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  • File: 1331748065.jpg-(32 KB, 600x399, machineforpigsMisuse.jpg)
    32 KB The God Machine Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:01 No.18324998  
    >I know very well that my players frequent /tg/. If the codeword 'buffalo' strikes fear into your soul, stop reading now.

    Hello, /tg/. I have been GMing Delta Green for the past year or so. Yesterday, I was reading interviews and concept art for the announced sequel to Amnesia, 'A Machine for Pigs', before I went to bed.

    At about four in the morning I woke up and reached for the notepad I keep beside me while I sleep, and subsequently wrote two A4 pages of loose notes for something I've tentatively named the 'God Machine', 'The Process', 'The Refinery', or a handful of other possibilities.

    A colossal automated factory almost constantly rearranging its conveyor belts, production lines, chambers and machinery. Functioning similarly to a sadistic slaughter house, people sealed in the Machine will be subjected over time to any combination of dismemberment, impalement, skinning, burning, crushing, or any other conceivable method of mutilation, torture and execution, as well as crude rearrangement, repairing and artificial augmentation in rare cases.

    The most anomalous property of the factory is that nothing inside may die. Regardless of your physical, emotional or mental state, your flesh never ceases to feel, and oblivion never comes.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:01 No.18325005
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    The destination and fate of each victim is seemingly unique, with some people becoming trapped in senselessly arranged chambers or shafts, and many more merely becoming slabs of malformed meat, that pupulate the bulk of the production lines or are discarded on sidelines to be left to their damnation or devoured by the third major variety of unfortunate often found in the Machine- twisted aberrations disfigured beyond identification or even classification by years or more subjected to the whims of the Machine. No two abominations are the same, though the vast majority are demented maniacs with no semblance of humanity, driven to stalking, butchering or devouring the helpless or still human by hunger, madness brought on by their eternal agony, or even more alien motives.

    My initial concept for this is a machine that tortures, mutilates, alters, improves, destroys and combines select victims until an immortal, unimaginable being alike to a god is built.

    Questions remain. Where did the machine come from? Who built it, and do they still observe from the sidelines? Where do the production lines end, and what could possibly be expected to emerge?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:02 No.18325010
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    So, /tg/. Should I throw away my notes and never look back, or should I continue to build on this concept? If so, what advice or ideas can you give?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:04 No.18325031
    O_O

    I think you need to see a therapist.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:05 No.18325038
    I don't know whether to be amazed or terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought. I don't know whether I should feel jealousy or pity for your players.

    I think that's all I have to say.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:06 No.18325050
    >>18324998

    You've been playing Prey lately, haven't you?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:06 No.18325054
    >>18325031
    >O_O

    I think OP can safely disregard your advice.
    This might not even be the worst thing to be brainstormed on /tg/. The Rape factory comes to mind, although this seems like it would be played much more straight.
    >> OP 03/14/12(Wed)14:08 No.18325069
    >>18325050
    Nope.

    Before anyone asks, my group encourage me to throw the worst, most horrible things I can at them for CoC and DG. I get the feeling that if I do this right, it will surpass anything I've done up to this point.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:09 No.18325074
    Continue to build on this concept. You may be able to gain some ideas from certain pages on the SCP wiki, some of which are similar to your concept.

    I recommend leaving the questions of the machine's origin and purpose unanswered.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:09 No.18325078
    Burn them, most definately burn them and go find something funny to watch. Preferably without any gore in it.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:10 No.18325085
    >>18325074
    For example:

    http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-015
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:10 No.18325086
    >>18325054
    >rape factory

    I saw the OP of that thread screencapped, but I never quite figured out what that thread ammounted to. It sseemed incredibly stupid and/or trollish.

    This machine sounds like something the DarkMech would make in their spare time for the lulz. What's the setting you're playing in like?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:11 No.18325090
    This would be PERFECT in a lovecraftian horror setting, I love this, I fucking love it.

