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Transhuman Space doesn't have intersteller travel
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** In ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' one of the greatest fears of Homeline is precisely discovering worldlines where Lovecraft was right, which, given the number of worlds where other elements once thought purely fictional are somehow real, is worryingly possible. They technically found one, Taft-7, where fortunately the Stars were Right about 16 million years ago and so while humanity never evolved, the Great Old Ones left long ago (which didn't stop the Things left behind from slaughtering and driving insane the members of at least one survey team, and may have led to catastrophe if not for the timely intervention of a ''Call of Cthulhu''-style investigator from another worldline). [[spoiler: Unknown to Homeline, there's a second one as well: Taft-1 (Taft worlds have a reputation as {{Weirdness Magnet}}s), where Stalin's USSR's steady post-UsefulNotes/WW2 ascension actually owes at least as much of its success to Stalin "signing his name in the Book of Azathoth" as it does to the US's isolationist policies... especially since said isolationism derives from the secret assassination of UsefulNotes/HarryTruman through Mythos sorcery.]] Of course, if that's not enough, there's also the fact that since ''Infinite Worlds'' is a meta-setting connecting most [[note]]settings with interstellar travel, such as TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace, are the an exception[[/note]] GURPS settings, almost every other GURPS example also exists there; the aformentioned Cabal is a very concerning WildCard third faction that intrudes unpredictably in the Homeline VS Centrum conflict.
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** In ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' one of the greatest fears of Homeline is precisely discovering worldlines where Lovecraft was right, which, given the number of worlds where other elements once thought purely fictional are somehow real, is worryingly possible. They technically found one, Taft-7, where fortunately the Stars were Right about 16 million years ago and so while humanity never evolved, the Great Old Ones left long ago (which didn't stop the Things left behind from slaughtering and driving insane the members of at least one survey team, and may have led to catastrophe if not for the timely intervention of a ''Call of Cthulhu''-style investigator from another worldline). [[spoiler: Unknown to Homeline, there's a second one as well: Taft-1 (Taft worlds have a reputation as {{Weirdness Magnet}}s), where Stalin's USSR's steady post-UsefulNotes/WW2 ascension actually owes at least as much of its success to Stalin "signing his name in the Book of Azathoth" as it does to the US's isolationist policies... especially since said isolationism derives from the secret assassination of UsefulNotes/HarryTruman through Mythos sorcery.]] Of course, if that's not enough, there's also the fact that since ''Infinite Worlds'' is a meta-setting connecting most [[note]]settings with interstellar travel, such as TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace, travel are the an exception[[/note]] main exception, along with ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'', which is too "hard sf" for portals to alternate universes.[[/note]] GURPS settings, almost every other GURPS example also exists there; the aformentioned Cabal is a very concerning WildCard third faction that intrudes unpredictably in the Homeline VS Centrum conflict.
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* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' is an RPG based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, embracing and expanding upon what he developed (though at times in the direction of LovecraftLite, depending on the [[GameMaster Guardian]] or scenario). An alternate setting for the game, ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', takes place in modern times and adds in conspiracy theories of every stripe by giving them a Franchise/CthulhuMythos spin (TheGreys that Majestic-12 are in contact with are cats-paws for the Mi-Go, surviving [[ThoseWackyNazis South American Nazis]] have access to [[{{Ghostapo}} Mythos-related occult knowledge]] and are being manipulated by an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the mutated [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal homeless people]] in the New York underground are renegade Ghouls, etc.). Curiously enough, in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' it's mentionned in the main book that by the turn of the millenium, most [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Mythos entities]] and their minions are [[OrcusOnHisThrone far less present and/or active]] than they were even in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the 20s and 30s]]... [[spoiler:They don't need to be. They already won. They just need to wait a comparatively short while for the Stars will soon be Right]].
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* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' is an RPG based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, embracing and expanding upon what he developed (though at times in the direction of LovecraftLite, depending on the [[GameMaster Guardian]] or scenario). An alternate setting for the game, ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', takes place in modern times and adds in conspiracy theories of every stripe by giving them a Franchise/CthulhuMythos spin (TheGreys that Majestic-12 are in contact with are cats-paws for the Mi-Go, surviving [[ThoseWackyNazis South American Nazis]] have access to [[{{Ghostapo}} Mythos-related occult knowledge]] and are being manipulated by an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the mutated [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal homeless people]] in the New York underground are renegade Ghouls, etc.). Curiously enough, in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' it's mentionned mentioned in the main book that by the turn of the millenium, most [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Mythos entities]] and their minions are [[OrcusOnHisThrone far less present and/or active]] than they were even in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the 20s and 30s]]... [[spoiler:They don't need to be. They already won. They just need to wait a comparatively short while for the Stars will soon be Right]].
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* Creator/SandyPetersen, who'd originally brought the Franchise/CthulhuMythos to tabletop decided to revisit it with a different take on it in his ''TabletopGame/SandyPetersensCthulhuMythos'' supplements for fantasy [=RPGs=] ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye''. One of the parts pushing the cosmic horror aspect further than usual for these games is that the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods themselves ''don't'' have a monster statblock -they may have a statted physical avatar or three wreaking havoc, but the true core of their presence is their "Elder Influence", who will often require something other than hack-and-slash tactics to vanquish... And even if the [=PCs=] manage it, [[FightingAShadow it was only a small aspect of the entity, who can't be permanently defeated by any mortal means]], and the Elder Influence could manifest again anytime that The Stars Are Right.
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* Creator/SandyPetersen, who'd originally brought the Franchise/CthulhuMythos to tabletop decided to revisit it with a different take on it in his ''TabletopGame/SandyPetersensCthulhuMythos'' supplements for fantasy [=RPGs=] ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye''. One of the parts pushing the cosmic horror aspect further than usual for these games is that the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods themselves ''don't'' have a monster statblock -they may have a statted physical avatar or three wreaking havoc, but the true core of their presence is their "Elder Influence", who which will often require something other than hack-and-slash tactics to vanquish... And even if the [=PCs=] manage it, [[FightingAShadow it was only a small aspect of the entity, who can't be permanently defeated by any mortal means]], and the Elder Influence could manifest again anytime that The Stars Are Right.
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* Creator/SandyPetersen, who'd originally brought the Franchise/CthulhuMythos to tabletop decided to revisit it with a different take on it in his ''TabletopGame/SandyPetersensCthulhuMythos'' supplements for fantasy RPGs ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye''. One of the parts pushing the cosmic horror aspect further than usual for these games is that the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods themselves ''don't'' have a monster statblock -they may have a statted physical avatar or three wreaking havoc, but the true core of their presence is their "Elder Influence", who will often require something other than hack-and-slash tactics to vanquish... And even if the PCs manage it, [[FightingAShadow it was only a small aspect of the entity, who can't be permanently defeated by any mortal means]], and the Elder Influence could manifest again anytime that The Stars Are Right.
