#so basically it was non stop hours of nosferatu

[paintaboveyourbones]

Me, high on cold meds and rubbing my hands together like a greedy, demented fly watching a man with plague dick fuck the pregnant corpse of his wife until he dies with it still in : yesssssss

[beaft]

recommend some horror?

aha!! i am glad you asked (no really, i am, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be loud about my favourite genre). here is a non-exhaustive list of some of my personal favourites:

books

-the ballad of black tom by victor lavalle (retelling of lovecraft's "the horror at red hook" by a black author, i could talk about this one for hours suffice to say it's Very Good)

-pet semetary by stephen king (i have a love/hate relationship with mr king but i think this is one of his better books)

-the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson (actually, just about anything by shirley jackson, my personal favourite book by her is "we have always lived in the castle")

-beloved by toni morrison (it's not exactly horror, but i have to put it here anyway because it's too good not to)

-things we say in the dark by kirsty logan

-tell me i’m worthless by alison rumfitt

-house of leaves by mark z. danielewski (i detest this book. yes it's still one of my top favourites and no i will not be taking questions at this time.)

-my heart is a chainsaw by stephen graham jones

-literally anything by robert aickman

movies

-pan’s labyrinth (historical fantasy-horror, visually stunning, one of my favourite movies of all time)

-lake mungo (australian found footage horror about ghosts and grief)

-the texas chain saw massacre (not as gory as the title might suggest)

-the wicker man (the original version, unless you’re in the mood to see nicolas cage at his nicolas cagiest)

-jacob’s ladder (beautiful, eerie, hallucinogenic, you will not know what’s going on for most of it and that’s honestly kind of the point)

-carrie (the sissy spacek version NOT the one with chloe moretz)

-the ritual (it's not a perfect movie but the creature design is WONDERFUL)

-alien (grr! i'm gonna getcha! i'm the alien! and so on)

-nosferatu (both versions are excellent, but i am particularly partial to the 1979 one with klaus kinski as the vampire)

-whistle and i’ll come to you (unsettling short film based on an m. r. james story)

-hereditary (this one's best if you go in blind, but i realise that’s probably difficult since a lot of it has been memed to hell and back)

-the thing (sci-fi thriller/body horror movie set on an isolated arctic research base)

-don't look now (based on a daphne du maurier short story; light on the horror but heavy on the uncanny)

-cabin in the woods (comedy-horror) okay this one is kind of a guilty pleasure for me but it does have some clever moments and it’s genuinely very fun to watch

-silent hill 2006 (another guilty pleasure, it is very much not a good movie but also i've seen it like 7 times, so.)

-ginger snaps (the close relationship between a pair of misfit sisters is tested when one of them starts going through puberty, and also incidentally becomes a werewolf. similar vibes to jennifer's body although i personally prefer this one)

-penda’s fen (startlingly ahead of its time – it’s basically a coming-of-age story about a gay teenager in rural england with a tasty slice of religious/folk horror)

-crimson peak (love letter to the "gothic melodrama" genre)

-us (i personally preferred it to get out, but they’re both amazing; i haven’t seen NOPE yet but i hope to soon!)

tv shows

-castlevania (based on the video game, vampires + religious horror, gorgeously animated, unexpectedly funny)

-the terror (true-ish story of a doomed voyage to the north-west passage) (the demon bear may or may not be historically factual) (we just don't know)

-twin peaks (idk if it counts as horror but i’m putting it here anyway. it’s not for everyone but it occupies a special place in my heart)

-in the flesh (again, not quite horror, but there are horror elements, and i am putting it here because it’s both a pleasingly original take on the zombie-apocalypse genre and a beautiful queer love story. it got cancelled halfway through its run and i will never stop being salty about it.)

-the enfield haunting (three-part tv drama) (much better than the james wan movie) (not that that’s hard)

podcasts

-the magnus archives (do not ask me about this show unless you're prepared to hear me yell about it for Ever and Ever and Ever)

-alice isn't dead (lesbian trucker searches for her missing wife amidst various spooky happenings)

-a scottish podcast (washed-up radio DJ decides to become a phony paranormal investigator to make some extra cash, but his scheme goes awry when he stumbles on a genuine paranormal event)

-i am in eskew (man attempts to leave city, is unsuccessful)

message me if you want trigger warnings or a more detailed description for any of these!

[thecreaturecodex]

Great Old One, Chaugnar Faugn

Image © deviantArt user fed0t, accessed at his gallery here

[Commissioned by @monstersdownthepath​. Chaugnar Faugn is a canonical Great Old One in Pathfinder from the Cthulhu Mythos, specifically the novella “The Horror From the Hills” by Frank Belknap Long. Although I’ve been familiar with good ol’ CF since I got a copy of Call of Cthulhu d20 for Christmas one year, I only just now read “The Horror From The Hills” in order to write this entry. I can see why the story hasn’t been reprinted a ton; it’s basically just “The Call of Cthulhu” with more action and more racism. Yes, more racism than Lovecraft. Let that sink in. Also, I think it’s hilarious how many times Long has his characters describe Chaugnar Faugn as unlike any other mythological entity, and completely unimaginable by mere human minds, when he’s clearly Eldritch Vampire Ganesha.]

