If you're completely unfamiliar, or only have a cursory understanding of what SCPs are, you're in luck, I'm here to explain it.
Originally started in 2007 on 4chan's /x/ - Paranormal board, SCP began with a poorly written creepypasta in the form of a "special containment procedure" log for a rip off Weeping Angel, accompanied by a photo of Untitled 2004, by Izumi Kato. The form took off, and soon other people started making their own versions. Over the years, the "SCP Foundation" has grown beyond it's roots on the internet's septic tank and become an incredibly popular collaborative fiction universe, currently found on the SCP Wiki.
The primary form of article on the site is the SCPs themselves. These are pieces of creative writing designed to mimic a clinical scientific research document, detailing a strange supernatural person, event, place, or object. Because the world these objects imply to exist is also interesting, the other most popular form of writing is the "Tale", which is essentially fan fiction for this loosely connected Creative Commons world. Through SCPs and Tales, as well as Group of Interest hubs and Canons, the setting is expanded, elaborated on, and taken in wildly different directions, such as wild west settings, multiple different dimensions and alternate histories, anomalous Cold Wars and hot wars, settings where the anomalous becomes public, and where mutants face off against the last bastions of humanity as the Foundation tries to reassert normalcy by engaging in genocide.
You also get Canons that are more mundane, like the every day life of people in magical places like the pocket dimension of Three Portlands, or the strongly narrative little town of Sloth's Pit, where saying "nothing happens around here" can be very dangerous. The SCP universe is wildly diverse, and ultimately what exists and doesn't exist between different stories is left up to the reader for the most part.
Put simply, SCP is a sandbox and a prompt for creative writing.
If you want to get into and understand the SCP Foundation, these are some good places to start, as well as some of the SCPs that I personally like the best. I’ll also be providing a short description, since just throwing a bunch of numbers at people is confusing and unhelpful.
First off, in addition to the SCP wiki itself, reading can be hard, and many SCPs are intentionally confusing, often to encourage wild speculation or are filled with gaps that can be filled with knowledge of other SCPs, and not all of them are explicitly crosslinked. For these reasons, I highly suggest TheVolgun, who does an amazing job at narrating the SCP logs, and The Exploring Series, which has spent the last few years giving an explanation for many of the more detailed SCPs or Tales in good depth. Over the last year, there a dozen or so animated channels have appeared, such as Doctor Bob, Detective Void, SCP explained, The Rubber, and SCP Animated. If text is more your style, though, there’s also the SCP Declassified subreddit. The one thing to keep in mind is that the SCP Foundation is not really just one thing. Everyone has their own Foundation in their mind, composed of the parts of the vague and often contradictory “lore” that has been built up over the years. There is no canon.
Useful terminology that comes up over and over again throughout skips and tales.
Anomaly: Anything with some kind of supernatural effect. These are usually SCPs or things created by SCPs, but they can also just be things the foundation has created.
Akiva: A quantifiable measure of “faith” and religious power.
Hume: A measure of normalcy. High hume levels are the result of reality being altered.
Anartist: Anomalous artists. They use magic, paratechnology, or other supernatural methods to create art. Usually to make a "statement". Sometimes they belong to GoIs like Are We Cool Yet? (pretentious and edgy) or Gamers Against Weed (meme loving fucks).
Scranton Reality Anchor: An object created by the Foundation to prevent the alteration of reality by stabilizing Hume levels.
Object Class: The “type” of anomaly that an SCP is based on its difficulty to contain. The general standard is the “locked box” test, which is an informal way of determining what containment class an SCP is:
Safe: If you can lock it in a box and it’ll be fine. Safe can be a misleading term. A common example: A nuclear bomb would be Safe.
Euclid: If it can walk out of the box. Euclid is given to all humanoid or mobile SCPs, as well as anything not understood enough to classify as Safe.
Keter: If it will destroy the box. Keter class objects are incredibly dangerous and hard to contain, and generally will cause widespread havoc if they escape, possibly an XK-Class end of the world scenario or broken veil.
Thaumiel: If it is the box. The least common of the standard classes, Thaumiel objects are used to contain other SCPs or otherwise aid the Foundation.
Esoteric: Any other, lesser used class. The most common of these is Apollyon, for when no box can hold it, and is generally just a super-Keter.
Neutralized: For when the box is a trash can. Anomalies that have been destroyed.
Reality Bender: Anyone with the ability to change the world around them.
Group-of-Interest (GoI): Any organization related to the anomalous, from anomalous artist groups to cults to other Foundation style organizations.
United Nations Global Occult Coalition (GOC): A rival of the Foundation that seeks to protect humanity from parathreats by destroying them instead of containing them. Sometimes works with the Foundation.
