Wilton 1

Joshua Wilton
Megan Keaton
ENC 1101-26
10/26/2016
Assignment #2 Second Draft
I have always said that writing is one of humanities greatest achievements, but why do
we write? Our ability to communicate has grown over the course of human history, and we use
writing almost every day. Each person has their own unique style, and some communities have
even adopted specific formats to make their writing more impactful, direct, useful, etc. Two such
communities are the SCP wiki and the Grimoire Project. These two communities are centered
around inspiring their readers, but maintain clear differences in their style and subject matter. In
this essay, the two communities will be analyzed for their common and unique themes,
structures, and purposes.Havent written an intro paragraph yet, will have that for draft 2.
The first community discussed in this essay is something called the SCP Foundation.
Found on www.scp-wiki.net, the SCP Foundation is a group of people who make up and write
about these supposed anomalous objects, which a n imaginary secret society called the SCP
(Secure Contain Protect) Foundation hunt down and attempt to contain and study to protect the
rest of humanity. Each page on the wiki is dedicated to a different anomalous object, which can
range from complete jokes like a tomato that throws itself at you when you make a bad jokethe
sources of poor comedy to something frightening enough to be the subject of a horror movie
like the man who can convince anyone something is a hilarious prank, even when one has
sustained serious or even fatal bodily harm. I have not written one myself, but I have reviewed
and edited several pages for other authors. The community is intended to be an open-source
collaborative writing project, where people write about these anomalous objects for others to use
in other stories, video games, movies, etc.
The texts on the SCP wiki have a very specific format, in an attempt to create the illusion
that the people who make these are researchers for an organization of some sort. Every object

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starts off with a number, as a sort of identifier instead of using a name. Next is a classification of
how safe or dangerous it is. Objects can be Safe, meaning they pose no threat as long as they are
left alone, Euclid, meaning their behavior cannot be easily predicted and are very dangerous, but
do not pose much of a risk for containment breach, and Keter, meaning the object is extremely
dangerous, is actively trying to break containment, and a containment breach would likely lead to
exposure of the Foundation. After a safety classification is a description of containment
procedures. These very greatly depending on the SCP, some requiring only a dry box, not to be
touched unless testing is to be done, and some requiring a constant sulfuric acid bath to keep
from trying to kill everyone in the immediate vicinity. Following the containment procedures is a
description of the object. This includes a physical description, what the object does, how the
foundation found this object, test logs, transcripts, records of containment breaches, etc. Every
object follows this same structure, varying slightly depending on the object. Much like the
structure, the vocabulary is meant to reflect the idea that these are written by scientists and
researchers, usually keeping an objective or passive tone throughout the page.
One such object is designated SCP-504, and was noted earlier in this essay as the
tomatoes that throw themselves at the sources of bad jokes. The page gives the number, classifies
it as safe, and describes its containment procedures, saying that the plant, fruit, seeds, and any
cross-breeds of SCP-504 are to be kept in a soundproof room, and anyone who handles them
should be muffled with masks that eliminate sound to avoid attempts at humor. It then goes on to
describe SCP-504 as a species of tomatoes very similar to normal tomatoes. It also states that
they were retrieved when police received a call that a local farmer had been Murdered by his
lunch. Only fresh, non-rotten tomatoes exhibit their anomalous property, but they do not need to
be intact. Some of the tests result in physical injury, death, and in one case complete vaporization

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of a portable cd player playing a particularly poor engineering joke. Speeds can exceed 2000
miles per hour.
The next object, much less light in subject matter, is SCP-823. Like the previous object, it
gives its identification number, object classification (this time euclid), and describes its
containment procedures. The procedures include having no less than six personnel on site at all
times to monitor 823, remaining at least twenty meters from a designated red zone. Anyone
who attempts to enter the red zone is to be immediately terminated by sniper fire. It also notes
that if music is heard from within the red zone, personnel are to insert protective ear plugs and
retreat two kilometers out into a yellow zone, and remain there until foundation scientists can
assess a new red and yellow zone. SCP-823 is described as an abandoned amusement park where
numerous inexplicable grizzly deaths occur. The foundation took control over 823 after an event
colloquially known as Bloody Sunday, where 823 caused a peak number of incidents, with
two-hundred-thirty-one (231) attendees dying and another seven (7) being injured or maimed.
The page includes a list of all civilian and foundation personnel deaths caused by 823, but the
author of this essay has decided to spare the reader the gruesome details, and instead just note
that they could not be caused by a series of unfortunate accidents, and would require some sort of
paranormal or anomalous activity.
The communitys intent behind creating these pages is to entertain people who want to
read about these objects, creating a similar rush to watching a horror movie, and to provide
inspiration for others who wanted to use these anomalies in other mediums, such as games,
movies, stories, etc. As of right now there are at least eight different games based off of the
works of the SCP community. There are also several fan made short films, and, while usually of
low production quality, they do fairly faithfully depict the things written about on the wiki. As of
today (10/25/16), the community is working on series III, meaning they are working on the