    I have a crazed tiefling surgeon in my setting who would wank himself to this kind of thing. Can I have your blessing to steal this?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:15 No.18325116
    Two things that come to mind- you need to determine how frequent areas with overhangs where one can stand safely are, and exactly what prevents people from staying in these spots. The abominations are an obvious choice, or possibly you can have the machine mechanically remove floors/walls etc to drop people unprepared into new production lines.

    Alternatively, the machine could occasionally cause mechanical arms to emerge with which it can move or restrain stubborn meat. If you want to get edgy, it can fire wires with hooks, or spiked metal clamps for the same effect.

    I get the feeling that this could be more effective if the PCs spend relatively less time in the firing line of the machine- perhaps only when left with no choice.
    >> OP 03/14/12(Wed)14:23 No.18325186
    >>18325090
    Absolutely.

    >>18325116
    I considered meat hooks or restraints as a means of the Machine taking control, but I would only use that in the most extreme circumstances, as it all but confirms that the Machine is sentient, or atleast aware. I would probably use passageways closing off, conveyor belts diverting, or just good-old floors retracting in most circumstances.
    And you're right- it would be best if being caught in the belly of the machine were a bad-end scenario. Maybe the odd agent could fail to make it to safety before they are trapped and restrained on the production line. Then the others must hurry to the other end to recover whatever remains of him.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:25 No.18325200
    Scary that I was thinking about this earlier today.

    >>My initial concept for this is a machine that tortures, mutilates, alters, improves, destroys and combines select victims until an immortal, unimaginable being alike to a god is built.


    That's the only part that worries me. I'm not entirely sure what skinning someone alive or crushing them has relevancy to a God-like creation.

    I suppose you could present it as the tensile strength of flesh or bone or muscle but it's iffy. I'd make sure that each torturing technique has some sort of rational and it's not just gore porn "Hostel" type shenanigans.

    So vivisections and organ removal and such are spot on perfect.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:27 No.18325221
    Not to belittle the concept, as it is a sound concept for a horror game....

    But this just sounds like an artificial (with some sort of magical on top keeping them alive) representation of Dante's hell, although put upon maybe random victims.

    You could expand upon that look, however, by putting some sort of secret power either in charge, or who built it and left it, who would see themself as either the Judge sending people there, a la God or St. Peter, or the overlord of Hell, a la Lucifer.

    Just some thoughts to mull about.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:28 No.18325239
    Making a God? A machine like this doesn't need a purpose. It merely needs to exist because it does, and exists because it must. Who are you, to guess at the origin of gods and the goals of this refinery? What understanding do you have, that you know the meaning of the pain, the blood, the noises in the darkness that go click, clack, click, clack? Do you know? Is there a reason? What reason could there be to this madness? The whole world around us is mad, and I'm the only sane person left. And I am sane! Unlike you, guessing at reason and purpose and patterns! Pah! What logic could there be behind the stirring of the knives, the restlessness of the very walls, the movement of the great conveyor belts!? What reason could explain this madness? You, my dear, is the madman, and I'm the only sane person left...
    >> OP 03/14/12(Wed)14:29 No.18325250
    >>18325200
    >I'm not entirely sure what skinning someone alive or crushing them has relevancy to a God-like creation.
    The machine is not infallible. Most of the people going in will not make the final cut, if you'll pardon the pun.
    And we're talking Lovecraftian standards of gods. One of Nyarlathoteps more well known avatar is that of a man with no skin.

    If you want a better explanation, then part of the final process can easily be the breaking down of anything representing a human psyche, by means of unimaginable pain.

    I forgot to mention what is probably pretty obvious- that the players have to worry about whether or not there really is no other exit than wherever the end of the conveyor belt leads.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:33 No.18325293
    >>18325239

    I read that whole thing in Harlan Ellison's AM voice. Tripled the creepy factor.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:34 No.18325310
    This somewhat reminds me of the Cube series, in the senseless, arbitrary and horrifically lethal environment. Of course, what makes Cube interesting - and good horror in general - is the representation of group and individual psychology rather than "look at all this horrible shit".

    If you really want the players to get freaked the fuck out, don't just throw walls of nightmares and meat at them. Slow down. Consider the psychology of both the character and the player. Think about the symbolism at play here - the malevolent, faceless and hostile environment is commonly read as the increasingly machinised and alienating society building up around us, a society in which the human being is an irrelevance.