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* Creator/SandyPetersen, who'd originally brought the Franchise/CthulhuMythos to tabletop decided to revisit it with a different take on it in his ''TabletopGame/SandyPetersensCthulhuMythos'' supplements for fantasy RPGs [=RPGs=] ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye''. One of the parts pushing the cosmic horror aspect further than usual for these games is that the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods themselves ''don't'' have a monster statblock -they may have a statted physical avatar or three wreaking havoc, but the true core of their presence is their "Elder Influence", who will often require something other than hack-and-slash tactics to vanquish... And even if the PCs [=PCs=] manage it, [[FightingAShadow it was only a small aspect of the entity, who can't be permanently defeated by any mortal means]], and the Elder Influence could manifest again anytime that The Stars Are Right.
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* Creator/SandyPetersen, who'd originally brought the Franchise/CthulhuMythos to tabletop decided to revisit it with a different take on it in his ''TabletopGame/SandyPetersensCthulhuMythos'' supplements for fantasy RPGs ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', and ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye''. One of the parts pushing the cosmic horror aspect further than usual for these games is that the Great Old Ones/Outer Gods themselves ''don't'' have a monster statblock -they may have a statted physical avatar or three wreaking havoc, but the true core of their presence is their "Elder Influence", who will often require something other than hack-and-slash tactics to vanquish... And even if the PCs manage it, [[FightingAShadow it was only a small aspect of the entity, who can't be permanently defeated by any mortal means]], and the Elder Influence could manifest again anytime that The Stars Are Right.
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** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' (Warhammer's JustForFun/SciFiCounterpart) is ''[[CrapsackWorld even worse]]''. Not only is Chaos even more of a threat (powerful daemons in ''Warhammer'' can devastate cities; powerful daemons in ''[=40K=]'' can devastate '''star systems'''), there are also the [[NighInvulnerability implacable]] legions of the Necrons and their former [[PhysicalGod C'tan]] masters[[note]]though they vary a fair bit; plenty will kill you on the spot, but plenty of others won't bother you as long as you stay out of their way, and a few are totally willing to work with you on reasonable terms as long as you have a common goal[[/note]], and the [[WeHaveReserves limitless Tyranid hordes]] controlled by its immortal HiveMind, as well as the Dark Eldar, aka the Eldar who gleefully continued with the behavior that created Slaanesh in the first place and now must descend into greater and greater depths of depravity to stave off his hunger for their souls, which translates into them being the one faction you absolutely [[FateWorseThanDeath do not want to be captured by]], but are held back by their limited numbers and the borrowed time they live on. Indeed, it's often noted that humanity still survives despite [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed the galaxy always being doomed]] not because of anything they do, but because the various unstoppable, incomprehensible menaces keep ''getting in each other's ways''.
*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are pretty horrific. The Imperium is xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).
*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are pretty horrific. The Imperium is xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).
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** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' (Warhammer's JustForFun/SciFiCounterpart) is ''[[CrapsackWorld even worse]]''. Not only is Chaos even more of a threat (powerful daemons in ''Warhammer'' ''Fantasy'' can devastate cities; powerful daemons in ''[=40K=]'' can devastate '''star systems'''), there are also the [[NighInvulnerability implacable]] legions of the Necrons and their former [[PhysicalGod C'tan]] masters[[note]]though they vary a fair bit; plenty will kill you on the spot, but plenty of others won't bother you as long as you stay out of their way, and a few are totally willing to work with you on reasonable terms as long as you have a common goal[[/note]], and the [[WeHaveReserves limitless Tyranid hordes]] controlled by its immortal HiveMind, as well as the Dark Eldar, aka the Eldar who gleefully continued with the behavior that created Slaanesh in the first place and now must descend into greater and greater depths of depravity to stave off his hunger for their souls, which translates into them being the one faction you absolutely [[FateWorseThanDeath do not want to be captured by]], but are held back by their limited numbers and the borrowed time they live on. Indeed, it's often noted that humanity still survives despite [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed the galaxy always being doomed]] not because of anything they do, but because the various unstoppable, incomprehensible menaces keep ''getting in each other's ways''.
*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are [[BlackAndGrayMorality prettyhorrific. horrific]]. The Imperium is a xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed totalitarian theocracy whose higher-ups sacrifice 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).
*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are [[BlackAndGrayMorality pretty
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* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' loves this, creating a setting with so many {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that they're starting to fight for space. Most of the Franchise/CthulhuMythos is canonical, with an entire published adventure path called ''Strange Aeons'', and the separate Dominion of the Black is a nightmarish BodyHorror space empire that seems to revere the inevitability of oblivion and may well be returning to Golarion in force before long. Scholars of either have such a tendency to GoMadFromTheRevelation that a nice little table in the Dominion write-up in "Valley of the Brain Collectors" helpfully classifies which Dominion scholars in the Inner Sea region are functional, which are semi-functional, and which have undergone some kind of breakdown.
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*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are pretty horrific. The Imperium is xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).
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*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are pretty horrific. The Imperium is xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).joke).
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* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' is an RPG based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, embracing and expanding upon what he developed (though at times in the direction of LovecraftLite, depending on the [[GameMaster Guardian]] or scenario). An alternate setting for the game, ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', takes place in modern times and adds in UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories of every stripe by giving them a Franchise/CthulhuMythos spin (TheGreys that Majestic-12 are in contact with are cats-paws for the Mi-Go, surviving [[ThoseWackyNazis South American Nazis]] have access to [[{{Ghostapo}} Mythos-related occult knowledge]] and are being manipulated by an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the mutated [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal homeless people]] in the New York underground are renegade Ghouls, etc.). Curiously enough, in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' it's mentionned in the main book that by the turn of the millenium, most [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Mythos entities]] and their minions are [[OrcusOnHisThrone far less present and/or active]] than they were even in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the 20s and 30s]]... [[spoiler:They don't need to be. They already won. They just need to wait a comparatively short while for the Stars will soon be Right]].
to:
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' is an RPG based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, embracing and expanding upon what he developed (though at times in the direction of LovecraftLite, depending on the [[GameMaster Guardian]] or scenario). An alternate setting for the game, ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', takes place in modern times and adds in UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories conspiracy theories of every stripe by giving them a Franchise/CthulhuMythos spin (TheGreys that Majestic-12 are in contact with are cats-paws for the Mi-Go, surviving [[ThoseWackyNazis South American Nazis]] have access to [[{{Ghostapo}} Mythos-related occult knowledge]] and are being manipulated by an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the mutated [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal homeless people]] in the New York underground are renegade Ghouls, etc.). Curiously enough, in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' it's mentionned in the main book that by the turn of the millenium, most [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Mythos entities]] and their minions are [[OrcusOnHisThrone far less present and/or active]] than they were even in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the 20s and 30s]]... [[spoiler:They don't need to be. They already won. They just need to wait a comparatively short while for the Stars will soon be Right]].