The Serpent’s Hand: A secret society that embraces anomalies and disdains the abuse of anomalous humanoids. Their headquarters is the Wanderer’s Library, a mysterious pandimensional library.
Chaos Insurgency: An evil splinter of the Foundation that uses anomalies for personal gain.
Marshall, Carter, and Dark: Buyers and sellers of anomalous objects.
Gamers Against Weed: A handful of millennial and zoomer anartists that keep in check by making silly jokey anomalies. Also you can tell the articles are old now by the fact that they use IRC instead of Discord.
Church of the Broken God: An anomalous religion that believes God is a machine that was broken to save the world. They started out antagonistic, but later works seem to go a different direction. They’re a foil to Sarkicism.
Sarkic Cults: Whereas the Broken God believe in reason and logic, Sarkicism is a religion devoted to flesh and power, and reverse disease and sacrifice. They’re basically Tsimisce.
Unusual Incidents Unit: The FBI’s own personal Foundation.
The Fifth Church: A religious movement that pushes indecipherable gibberish self-help techniques with memetic and reality warping properties; they seek to merge humanity with the Fifth World, and often have star and body horror related SCPs.
The Factory: A mysterious factory that churns out strange and often deadly cursed objects whose benefits always seem to come at a cost.
Person-of-Interest (PoI): A person related to the anomalous, often someone who creates SCP objects, or is aware of them. A PoI can easily become an SCP. Some of the people I'm going to list are actually not considered PoIs because they work for the Foundation and are OCs from the early days that have LORE™ and show up often, but it's easier than making another section.
Dr. Wondertainment: A mysterious and quirky toymaker whose anomalous toys (notably the "Little Misters" series) are often deadly. Also, nakedly capitalist, and possibly both a person and a company, and might have something to do with The Factory. Or not. There's no consensus on who Wondertainment even is, up to the name and gender.
Dr Robert Scranton: Creator of the Scranton Reality Anchor technology, lost in a Red Reality.
Jude Kriyot: aka Bluntfiend; A former member of AWCY? and founding member of Gamers Against Weed. He's trans, a powerful reality bender, and has a Stand, and is the best character, and someone made a Respect Thread that got no respect.
Dr Alto Clef: Formerly Agent Ukulele of the GoC, now a Foundation agent. His head is replaced by animals in photography, and he's a specialist in killing reality benders.
Dr Bright: A Foundation researcher whose soul is trapped in a magical amulet that steals bodies when he dies.
Robert Bumaro: The head of the Church of the Broken God.
D-Class: The Disposables. Foundation red shirts, given the grunt work and dangerous hands on research jobs. Most people’s canon has them being death row inmates, or traitors to the Foundation, though some people have them as clones. Traditionally they were considered to be killed at the end of the month, but this seems to have died out as a site standard.
O5 Council: The heads of the SCP Foundation, below the even more mysterious “Administrator”. Designated only as O5-1 through O5-13, they’re given the highest security, and possibly made immortal through anomalous means, if not anomalies themselves.
Mobile Task Force (MTF): The soldiers and field agents of the Foundation who hunt down the most dangerous anomalies and do exploration into unknown territory. Often given a Greek letter and number designation, along with some clever joke name; “Mole Rats”, “Sound of the Police”, “Asimov's Lawbringers”, “City Slickers”, “Village Idiots”, etcetera)
Memetic: Anything that creates, instills, and encourages the distribution of ideas. Memes like from Richard Dawkins Hideo Kojima, not lolcats.
Antimemetic: Anything that destroys a meme. Usually, knowledge about its existence, or parts of its existence, such as what it looks like. A Somebody Else’s Problem Field.
Amnestic: Something that destroys memories. Usually a form of drug that the Foundation uses on civilians to make them forget what they saw. Like the Neuralizer. The Antimemetics Division (and presumably Counterconceptual Division) also uses Mnestics, which restore or enhance memories and allow seeing through antimemetic effects.
Cognitohazard: A meme so deadly that it will harm or kill you if you experience it.
The anomalous items that make up the core of the site. These are some of my favourites, or just ones that come up often in SCPs and Tales that deal way too much with Lore™.
SCP-173, The Statue: Long ago in the distant land of 4chan’s /x/ - Paranormal board, someone made a rip off of the Weeping Angels written up as if it was being contained by a shadowy secret agency. People thought that was cool. The SCP universe was born.
SCP-294, The Coffee Machine: A simple scip, the coffee machine has an “Addendum” of user made testing logs, some of which are cross-anomaly.
SCP-914, The Refining Machine: A similar testing log focused one, this time the anomaly itself is a big machine that can make objects better (or worse).
SCP-507, The Reluctant Dimension Hopper: Not every anomaly is an object. 507 shows what its like to be one of the people unlucky enough to be anomalous, and also has a ton of exploration logs of his journey to parts unknown.
