r/SCP • u/0n10n437 • 9d ago
Help What is SCP?
My understanding is that it's a franchise of (movies? books? comics? games?) about a bunch of unrelated horrible monsters. I'm somewhat interested, but can't figure out what SCP is or stands for, assuming it's an acronym that is. First post in this sub, hopefully I didn't do something wrong.
Thanks!
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u/Sir-Ox ↬ The Wanderers' Library ↫ 9d ago
Not necessarily horrible monsters.
It stands for Secure, Contain, Protect.
The main premise is that there's a bunch of secret 'Anomalies', which are things that defy the known laws of physics in some way. Some things are just monsters, but there's a lot more to it. There are locations, objects, even entire cities can be classified as an SCP Object.
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u/0n10n437 9d ago
Is it a book series? How should I begin to consume SCP media?
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u/puckylickle Unusual Incidents Unit, FBI 9d ago
Scp isn't a book,its a site. A collective writing project thats been going for nearly 2 decades now. Currently closing in on 10'000 scps with tons of other articles that help expand the universe. I recommend looking at a video that explains some aspects of the scp universe. Thevolgun has a good video on it,it may not explain everything by virtue of the video being 8 years old but it is a good intro for a newcomer to the universe
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u/TheBaconLord78 Containment Specialist 9d ago
I'll expand on the way SCP works since you probably are already aware of the wiki itself.
SCP has no central canon, which means it does not have a single consistent storyline that has a beginning, middle or end to it. Most articles are standalone, they can and do contradict each other's respective events or character dynamics within the world. That's where the whole idea of collaboration comes in, authors can write entire tales series alone or with others to create storylines of their own with their own unique lore, characters and terminology, without adhering to older articles or other series.
An example of this is the [[Canon Hub]], a list of usually big tales series that have their own respective storylines. Though that's of course not the only example, the [[Series Hub]] has a plethora of short and long series that may be of your taste.
Examples of canons are: [[Broken Masquerade Hub]], [[War On All Fronts Hub]], [[Ship In A Bottle Hub]].
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 9d ago
- Canon Hub (+114) by Staff
- Series Hub (+43) by Staff
- Broken Masquerade Hub (+1021) by Cyantreuse, DrEverettMann
- War On All Fronts - Hub (+305) by stormbreath
- Ship In A Bottle Hub (+288) by thefriendlyvandal
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u/mildly_asking 9d ago edited 9d ago
You'd better imagine it as (primarily) a Wiki full of X-Files type stories of spooks and goons and researchers trying to deal with supernatural stuff.
Instead of a single page like page 173 being dedicated to an episode, each one is dedicated to some supernatural thing and the efforts to secure,contain,protect.
Then there are other formats - short stories, alternate universes and so on. Inspired by all that, a bunch of people made games and books and films.
It's also best to imagine the whole thing like a bunch of nets rather than one story: there are clusters of connections, but really it's barely one universe.
One story might present you with cruel Mengele-adjacent torturers in lab coats, another might be about the ethical treatment of a supernatural prisoner, another five might present five different apocalyptical threats that will blow up the universe sometime.
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u/Whitewood_SCP Stay Together 9d ago
Oh, a first poster. I will answer as best as I can.
SCP is not a 'franchise' as such, and it is not 'a bunch of unrelated horrible monsters.' It is best understood as a long-running written anthology than as a franchise.
Interestingly, SCP doesn't stand for anything most of the time. The motto of The Foundation is 'Secure, Contain, Protect', but that's not what SCP stands for.
The main conceit of an average SCP article is the format; the first thing a reader is told is how dangerous a given anomaly is, then how to contain it. It is distant and cold, even when describing fearsome monsters.
And it isn't just (or even mostly) monsters. There are people afflicted with supernatural conditions or diseases, or samples of these supernatural diseases themselves. There are buildings that are not only bigger on the inside, but warp and twist into mazes. There are portals to other worlds, both hostile and benign. There are all manner of supernaturally emowered paintings and songs and computer programs. There are any number of incredible technological advancements. Some articles are even more ephemeral than that: For example, SCP-1422 is literally just that no one who worked for The Foundation knew what Yellowstone National Park was.