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** In ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' one of the greatest fears of Homeline is precisely discovering worldlines where Lovecraft was right, which, given the number of worlds where other elements once thought purely fictional are somehow real, is worryingly possible. They technically found one, Taft-7, where fortunately the Stars were Right about 16 million years ago and so while humanity never evolved, the Great Old Ones left long ago (which didn't stop the Things left behind from slaughtering and driving insane the members of at least one survey team, and may have led to catastrophe if not for the timely intervention of a ''Call of Cthulhu''-style investigator from another worldline). [[spoiler: Unknown to Homeline, there's a second one as well: Taft-1 (Taft worlds have a reputation as {{Weirdness Magnet}}s), where Stalin's USSR's steady post-UsefulNotes/WW2 ascension actually owes at least as much of its success to Stalin "signing his name in the Book of Azathoth" as it does to the US's isolationist policies... especially since said isolationism derives from the secret assassination of UsefulNotes/HarryTruman through Mythos sorcery.]] Of course, it that's not enough, there's also the fact that since ''Infinite Worlds'' is a meta-setting connecting most [[note]]settings with interstellar travel, such as TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace, are the an exception[[/note]] GURPS settings, almost every other GURPS example also exists there; the aformentioned Cabal is a very concerning WildCard third faction that intrudes unpredictably in the Homeline VS Centrum conflict.
to:
** In ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' one of the greatest fears of Homeline is precisely discovering worldlines where Lovecraft was right, which, given the number of worlds where other elements once thought purely fictional are somehow real, is worryingly possible. They technically found one, Taft-7, where fortunately the Stars were Right about 16 million years ago and so while humanity never evolved, the Great Old Ones left long ago (which didn't stop the Things left behind from slaughtering and driving insane the members of at least one survey team, and may have led to catastrophe if not for the timely intervention of a ''Call of Cthulhu''-style investigator from another worldline). [[spoiler: Unknown to Homeline, there's a second one as well: Taft-1 (Taft worlds have a reputation as {{Weirdness Magnet}}s), where Stalin's USSR's steady post-UsefulNotes/WW2 ascension actually owes at least as much of its success to Stalin "signing his name in the Book of Azathoth" as it does to the US's isolationist policies... especially since said isolationism derives from the secret assassination of UsefulNotes/HarryTruman through Mythos sorcery.]] Of course, it if that's not enough, there's also the fact that since ''Infinite Worlds'' is a meta-setting connecting most [[note]]settings with interstellar travel, such as TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace, are the an exception[[/note]] GURPS settings, almost every other GURPS example also exists there; the aformentioned Cabal is a very concerning WildCard third faction that intrudes unpredictably in the Homeline VS Centrum conflict.
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* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' and its accompanying spin-offs are overall more in LovecraftLite territory, but the Tactics/Vertex universe goes straight into this, especially by the time Prime War comes along. One, everyone both hero and villain keeps being driven mad and into bad decisions by both their own powers and the lure of limitless cosmic power in the form of [=OblivAeon=] Shards. Two, the Vertex universe is threatened and eventually destroyed by the "Mist Storm" which is a mindless cloud of destructive energy formed by the aftereffects of Nightmist's interdimensional portals to gain aid during the [=OblivAeon=] fight combining with the forces in the destroyed Nexus of the Void. The heroes are sometimes seen trying to rescue people from it, but in the end they can do nothing to stop it and it just relentlessly consumes everything. Three, those few people who are rescued from the destroyed universe, are only rescued so they can serve as pawns in a war of cosmic beings known as Prime Aspects to determine which abstract concepts deserve to rule the outer realms of existence, with little care for the actual desires or morals of any mortals thus "conscripted". All in all it's pretty bleak and dripping in heaps of cosmic nihilism and BlueAndOrangeMorality.
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* The entire point of the ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' board game is the fact that you play as 1-8 humans who are the only people trying to actively stop the Ancient One from waking up. It is possible (although highly unlikely) to force the Ancient One back through combat, however strictly speaking you cannot win the game this way as it ends in a draw: you beat the cosmic evil, but humanity is likely in shambles, it probably did serious damage to the planet, it's likely a bunch of people died the second it showed up, and you failed to seal it, so for all you know it could be back tomorrow. The only true way to win is to seal six gates or close gates equal to all players on the board ''and'' have all the gates closed simultaneously. In this scenario, you sealed it off to keep it from arriving, but nobody will ever know your efforts, and people will still think you insane. Its spin-offs, the ''Arkham Horror'' card game, ''TabletopGame/ElderSign'', ''TabletopGame/EldritchHorror'' and ''TabletopGame/MansionsOfMadness'', differ mostly in gameplay mechanics but share the same bleak tone.
** The game line was recenty expanded with ''Unfathomable'', a reskin of Fantasy Flight's previous ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' boardgame, where the crew and passengers of an ocean liner crossing from Britain to America in 1912 find their ship besieged by dark shapes in the water, and to make matters worse, not everyone on board is who they seem...
* In ''TabletopGame/BleakWorld'' most races are caught up in petty minded squabbles and being on the brink of war, but all that is meaningless because of the Princesses' story. Their entire planet was consumed by an EldritchAbomination that can only be stopped by a [[BarrierWarrior force field that is made of the stolen wonder and hope of human beings.]] If the barrier goes down for even a second, they, and every other sentient being in the Milky Way, will end up [[GoMadFromTheRevelation exactly like the dark princesses]], mindlessly destroying other barriers of other galaxies.
* ''TabletopGame/BreakfastCult'' takes place in an academy set in a world where a new era of progress has been achieved by combining science with magic. The players normally end up uncovering a sinister background conspiracy involving the occult, one of several [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], and an intertwined conspiracy connecting it all.
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' is an RPG based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, embracing and expanding upon what he developed (though at times in the direction of LovecraftLite, depending on the [[GameMaster Guardian]] or scenario). An alternate setting for the game, ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', takes place in modern times and adds in UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories of every stripe by giving them a Franchise/CthulhuMythos spin (TheGreys that Majestic-12 are in contact with are cats-paws for the Mi-Go, surviving [[ThoseWackyNazis South American Nazis]] have access to [[{{Ghostapo}} Mythos-related occult knowledge]] and are being manipulated by an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the mutated [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal homeless people]] in the New York underground are renegade Ghouls, etc.). Curiously enough, in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' it's mentionned in the main book that by the turn of the millenium, most [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Mythos entities]] and their minions are [[OrcusOnHisThrone far less present and/or active]] than they were even in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the 20s and 30s]]... [[spoiler:They don't need to be. They already won. They just need to wait a comparatively short while for the Stars will soon be Right]].
* ''TabletopGame/CthulhuTech''. Mix the above with ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', ''Manga/{{Guyver}}'' and ''Manga/{{Akira}}''. The good news: You have all sorts of wonderful toys (MagiTek HumongousMecha, PsychicPowers, FunctionalMagic, {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s...) to fight against the [[AlienInvasion Migou invaders]] and the EldritchAbomination-worshipping {{cult}}s. The bad news: the fact that the Migou and the cults [[EvilVersusEvil also fight each other]] only barely slows down their systematic conquest of more areas, both have thoroughly infiltrated human society despite TheGovernment's increasingly (and justifiably) [[KnightTemplar draconian security policies]], a handful of godlike abominations and countless lesser ones are already here, and the first storyline-progressing book can be summed up in three words: [[FromBadToWorse It Got Worse]]. It's even mentioned in the core book that should [[SealedEvilInACan Great Cthulhu]] be woken up by the [[ReligionOfEvil Esoteric Order of Dagon]], it's [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt game over for anything not in thrall to the Old Ones]].
