Cthulhu-esque suggestions?

[Blue]

Hi,

After gauging the interest level of my group of players, I'm considering running something in a Call-of-Cthulhu vein. My initial concept is that the player characters are residents, vollunteers, emergency workers, coast guard, and national guard in New Orleans, less than a month following Hurricane Katrina.

I liked the idea of an area of disorder with "stuff" going on in the midst of it, plus it gives a wide range of character types.

I anticipate fights with deep ones, cultists, run of the mill looters, and a daring underwater fight as the team dives to retrieve something form a building that is forty feet underwater.

The things I'd like suggestions on are: The cause of the hurricane (I have "side effect of a summoning", "a summoned creature was at its core", and possibly that it was "an attempt to destroy a hidden evil" by some good guys). If anyone has a good suggestion for the creature at the center of a hurricane or another good reason why Katrina happened, I'd appreciate it. Also, some good swamp-based cthulhu mythos creatures would be great.

I don't have every cthulhu book, but I can refer to stories and some of the Chaosium stuff for reference.

Thanks.

[Sketchpad]

Hi,

After gauging the interest level of my group of players, I'm considering running something in a Call-of-Cthulhu vein. My initial concept is that the player characters are residents, vollunteers, emergency workers, coast guard, and national guard in New Orleans, less than a month following Hurricane Katrina.

I liked the idea of an area of disorder with "stuff" going on in the midst of it, plus it gives a wide range of character types.

I anticipate fights with deep ones, cultists, run of the mill looters, and a daring underwater fight as the team dives to retrieve something form a building that is forty feet underwater.

The things I'd like suggestions on are: The cause of the hurricane (I have "side effect of a summoning", "a summoned creature was at its core", and possibly that it was "an attempt to destroy a hidden evil" by some good guys). If anyone has a good suggestion for the creature at the center of a hurricane or another good reason why Katrina happened, I'd appreciate it. Also, some good swamp-based cthulhu mythos creatures would be great.

I don't have every cthulhu book, but I can refer to stories and some of the Chaosium stuff for reference.

Thanks.
How about using an angry Loa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loa) that a cult accidentally awakened? Perhaps use some swamp zombies as servitors of the cult and have them seeking an artifact of power that is connected to the Loa?

[Curufea]

Ah, to me - wind speaks of Ithaqua the Wendigo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaqua), coming down from his arctic retreat.

[radioKAOS]

Water = Deep Ones

[Blue]

Oh there will certainly be Deep Ones, as mentioned.

Ithaqua is a good suggestion but I'm not sure he's powerful enough for a cat 5 hurricane. Heck, I think Ithaqua would make a nice side-plot diversion, with the players thinking he's what this is all about when it was just some opportunist using the Hurricane to summon him.

Thinking out loud now, try these on...
A group of good-guy zealots attempt to expose the evil that is within New Orleans by summoning Nodens, the Elder God. But they were mislead. The tomes they used did cause the hurricane, but Nodens did not show. Instead, the Deep Ones now have greater ability to move inland and explore. Disease conditions allow for certain disease spirits and perhaps even fungi (from yuggoth?) to flourish. The hurricane itself acted as a perfect focus for summoning Ithaqua, the Wind Walker. One of the cultists is a Tattooed man covered in Runes who is thougth to be a looter. When he is either captured or killed, he escapes from the morgue/police station to go for further evil. A home with a large rune burned into the roof seems to be safe, if wet and dilapidated, but the guy inside shoots at anyone who comes to check on him. He is the last of the Nodens cultists. Before he dies he'll explain that they were ill-advised, that this was about cleansing evil from (names a few locations). Attempts to dive and retrieve helpful items will be met with Deep One resistance, with a nice underwater battle. If tomes are retrieved, they must go to the point of the summoning, which I will have to make particularly interesting. I mean, mansions and cliffsides seem to generic. The Tattooed man I think will be the key to dispatching the evil, his skin actually having been scrawled with wards and spells for summoning/dispatching

[Eosin]

What a great idea. The thought of running a post-apoc New Orleans is rife with Mythos goodness. If it were me, I would divorce the city from reality in some measurable way to avoid offending anyone. (Maybe the city suddenly goes dark - nothing in or out from other locations. No radio, T.V., Cell, or internet traffic at all, although the ones in NO can contact each other.)

