Call of Ctulhu

[selderane]

@selderane: What do you mean with "being too objective"? I'm not trying to be snarky here, just curious about your understanding of objectivity.

Maybe you're right, but the point that I was trying to make is that being a tough guy living in a small town with the imposing landscapes that populate the peninsula, where you know that there are a group of wise men of the forest that do funky rituals for the spirits of the wind and even they are kind of nervous about certain stuff going on in the creepy place where a friend of yours dissapeared when you were a kid kind of makes you humbler than being an academic in the early 20th century New England. And that arrogance of the learned man against the absolute futility and lack of meaning of the human world in the face of a truth that doesn't care about you seems to be the point of Lovecraft's work.

While I agree that the aspects you used to describe lovecraftian horror are completely adequate to SoE, describing Lovecraft's work as fear of the unknown and the potential harm to everything you care is describing it with way too broad strokes. That's about half of what the horror genre does before and after Howie.

"Objective" was the best word I could come up with at the time. I knew it wasn't quite right, but it was all I had. "Clinical" is better.

And you omitted "indifference" when you summarized what I said about Lovecraftian horror. Sans that, I would agree with everything you said about horror in general. I think Lovecraftian horror is what it is because the source of horror is indifferent to you and everything you care about.

[Clovis]

I like your depiction of Esteren's horror. It would probably be a good idea to add that another factor for horror is the mechanical enforcement of the fragility of men. Characters constantly risk death and/or mental breakdown. They aren't shining heroes against the evils of the world, but brave people wandering through their outer and inner dark, looking to stave off a threat they don't understand and that most probably will kill them. That's inspiring.

Right you are. That's another important mechanic in Esteren, that I actually have not seen that often: even in realistic and/or grim & gritty settings like World of Darkness or Warhammer, it is - relatively - easy to make your Character a powerhouse rising above the common man, particularly as the PCs accrue experience, thus reaching high level in their characteristics.

This is not the case in Call of Cthulhu RPG and Shadows of Esteren, and that's what I enjoy: even the strongest hero can be killed by a low blow, a nasty disease, or a bad fall. That makes the Characters you play and their dedication all the more epic, in a way.

I think that your notions of horror get closer to the works of Thomas Ligotti (unfathomableness & mystery) than Lovecraft's (more related to alienation from social meaning and impotence in the face of an inconmesurable opposition which is the hidden meaning of the world).

It may be. I did not know about Thomas Ligotti, so Lovecraft was the closest thing I could mention as a comparison. Moreover, Lovecraft is a very well-known author, so it makes more sense to bring him up as a reference than writers such as Stig Dagerman, who are of course very good in their own right, but more obscure.

Note: I don't have a degree in literature, nor I am the voice of the revelated truth of horror. It just happens that I like the genre and enjoy talking about it.

That's okay! You don't have to be a complete expert in a domain to be entitled to talk about it. I found that your reasoning made sense, and that your point of view in the matter was justified. It's always a pleasure to talk about your passion with other people!