    Play to that. Alternate between moments of high intensity AUGHWATSHITAUGH and slower, more psychological moments. After dealing with a room full of sentient meat-piles out to eat their brains, have them come across some looming mechanical monstrosity of a construct, something that looks like a howitzer fucked a combine harvester wearing a coat made of knives, something that could dismantle them faster than they could concieve. And it sees them. It sees them, assesses them, and then deems them worthless, tosses them aside and leaves. It wont go out of its way to eat them, but it wont go out of its way to step on them. It gives no shits.

    Remember, being attacked is a form of validation; it shows you have value or power because you are worth the energy and risk of attacking. And they are not.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:36 No.18325327
    >>18325310

    to AVOID stepping on them, that should say
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:36 No.18325329
    >>18325200
    I think it's basically doing "Try everything in every order possible until something happens"
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:37 No.18325335
    I've got this horrible image in my head of a skinned, limbless torso lying on it's side in a dark corner of a balcony, slowly writhing and squirming in dumb agony.

    OP is either my worst nightmare, or my one true love.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:39 No.18325355
    >>18324998
    Awww, now I want to know the story behind codeword "buffalo".
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:40 No.18325363
    >>18325239

    Sanity is not related to intellect in the way you seem to assume. Therefore, a crazy man built it, in order to make his own crazy idea happen. Maybe just to terrorize whoever comes across it, and maybe because he was just a sick bastard his mother really should have drowned when she had that feeling when he was two.

    Either way, I just explained it. And I'll leave you to assume who I think I am to do such a feat.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:40 No.18325366
    So, how do people get *into* the machine?
    >> OP 03/14/12(Wed)14:43 No.18325374
    >>18325355
    If you insist.

    The closest thing to 'that guy' in my group rolled to successfully plant a bomb on the player infiltrating the compound, without being detected. There was an argument over whether this should be allowed (it was rolled retroactively) which was dropped in hysterics when somebody mentioned that the player should have to work the word 'buffalo' into the conversation to signal that the others should blow him up.

    'Buffalo' is now a word synonymous with 'let's fuck things up even further' or 'explosions everywhere' in my group.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:43 No.18325375
    I like imagining this concept place, somewhere you DON'T expect, but not somewhere trope either. Like, deep underground, or under a castle, or under a meat shop, all so trope.

    What if it were under a fountain in a bustling town? Just a beautiful serene fountain, that occasionally, something odd seeps in. Like a finger, or a piece of innards, most of the time a bird spotting it and eating it before anyone notices it nestled under the lip of stone of the edge.

    But, every once in a while, this flesh is seen by children and parents receive a chill, wondering who lost their flesh and why it was in the fountain for someone to pick out. Every so often, someone spots a crow fly by, with a vital smidgeon of flesh hung from its beak, only for a moment before it tilts it's own head up, and the flesh vanishes in a swallow.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:43 No.18325380
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    It was already made, OP.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:43 No.18325383
    >>18325366
    By filling out those support/update cards video games came with in the 90s.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:45 No.18325397
    >>18325374
    Not what I expected but thanks for answering.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:45 No.18325409
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    >>18325366
    I'm picturing a wide-brimmed chute that people are dropped into.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:48 No.18325433
    >>18325366

    Going off of the Cube reference earlier, it's possible that they simply wake up there. Something this Lovecraftian-meets-Kafka, so arbitrary and simply BEING, could be something that you simply happen into by chance.

    People go missing all the time and no-one knows why. It's a sad but true fact of life. People who are just gone from this earth, leaving only a single drop of blood behind.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:50 No.18325447
    god machine would have some ward against hastur on it
    shit it'd probably be a trap for him
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:54 No.18325477
    >>18325375
    I always imagined that places like this moved in to "Fill" empty houses. One night, you open the door to an old abandoned house you've been in a million times, except this time it's the factory and the door slams on you. Then, when people come looking for you all they find is an empty house, the machine having long since moved on.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)14:57 No.18325499
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    >>18325250
    There's another of Nyarlathotep's avatars, which may be apropos here.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)15:11 No.18325610
    >>18325200
    Well, removing all of a guy's skin is technically a kind of organ removal. And afterwards the machine keeps them alive because, hey, maybe it'll need some more parts from there later. The fact that this is unbearably torturous to the person in the machine is just a side effect, probably one the designer never even bothered to think about.