The idea makes me want to think up a campaign of my own. :drink:

[Nolgroth]

The absolute best thing about the collective "Cthulhu mythos" is that every author involved in the Lovecraft Circle made up their own gods. So, make one of your own up. Heck, steal the name Tsothagua from the D&D module and create your own Old One.

If not, Dagon would be a reasonable choice. He was driven from Innsmouth nearly a century before and set up shop near New Orleans. Nyarlathotep is almost a shape to fit Old One. Since he wears so many different identities, it is not unreasonable to plug him in there.

[Blue]

Another good choice (Dagon).

The problem with making my own god is that it would have to be at least as horrific as the stuff my usual GM comes up with. And you don't EVEN want to know about those.

[Susano]

Some Cthulhu stuff for HERO.

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptationscreatures/creatures.html#RPG

[Nolgroth]

Another good choice (Dagon).

The problem with making my own god is that it would have to be at least as horrific as the stuff my usual GM comes up with. And you don't EVEN want to know about those.Actually I would like to know. He sounds like the same kind of sick bastiche that I am. :thumbup:

[radioKAOS]

Another good choice (Dagon).

The problem with making my own god is that it would have to be at least as horrific as the stuff my usual GM comes up with. And you don't EVEN want to know about those.

Ever read the rpg Kult? The book gave me nightmares. Tons of nastiness in there.

[Lord Liaden]

On a hunch I looked up my Arcane Adversaries sourcebook for Champions, and found one of the Kings of Edom (the Hero Universe's analog to Lovecraft's Great Old Ones), Deizzhorath the Dissolver. This King is a virtually infinite creature of multi-dimensional energy and mathematics rather than matter. Its power and pleasure is to completely annihilate matter through contact with itself, or to send material objects elsewhere in the Multiverse.

Some sorcerors can summon relatively tiny self-aware fragments of Deizzhorath from its prison dimension to perform specific tasks. In addition, "Unwary mortals sometimes create miniscule beacons for the Dissolver in particle accelerators, through malfunctioning warp drives, or even through the thoughts of brilliant mathematicians who ponder infinitely-dimensional fractal spaces." (AA p. 47)

I'm imagining Hurricane Katrina as being caused by a small portal opened to Deizzhorath's prison, causing the atmosphere to be annihilated or drawn off into other dimensions. Of course while the portal was open things from the other side could have slipped through...

[bigdamnhero]

...and what horrific fate was *really* planned for all those poor refugees trapped in the Superdome...? And can the PCs save them in time? :sneaky:

[Lord Liaden]

bdh, you are ingeniously, delightfully vile. :eg:

[Susano]

...and what horrific fate was *really* planned for all those poor refugees trapped in the Superdome...?

One word: Buffet.

[Vondy]

And, with the way magic often works in cthulu-land, perhaps the hurricane is inadvertantly unleashed by the heroes in their attempt to save the city...

[Nolgroth]

One word: Buffet.Jimmy Buffet? :shock: The Horror! The Horror! :D

[Mike Dean]

I'd be wary of any "cultists summoned Katrina" plot angles. The real-life horror of the disaster far outweighs any fiction I've ever read. To say, "The Mythos did it" might actually undermine its impact. However, occultist bad guys using the hurricane to further their own aims is definitely a good plot hook, not to mention a decent metaphor for some of the callous and exploitive human behavior the world witnessed in the wake of the disaster.

