詩雨

For those who don't know, I am the original author of Call of Cthulhu the roleplaying game. I run my games in the modern era, not the 1920s. Sometimes people ask me how to make games scary nowadays. They have an idea that with cellphones and the internet, the bad guys don't have a chance. This looks at things backwards. The cultists have cell phones too. More to the point, modern technology is far more horrific and dehumanizing than the 1920s. I'm certain the King in Yellow has a TikTok feed. Our easy communication is a vulnerability - a means to doom humanity. In The Shadow From the Steeple, Robert Bloch tells us Nyarlathotep is behind the Manhattan Project. Because of course the Great Old Ones WANT us to have nukes. In Lovecraft's tale The Dunwich Horror, Wilbur Whateley's plan to destroy the world is thwarted because he can't get his hands on a complete versiuon of the Necronomicon. But today, the Necronomicon would be on Project Gutenberg. Every kook and psychopath on Earth would be trying out its formulae and the good guys would be completely overwhelmed.