/15/25, 17:46No.96760076

The trick in any horror is that you need to give the players something that they don't know the rules of. It is impossible for a vampire to be scary in modern fiction, because NO MATTER how strong or fast or powerful you make them, even a casual audience will know enough vampire weaknesses that they can arm themselves and feel like they can fight back/protect themselves. They become confident in their protections on holy ground, with garlic and silver and wooden stake, out in the daylight, etc. And when they are confident in their ability to fight back, it stops being horror and starts being a spooky action movie. Its the difference between Alien and Aliens: the former is a murder machine you don't know the rules of yet, the latter is just a monster you can shoot with a gun. Same creature, different context.Lovecraftian Horror was scary in the first place because it was based explicitly on something that not only wasn't known, but couldn't be known without driving you mad. But now we take that for granted, its just part of "the rules" for it.So you need to give your players something that they don't know the rules of. Stop putting them up against classic horror monsters they know by heart, even if you think you can "cleverly" subvert or modify them. Instead, give them something they don't recognize and don't know. They know how to deal with Cthulhu. They don't know how to deal with the fact that the stars in the sky are alive. Both are cosmic horror, but one is familiar and the other is not.

Anon10/15/25, 17:49No.96760097

Witchcraft is a pejorative. Wizard is an honorific—the sage. Why do you think sorcery sounds so similar to heresy?

Anon10/15/25, 17:53No.96760126

Eldritch divinities that we cannot possibly understand who reach out and touch our world from beyond the pale, flickering light of stars are just cooler and more interesting than fire, demons and demons on fire.

Anon10/15/25, 17:54No.96760140

>Honestly I'm tired of muh eldritch cults and the lovecraftian mythos in horror. Horror is a tired genre in general. You have to want to buy in for it to work or be young enough you haven't realized tv isn't irl. You're expressing an oversaturation and overexposure to specific variations of horror, which honestly is only a thing that happens if you read more than you play games. If its a reading thing try talking to /lit/. If its a games thing try playing those.

Anon10/15/25, 18:15No.96760294

> good one (The Satanic Temple) …

Anon10/15/25, 19:11No.96760718

I'd say both of those could be scary if you are role-playing properly. Most people would be at the very least unnerved knowing they were in the same buildings as a normal dude with a normal kitchen knife out to get them to say nothing of paranormal shit with cults and monsters. People being scared while playing RPGs requires players to buy into the mood and connect with their character trying to survive a perilous situation. If you can't manage that then there will never be a subject that will scare them, at best you'll get a campy horror comedy where the just crack jokes or worse they will just be bored.

Anon10/15/25, 20:29No.96761233

The most wizardly tradition of all in the western esoteric tradition — and the thing that led up to science, another wizardly staple - would be a le Cleric by retarded DnD standards.Because for some reason interacting with gods, or just higher intelligences, is only associated with le Cleric.

Anon10/15/25, 20:33No.96761273

It’s true. The stereotypical, classic, cliche Hermeric wizard trope was about alchemy and astrology AND god working.The true wizard is a mix of a wizard and a cleric, and also artificer.

Anon10/15/25, 20:39No.96761329

I fear the the real problem you're going to face is people that actually identify as Satan worshippers or pagans getting upset when a game portrays their religion as bad. Everybody knows Cthulhu is fake.

Anon10/15/25, 20:55No.96761459

Anon10/15/25, 23:03No.96762192

Very cool on topic thread guys.

Anon10/15/25, 23:44No.96762367

The point of cosmic horror is the sudden realisation that you mean absolutely nothing, that you are not even an amoeba and the human race is prey at best and meaningless at worst, that the entire universe is just a nonsensical game played by retarded gods for no reason at all. Only redditors think it is 'muh tentacles'

Anon10/16/25, 02:14No.96763260

>oh shit, they're on to me, time to write an essay

Anon10/16/25, 02:17No.96763284

>what the fuck, someone typed words!? >On a message board!?

Anon10/16/25, 03:19No.96763705

Anon10/16/25, 03:23No.96763734

People who dislike Lovecraft are always faggot nerds who learned about it secondhand and discovered all of the "lore" of the gods by reading wiki articles instead of experiencing the stories firsthand with no knowledge.No shit it isn't interesting to you, you basically learned who the killer was in a Poirot story before reading it.

