PHOBIAS LIST

Don't let you players off with choosing a nice phobia! Have them randomly select a number from the list.

1. AGORAPHOBIA. Fear of open places. The sky is so wide, so heavy, so massive. It spreads into infinity with stars and clouds held up by who knows what. Monsters come from the sky and space.

2. BACTERIOPHOBIA. Fear of bacteria. Tiny bacteria are crawling all over you, bringing dread disease and disfiguration. Each one is an agent of the Great Old Ones. They lurk everywhere, in the bushes, on your food, everywhere.

3. BALLISTOPHOBIA. Fear of bullets. There is nothing more terrifying than the sound of gunfire, for that means They have found you again. Gunfire attracts monsters. Agents of monsters. Agents of monsters wield guns themselves. Run far away from all guns, or alternatively try to get rid of all guns around you.

4. BAROPHOBIA. Fear of loss of gravity. You know that you might fall off the world, into the sky. Hold onto something every minute. Be sure that what you hold onto is bolted to the earth. Walk cautiously !

5. CLAUSTROPHOBIA. Fear of enclosed spaces. It's awfully cramped in here. You can't stretch your arms and you're getting a terrible cramp in your back and your legs and your stomach. Maybe that's why the sweat is crawling down your forehead. It's smaller in here than it was a minute ago. The walls are closing in ! Forget everything else, get out of here !

6. DEMOPHOBIA. Fear of crowds. Any crowded place has agents of Them. You are extremely uneasy with any group of people, even your friends. The presence of other bodies may make you physically ill and even hysterical.

7. DENDROPHOBIA. Fear of trees. They taught you in school that trees are alive. They were right. If you turn your back on them, they will move. Cut them all down if you dare, it's the only way to be safe. If it's too dangerous to draw near them, stay far away in the heart of the city, when the only trees are sickly saplings, easily chopped down.

8. DORAPHOBIA. Fear of fur. Monsters have fur. Ergo, pussycats and dogs and bears and mice must be monsters. Watch out, they're everywhere.

9. ENTQMOPHOBIA. Fear of insects. There are billions, quadrillions of insects out there. They are all after you, crawling under your bed, flying above you, infesting your food. There is no escape, but you must try.

10. NYCTOPHOBIA. Fear of nightfall. With the fall of night comes terror. It's harder to see. Night is the time of the coming of the minions and the demons and the agents of the monsters of foulness. Death is nigh !

11. OPHIOPHOBIA. Fear of snakes. Snakes are agents of the Evil One. All are bloated with deadly poison. The simplest snake or lizard could grow to monstrous proportions. They could swallow you whole and pierce your insides with terrifying convulsions.

12. SCOTOPHOBIA. Fear of darkness. Darkness of any sort hides monsters. That shadow could conceal one. Only light and flame are weapons against Them. Keep the home fires burning.

13. TERATOPHOBIA. Fear of monsters. Monsters are everywhere. The end is near. Monsters are tricky. Are you sure your friend isn't a monster ?

14. THALASSOPHOBIA. Fear of the sea. Thundering waves, briny green emptiness, the sea will flood the land and only the highest mountain peaks will survive above water, maybe. The doom is coming now. Warn the world.

15. XENOPHOBIA. Fear of foreigners. Your friends are safe enough, and so are most Americans. But how about these foreigners ? Any of them could be assassins in the pay of Them. They might be monsters in disguise ! Beware all foreign accents and mongrel faces, and tell all your friends to watch out for them too.

16. ALEKTOROPHOBIA. Fear of chickens. We all know that chickens are There agents in chicken suits. All that stuff with clucking and laying eggs is just a front. Chickens are heavy duty. You should always blow them away on the off-chance.

17. AMYCHOPHOBIA. Fear of being scratched. Things have claws. Things scratch you with that nameless, unspeakable inner resonance that means your soul is lost to the Great Old Ones or one of the many clawed, scratching abominations of the Occult.

18. BATRACHOPHOBIA. Fear of reptiles. Cold-blooded creatures seem to have an obvious affinity with all sorts of creeping, oozing horrors with huge teeth and forked tongues and vast appetites. Even garden lizards are watching, waiting.....

