3 Systems I Would Recommend For Running an SCP Foundation Game

While I might be a little late to the game, so to speak, I've been really enjoying the SCP Foundation as a fictional entity. From short stories, to YouTube lore channels, to short films, there's a lot of it to take in, and it's getting a little bit bigger every day. Heck, I even made my own contribution a little while back with 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, SCP Edition, and the audio drama version I put together below.

Consider checking those out, if you haven't seen them yet. It's been tough getting views on them, and I'd like to justify doing a little bit more in this setting, if I can.

However, with so much rich content under creative commons license, it was only a matter of time until someone put out an SCP roleplaying game. And while there is an SCP-specific game on the market now, simply titled SCP The Tabletop RPG, I haven't found it to be a game that really grabs me.

This got me thinking about what other games there are out there one could use to run an RPG campaign in the SCP universe. And while I'm sure there are a lot of games that I missed, I think that the following list makes for some pretty strong starting places.

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Game #1: Delta Green

Just the facts, please, sir.

The first game on this list, and perhaps the most obvious, is Delta Green. This secretive government entity exists in the shadows, and since the raid on the town of Innsmouth in the 1920s the agents of this bureau have combatted the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos wherever they find them, protecting the world and safeguarding us against the machinations of mad cults and dark gods alike.

While this game started off life connected to the Call of Cthulhu RPG, they've grown and changed to the point that they're separate entities at this juncture. However, honorable mention to Call of Cthulhu as another option for those who want their players to be even more vulnerable than your average Delta Green agent. If that's an option you want to pursue, consider grabbing the Investigator Handbook and the Keeper's Rulebook for the 7th Edition of the game!

Game #2: Hunter: The Vigil

Werewolves, you say? Shame... I'll just have to shoot them a LOT.

If you want a game where the characters are a little more durable, but have to deal with just as much supernatural nonsense, I'd also recommend checking out Hunter: The Vigil. Part of the Chronicles of Darkness series of RPGs, Hunters are the ones who bump off the things that go bump in the night, and they're often used by storytellers as a threat when players are being a little too loud, and breaking the veil of secrecy a little too often in the other spheres.

While the variability in Hunter can be used to scale the power and equipment your agents have access to, you can also use the other spheres of the Chronicles of Darkness to bring in the various aspects of the SCP universe. If you need reality benders and bizarre magic users, Mage: The Awakening has you covered. If you want beings of phenomenal, cosmic power to act as allies or antagonists, you can find them in Demon: The Descent. And if you want that mid-range of mutants and monsters, then all of the creatures and power sets located in Deviant: The Renegades might be right up your alley.

This option has the most scalability of the choices, but it does require a lot of reading on the part of the ST, and it would require the largest number of books. Still, if you happen to have the Chronicles of Darkness books gathering dust on a shelf, and you're looking for a new way to breathe life into them, consider giving this a try!

Game #3: Savage Worlds

Absolute savages.

Much as with the Chronicles of Darkness, the Savage Worlds RPG system has a lot of different games you could bring to bear on creating an interconnected SCP universe game. However, Savage Worlds tends to be a lot lighter on mechanics, which might be more appealing to some players who like the idea of a big, sprawling, multi-book game, but who don't want to have a stack of tomes on the floor that reaches to the top of the table should they need to reference something during the campaign.

While you'll definitely need the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition as well as Dark States to start with, I'd also recommend using a combination of the weird Western game Deadlands, and the Victorian monster hunting game Rippers as the basis for the campaign. While both of these are period piece games, they provide a lot of the rules and backgrounds one could easily use to get an SCP campaign going. You might even want to expand into books like Weird War I, or even Necessary Evil which includes rules for super powered characters, but that will be up to your particular game, and what sort of elements you want to bring in.

What Games Did I Miss?

