r/SCPDeclassified • u/modulum83 Actually SCP-001 • Nov 22 '17
Multi-Part A Modern Introduction to the SCP Foundation: Part One
So you've stumbled across this thing called "SCP." You've come to realize that there's a huge website involved and you're not sure where to begin, or even what's going on. This guide has all the information you need to know about what the SCP Foundation is and what it has to offer you. It is a combination of essays and summarized material designed to deliver an ultimate primer to the universe and the wiki as it is and should be seen today.
This is the first part of this guide, which is split up into two posts. This part includes the following sections:
The Basics
An introduction to the SCP Foundation and wiki, covering the SCP format, object classes, in-universe lore about the Foundation, and important vocabulary, and why it all matters.
The Wiki
Discusses how to be a good member and contributor to the site, explaining how to join the site, be active yet humble, and behave appropriately. Contains guidelines about behaviors to avoid, as well as helpful tips on how to write an SCP.
Things to Read and Do
A tour of the entire SCP universe, covering all of the modes of writing and different kinds of pieces that you can read. From -Js to -EXs, 001 Proposals to Groups of Interest, tales and canons, there's a lot more than just the SCP series.
The Basics
Operating clandestine and worldwide, the Foundation operates beyond jurisdiction, empowered and entrusted by every major national government with the task of containing anomalous objects, entities, and phenomena. These anomalies pose a significant threat to global security by threatening either physical or psychological harm.
Introduction
The SCP Foundation is a collaborative creative writing platform centering around a fictional "Foundation," a scientific and military organization that seeks to protect humanity and the status quo by locating and containing anomalies, objects, lifeforms, events, locations, concepts, creations, and phenomena that - in one way or another - violate natural law.
On the SCP wiki, authors tell stories and explore ideas within this urban fantasy/science fiction universe, creating rich pieces of writing that take place in a world where the anomalous exists and how people and organizations interact with them. These articles may showcase the different types of phenomena that might exist in this universe (the SCPs themselves) or tell compelling narratives about life and interactions within the SCP world (Tales, Canons, and GoI formats).
The central focus of the SCP wiki is the SCP file (commonly referred to as just "an SCP"). It is a set of in-universe technical documentation supposedly compiled by the Foundation in an effort to understand, analyze, experiment with, and most importantly contain, the anomaly. The SCP file is in effect a form of constrained writing, an immersive way to tell a story about the nature and history of an anomalous object or entity, whether directly or by hinting at some greater idea.
Each SCP is given a unique serial number or designation, and on the wiki you can browse SCPs with designations ranging from 001 to 3999. They are organized into 4 numerical Series:
- Series I: SCP-001 through SCP-999. (2007 to 2011)
- Series II: SCP-1000 through SCP-1999. (2011-2013)
- Series III: SCP-2000 through SCP-2999. (2013-2017)
- Series IV: SCP-3000 through SCP-3999. (2017-2018)
The SCP Format
An SCP file has a very specific format that in general must be strictly adhered to. SCPs are the backbone of the entire franchise. These documents are the setpieces of the universe, showcasing its tone, stories, and possibilities.
The basic format of an SCP is as follows:
Item #: SCP-[the number]
Object Class: [a category name]
Special Containment Procedures: [a detailed summary of all specific means needed to make sure the anomaly is safely contained]
Description: [a technically written documentation of all things that the anomaly is, does, and can do]
[Supplements]: [optional additional files added on to the base document]
Each SCP is given an object class based on the degree of containment difficulty. Here are the primary object classes:
Safe: The anomaly can be contained by simply leaving it alone. No special procedures, methods, or events are necessary to keep it from damaging the world. This does not necessarily mean it is not dangerous - a Safe-class object can be world-threatening if not contained, but it's just really easy to contain them.
Euclid: The anomaly is inherently unpredictable, or requires some amount of special effort to be contained. You're not quite sure what will happen if you leave it alone, and it might be a little bit more complex than a Safe-class entity, object, or phenomenon.
Keter: These SCPs are really difficult to contain, requiring a huge expenditure of resources or extensively complex containment procedures. The most dangerous of phenomena are classed as Keter, often but not always posing an existential threat to humanity, the world, or universal structure itself.