19. BLENNOPHOBIA. Fear of slime. Everything in the Occult is slimy. Viscous oils, jellies, the signs of passage of these creatures are everywhere.

20. CARNOPHOBIA. Fear of meat. How can you be certain of where this stuff comes from ? Butchers look at you in such an odd way.....they're almost certainly cultists.

21. CNIDOPHOBIA. Fear of stings. Stings are ovipositors; they may lay eggs. Inside you. You may not even feel it, since the stinger may have its own local anaesthetic. All you will know is the final few seconds of mind-numbing shock as the ghastly spawn erupt from your innards. Watch out for unexpected weight gains - the developing larvae are absorbing nutrients within you - or watch for weight loss as they drain your vital fluids away.

22. CREMNOPHOBIA. Fear of precipices. The sheer drop below a precipice.... its too potently symbolic. Its not a question of wondering what's down there; you know what's down there, and that it will come for you. The single thought of the possibility of a precipice is enough to paralyse you.

23. EREMOPHOBIA. Fear of solitude. Being alone is the most terrifying thing in the world. It is impossible, intolerable, to be alone. Because something will come, and then you'll wish you really were alone.

24. ERGASIOPHOBIA. Fear of surgery. Doctors are mad. They are learned men and they read books. Dangerous books, perhaps. Worst of all, they are interested in medicine, and that means life..... So, doctors are dangerous fanatics and surgery is the worst thing of all because you are anaesthetised and helpless.

25. HAPHEPHOBIA. Fear of being touched. If it can touch you, it can eat you, infect you, flay your skin away.

26. HELMINTHOPHOBIA. Fear of worms. Not just the big burrowing ones below the earth. The smaller ones are their spies, seeking out prey in their seemingly mindless way. Worms are at their most truly disgusting when they move; that limbless, squeezing-and-squelching, writhing motion.

27. HOMICHLOPHOBIA. Fear of fog. In fog looms terror. They slowly emerge. Vaporous blasphemies materialise from the mucus gloom and slowly enmesh victims, stifling their screams with suffocating wet embraces.

28. ICHTHYOPHOBIA. Fear of fish. Fish come from the deeps. So do many other things. Fish are old, old beyond reckoning and they know abominable secrets.

29. LYSSOPHOBIA. Fear of insanity. Obsessed by insanity, terrified of it. Are you going mad ?

30. ODONTOPHOBIA. Fear of teeth. Teeth bite and inject venom. There are some which are sharp for rending flesh and some which are blunt for chewing flesh.

31. OMMATOPHOBIA. Fear of eyes. You can be seen. There is nowhere to hide.

32. PATHIRIOPHOBIA. Fear of parasites. Parasites invade the body. They will remain with you and sap your stamina, reducing you to a shell but not permitting you the benefit of death until they find a better host.

33. PNIGEROPHOBIA. Fear of smothering. Not a fun way to die - being unable to breath as some gibbering, slime-covered thing covers your nose and mouth.

34. SCIOPHOBIA. Fear of shadows. Everyone knows a vampire casts no shadow .... but what about the other horror ..... the shadow where there is no creature.

35. SIDEROPHOBIA. Fear of stars. A starlit night is a window on the true horror of existence. Stars are abomination factories.

36. TAPHOPHOBIA. Fear of graves. Even assuming that the grave hasn't got an Undead occupant, you're sure to find a bunch of demented Cultists armed to the teeth with firearms and summoning spells.

37. TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA. Fear of having thirteen at the table. Should you ever be one of 13 to table, the storm will draw in, lightening will flash and thunder roar, and the very fabric of the heavens will be torn asunder as Old Ones materialise. Chanting will grow to unbearable volumes as the Deep Ones surface, and the End of the World will definitely be nigh. Your fate, of course, will be especially appalling ......

38. ACROPHOBIA. Fear of heights. What goes up must come down. The higher you go, the further you fall. High buildings, bridges, mountains, cliffs...

39. AILUROPHOBIA. Fear of cats. Everyone knows that cats are just witches or devils in disguise. Those evil devil-eyes, teeth and claws just made for drawing and sucking blood ! They move silently and sinisterly on soft, padded feet; they could be anywhere watching - waiting for their opportunity to catch or curse you !

