Difference between revisions of "User:Ywhateley"

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* ''[[Tales from the Crypt (1989 series)]]''
 
 
* ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991 series)]]''
 
* ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1991 series)]]''
* ''[[The Hunger (1997 series)]]''
 
* ''[[Night Visions (2001 series)]]''
 
 
* ''[[Dark Realm (2001 series)]]''
 
* ''[[Dark Realm (2001 series)]]''
 
* ''[[The Nightmare Room (2001 series)]]''
 
* ''[[The Nightmare Room (2001 series)]]''
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* ''[[Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1972 series)]]''
 
* ''[[Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1972 series)]]''
 
* ''[[Night Stalker (1972 franchise)]]'', AKA ''[[Kolchak: the Night Stalker (1975 series)]]''
 
* ''[[Night Stalker (1972 franchise)]]'', AKA ''[[Kolchak: the Night Stalker (1975 series)]]''
* ''[[Beasts (1976 series)]]'' Nigel Kneale
 
  
  

Revision as of 23:01, 21 December 2016

I'm helping out with adding synopses and other details to Scenarios in the wiki.

In progress

Scenarios I'd like to contribute:

  • Not much, for now. I may fill in the occasional Tome, Monster, or Cult page as time permits.

On the Drawing Board

Someone else can feel free to do any of the following - just let me know so I don't start working on them at the same time :) Scenarios I could contribute to, but won't be able to do immediately:

  • Nothing, for now. In the future, I may create pages for individual Lovecraft stories, and for "Lovecraftian" films (with an eye for adapting some films into RPG scenario plots).

I also intend to create pages for "Lovecraftian" films and television series - the following red YSDC wiki links point to pages that do not yet exist:



TV Series, Anthologies (Master List):