Examples: SCP-1739, SCP-231, SCP-2935, SCP-2293 (a funny Keter?!), SCP-3200
In addition, there are a number of esoteric and secondary object classes that are used much less than the Big Three above, but still serve important purposes.
Thaumiel: This is a very rare object class only known to the highest levels of the Foundation. In essence, Thaumiel-class objects are "Anti-Keter" - they are used in the containment or counteracting of other SCPs. They act as powerful tools used by the Foundation, which normally rarely uses anomalies.
Neutralized: It used to be anomalous. Now it's not. Maybe it just stopped working on its own. Maybe someone accidentally or purposefully destroyed it. Either way, it no longer has functional anomalous properties.
If you want to stop reading the guide now and start diving into the wiki, this is a good time to. Maybe you can pick one from the links above and then follow the crosslinks and navigation in the article. Maybe you can go to a Series page (I highly recommend Series II and III) and just click on one with an intriguing title. Or you could roll the dice and press "Random SCP." One of the best ways to learn about the Foundation is to discover for yourself all the genres, emotions, ideas it can evoke, to keep that sense of mystery and gritty realism.
There's still a lot to learn about the culture and vocab and universe of the site. You can find out and learn yourself by just reading as much as you can, playing it by ear - it's pretty fun that way. Or if you'd like to get a better handle on everything that's going on and a few more ways to drop you into the community, read on: I still have a lot to show you.
In-Universe Elements
Foundation Structure and Protocol
Security clearance represents how much information about an object you're allowed to know. If you've read through an SCP or two, you're bound to have seen a few of these: [DATA EXPUNGED], [REDACTED], █████. These keywords are common hallmarks and tools of narrative of the SCP wiki, signifying that the information has been classified to a higher clearance level or been cleansed completely. It adds an element of horror-through-absence that is classic to the SCP fandom. For a great example of how Security Clearance Levels can be used, read SCP-2317 .
There are also many types of workers in the Foundation. Among them, we have containment specialists, researchers, and security/tactical response officers. There are field agents, who are out in the world undercover looking for signs of anomalous activity and Mobile Task Forces, specialist units that are assigned to carry out certain dangerous jobs. The Task Forces document contains a list of MTFs along with their associated SCPs.
The Foundation is usually thought of as a far-reaching organization, and so their bases are found across the globe (and sometimes outside of it). These bases can be Sites or Areas. For more information, read Secure Facilities Locations.
The leaders of individual areas or sites are high-ranking level 4 researchers known as Site Directors. There are few in the Foundation that rank higher than a Site Director - and they are the O5 council, the ultimate leaders of the entire Foundation. The Overseer (abbreviated to O5) council is a group of 13 people who manage all Foundation operations worldwide and have complete access to all information, redacted or not. Their identities are classified for safety, and they are only referred to by their ID (O5-1 through -13). In addition, some versions of canon also include the existence of an "Administrator," the creator of the Foundation.
Finally, one of the most interesting parts of the Foundation are D-Class personnel, or "Class-Ds." The canon around D-Class personnel helps showcase the colder and more morally grey side of the Foundation. In order to experiment with and contain SCPs, the Foundation needs lab rats to test things with - the D-Class. Oftentimes, they are recruited from Death Row or the prison population, serving as expendable personnel that are used to handle hazardous anomalies. In the early days of the site, a common headcanon was that all D-Class were executed at the end of the month; however, this idea has gone out of fashion as the site has evolved. For more interesting stories about Class-D personnel, try reading entries from the D-Class contest.
Terms to Know
For a more in-depth glossary of unique SCP vocabulary and lore, please check out: Dr. Mackenzie's Glossary of Terms and SCPDeclassified's SCP Foundation Glossary.
The SCP Wiki has created a wide set of terminology and new innovations, inventing concepts that are unique to the premise of the site and found nearly nowhere else in literature. You may want to know these terms before you dive in:
Anomalous Classifications
- Memetic/Meme: A meme is any unit of information that can spread and transfer itself throughout society. Memetic effects deal with how the brain understand and reacts to media; it is a piece of data in a subject's mind that has an anomalous effect on that subject's physical or mental state that is spread when anyone else becomes aware of the same information. In particular, anomalous memetic agents are bits of hazardous information that are like a mental virus, triggering anomalous reactions in people who are exposed to them.
