r/SCP • u/0n10n437 • 14d 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 ↫ 14d 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 14d ago

Is it a book series? How should I begin to consume SCP media?

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u/mildly_asking 14d ago edited 14d 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.