* The boardgame ''Cthulhu Wars'' takes the premise of a Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Story to its logical conclusion - the fighting isn't sane humans versus cults and abominations, but rather [[EvilVersusEvil cult against cult]]. The world has already fallen to the Great Old Ones and their thralls; the only question is which of them will run the show.
* Long-defunct late-80s/early-90s RPG ''Dark Conspiracy'' had this sort of vibe -- even though the BigBadEnsemble of the Dark Lords took several cues from mythological gods and demons, they were still overwhelmingly powerful and unknowable extradimensional entities, who managed [[TheMasquerade from behind the scenes]] to turn [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near-future Earth]] into a [[CrapsackWorld horribly depressing]] {{dystopia}} with the worst aspects of CyberPunk cranked up and almost none of the cool stuff that comes with it (they stalled technological progress because too much of it could give humanity hope for the future, y'see, and since [[TheHeartless they thrive on our despair]]... ''Their'' minions had access to plenty of creepy, evil tech). Oh, and almost everyone even the slightest bit in the know was either an UnwittingPawn, [[LesCollaborateurs collaborating]], or worse, one of countless monstrous minions who infiltrated and preyed on an apathetically oblivious humanity in secret.
* ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'' straddles between this and LovecraftLite. On the Lite side, you can actually win against the God-Machine's machinations, foil its plans, cause setbacks, and at the end of the day it will actually avoid ruffling your feathers. But on the Cosmic Horror side, the God Machine is several orders of magnitude more powerful than anything in the setting, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm it has no definite form]],[[note]]The rulebook actually says that you cannot see the God-Machine directly, only traces of its influences. The closest description of it is 'an ecosystem'.[[/note]] it has utterly alien agenda that not even the angels fully comprehend, and your victory over it is simply because [[KnowWhenToFoldEm it sees you not worth allocating more resources to deal with]]. That's right, even if you win and gets what you want, it will ''[[XanatosGambit still]]'' get what it wants, just using different methods. And if you confuse that for weakness on its part, [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant you're in for a rude awakening.]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' very gladly hands the GameMaster the tools necessary with the Far Realm. Though ''D&D'' already had weird, Lovecraftian monsters like the squid-headed illithids, mid-2nd Edition game designer Bruce Cordell started adding even deeper cosmic horror elements. One of his more influential contributions was the idea of a "far realm" of everything outside the borders of time, making {{the multiverse}} into a bubble in the infinite cosmic horror stew. ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'''s plane of Xoriat is strongly inspired by it, and a lot of weirder monsters that weren't from "the planes" or "AWizardDidIt" became the result of Far Realm intrusions into reality. The denizens of the Far Realm don't even care enough to want in, but constant accidents and random events cause little openings in the very thin wall of reality. Add in your standard insane cultists, mad wizards seeking alien power, world-ending monstrosities from later books like ''Elder Evils'', and a bevy of alternate rules including a SanityMeter rule cribbed from ''Call of Cthulhu'', and ''D&D'' is very inviting to someone who wants to inflict this trope on a high fantasy world.
* ''TabletopGame/ElderSign'' is a fast-paced, cooperative dice game of supernatural intrigue for one to eight players by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, the designers of Arkham Horror. Players take the roles of investigators racing against time to stave off the imminent return of the Ancient Ones. Armed with cards for tools, allies, and occult knowledge, investigators must put their sanity and stamina to the test as they adventure to locate Elder Signs, the eldritch symbols used to seal away the Ancient Ones and win the game.
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' can fall into this. [[AfterTheEnd The apocalypse has already happened]]. 9/10ths of humanity have been wiped out (read: had their brains pulled out and read like floppy disks) by enigmatic {{AI|is a crapshoot}} superbeings called the [=TITANs=], with the remaining ten percent only surviving because apparently the [=TITANs=] lost interest for no explainable reason (and apparently human extinction was only a side effect of their goals anyway). Before leaving, they released mindless killing machines charged with harvesting heads, superweapons never dreamt of by human minds, plagues and nanobots capable of turning someone into BodyHorror. Space folds differently around some TITAN artifacts, and {{psychic powers}} exist... as a side effect of one of their mutagenic plagues which may or may not turn you into a time bomb of some sort. Looking at TITAN artifacts [[BrownNote can be damaging to your mind, or even infect you with a mutagenic horror, rewrite your mind, or simply destroy you]]... from across vaccuum and through the best protection humanity has ever devised. Monstrosities prowl the dark parts of space, just left behind when the [=TITANs=] vanished. Of course, the [=TITANs=] only started this menagerie of horrors because a cosmic superbeing (superbeings?) of enigmatic origins and goals did something similar to them for similarly ineffable reasons. Transhumanity's only hope lies in the fact that apparently nobody who matters cares enough to take the few months required to finish the job, but they might do it anyway out of carelessness.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''. It looks bleak. The ghosts of dead titans are trying to [[ApocalypseHow drag all of Creation into Oblivion]], the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demonic creators of the universe]] want to reclaim rule of it, and the [[FairFolk infinite armies of shapeless chaos]] want to dissolve all existence back into chaos. After a series of catastrophes, about 98% of the world has already been irreparably destroyed by the start of the series, civilization has been steadily crumbling for hundreds of years, and everybody is lining up to be the one to finally finish the job. [[SubvertedTrope Of course, you're Exalted. You can solve all these problems by punching them in the face]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', given its wide variety of settings, hits this trope on occasion:
** ''Cabal'', where the eponymous secretive organization of amoral sorcerers and monsters tinker with the fabric of reality for fun and profit. The good news: you're one of them. The bad news: there are much worse things out there, and not all of them play by your rules... including fellow Cabal members.
** ''Cthulhupunk'''s setting is on the surface a typical {{cyberpunk}} setting... where the Franchise/CthulhuMythos happens to be real.
** In ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' one of the greatest fears of Homeline is precisely discovering worldlines where Lovecraft was right, which, given the number of worlds where other elements once thought purely fictional are somehow real, is worryingly possible. They technically found one, Taft-7, where fortunately the Stars were Right about 16 million years ago and so while humanity never evolved, the Great Old Ones left long ago (which didn't stop the Things left behind from slaughtering and driving insane the members of at least one survey team, and may have led to catastrophe if not for the timely intervention of a ''Call of Cthulhu''-style investigator from another worldline). [[spoiler: Unknown to Homeline, there's a second one as well: Taft-1 (Taft worlds have a reputation as {{Weirdness Magnet}}s), where Stalin's USSR's steady post-UsefulNotes/WW2 ascension actually owes at least as much of its success to Stalin "signing his name in the Book of Azathoth" as it does to the US's isolationist policies... especially since said isolationism derives from the secret assassination of UsefulNotes/HarryTruman through Mythos sorcery.]] Of course, it that's not enough, there's also the fact that since ''Infinite Worlds'' is a meta-setting connecting most [[note]]settings with interstellar travel, such as TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace, are the an exception[[/note]] GURPS settings, almost every other GURPS example also exists there; the aformentioned Cabal is a very concerning WildCard third faction that intrudes unpredictably in the Homeline VS Centrum conflict.