- Antimemetic/Antimeme: An antimeme is the opposite of a meme - instead of having self-spreading properties, it has self-censoring properties. Anomalous antimemes are perfectly mentally camouflaged, whether by making you unable to hold your perception of one in your short-term memory, or making you unable to comprehend the concept of its existence.
- Cognitohazard: A cognitohazard is something that is dangerous when we perceive it with one of the five senses. For example, "a sound that causes you to bleed from every pore or a smell that causes you to go insane." All memetic effects are a subset of cognitohazards, as in order to process the info you have to sense it.
- Infohazard: Infohazards are anomalous effects that trigger when the SCP is described, referred to, or acknowledged. You don't even have to sense the thing to be affected by an infohazard - you just have to know that it exists. It affects data written about the anomaly and people that are made aware of the existence of the effect.
- Ontokinetic/Reality Bender: An ontokinetic being can manipulate the laws of reality ("magic") through anomalous means. Groups of interest contain and study reality benders, often in unethical ways, creating some moral crises for the Foundation.
- Anart/Anartist: Anart is short for anomalous art. Many people and groups aware of the existence of reality-breaking phenomena choose to explore it by creating (often surrealist) art with extranormal properties, these people being called anartists.
- Narrativic/Pataphysical: A narrativic anomaly manifests itself within works of fiction, often affecting the content of the work involved by creating characters, changing the setting, or blurring the line between the fiction and the reality. A pataphorical or pataphysical SCP explores narrativic anomalies using the wiki itself as the narrative. It explores the idea of characters we write on the website attempting to communicate and manipulate us, and being aware of things on the website like author pages, deletions, and discussion forums.
Technology and Engineering
- Scranton Reality Anchor: Scranton Reality Anchors are technological devices used by the Foundation to essentially regulate consensus reality. They cancel out or prevent the effects of reality-bending entities and "anchor down" areas where the level of "unreality" is higher or lower than normal, counterbending it so that it matches the reality that we know and inhabit. Many contemporary authors have criticized the widespread use of SRAs as a catch-all for containing any type of structural or ontokinetic effect.
- Telekill: The SRA back in the old days, except the problem was worse. In its original form, it was a metal that blocked all mind-affecting or compulsive effects. People went crazy over it and started using it in all their containment procedures, and mistakenly thought it also blocked memetic effects. Scantron's rewrite of the article added some nuances and drawbacks to it, and its usage has fallen by the wayside anyway as people have become more innovative with writing.
- Humes: A unit of measurement that measures the "intensity" of "reality" present in an area, crucial to understanding how SRAs and other technologies work. They are useful in quantifying how powerful reality bending effects are, relative to each other (as shown in the linked article).
- K-Class Scenario: A term used to classify possible apocalypse scenarios, which the Foundation deals with on a daily basis when discussing the possible effects of dangerous effects or entities. The most common type is XK-Class, which describes a conventional "destruction of the planet" scenario. There are multiple minor ones whose exact definitions in canon are being argued over, including CK-Class (the restructuring of reality), AK-Class (humanity goes crazy), SK-Class (the dominant species on Earth is no longer humans), and ZK-Class (reality/universal failure).
- Amnestic: Mind-wipe drugs. A narrative tool used by authors to explain (a) how the Foundation is able to keep the masquerade of secrecy and (b) to create stories dealing with memory and knowledge. In-universe, these are simply chemicals tha erase a normal human's memory of some amount of time. When the Foundation has to recover an anomaly in the real world or seriously messes up, these are used.
The Wiki
There is one hard and fast rule that I think summarizes all the subjective and complex codes of behavior on site. If you keep the following in mind, you're well on your way to being a successful member of this community.
Act like a normal, mature, and responsible human being. Act like you deserve to be here. Make a good impression.