Anon10/16/25, 03:36No.96763823

Trying to present your subjective opinion as fact only makes you look like a retard. I do actually find the vastness of the universe extremely unsettling.

Anon10/16/25, 08:16No.96764922

"Pagan bad" is a boring trope, and honestly a stupid one that only makes the bible-thumpers happy. Instead, go for "local divinity corrupted" or "genius loci, kept pacified by pagan ritual, goes on a revenge tour because the local church killed the people doing the pacification rituals." That's far more intellectually nourishing, wouldn't you agree?

Anon10/16/25, 08:24No.96764967

>Satanic cabals, witch covens and pagan cults do give people the creepsITT: WASP suburban mom gets on le forchong.

Anon10/16/25, 08:27No.96764989

It's 2025 "Satanic panic" is so 90's.

Anon10/16/25, 08:48No.96765074

The problem is most people don't know HOW to do Lovecraftian horror well. They just copy a bunch of troupes and think that would work and often makes the cults and monsters feel like a Sat. Morning Cartoon villain then something you read in a good lovecraftian horror.

Anon10/16/25, 15:55No.96766985

Blows my mind how people think there’s a difference between a cult and a religion.

Anon10/16/25, 16:24No.96767205

Holy autism

Anon10/16/25, 18:36No.96768094

>Demons Interesting comparison I came across recently. Lucifer is effectively AM from 'I have no mouth and I must scream' Think about it.

Anon10/16/25, 23:05No.96770009

Shit, Americans are retarded.

Anon10/17/25, 11:02No.96773176

Real satanic groups aren't scary because of le scary demons because everyone knows they're fictional, they're scary because there exists a possibility a bunch of seemingly innocuous weirdos will kidnap and murder you due to a group delusion

Anon10/17/25, 13:27No.96773825

Alright, so I want to have a CoC scenario where the PCs attend a party at the mansion of their insane Classics professor. So far I have: >Prof and his cult wear creepy Greek theatre masks >Hedge maze with an axe-wielding student dressed like a minotaur running around >Archaeologists working for the professor recovered the brazen bull and he wants to put someone inside it to test it out >Creepy statue of Atē, personification of the madness the gods send upon us before they destroy us >Maybe the sacrifices are to keep Typhon banished beneath the earthAny other ideas? Most of the characters wouldn't be too combat-y but I'm curious about protective invocations and deities to call on(Athena seems like the coolest and most relatable of the Olympians). Or maybe there's some old hoplite spearhead or something that could be pressed into service.

Anon10/17/25, 13:48No.96773948

> Christianity literally started as a Jewish death cult, and people go to temples to worship a dead guy, and to partake of his blood and flesh, and if you don’t you are going to HELL for all eternity. Absolutely fucking demonic.He’s right you know. I laugh when people say “no it’s different!” when it’s just not…

Anon10/17/25, 15:21No.96774472

You might like Sigil & Shadow. It is great for street level and medium stakes horror, and would not really scale well to anything grander anyways. It is practically just a toolkit and mechanics without setting, but really easy to run.

Anon10/17/25, 19:50No.96776025

The horror needs to be tangible and act in opposition to a baseline and I think that's hard in gameplay, since we don't want the game to end. I think lovecraftian stuff can work great, if you have more average adventures leading up to it, so it truly feels different in gameplay as well. The problem is also training your players to not just try to kill everything, because then it feels unfair if it's like normal dnd(or whatever) for a month or two, and then they feel like they lost their character instantly when you put some eldritch stuff in there.

Anon10/17/25, 20:51No.96776559

Well OP, if you want more inspiration, I know this book series is out there. The first has a mixed reception but I hear the second is pretty good.

Anon10/18/25, 12:51No.96781109

Watch the first season of true detective and you'll realize how wrong you are.

Anon10/18/25, 18:40No.96782889

>pagan cults do give people the creeps Nigger, insult my ancestors one more time and see what happens. I'm still salty about that Oak, you fucking inbred thought crime cultists.

Anon10/19/25, 01:06No.96785508

Cults are fun. You just need to know when to leave, before the koolaid comes out.