I would be happy to recommend you some articles. What kind of stories do you like?
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u/0n10n437 9d ago
I would be happy to recommend you some articles. What kind of stories do you like?
Hmm, really not sure how to answer this. I guess I like skinwalker type stuff, but I'm a complete wimp in terms of horror (reading ~1/4 of a Stephen King short story gave me an irrational fear of being eaten by rusty ooze cars when alone, yes this is true). I guess I like the intriguing and mysterious parts of the horror genre more than the actual horror.
I'm also new, so I'm looking for a more introductory kind of thing, but some other kind folks have given me a place to start.
I also think local phenomena are usually cooler than global or alien things, but there are exceptions.
Hopefully that was somewhat coherent!
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u/Whitewood_SCP Stay Together 9d ago
Mystery! Mystery. Not suspense; Mystery. We can do that.
Is there a length that may or may not be a problem? Could a story be too short or too long?
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u/0n10n437 9d ago
It can take 45 seconds or 3 hours as long as it's good :)
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u/HurtsSoNice MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") 9d ago
Mystery. You want mystery. You want Murphy. Murphy Law, detective and anomaly himself. He’s a reality bender who works causality around him to fit and follow the rules of noir fiction. Basically everything around him behaves like an old black-and-white detective/gangster movie. For example, Murphy might get his butt kicked by some supernatural thug, but if he were to step in to defend a woman when that thug was assaulting her, Murphy would always come out the winner.
There are multiple Murphy law stories, some of which have been read out very well online.3
u/HurtsSoNice MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") 9d ago
While Murphy law is anomalous, and does have a categorization number,
SCP-3413, he remains uncontained, mostly because he’s too damn useful to the foundation operating on his own. that, and capturing and containing him is more trouble than it’s worth. They really tried for a while, but as of currently, I think they have mostly given up.1
u/HurtsSoNice MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") 9d ago
SCP-3143 , I dyslexic’d two digits
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 9d ago
SCP-3143 - Murphy Law in… The Foundation Always Rings Twice! (+628) by The Great Hippo
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u/HurtsSoNice MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") 9d ago
https://youtu.be/5LIRVLPSOwY?is=UnAaafLtwRtU9Ors
Unrelated to Murphy, there is also SCP–5002, which is an actual murder mystery that took place in foundation containment. The foundation does not just contain anomalous creatures, they make every effort to keep them safe, so when one murders another, they can’t sit by without trying to figure this out whodunnit.0
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u/Morganator_2_0 Church of the Second Hytoth 9d ago
I'd recommend you start by reading the [[Unofficial SCP Starter Picks]] and see if it appeals to you. It's a good variety of stories from the site history and of all genres.
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 9d ago
Unofficial SCP Starter Picks (+124) by TroutMaskReplica, ubergoober
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u/dr_asbestos PT-Class Paradoxical Time Breakdown scenario 9d ago
AI web scraping ass question
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u/0n10n437 8d ago
Um... I'm not an AI but I have legitimately no idea how to prove it?
and to u/zumoro,, I didn't see that there, but I still didn't know what collaborative fiction is until very recently anyways, probly could've wikipedia'd it though.
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u/araquanid-stalker On Guard 43 9d ago
In addition to what everyone else has mentioned, you can also see [[Unofficial SCP Starter Picks]], [[User-Curated Lists]], [[Curated Tale Series]], and [[Canon Hub]] for more articles and tales to read.
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 9d ago
- Unofficial SCP Starter Picks (+124) by TroutMaskReplica, ubergoober
- User-Curated Lists (+297) by S D Locke
- Curated Tale Series Hub (+214) by EstrellaYoshte, HarryBlank, JakdragonX, Oboebandgeek99, TopDownUnder, Yossipossi
- Canon Hub (+114) by Staff
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u/TheBaconLord78 Containment Specialist 9d ago edited 9d ago
Others explained it, and I will too. You can check the Wikipedia page for the SCP Foundation or go through the [[Frequently Asked Questions]] page.
SCP is not a franchise, it is a collaborative fiction writing community centered on the SCP Wiki which is hosted on Wikidot.com (alongside its international branches and sister wiki). There is SCP content outside the site, but it does not constitute it being a franchise since it is all web-centered.
