r/SCP • u/MousseNecessary3258 • 1d ago
Help What SCP concepts are the hardest to execute?
Which concepts nearly always fail? Can yall give examples please? What do yall think? Any ideas?
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u/TheProNoobCN Neutralized 1d ago edited 1d ago
Meta SCPs, stuff with Deletions and Pataphysics and the like are definitely the hardest to wrap your head around no matter if you're the author or the reader.
Edit: I didn't see the almost always fail part, we do have A LOT of high quality meta SCPs thanks to people like McDoctorate. But I standby that they're the hardest to understand, however unlike stuff like generic humanoid anomaly number 30280, it's not saturated by off site fans who have 0 idea of what the Wiki has evolved to become, and those who are aware wouldn't try to write something that's meta until they have gotten enough experience and confidence (or at least understand how critting works).
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u/Gary_not_that_gary 1d ago
In my opinion its the OMG if this Scp isn't contained, then it's going to destroy the earth/ Take over the Earth with ease. Like i get that certain SCPs are capable of doing it but i mean the ones where its one tiny wrong step and the Scp wakes or gets pissed and bam the earth is cracked open like a egg.
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u/killertortilla 1d ago
You can write them well, see The Child, but I think people try to write a lot of them like Marvel characters.
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u/miner1512 SCP基金會 • Traditional Chinese 1d ago
I struggle to think one that’s posted in last 30 days that fits that description ngl
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u/Gary_not_that_gary 1d ago
Not really a time sensitive case I'm meaning in general.
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u/miner1512 SCP基金會 • Traditional Chinese 1d ago
Ah. Misread your question, mb.
I can think of like…Two I’ve read that’s about that. The second one isn’t even the focus, the Foundation just cooperated with the other party to close that side effect in the bud.
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u/RimworlderJonah13579 Uncontained 1d ago
More of a general thing, but any SCP that tries to write serious subject matter and fails to give it the respect it deserves.
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u/hand-o-pus Department of Acroamatic Abatement 1d ago
There’s an essay in the Resource hub about overdone concepts if anyone wants to read it. Also recommend the [[Essay on Things What Do a Thing]] and [[Sensitive Topics and You]] essays. The Essays and Resources section has a ton of articles on what makes for an interesting or well done SCP article including ones that link good examples of the topic. I personally go started by reading the articles linked in those essays and I’m glad I did because they’ve all been really good.
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u/HubblePie 1d ago
Generally the more powerful, the harder it is to write. Because it gets to a point where it doesn't make sense how it's contained, and the results of it breaching containment are just ridiculous. Honestly, I even think SCP-106 gets close to crossing the line.
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Apollyon 1d ago
Some I can get behind are "we are not containing it someone else is doing it" and "we are not containing it it's staying here because it wants to for some fucking reason"
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u/HubblePie 1d ago
SCP-2662 is a "We are not containing it, it's staying here on its own" but that one's pretty well written.
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u/Kapitano72 1d ago
Teenage superheroes with anime hair and rage states.
Anything with powerscaling.
Pop culture and memes.
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Apollyon 1d ago
Have you seen Cameron the Crusader? ( SCP 2241)
Literally anime guy with super powers
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u/Kapitano72 1d ago
Pretty good - with the Foundation shading over from "cold but not cruel" to "we're the baddies aren't we".
But this is about what hard to pull off, not what's to be avoided on principle.
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Apollyon 1d ago
Humanoid SCP's don't work outside of AO3 for the most part
They're either overpowered or completely uninteresting (the powers, not as characters, but they do tend to get very little characterization)
Like the Dimension Hopper guy or the kid superhero
(Someone please activate Marv)
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u/XPLover2768top The Church of the Broken God 1d ago
SCP-507
SCP-2241
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 1d ago
- SCP-507 - Reluctant Dimension Hopper (+1748) by PennywiseTheClown
- SCP-2241 - Cameron The Crusader (+361) by Tuomey Tombstone
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u/Aaron-de-vesta Фонд SCP • Ukrainian 1d ago
Dimensional hopper could be interesting as a tragedy or a comedy of a single main character and his troubles. Maybe give him a romantic interest and make it somehow possible to hop back with some ordeals to achieve such control over ability.
Superman story can also be good. Sure, no one can beat you. But are you happy?
Reality bender can lobotomize themself with direct injection of "happiness" or go mad losing the ability to distinguish reality and imagination as they "blend-in-between".
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Apollyon 1d ago
Tbh when you're a reality warper there is no "reality" or "imagination" as it's just basically the same thing if you're powerful enough
That's why I consider the Scarlet King kinda weak, because if he was as strong as they make him out to be the whole SCP Foundation wouldn't exist and the whole multiverse would be destroyed
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u/Aaron-de-vesta Фонд SCP • Ukrainian 1d ago
Reality benders are not omnipotent either. Anyway, it is all about author's preferences more than anything.
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u/Aceswift007 SCP-1896 1d ago
To me, reality benders are limited in their understanding of reality itself.
If I was a reality bender and I understood, idk, how atoms in liquid operated, I'd be able to manipulate that in ways I understand.
It does not mean that I can, on a whim, change the flow of time or something, cause I don't UNDERSTAND how time flows besides how we perceive it.
Basically like wizard rules in fantasy, how just because you have magic doesn't mean you can perform every feat of magic. ACCIDENTALLY is one thing, INTENTIONALLY is another.