Do you have a game or system that you feel would make a good basis for covering the wide variety of genres and stories found in the SCP universe that didn't make this (admittedly very short) list? Toss it in the comments below! I'm always looking for new stuff to check out, so I'm happy to take a gander at any recommendations folks want to throw my way.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Meaningful Choice is The Cornerstone of a Game

There is a piece of advice I've encountered more than once both in gaming groups and on advice panels, which is that Game Masters should rely on the Illusion of Choice as a way to save themselves extra work and heavy lifting. And while it seems like a good idea (especially since it's a tactic recommended in products like The Lazy Dungeon Master and Return of The Lazy Dungeon Master), there is a serious flaw in it as a main strategy.

Because when someone sees through the illusion, your whole game can come crashing down.

What's in the mist? Well it's... ugh... something. I assure you.

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The Illusion of Choice, and Game Breakdown

To start off with, the Illusion of Choice means that no matter what players choose to do, or which option they take, you've already pre-determined the result. If they leave by the Eastern road out of town, they come to the city of Arendt. And if they leave by the Western road... they come to the same city. North or south, doesn't matter where they go, that city is the destination on the map in front of them. You might have to change the name of the city itself, but it's going to be the same map, the same NPCs, etc. All you did was put a fake moustache on it and hope nobody notices.

The Illusion of Choice is, put bluntly, just sleight of hand to disguise the rails the game is on. Because when all is said and done, it doesn't really matter what the players choose to do, or what options they take. You, as the Game Master, have already determined which creatures they're going to encounter, what dungeons they're going to delve into, and how the game is going to go. It doesn't matter if they fight off the first wave of orc bounty hunters, you'll just summon more until they're eventually captured. It doesn't matter which treasure chest of three they choose when given a chance to select a reward, it will always be the +2 sword. And so on, and so forth.

Which vial do you choose? It doesn't matter, they're all poisoned.

Now, just like with the use of illusions in our games themselves, this can sometimes be an effective strategy. As long as you can keep the players distracted with your left hand, and they can't see what you're doing with your right, the legerdemain works. However, as soon as your players see through the illusion and realize the campaign is on rails, there's a good chance that things start breaking down quickly. Particularly if they start testing the limits of the illusion to see whether they actually have free choice at all.

One of the major advantages of tabletop RPGs over video games, reading a book, or watching a movie, is that a player gets to participate in shaping the narrative. They create their character, control the character's actions, and affect the world as best they can. But when you take away that agency, rendering their choices immaterial to the progression of the game, the players are no longer really participating in the game. Sure they're rolling dice to swing swords and slinging spells, but they're just passing a series of pre-determined events that won't be altered by what they do in any meaningful way.

It's a trick. At the end of the day the reason the Illusion of Choice is often received so poorly is that you're tricking your players into thinking their actions mattered when it turned out they didn't. It's the same reason players tend to get upset with a Game Master who just plucks a number out of the air during a fight scene, and decides that's how many round the fight will go regardless of tactics used or damage dealt. Or why players are often less-than-enthused by Game Masters who toss out a riddle, and wait for the players to say or do something entertaining enough for them to consider it solved. Because in the end they didn't really succeed, because there was no pre-determined state of success. They could have just sat there picking their noses and achieved largely the same effect.

Lay It Out Beforehand... Trust Me

I've been a Game Master, and I've written modules like False Valor, The Curse of Sapphire Lake, and Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh. I know first hand just how tough it can be to fill in all the details, prepare every monster, and keep a list of NPCs on-hand to ensure the players always have a consistent world with organic plot and development around them. It takes a lot of prep, a lot of balancing, and a lot of feverish note-taking. By comparison the Illusion of Choice is so much easier and simpler.

And that's true, as long as you manage to pull of the trick with your audience none the wiser. But as soon as they catch the pigeon up your sleeve, the magic is ruined.

As with any other piece of RPG advice you see on this blog, remember, I don't know your group. I don't know the tastes of folks you play with, or what the deal breakers are for your table. With that said, I can say that every time I've seen players realize that choice was nothing but an illusion it immediately tanked their interest in a game. They may not have quit, but they were just marking the sessions until the campaign was over and they could play something different.

If you're interested in more advice like this, don't forget to check out 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, as well!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!