#i wish there were more indie weird rpgs like there are indie weird horror games or shooters

[open-hearth-rpg]

Epistolary: Great RPG Mechanics #RPG Mechanics: Week Five

You may or may not remember De Profundis. I died a little inside when I discovered it came out in 2002. In English at least. The Polish original came out even earlier. It was among a group of smaller, indie publications launching at the time– a few years later we’d start to see things like My Life With Master and The Shab Al-Hiri Roach. De Profundis, though, was a little more abstract. It’s literally play-by-post, because you write physical letters. 

The basic concept is that you write sprawling, meditative letters about weirdness in a character’s life, possibly a thinly glossed version of yourself in another place or time. The letters themselves should be artifacts– physical objects you can mark up, annotate, and leave little additional clues or objects in. You send these to another player who then replies to your strangeness with queries or their own experiences. You continue this back and forth with an escalating sense of things being off. 

The game leans into a Lovecraftian vibe, though it is not particularly specific about the mythos itself, which is great. That allows you to lean into one of, IMHO, the best aspects of Role-Playing": being able to consider and describe something from the first person. What would this strangeness actually look like to someone unfamiliar with the interior intricacies? There’s a whole series for the original Hunter: The Reckoning rpg from White Wolf built on this– humans trying to make sense of all the supernatural bs of the world.

The touchstone here is the work of Lovecraft and a lot of his followers. But it also points to Dracula, not the original epistolary novel, but the shadow which looms over this form for literary form in horror. That’s notable for being a strongly mixed-media piece– with different voices over time as well as newspaper clippings and summaries.

De Profundis is also interesting in that it comes about right at the turn of the millennium, when most people were starting to have email as an ever-present and constant feature in their lives. Folks began to realize that this would always be something they’d need to have and be connected to. De Profundis reacts to that by asking the players to create something concrete and not ephemeral.  

It’s also interesting that De Profundis is among the first solo rpgs, a movement which has become stronger and more developed in recent years. In this sense the game really offers just a loose form– more an idea that you could do some writing like this. I don’t think there’s a direct line from De Profundis to something like Thousand Year Vampire, but there is a connection.

I never got more than a couple of exchanges into a De Profundis game. Some of that’s my own problem with solo gaming. I’ve never been able to get into play by post either. I go in with the best of intentions, but inevitably crash out. There’s not enough feedback to catch my lizard brain. So I was a little worried when I played the Good Society, with its dedicated epistolary phase. 

Good Society’s gameplay has a tight structure: Novel, Reputation, Rumor & Scandal, and finally Epistolary. In this last phase players write letters, I believe 1 or 2, from the characters  under their control. These can be written out fully or sketched out and then summarized by the player. I’m glad the game encourages the former and permits the latter. 

These are an absolute joy. These letters offer the chance for characters to regroup and consider the implications of events from earlier. You can reveal new details, comment on occurrences, set up new plot threads, question people’s motivations. They’re dynamite as a moment of commentary. I get that they’re echoing the original literary sources, but I think it is worth considering how well they operate as a moment of reflection built into the game. That’s something I think a lot of games could benefit from mechanically.

Lots of groups do Stars & Wishes, Epilogues, Debriefs, but often these are either meta-discussions or done at the end of a campaign. Good Society has these connected to a regular cycle of play. You could build something like this into a campaign to serve as a breaker or signal for the changing of arcs. Ask each player to write or summarize a letter, journal entry, or email from their character. I think it offers way to explore character that we often don’t get in ttrpgs.

[its-sixxers]

Video Game Questionnaire

Tagged by @slothssassin!

Tagging any of y’all hoes (or non hoes) who wanna talk about some got dang VIDYA GAEMS

Rules: Fill in your answers below and tag some buddies!

-Games-

First game you ever played: Pokemon Red on the OG game boy. Hell yeah.

Favorite game: Don’t make me do this. D: Probably a toss up between:  Heroes of Might and Magic III, Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2), Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines aaaand Fallout New Vegas.

Game you hated at first but now love: Darkest Dungeon! I found out my gameplay groove and now really really like it. I didn’t hate it before, just found it frustrating.