** Technically, ''TabletopGame/TheMadnessDossier'' is at the low end of the Cosmic Horror range; the "Red Kings", overlords of the antagonists, probably couldn't destroy the Earth, and have an actual interest in humanity (as slaves at the bottom of their hierarchy). Nonetheless, reality is unstable, the Red Kings are godlike {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who can probably only be slain by crossing the GodzillaThreshold if at all, the heroes are far from certain of victory and may be driven mad in the struggle, and humanity has a very low place in the universe.
* Some years ago, a short-lived CCG called ''TabletopGame/{{Hecatomb}}'' had this as its premise - each player was an [[OmnicidalManiac "Endbringer"]], someone who, whether MadScientist, EvilSorcerer or what-have-you, competed with other Endbringers to be the first to [[YourSoulIsMine gather enough souls]] to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt to fuel their powers, then move on to the next AlternateUniverse to start over. You fought each other by summoning/creating monstrous minions (many of them {{eldritch abomination}}s in their own right) and [[FusionDance fusing them together]] to form [[HybridMonster Abominations]], calling down [[GodOfEvil evil gods]] (including [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]]), and similar dirty tricks, all to get the requisite 20 soul tokens at your enemies' expense. And since every player gained a soul token at the beginning of his/her turn...
* ''TabletopGame/JAGSWonderland'' [[spoiler: is a massive subversion]]. The world is being menaced by the Caretakers, a group of [[TheFairFolk entities who live based on story rather than physical laws, as we humans do]]. They have collectively decided to drive humanity to [[DrivenToSuicide self-destruction]], and have done so via a [[TheVirus viral]] insanity that causes ''reality'' to lose its grip on ''you''... [[spoiler:The Caretakers hate humans because they're actually ''terrified'' of us, since we act in ways they find utterly incomprehensible. That, and the reveal of the fact that ''vice versa'' is not true...]]
* The world of TabletopGame/KingdomDeath. On top of the {{Crapsack|World}} DeathWorld filled with monstrous, madness-inducing horrors where humans are at the bottom of the food chain, the fluff hints at one or several unknowable, unkillable entities who created the world and everything in it for completely unknown reasons. Even managing to defeat the endgame FinalBoss of a given campaign is likely to be a PyrrhicVictory at best. In fact, even the monsters themselves, despite usually being some shade of EldritchAbomination, aren't immune to being hit by this, the intelligent ones especially - the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon King]], for example, is the LastOfItsKind, and explicitely angsts over this and the fear of ultimately being forgotten, showing it to be as insignificant as the human chattel it lords over.
* The Swedish RPG ''TabletopGame/{{KULT}}'' mixed Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Aleister Crowley occult traditions and the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' movies, and took its aesthetics from [[PunkPunk Splatter Punk]], Creator/CliveBarker and Creator/HRGiger art. It's actually a subversion. Humans are hopeless against supernatural forces, but [[spoiler:will triumph once awoken. In fact, most supernatural beings are hopelessly trying to prevent that. In other words, they broke their arms punching us]].
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has the ''Shadows Over Innistrad'' block, which is a continuation from a previous ''Innistrad'' block. Whereas the original ''Innistrad'' block is a GothicHorror setting with humans being preyed upon by vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, what-have-you, ''Shadows Over Innistrad'' has cultists, people going crazy and resident EldritchAbomination wreaking havoc. [[spoiler:Its ending especially cements the Cosmic Horror Story status: Said EldritchAbomination is successfully sealed... only because it has decided it's done playing and seals itself for reasons unknown]].
* The same Swedish company behind ''TabletopGame/{{KULT}}'' also released ''TabletopGame/MutantChronicles'', whose basic premise is somewhat similar to that of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', if on a much smaller scale (humanity still hasn't expanded beyond the solar system); although depending on the GameMaster's choices for his own campaign, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu it could be entirely possible for the players to rip the Dark Soul a new one if they try hard enough]].
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctum Noctum]]'' has such a premise (mixed, like others on the list, with splatterpunk), but with the caveat that [[spoiler:the reason the abominations were attracted to our world in the first place is because {{humans are bastards}}]].
* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness has elements of this in each of its gamelines, with each one having an apocalyptic ending. [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Vampire]] has the [[EldritchAbomination Antediluvians]], their ancient, cannibalistic and godlike forefathers and [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Werewolf]] has the Wyrm and the titular apocalypse. Of the bigger lines, only [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Mage]] gives the potential for a happy ending, and doesn't involve one flavour or another of the Old Ones eating everything (unless the [=PCs=] screw up BADLY).
* Pelgrane Press [[AuthorAppeal really seem to like this trope]], since the first three published settings for their ''TabletopGame/{{Gumshoe}}'' system -- ''TabletopGame/TrailOfCthulhu'', ''TabletopGame/FearItself'' and ''TabletopGame/TheEsoterrorists'' -- all contain varying degrees of it. The first one is classic Franchise/CthulhuMythos pulp horror investigation; the second is about playing more or less normal people suddenly confronted to the fact that their world actually is like every Creator/CliveBarker-esque supernatural [[PunkPunk splatterpunk]] story lumped together; and the third is about a secret organisation, the Ordo Veritatis, trying to stop an AncientConspiracy (the eponymous esoterrorists) from turning their world into a copy of the second one for fun and profit. Things are not going so well for the Ordo. A bestiary-style supplement released first for the d20 then for the latter two is very aptly called TabletopGame/TheBookOfUnremittingHorror. ''Trail of Cthulhu'''s Purist mode is meant to emulate a Cosmic Horror Story at its most bleak and austere. The scenario "The Final Revelation" ends with the reveal to the player characters that the world was ''already'' consumed by horrible alien entities before their investigation even began, and everything they have experienced so far is a lie their fractured minds have told themselves. Every investigator immediately goes insane as reality itself dissolves into a surreal, endless nightmare.
* ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'' has published a supplement called ''Worlds Of Cthulhu''. No points for guessing [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos the premise]].
* ''TabletopGame/ShadowOfTheDemonLord''. Not only is the setting DarkerAndEdgier even by DarkFantasy standards, as it stands, there is no way to effectively repel the Demon Lord (an OmnicidalManiac EldritchAbomination) and his forces. The best anyone can do is [[YouCantFightFate delay the inevitable]].
* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' subverts the trope; the setting's big secret is that [[spoiler:the universe is humanocentric, existing only for our benefit]]. Any horrific monsters beyond time that make us insignificant, then, are actually [[spoiler:the product, not the cause, of our sense of insignificance; it's a vicious cycle.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Warhammer}}'':
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' aka ''Warhammer Fantasy'' takes place in a world infiltrated by Chaos, a [[TheCorruption corruptive force given strength by the ickier parts of the human psyche]]. The only way to combat Chaos is to be [[KnightTemplar frighteningly dogmatic and wipe it out whenever it looks at you funny]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo no matter who gets caught in the crossfire]].
** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes'' took the trope to the logical conclusion: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the world was conquered by Chaos and destroyed]]. A couple of months later the setting was given a ResetButtonEnding in the form of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', acting as a LovecraftLite sequel: we've seen what Chaos can do, now mankind fights to keep it from happening again.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' (Warhammer's JustForFun/SciFiCounterpart) is ''[[CrapsackWorld even worse]]''. Not only is Chaos even more of a threat (powerful daemons in ''Warhammer'' can devastate cities; powerful daemons in ''[=40K=]'' can devastate '''star systems'''), there are also the [[NighInvulnerability implacable]] legions of the Necrons and their former [[PhysicalGod C'tan]] masters[[note]]though they vary a fair bit; plenty will kill you on the spot, but plenty of others won't bother you as long as you stay out of their way, and a few are totally willing to work with you on reasonable terms as long as you have a common goal[[/note]], and the [[WeHaveReserves limitless Tyranid hordes]] controlled by its immortal HiveMind, as well as the Dark Eldar, aka the Eldar who gleefully continued with the behavior that created Slaanesh in the first place and now must descend into greater and greater depths of depravity to stave off his hunger for their souls, which translates into them being the one faction you absolutely [[FateWorseThanDeath do not want to be captured by]], but are held back by their limited numbers and the borrowed time they live on. Indeed, it's often noted that humanity still survives despite [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed the galaxy always being doomed]] not because of anything they do, but because the various unstoppable, incomprehensible menaces keep ''getting in each other's ways''.
*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are pretty horrific. The Imperium is xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).
** The game line was recenty expanded with ''Unfathomable'', a reskin of Fantasy Flight's previous ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' boardgame, where the crew and passengers of an ocean liner crossing from Britain to America in 1912 find their ship besieged by dark shapes in the water, and to make matters worse, not everyone on board is who they seem...
* In ''TabletopGame/BleakWorld'' most races are caught up in petty minded squabbles and being on the brink of war, but all that is meaningless because of the Princesses' story. Their entire planet was consumed by an EldritchAbomination that can only be stopped by a [[BarrierWarrior force field that is made of the stolen wonder and hope of human beings.]] If the barrier goes down for even a second, they, and every other sentient being in the Milky Way, will end up [[GoMadFromTheRevelation exactly like the dark princesses]], mindlessly destroying other barriers of other galaxies.
* ''TabletopGame/BreakfastCult'' takes place in an academy set in a world where a new era of progress has been achieved by combining science with magic. The players normally end up uncovering a sinister background conspiracy involving the occult, one of several [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]], and an intertwined conspiracy connecting it all.
* ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'' is an RPG based on the works of Creator/HPLovecraft, embracing and expanding upon what he developed (though at times in the direction of LovecraftLite, depending on the [[GameMaster Guardian]] or scenario). An alternate setting for the game, ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'', takes place in modern times and adds in UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories of every stripe by giving them a Franchise/CthulhuMythos spin (TheGreys that Majestic-12 are in contact with are cats-paws for the Mi-Go, surviving [[ThoseWackyNazis South American Nazis]] have access to [[{{Ghostapo}} Mythos-related occult knowledge]] and are being manipulated by an avatar of Nyarlathotep, the mutated [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal homeless people]] in the New York underground are renegade Ghouls, etc.). Curiously enough, in ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'' it's mentionned in the main book that by the turn of the millenium, most [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Mythos entities]] and their minions are [[OrcusOnHisThrone far less present and/or active]] than they were even in [[GenteelInterbellumSetting the 20s and 30s]]... [[spoiler:They don't need to be. They already won. They just need to wait a comparatively short while for the Stars will soon be Right]].
* ''TabletopGame/CthulhuTech''. Mix the above with ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', ''Manga/{{Guyver}}'' and ''Manga/{{Akira}}''. The good news: You have all sorts of wonderful toys (MagiTek HumongousMecha, PsychicPowers, FunctionalMagic, {{Lovecraftian Superpower}}s...) to fight against the [[AlienInvasion Migou invaders]] and the EldritchAbomination-worshipping {{cult}}s. The bad news: the fact that the Migou and the cults [[EvilVersusEvil also fight each other]] only barely slows down their systematic conquest of more areas, both have thoroughly infiltrated human society despite TheGovernment's increasingly (and justifiably) [[KnightTemplar draconian security policies]], a handful of godlike abominations and countless lesser ones are already here, and the first storyline-progressing book can be summed up in three words: [[FromBadToWorse It Got Worse]]. It's even mentioned in the core book that should [[SealedEvilInACan Great Cthulhu]] be woken up by the [[ReligionOfEvil Esoteric Order of Dagon]], it's [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt game over for anything not in thrall to the Old Ones]].
* The boardgame ''Cthulhu Wars'' takes the premise of a Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Story to its logical conclusion - the fighting isn't sane humans versus cults and abominations, but rather [[EvilVersusEvil cult against cult]]. The world has already fallen to the Great Old Ones and their thralls; the only question is which of them will run the show.
* Long-defunct late-80s/early-90s RPG ''Dark Conspiracy'' had this sort of vibe -- even though the BigBadEnsemble of the Dark Lords took several cues from mythological gods and demons, they were still overwhelmingly powerful and unknowable extradimensional entities, who managed [[TheMasquerade from behind the scenes]] to turn [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near-future Earth]] into a [[CrapsackWorld horribly depressing]] {{dystopia}} with the worst aspects of CyberPunk cranked up and almost none of the cool stuff that comes with it (they stalled technological progress because too much of it could give humanity hope for the future, y'see, and since [[TheHeartless they thrive on our despair]]... ''Their'' minions had access to plenty of creepy, evil tech). Oh, and almost everyone even the slightest bit in the know was either an UnwittingPawn, [[LesCollaborateurs collaborating]], or worse, one of countless monstrous minions who infiltrated and preyed on an apathetically oblivious humanity in secret.
* ''TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent'' straddles between this and LovecraftLite. On the Lite side, you can actually win against the God-Machine's machinations, foil its plans, cause setbacks, and at the end of the day it will actually avoid ruffling your feathers. But on the Cosmic Horror side, the God Machine is several orders of magnitude more powerful than anything in the setting, [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm it has no definite form]],[[note]]The rulebook actually says that you cannot see the God-Machine directly, only traces of its influences. The closest description of it is 'an ecosystem'.[[/note]] it has utterly alien agenda that not even the angels fully comprehend, and your victory over it is simply because [[KnowWhenToFoldEm it sees you not worth allocating more resources to deal with]]. That's right, even if you win and gets what you want, it will ''[[XanatosGambit still]]'' get what it wants, just using different methods. And if you confuse that for weakness on its part, [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant you're in for a rude awakening.]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' very gladly hands the GameMaster the tools necessary with the Far Realm. Though ''D&D'' already had weird, Lovecraftian monsters like the squid-headed illithids, mid-2nd Edition game designer Bruce Cordell started adding even deeper cosmic horror elements. One of his more influential contributions was the idea of a "far realm" of everything outside the borders of time, making {{the multiverse}} into a bubble in the infinite cosmic horror stew. ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'''s plane of Xoriat is strongly inspired by it, and a lot of weirder monsters that weren't from "the planes" or "AWizardDidIt" became the result of Far Realm intrusions into reality. The denizens of the Far Realm don't even care enough to want in, but constant accidents and random events cause little openings in the very thin wall of reality. Add in your standard insane cultists, mad wizards seeking alien power, world-ending monstrosities from later books like ''Elder Evils'', and a bevy of alternate rules including a SanityMeter rule cribbed from ''Call of Cthulhu'', and ''D&D'' is very inviting to someone who wants to inflict this trope on a high fantasy world.
