Tabletop Games/Nightmare Fuel: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'''s "Cybertechnology" sourcebook is a good source of this, particularly the move-by-wire implants (which are described as putting the implantee's body in a state of perpetual seizure), and the information on Cyberzombies and the fiction about {{spoiler|frequently mentioned Shadowrunner 'Hatchetman' turned into one of them.}}

** Both made a comeback in the 4E sourcebook ''Augmentation''. What's particularly nasty is the way that regardless of what you do to it, the spirit of the cyberzombie ''knows'' that they shouldn't be alive, and that knowledge causes them to stop working on a cellular level without a horrific cocktail of obscure magic and medication. Even then, a cyberzombie will eventually just go insane.

** On the magical side of all things [[Shadowrun]] is the Blood Mage Gestalt in Aztlan (Mexico as of the SR Timeline). At best they are sacrificing hundreds if not thousands of people yearly ''Aztec''-style {{spoiler|to keep their President from parts unknown alive}}...at worst, its to {{spoiler|speed up the return of the Horrors from ''[[Earthdawn]]'' (see below) to our world}}. Usually, though, they just kill people to power-up their spells, or to summon spirits into the world comprised of the blood of the sacrificed victims. These spirits would be more than happy to engulf and ''drown'' you in that blood, if their master orders it.

** A first edition spell (which has been nerfed in the newest 4th edition) was called Turn to Goo. It turns the subject into an amorphous homogenized mass... and JUST the flesh. As soon as the spell is ended, they turn back to normal though. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if it weren't that this was a genre-mash with cyberpunk which involves cybernetic implants. A old tactic before the spell was changed was to cast this spell, then reach into the goo that is a STILL LIVING PERSON and pick out all their implants before releasing the spell.

* The ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]'' game, being based off [[HP Lovecraft]]'s works of horror, has this as its core quality. The modern-era conspiracy thriller version of the game, ''Delta Green'', is the same. It is a dark, depressing RPG book, and very well-written. Conspiracy theories, UFO lore, and the Mythos all rolled into one makes for a very bleak view of the present and near-future indeed.

** The introductory fiction for the original ''Delta Green'' core rules is of a clean-up squad sent out to handle an incident of a retired Navy SEAL having gone insane and murdered his entire family. Why? Because he had a traumatic flashback to an old mission involving Deep Ones, triggered by the smell of his house's ''backed-up septic tank''. That detail alone hammers home just how much the touch of the Mythos never goes away, even years later.

** The game actually tries to remain canon to Lovecraftian Mythos standards, as well. From the spell "Bind Lycanthrope" (which removes their humanity over the course of several days) to the fact that the Rat-things turn out to be, at least in some cases, {{spoiler|created from willing cultists and unwilling murder victims}}, The Mythos is designed around the entire concept of Nightmare Fuel.

** Which makes sense, once you know that H.P. Lovecraft had horrible nightmares that inspired a lot of his work...

* ''[[GURPS]]'' has produced some scary stuff. Nerlochs top the list: they're mindless superfast zombies that paralyze you (leaving all of your senses working perfectly) and then feed you to a monster that tears your body and soul apart while you're still completely functional. If you do happen to somehow survive, the trauma automatically drives you insane.

* [[Infinity (Tabletop Game)|Infinity]] may not be known for its grim or dark setting but you need to consider a few things. First, most of the infrastructure of the Human Sphere is controlled by an AI. Second, an even more advanced AI is bent on conquering the Human Sphere. Their ''scouting'' forces are already equipped with weapons that can turn any human with a Cube into a [[Manchurian Agent]], basic troops whose idea of diplomacy is all-out war, and shapeshifting assassins that are completely undetectable by any human technology. [[Oh Crap|Now think what would happen when the Combined Army starts getting serious]].

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' is known for playing horrible events for [[Rule of Funny|laughs]], but the Straight style [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|plays them straight]] by focusing on just how horrible they are. Thousands of citizens may be killed or mindwiped for nothing even vaguely resembling a good reason, and it's probably all the fault of the PCs. And because it's always "year 214", pretty much no one knows how long this has been going on, or how long it will keep going on; one pre-written adventure actually examines this question over the course of {{spoiler|billions of years}}.

** The best example of this is a Straight Mission where the players are put in charge of a food factory showing record levels of production. This is, of course a lie and the "food" is mostly empty boxes, but if the players were to expose it, then they'll be executed along with the rest of the staff. As a reward for their incredible production, the quota for that factory is increased. And so the players lie again about how much food is being produced, so their quota is increased, and that factory's defective methods are imposed all over Alpha Complex. All fun and games, until the players realise that their actions are causing mass starvation, and that pretty soon the best possible solution will be to [[I'm a Humanitarian|shove half the citizens of Alpha Complex into food processors to feed the rest]].