u/RosbergThe8th

I'm finding myself of a particular feel and I'm looking for some good "Innsmouthy" feeling scenarios or even other inspiration. I should clarify I'm not necessarily looking for something just like Shadow Over Innsmouth, and I am aware of the specific Innsmouthian scenarios and new sourcebook, it's just that's the best word I can think of to describe what I'm craving. That sort of dingy oceanside adventure, dilapidated seaside villages or lighthouses shrouded in mist and darkness, something slightly off about it all.

Started watching the recent Netflix series "Below" which plays into that a bit, that feeling that seems to form most vividly in my mind is Far Harbour from Fallout 4, particularly that initial feeling of the approach which just really stuck with me. I'll probably end up writing something myself but I've got so many things going on that I was also curious if I might find any prewritten scenarios that scratch that particular itch.

Bonus points if the horror isn't Dagon themed, though I do like me some Esoteric Order of Dagon.

Spoiler warning, obviously.

So I just finished Dead Space: Martyr, a book which I really quite enjoyed throughout the first half or so, maybe even the first two thirds, I knew roughly where it was headed but loved the build around the marker, the discovery and all that.

Then came the dreaded ending, I found it turning into a bit of an action checklist and then came the epilogue which managed nothing but making me annoyed that I bothered to read it as all it did was awkwardly spell out what I might already assume awaited. Didn't feel like the whole reluctant Prophet thing landed at all and had to be told more than shown, and the antagonists remained impressively carboard even in the end so I'm not sure what the author was aiming for there.

So given this sentiment, I do really enjoy the core idea of the Markers and the horror around them, are any of the other books still worth a read or do they follow a similar trend?

There's few things I love more than playing wargames with other wargamers, other players who share my love of creating these great battles and are unafraid to delve into esoteric rules systems seeking whatever strange fancies we're chasing on that day.

But those kinds of wargamers are rare, so my question today is what are your favourite systems for getting a bit of that wargaming action in that you can reasonably play with your non wargaming friends?

The two I've found most conductive to that also happen to be my favourite Games Workshop rulesets, Warcry and the now defunct Aeronautica Imperialis. Warcry in general is just a very streamlined system I find, and with the various cards and whatnot it's the one I've found the most success in teaching to people who otherwise don't engage much with wargames or those more heavy rulesets. It's particularly helpful in that regard because it's not particularly text heavy so is not so demanding on my less English proficient friends. Tends to run pretty quickly too and doesn't take up too much space so it remains one of my all time favourites.

Aeronautica Imperialis occupies a similar space, it's fairly straightforward in rules terms and more importantly for me if you own one of the starter sets it's quite easy to just sort of handle as a boxed game of it's own so it doesn't take too much space.

But I'm curious what examples you might have, I find myself especially drawn to miniature agnostic systems these days where I can get a bit creative in creating stuff. Interested in anything that's reasonably easy to teach people who aren't necessarily huge wargamers or the like. The biggest hindrances I tend to run into is any combat that requires extensive phases of rolling to reach a result and any system reliant on lots of special little rules and abilities spread all over like 40k with unit abilities and stratagems galore.