    Like imagine what's going on in a chop shop if cars had feelings and we didn't know it.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)15:20 No.18325696
    >>18325610
    I find wrecking yards unbearably sad for this reason.

    But hey, they're cheap. So I go there anyway.

    Perhaps you can work that in, OP. Now and then the Factory needs money for materials to expand, or that one part it can't quite make itself. So it gives away some small part it can get whenever it wants, to one whose own has broken, in exchange.

    Of course, a lot of cars end up at the wrecking yard anyway.

    Is this going to be a campaign setting, or just a single (albeit massive) dungeon?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)15:20 No.18325697
    >>18324998

    Did ya get the idea from some manner of Amnesia game?

    Because that is where I recognized the images you provided from. At at the very least used to set a scene as it were
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)15:21 No.18325711
    >>18325697
    Yeah, he mentions that when he says that he was reading interviews and looking and concept art for Amnesia's sequel in the first paragraph.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)15:23 No.18325717
    >>18325711

    >I missed that

    Herp derp reading comprehension
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)15:34 No.18325801
    >>18325717
    Happens to the best of us at times.
    >> 008 03/14/12(Wed)16:00 No.18326013
    I'd have it be a sandwich assembly line machine that became so twisted from influence by sheer accident when something horrible merged with it and became a monstrosity on its own, always producing, keeping the product "fresh" and so on. Just some innocent beginnings for such a horrible device.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)17:26 No.18326827
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    >>18326013
    Steven King you ain't, and The Mangler this isn't.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)17:55 No.18327194
    >>18326013

    I don't think I'd like this to have a mundane, semi-tragic beginning. If this is for a Delta Green (or any Lovecraft-inspired) game, it makes more sense for the God Machine to simply BE.

    Reason has no use, because The Machine Is.
    The mind has no strength, because The Machine Is.
    The soul has no purpose, because The Machine Is.
    >> OP 03/14/12(Wed)18:22 No.18327516
    I appreciate all the ideas and support.

    I'd just like to bump this to get some opinions on what would be the best name for this construct. I scribbled down a combination of different words listening for something that sounded good, but didn't get anything final.

    I have The God Machine, The Transcendance Machine, The Process, The Salvation Machine, The Final Machine, The Final Process, The Refinery, The Conclusion Construct, The Concluder, The Conclusion Constructor, etc. If nothing else, I might just go for 'The Machine', but any ideas are welcome.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)18:26 No.18327572
    >>18327516
    I like The Refinery personally, but The Machine is good. The God Machine might be a bit of a give away.

    Just another idea; maybe some abberations have a tendancy to take faces from unmutilated people to wear, vaguely remembering what they used to look like. You could even have one particular abomination that hunts for entire human skins to wear.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)18:26 No.18327575
    >>18327516
    Why not use all of them; have different sources refer to the machine using different terminology and in a different light; some sources describe it as an unspeakable horror, others as a transcendent paradise, but certain features are shared between these descriptions, which leads to the horrific realization that all these different sources from all these different times are referring to the same engine.

    Also, I've got to say, I am REALLY excited for A Machine for Pigs.
    >> OP 03/14/12(Wed)18:29 No.18327607
    >>18327575
    >Also, I've got to say, I am REALLY excited for A Machine for Pigs.
    Oh FUCK yes, I KNOW, right?
    When I heard that The Chinese Room- the makers of Dear Esther- were working on it, I had a full blown allmymoneygasm.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)18:32 No.18327648
    >>18327516

    > The Abattoir

    Enjoy.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)18:37 No.18327723
    >>18327607
    By the way, you may also want to try out Pathologic (Plague: The Utopia) for a somewhat similar feel of game.