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SCPs designated SCP-2000 to SCP-2999. Some of these have been completed, some have not,
and with the extra pages like the ones dedicated to specific researchers, joke pages, explanations,
and other non-scp related matter, it is difficult to get a count of how many of these anomalies
have been written about, but it is above two thousand different anomalous objects, and this
author would estimate that there are around two thousand two hundred to two thousand three
hundred different objects.
The second community to be discussed is something called the Grimoire project on
reddit. RFor those of you who dont know, reddit, for the unaware, is a social media platform
based primarily on link or image sharing. It is divided into what are called subreddits, which are
sub-pages dedicated to specific topicseach one focused on a different topic. In one of the
subreddits for the popular table top role playing game Dungeons and Dragons, some people got
the idea to create information and interesting lore for the spells that casters in the game can use.
Like in the SCP community, I havent written any myself, but have reviewed and offered
constructive criticism to several other authors. Mostly this was to make the spells more than just
have an effect in the game, but alsoto give their use create a level of immersion and depth to the
world the players are in.
The texts usually focus on a few specific topics about the spell. These can include things
like who created or discovered the spell, how the spell is learned, a description of its casting and
effects, famous uses of the spell, and moral or ethical concerns about the use of the spell. They
almost always end with a section called DMs Toolkit, where the author talks about how this
information could be used in somebodys game. The texts in the project can take the form of
diary entries of people as they view the spell, learn it, or come to invent it, historical texts, outof-character explanations, etc.
The first example text to be examined will be that for the spell called Tashas Hideous
Laughter. In the game itself, this spell causes the target to fall prone in laughing fits, unable to

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perform any sort of action. The Grimoire has a brief letter from a foolish son to his wise mother,
saying how he was a fool for running off with some woman and how she was right about her
being trouble. He asks for money to get home, attempting to provide it by selling the spell
enclosed to the local mages guild. The spell requires one tell one of three specific poor jokes
whilst wiggling a feather and hurling small projectiles at the target. It also includes a drawing of
the actions performed. The spell then switches perspectives to the patrol log of a guard named
Sargent Mohan Rose, who states that this letter is catalogued at the Watermount College for
Arcanists and Magicians, indicating that this spell has been used for nefarious purposes, with a
court jester being killed by a pair of gloves enchanted with this effect. The log continues to talk
about what the spell is used for now, mostly academic study, and notes that it is kept under lock
and key. The page then goes on to the DMs Toolkit section, where the author of the page talks
about how the afore mentioned gloves could be introduced as a cursed item, how bonuses could
be applied if the caster knew the targets first language and their culture, and how the spell itself
could lead to comedic circumstances if used correctly.
The community is attempting to put together this collection of spells to help inspire other
dungeon masters to add new levels of immersion into their games. This new collection of lore is
meant mostly to help keep players immersed in the games world and focused on role-play and
characterization. They have also been written to entertain those who are not currently in D&D
games.
To compare the two groups, both were created with the primary purpose of inspiring
other people to use this material in their own stuff. The SCP wiki is all open sourced, as is the
Girmoire project, so one shouldnt have to worry about copyright or other legal issues. In both
cases the material has been used in several different games. They are different in their structure;
the SCP wiki has a much more rigid structure, in that it is supposed to emulate the style of a

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scientist, whereas the Grimoire project often takes a first person perspective, such as journal
entries.
In conclusion, this will be filled out with a better conclusion before the second draft., the
two communities both have similar goals of inspiring their readers to create other forms of
media, but remain unique in their finer details like word choice, structure, and material. Our use
of writing varies from community to community, and has changed over millennia; As Marjane
Satrapi once said, The first writing of the human being was drawing, not writing. Whether we
are keeping a historical record, organizing bizarre and unexplainable anomalies, giving life to the
spells in someones role-playing game, or analyzing purpose of writing in different communities,
writing has always been our ally.