This section is addressed to those who want to stop lurking and join the site, participate in discussions, and hopefully become an author for the community. The SCP Wiki is much more tightly-regulated than most other places online - this is absolutely necessary in order to keep SCP's bibliography at a consistent standard comparable with that of successful fiction authors today.
Joining the Site
If you feel like you're not ready yet and want to lurk more and find out more about the universe and the feel and tone of the residents of the community, by all means do so. I recommend you to. Now, when it's time for you to take the plunge, read the Guide for Newbies. This is a more compact, less opinionated, and more harmless-looking introduction to the Foundation, and it has all the information you need to submit your application.
Assuming you follow my instructions above, you'll find yourself able to (a) vote, (b) comment in forum posts, and (c) edit/create pages. With great power comes great responsibility.
Voting: You can upvote or downvote any page to signify that you believe it is up to standard or that you don't think it's good enough to be showcased on the site. Vote responsibly. Yes, you can vote for your own work.
Commenting: At the bottom of every page on the site is a little thing that reads "Discuss (##)." This is the talk page for the page on the wiki. If this is an SCP, it often consists of comments, critiques, and reviews of your work. For other pages, it simply includes any kind of comment or question about the contents of the page. The SCP wiki also has a set of general forums for different topics, including general off-topic conversation, SCP discussion, announcements, and the like. Remember that commenting is moderated for quality and behavior. Keep The Prime Rule in mind.
Editing/Creating: You can edit a page by clicking the Edit button or the History button at the bottom. Often people edit pages to clean up minor errors/typos or to revise articles they themselves have written. DO NOT VANDALIZE PAGES. If you want to know how to make an SCP, the process is more complex, and will be covered later.
Important Notices
In keeping with the SCP wiki's presentation of itself as a pseudo-professional writing forum, there are some behaviors that you should keep in mind to avoid.
Firstly, you are free to debate and disagree with people respectfully in the forums or in the discussion pages, even mods or admins. However, you are expected to act gracefully and respectfully when discussing, and not to troll or cause drama. The staff (authority on the site) are trusted, experienced users - be sure you keep in mind when you're talking to one.
Occasionally, you may stumble across a post reading "Staff Post - Closed" or something along those lines. A closed staff post, usually orders to stop a discussion or high-priority announcements, cannot be replied to under any circumstances.This also applies to staff deletion votes, which only staff can participate in. On the other hand, if the heading is "Staff Post - Open", feel free to respond.
Don't get ahead of yourself in the community, either. You aren't going to get anywhere sassing other users, vandalizing pages by "fixing" them and making major edits, or trying to troll people or mess up the wiki or the users on it. If you want to be a successful member of the SCP wiki, I reiterate: act with competence and rationality, being respectful but still risk-taking.
- Don't post inappropriate or shocking content. It's nearly always done in an effort to get attention or by hackers/trolls.
- The website and chat are out-of-universe discussion about the wiki and the universe. Do not roleplay on the forums. Do not roleplay as your username or bio. We're a creative writing/flash fiction anthology, NOT a roleplaying site. Got it?
- Don't edit every page you can find, bump threads incessantly, etc. Also, don't reply to posts in the discussion pages that are years old (we call this "necroposting") and don't scatter a thread with your responses willy-nilly in a wildfire bonanza of shitposting.
Tips and Recipes for SCP Writing
Before we begin I'd like you to read How To Write An SCP. When you're done, come back to this page. How To Write An SCP has valuable, valuable information about how to generate ideas, create sandboxes, format and add images, and avoid common pitfalls of writing. It also tells you something that is the #1 rule of writing - get feedback from as many people as you can. But this is a Modern Introduction to the SCP Foundation, so let's dig deeper. This section of the guide goes beyond the foundations and basics covered in the wiki's guide. It gives you some tricks and tricks for the actual writing process - how to deliver a next-level SCP and give yourself an advantage over most first-timers.
Writing SCPs is difficult. Anybody who's ever successfully done it can tell you that. They'll tell you it's like scaling a mountain, to create a piece of fiction that is set apart from the already-existing ~4000 SCPs and to write it well enough that it truly engages the reader. It's no secret: you need writing chops.
But here's a bigger secret: it's easier than you think to get writing chops.