Game you used to love but now hate: I don’t really hate any game that I used to love (even World of Warcraft), but I can’t ever go back to the Mass Effect Trilogy for reasons that are probably obvious to anyone who’s played it. I got hurt too bad man. :(

actually just recalled and this is gonna be a SPICY opinion: FFXIV. I had a lot of fun with it but the RP scene drove me off really fast. WoW’s Moon Guard gets a lot of shit, but FFXIV was miles worse for general grossness. I don’t begrudge anyone who has fun with the game or RPs in it (there’s a lot of fun lore!) but I don’t have the energy for trying to sift through that amount of nightmare to find like the dozen cool people lol.

Game with the best group/companion(s): This was a hard one. There’s games that have my favorite characters ever but also have some really annoying companions, there’s games with characters I like across the board but the execution is weak. I’m just going to say VTM Bloodlines for easiness’ sake. A great cast and I actually think I like them all for specific reasons. Yes, even Ming Xiao. Maybe especially Ming Xiao, actually.

A game with your favorite ending:  Bloodlines even though I had to turn godmode on for the last combat portions teehee. I just love the twist. :D

A game with the WORST ending: See Mass Effect above. Yes it’s been like a decade, no I’m still not over it.

Best character customization?: HRMST. With mods, Fallout 4. Without - I played Black Desert Online for a whole 3 seconds and it had an insane amount of options but I found it overwhelming lol.

Also putting a cut here cuz long post.

-Hero and Companions-

Your favorite playable character:  Jedi Exile or the Courier.

The funniest playable character: Garrett from the Thief series is a smartass and I love him for it. The Courier also gets some great options, naturally.

Your favorite companion(s): Oh christ here we go. Carth Onasi, Jolee Bindo, HK-47, Atton Rand, Kreia, Bao-Dur, Kaidan Alenko, Garrus, Tali, Wrex, Legion, The Entire New Vegas Gang, Butch DeLoria, Charon, Deacon, Preston.

Companions you could live without: This is a difficult one since even companions I’m not super fond of have their place and purpose in the narrative, usually. I’m going to say G0-T0 and Hanharr from KOTOR 2 as they kept that game from the Best Companions title lol. I don’t play dark side and both of them just felt a little underdeveloped for me.

oh and skadge from SWTOR, fuck skadge

-Relationships-

Favorite game friendship(s): Shepard + everyone, Morrigan and the Female Warden,  Josie + Inquisitor, The Courier + everyone, Sole Survivor + everyone, Female Revan + Bastila, Exile + the new Jedi gang.

Favorite companion banter: This might make me a basic bitch but Deacon. The interplay between goofiness and sadness is just perfect.

A relationship you loved but went bad: Revan and Carth. It went bad because Revan fucked off to the Unknown Regions and left him behind, then we find out why in SWTOR (and they canonize Revan as a dude BOOOO) and it’s dumb lol.

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: Kaidan and Shepard when Mass Effect 2 rolled along. Being railroaded into working with Cerberus had me VERY annoyed at the time and Kaidan’s 100% right to also be mad about it so I was like oh god yeah I’d break up too. Mass Effect 2 has the best companions + side story but the worst main quest fight me. (Actually don’t pls)

A character you wish you COULD romance: Let’s list em off, shall we: D E A C O N, Nick Valentine, Glory, Nathaniel Howe, Bao-Dur, Nines Rodriguez, LaCroix, Beckett. Let me do it you cowards.

A minor character you wish could be a companion: Harding in Inquisition, Glory (actually most of the Railroad would be nice), Scout Haylen, Fahrenheit.

-Fun-

Shoutout to a random NPC: All the Jawas in KOTOR I love them. Oh and Officer Chunk in Bloodlines, that stupid, stupid man.

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: I don’t actually seek out more than one let’s play of a game. :V I’d say the old Call of Cthulhu game though - it’s really neat but buggy as all hell and the one time I tried starting it up it ended up breaking real big time. It’s fun to watch people luckier (or more tech competent) than I am play it and I wish I could do the same.

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: My boyfriend and I sometimes do this thing where he’ll stream a game he’s playing and I’ll sit in voice chat with him while I work with the stream in the other screen, so probably the games he’s done there. Most recent ones have been: Metal Gear Solid, FF7 and FF9.

