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I feel that Call of Cthulhu particularly fails to capture anything that makes its antagonists terrifying in the sanity mechanics and it usually just manifests as a penalty for interacting with otherworldly creatures.

Alien does a fear mechanic that's similar to sanity but with a strong short term panic focus.

The only system I know that seems to have made a real effort in innovating here is Unknown Armies.

[Unmarked spoilers ahead] I've recently played through Subnautica 1 for the first time and I can't tell if this is just me or not, but it feels like an exploration of the concept of loneliness.

Spending time in the Lost River, far from safety and surface, you are not just alone, you are a tiny creature clinging to a metal bubble of air, trying to survive in a place you do not belong.

The radio offers tantalising hints of fellow survivors, but they are elusive. The Precursors are all gone. leaving only their toys behind.

The only actual intelligent being (aside from your PDA which is frankly concerningly intelligent given how quickly it works out alien language) you meet is the Sea Emperor/Empress. They are not even remotely human, but when I met them, the starvation for somebody, anybody to interact with hit me. They were kind and sad and they left too soon. Like giving somebody dying of thirst in a desert a small cup of water and no more.

Running a local club game set in the 40k universe. We are on week 4/8.

Players have a primary objective, with a backdrop of something strange and slightly sinister going on. This is related to fairly obscure lore. The players don't have any specifics that would identify the cause they of the background issue and they don't have any of the necessary background or lore skills in character. It's intended to be a slow burn mystery.

One of the players bursts out after the game.

"Oh, I am 100% certain it's [specific cult of a specific alien sub-faction.]" Then goes on to detail their story and motivations in detail to the rest of the players in a 10 minute diatribe.

[me, internally screaming]

This is why we made judicial systems, where each side gets to tell their version of events and a group of randomly selected people weigh up evidence that has been carefully and thoroughly explained with the aid of professionals. Even when all of this is present and working correctly, there are very often huge mistakes.

(Go to an actual average trial and it's shockingly pedestrian attempts to strip back layers of "he said she said" over matters like "He took my bike without asking and didn't give it back" vs. "Well you said I could have it because I gave you my PS4.")

When a professional court is not used we tend to get a mob mentality. People act on emotions rather than facts and push each other to escalate.

The fact that cancel culture exists is a sign that one or more of these things is true:

1) Immoral or socially objectionable things are happening which are serious but don't amount to a crime.

2) People who should be accused of a crime are evading the process completely.

3) There is a lack of faith in that system.

Cancel culture and boycotts are step one in that general disconnection.

* Victor Fries talking about his terminally I'll wife

* Victor from Deadlock talking about being an assemblage of undying body parts

* Viktor from Arcane season 1 talking about his debilitating disease.

* Simulationist - where the game rules attempt to replicate the world as closely as possible.

* Narrativist - Rules concern themselves only with the drama of the characters and are usually very streamlined.

* D&D which does neither particularly well.

But there are several characters who are actually more than one person

Mo & Krill are perhaps the most obvious, but you have Savannah and Sinclair, Graves and her lich hand Teacher, lady Geist and Oathkeeper and I think there was at least one more "composite" hero. Maybe Rem and his little helpers?

Who gets the wish? Do both of them get a wish, just the "primary" character? Or is it a contest of wills after the ritual concludes?

However they try to solve the mystery and call the police, but there's no answer. Curiously nobody can leave to get help either.

The host planned this murder mystery party and invited their friends, but as each friend cancelled or called off, they hired an android to fill the missing roll so that the story would still work.

Say what you will but James Cameron is a fairly accomplished scientist in his own right with his background in Marine sciences.

He writes his stories with a strong underpinning of real world physics and biology.

Take a look at the ISV Venture Star for example. It's got radiators, it travels at sub-light speed and uses a fairly plausible future design. He tends to write relatively hard sci-fi, featuring technology that might not exist yet, but there's no theoretical reason it couldn't be developed eventually.

Why is this important? Because the biology of Pandora makes perfect sense, except for one thing. The Na'vi.

The biology of the setting is very consistent. All the higher vertebrates on Pandora except the Na'vi have a 6-limb body structure.

Most higher vertebrates have a neural queue that allows the Na'vi to interface and command them, as well as to sync their minds with the sacred trees.

Furthermore, they look human... very human. They are able to vocalise in the human range and use their tools. Whilst every other organism on the planet is distinctly alien.

These are not a naturally developed species.

The Na'vi are intermediaries, created by Pandora's plant-based planetary intelligence. Based on the planet's analysis of the very first humans to land on the planet (and likely die). The Avatar referenced in the title of the story is not the human-made avatars, but the Na'vi themselves.

I don't think it's too controversial to say that the Sequel trilogy was a disappointment at this point. The disconnect between the directors and their visions for the project were too disjointed. A shame. But going back and focusing on the past is a mistake. The really good thing that the Sequels did, from a narrative perspective, was to break the galaxy. All of the major factions were wiped out, the Empire, both republics, the First and Final order and left in splintered pieces. Furthermore it introduces the concept of new force users emerging without any ties to the Jedi or Sith.

"Sorry we are closed, we will be open tomorrow."

The team do the cultural equivalent of stuffing all the dirty laundry into a cupboard, because the first impression at an in person meeting must go well.

The biggest obstacle: xenofuckers.

The aliens are not remotely humanoid, but it was hard to find candidates for the mission who didn't want to have a close encounter of the Captain Kirk kind. Even then there are stowaways, Identity thieves, independent space launches (who all want some hot alien sexy time) and so on which the crew fight desperately to keep at bay.