The Modern Ouroboros

A npc, antagonist, patron, or something else along those lines for a modern horror RPG setting.

It appears before you, a large snake with eyes full of tv static, ever shifting black and white.

You stare deep into your eyes, deeper, and deeper still, at some point you realize that you aren't getting closer, you're zooming in like a camera.

The eyes are not full of static but color, each little speck an impossibly detailed image that you recognize immediately: tv shows, cartoon characters, celebrities, mascots, video games, movie posters, memes, web sights, musicians, album covers, and more.

Their jaws clamp down upon its own tail and you cannot look away.

 

By fl64

The Ouroboros has grown strong in our age of endless sequels and manufactured nostalgia, of movement without going forward, of endings that do not end.
It is a being of change that keeps everything the same for its change is that of a circle, no matter how far forward you go you will always end up in the same place eventually.
It is also a being of destruction that breaks nothing for its destruction is that of digestion and regurgitation, leaving things smooth and palatable, it removes depth and scars replacing it with the same things that have come before.

The Ouroboros wants for nothing and there is little left to offer it, we have already given it our world. Worship is unneeded, every Avengers movie is a sermon, every rockstar a high priest. So are sacrifices, they have become quite unfashionable among divinities in our time. Even working on soulless cash grabs throughout your whole life will earn you not even an ounce of attention. The only real thing one can offer the Ouroboros is to strike down the only things that could threaten its reign: originality and finality.

1d6 cruel tasks asked of by Ouroboros
1 harass a small online artist that is starting to gain a following, bully them offline
2 burn down a local business that is just about to open a new location
3 go to an art exhibition and cut up as many paintings as you can
4 crush the artistic dreams of one of your best friends
5 disfigure a local actor that could go places
6 form a mob to harass a large creator who recently ended a project, bully them till they make another sequel 

For those who serve Ouroboros and complete a task given by it some measure of power may be acquired, though Ouroboros is clever and miserly, it will never give a person more than one gift and unless you have impressed it (very hard to do) it will not let you choose your gift.

1d6 meager gifts from Ouroboros
1 choose any person you know of that the Ouroboros doesn't care about, they become obsessed with a popular franchise of your choice, cutting off social ties and spending all their free time pursuing it
2 you can annihilate any paper you touch as if it was never there to begin with, anyone who wrote, painted, or otherwise worked on the paper will find they have little inspiration to work on similar projects and will not recreate the work
3 choose any person you know, the Ouroboros will consume them and then lay a giant egg, a week later it will hatch and they will emerge without any past scars or injuries, no tattoos, no surgeries, etc, their personality will also be very dull compared to what they were like
4 a pistol, you can't tell what type just some sort of generic modern pistol, it acts as a +3 pistol vs artists or people more interesting than you
5 a xiphos with sheath, it has only its hilt, where the blade should be is a silhouette of one made of tv static, attacks made with the blade do not physically harm the target but instead cloud the mind, causing increased procrastination/laziness, obsession, and inability to focus
6 the face of a celebrity of your choice, put it on and your entire appearance changes to match them permanently but if you meet the celebrity that you look like or if someone realizes that you could not possibly be the celebrity you claim to be the disguise falls off and becomes naught but shed skin and you die from a heart attack

1d6 ways to find Ouroboros/how it finds you
1 on the edge of unconsciousness, watching the same movie over and over again, it will appear  in the screen
2 when you realize your parents were right and you will never be an artist, its right behind you, whispering about working for some large media company
3 while on the set of a movie or tv show, you stare into the camera and see its eyes in the reflection
4 when you finally meet that popular celebrity you have always wanted to meet, it will slither out of their mouth and speak to you when the two of you are alone
5 in a pile of discarded merchandise where a snakes blood has been scattered, it may emerge at night on the anniversary of famous movies
6 in Hollywood, slithering through the streets

 

 

Also happy New Years!!! I didn't plan to finish this today but I think it's oddly fitting that it did turn out to be today.

 

Fighter from The Lovely Dark: GLΔG Edition

I went for a walk a little bit ago, it was dark and windy and wonderful. The Queen of Air and Darkness was close that night and my head was full of birds and my arms were full of knives.

Maybe I was more real and maybe I was imaginary, I don't think it matters all that much. 

 

Poetic musings out of the way I was reminded of this fighter made by The Lovely Dark (reread it if you haven't in a while and if you have never read it please leave right now, I consider it to be one of the best written things on the internet frankly, and this whole post is basically just an excuse for me to look at it again) and I want to do something with it so I am going to combine it with the GLΔG cause I think its pretty darn cool (even though I have yet to play with it or anything like it in an actual game). 