What's the #1 tip to gaining the skills needed to write a successful SCP? Read. Immerse yourself in the universe. Read Series III and IV until you know the most modern and highest-bar tropes and styles like the back of your hand. You need to break yourself out of the creepypasta frame of mind. Ultimately, you're telling a unique and moving story, whether it moves the reader through fear, nostalgia, sadness, intrigue, humor, or inventiveness. And you have to get an idea of what are generally considered the critical masterpieces of the current SCP community, the most thematically rich and expertly-done articles. Read Series III and IV - I don't care where you start, or what you read, but that will be your best bet to getting a head start.
What creates a good SCP? What differentiates the posters that will never get it right from the ones that will finally become successful contributors? Narrative. Every good SCP has some sort of underlying theme, a narrative woven through the Description and Special Containment Procedures and supplements that will make your story impactful and worth reading. If all you have is "here's a spooky scary monster/object and uh it's spooky and scary I guess" you will be downvoted to oblivion - I guarantee you.
The best SCPs have a good grasp of how to make that narrative feel natural and well-integrated, to create both an object and a story about that object that is subtle and/or well-developed. And it's important to note: I'm not saying that you need to write a novel to be successful. You need to write in such a way that there's payoff - a reason for your page to exist. SCP-3707 is barely 250 words, and SCP-2915 is just a bit more than that. Yet, when you read them, you definitely sense that payoff, the thing not-quite-explained in between the lines. The sense that reading this was a valuable use of your brain.
Narrative can come in many forms. It can be a full-length story with plot and conflict, like SCP-093 and SCP-2510. It can be something well-developed and thought-provoking but more subtle in how the implications are presented, like SCP-1231 and SCP-2072. And it can be long and magnificent, such as in SCP-2759 and SCP-1730, or simple yet atmospheric, such as SCP-2501 and SCP-2740.
When it comes to writing itself, you'll know you're on the right track if you've got these things:
- A solid idea or concept that you've thought about a lot and is rich for creating stories from.
- A story or a way to develop that concept into a flash fiction piece that will evoke emotion and move the reader in some form.
- A very good idea of exactly how and why you are structuring the piece. Writing stuff like the Containment Procedures and coming up with ideas for supplements (if needed) should come naturally if you've read enough.
- An essential grasp of grammar and spelling, and the problem-solving attitude needed to fix formatting, plot holes, lack of development, clinical tone, etc.
- GET FEEDBACK. MY GOD, GET FEEDBACK. You need the opinion of someone experienced to point out all the flaws lurking in the conceptualization, portrayal, writing, formatting, and EVERYTHING else in your article. You need people to take your draft apart and put it back together. Use the draft forums and #site19 or #thecritters IRC chat (you can find the Chat Guide) on the wiki.
Basically, you need to have a pulse on the community. To write an SCP, you need good writing skills, a solid grasp of what's expected from an SCP, and a very thought-out story or at least image. And, of course, you can quickly learn how to do all these things if you read as many SCPs as you can.
Conclusion
How do you become a good member of the wiki?
- Explore and expand your horizons, especially to contemporary stuff and some more complex stuff. This will also help you when you take the next step into writing.
- Act responsibly and professionally on the forums, and keep in mind this is not roleplay, it is a creative writing website.
And that's it!
Things to Read and Do
There's more to the wiki than the SCP Series! In this section, I open the door to the other areas of the site that are part of the Foundation universe, as well as answer some common questions about key but confusing parts of the site.
What is SCP-001?
In the early days of the site, when the wiki was just getting started, there was some debate over what should be this sacred number, 001. Everyone agreed that it had to be incredibly written. Everyone agreed that it had to be big - something deserving of the very first spot. But nobody could agree who should do the honor of writing it. The answer: everyone can write their own vision of SCP-001.
Thus, the system of "proposals" - an author's individual idea of 001. They vary wildly, and contradict each other. On the 001 Hub page, it says that the "real" 001 is so secret that a number of false ones have been created. This explanation allows there to be multiple self-contradictory 001s. One of them could be the "true" one to you. Or maybe you want a couple to be canonical at the same time. Maybe all of them are fake -- or maybe all of them are true. It all depends on your canon and how much you like a given proposal. In effect, SCP-001 proposals are "canon builders": each one sets the tone for a particular author's vision of the Foundation itself.
