Ain't No Spook God - CoC 7E Interest Check

This is an interest check! Leave a comment if you'd wanna play - I won't be recruiting in this thread. If there are enough bites, I'll finish writing the game up and send out invites to people.

---

HARLEM, 1935
Since the riot on March 19th, tensions in Harlem have been at a boiling point - between whites and communities of color, between residents and business owners, between citizens and the police. The Great Depression has left Black Harlem with a 50% unemployment rate. Costs continue to rise, and with the diaspora of Harlem arts and culture, black Harlemites can no longer continue to rely on rent parties or the patronage of downtown whites. Fascism waxes in Europe, garnering the sympathies of many white Americans who see it as either good for business, or as the cure for their recent financial downturn.

And now people are going missing one after another. The increasing rate of disappearances is alarming, and details of the incidents are strange. When the NYPD fails to act, it is up to the investigators to unravel the truth behind the missing people.

As the old order begins to crumble, which forces will rise to take its place? Find out in 𝘼𝙞𝙣'𝙩 𝙉𝙤 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙂𝙤𝙙, a mystery for Call of Cthulhu.

Sounds tempting.

Interested -long time CoC player/GM, learning 7th edition in a couple of PbF campaigns now

Interested - - however, new to CoC.

Very interested. Have played CoC since ‘90’s so am familiar with rules. Tried a couple of CoC games in Gamersplane

Bumpity bump. We could do it with 4 but I want to see who else is out there just in case.

Brand new players and old hands are all welcome. Of more concern to me than experience with the system are a willingness to buy into the tone and concept; to work with some interpretations of the Cthulhu Mythos that aren't necessarily orthodox; and to approach a game involving fraught social issues with maturity, respect, and thoughtfulness.

Though strictly speaking, the Harlem Renaissance has mostly wound down by 1935, I'd be using the Harlem Unbound sourcebook as a major reference point for this game.



I think Harlem Unbound gives a good sense of the vibe I'm looking for - even just glancing at the art. The image in my first post is on point, too. Dark streets, dirty tenements, blues music, and hoodoo. A modern, urban sensibility steeped in old-world folklore. Voodoo witches who run corner bodegas and play the numbers game.

I think I can get back into Cthulhu. Not sure what kind of character I'd do but you can count me in.

I made a voodoo queen npc for a non CoC game once that I'd love to revisit as a pc

Have never played CoC but would love to try. If a super newb is okay with you.

I've come up with part of a concept for a character. He's a musician, a member of Smack Henderson's orchestra. He took over for Louis Armstrong when the great one left the band in 1925. He'd been playing in a small jazz band in a Harlem club when Fats Waller came in and struck up a conversation with him. Fats told him he liked his style and he'd fit in well with Henderson's band and he'd heard that Armstrong was thinking about going back to Chicago. Fats would put in a word with Smack if he was interested. Art nodded somewhat sheepishly and went back from his break to play another set. Art had taken up the trumpet at the age of ten but decided he would study science in case a career in music didn't work out. He got a degree in Chemistry from a small college in New York City and began working at a downtown Manhattan Chemical firm. It was three years later that another young black man joined the company. His name was Fletcher but he never put two and two together when Fletch left a year later. They only knew each other peripherally during that year. Anyway, that's the flier I took. It needs more development. Don't know if I should take it any further until I see the game up with an invite attached.

Hi Everyone

It's been brought to my attention that "spook" is a racial slur dating back to the 1940s. I was COMPLETELY unaware of this, and this is NOT what I was trying to convey with the title. I would never intentionally use a racial slur, it's antithetical to everything I stand for, and I regret putting that language on the site.

It's still game material I'd like to attempt sometime down the line, but considering I've already screwed the pooch on this before recruitment has even begun, I'm going to shelve this until I'm ready to approach the subject matter with greater care.

Love you all, I'm sorry for my lack of attention, and thanks to Moonbeam for learning me something.

Accidents happen and good on you for admitting a mistake...many of us have a hard time doing that.

To tell you the truth I thought it was in reference to the Cthulhu part of the game. I may be old but not old enough to know whether anyone in the 1930's thought that the reference was a racial slur. You may be familiar with the term anthropomorphism. It's basically putting human characteristics onto animals like what is done in old children's cartoons. I'm inventing a term called historipomorphism. that's when you put today's attitudes and customs onto an historical period where they do not logically belong. It's a little like what Hollywood did in the 40's and 50's when they made movies about early humans contending with dinosaurs.

I'm sorry to hear you're shelving the game.

It originated in the 30s or 40s, but is still used by some people in that way.

Aldrusian, the term has been well-known as a racial slur long past the time of its origin. I have personally heard it used in my lifetime. Your apparent obliviousness to it doesn't make it imaginary.

Doesn't the title refer to the religious belief that God is not an abstract, ghost, or "spook" but is, in reality, a living being of flesh? Or is it a coincidence that it's the same title of a masters thesis on the Nation of Gods and Earths?

McDunno - That's exactly where I got the title from, and is exactly what my intention was. I was pulling inspiration from a novel that features a Mythos tome called Zig Zag Zig, which got me researching the Supreme Alphabet and NGE, which let me to that thesis and the idea of the "spook" or "mystery" god. It all worked together thematically, I thought the title sounded badass, and I was ignorant of history of the term as it otherwise relates to race.

Obviously, none of that really matters. It's obvious in retrospect how my intentions could not only be mistaken, but would seem likely to be dubious. I've made my decision and I'm not going to further justify either my error or my reasoning for pulling the game.

Anyway, I highly, highly recommend that this public conversation ends here before people start wading into truly dicey territory. PM me if you have any more concerns - I won't be checking this thread anymore.