Online gaming or solo?: I looove solo games but I love online more. Being in an LDR, playing games together online is really good. I enjoy having fun with friends, and I also enjoy the competitive aspect that comes along with online games. It really pushes me to be better at things and improve. Usually I’m in some kind of MMO - it’s looking to be WoW for the forseeable future right now. Sometimes I’ll get dragged into games like Planetside or Destiny and have a fun time for a month or two as well. :) I had a ton of fun with Sea of Thieves a few months ago too! Living our Captain Jack fantasy.

Why do you play video games?:  More than ever recently - creative inspiration. I like poking into weird games or games with a really strong art direction or good writing. (EYE Divine Cybermancy, Pathologic, Sunless Seas/Skies, Cultist Simulator, Dishonored, Darkwood, and Darkest Dungeon being a few of them). I also just really like a good story and good characters. Being able to immerse myself in another world is great. I also play them for that little cookie of accomplishment - beating a hard boss (LOOKING AT YOU NAMELESS KING) or figuring out a puzzle (Cultist Simulator is chock full of those) or surviving spookies (Darkwood big time). Video games are great and they hold my attention better than TV or movies as I actually have to engage with them lol.

[juuggg]

Been playing a lot of indie games the last few months and I want to keep a little tally of them so i don’t forget

ASTROMAN : Cute little 32bit platformer made for a gamejam, it gave me the same feeling as a mobile game called green the planet and I mean it in a good way. The gameplay isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s relaxing to jump around collecting crystals. If they made this longer it would pop hard.

Carbon Steel : from Mike Klubnika. You join an experiment that pays a lot for weird and probably unethical research. Does a great job at building tension and making you 2nd doubt whether you’re “really” aware of reality. The endings were both a bit weak but still a very fun game worth playing, around 30min.

Cold Fr*nt : I'm censoring the name so it doesn’t appear in search man this was ASS. Good premise for 3 whole minutes before this shit turns uwu cringe ass moe moe stebaniel universal on everyone as they recite a “your feelings matter” message stolen straight from a twitter poisonned 16yo’s notes app. Was the dev afraid of being called out on tiktok for portraying unhealthy relationships or something? Anyway, if MY childhood friend pushed me down stairs, breaking my leg, I would tell them to kill themselves.

Coward Town : weird one, cool graphics but the audio hurted. Fun to wiggle around with a vague story in the background. tonic!

Driftwood : Loved this one, short visual with shrooms involved. Touches on classical themes of existentialism and coming of age. Don’t wanna spoil it too much, it definitely can get cheesy but it’s worth a play through (20 to 30mins). Made me smile from how honest it was at times, like the dev was just writing down a conversation they had in the past.

Evaluation : I didn’t remember downloading this one and looking at the steam page I'm surprised I even did. But it was a nice surprise, it's got a lot of charm especially knowing it’s the dev’s first game. It’s absolutely worth doing that 2nd play through otherwise it feels empty, but even with the tonal shift between the two routes it felt like a complete experience. Would love to see a remake of this in the future.

Infineural : Also from Mike Klubnika, the fridge horror didn’t really get to me but for 5mins it’s worth a download. Carbon steel was better.

Rental : Very nice, the 2nd and 1st areas could have been linked better. They managed to create an otherworldly but whimsical atmosphere very quickly. Cool audio and visual tricks.

WaterWombWorld : From Yames, I had it in my folders for a long time but didn’t remember playing it, so I did now. It’s thickly coated in religious significance from start to finish. If the dev came out and said he was working through his faith at the time of development I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s made me want to go back and replay Yames’ other titles.

Still fishing : feesh bloop bloop 🐟

Critters For Sale : Bought it for the graphics mostly lol. I had no clue what to expect going into it but it definitely took me by surprise on more than one occasion. It’s like a point and click visual novel adaptation of finding a conspiracy theorist’s website, going through every tab in awe, and barely being able to explain anything after. Worth a play.

I Live Under Your House + It Lives Under The House DLC : Feels like this one exploded a bit in popularity for good reason. Unique take on a spooky monster story where YOU, the player, get to be the weird guy. Loved the visuals. Absolutely do not want to spoil it but I’ll say the DLC is just as good as the main game and even better at points.