Also, if you set the story during and right after the disaster you can really play up the despair of the survivors, cut off from a seemingly uncaring nation while forces from within prey on them in the chaos...but instead of petty criminals the enemy is much more powerful and insidious. You can create a wonderfully bleak atmosphere where the PC's literally have no one to rely on, no outside aid to call on.

As for critters, Flying Polyps are a natural during the storm. If the cult had particular targets it wanted destroyed, you couldn't ask for better cover for Polyps than a hurricane. The sort of damage Polyps cause would be virtually indistinguishable from hurricane damage. In the aftermath you could certainly throw in some undead. I've always thought the undead gain an extra creep factor when they come bubbling up from murky water. Also, if the PC's find themselves out in the bayou for any reason, perhaps tracking down a cultist lair, Dark Young are a natural choice.

Be wary, of course. As written, Dark Young and (especially) Flying Polyps are close to undefeatable by even the best prepared and equipped party of adventurers. Escaping them or observing them undetected is a superior response. Even "basic" zombies and skeletons are formidible foes in Cthulhu and can ice the PC's quickly. Newbies to the genre often bear reminding that this isn't D&D and blind heroics will earn them a quick trip to the morgue.

Mike

[bigdamnhero]

bdh, you are ingeniously, delightfully vile. :eg:
Flattery will get you everywhere. ;)


I'd be wary of any "cultists summoned Katrina" plot angles. The real-life horror of the disaster far outweighs any fiction I've ever read. To say, "The Mythos did it" might actually undermine its impact.
Good point. I tend to be leary of fictionalizing real-life disasters myself; too close to home for some people. But if the GM and players are all okay with the idea, I think you could make it work. The trick would be to present the "real" disaster as the best case scenario. "The truth is things would've been far worse if not for the efforts of a brave few..."

[Nolgroth]

I don't want to seem unsympathetic to the victims of natural disasters and terrorists attacks and the like, but there should come a point where we realize that these types of incidents are both dramatic in their own right and inspiring to a potential author/game designer. Nothing in this concept seems to undermine the very concepts of survival and heroics, looters and incompetence, that were attached to the very real drama that surrounded hurricane Katrina. Nothing sounds like it is automatically degrading anybody. it is using real life drama as the backdrop to a fictional story (in this case a role-playing adventure).

Maybe my skin has become so thick it is calloused, but I say use real drama for every little ounce it is worth.

[Blue]

Elaborating on the concept that Ithaqua was a bi-product, I think instead he, like Von Dman suggests, may have been the target of the hurricane. My new thought is that our heroes find and dispatch Ithaqua back to his location only to find on the premesis afterward newspaper clippings that show the usual Ithaqua hyjinx (dropping people from on high) taking place before the Hurricane. Further investigation will yield that the "Eater of winds" was summoned by heroes to stop the problems, only to cause more.

[Robyn]

I don't want to seem unsympathetic to the victims of natural disasters and terrorists attacks and the like, but there should come a point where we realize that these types of incidents are both dramatic in their own right and inspiring to a potential author/game designer.

I also seem to recall a movie or two being made around those events.

[Mike Dean]

...but there should come a point where we realize that these types of incidents are both dramatic in their own right and inspiring to a potential author/game designer.

Of course. We'd have precious little media if we didn't use real world events as a touchstone. I'm thinking more along the lines of maintaining the dramatic tension of the game. Katrina was a powerful event, and we are still feeling its aftermath; blaming it on Cthulhu may undercut the mood of the session. Or not. Depends on the players. Some players would eat it up, others would eat the GM alive. (My players would scoff and ask me if all hurricanes are caused by monsters or just this one.)

For Blue, I would strongly suggest scaring up a copy of Chaosium's New Orleans Guidebook if you don't already have it; it's just chock full o' good info. Sadly, it is out of print, but maybe you could find a copy on Ebay.