All of what you are about to read is untested, it also isn't "official", I don't know how much this actually fits the implied setting of The Lovely Dark but I hope the vibes are at least comparable even if the writing isn't.

The actual abilities from the fighter don't need to be changed so I will just list which abilities each template gives you rather than copying over the text that you should have already read. 

 

 

By: sandykhourly

 

 

The Full-Dark World
Have 3 of the 5 happen to you over the course of a single night: Witness a murder (not death but a murder, something raw and personal), Kill someone you hate or love, Watch the birds fly in the moonlight (their flight follows a pattern), Be betrayed by someone or something you trusted, have a nightmare (She will be in it, if you have met enough of the other conditions)
Gain The Full-Dark World, you can acquire all further templates in this class, unlike before they can be gained in any order

 

The Killing Moon
Get a scar, somewhere between dashing and disfiguring, from something you underestimated, then crush that thing till it is nothing but scrap, or rubble, or a red smear
Gain The Killing Moon

 

Butcher Bird
Kill 3 different people with 3 different weapons, after they are dead, disassemble the weapon, then disassemble the body, both may be done with as much precision as you deem necessary 
Gain Butcher Bird

 

Death Song Of The Eumenides
Be hurt so much you will never be the same (you already have, haven't you?), hurt someone in the exact same way and realize it makes you feel good, or nothing, or hate, as long as it doesn't make you feel regret the Dolor will find you
Gain Death Song Of The Eumenides

 

Société Des Sadiques
Destroy a person important to this hateful world, someone who's soul is bright and warm and clear and most of all beloved, then do this to an object, and then to a place, those who are tuned to the wind will know that She favors you
Gain Société Des Sadiques

 

Watch the skies, feel the static in your soul and on the wind
Picture by me

 

The Lovely Dark stirs, a new class the MAGICIAN has been made along with another post on the ULTRAREALITY, as before I beg you to read them, the writing is exceptional. 

Some sort of body horror journaling game I almost made

I never settled on a name for this thing, maybe A Churning Body or Doomed Blood or my favorite (but still unsatisfactory) My Wretched Body.

Its (it's?) one of those solo journaling games where you just write things. This one is about turning into a horrible monster. I'm not sure if its any good especially since I have played almost no journaling games.

I got inspired to make it when I got back into body horror and watched The Fly (the 1986 film), Tetsuo The Iron Man (the 1989 film), and CHONDRIATIC a short game which can be played here (for free).

Anyways here is the game. 

What you need to play

Just something to write on and something to write with, and optionally a set of dice. 

Some tips for good body horror (from an amateur who doesn't really write at all)

Keep the setting grounded, it makes the body horror stand out all the more, modern settings are good for this

Describe things using all of the senses and don't overuse the sensation of pain

Keep it weird, even ridiculous things can be horrifying given the right context, the change and destruction of the body should never be standardized or clean

A lot of body horror has a sexual component to it so feel free to add that in if you want and if you don't then just don't, never feel pressured to write about something you don't want to do

To play the game start by answering the prompts in the prologue then answer the day 1 prompt and then the day 2 prompt and so on until all the days have been answered. You should probably read through all of the prompts before playing but you don't need to.

When answering a prompt if its a bullet point answer it with a paragraph (doesn't need to be a long one) if its a dash write a few words to a sentence. the order they are answered in does not matter, feel free to answer multiple at a time.

There will be some tables at the end of this post to give you some inspiration if needed

Prologue

•  What is the setting, the world and your place in it
• Who are you, name, job, personality
  - What is this person's best physical trait
  

 Day 1

• Describe your daily routine, make this detailed it will be very important

 

Day 2

• Go through your daily routine again
  - Describe some innocuous event that may or may not eventually lead to your horrible transformation
  

 

Day 3

• Go through your daily routine again
• You meet with someone who cares about you (family, friend, colleague)
  - You start to feel sick, as a footnote express your displeasure/annoyance/etc at this
  

 

Day 4

• Part of the way through your daily routine you become too sick to continue, you seek out treatment but the one examining you either does not recognize the sickness or that it isn't serious
  - Complain about how whatever medicine or treatment you received isn't working
  

 

Day 5

• The disease has left you incapacitated and unable to do your normal routine, complain about this
  - Describe how it feels to be sick
  - Describe your fears about how this might be serious or even life threatening
  

 

