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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9744028" data-attributes="member: 18">I think this is an interesting juxtaposition because I've seen the latter distortions cause people to have different views re: the former.A specific example would be I have a friend who doesn't like to watch horror movies, or play horror videogames, but seems to really enjoy running certain kinds of horror adventure in RPGs - admittedly they're more towards the gothic/grandiose or "cosmic horror" end of things, and I think part of that is that the RPGs involved usually aren't built for horror (i.e. D&D or w/e) and the "distortions" as you put it give him enough distance or a different perspective so that the horror themes and elements don't stress him out in the way they do in a movie or game. Probably helps that he's the DM but he's also played CoC and stuff.(As an aside, I'm not fully sure CoC should be counted as a "horror RPG", because mechanically it barely engages with horror at all. All the horror is in the setup/adventures/enemy choices - and often those aren't actually very horrifying for various reasons. Whereas other RPGs actually mechanically engage with horror. Also after 30+ years I'm sorry but SAN is just not a good mechanic for horror especially not one-shots. Contrast it with say, Mothership's three saves (Fear, Sanity and Body, all intentionally low), rising Stress mechanic (which rises fast enough to be relevant in a one-shot), and Panic checks, all of which do build on and engage with horror mechanically in a very effective way. A lot of the horror is still in the setup but it much more mechanically supported and driven.)I always found this second-funniest aspect of Lovecraft, because yeah, like who cares? I get that when the other entities are malign and inimical to humanity that is actually an issue and can be legit horrifying, but several of his stories are more like "OMG we're not the main attraction!? ARGH!!!!" and it's like, why is that scary lol? I really liked the cone-people. They seemed chill!The first-funniest is one of his stories where he was so racist he described someone as dangerous and subhuman because he was Scottish, which really just showed how truly dedicated to racism the American WASPs of the 1930s and earlier were.That said I don't have any problem with cosmic horror so long as I'm not supposed to be horrified by that particular aspect of it, and it's not replicating xenophobia/racism. But I do note the very scariest CoC stuff I've played was all non-Mythos entities (Baba Yaga etc.).</blockquote>

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