Megs’ monsters (Demo) : When it gets released in 5years and explodes it’s going to be compared to every single massively popular RPG à-la deltarune and earthbound and there’s going to be so much porn of the big monsters.

Magnus Positive Phototaxis : A short 1hr point and click puzzle game. Wish i could say it was nice but nothing really stood out other than the 3d object cutscenes that were never mentioned again. Did not expect it to take a religious U-turn but it seems to be part of a larger series of games so maybe I'm missing something. Disjointed. Mid at best.

Out Of Hands (Demo) : Didn’t care for the story when it turned out to be about a lost high-school love etc. You can Obliterate the balancing by using the double dmg at low hp perk. It feels like it’s missing a something and got repetitive near the end, but this is a demo so whatever! Using hands and clay for graphics is super cute, kept me playing just to see what random things they used next.

rats in a cage (Demo) : Loved this one. You’re trying to become a jobcell and one of the only companies that responded wants you to do a survey on a funny program because they really don’t have time to interview everyone. Said program is a rat kin puzzle game with an AI that fucking hates you. It’s absolutely going to be compared to baba is you and portal that’s not even a question, I will say the humour felt more stanley-parable-esque than portal to me. Puzzles were very easy but it might just be baba PTSD making me think every level is going to take 3hrs.

Return. : Short platforming game with cute graphics. This was odd, everything about it feels like it’s part of an ARG or would have a hidden secret fucked up horror ending but there doesn’t seen to be anything like that. The controls feel crisp and the way they did jumps was pretty unique, definitely would like to see more.

Rusty Blade : it’s alright, enjoyed the graphics but navigation itself gave me a headache.

Who’s Lila? : PLAY IT!!!!!! PLAY IT RIGHT NOW PLAY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAVEN’T FINISHED YET

skolios : playing right now, good atmosphere and nostalgic of older rpghorro games but I would be lying if i said i didn’t check the walkthrough.

Northern Journey : BUG SWATTING SIMULATOR 3000 I’d recommend this to everyone if the difficulty balancing wasn’t so messy. After spending 2hrs on the bandit fight i kinda gave up. Fun movement, fun aesthetic, fun characters, kinda mean as fuck at times but it’s funny. I’ll get drunk and spend 20hrs on beating it at some point i swear.

Mundaun : Another one with difficulty balancing problems, skill issue i know i know. Graphics are A+, setting is A+, story is intriguing, But the sniping haystacks made me mald. I WANT to love it just give me 1month i’ll git gud and then can get a solid opinion on it.

Mirage of Dragon : thought I’d hate it but it’s really just a puzzle exploration game, killed 4 dragoos so far but being reset to the beginning and needing to watch the unskippable cutscene everytime is annoying. Great aesthetic and visuals, the dev put a lot of heart into the side material, mostly the guide, cute to see ♥

ANATOMY : hurts my eyes so bad

[operationrainfall]

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I always tout myself as a fan of indies, which is why every year I attend the SIX AKA Seattle Indies Expo. Not only are they chock full of indies every year, but these are indies from my neighborhood, the PNW. So I’m even more motivated than normal to see what my fellow coffee critics and raincoat fashionistas have to share. This year the SIX had 25 different games, and I had a whole list full that I wanted to demo. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was more packed than I expected, so I was only able to push through crowds to play a handful. Thankfully, the handful I got to play were all very interesting in their own unique ways. Let’s start alphabetically with a descent into madness.

SIX Game #1 – From Beyond: Prologue Developer – SuckerFree Games

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I should point out right here that the type of games which From Beyond: Prologue are based on are ones I largely have little experience with. Games like Deja Vu, Shadowgate and Uninvited. But I have played more and more VNs and mystery / horror games of late, so I figured I’d trust my gut and take a chance. Which turns out to have been a good choice, since I was really captivated by From Beyond: Prologue. The game takes place in 1910. You play a professor on a expedition in the mountains of Europe, and things quickly go wrong. You are separated from your supplies, wild animals are hunting you, and you have a pounding headache that occasionally sounds like voices talking to you.