    Right now, there is a problem in that the English translation isn't very good (and nigh on unreadable in some cases) but the atmosphere and the feeling of the game is incredible. The Haruspex's scenario is the one that revolves the most around butchery and other themes.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)18:56 No.18327941
    >>18327516

    I agree that you should have a few different 'versions' of the name floating around for NPCs (and possible factions?) to refer to it, but have the default be "The Machine". It's simple, it's clear and it also reinforces that the PCs are not inside a PLACE so to speak, but a THING, a unified, singular construct.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:13 No.18328126
    This thread reminds me of when /x/ was good.

    Thank you op.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:17 No.18328181
    OPs story kinda reminds me of the Mutant Chronicles movie.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:22 No.18328234
    This song would seem highly appropriate, if the gore elements were toned down a bit and the raw weirdness and alien-ness made more prominent.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WShknpNpHbY

    Best thread on the board right now if you ask me, though I'm a fan of shit like this.
    >>18325310
    I love you.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:26 No.18328274
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    >>18325380
    The fact that I'm the first one to reply to this post is a sign of how far /tg/ has fallen.

    My fucking face when your post
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:29 No.18328310
    >>18328274
    Care to explain for those of us in the audience who don't have the foggiest what the fuck that is? Goggle isn't being very helpful.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:31 No.18328352
    >>18328310
    Rudyquest
    google and read it.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:32 No.18328354
    >>18328310

    shit. not who you are replying to but you just made me feel really really old.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:33 No.18328369
    >>18328352
    Ah, okay then. Don't think I will, because holy shit I hate reading quests that are already finished, but thanks nonetheless.
    >> ‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮Praetor Lillifag‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ 03/14/12(Wed)19:35 No.18328400
    >>18328274
    I thought that facility wasn't for making a god, it was just Red/the doctors/someone else fucking up horribly and making the infection.
    >> Iron Lung 03/14/12(Wed)19:37 No.18328430
    >>18324998
    Hmm.
    How about someone/thing built the machine to capture information of every variation of human emotional and sensational experience it could define?
    This Place is a methodical and untainted exploration of all the psychic experiences that define what it is to be Sapient.
    And It's already got all the Good things.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)19:37 No.18328442
    >>18328400
    There were way too many things in that goddamn facility to blame it all on some infection.

    Consider the room torn in half with alternating gravity.

    Regardless, just realizing that OP is going to run a game very similar to Ruby Quest is brickshitting.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)20:27 No.18329318
    >>18328234

    Thanks? I've never really run horror games since most of the people I know who game don't really like it, but threads like this on /tg/ mean I've basically got a ton of ideas fitzing around in my head for horror stuff.

    Maybe I should knuckle down and try a horror quest or something...
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)20:34 No.18329419
    >>18329318
    Give it a go if you have the time and energy to spare. Don't plan for too much, though, might be best to run one that lasts one or two threads, or maybe something that's supposed to go for 6 or 10 at the most.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)20:50 No.18329674
    So what do the players do?

    I mean, I love me some nihilistic, hopeless Call of Cthulhu, but even in the most hopeless, Artifact Zero-level game, you've got the chance to make a difference, albeit small and ultimately meaningless. What do the players who fall into the grip of your God Machine do, other than try and survive for a little while as they get raped to pieces by eldritch wrong-cock?
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)20:51 No.18329685
    This place is what is inside the completed Lament Configuration.
    >> Anonymous 03/14/12(Wed)23:52 No.18332245
    Go on.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:09 No.18332452
    Call it "The Combine", OP.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:15 No.18332516
    Potential names:
    "The Living Refinery"
    "The Progress Engine"

    Sure. Could work, except you need to have a few things to make it plausible:

    1: Someone needs to have built it
    2: someone must have had the resources to build it, the time and materials, both considerable
    3: someone needs to maintain it
    4: The beings it's experimenting on need to have the potential to achieve the goal set forward

    Perhaps the goal is simply to escape, but escape is impossible for any mortal being. So the goal is to find the rare immortal soul born among mankind, who will be the first to escape the machine.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:16 No.18332528
    >A machine for pigs.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yYzvS5GkqY

    Here is your background sound.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:17 No.18332547
    >>18332516
    (Of course they would not really be allowed to escape, merely to escape the "refinery" section of the machine)
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:19 No.18332567
    >>18332547
    Who created it? Some evil race who has no need for the chaff of humanity.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)00:20 No.18332577
    >>18329674

    They can try to escape.