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u/Aaron-de-vesta Фонд SCP • Ukrainian 1d ago
It is whatever author decides.
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u/Aceswift007 SCP-1896 1d ago
I know, I gave my own as an example cause theres others who take the polar opposite and that's ok
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u/miner1512 SCP基金會 • Traditional Chinese 1d ago
I say [[Stellar Remnants]], [[Whore of Blood]] and [[SCP-7454]] pulled it off.
I’d agree they all focus on characterization, though.
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 1d ago
- SCP-8760 - Stellar Remnants (+25) by Enayy
- WHORE OF BLOOD (+109) by Fantem
- SCP-7454 - Aphrodite, Goddess of Love Isaac (+180) by Iszth
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Apollyon 1d ago
Yea,it's very hard to get the powers right
Because it's either Superman,or just a guy who could basically be considered normal
Like Joe Schmo (that's actually an SCP apparently)
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u/Aaron-de-vesta Фонд SCP • Ukrainian 1d ago
Can't really think of anything that does not have a workaround.
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u/cooldydiehaha ↬ The Wanderers' Library ↫ 1d ago
If you mean the hardest to write, I'd day surrealistic or meta SCPs (Like, for example, deletions)
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u/Bright_Salamander_56 MTF Nu-7 ("Hammer Down") 1d ago
Okay these one don’t fail that often simply because they are only attempted by some of the best writers on the wiki but I’d say for the average writer it’d be Unreality or Deletions, they’re very meta and by their very nature deal with things that don’t exist. Also Unreality is in my opinion the peak of SCP, Mx. Alex Thorley my beloved
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u/hand-o-pus Department of Acroamatic Abatement 1d ago
Overdone concept - anomaly makes you crazy and mental illness is scary. I found [[D is for Dermatology]] to be a prime example of a story that relies on shock factor and gore to invoke a reader’s fear of mental illness. It also totally misses the mark on proper use of clinical/scientific terms in the comment on the autopsy at the end and doesn’t even name the obvious diagnosis the main character would have been given at the ER, even in conversation with clinicians who would mention it. I found the ending unrealistic because of the established character dynamics.
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u/AdjectiveNoun11 Voices Heard Here 1d ago
I guarantee at least half of deleted SCPs are humanoids, particularly the "X-Men" cliche of generic superhero teenager/young adult who the Foundation totally cannot handle when he enters his rage state!!!
There are a lot of very good humanoid SCP, even superheroes and other "OC" type concepts; you just have to approach them as SCPs first and foremost, not as character sheets.
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u/Poison_AIC Office of Tactical Theology 18h ago
I think they would be stuff like:
- pattern screamers ( I still don't know what they are )
- antimemetic / infohazards
- narrative related anomalies
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u/Delicious_Walk7220 Cognitohazard\olfactory 1d ago
Just my opinion, but any idea with physical comedy doesn’t translate well. As for a more traditional scp? I think memetics can be heard because of how many there are
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u/TheQuestionMaster8 MTF ε ("Lights in the Dark") 1d ago
I have no experience, but I would guess SCPs that are neutralised and genuinely good end of the world SCPs.
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u/AllHoosiers-GoToHell Archon 1d ago
Cross-tests. There’s a reason they fell out of favor with writers, they’re nigh impossible to justify in-universe
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u/MystericWonder 1d ago
"Weird object" without attaching any kind of plot twist or extended background
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u/Aware-Butterfly8688 MTF Alpha-9 ("Last Hope") 1d ago
Anything involving an esoteric class. If you don't do it right, you end up with a lot of people asking "Why didn't you just make it Keter?" But if you give a bunch of exposition explaining why an esoteric class is warranted, that might put off people from reading it.
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u/killertortilla 1d ago edited 1d ago
Fucking anything with the "Ooooh it keeps you alive while it eats 90% of your brain" no it fucking doesn't. You'd die from the pain LONG before most of the creatures could do anything their entries describe. But even if you didn't, you aren't alive when the insects have eaten most of your organs, they didn't replace your fucking organs just to keep you alive and warm as a nest, fuck off.
I get the idea, insects inside you is scary, but there needs to be a certain level of realism otherwise it just becomes so ridiculous it's completely unbelievable. Maybe whatever creature you're thinking of has no limits, the human body has MANY limits. We can't tolerate that much pain without dying, and "secreting adrenaline to keep you awake" would just make you die even faster from a heart attack.
It's the same nonsense as Warhammer writers love. "The man was slowly disassembled and they took extra care to keep him alive so that when they connected wires and electrodes to his exposed nerves" I'm sorry they did what? Have you ever even watched a youtube video on how the human body works? Just a little research and you have a compelling story.
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u/Kaizo_Kaioshin Apollyon 1d ago
If it's anomalous it could do that
It doesn't have to follow the rules of physics or biology, otherwise it wouldn't be anomalous
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u/notaslaaneshicultist Alagadda 10h ago
To be fair, the last paragraph fits quite well into the shithole that is living in 40k
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u/ShyGuy-_ Field Agent 1d ago
Not sure if it's the hardest, but I think stuff like antimemes would be pretty tricky to write well. You'd need a good concept, and a way to write about something that is to some extent likely indescribable in a way that is coherent and engaging to the reader.
Meta stuff I think could also be hard to write, specifically the ones that utilize/mess with the formatting of the page to tell a story.