Runner-up once again. Alas! This contest, in which an indy game dev challenged the world to write the best Lovecraftian review of their genuinely awesome game, did not go in my favor. From what I can see, the winner deserved it. “It” being an original March 1936 issue of ‘Astounding Stories’ which features part of Mountains of Madness.
Yeah, I was really hoping for that one.At least I made the final cut. And it was fun!
“We are all roamers of vast spaces and travelers in many ages.”
– Beyond the Wall of Sleep
We call them ‘games’, these simulated worlds in which we strain and suffer. Whereas most simply entertain, there exist games of curious and abnormal aspect which reveal to us the sinister, nameless worlds of terror.
I sat by the gaping window of my study one cool evening, singularly unaware of the queer events which were to follow. Before long, I unwittingly found myself in a realm distant from mine in both place and time. The First Great War became the setting for a story in which a small band of soldiers and occultists discovered hideous, indescribable things. The enemy had formed an unholy pact with an Old Ones, and was forming a blasphemous army of Eldritch monstrosities.
Soon, the unknowable mysteries of this place captured my feverish mind. I directed my intrepid squad through the loathsome, defiled trenches of the battlefield into decadent old crypts filled with strange ghouls and men of evil. I found my heartrate increasing as I recognized the black visions of the thin man from Providence.
Would my tactical prowess suit the task at hand? On each turn I prayed for success, for a lucky pistol shot or a successful dodge. God, would I survive the next swipe of an unearthly tentacle? Would I lose what remained of my sanity?
And now you find me as I am today, driven into frightful madness by a game which has shewed me a realm both wondrous and terrible. I present these unlikely statements to you as facts for your investigation and analysis, that you may construe them as suits your mind and temperament. I must encourage any who wish to descend into these hideous visions to take caution, lest you are drawn in by this game and cursed to see it in your mad dreams forever.
