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Apocalyptic Log: Difference between revisions
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== Tabletop Games ==
* The prologue to the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] game ''All Flesh Must Be Eaten'' has a scientist, just bitten by a zombie, discuss the transformation from human to infected cadaver in a truly disturbing series of logs. The last few are ''after'' his death, as the brain is the last thing to go... and the final one has him reduced to groaning that the hunger is all he has left.
* There's at least three examples along these lines from the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' magazine ''White Dwarf'', although two are merely dealing with attacks by vampires and Necrons respectively.
* Not a tabletop RPG, but a ''letter-writing'' RPG, the out of print [[Cosmic Horror Story|Lovecraftian]] game ''De Profundis'' was presented wholly as a collection of letters from someone gradually going insane after having a dream about a book that laid out the game's rules. Part of the supernatural insanity gripping the "author" involved writing down and sharing the game to try to spread the insanity.
* The ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' background book ''Xenology'' turns out to be one drawn-out example of this, written by an Inquisitor examining another's work at gathering and studying various alien beings in a hidden facility. {{spoiler|It turns out the "Inquisitor" who set up the facility is actually a Necron Lord who established it to study other organic races, and once he was finished, he lured the other Inquisitor to the facility to study ''him''.}}
** We never get to read it, but the galaxy-sized locust swarm that is the Tyranid race was named because of the [[Apocalyptic Log]] that was left behind, buried 1000 feet underground, on the planet Tyran. Most of the Tyranid Codexes -- combinations of backstory and rulebook -- contain detached descriptions of Tyranid attacks that read like an encyclopedia entry based off an [[Apocalyptic Log]] as well.
** Similarly, the ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' background book ''Liber Chaotica'' is written as an in-character study of the Chaos Gods. As the book goes on, the author starts having more and more ominous visions and making less and less sense as he descends into madness. At least half of the quotes in the Necron, Tyranid, and Dark Eldar codexes fit this trope.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|Dungeons & Dragons]]''
** A ''[[Planescape]]'' supplement contained, as [[Flavor Text]], the diary of an explorer describing his journey around the Concordant Plane of the Outlands. The diary takes on a distinct tone of encroaching madness after he set foot into the Caves of Thoughts, the domain of the mindflayer deity Ilsensine the Great Brain. It doesn't end well.
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* The [[wikipedia:Valentich Disappearance|disappearance of Frederick Valentich]] in 1978. While flying his light aircraft from Melbourne to King Island he reported to ATC that he was being harrased by an unidentified 'aircraft' that he presumed was an Air Force jet of some kind, but none were operating in his area, nor were any civil planes in the vicinity. In his final transmission he comes to a frightening realisation:
{{quote|That strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again (open microphone for two seconds). It is hovering and (open microphone for one second) it's not an aircraft.}}
* [[Ulysses S. Grant]] completed his autobiography five days before succumbing to throat cancer. His notes concerning the progress of his cancer were reportedly required reading in medical schools for many years.
* During the shooting at Columbine High School a library phone line was left open by a teacher who called 911 before the shooters entrance forced her to leave the phone to go hide. The open line caught and recorded the sounds of students being killed and injured, the dialog of the shooters to their victims and each other, and after the shooters leave the surviving students being told to quickly flee out a nearby door then dead air.
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