  • The X-files (1993 series) "Our Town" (said to be like a Lovecraft story with cannibals instead of tentacle monsters)
  • Star Trek ("the Kelvans, aliens from Andromeda that took on human forms and would "distill" people into a powdery polyhedron ("essential saltes," anyone?), as well as Sylvia and Korob, alien illusionists who looked a bit like tentacled stickbugs in their natural form. The mind-controlling jellyfish things from "Operation: Annihilate" were very creepy and Lovecrafty in their own way, as well.")
  • Babylon 5 (1994 franchise) ("Several elements of this show are Lovecraft-inspired, since creator J. Michael Straczynski is a big Lovecraft fan. “Passing Through Gethsemane” This episode has a character known as Brother “Edward”/“Charles Dexter”; a reference to Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. "")
  • Supernatural (2005 series) (episode "Let It Bleed" features Lovecraft as a character/plot device/theme for the episode; the Leviathans story arc introduced in Season 7 is a riff on Lovecraftian fiction)
  • Sanctuary (2008 series) ("an episode has a tentacle whip out of a boys belly to drill a hole in some poor saps head and we're introduced to a menagerie of beasties...ok not exactly Lovecraft but I thought I'd mention it")
  • VHS (2012 franchise)
  • Southbound (2015 film)
  • Twilight Zone (1959 series)
  • Twilight Zone (1985 series)
  • Twilight Zone (2002 series)
  • Outer Limits (1963 series) Outer Limits: "The Guests", "Don't Open Till Doomsday", "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork", "The Forms of Things Unknown"
  • Outer Limits (1995 series)
  • Dark Shadows (1966 franchise) (the Leviathans story arc channels Lovecraftian fiction) https://lovecraftzine.com/2013/12/10/the-collinsport-horror-dark-shadows-and-the-cthulhu-mythos-by-rick-lai/
  • Salem (2014 series) (Brown Jenkins is a character)
  • The Third Eye (1983 series)
  • The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (1971 series) Carnacki episode "Horse of the Invisible" 1971
  • Amnesia: The Dark Descent (2014 series)
  • Strange Aeons (2014 series)
  • Shadow Bound (2013 series)
  • Spooky Spooky Scary Scary (2009 series) TV mini-series
  • El Caso Pickman (2014 series) TV mini-series
  • The League of Gentlemen ("dark humour, particularly the couple in the "local" shop, wouldn't be out of place in Innsmouth")
  • Penny Dreadful ("not explicitly Lovecraftian, but is well done and provides excellent imagery for Gaslight era horror.")
  • Todd and the Book of Pure Evil ("is also centered around a Necronomicon-like book")
  • Extant ("to be honest, I wasn't crazy about this show and felt it really didn't work in its second season, but the first season, at least, seemed to work on a vaguely Lovecraftian level. The story was in many ways similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Village of the Damned, with alien fungi impregnating an astronaut as the first step in unleashing their formless, mind-controlling psychic hybrid children onto the Earth. (If the first season could be compared to Village of the Damned, then the second season could be compared to the sequel Children of the Damned, with both the second season and the similar sequel failing to engage me as completely as the originals for similar reasons - namely, in that the second season and sequel really weren't particularly creepy, and suffered from being slightly preachy and talky. YMMV.)")
  • Strange ("A team formed of a Defrocked Priest, Nurse, Computer/Electronics wizz kid and a mediumistic young man investigating and stopping demonic activity in the local city (Bristol I think??). Very atmospheric and eerie with the team working from limited information, scouring ancient books and newspapers alike and often having many misteps before they track down the "Demon of the Week". And in the background the Uber-Demon Asmoth (who killed the Priest's wife) looms large and unidentified.")
  • Doomwatch ("The series was set in the then present day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist (played by John Paul), responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. ")
  • Intruders (2014 series) ("about an ancient, secret cult who can project their minds after death into the bodies of other people. The Lovecraftian atmosphere was at best sort of vague in the first season, but I suspect that it would have gotten more overt had the show been given a chance to develop elements such as the "ghost machine" (some sort of creepy fringe science device that let ordinary people hear disembodied spirits), the cult's ancient conspiracy, its library full of strange tomes written by generations of the same personalities in different bodies, and so on.")
  • The Tomorrow People ("*Another* British show, rebroadcast on cable in the 80s, Stateside. I have no idea if it holds up, but it was serious nightmare fuel for me as a child.")
  • Sapphire and Steel (" the first story that takes place entirely in a house being invaded by strange beings from outside the "corridor" of time. And I hear that the series gets better from there, as it moves from being a kid oriented series into more adult territory.")
  • Children of the Stones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_stones
  • The Owl Service
  • Moondial
  • The Box of Delights
  • Dramarama
  • Ultraviolet ("It's UK government agents vrs. Vampires, but at least the vampires are something new. Not one fang to be found among them... and why not? Fangs are not in the folklore. THat's Bram Stoker's b.s. It may not be Lovecraftian, but its a good look at how a police proceedural would be impacted by the supernatural.")
  • The One Game
  • Oktober
  • Edge of Darkness
  • The Nightmare Man
  • Hammer House of Horror
  • Jekyll
  • Lost
  • Fringe ("Still early to call, in this reality, fringe science (such as that present in "The Reanimator" and "Whisperer in the Darkness") is real, including reading the minds of the living and recently deceased, bionic replacement, nanobot infestations, and cloning. Focus is apparently primarily on the technological singularity, and it is hinted that something (probably a corporation or cabal, rather than an alien or otherworldly presence) is using the earth as a petri dish.")
  • Rough Magick
  • The Others http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Others_(TV_series)
  • Dark Skies
  • Strange World ("Our hero, working for USAMRIID is consulting on crimes using extremely advanced science. It was pretty much "Fringe" only without the ridiculous conflicts built in between the characters. I enjoyed it alot. My favorite moment in "Strange World" was when the discover that some one is cloning human body parts for organ replacement. And where do they find this beating but disembodied human heart? In a jar in a lab? NO. They find it when they give an ultrasound to the woman who's being going to a fertility clinic of last resort. She was willing to put up will all kinds of pain and discomfort if it meant she could have a bady. When they run the ultrasound it isn't the bad she can feel kicking... it's the beating human heart.")
  • Hercules: The Legendary Journeys ("“Hercules” is produced by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, who were responsible for the “Evil Dead” films. “City of the Dead” The Necronomicon figures prominently in this episode.")




Complete

I've finished updating these scenario pages, feel free to provide further editing and reviews:

D20 CoC (2002)

Cthulhu Dark Ages (2004)

Dreamlands: Role-Playing Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2004)

Halloween Horror (2005)

Halloween Horror 2 (2006)

Halloween Horror Returns (2007)

The Bride of Halloween Horror (2008)

Plan 09 From Halloween (2009)

Dead Leaves Fall and Other Halloween Horrors (2011)

Pulp Cthulhu


I plan to blog some reviews for these, and add links for the reviews, but they could probably use some additional review links (YSDC has some great reviewers, I just haven't been able to concentrate on tracking their reviews down!)