40. ALGOPHOBIA. Fear of pain. Let's face it; nothing, by definition, can be worse than pain. The worst monsters and horrors don't kill quickly - they inflict endless, excruciating pain. You would rather do anything than be forced to undergo agony.

41. ANDROPHOBIA. Fear of males (suitable only for female PCs). Men are brutal, cruel. Men lust after you, their only desire to ravage and hurt. Men sacrifice women to monsters or their own depraved lusts. Men know secrets no woman can hope to fathom.

42. ANTHOPHOBIA. Fear of flowers. Flowers are unnatural; like bright cancerous growths sapping the strength and life of the land. They have weird colours and shapes, like tiny wicked faces leering at you. Their roots extend down into the soil and who knows what unholy fertiliser they feed on ? You are not fooled by their occasional approach to gaudy, unhealthy beauty - that is only to beguile fools. Flowers are monsters themselves, and other monsters congregate where they grow.

43. APIPHOBIA. Fear of bees. Bee stings can kill. Bees hat you; they can smell your fear. Run in panic from every sudden buzz; avoid flowers and orchards where the tiny horrors congregate. Bees are pure, mad aggression.

44. ANTHROPHOBIA. Fear of people. People are crazed, violent, wicked, conniving - nature's sole mistake. Every crime ever committed was committed by a person. The papers are full of the terrible things people do every day. Who knows what secret lusts, murdering, and hostility lurks behind the face of everyone you see ? People are to be shunned.

45. ASTRAPHOBIA. Fear of thunder, lightning, and storms. Thunder can burst the windows, shake one's house apart, leave one at the mercy of the storm. The approach of monsters is always signalled by a storm.

46. BATHOPHOBIA. Fear of depth. Out of the deepest reaches of the sea monsters swim; out of the deepest wells monsters crawl. Dig deep enough, and you will unearth loathsome horrors better left hidden. Space is deep; space is alive with festering monsters. Even your own cellar probes too deeply into the bowels of the earth. Never go into a subway.

47. BELONEPHOBIA. Fear of pins and needles. There is no pain worse than that inflicted by small, sharp objects. They carry disease, besides. Don't put on those garments until you have carefully searched them for pins ! The worst thing imaginable, which haunts your dreams, is to be tortured with pins in every inch of your body.

48. BOTANOPHOBIA. Fear of plants. Plants are mindless things, hideous to look at, touch or smell. They send horrid tentacles into the ground, burrowing secretly everywhere. Plants want you to die, so they can feed and swell monstrous upon your corpse. Plants are monsters.

49. CHROMOPHOBIA. Fear of certain colours (GMs choice). Certain colours represent monsters. They symbolise madness. Monsters could materialise right out of a colour, or even be the colour itself ?

50. CLINOPHOBIA. Fear of beds. Everyone dies in bed. It's mad to lay in a bed; that's the first place a monster will look ! Worst yet, hideous things lurk under beds ! It could be right there in your room, waiting.

51. DECIDOPHOBIA. Fear of making decisions. Should you go right or left, up or down, work or stay at home ? A dreadful fate seems to lie at the end at any choice you make, and you have only yourself to blame. Avoid committing yourself at all costs - this might help prolong and put off your eventual fate.

52. DOMATOPHOBIA. Fear of being confined to a home. Home is not your castle, it is your prison ! Don't enter it, as that is where They are waiting. You must spend as much time outside as possible. Aren't houses the things that are haunted most often ? When the streets have emptied late at night, you linger on, dreading to return to your home.

53. ERGOPHOBIA. Fear of work. Work is degradation, punishment, and slavery. It is a sign of the evil that rules the universe that one must work to live. If monsters take over the world everyone will be forced to work at monotonous, backbreaking labour, without rest or vacation.

54. GEPHYDROPHOBIA. Fear of crossing bridges. There is no telling the magnitude of the disaster you are courting when you venture onto a bridge. It could collapse under you, sending you screaming into the gorge below, or perhaps deformed monsters hide under it, to trap you on the bridge and chase you while you have nowhere to run but over the side of the bridge.