SCP-093, The Red Sea Object: An early SCiP with a lot of history, with most of its bulk spent with exploration logs into a strange post-apocalyptic world populated only by giant faceless monsters and ghosts.
SCP-682, Hard To Destroy Reptile: Exactly what it says on the tin. One of the oldest favourites, often used in cross testing, 682 is a big angry boy. What's weirder are the times the reptile gets scared, or even worse, likes someone.
SCP-231, Special Personnel Requirements: One of the most controversial anomalies because of “Procedure-110 Montauk” to keep her contained and prevent her demon child from being born. The article implies some sort of sexual violence, but leaves the reader uncertain and guessing because of the heavy redactions. It also introduces The Scarlet King, one of many “big bads” of the SCP universe. See “Fear Alone” and “New Job” in the Tales section for an alternate, less unsettling version.
SCP-999, The Tickle Monster: Not every SCP is a horrible world killing threat. Some of them are friend shaped.
SCP-2293, An Inside Joke: Did you know that world-renowned writer Stephen King was once hit by a car? Just something to consider.
SCP-1000, Bigfoot: Starting with 1000, every time a “Series” fills up, a contest is launched to get the big 000 spot. X000 winners are often wordy, and can be more “Tale” than Scip. They also often add a lot to “lore” and people’s idea about what the world is like.
SCP-420-j, The Best ████ in the World: Not every SCP is serious. Some of them, marked -j, are joke SCPs, turning the format itself into a punchline.
SCP-666½-j, The Roaring Flames of Hell: “Sweet mother of mercy is it ever Keter”.
SCP-2615-j, Clap Your Hands: Faeries are a joke… right?
SCP-610, The Flesh That Hates: Another one of the more famous SCPs, this is a horrible fleshy disease that takes over a town. The first taste of what got expanded into “Sarkicism”, an antagonistic religious Group of Interest.
SCP-2952, C.O.R.G.I.: A long boy that serves as a subway system for little folk.
SCP-882, A Machine: A strange and complicated machine that compels sacrifice, possibly tied to the Broken God.
SCP-1936, Daleport: In 1997 the town of Daleport was overrun by gods and monsters all fighting one another. A Scip that has a lot of lore references and straddles the line between scary and silly.
SCP-4666, The Yule Man: Evil Santa. Scarier than it sounds.
SCP-2521, ●●|●●●●●|●●|●: A really good SCP with a unique format. Its basically Candleja—
SCP-2000, Deus Ex Machina: The SCP will protect the world, even from its own end. This is another contest winner, and another SCP that gets referenced a lot. I’ve never actually read it, tbh. Too long.
SCP-048, The Cursed SCP Number: Is the number itself the SCP or is the Foundation just incompetent?
SCP-055, [unknown]: An antimemetic SCP. What is it? Well, its not round.
SCP-073, "Cain" and SCP-076, “Able”: Very early SCPs that are Mary Sueish. They’ve been rewritten a lot, and folks still have a fondness for them, and references to them show up every so often. Also, yes, Abel is spelled wrong.
SCP-096, The “Shy Guy”: An early article that’s been rewritten and worked on a lot, half Tale and half Scip. A horrible monster that kills anyone who sees its face. Someone actually made an 096 short film.
SCP-3000, Anantashesha: A massive sea serpent that obliterates knowledge, and the source of the Foundation’s “amnestics”, medicine that wipes memories. As with most X000s, its wordy, and dense, and more of a Tale.
SCP-106, The Old Man: A horribly old man who decays and degrades everything he touches and is capable of passing through solid objects. He pulls his victims into pocket dimensions where they’re never seen again.
SCP-963, Immortality: An amulet that makes its wearer immortal, in a fashion. Also an introduction to Doctor Bright, a recurring character.
SCP-2932, Titania’s Prison: The SCP Foundation isn’t the first of its kind.
SCP-033, The Missing Number: A number between █ and █ that breaks the laws of reality.
UIU Location Dossier -- “Three Portlands”: Presented as a document from the FBI’s Unusual Incidents Unit, this article is both a hub and an overview of 3ports, a hidden city of weirdness that exists between Portland Oregon, Portland Maine, and the Isle of Portland in the UK.
SCP-4670, Pigs in Blankets: What if Circe said “ACAB”? And also ran a barbecue joint.
SCP-5000, Why?: The most recent contest winner, SCP-5000 itself is a high tech suit made by the Foundation that showed up out of nowhere. But really, SCP-5000 is a Tale, not really the anomaly itself. It tells of a world where the Foundation has dedicated itself to wiping out all human life, begging the question: Why?
SCP 4493, Keep Pride Out of Corps: A great example of how queer and socialist the site is. An anomalous virus hacking corporate pride tweets getting out onto Twitter. I love this Tale and this GOI.