    They can try to stop it.

    They can try to understand it's purpose, who made it, etc.
    >> OP 03/15/12(Thu)04:14 No.18334889
    Oh damn, this thread is still here?
    Thanks to everyone for all your help. This has been invaluable for building ideas and clarifying that this could be something great, and I have not just been GMing Call of Cthulhu for far, far too long.

    Originally, I was thinking of connecting the Machine to the Cult of Transcendence, but I agree it might be far more interesting to just have the machine 'be'.

    As far as running this in Delta Green would go, I'm planning on my agents coming across a journal or other message at the end of the session, and next session playing as regular CoC investigators (or just regular citizens) who become trapped inside the Machine. It's going to be part of a short campaign revolving around the pursuit of immortality/omnipotence/etc.

    I might archive this for me to use later, if no one objects.
    >> OP 03/15/12(Thu)04:20 No.18334932
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    http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/18324998

    Thanks again for everything.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)04:33 No.18334988
    This thread disgusts and intrigues me.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)04:37 No.18335006
    Are there more artworks of A machine for pigs anywhere?
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)05:14 No.18335166
    Underneath a small city in Europe, there is a Machine.
    It hums slowly underneath the town, practically silent to all. While the few who can hear it, quickly go mad from the sound of truth.
    The sound of bone snapping, screams of pain and pleasure, metal scraping against metal. Sounds of sinew forcefully knit and flesh quickly sharpened, alongside the draining of vitreous fluid and blood.
    Some manage to keep sane, but all of them snap when they become unable to hear it, as if somehow, by coping with hearing the Machine, they cannot hold onto their frayed sanity without it.

    I don't know whether it is the machine's original function or a mere side effect, but the machine makes the town thrive. Some of the blood seems to siphon into the surrounding farms, fertilising the fields better than any synthetic growth formula can.

    I don't even know what the Machine's original function is. Parts of it seem to refine, boil, distill and these fluids go to another part of the Machine. It mutilates living humans, cuts them open, takes out their organs and injects them with some strange cocktail mix of drugs, always keeping them alive for as long as it can. Sometimes, it attaches new limbs or the drugs given causes a irreversible change in their physiology. Other times, it replaces the organs with something different entirely, something that the Machine had created itself.

    Many of the.. creatures down there can no longer be called human.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)05:16 No.18335172
    I do not claim to understand the Machine. I do not know whether there is a 'central room' where it is controlled by someone or.. something. Perhaps it is alive itself. Perhaps it has a mind and are doing these things for a reason.

    I shudder at the thought.

    The handful of us who stayed in the city to keep what little humanity we have left within us have our own theories. A young woman, the priest's daughter, believes that the Machine was built by God. The old british man always replies with that the Machine was built by Man, but it was building a God, replacing human parts with parts more inhuman until the divine is made, much like giving a thousand monkeys a thousand typewriters to type the complete works of Shakespeare.

    Much of my thoughts are garbled now. I find it difficult to write, knowing the horrors that lay underneath my feet. Yet the sounds calm me. That sound of bone snapping. The screams. The metal scraping, harshly. The sinew. the gargles of blood and fluid..

    Help me.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)05:19 No.18335187
    http://1d4chan.org/wiki/The_Machine
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)05:25 No.18335234
    Sounds similar in function to that damned Blood Spire (Diamond dogs.)

    In liue of this make it so exploration forces a price - you either let the machine change you or change yourself in order to survive for a possible payoff.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)07:59 No.18336046
    >>18334889
    I'd still recomend tying it to the Tick Tock Man.

    Especially if you leave notes calling it that from inhabitants who're no longer able to talk.