It looks like many of the scenarios have "red links" for monsters, tomes, locations, cults, and organizations, some of which are unique to those scenarios (or their authors' other works). I may try to fill some of those red links, but feel free to add them yourself if you get to them first.

Out of Scope

Additionally, I've done the following things that were originally outside my "Halloween Scenario" scope:

  • Lemon_Sails (I've finished this, it's free for further revision and review!)
  • new category for scenarios set in schools (location-based scenarios)
  • new category scenarios set in Japan (places)
  • I contacted the author of one of the scenarios to see about including "lost" background information on the Village of Sogailraugh; it should be OK to include a link to the website that is hosting the supplemental information, and provide a map key.
  • Created redirects for "Orne Library" and "Orne library" (they point to Miskatonic University (Location)).
  • Added, organized, and cited Miskatonic University staff and books in the Orne Library, making heavy changes to Miskatonic University (Location).
  • Created categories for Sthood (a Dreamlands deity).
  • Added illustrations for the Miskatonic University Library, Corbitt House ("The Haunting"), and lighthouse for "Terror at Erne Rock", plus additional illustrations and alternate floor plans for buildings that have appeared in the first couple Halloween Monographs (I "built" the houses in 3D using The Sims 3, and posed them for screenshots).
  • Created a page about Halloween, mainly to answer the question of why cultists would choose to perform spells and rituals on Halloween (which has quickly become a good question, considering the number of Halloween scenarios I've seen so far in documenting the Halloween Monographs!)
  • New Venue Category: Farms
  • New Venue Category: Restaurants
  • Created an entry for "The Book of the Dark Order of Baphomet"; I took the opportunity to begin sketching in the foundations of a loose Tome template I may use for future entries (based loosely on the entry for the Necronomicon).
  • What do you know? "Foxfield" is a Lovecraft creation, one I'd never heard of before, used in one of the scenarios I synopsed(?). I was unable to find the map Lovecraft was said to have drawn, but I suspect the map included in the scenario is probably at least based on it, so I created a cheap imitation. (Anyone with access to a copy of Lovecraft's original can feel free to replace my poor drawing, if there's no problem with copyright on Lovecraft's original.)
  • New categories for a few eras (Invictus, 18th and 19th centuries, etc.; surprisingly these did not already exist, but there don't seem to have been too many Colonial American or Imperial Roman scenarios archived in any great detail in the Wiki until I started documenting some of Halloween scenarios that use off-beat settings.)
  • New category for scenarios, Venue: Library
  • Added some variations of mythos tomes included in a couple of scenarios, and created several pages for new tomes.
  • Redirects for "Hyborea", "Hyborean" to "Hyperborea".
  • Details about town of Aylesbury.
  • Illustration for Deep Ones (taken from a creepy old woodcut)
  • A new page for Gloon.
  • Better organization of Occult Books
  • New illustrations for Erne Rock lighthouse.
  • Added details to "Cultes des Goules" and "Comte d'Erlette" as a result of running across some details in a Delta Green story.
  • Built and uploaded screenshots of the MU "Miskatonic University English Department", based roughly on a design included in one of the scenarios I looked at ("The Faculty Party"). Seems like the basic floor-plans could be re-used for any generic University classroom building, and might come in useful in other scenarios.
  • Expanded on categorization by "Setting" and "Style" (for example, it would seem that Dream scenarios are as much a departure from Purist CoC style as Pulp scenarios, depending on the Group's opinion of Dream scenarios; Dreamlands-based scenarios are a setting all of their own; etc.)
    • I should expect that Combat-Heavy scenarios are similarly a stylistic departure from traditional investigation-based scenarios, but I haven't decided whether to single these out as a Style yet.
  • Added or expanded the pages for numerous creature races and lesser-known Great Old Ones.
  • Template and Categories for Films and reviews, plus a "Lovecraftian" rating system:
    • Tentacle Ratings
    • Category:Film:General
    • Category:Film:Franchise
    • Category:Film:Film
    • Category:Film:Short
    • Category:Film:Series_or_Serial

Added or elaborated on the following:

Creatures:

Cults/Organizations:

Tomes:

Great Old Ones:


Personal Thoughts