55. GYNEPHOBIA. Fear of females (only for male PCs). Women are calculating and their cruelty is legendary. Women are witches. Women know things no man can hope to fathom.

56. HEMATOPHOBIA. Fear of blood. Blood means pain and death. Monsters love blood. Blood will always draw monsters.

57. IATROPHOBIA. Fear of doctors. Doctors know terrible secrets behind their grim white masks and bloody scalpels. Doctors only show up when you are sick, weak, and dying. They plot to help you die in the most agonising possible way. Perhaps a doctor will try to mutilate you or turn you into a monster.

58. MONOPHOBIA. Fear of being alone. You must not be alone. Monsters and demons are waiting to grab and possess you if they can only find you out of sight of your fellows. If you suddenly vanished while alone who would know ? Who could help you ?

59. NECROPHOBIA. Fear of dead things. There is no horror worse than death. Dead things are cold, filled with maggots, corruption. The dead hate the living and use all the malign power of darkness to bring us to their dismal state.

60. NUCLEOMITIPHOBIA. Fear of nuclear weapons. The Bomb is coming. It will destroy all civilisation. It will come flashing out of the sky, leaving the burned, maimed, and radioactive. If we foil our enemies in the slightest degree they may drop the Bomb.

61. OMBROPHOBIA. Fear of rain. Rain destroyed the world once - it will do so again. Rain makes floods, takes lives, causes ball games to be cancelled. Humid lands are under a curse. Who knows what dread Things lurks just over the lowering thunderheads, directing the rain ?

62. OPTOPHOBIA. Fear of opening one's eyes. Every day the world is greyer and uglier. Every day the world becomes more horrendous and corrupt. It is enough to drive one mad ! Best not to see it coming.

63. PECCATOPHOBIA. Fear of committing sin. The powers of Hell draw us to sin. If you sin you will become the helpless, degraded slave of the powers of Hell. If you sin, you will lose control and become a devil yourself. Sinners go to Hell and live forever with ugly devils. Judge your every action - better make sure it is no sin.

64. PEDIPHOBIA. Fear of children. Children are sly, evil. Children are uncivilised, they maim and kill thoughtlessly. Remember your own childhood ?

65. PHOBOPHOBIA. Fear of one's own fears. You know your fears will destroy you. No matter how hard you try, when dangers come, you will freeze or panic and run. You will be disgraced and ridiculed, even punished. You must never subject yourself to fear.

66. PSYCHROPHOBIA. Fear of cold. Cold blackens and kills flesh, it destroys. People lose their hands and feet because of cold. Space is cold, so are the poles. Out of such places monsters thrust themselves.

67. TRICHOPHOBIA. Fear of hair. Hair is ugly and unsanitary. Hair gets into your food, into the butter, ruining you appetite. It itches, tickles, grows. Monsters and savage wild beasts are hairy. Do not let anything with hair draw near.

68. TROPOPHOBIA. Fear of changing one's situation. You must not go elsewhere to live - you have a good job, lifestyle, or at least it could be worse if you try to change things. If you were to move, you would have no stability, you would be out There, lost, living with the lost.

69. VERBOPHOBIA. Fear of words. Words have evil power. Black magic spells are made of words. Forbidden books weave dreadful combinations of words. Words convey ideas that corrupt; words inform one of cosmic horrors that blast the soul. Their crooked letters plague your brain. Hear no words, read no words.

70. VESTIOPHOBIA. Fear of clothing. Clothing is confining, stifling. We were not born with clothing, hence we defy the natural order in wearing it. Clothing is diseased, contaminated. People wearing clothes must have some dread secret to hide - perhaps they are not truly people at all, but are monsters ? Freedom, security, and nudity are the same thing. Take it off - all off.

71. ZOOPHOBIA. Fear of animals. Animals bite, claw, shred, and sting. It is obvious that monsters are just another type of animal. Animals carry disease and loathsome parasites. They are everywhere. Animals hate people and soon will rid the world of them.

72. PRAEPILAPHOBIA. Fear of buttons. Obviously, as buttons are made of bone, they must be the mark of a cannibal, or other fiend. Buttons can be seen as the proud trophies of the hunter. Beware the hunted - especially if you are yellow and smile a lot!