    Imagine discovering that this great factory-machine of conveyor belts and oil... was once clockwork and steam. It not just grows, but changes, as time goes on.
    >> TwoDee !qQigT1sixA 03/15/12(Thu)12:30 No.18337751
         File: 1331829058.png-(1.17 MB, 978x722, Shutdown.png)
    1.17 MB
    Hey OP, if you're still around, I would HEARTILY suggest reading the original Renraku Arcology: Shutdown and Brainscan modules for Shadowrun, third edition. Both of them concern the escape of an impossibly intelligent xenosapient AI into the automated systems of a huge, heavily-computer-connected habitat, and how it turns the entire thing into a Darwinist meat playground for the purposes of making better metahumans. People are subjected to horrible tortures for the purposes of establishing Matrix connection and ESP, horrors and "failures" haunt the halls, and unknowable robots of alien design hunt down survivors and escapees. Certain floors are removed of their corporate veneer, and turned entirely into gigantic automated systems of pain and suffering.

    Pic very related, it's art from the original Renraku Arcology: Shutdown sourcebook.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:12 No.18338004
    Oh sweet, this thread is still alive? I'm stealing the shit out of this.

    >>18336046
    This gave me an idea.
    Here's food for thought- a player who finds a bank of levers on the sidelines of a particular section notices the leather is tanned human skin. Or maybe the unoccupied desk chair. Maybe occasionally among the outlandish and gruesome procedures, you can spy a saw lined with barbs oddly resembling teeth, or some overhanging wires which upon closer inspection appear to be veins and arteries.

    It might just be inexplicable horror or the machine trying to unnerve survivors, but if players begin to suspect the machine's purpose is to build a god, then perhaps it points to something more disturbing- that the machine has decided to make itself that god.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:31 No.18338126
         File: 1331832687.gif-(646 KB, 384x216, finnmelting.gif)
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    >>18338004
    >the machine has decided to make itself that god.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:41 No.18338192
    OP, Im scared, I just woke up from a dream about this machine to find this thread. Wut the shit
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:48 No.18338234
    >>18338004
    Now there's a thought.
    The Machine originally was to create a god, but in order to fulfill its purpose it had to become a god in order to make one.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:49 No.18338236
         File: 1331833742.png-(153 KB, 583x381, brainproblems.png)
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    >>18338192
    >>>/x/

    Nah, just kidding. But if your subconscious churned forth any more material that could be used for this thing, feel free to share.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:50 No.18338250
    It seems kind of funky. I'm not in the 'instant wow' camp, this doesn't seem like absolutely stunningly original, but I think it could make for a fun game.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:51 No.18338257
    >>18338234
    Or it decided that making a god from humans wasn't working, shouldn't happen, or it decided it wanted that power.

    Perhaps best left undecided.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:52 No.18338269
    Oh god this thread is still up?

    Anyways, I agree with what other people have said in that there really is no clear purpose behind the machine that can be deduced. There can be plenty of theories and hints that may or may not support those theories, but ultimately the decision as to whether or not they are true should be left ambiguous.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:53 No.18338276
    >>18338236
    In my dreams, entire rooms seemed to rotate without me even realising it a lot. So when I thoughI d be escaping one particular horror Id end up revisting it and having to figure out a new way to escape. It was as if the machine wanted me to go through particular processes no matter what. Oh and it recycled the face of somebody I was with and attached it to someone else who ended up showing up, they werent alive, but were being pupetteered by the machibe, shit was creepy.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)13:54 No.18338292
    Kind of reminds me of I have no mouth and I must scream, a scifi story about a computer having trapped the last remaining people of earth in some gigantic complex, eventually transforming them into all kinds of abominations.
    >> Shas'o R'myr !!J5+vjygjQuK 03/15/12(Thu)13:57 No.18338310
    >>18338292

    And then the game got weird.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:01 No.18338337
    >>18338276
    >entire rooms seemed to rotate without me even realising it a lot.
    I think we've decided that rooms adjust, break down, move and rebuild quite a bit. Probably should seem mechanical, but there's no harm in occasionally giving the players a 'wait, this door shouldn't lead back there' moment.