Day 6

• Either today you feel fine and not sick at all or you feel better than normal to an almost unnatural extent, either way explain how good it feels to be back to normal
• Go through your daily routine again
  

 

Day 7

•  Go through your daily routine again
• You meet again with the person who cares for you, they are worried about you
  - They spot something strange about your body, a prelude to the transformation to take place, ignore or deny it

 

Day 8

• You become horribly incapacitated by the disease, you cannot leave your home, describe the specifics of the pain and discomfort 
• Your body begins to change, either your skin becomes horribly transformed or you grow some new limb or body part, small enough at this point to be hidden
  

 

Day 9

• In a desperate attempt to end this curse you try and remove it physically or with medicine, it only ends up hurting you or causing you to transform even further
  

 

Day 10

• The person who cares for you sees you, at first they are horrified but after that they might remain horrified, feel pity towards you, or scorn you
• The changes continue, describe something mundane that has become completely different for you
  

Day 11

• Part of your body falls off, what is underneath it
  

Day 12

• Your best physical trait either gets removed or is made grotesque
  

Day 13

• Your body has lost, your last vestiges of humanity fall away, you are a monster, what do you look like, why do you hate this new body
  

Day 14

          - What were the last words you spoke and who did you speak them to, you may not have known they were going to be your last words

          - Choose one describe where you were last seen before disappearing or you died a dramatic death, where did it happen, how did it happen, and who saw it

Tables

Whats the setting d6

1 The streets and slums of a large city, grimy, full of the disrespected and disreputable 

2 Suburbia, everyone seems happy, all the houses look the same, the truly grotesque is not allowed here

3 Small rural town, weary of outsiders, quaint traditions and old grudges, quietly dying

4 Upper class part of town, lavish parties, men in suits, vicious competition, every word a lie or threat

5 A warzone, inevitable destruction, grass trampled to mud, reasonable and unreasonable paranoia

6 In the wilderness, nothing but nature for miles, you are almost always alone, its almost too green

Who are you d6

1-2 A nobody, you have no power or influence over the world

3-4 Normal person, caught up in events beyond your control

5-6 An important person, you have power over others, not over yourself

Theme of your daily routine d8

1 Lots of work, you hate it

2 Lots of work, you love it

3 Creativity

4 Boredom

5 Dehumanizing

6 Dangerous

7 Religious

8 Obsessed

Body parts d10

1 Eyes

2 Nose

3 Ears

4 Hands

5 Hair

6 Chest

7 Foot

8 Tongue

9 Teeth

10 Nails

 

The person that cares for you d6

1 A parent

2 Childhood best friend

3 A sibling

4 A grandparent

5 A lover

6 A coworker

 

Horrific Transformation d8

1 Wounds, blood, insides made outside, exposed organs

2 Insect like, compound eyes, flesh and exoskeleton, teeth and mandibles intertwine

3 Reptilian, scales under skin, blood cooling, endless hunger

4 Mechanical, wires replace veins, shrapnel grows from flesh, blood-rusted iron

5 Plant like, thorns sprouting through flesh, mold decomposing you, flowers you hate

6 Petrification, cracked stone skin, crystals piercing organs, teeth replaces with shards of flint

7 Withered, shrinking flesh, hollow chest devoid of organs, starvation

8 Exaggerated, arms stretched too long, a smile too wide with too many teeth, uncanny valley

 

Symptoms

1 Coughing

2 Vomiting

3 Sore body

4 Delirious 

5 Fever

6 Diarrhea

7 Internal pain

8 Bleeding from orifices

If anyone actually plays it I would love to hear about it, I myself have only played it once and it was pretty fun, I might do it again some time soon.

A New Start

Introductions are in order.

 

This is the second blog I have made, I didn't really like the last one so I decided to make a new one. 

This is going to be a blog mainly for my random RPG ideas that I hope someone will enjoy. Though I have manly played dnd 5e with only a few other games under my belt I have been very interested in the GLOG for a while and want to try and make things like it.

I don't plan on going back to my old blog and I don't think their is much of worth in it except for one thing: Items Stolen From Dreams which I spent too long writing but I still feel a bit proud of. 

I don't particularly care if you find my old blog but I'm going to let it rest.

I was planning on the first thing I post to this blog being GLOGTOBER24 but I am way too busy for that, hopefully I can make something cool pretty soon however.

Sorry if the design of the blog is a bit too much, I'm not really sure what I am doing but I wanted something that I can call my own even if it is a bit dreadful. 

Hears to new things and new starts.

Photo taken by me