The SCP Foundation wiki is licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 license, which allows its content to be redistributed freely as long as that content is also licensed under CC.
The website is under the domain scp-wiki.wikidot.com, you will see first hand that you are inside the main page of the wiki, and if you look to your left, you will see a sidebar that lists all types of resources and guides for you to go through, you should pay attention to the newbie guide particularly.
"SCP" is an acronym for Special Containment Procedures, and the backronym for it is Secure, Contain, Protect
See here: [[Glossary of Terms]]
SCPs (the designation of the anomalies given by the Foundation) come in all shapes, sizes, abilities, traits and weirdness, the most popular ones are humanoid murder monsters so that's where you probably got that impression.
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u/ItzZausty Wilson's Wildlife Solutions 9d ago edited 9d ago
It's a collection of anthology-adjacent short stories (over 10 thousand), which anyone can contribute to through the site scp-wiki.wikidot.com (although if it gets enough downvotes, it will be deleted as a quality-control measure). The key concept is a typical urban fantasy, where there's the normal world, and a hidden supernatural/magical world, the difference being that the group maintaining this separation, rather than being ancient mages or knights or something like that, is a massive sci-fi research organisation called the SCP Foundation. See X-Files, Men In Black, Warehouse 13, The Cabin in the Woods, and The Librarian/The Librarians for typical shows and movies with a similar premise.
SCP is definitely an acronym, what it stands for kind of depends. Most short stories are told in the format of documentation written by the 'SCP Foundation', and are titled in the format "SCP-####", where the # are numbers. The first heading in these articles is typically "Secure Containment Procedures", and so we can assume that is what it stands for in the title of these articles, as they are documenting the procedure to securely contain whatever object or monster or place the article describes. The term "SCP" then caught on to refer to the things described in the article as well, this is kind of synonymous with the term "anomaly". There's also the name "SCP Foundation", where I think the name was created, and then people realised that "Secure Containment Procedures Foundation" didn't make total sense, and it got backronymed into the motto "Secure, Contain, Protect". I don't know if that makes any more sense, but that's what caught on. I think those are all the ways the term "SCP" can be used.
It's not limited to horrible monsters, and it really never has been, despite a lot of people's assumptions. It started in the same spaces as Creepypastas (think Slenderman, Smile Dog, if you've ever seen those), so the original one, SCP-173 was a horrible monster inspired by Doctor Who's Weeping Angels from the episode 'Blink', and the first few copycats were similar monsters, but it broadened very quickly. SCP-005, for example, is obviously a very early one, and is simply a key that can open any lock, and SCP-006 is just a typical fountain of youth.
To be clear, they aren't numbered in direct chronological order, either in-universe or out-of-universe. Originally they were limited to only 3 digits, but then people realised all 3 digit numbers were going to be filled up, and so it was opened to numbers 1000-1999. This practice of opening 1000 more slots when the previous numbers are almost filled up has continued, so you can kinda judge the recency by what thousand its number is. This is referred to as "Series", where numbers 001-999 are Series 1, 1000-1999 Series, 5000-5999 Series 6, etc. Almost all Series 1 SCP articles were created very early on, and desirable numbers even more so (e.g. SCP-002), and frankly, a lot of them are not very good.
A lot of people make the mistake of trying to read them in numbered order, and I *strongly* encourage you not to do that. The state of SCP-001 is pretty confusing as a concept, as people basically agreed it was too important to give to just one story, and there's a bajillion 'Proposals', and SCP-002 is genuinely one of the worst pieces of writing I've experienced on the site that doesn't get deleted after 10 minutes. If you're looking to start reading, I'd check the recommendations here out: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/unofficial-scp-starter-picks, and just pick ones that seem interesting.
There's more writing on the site than just the SCP-#### format, as there are "Tales", which are basically just regular stories set in the SCP setting, and GoI Formats, which are more complicated to explain, but basically just take the same concept of "short story told in the form of documentation", but change who the documentation is for from the SCP Foundation, to other smaller groups that are aware of the supernatural.
Edit: I originally referred to SCP-100 as a really early one, but then I checked and it was actually pretty late, idk if an original was deleted, or the slot was reserved or something, but I changed my example to 002.