SCP-2845, THE DEER: How does the Foundation contain a god?
SCP-2317, A Door To Another World: A complicated SCP with multiple different versions of the document at different levels of clearance. Originally only meant to be a reference to 231, many headcanons treat them as being connected. It plays on concepts from Fear Alone as well as THE DEER.
SCP-4971, Rituals: A skip with a lengthy Exporation Log that functions like a Tale. The anomaly itself is a gateway to another dimension created in an abandoned mall by an ecoterrorist witch, but the true danger is even larger. Maybe all those rituals aren’t such a good idea.
𝐓𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐨: The 4000 contest winner. The 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 can’t be named. Not all of them are like in 2615. Inspired by The Factory. (This is actually my least favourite X000 contest winner).
SCP-4006, #MassaTruthetts: Massachusetts isn’t real. But its existence is very useful to the Foundation.
SCP-3999, I Am At The Center Of All That Happens To Me: Researcher Talloran’s no good very bad day.
SCP-5031, Yet Another Murder Monster: The SCP Wiki has had more than it's fair share of things that exist solely to kill. But what if something deadly and dangerous can be more than that?
Stories set in the Foundation universe that flesh out the world and give insight into what its like to exist in this world, or what its like to encounter or deal with an anomaly. Some Tales get grouped into “Canons”, which are collections of Tales and sometimes skips that take place in the same universe, such as the “End of Death”, “Broken Masquerade”, and “Apotheosis” canons.
Especially in recent years, what constitutes a mainlist SCP and what constitutes a Tale is pretty vague, with many SCPs being conveyed in wildly different formats, up to and including “format screws” that play with the coding of the site to do things like show multiple different versions of pages, or use white text to hide secrets, or other weird things.
Fear Alone: A Tale featuring a new researcher assigned to oversee Procedure-110 Montauk that suggests maybe it isn’t as bad as it sounds. I won’t spoil it, but I will say there’s no trigger warnings. Think of it as aftercare for 231.
New Job: A letter sent by O5-█ to 999’s new head researcher. Protecc him. He’s the best friend we’ll ever have.
Document Recovered From the Marianas Trench: What is it like for the average person when the Foundation fails and the world is destroyed? A really great Tale.
Transcript of Dr. Clef's seminar, "Reality Benders and You: How to Survive When Existence Doesn't." : A Tale in the form of a seminar given by recurring character (and site contributor OC) Doctor Clef, teaching a group of new recruits how to handle Reality Benders. I’d definitely suggest the reading of it by The Volgun.
The Young Man: One of many possible origins for The Old Man. This one being a creepy private during WWI who seems to have come from nowhere. SCP Animated has done a really good reading of the Tale.
The Antimemetics Division Hub: This is actually a collection of stories. I really, really love this one. How do you secure, contain, or protect yourself from things you don’t even know you don’t even know? Oh, and the code for the SCP-3125, the first chapter of FIVE FIVE FIVE FIVE FIVE is the title of the series.
More Like Rainbow Crapitalism: The story of SCP-4493’s creation, told through a series of tweets on Threeport’s internal Twitter clone that resulted in an anomalous computer virus escaping to actual Twitter.
What Passes for Normal in the Digital Age: A tale about the only mundane member of the Gamers Against Weed GoI being a queer woman away at college and with primarily long distance relationships.
Slice of Life: A story of what happens to D-Class after their time is up. You can't change the past, and you can't bring back the people you got killed, but you can keep other people from dying.
SCP-001, Awaiting De-classification [blocked]: There is no 001. Or maybe there is. This is actually another hub, with multiple competing proposals of what SCP-001 could be. Since most of them are really more like Tales, I put them here. Here are the ones I like (and have read):
The Factory: A Tale of the Foundation’s origins in an anomalous factory.
The Spiral Path: A spiraling path that always seems to be rising. Walking it can change the world.
The Foundation: A UIU report detailing what used to be an anomalous school building.
When Day Breaks: What can you do when the sun itself is an anomaly? Also, this one is super fucking creepy.
The World’s Gone Beautiful: The Day of Flowers.
Ouroboros: The O5 council need to die. An incredibly long Tale that is less the series’ usual horror and more like an action anime. Its also long as fuck, so I’ve only listened to The Exploring Series rundown of it, never read it myself.
SCP-4231, The Montauk House: This is literally a fucking book that tells the backstory of Doctor Clef, 231-7, 2317, and tells a horrible story of a toxic relationship between two reality benders. I didn’t read it, I watched The Exploring Series episode.
SCP-4239, Project Kenowhere Central Volunteer Hub: The Gamers Against Weed help people achieve their destiny, and create a better world.
Taking Care of the Kids: A slice of life between Jude Kryiot and Fae Wilson about parenthood, being trans, and becoming a de facto parent to others. Also destroying capitalism.