* ''TabletopGame/ElderSign'' is a fast-paced, cooperative dice game of supernatural intrigue for one to eight players by Richard Launius and Kevin Wilson, the designers of Arkham Horror. Players take the roles of investigators racing against time to stave off the imminent return of the Ancient Ones. Armed with cards for tools, allies, and occult knowledge, investigators must put their sanity and stamina to the test as they adventure to locate Elder Signs, the eldritch symbols used to seal away the Ancient Ones and win the game.
* ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' can fall into this. [[AfterTheEnd The apocalypse has already happened]]. 9/10ths of humanity have been wiped out (read: had their brains pulled out and read like floppy disks) by enigmatic {{AI|is a crapshoot}} superbeings called the [=TITANs=], with the remaining ten percent only surviving because apparently the [=TITANs=] lost interest for no explainable reason (and apparently human extinction was only a side effect of their goals anyway). Before leaving, they released mindless killing machines charged with harvesting heads, superweapons never dreamt of by human minds, plagues and nanobots capable of turning someone into BodyHorror. Space folds differently around some TITAN artifacts, and {{psychic powers}} exist... as a side effect of one of their mutagenic plagues which may or may not turn you into a time bomb of some sort. Looking at TITAN artifacts [[BrownNote can be damaging to your mind, or even infect you with a mutagenic horror, rewrite your mind, or simply destroy you]]... from across vaccuum and through the best protection humanity has ever devised. Monstrosities prowl the dark parts of space, just left behind when the [=TITANs=] vanished. Of course, the [=TITANs=] only started this menagerie of horrors because a cosmic superbeing (superbeings?) of enigmatic origins and goals did something similar to them for similarly ineffable reasons. Transhumanity's only hope lies in the fact that apparently nobody who matters cares enough to take the few months required to finish the job, but they might do it anyway out of carelessness.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''. It looks bleak. The ghosts of dead titans are trying to [[ApocalypseHow drag all of Creation into Oblivion]], the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demonic creators of the universe]] want to reclaim rule of it, and the [[FairFolk infinite armies of shapeless chaos]] want to dissolve all existence back into chaos. After a series of catastrophes, about 98% of the world has already been irreparably destroyed by the start of the series, civilization has been steadily crumbling for hundreds of years, and everybody is lining up to be the one to finally finish the job. [[SubvertedTrope Of course, you're Exalted. You can solve all these problems by punching them in the face]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'', given its wide variety of settings, hits this trope on occasion:
** ''Cabal'', where the eponymous secretive organization of amoral sorcerers and monsters tinker with the fabric of reality for fun and profit. The good news: you're one of them. The bad news: there are much worse things out there, and not all of them play by your rules... including fellow Cabal members.
** ''Cthulhupunk'''s setting is on the surface a typical {{cyberpunk}} setting... where the Franchise/CthulhuMythos happens to be real.
** In ''TabletopGame/InfiniteWorlds'' one of the greatest fears of Homeline is precisely discovering worldlines where Lovecraft was right, which, given the number of worlds where other elements once thought purely fictional are somehow real, is worryingly possible. They technically found one, Taft-7, where fortunately the Stars were Right about 16 million years ago and so while humanity never evolved, the Great Old Ones left long ago (which didn't stop the Things left behind from slaughtering and driving insane the members of at least one survey team, and may have led to catastrophe if not for the timely intervention of a ''Call of Cthulhu''-style investigator from another worldline). [[spoiler: Unknown to Homeline, there's a second one as well: Taft-1 (Taft worlds have a reputation as {{Weirdness Magnet}}s), where Stalin's USSR's steady post-UsefulNotes/WW2 ascension actually owes at least as much of its success to Stalin "signing his name in the Book of Azathoth" as it does to the US's isolationist policies... especially since said isolationism derives from the secret assassination of UsefulNotes/HarryTruman through Mythos sorcery.]] Of course, it that's not enough, there's also the fact that since ''Infinite Worlds'' is a meta-setting connecting most [[note]]settings with interstellar travel, such as TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace, are the an exception[[/note]] GURPS settings, almost every other GURPS example also exists there; the aformentioned Cabal is a very concerning WildCard third faction that intrudes unpredictably in the Homeline VS Centrum conflict.
** Technically, ''TabletopGame/TheMadnessDossier'' is at the low end of the Cosmic Horror range; the "Red Kings", overlords of the antagonists, probably couldn't destroy the Earth, and have an actual interest in humanity (as slaves at the bottom of their hierarchy). Nonetheless, reality is unstable, the Red Kings are godlike {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who can probably only be slain by crossing the GodzillaThreshold if at all, the heroes are far from certain of victory and may be driven mad in the struggle, and humanity has a very low place in the universe.
* Some years ago, a short-lived CCG called ''TabletopGame/{{Hecatomb}}'' had this as its premise - each player was an [[OmnicidalManiac "Endbringer"]], someone who, whether MadScientist, EvilSorcerer or what-have-you, competed with other Endbringers to be the first to [[YourSoulIsMine gather enough souls]] to bring about TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt to fuel their powers, then move on to the next AlternateUniverse to start over. You fought each other by summoning/creating monstrous minions (many of them {{eldritch abomination}}s in their own right) and [[FusionDance fusing them together]] to form [[HybridMonster Abominations]], calling down [[GodOfEvil evil gods]] (including [[EldritchAbomination Great Old Ones]]), and similar dirty tricks, all to get the requisite 20 soul tokens at your enemies' expense. And since every player gained a soul token at the beginning of his/her turn...
* ''TabletopGame/JAGSWonderland'' [[spoiler: is a massive subversion]]. The world is being menaced by the Caretakers, a group of [[TheFairFolk entities who live based on story rather than physical laws, as we humans do]]. They have collectively decided to drive humanity to [[DrivenToSuicide self-destruction]], and have done so via a [[TheVirus viral]] insanity that causes ''reality'' to lose its grip on ''you''... [[spoiler:The Caretakers hate humans because they're actually ''terrified'' of us, since we act in ways they find utterly incomprehensible. That, and the reveal of the fact that ''vice versa'' is not true...]]
* The world of TabletopGame/KingdomDeath. On top of the {{Crapsack|World}} DeathWorld filled with monstrous, madness-inducing horrors where humans are at the bottom of the food chain, the fluff hints at one or several unknowable, unkillable entities who created the world and everything in it for completely unknown reasons. Even managing to defeat the endgame FinalBoss of a given campaign is likely to be a PyrrhicVictory at best. In fact, even the monsters themselves, despite usually being some shade of EldritchAbomination, aren't immune to being hit by this, the intelligent ones especially - the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon King]], for example, is the LastOfItsKind, and explicitely angsts over this and the fear of ultimately being forgotten, showing it to be as insignificant as the human chattel it lords over.
* The Swedish RPG ''TabletopGame/{{KULT}}'' mixed Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Aleister Crowley occult traditions and the ''Franchise/{{Hellraiser}}'' movies, and took its aesthetics from [[PunkPunk Splatter Punk]], Creator/CliveBarker and Creator/HRGiger art. It's actually a subversion. Humans are hopeless against supernatural forces, but [[spoiler:will triumph once awoken. In fact, most supernatural beings are hopelessly trying to prevent that. In other words, they broke their arms punching us]].
* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has the ''Shadows Over Innistrad'' block, which is a continuation from a previous ''Innistrad'' block. Whereas the original ''Innistrad'' block is a GothicHorror setting with humans being preyed upon by vampires, werewolves, zombies, demons, what-have-you, ''Shadows Over Innistrad'' has cultists, people going crazy and resident EldritchAbomination wreaking havoc. [[spoiler:Its ending especially cements the Cosmic Horror Story status: Said EldritchAbomination is successfully sealed... only because it has decided it's done playing and seals itself for reasons unknown]].
* The same Swedish company behind ''TabletopGame/{{KULT}}'' also released ''TabletopGame/MutantChronicles'', whose basic premise is somewhat similar to that of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', if on a much smaller scale (humanity still hasn't expanded beyond the solar system); although depending on the GameMaster's choices for his own campaign, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu it could be entirely possible for the players to rip the Dark Soul a new one if they try hard enough]].
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctum Noctum]]'' has such a premise (mixed, like others on the list, with splatterpunk), but with the caveat that [[spoiler:the reason the abominations were attracted to our world in the first place is because {{humans are bastards}}]].
* The TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness has elements of this in each of its gamelines, with each one having an apocalyptic ending. [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Vampire]] has the [[EldritchAbomination Antediluvians]], their ancient, cannibalistic and godlike forefathers and [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Werewolf]] has the Wyrm and the titular apocalypse. Of the bigger lines, only [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension Mage]] gives the potential for a happy ending, and doesn't involve one flavour or another of the Old Ones eating everything (unless the [=PCs=] screw up BADLY).
* Pelgrane Press [[AuthorAppeal really seem to like this trope]], since the first three published settings for their ''TabletopGame/{{Gumshoe}}'' system -- ''TabletopGame/TrailOfCthulhu'', ''TabletopGame/FearItself'' and ''TabletopGame/TheEsoterrorists'' -- all contain varying degrees of it. The first one is classic Franchise/CthulhuMythos pulp horror investigation; the second is about playing more or less normal people suddenly confronted to the fact that their world actually is like every Creator/CliveBarker-esque supernatural [[PunkPunk splatterpunk]] story lumped together; and the third is about a secret organisation, the Ordo Veritatis, trying to stop an AncientConspiracy (the eponymous esoterrorists) from turning their world into a copy of the second one for fun and profit. Things are not going so well for the Ordo. A bestiary-style supplement released first for the d20 then for the latter two is very aptly called TabletopGame/TheBookOfUnremittingHorror. ''Trail of Cthulhu'''s Purist mode is meant to emulate a Cosmic Horror Story at its most bleak and austere. The scenario "The Final Revelation" ends with the reveal to the player characters that the world was ''already'' consumed by horrible alien entities before their investigation even began, and everything they have experienced so far is a lie their fractured minds have told themselves. Every investigator immediately goes insane as reality itself dissolves into a surreal, endless nightmare.
* ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'' has published a supplement called ''Worlds Of Cthulhu''. No points for guessing [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos the premise]].
* ''TabletopGame/ShadowOfTheDemonLord''. Not only is the setting DarkerAndEdgier even by DarkFantasy standards, as it stands, there is no way to effectively repel the Demon Lord (an OmnicidalManiac EldritchAbomination) and his forces. The best anyone can do is [[YouCantFightFate delay the inevitable]].
* ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'' subverts the trope; the setting's big secret is that [[spoiler:the universe is humanocentric, existing only for our benefit]]. Any horrific monsters beyond time that make us insignificant, then, are actually [[spoiler:the product, not the cause, of our sense of insignificance; it's a vicious cycle.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Warhammer}}'':
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' aka ''Warhammer Fantasy'' takes place in a world infiltrated by Chaos, a [[TheCorruption corruptive force given strength by the ickier parts of the human psyche]]. The only way to combat Chaos is to be [[KnightTemplar frighteningly dogmatic and wipe it out whenever it looks at you funny]], [[IDidWhatIHadToDo no matter who gets caught in the crossfire]].
** ''TabletopGame/WarhammerTheEndTimes'' took the trope to the logical conclusion: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the world was conquered by Chaos and destroyed]]. A couple of months later the setting was given a ResetButtonEnding in the form of ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', acting as a LovecraftLite sequel: we've seen what Chaos can do, now mankind fights to keep it from happening again.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' (Warhammer's JustForFun/SciFiCounterpart) is ''[[CrapsackWorld even worse]]''. Not only is Chaos even more of a threat (powerful daemons in ''Warhammer'' can devastate cities; powerful daemons in ''[=40K=]'' can devastate '''star systems'''), there are also the [[NighInvulnerability implacable]] legions of the Necrons and their former [[PhysicalGod C'tan]] masters[[note]]though they vary a fair bit; plenty will kill you on the spot, but plenty of others won't bother you as long as you stay out of their way, and a few are totally willing to work with you on reasonable terms as long as you have a common goal[[/note]], and the [[WeHaveReserves limitless Tyranid hordes]] controlled by its immortal HiveMind, as well as the Dark Eldar, aka the Eldar who gleefully continued with the behavior that created Slaanesh in the first place and now must descend into greater and greater depths of depravity to stave off his hunger for their souls, which translates into them being the one faction you absolutely [[FateWorseThanDeath do not want to be captured by]], but are held back by their limited numbers and the borrowed time they live on. Indeed, it's often noted that humanity still survives despite [[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed the galaxy always being doomed]] not because of anything they do, but because the various unstoppable, incomprehensible menaces keep ''getting in each other's ways''.
*** Even the closest thing the setting has to "Good Guys" are pretty horrific. The Imperium is xenophobic Totalitarian Theocracy who feed 1000 souls to keep the GodEmperor alive each day. The Eldar will happily sacrifice millions of lives of "lesser" species to ensure the survival of even a single one of themselves. The Tau are probably the least Xenophobic race in the setting and claim to serve the "Greater Good". However all that really means is they're willing to offer subjugation to other species rather than just exterminating them immediately, as they are every bit as ruthless as the rest of the main factions when their offers are refused, and numerous unsubstantiated but perfectly plausible rumors of labor camps and forced sterilization and eugenics on the human worlds they conquer exist. Probably the fourth "nicest" race in the setting is the Orks, because at least rather than wanting to totally annihilate their enemies (after horrifically torturing them), they're just [[BloodKnight looking for a good fight]]. Sometimes you'll encounter bands of Necrons that are on your side or, at the very least, won't shoot you on sight, ''sometimes'', but even people who have worked with Necrons will tell you that you should never gamble on it and should assume that every single Necron is hostile until proven otherwise. The Kroot (who are typically employed by the Tau) are honestly the nicest race out there by a long shot; if you can get past the ritual cannibalism, taste for sentients, and [[CringeComedy perverse and assholish sense of humor]], they're actually quite pleasant, and unless their employers are opposed to you or you've managed to royally piss them off, they are extremely happy to live and let live (assuming they don't decide to fuck with you and make you the butt of an incredibly unpleasant joke).
