The New Cosmic Horror: A Genre Molded by Tabletop Roleplaying Games and Postmodern Horror

The beginnings of cosmic horror and Lovecraftian fiction stem from the weird genre of the mid-20th century. So too is the modern cosmic horror genre connected to the often-contentious New Weird genre of the 21st century. The delineation of this new genre, the New Weird, appeared after several authors felt certain science fiction stories of the 21st century were of a wholly distinct literary styling from other narratives of the time [1]. Highly debated, New Weird arose from the combination of elements found in two modern science fiction genres. This new genre, individuals claimed, combined the already blurred lines of fantasy and science fiction of slipstream and interstitial science fiction with elements and narratives found in the horror genre. This new genre explored themes and narratives similar to the weird genre of the 1940s, but with a modern viewpoint and mindset. Due to the similarities between the two genres, the authors called the new genre the New Weird [2].

New Weird is the result of the constant evolution of genres. While seemingly similar to its predecessor, upon closer inspection New Weird was a wholly different entity than the 1940s weird genre. However, 1940s weird was also a source of numerous sub-genres, so does the same hold true of New Weird? Yes; cosmic horror and Lovecraftian fiction is a staple of modern culture, but similar to New Weird, modern narratives of the genre have a similar appearance yet follow different principles. Modern cosmic horror media, especially tabletop gaming, utilize a different mentality than found in previous works of cosmic horror.