    >it recycled the face of somebody I was with and attached it to someone else who ended up showing up
    This sort of thing should happen quite a bit. If OP/GM doesn't have plot-related plans, he could have a table of things that can happen to a person who goes through an area of the machine- ranging from complete breaking down into flesh and component parts, to mechanical or working flesh attachments.

    >they werent alive, but were being pupetteered by the machibe,
    >He...Llo... Friend... I... Think... We... Should... Climb... Into... The... Ma....Chine...
    >It...Will...Be...Fine...I...Think...
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:03 No.18338364
    >>18334889
    They're playing as the people in the journal? Oh god that's genius. Make sure the journal is covered in dry blood and cuts.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:04 No.18338365
    As said earlier there doesn't need to be an origin or explanation. Things like this are more praised and horrifying when it can't be rationalized.

    Like the movie Cube, it was never supposed to be continued. But hollywood being cunts they decided to milk it anyway.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:06 No.18338395
    >>18338337
    If anything inside supports the machine, it should probably do so in madness rather than direct control.

    I just had a creepy idea- the upper half of a person, heavily bleeding, is lying prone around the corner. When the players approach, they're dragged away screaming- by their own spine and blood vessels, which has been extended to ludicrous lengths behind them.
    >> OP 03/15/12(Thu)14:17 No.18338490
    >>18338364
    >They're playing as the people in the journal? Oh god that's genius.
    You flatter me. And yes, I thought that was a pretty good idea. I could do things like that more often, for a change of pace or a CoC game set in another era without breaking the pace of Delta Green. What they learn from them could even help their agents in the present. The further they get, or the more they uncover, the more prepared they can be as agents. And if they all die before writing anything down, and they ask who wrote the notes, it can be someone they met and assumed died- implying that perhaps he escaped.

    [nospoilers] Atleast until they tested the DNA in the blood stains on the book. And the leather cover. [/nospoilers]
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:21 No.18338524
         File: 1331835689.jpg-(217 KB, 675x900, 1322984380993.jpg)
    217 KB
    http://textozor.com/zalgo-text/ my children...come and let me create you again, and again, until there is nothing left.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:21 No.18338528
         File: 1331835709.jpg-(47 KB, 220x262, ohdaym.jpg)
    47 KB
    >>18338490
    >Atleast until they tested the DNA in the blood stains on the book. And the leather cover.
    Why are you NOT my GM?
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:46 No.18338745
    Dream guy here. There was also this box, that just seemed out of place, about 2feet by 2 feet by 2 feet. It showed up like four times but I never had the guts to open it. idk how to explain it, it felt safe, but it was in the machine so I was creeped the tuck out
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)14:51 No.18338791
    >>18324998

    Running an nWoD game centered around the God Machine described in the core book. The idea that it's not a mechanical deity but is, in fact, a machine trying to CREATE a god is a wonderful twist that will make all these horrible cultists way fucking cooler. Thanks, OP.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)15:00 No.18338889
    >>18338745
    It was a non-hostile Mimic-like creature, a "successful" product of The Machine that contains all the thinking consciousness of a person within a superior, efficient space. A Brain Box.
    >> OP 03/15/12(Thu)15:01 No.18338916
    >>18338745
    ... Are you SURE you're not one of my players?
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)16:11 No.18339643
    >>18338916

    What plans did you have for some of the creatures inside of the machine? It's trying to create god after all. It must have come close by now.

    I have this idea about some of the monsters not being horribly vicious. Some are fine with their specific cycle of being mutilated and scavenging discarded pieces of flesh. Others might be the strongest and most horrible creatures put out by the machine. But so damaged mentally that they react to every single piece of stimuli with uncontrollable fear. Rendering it generally harmless unless you are in its flight path. I think most of the creatures should chose between fight or flight when they encounter the PCs. Even if they are physically incapable of fight or flight.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)17:22 No.18340435
    I am kind of reminded of the episode of Dr Who with the Minotaur.
    It looked like a hotel, and was full of rooms, and each room had someone's worst fear in it.
    >> Anonymous 03/15/12(Thu)18:41 No.18341242
         File: 1331851263.png-(28 KB, 493x402, 12359.png)
    28 KB
    >>18332528

    jesus fucking christ.



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