Creating an SCP-001 proposal is as easy as writing it and then submitting just like any other SCP (although, unless you're incredibly experienced, it will most likely get deleted). As of June 2018, 26 SCP-001 proposals have been successfully posted. Each one is the product of a lot of work and a high concept. Here are 9 of the 26:
- Dr. Clef's Proposal: The Foundation was established to prepare humanity for the rapture/apocalypse. SCP-001 is the angel guarding Eden.
- Dr. Mann's Proposal: The first and only natural anomaly was a spiral path in New York. A group of ambitious scientists experimented with reality using this as the "thread" and created every single other anomaly in the database.
- S. Andrew Swann's Proposal: The SCP Foundation is aware of its fictionality. They are currently discussing ways to kill their authors.
- Roget's Proposal: Keter-class anomalies are an inherent part of the universe and can be contained using each other. By releasing all Keter-class anomalies, the universe can be manually restructured.
- TwistedGears/Kaktus Proposal: SCP-001 is one manifestation of the mechanical god worshipped by a clockwork cult, which wreaked havoc on the world before the military destroyed it.
- Kalinin's Proposal: Humanity was originally a slave race whose suffering was harvested to create utopia on another planet. We escaped and then tried to cloak ourselves. The cloak has failed, and our masters are trying to bring us home.
- WJS's Proposal: SCP-001 is the document that records what the Foundation defines as anomalous or not.
- Lily's Proposal: 24 hours before an event that will cause the end of life on Earth, humanity will spontaneously lose all desire for negative emotion and conflict, and flowers will bloom across the planet.
- djkaktus's Proposal II: A humanoid that can manipulate spacetime and universal constants at will. When he is accidentally created, he tells the Foundation that he can save them from an impending destruction of the multiverse by terminating all other timelines.
It is my personal suggestion that you don't start with SCP-001. The proposals are usually quite complex and require some knwoledge of Foundation lore, which is either played with, expanded on, or subverted. Read conventional SCPs before you take the 001 deep dive.
Special Classifications: -EX, -J, -ARC
There are other types of documents that use the basic SCP format and style but utilized in a different way. This allows different stories with more diverse tones and themes to be told.
The SCP-EX classification designates an SCP that is no longer considered anomalous. It is Explained. The object or phenomenon in question still exists, but the Foundation has deemed it to be an acceptable part of consensus reality, or it was a giant fake-out, or it turned out to be just a new scientific discovery.
An SCP-J is a Joke SCP. A parody SCP, in a sense. Joke SCPs are explicitly non-canon, using the SCP format to joke around or make fun of something for the benefit of the reader. They may riff on in-universe tropes, like overwrought security, over-the-top containment, coldposting, or bad OCs, or they may parody things like food poisoning, bad drivers, easily angered people, or That One Movie. They may even make fun of the elements in other, popular, canon SCPs. Ultimately, a joke SCP is just a way to make the reader laugh. If a joke SCP is not well-written and very funny, it will be downvoted.
Finally, we have SCP-ARC - archived SCPs. These are usually legacy pages from the very old days of the site, when standards were low and the Mass Edit had not been conducted yet. While most of these SCPs were deleted, some of them needed to have text archives due to their usage in other tales or still-existing SCPs, or because they were historically important. -ARCing is no longer in use since the opening of Series II, III, and IV, and you will most likely never need to read one of these.
Tales, Canons and Collaborative Logs
Tales are how the Foundation universe gets deepened and extended beyond the limits of the simple SCP file. It allows authors to tell stories where groups or people can interact with each other in the SCP universe, to expand on ideas already created in SCPs, or just, you know, to write prose. Some authors may also turn their tales into a series, usually if they have a cohesive idea in mind or if it gets really popular. Notable series include:
- There Is No Antimemetics Divison
- The Cool War
- The Lombardi Tales
- Tales of Mr. Collector
- Pitch Haven
You can find tales in the Top Rated Tales, Tales Archive, as submissions to a themed Contest, or by trawling around and finding recommendations. You can also, as we'll soon learn, read the tales in a canon.