Mike

[Nolgroth]

....Depends on the players. Some players would eat it up, others would eat the GM alive. (My players would scoff and ask me if all hurricanes are caused by monsters or just this one.)And that is another issue that I don't get. If the players are there to undercut the GM, then why bother? I used to have a player like that. He is a long-time friend that I tried to incorporate into my games. Problem is that he was always so snarky and malicious. I don't game with him anymore. I'll be damned if I'm going to put all the effort required into GM'ing so one or more punks that are too lazy to take on the mantle themselves can tear me down.

Oh gee, sorry I think I just spun off into rant mode. Back to our regularly scheduled Cthulhu story hour chat. :o


For Blue, I would strongly suggest scaring up a copy of Chaosium's New Orleans Guidebook if you don't already have it; it's just chock full o' good info. Sadly, it is out of print, but maybe you could find a copy on Ebay.Does Chaosium still exist? I haven't checked lately and with all these other game companies going belly up, it would be no great surprise if another one did. I would be sad to hear it if they did.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Some random thoughts...

#1 Another good Mythos ugly often conneced with New Orleans is The King in Yellow (An avatar of Hastur) and his Yellow Sign.

#2 In classic Call of Cthulhu mode, if you choose to make the cause of Katrina to have supernatural elements, you could steal a page from On Stranger Tides, in the process giving you a "research branch" of clues based on a historical event for the PC's to persue...

To whit...
According to OST, at the least, certain kinds of really BIG mojo Voudoun magic CANNOT be performed on land. The attempt usually destroys the foolish magician who attempt such a thing... However, if there is enough power behind the ritual, either from raw natural talent, or because of external influences, it is possible to force such a ritual to complete anyway. The result? The sea comes in and claims the land where the ritual was performed. According to the "truth" in OST, this is what happened to Port Royal back in the heydey of the Carribbean.

This could tie in to the above suggestions in a number of ways....
Perhaps the Yellow Sign was beginning to appear around New Orleans, thus creating "converts" who were creating a new Krewe that actually was a front for the return of the King in Yellow, and some scholastic type discovered such and proceeded to look for some way to stop what was coming, found out about a Voudoun rite to summon a great LOA that could accomplish his goal, and missed the all important "don't do this on land" saftey warning.

[Nolgroth]

Now that is SO cool and fits right in with the setting. Cool deal. My Rep engine is outta END, but as soon as the Recovery replenishes the Rep Reserve, I'll send some your way.

[Midas]

First thing to decide (though I think you already have): Is this a horror or an action campaign?

While I love Lovecraft, I really don't care for Chaosium's interpretation, so I'll prolly slip into rant mode here.

Here is a sig from a Delta Green campaign: "Come here and die fool, while you can still do it quickly!" IOW, should the characters carry a mercy bullet for themselves, on the assumption that they are dead men walking, just waiting for the right time?

NEway, that said, in the original Call of Cthulhu, there was a Cthuloid yuckoid in the LA swamps, that a cult had to summon before Great Cthulhu could be roused. AFAIK, no one has done anything with that critter.

Midas
For those of you wishing you had thought of it first, how about a campaign based on the Indian Ocean quake of two years ago?

[Mike Dean]

If the players are there to undercut the GM, then why bother? I used to have a player like that. He is a long-time friend that I tried to incorporate into my games. Problem is that he was always so snarky and malicious.

I know the type of player you mean...completely unwilling to suspend even the slightest bit of disbelief. My guys aren't like that...they're good gamers. They're experienced CoC players, though, and very analytical. I have to be careful introducing certain plot elements with them. All the angles have to be covered. I enjoy the process; it keeps me on my toes and delays the onset of Alzheimer's.

As for Chaosium, they seem to be doing OK. They've had their shakeups and their ups and downs, but have pretty much stayed afloat. Last year they celebrated the 25th anniversary of CoC.

Anyway, back on topic, here are a couple of bits from the NO Guidebook:

-- New Orleans was previously hit by major hurricanes in 1723 and 1782, both of which practically leveled the city.

