Cthulhu in Des Moines After Dark

Ever since some of the more well known H.P. Lovecraft works became public domain, we have seen a rise in Cthulhu Mythos’ appearances in pop culture and specifically tabletop roleplaying games. The usefulness of these tropes in modern horror stories is an obvious choice. Humans on Earth, for all their bluster and technology, still pale in comparison to the Elder Gods. No matter what year it is, humans are still capable of feeling fear.

Disclaimer: People and events depicted herein are fictitious and intended for entertainment use only. Any similarity to persons living or deceased is unintentional. There is no Des Moines Remote Viewing Society. This is a work of fiction. No one was harmed in the making of this blog.

I’m a long time Call of Cthulhu RPG fan. I came back when it was only in 3rd Edition, I think. I still have all of my CoC books. I was into Cthulhu way before I discovered Chill, Vampire: the Masquerade or Monster of the Week. (All good games, btw.) I even have the FATE Horror Toolkit, which I have yet to really use.

I was introduced to Monster of the Week a couple of years ago and I really like a lot of the concepts it brings with it. I created a completely original campaign setting and adventure framework for it that I really enjoyed creating. I still do a little solo play/writing with it sometimes. MotW works great as a writing tool, almost as if the Powered by the Apocalypse engine was made for it.

The cast of the Des Moines Remote Viewing Society consists of four main characters. Dan, the group’s leader if they can truly have one, knows a lot of people in various institutions and organizations. Brenda is the group’s lead remote viewer. She studied under leading remote viewing instructors and is a gifted psychic, but it takes a toll on her physical body. Tom is the group’s resident weirdness magnet and head conspiracy theorist. Last, there’s Big Lou, the group’s FBI handler, who spends a lot of time chasing the group around and trying to contain various messes they make.

The campaign I am still working on a little takes place a few years after the main remote viewing group broke up and went their separate ways. Dan and Lou remain in Des Moines as resource NPCs for the new group of interns. Dan is their primary contact for a lot of organizations and also provides some case work for investigations. Technically Monster of the Week isn’t supposed to have things such as campaigns and overarching stories, but I’m used to a different framework when it comes to campaign building. The group would still be free to do as they please, but certain events and characters will still pop up now and then.

Good old Miskatonic University, home of the, umm… Miskatonic Squids.

There really is a website dedicated to the college that doesn’t exist in the real world. It’s a fascinating read if you get the chance. It’s more literary than TTRPG based, but still pretty darned cool. There are also tons of Cthulhu and other CoC mythos videos on YouTube than I could easily list here.

Dan knows Dr Catherine Bell-Chambers. She’s the current head of research and teaches Parapsychology at M.U. Her knowledge of all things Elder Gods is impressive, but she comes off as being a bit dotty at times. Years of studying the occult and eldritch mysteries are said to take a toll on one’s sanity after a while. (CoC’s sanity rules. The sad irony of learning about the Mythos is losing one’s grip on reality.)

Dan has only liaised with Dr Bell-Chambers on two occasions so far. The first was a strange alien fungus creature. The second related to a modern cult worshipping an ancient agrarian demon known as the Feldgeister. Dan was fortunate enough to take the doctor to dinner when she came to collect samples for the second case. Their relationship is close enough to make Brenda jealous by all accounts.

Thank you for being here with me today. I appreciate you. Keep it real, but please strive for positivity, too. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy in your life.