Thread:Mesektet/@comment-27729149-20160128170019/@comment-3581997-20160611044435

Call of Cthulhu is both a game and a short story. I have read the book but not played the game. As for other examples...There isThe Secret World. Where one of the main bad guys turns out to be a human who was mutated into an eldritch horror by her husband... long story short, he was an angel and pushing a human to that level = eldritch horror. The Bad guy is called Lilith. In addition to her we have another character John. John was in a Scientology style cult that asked him to suicide bomb Lilith with a special kind of bomb. However once made aware of Lilith's true nature, John panics and sets off the bomb early on the train ride over to Lilith. The fall out of the bomb turns Johns spirit into a disembodied voice, and everyone blasted with the bomb into slavering monsters, John can possess any of the victims or technology within the blast radius at will. He can go into the player's head and peek at their past fights, then alter them. All the while cheering on for the empowered echos... then he gets to the memory of your encounter with Lilith. And promptly freaks the f*^)K oUt!

Big bad evil voice who is having fun messing with you suddenly goes to thumb-suck mode just by seeing someone, saying "SHe iS goINg To gET ME! Even her memory is dangerous, he memory could kill, HIDE CHUCK HIDE." We never see what John's damage is, and we really don't need to. Lilith exists on multiple dimensions at once, all governed by the same hive mind, she chops off your legs and she give nightmares nightmares.

This is another good example of cosmic horror, raising the threat level. The big evil terrible immortal thing that is not governed by the world. Even that is afraid of this psychotic bitch.

An Illuminati handler name Kirsten Geary, who is notoriously hard to spook and is very easy going and casual, who shrugs off Hell as being blase' has a different reaction for Lilith.


 * During you encounter with her she says "Oh yeah hell. I guess I forgot not everyone is bored by that now. We really should do something though, a lot of the board members get home sick about the place."


 * After fight a world boss, a giant monster her report is merely "So there was a big bad stomping around out there... And now it's dead... Go team.".


 * When fighting a giant golden golem she says. "LOL It's like Paris Hilton and Snoop Dog teamed up to do some geomancy. Shit I'd better make sure her hypnotherapist hasn't been mindfucking her again. As for you, nice work saving the world from Blingzilla. lol "

Now with the three above quotes you should get a good idea of the sort of person Geary is. The I don't take anything seriously, "what-ever" type. I bring them up though to set up a contrast. When encountering Lilith for the first time her report reads very very different. "I don't know if there is a god. But I have the good sense to be afraid of him... And I am more afraid of the board members, and THEY'RE AFRAID OF HER! Don't let her get away. I AM NOT FUCKING AROUND ON THIS ONE!"

Now between the big evil voice and the otherwise jaded professional bad ass both freaking the hell out just at the presence of Lilith, the players get a very good sense of what they are dealing with. Something that gives even the best of the best nightmares. This is putting a hard limit on the game. A bigger bad and giving even that big bad something that terrifies them. Like with the Shadow Hearts example the game doesn't try to freak out the main character directly but rather makes it so that the level 101+ in game characters that are supposed to be the foremost authority on their world and all terrified of something. It is a horror story that others are in on and not you the viewer. It helps sell that whatever it is. It is something to be feared.