De Profundis: Cthulhu Gaming on the Edge of Madness

Care Frater G.,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

As I earlier suggested to you that I might, I am undertaking a survey of published recreations that may have value in a course of occult training. In years past I found one in particular that seems to be very close kindred to my own unpublished -- and in many respects unwritten -- occultist pseudo-LARP V.I.T.R.I.O.L. In fact, the author of the Lovecraftian horror-through-correspondence "game" De Profundis indicated that he had left much of that unwritten as well, and he described its genesis in an experience "in the dreamwoods of Hypnos and Shub Niggurath."

I have just read the second edition of De Profundis, which includes a great deal of additional material that plays up show more game-style mechanics, such as tables of keywords and inventories of archetypal characters and scenarios. Nevertheless, I think it is best appreciated as an engine for para-literature, rather than as a "roleplaying supplement," as the nominators for the Diana Jones Award (whatever that is, indicated in the jacket copy) would have it. The material production of this volume is solid (and far superior to the staple-bound first edition!), and the translation/Englishing has resulted in an engaging English text from the Polish original.

The core of the volume, as with the first edition, is written in the epistolary form that most of actual play assumes. Even the "De Profundis Online" additions are styled as emails. Despite -- or because of -- an almost complete absence of the sort of algorithmic devices common to tabletop roleplaying, this "game" demands skilled and intelligent players. "RPG" experience may even be a slight liability. A related program for in-person chamber "psychodrama" is relegated to an appendix (as it was in the first edition, if I recall correctly), but it is an enticing feature of the overall text, and might be implemented on its own or in connection with the letter-writing method.

I suspect that the 21st-century obsolescence of personal correspondence by postal paper may actually make "paper age" undertakings of De Profundis more powerful, albeit more challenging. The very oddness of receiving a handwritten letter in our current cultural context helps to transport the reader/player from the quotidian to the weird.

If you would pick up a copy -- it appears to be available from some online book retailers, as well as game suppliers -- we might try out some of these techniques, with an eye to the gradual incorporation of suitable aspirants in an ongoing project.

Love is the law, love under will.

Flamma sanguineque,
P.A. show less

A gamebook - not quite an RPG, but something between that and a joint epistoliary novel. You take on the roles of Lovecraftian characters, suffering strange events and writing about them. There's a lot in the book, written in the style it wants you to adopt. It's translated from Polish, which I think has lost a little something in the translation; perhaps a slight cultural nuance? I enjoyed it, but it seems a bit long for what it is, and occasionally repetitive. It would probably be fun for someone with the time and inclination. I certainly used to make up stories with people. Nevertheless, I won't be going for this one. Apart from the fact I don't think any of my friends would be interested, it's a game about adopting the part of show more someone going slowly insane. That's a little bit close to home, cheers. show less