The Gaming Den

[JigokuBosatsu]

Word up, everybody. I'm a guest at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival this weekend, and one of the things I'm being a part of is a panel that shares its name with the thread title. Now, I've got a few things I thought I might talk about, but was just wondering what my comrades in the Den might have to say.

So, big budget or no budget? Period piece or modern setting? Fish sticks- neither a fish nor a stick?
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Korgan0 wrote:

Honestly, we've got enough bling that we're probably way more powerful than the vast majority of fourth-level characters. Also, we're really stupid.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

I don't need a feat to be a total fuckbag.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

If Jesus comes to take my friends to hell, then Jesus is getting fucking cut if I have anything to say about it.

You can buy my books, yes you can.

[Ancient History]

That's a hard one, both because of how difficult it is to adapt some of HPL's stories, and how many adaptations there have already been.

If you had the budget for some real heavy FX, I'd go for At the Mountains of Madness or "The Shadow Out of Time." Otherwise, if you just wanted to do a really simple, low-budget thing...there's always "The Picture in the House" as my personal favorite.
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The Unpublishable - Updates Fridays between midnight and midnight | Farcast, an Eclipse Phase yearblog - Updates daily

[JigokuBosatsu]

I've seen a decent "Picture in the House" short. A piece I'm workshopping right now is actually a riff on that story and the "Foxfire" books.
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Korgan0 wrote:

Honestly, we've got enough bling that we're probably way more powerful than the vast majority of fourth-level characters. Also, we're really stupid.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

I don't need a feat to be a total fuckbag.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

If Jesus comes to take my friends to hell, then Jesus is getting fucking cut if I have anything to say about it.

You can buy my books, yes you can.

[Ancient History]

Of course, if you want to get really bizarre, ambitious, and gruesome, there's always "The Mound".
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The Unpublishable - Updates Fridays between midnight and midnight | Farcast, an Eclipse Phase yearblog - Updates daily

[Maxus]

Gotta say--Whisperer in Darkness would be best for me. I mean, the tension of Akeley being out by himself and under observation, the nightly bumps and attacks--his phone being cut all the time, the dogs going wild, etc.

Put it in period--early 20th.. Don't show the Mi-Go that often--the dead one he finds and tries to photograph should be the only one we get a good look at. Have a budget, but be subtle about how you use it--don't go total blowout, but make sure you put in the effort on the Mi-Go voices. Throw around a few extras in town who are stiff-faced or have some other tell to show they're not normal.

It'd be a hell of a windup for the end, when Akeley's face and hands are on the chair. Can and should be done in-period--early 20th. A lot of the tension goes out if Akeley has a cell phone.
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He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.

--The horror of Mario

[JigokuBosatsu]

http://www.cthulhulives.org/whisperer/index.html

They premiered it a while back but it's having a big showing this weekend. Looks pretty awesome so far- not sure how they could have topped the silent "Call of Cthulhu", but yeah.
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Korgan0 wrote:

Honestly, we've got enough bling that we're probably way more powerful than the vast majority of fourth-level characters. Also, we're really stupid.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

I don't need a feat to be a total fuckbag.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

If Jesus comes to take my friends to hell, then Jesus is getting fucking cut if I have anything to say about it.

You can buy my books, yes you can.

[RobbyPants]

[Ancient History]

I always thought it was fairly obvious that the house was directly struck and destoryed by an actual lightning bolt, but I approve of your interpretation as an alternate ending.
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The Unpublishable - Updates Fridays between midnight and midnight | Farcast, an Eclipse Phase yearblog - Updates daily

[JigokuBosatsu]

They discussed this on the HPL Literary Podcast-consensus seems to be literal lightning. I believe that's a trope from Gothic horror- the merciful/cleansing thunderbolt.
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Korgan0 wrote:

Honestly, we've got enough bling that we're probably way more powerful than the vast majority of fourth-level characters. Also, we're really stupid.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

I don't need a feat to be a total fuckbag.

Count Arioch the 28th wrote:

If Jesus comes to take my friends to hell, then Jesus is getting fucking cut if I have anything to say about it.

You can buy my books, yes you can.

[RobbyPants]

Well sonovabitch. I guess I was literally reading too much into it. Thanks, guys.
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First time:

tzor wrote:

OK FUCK THIS ALL ---- BYE BYE TGD I didn't come here to get ulcers ---- You idiots can rot in your own progressive hell forever.

Hopefully last time:

tzor wrote:

Don't worry, I won't bother posting anything "new" from now on. Enjoy the hell you have created for yourselves. I'm out of here.

Epic win by Fectin: Ignoratio!

DSMatticus wrote:

People don't like realism in their fantasy games (unless it's the fighter, lol fuck that guy).

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I'd like to see a decent adaptation of The Dunwich Horror.

[echoVanguard]

In terms of what story would make the best film adaptation, I have to concur that "The Whisperer in Darkness" would be the best of the presented list. It, more than any of the other stories, focuses on things that are conveyed best via film - dialogue and setting.

Spoilered: pretentious English-major claptrap about Lovecraft in general.

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Individual examples of Lovecraft's work generally do not tell the whole story - rather, it is the overall picture of the mythos that is substantially impressive. While individual pieces can be powerful ("The Outsider" is a particularly sharp example), much of core pieces like "The Dunwich Horror" lack their full impact when examined in isolation. Most importantly, a great deal of Lovecraft's work is inextricably text-based in nature - no other medium can accurately convey, for example, the music of Erich Zann; any actual violin piece, however bizarre, cannot match the unknowable music in a reader's imagination when he reads the narrator's description. Similarly, what medium can convey the understated subtle menace of "a horrid smell" that plays such an important part in "Cool Air"? Actors wrinkling their noses and commenting on "what smells so awful" is an anemic and banal substitute for the actual experience, conveyed so much more effectively via direct description.

It's a unique effect that relies specifically upon evoking imagined sensory perception instead of relaying actual effects, because the actual perceptions are impossible. When the core idea of the work is the unknowable, the unexperienceable, any adaptation into another medium which conveys concrete experiences is intrinsically flawed.

echo