u/Bluemoonroleplay

The Cthulhu, the shoggoths and the other monsters often come in the last few pages of HPL. In most cases, for 70% of the story atleast, everything which happens is pretty pseudo-realistic and the slightly unrealistic parts can also be explained away as the mental delusions of a deranged inidvidual, unknown scientific phenomenon or the actions of a dastardly cult.

But thats the juicy part that I actually love. I love HPL because I love the vibe of the Victorian era, Inter-war era and early modern era's "Frontier of knowledge". When science hadn't mapped the world thoroughly and when most scientific phenomenon were not well known or set in stone, due to which, strange beliefs like spiritualism, weird psuedo-science or mystical cults rooted in their brands of science or radio therapy or whatever was still believed as plausible.

I love the “wild west of knowledge and science”, ie: stories and histories where curious outsiders venture into unexplored intellectual territories, searching for forgotten truths, hidden civilizations, forbidden manuscripts, lost philosophies, or mysterious traditions. This is also why I love reading Non-fiction about Helena Blavatsky's Theosophy or the German and Soviet missions to Tibet to find Shambhala or Alexander Barchenko experiments in telepathic communications, esoteric Buddhism and the occult.

I love hearing about strange scientists engaged in devious experiments in dark cellars, mysterious manuscripts found inside the forgotten corners of a dusty old library, weird cult sacrifices happening in dark corners of the earth, archeologists descending into ancient tombs for what seems to be a "normal expedition" and secret societies whispering in silent alleyways. I love this kind of vibe so much. Of the mystery of some kind of hidden knowledge or finding "forbidden things". The intersection of early modern science with old rituals, magic and religion. I love the feeling of opening a dusty trunk belonging to a mysterious dead man, discovering a forgotten manuscript in an ancient archive, entering a dimly lit drawing room where eccentric scholars debate hidden truths, or following a trail of clues left behind by explorers, occultists, and intellectual adventurers. The charm lies in the old-world atmosphere of libraries, monasteries, secret societies, forgotten expeditions, strange correspondences, and candlelit rooms where the boundary between knowledge and mystery becomes blurred.

HPL is somehow a master at writing the first part of his stories in a very "objective way" like a scentist writing a report, without showing much emotion. Many of his stories feel like the notes of a man on a scientific expiditon and thats what really tickles my brain in a great way. I love it very much.

Do you also like this kind of thing?

So many fellow radioactivity scientists had gathered for my liturgy speech so I wiped my tears and put on a brave face

You must have seen it. From memes about "bro beware before marrying" to reels about "Indian men are :skeletonemoji: if they marry" to jokes about "This is why they should have been kept in the kitchen"

There has been an alarming rise in casual misogyny among young Indian men since the recent Kushwah murder case. So many men around me from friends to relatives to acquaintances are now speaking with contempt against most women as if every woman is out to get them.

When a woman commits a horrific crime, many people immediately jump from "this individual committed a crime" to "women cannot be trusted" or "women should not have freedom." Yet when men commit violence against wives, girlfriends, or female family members, the conversation rarely turns into "men as a whole are dangerous."

While Mr. Andrew Tate Indian edition is sharing memes about how evil women are killing husbands and how they shouldn't be given freedom, 5 men are murdering their wives or girlfriends. But nobody speaks of that.

It only becomes a media frenzy when the killer is a lady and then she and the entire gender is demonized. Why is this misogyny happening?

The issue is not that crimes committed by women should be ignored. A murderer is a murderer, regardless of gender, and victims deserve justice no matter who the perpetrator is.

The problem is the double standard where one woman's crime becomes evidence against millions of women, while countless crimes committed by men are treated as the actions of "bad individuals" or "normal domestic violence"

The late 90s, 2000s and early 2010s was the golden age of Indian Mafia movies in my opinion. By mafia movies I don't mean the hero worship, extreme superhero style action flick with tons of baseless songs. I mean gritty, grounded mafia films with some stylistic vogue but still keeping it dark. Then after about 2014 such movies suddenly disappeared to a large degree (a few still come out every once in a while but much less than before). Why do you think this happened?