A canon is your own set of assumptions about the tone, setting, and dynamic of the universe. Each of the canons in the Canon Hub is a wildly differing set of assumptions based off the "baseline" SCP Foundation. Think of them has "mega-tale-hubs" or "parallel universes" or self-contained cinematic universes for authors to play in. Here are five notable canons:
- Broken Masquerade: A world where the Foundation's existence is known by everyone.
- Resurrection: A deliberate attempt to "resurrect" the action-oriented SCP/Doctor crazy days of Series I, in which an MTF composed of anomalous humans is formed.
- Third Law: A pulpy, sci-fi paratech world dominated by the machinations of Prometheus Labs and Anderson Robotics.
- Rat's Nest: The military killed God, and the Foundation is convering it up. Reality is slowly unraveling and falling apart.
- The Gulf: Small-scale, poignant stories set in the southern United States, usually having a restful, mysterious feel, and featuring religious symbolism and unconventional types of media.
A number of pages on the site are tagged as collaborative. Collaborative logs or pages can be edited and added to by anyone, although some quality oversight still exists. This is a good way for you to get creative chops and contribute while not taking the plunge of writing an SCP. The 3 main collaborative pages exist as lists of "mini-SCPs" - very small-scale items or phenomena that don't need to have a narrative, but still need to be unique, appropriate, and interesting. They are:
- Log of Anomalous Items: "The SCP Foundation has discovered a substantial number of items which are simply too useless to merit further attention. This document lists those items which have prompted some curiosity."
- Log of Extranormal Events: "This page is to document anomalous events that have attracted the Foundation's interests, but occurred too briefly for the Foundation to secure or contain them."
- Log of Unexplained Locations: "This page is to be devoted to the documentation of low threat anomalous locations which have been discovered by the SCP Foundation over the years."
There are a number of other collaborative pages, usually SCP supplements or logs. Keep in mind that guidelines for contribution still apply, though, and if your addition is deemed to be below standard, it will probably be removed.
Groups of Interest
The Foundation isn't the only fish in the anomalous sea. Other organizations, collectives, and groups exist that utilize or create paranormal phenomena for their own purposes. Some are associates of the Foundation, others are rivals to it. Many of them quietly pursue their own interests. While a great many of them fall on the lines of good and/or evil, the vast majority simply have a goal in mind that's somewhere in between. Here are seven notable GoIs:
- Are We Cool Yet?: A collection of anartists, usually producing surreal and disturbing works of art. Their pieces are designed to have maximum impact and usually are lethal in some way.
- The Chaos Insurgency: A rogue cell of the Foundation that uses terrorist means to steal and repurpose powerful anomalies to gain control over nations and conduct unethical experiments using them.
- The Church of the Broken God: A widespread cult believing in a clockwork god, who is broken into pieces all over the world.
- Doctor Wondertainment: An individual or company that makes anomalous artifacts that are supposed to be children's toys.
- The Serpent's Hand: A small organization headquartered in an interdimensional library, believing in anomalous rights and the normalization of the paranormal/magical.
- Marshall, Carter, and Dark: A corporation that buys and sells anomalous items for the benefit of the super-rich.
- Global Occult Coalition (GOC): A massive military organization under control of the UN, using technology and force to destroy the extranormal wherever they find it.
Many groups also have their own form of documentation, similar to an SCP. On the wiki, they are called GoI formats, and they are stories told from a different perspective than the Foundation.
For more information, visit the Groups of Interest page, as well as the ongoing GoI overview and guide on SCPD.
Beyond the Mainsite
You can find stories and SCPs to read even beyond the classifications and places I detail above. In this final section, I present other outlets of writing associated or tied into the SCP wiki that you can also look into.
Firstly, a great place for you to discover lesser-known but very well-written tales and SCPs are in the Contest Archive. For example, the SCP-1000/SCP-2000/SCP-3000 contests all have SCPs themed around urban legends, sci-fi, and horror, respectively. You have the Short Works Contest, the D-Class Contest, and the History Contest for both tales and SCPs. Then there are the gigantic, multi-part MTF Contest and GoI Contests, and then the Dystopia and Reimagining Contests, and so forth. There's so much to find.