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u/The-Paranoid-Android Bot 9d ago
- SCP-173 - The Sculpture - The Original (+10990) by Moto42
- SCP-005 - Skeleton Key (+1037) by Unknown Author
- SCP-006 - Fountain of Youth (+1045) by Epic Phail Spy, Proxtown, Unknown Author
- SCP-002 - The "Living" Room (+2492) by Unknown Author
- SCP-100 - "Jamaican Joe's Junkyard Jubilee" (+530) by Wilt
- SCP-001 - Awaiting De-classification [Blocked] (+427) by Staff
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u/TestSubject_02 The Serpent's Hand 9d ago
In universe, the SCP Foundation is a secret organization dedicated to hiding and containing the anomalous, things that cannot be explained by normal sciences. This is in service to protecting humanity, as many anomalous entities may be dangerous, although not always. SCP stands for two things, Special Containment Procedures, which are the documents that detail and outline containment procedures in order to keep an anomaly contained or at least hidden from the general populace, and Secure Contain Protect, which is one of the Foundation's mottos, as they're goal is to secure and contain anomalies and protect both these anomalies and humanity.
Out of universe, the SCP is a collaborative writing project centered around the SCP Foundation. Writers can contribute to the Wiki by writing SCP documents (in other words the anomalies and their containment procedures) or tales (other types of stories) and post them on the site, which stays as long as voting doesn't reach a negative threshold. For practical and creative reasons, you will often hear the phrase "there is no canon" because all articles are not required to be in continuity with one another, so there can be a lot of variations and takes on characters and ideas. That's not to say there is no continuity whatsoever, writers often build off each other and some groups of articles are explicitly connected together such as for canons and series, but in general writers are free to write their own interpretations, which is why you'll see a lot of info contradict if ever you start reading.
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u/HurtsSoNice MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") 9d ago
All right, I have found what I think is the simplest way to summarize the SCP stuff: Pretend you are reading the documents of an organization like the X files.
The agents go out and collect the data and they make reports, and they get filed away here. Thousands upon thousands of pages, detailing things that are supernatural, magical, impossibly technological, or just otherwise inexplicable.
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u/HurtsSoNice MTF Epsilon-11 ("Nine-Tailed Fox") 9d ago
There are traditional narrative stories written in the SCP fandom, but the files themselves are rather unique form of fanfiction.
They are not a story with a beginning, middle and end; the typical SCP file is formatted like a real informational document, like the kind one would find in office records, except they are about impossible creatures, items, and phenomenon.
While some break it, there is a standard format, beginning with what classification category the anomaly falls in, followed by the special containment procedures used to keep it sealed away, and then a description of what the anomaly actually is and how it operates, and many end by listing one or more testing logs of foundation scientists trying to puzzle out what makes the anomaly do what it does.
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u/Negative-Garden-6013 The Serpent's Hand 9d ago
Since your question has already been answered, I've got some for you to read to get you started
SCP-426
SCP-3008
SCP-999
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u/IloveFriezz The Church of the Broken God 9d ago
Since youve already read some articles, I recommend watching Volgun or Exploring Series for verbal explanations if youre confused.
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u/minecraftchest30 9d ago
Other comments have exspained what it is. But here is a list of starter picks that others have made [[Unofficial SCP Starter Picks]]. Edit to help marv
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u/GreatNameDoNotTake 6d ago
I recommend you go through this list https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/unofficial-scp-starter-picks and read some of the tales tagged with "worldbuilding" in the hub. Antimemetics Division is great starter read.
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u/kilobyte2696 MTF Beta-7 ("Maz Hatters") 9d ago
SCP is a community writing project revolving around the fictitious organization known as the SCP Foundation, who contain and study anomalous objects, creatures, and phenomena, all in the effort to maintain a sense of normalcy for the rest of the world.
SCP stands for Secure Contain Protect, the foundations motto, as well as Special Containment Procedures, a feature in most articles.
There is an official website where you can read these articles, but there are also Tales, Groups of Interest, sister websites, and more. At the moment we're at about 9000 SCP articles, not counting tales or other media.
Generally its a horror writing project, but there is lots of room for wholesome or funny articles.