Here's the list (In order of preference)

1)Gangs of Wasseypur 1 and 2

2)Shagird

3)Ab Tak Chappan

4)Once upon a time in Mumbai

5)Black Friday

6)Company

7)Omkara

8)Maqbool

9)Sarkar 1 and 2 (3 was abysmal so its not even on this list)

10)D (2005)

11)Rakhtacharitra 1 and 2

12)Risk (2007)

13)Satya

14)Vaastav: The Reality

15)Shootout at Lokhandwala and Shootout at Wadala

Others which aren't exactly about the Mafia but are tangentially related to this list because they are great films

1)Gulaal

2)Haider

3)Shakti the power (Hindi version of "Not without my daughter")

4)Dhurandhar 1 and 2

5)Sonchiriya

6)Bandit queen

7)Paan Singh Tomar

I hope this post doesn't hurt your "sadnbox lover" sentiments but I am bored of seeing English Republic in 1830s, I am bored of Ottoman Ukraine popping up in 1840, I am bored of weird Swedish colonies in the Congo in every game, I am bored of unrealistic border gore in the Americas and I am bored of weird peace treaties resulting in historical abominations every single time.

I really wanna play this game for a very very restrictive experience. Whats the best mod out there that will just jail the game like its a supermax prison via events, railroaded conditions and heavily staged alternatives.

Please suggest

So in movies, books, web series, video games and of course real life, we often see many cases where the bad guys start shooting at SWAT teams or other big law enforcement teamseven though the good guys have overwhelming force and the ability to bring an almost unlimited amount of reinforcements because well.......they are the government

From bank robbers to mafia people stuck in a hostage situation. Many have attempted and failed because you can't fight a force which outguns and outnumbers you (aka: SWAT or other big LE teams)

So then they probably fight because their crimes are so horrific that they are doomed if they get arrested anyway. Or they are desperate and lose the ability to think coherently. My question is this

Have the bad guys ever managed to win a real armed engagement against SWAT teams or other comparable Law enforcement teams?

By win I mean they either killed or incapacitated the attacking lawmen or managed to make a real escape from the law after a tense gunfight encounter.

Has it ever happened?

For the last 15 years, since RDR1 released and even after RDR2, Mexico is one of the beloved regions and a region which old players sorely miss in RDR1. But why?

My take is that apart from Mexico being an exotic "other" culture where you can cross the border, enter a different country and take refuge, there is another big reason.

Mexico represents a vestige of old wild west. The actual wild west of cowboys and gunslingers and bandits before modern stuff like telegraph, automatic guns and telephones still exists in Mexico. Its still a wild, unconquered, anarchich frontier in revolution!

I wrote this post because I noticed that many people love Rathskeller folk despite it being a remote place in the first RDR game. That maybe because you get a very homley atmosphere there with people greeting you and a cozy bar and room

Have you similarily ever spent time in the most remote and desolate locations in Mexico? Specifically in El Matadero and Torquemada?

I found both of these locations to be odly very cozy and almost feels like you are back in the old wild west of the 1840s and 50s when the frontier still lay unconquered and its passions unbounded.

In Torquemada you have a cozy little fort with rough men playing with knives, a merry dog barking and cozy lanterns to keep warmth at night. Not to mention, it has one of the best views of the desolate Mexican desert.

In El Matadero you can have fun in a very militaristic soldiers barracks with their warm candles and spartan tables lying side by side. You can also explore an old west butcher plant and in the day time, you can even see the butchers working inside it, creating meat to feed the people. There's also a small campfire at night time so you can enjoy some Mexican hospitality in this most rough and isolated part of the frontier.

Overall, imo these two are the most unvisited and potentially unknown locations for "larping"

Although the nunnery does come a close third (but atleast many people do visit itjust because its so unique)

There are multiple HPL games about Cthulhu and Dunwich horror etc. But Lovecraft is so much more than that. However video game companies need to play it safe, look for revenues and sadly something like the Music of Erich Zahn or the Statement of Randolph Carter may not have that mass appeal which Cthulhu does.

But we don't have that problem in our imagination. So tell me, which HPL story would you like to see most as a game. Also mention the genre and basic idea of your dream game. See the below style and answer accordingly. You are also allowed to slightly change the setup to better fit a videogame like I have done for red hook below.

Name: The Horror at Red Hook.

Description: A detective game where you are a policeman who is training to be a detective and his bosses send him to Red Hook to train him on field for some 60 days. Now you have been hearing cases of weird incidents happening in the past few days and you must explore the streets and learn whats happening. The twist is that, there is no guarantee that something Lovecraftian will really happen in your game. Maybe in one playthrough, you may pass the 60 days with absolutely nothing weird being found. In another playthrough you may find the guy and his cult but they may turn out to be just normal cultists or you may fail to find their Lovecraftian connections. In yet another playthrough you may get lucky and uncover the whole thing (and lose your sanity) in just the first 3 days. Everything would be RNG and skill based rather than a strict well defined story