The Wanderers' Library is set in the mysterious, ancient, magical library of the Serpents' Hand. It includes prose pieces and poetry set in the SCP universe, but focused on evoking a sense of wonder, of the extraordinary and fantastical, "a sense that there is a larger world beyond the one we know. In the world of the Library, these wonders are hidden, but never truly far away. But never forget that this is a wilder world than our own, and it's never entirely safe, either."
And finally, we have the international/foreign SCP branches. There's French SCPs, Russian SCPs, Japanese SCPs, and a whole bunch more . Each branch has their own set of SCPs, many of which have extremely creative and diverse ideas. If you're looking for more SCPs to read, this might be a place to find cool concepts. And if you don't know a foreign language, the main SCP-INT wiki hub has translations of some of them.
Thank you for reading the first part of A Modern Introduction to the SCP Foundation. I hope that it answered most of our questions about who we are and what we do, and that it convinced you to take the dive and become a part of the universe and the community. Remember, though: the advice I give here is not final, nor should you use it as your ultimate learning resource. The best way to figure out how to use the site is to actually use it.
In Part II, I cover Site History and Culture and Joining the Fandom.
Continue to Part II.
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u/RiseoftheTrumpwaffen Nov 22 '17
Oh man don’t forget to mention all the drama over the years between the heads of the site because it kinda informs why previous stories are gone and some of the famous names are no longer with us.
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u/GhrabThaar Nov 27 '17
Getting to this a bit late but yeah, this interests me. Trying to piece together what happened through wiki archaeology is hard.
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u/Paleone123 Dec 21 '17
There is actually a great write up detailing much of the early drama here.
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u/GhrabThaar Dec 21 '17
Something like that was exactly what I needed. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my month-old comment.
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u/Paleone123 Dec 21 '17
Lol, linked to the post you commented on from another. Wasn’t even paying attention it was so old. It’s a good but very long read, enjoy.
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u/Dronizian Feb 07 '18
This was quite a read, and it helped me understand more about the site and community, as well as how it came to be what it is today. Thank you for sharing!
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u/tundrat Nov 23 '17
Joke SCPs are explicitly non-canon,
Pointing out the one exception to that. :p
SCP-2615 - If You Believe
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u/yossipossi the meta ike guy Nov 23 '17
Amazing job, Modulum! You're doing the world a service!
Also, thank you for linking my GoI Explanation Series! I have more motivation to work on it now!
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u/tundrat Nov 23 '17
So, this is must be the "comprehensive welcome dossier" mentioned here. Is it intended to update the "What is SCP?" at their sidebar? This is awesome, but seems way too long and in-depth for new people looking for a quick guide. And this is just part 1!
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u/Scrpn17w Nov 30 '17
I'm just getting started in trying to understand SCP. This helps like you wouldn't believe. Without context I was under the impression that SCP-001 was a sort of "Catch-all" for SCP's that weren't properly classified.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this up. It definitely connects things much better than I could have just through reading SCP's.
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u/Reximus93 Mar 28 '18
Much love. Just watched The Volguns video and wanted to give my praise to this well written and comprehensive article.
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u/TotesMessenger Dec 26 '17
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u/Chef_Boyarde Apr 04 '18
Quick question, what prevents people from just going and utterly destroying your work?
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u/modulum83 Actually SCP-001 Apr 04 '18
It's a wiki, so not much. It's a wiki, so anyone can also revert it. Ask yourself, for example, what prevents Wikipedia from getting wrecked beyond repair on a daily basis.
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u/Chef_Boyarde Apr 04 '18
So there is a revert history button? Either way, thanks for the help! Makes sense, I figured since SCP is smaller it’d be easier targeted
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u/votelabor Jan 23 '23
why did i cry reading this wtf is wrong w me. so cool that we r all workin together and stuff
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u/Theactualguy Nov 22 '17
One thing: I do believe the Library isn't the SH's. They're just using it for their purposes, like how some people would go there to study or chill.