Great Old One, Chaugnar Faugn CR 26 CE Aberration This creature is vaguely like a parody of an elephant-headed humanoid, but the resemblances to both elephants and humanoids are only superficial. Tentacles held together with webbing mirror ears, and its twin tusks are translucent and interwoven. Its trunk is impossibly long and ends in a lamprey-like maw.

Chaugnar Faugn, the Horror From the Hills, the Feeder CE male Great Old One of blood, patience and remote landscapes Domains Chaos, Death, Evil, War Subdomains Blood, Entropy, Murder, Tactics Favored Weapon Light pick Unholy Symbol An elephant’s head with a bloody trunk Worshipers evil elves, murderers, nosferatu, those seeking revenge Minions faceless stalkers, morlocks, hill giants

Chagnaur Faugn, the Feeder, was old when the planets were young. He is a being formed from the initial creation of matter in the universe, and has traveled the cosmos in search of blood to drink and death to deal. He is perhaps the first parasite, and is truly one of the greatest. His body and senses stretch into both the Ethereal and Shadow Planes, and he will prey on their denizens as readily as any Material creature. Chaugnar Faugn is capable of flying between worlds, but does so only on rare occasions. He has witnessed the birth and death of at least one biosphere in its totality, and wishes to compare that to other arcs of planetary development.

Chaugnar Faugn prefers swift and precise attacks to destructive rampages, despite his bulk and strength. He spends most of his life in the shape of a stone statue, animating only to drink blood or punish followers who betray his faith. If forced to actually fight, the Feeder tramples enemies, then uses his crystalline tusks (which swivel independently) and mighty claws to finish off opponents. He is gifted in magic, and often transforms his allies into monstrous beasts to fight on his behalf, or simply stops an enemy’s heart with power word: kill.

Chaugnar Faugn’s current appellation, The Horror from the Hills, stems from his preference for remote country. He seeks out dispossessed and marginalized groups and bullies his way into a place of honor in their pantheon, demanding blood sacrifice and murdering them if they do not comply. To mark his chosen, he inflicts a terrible curse on them, granting them animalistic features. The trunk and ears of an elephant are a favorite, as they resemble his own form. Chaugnar Faugn teaches patience, for he has lived for literal eons, and savors the suspense of a revenge drawn out. His worship is popular with long lived and endangered species, such as the nosferatu, and he teaches that if they cannot make more of themselves, they should at least be remembered for the terror they inflict.