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As the demo progressed, things only got stranger and stranger. There was evidence of foul play everywhere, as well as mysterious ruins that somehow beckoned to me. Then I was almost deafened by a shrill screech I thought was the fire alarm in the building I was in, but turns out it was the friendly voice in my character’s head communicating. I got wonderful Alan Moore and H.P. Lovecraft vibes while playing From Beyond: Prologue. I even managed to live for a while before circumstances caught up to my character. It’s a really immersive and plot rich experience, and those are often the games I strive to play. If that all sounds interesting, the best news is that From Beyond: Prologue wasn’t just playable at Seattle Indies Expo, it’s also available to buy right now. Just be ready for a challenging and spine tingling adventure!

SIX Game #2 – Wildfire Developer – Ryan Kubik

Much as I enjoy the occasional puzzle game, I’m far from amazing at them. Which is probably why I failed so often playing Wildfire. The premise is that you need to protect people’s homes from, you guessed it, wildfires, which you do by switching adjacent tiles until you are safe. This is much harder than it sounds, especially since fires will jump to adjacent tiles quickly, and often you can only make certain moves without burning everything to ash.

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Wildfire is pretty much a hardcore, minimalist puzzle game. I was pretty wretched at it, but I did enjoy when I was smart enough to find occasional bouts of success. If you like puzzles and love challenge, then I’d check Wildfire out. If that sounds too tricky though, you might just let Smokey put these fires out.

SIX Game #3 – The Wind and Wilting Blossom Developer – Picklefeet

I’m gonna be completely transparent here, and say that The Wind and Wilting Blossom was one of the games I most anticipated playing at Seattle Indies Expo. I do my research, and the art style and genre both spoke to me. The art style is done as a tribute to Japanese woodblock prints, and it’s quite striking. As for the combat, it takes inspiration from games like FTL, so this is a roguelike with permadeath and meaningful decision making. In a weird way, this almost reminded me of playing The Oregon Trail back in my youth. You never knew what decision was the right one, but you knew someone was getting sick or eaten eventually.

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I thought the combat in The Wind and Wilting Blossom was easy to understand, but also quite challenging. You maneuver about a hex shaped grid and can move and attack in the same turn. Most foes were simple but ruthless, and I eventually lost to a couple of large Oni thugs. If the gashadokuro don’t get you, the Oni will! As for making decisions and progressing outside of combat, your choices would often result in getting new items or being punished for your acts of cruelty. I even found a few new recruits that way, which was nice.

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While the demo I played was relatively simple, I enjoyed what I saw so far of The Wind and Wilting Blossom. If you are also fascinated by this game, you can help it out on Kickstarter right now. It’s aiming for Steam currently, but I’m sure it could also come to consoles with enough support. Plus, if you want to try it yourself, there’s a free alpha demo on the Kickstarter page.

SIX Game #4 – Wintermoor Tactics Club Developer – EVC

Quick fun fact – I had the chance to play Wintermoor Tactics Club at Seattle Indie Expo last year, and opted not to for a stupid reason – because the game features snowball fights. When I heard the premise is that the game plays like the snowball fight from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I thought that sounded silly. I should have payed more attention, since while snowball fights are a feature in the game, they’re far from the only one.

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Wintermoor Tactics Club is a story about a school where the fate of the universe was decided in a most unconventional way. You’re at a school when students start disappearing, and it’s up to the remaining school clubs to find the truth and put a stop to things. The demo had me playing a group of children that regularly played D&D style games, and I got to play a battle where all my club members were thrown into a tactical RPG setting against goblins and the sort. I quickly understood the combat, and found it satisfying. But of more interest was the plot, and the undertone of sinister mystery at an otherwise upstanding and normal school environment.

Coupled with great art, sound and writing, Wintermoor Tactics Club has the potential to be a great game. It’s slated to release later in 2019 on PC, though I’d love it on consoles as well. Can you survive your time at Wintermoor Academy, or will your exploits be erased? Only you can decide by trying the game yourself!

As always, I had a really fun time trying these diverse titles at Seattle Indies Expo. Sure I wish I had been able to play some more, but that would have involved moving people, and that’s far from the best option in such a laid back and cool environment. Thanks to everybody I met with, and be sure to check all 4 of these indie titles out.

PAX West 2019: Seattle Indies Expo (SIX) I always tout myself as a fan of indies, which is why every year I attend the SIX AKA Seattle Indies Expo.