-- In 1852 two burglars were convicted for the murder of a female slave. On the day of their execution a black stormcloud rolled over the city. As the men were dropped from the gallows the storm hit. After it passed, the two men were discovered alive on the ground beneath the scaffold; both of their nooses had come undone at the moment of truth. They were then led back up and successfully executed. Rumor went around after this that voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, believing the men to be innocent of the murder, had summoned the storm in protest.

Mike

[Nolgroth]

...As for Chaosium, they seem to be doing OK. They've had their shakeups and their ups and downs, but have pretty much stayed afloat. Last year they celebrated the 25th anniversary of CoC.That's good to know. Thanks.


-- In 1852 two burglars were convicted for the murder of a female slave. On the day of their execution a black stormcloud rolled over the city. As the men were dropped from the gallows the storm hit. After it passed, the two men were discovered alive on the ground beneath the scaffold; both of their nooses had come undone at the moment of truth. They were then led back up and successfully executed. Rumor went around after this that voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, believing the men to be innocent of the murder, had summoned the storm in protest.Nice story. Darn bloodthirsty crowd if you ask me. :)

[bigdamnhero]

I don't want to seem unsympathetic to the victims of natural disasters and terrorists attacks and the like, but there should come a point where we realize that these types of incidents are both dramatic in their own right and inspiring to a potential author/game designer.
And if you and your players all feel that way, great. Valle con dios and all that. But some people may feel that turning a real-life tragedy into "just another RPG scenario" trivializes the actual event. I'm not saying I feel that way about this scenario in particular -- on the contrary. But some people might.

There's also the matter that, put simply, real-life tragedies are a downer. I'm not sure I'd want to play a campaign based on, say, 9-11 because I don't think I'd be able to enjoy it; I play RPGs to escape from that sort of thing, not to wallow in it. Personal preferance, YMMV and all that.

At any rate, my suggestion was simply to make sure your players feel the same way you do about the idea before you invest too much time & effort into campaign building.


I also seem to recall a movie or two being made around those events.
But can you imagine the howls if Hollywood made a movie saying Katrina was caused by sea monsters? I suspect a lot of people who lost friends & family in New Orleans would feel that was very disrespectful, however it was intended. Good thing we're not Hollywood. ;)

[Nolgroth]

bigdamnhero,
Just to avoid turning Blue's thread into something other than about his game, I posted a new thread over in General Roleplaying. Come on over if you like.

[bigdamnhero]

Fair nuff - apologies for any derailment. :)

[Blue]

The old goodnews/badnews.

Seems my players are now on a fence. Coming off of a somewhat dark Exalted Dragonblooded campaign they are eager to do something lighter. Oh, there are some who want to play Cthulhu, but a few have now said they'd favor Champions (That last part is the good news).

So I may end up tabling this idea.

In fact I'm betting what will hapen is the same thing that happened last time I offered to run a horror game; I ran something else instead and then our usual GM co-opted the idea I'd laid out for the horror game and incorporated it into his own. It was innocent enough, but it does feel a little like being robbed ;)

[ThothAmon]

Go with Cthulhu and Champions :)

You know it makes sense...

[Blue]

Seems I've got a split vote: 3 Champions, 3 Cthulhu, 1 guy for "anything new" which for him is either one.

Means it's likely up to me. I'll decide in the next week probably.

[Mr. Negative]

Chiming in a bit late here, but instead of focusing on 'which big icky caused the hurricane', you might have an interesting campaign instead focusing on the effects of the hurricane and their relation to the Mythos.

You have an event where social order breaks down almost completely, with people being forced to live like animals, and other people treating them like animals. You have a social situation where an entire society is dislocated and displaced, perhaps never to return. You have disaster survivors who are forgotten, shuffled off, and marginalized. You have the elderly and ill abandoned to die, and not even being recovered for burial.

The social unweaving implied by the mythos ("living and killing freely and unbound") has a very strong resonance with the Katrina tragedy. Volunteers, rescue workers, or social workers could discover not that the King in Yellow is actively pulling strings, but that the trememdous moral and social disruptions caused by Katrina is echoed in the rising influence of Hastur and the other gods.

Discovering that your work to help others isn't just morally important, but is working to shore up the fabric of reality doesn't sound like Lovecraftian horror, but discovering that every single failure, every single lost soul or crushed dream, works to wear down the walls between us and Them could easily be a good horror tale.

Of course, to be really Lovecraftian in a 'indifferent universe' way, you would need to instead set up Katrina as being a casual by-product of an action or machination of Something Man Was Not Meant To Know. If you have a good group of role-players, discovering that the massive disaster and human tragedy WASN'T part of a master plan to seize power, but rather an inconsequential ripple effect caused by intelligences so vast and labyrinthine as to be incomprehensible, might be an interesting gaming experience. "It's not enough to thwart their plans! We can't even understand their plans! We have to counteract the consequences of plans we can't even fathom! Aaaaaaaah! My head hurts!"

[Shaft]

Seems I've got a split vote: 3 Champions, 3 Cthulhu, 1 guy for "anything new" which for him is either one.

Means it's likely up to me. I'll decide in the next week probably.

How about both. I highly recommend Vibora Bay (which borrows freely from New Orleans for feel) as a solution to your dilemma. Here's a thread about it:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51334&highlight=vibora+bay

[Pentoth]

Ever read the rpg Kult? The book gave me nightmares. Tons of nastiness in there.

Ahh Kult. You can never go wrong with it. In my 15+ years of gaming I can never think of a game that garnered such strong reactions from a table of players. They still refuse to play it or anything inspired by it. Do I ever miss it. I really do think that you can't go wrong if you make up your own creation. Deep Ones are cool but if your players are familiar with C'thulhu they will see it comming a mile away.

[radioKAOS]

Ahh Kult. You can never go wrong with it. In my 15+ years of gaming I can never think of a game that garnered such strong reactions from a table of players. They still refuse to play it or anything inspired by it. Do I ever miss it. I really do think that you can't go wrong if you make up your own creation. Deep Ones are cool but if your players are familiar with C'thulhu they will see it comming a mile away.

Oh yes, my boys wouldn't play it either after the first session... ;) Ahh evil nastiness!

And, as I like to call them... character improvements...

[Peregrine]

"Champions" + "Cthulhu" = "I don't play" (or "flip the table" if the GM springs it as a "surprise". I game (Champions especially) to escape, not to be trapped and powerless; the latter being the general vibe I always get whenever Cthulhu gaming is discussed.)

[Curufea]

Yep - powerlessness is a key trope in the horror genre. There is almost always some area or aspect that the PCs are powerless to change.

[Peregrine]

And that is why I choose not to horror game. Sorry about the short derail; just wanted to express the other side of the coin, especially as the OPs group is divided on horror gaming.

[Curufea]

Cthulhu is different from other horror types in that the powerlessness is generally "unable to understand", "unable to comprehend" or "unable to perceive and remain sane".
Other, non-Cthulhu horror tends to be "unable to stop" or "unable to get away".

[Mike Dean]

Horror isn't everyone's cup of tea. Still, running a horror game is something of a fine art. Far too many Cthulhu / Kult / Chill / etc. GM's go overboard with the whole "everybody dies or goes insane" bit, and that will drive a game very quickly into the ground. To have a good game the players must have some way of accomplishing their goals; it's just that direct force isn't usually the best path.

Many action-oriented games (as well as other media) operate on the basic tenet the only real reason the bad guys are out there is because the good guys haven't beaten them up all up yet. There is no problem than cannot be solved by going to their base and punching them out...and that's fine. It's a relief to escape from the complex world we live in to a place where you can just kick the crap out of anyone who gets in your face. However, this mentality also runs counter to the horror genre.

I'm not sure powerlessness is the right term; in a good horror game there should be some way to "win" or there's no point playing (unless, I suppose, you have particularly fatalistic players). It's just that combat usually isn't the answer.

Either way it's still not for everyone.

Mike

P.S. For those of you who remember him, Sean Fannon tried to play in my Cthulhu game years ago. Prime example of "horror is not for everyone." For the life of him, Sean couldn't understand why you couldn't just swing on a chandelier and skewer Yog-Sothoth with a rapier.

[Curufea]

True. But there needs to be some form of vulnerability in order for players to actually feel they are in a horror game. Usually it's whatever the character's main strengths are, suddenly no longer being of any use.

I've seen Cthulhu games that weren't horror too often. The characters were all geared up with research skills, arcane knowledge and useful contacts. They went in expecting to do detective work, problem solving and "thinking before acting".

That's not horror - that's a detective story.

If you go back to the source stories - not everyone dies, that's just a stereotype used by mockers. What there is - is confrontation, usually unexpected, with the unknown.

If it becomes expected, and able to be dealt with - it isn't really horror any more. It's action adventure.

A "win" in a horror game is when sometime during the session, the player is able to feel horror. Stopping the bad guys, or dieing, or surviving or whatever has nothing to do with it.

It isn't a quest game (or shouldn't be). You should not talk to man A to get item B to find book C to perform ritual D to stop monster E.
You should find something wrong, not know what to do about it (or know what to do and be proven wrong), luckily discover what may need to be done but be unsure about it, make some form of sacrifice (lose a friend, a favourite item, a limb) in order to proceed with the plan you aren't sure will work (but is still the only plan you have) - then discover something further may be needed.

[edit]
To summarise - A lot of "horror games" are really just other kinds of genre games - like action, adventure, detective - but in a horror setting. They don't really provoke any feelings of horror at all, they just prey on the stereotypes of the genre, take them out of context, and make the whole thing laughable.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Couple quick points, and sorry for being such a latecomer to the thread.

1. Best modern resource for CoC that I've seen is Delta Green. L O V E D I T!!! It has a kind of x-files + desperation that I think makes a lot of sense moving the Cthulu mythos into contemporary settings.

2. With respect to the discussion on how horror is played. The only thing you need is for the players to feel genuine danger to their person + uncertainty about the source of that danger. Most often this will be successful if you limit the characters to occupations and backgrounds that aren't some version of a vampire hunter or a Fox Mulder type since those kinds of characters are both prepared in some sense and aware of the kinds of threats to be encountered. Mood and atmosphere account for a lot, but the point is that they're going to reinforce those two basic points: vulnerability and uncertainty. BTW: Cthulu gets points for making the loss of the latter reinforce the sense of the former. When you finally see what it is, you realize you're more vulnerable to it than you thought.

[Curufea]

There were some excellent machanimes done for Delta Green too - called Eschaton. If you have the chance, look them up.

[Susano]

I highly recommend both Delta Green sourcebooks.

[oroborous]

I remember playing a CoC mod that was highly influenced by The Thing on the Doorstep where certain NPCs weren't who they appeared to be. I don't remember everything that happened in the mod, but I still get an icky feeling when I remember my character's girlfriend was really her father possing her body. That's the kind of thing that sticks with you.

Another thing that added to the dread, IMHO, was just the randomness of violence. Sure, we were mostly helpless against the dreaded evil, but nothing pounded that home more than one of our party walking near a cave and having Nylarhotep spring out of its mouth and devour one of us while the rest watched. Did we lose some sanity? I think so, but it was creepy and fun.

One of my suggestions might be for a survival/horror mix: Your party is not in the city, but maybe in Plaquemines or St. Bernard Parish, cut off from the world and assaulted by zombified corpses and animals in the one island of dry land as the Mississippi and Gulf rush to wash out your last bastion of hope. Can you hold out till the National Guard arrives or will you try and get 4 people on a fan-boat built for two and high-tail it? In any event, you will have to confront the mystery behind your zombie attackers, assuming you survive.