Chaugnar Faugn   CR 26 XP 2,457,600 CE Large aberration (great old one) Init +18; Senses darkvision 60 ft., hyperdimensional sight, Perception +38, scent, true seeing Aura cloak of chaos (DC 26), unspeakable (300 ft., Will DC 33) Defense AC 43, touch 31, flat-footed 42 (-1 size, +8 Dex, +12 natural, +10 insight, +4 deflection) hp 615 (30d8+480); fast healing 10 Fort +25, Ref +24, Will +31 Immune ability damage, ability drain, aging, cold, death effects, disease, energy drain, fire, mind-affecting effects, paralysis, and petrifaction; SR 37 Defensive Abilities hyperdimensional body, immortality, improved uncanny dodge Offense Speed 80 ft., swim 80 ft. Melee 2 gores +36 (2d8+15/19-20), 2 claws +36 (2d6+15), bite +36 (1d6+15 plus chew magic plus grab) Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with bite) Special Attacks blood drain (2d4 Con), curse of Chaugnar Faugn, demanding dreams, insanity (DC 33), mythic (10/day, 1d12), subtle magic, trample (Ref DC 40, 4d6+22) Spell-like Abilities CL 26th, concentration +34 Constant—cloak of chaos (self only, DC 26), true seeing At will—darkness M, gaseous form M, greater command (DC 23), nightmare (DC 23), stone shape M, telekinesis (DC 23) M 3/day—greater dispel magic, horrid wilting (DC 26), quickened mass inflict pain (DC 24), polymorph any object (DC 26), empowered vampiric touch M 1/day—etherealness, shadow walk, power word: kill M, power word: stun M M = Chaugnar Faugn can use the mythic version of this SLA Statistics Str 40, Dex 27, Con 42, Int 26, Wis 30, Cha 27 Base Atk +22; CMB +38 (+40 bull rush, +42 sunder), CMD 60 (62 vs. bull rush, sunder) Feats Acrobatic Steps, Awesome Blow, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Empower SLA (vampiric touch), Greater Sunder, Improved Bull Rush,  Improved Critical (gore), Improved Sunder, Lightning Reflexes, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (mass inflict pain), Staggering Critical, Stunning Critical Skills Bluff +33, Climb +36, Intimidate +38, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, geography, nature, religion, planes) +33, Knowledge (history) +36, Perception +38, Sense Motive +35, Spellcraft +36, Stealth +36, Swim +43 Languages Aklo, Aquan, Terran, Undercommon, telepathy 300 ft. SQ no breath, otherworldly insight, starflight, statue form Ecology Environment any Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Chew Magic (Su) A creature or object bitten by Chaugnar Faugn is subject to a targeted greater dispel magic effect (CL 26th). This effect first affects spells that protect against being grappled, such as freedom of movement, before any other spells. Curse of Chaugnar Faugn (Su) As a standard action, Chaugnar Faugn can cast its curse upon a creature within 120 feet. A creature targeted must succeed a DC 33 Will save to suffer a -6 penalty to an ability score of Chaugnar Faugn’s choice. A creature cursed in this manner has their facial features altered to resemble those of an animal. A creature that succeeds on this save is immune to the Curse of Chaugnar Faugn for the next 24 hours. Chagnaur Faugn can use this ability as a swift action against a creature it is grappling. This is a curse effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Demanding Dreams (Su) When Chaugnar Faugn targets a creature with its nightmare spell-like ability, regardless of whether it passes or fails the save, the creature must succeed a DC 33 Will save or be affected as per a demand spell. A creature that passes its save against the damage from the nightmare gains a +5 bonus on this saving throw. This is a mind-influencing compulsion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based. Hyperdimensional Body (Su) Chaugnar Faugn exists in multiple dimensions at once, granting it abilities similar to those of an incorporeal creature. It is immune to damage from non-magical weapons, and takes half damage from all corporeal sources except for force effects and ghost touch weapons. It can move through solid objects as if they were difficult terrain, except that it cannot end its movement in an object. This ability does not function if Chaugnar Faugn is subject to a dimensional anchor or similar effect. Hyperdimensional Sight (Su) Chaugnar Faugn can see into the Ethereal Plane and Shadow Plane at a distance of 60 feet. It can attack creatures on either of these planes normally, although such creatures are treated as having cover against his attacks. Immortality (Ex) If Chaugnar Faugn is slain, he dissolves into a noxious sludge, and incarnates in his statue form on a distant planet over the course of 100 years. He must remain in his statue form for an additional 1011 years before he can return to animation, but can still use his subtle magic in this forced hibernation. Starflight (Su) Chagnaur Faugn can survive in the void of outer space. It flies through space at an incredible speed. Although exact travel times vary, a trip within a single solar system should take 3d20 hours, while a trip beyond should take 3d20 days (or more, at the GM's discretion)—provided it knows the way to its destination. Statue Form (Su) As a standard action, Chaugnar Faugn can assume the form of a statue of Medium, Large or Huge size. He can use his senses normally in this form and communicate using telepathy, but can take no actions except for his subtle magic. He may resume his animate form as a move action. Subtle Magic (Su) Chaugnar Faugn does not detect as magical when in statue form. In addition, he can spend a use of mythic power to use one of its spell-like abilities or the Curse of Chaugnar Faugn while in statue form. If he does so, he cannot deliver a touch attack unless the creature is touching it. When it uses this ability, creatures that witness the spell must succeed an opposed Spellcraft check against Chaugnar Faugn to determine that he is the source of the spell-like ability. Unspeakable Presence (Su) Creatures that succumb to Chaugnar Faugn’s unspeakable presence find themselves literally falling apart. A creature that fails a DC 33 Will save gains vulnerability to bludgeoning, slashing or piercing damage (determined randomly) for as long as it remains in the area of effect. The save DC is Charisma based.

[ciathyzareposts]

Fantasyland 2041: Won! (with Summary and Rating)

Does that mean Guinevere is real?! Or have I just carried a robot out of the park?

        Fantasyland 2041

United States

Crystalware (developer and original publisher); Epyx (later publisher)

Released in 1981 for Apple II and Atari 800

Date Started: 9 October 2019

Date Finished: 19 October 2019

Total Hours: 9

Difficulty: Hard (4/5)

Final Rating: (to come later)

Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

Summary:

Fantasyland 2041 is an epic adventure on non-epic hardware: a long, difficult game with primitive graphics and mechanics. Set in a Westworld-like future of holograms and animatronics, guests proceed through a series of adventure scenarios–Congoland, Arabian Adventure, King Arthur, Olympus, Captain Nemo, and Dante’s Inferno–and back again. Along the way, they must find certain items to rescue Lancelot or Guinevere from hell. They must also manage food and inventory, fight hostile parties, and solve a few light inventory puzzles. The interface is top-down, which often conflicts mentally with what looks like first-person graphics. The game’s scope and intent are admirable, but ultimately it’s too annoying and boring for the graphics, sound, and mechanical complexity of the era.

        ******

        The manual to Fantasyland 2041 takes pains to emphasize the length and difficulty of the adventure.

            [Y[ou may conclude that it is impossible to ever finish or win this game. We had to make it pretty tough. The average adventurer will probably never see the Throne of Lucifer or make it past the gates to the Underworld. We hope that just the experience of a single adventure will be sufficiently entertaining to satisfy our most critical hobbyists.

           I can sympathize. Players expected, as they do now, to get a certain amount of playing time out of a $40.00 purchase. Arcade games satisfied that time minimum by being repeatable, but for adventure games and RPGs, a lot of the mystery was gone after you won for the first time. Thus, the developer had to prolong that time. Eventually, they would do that with bigger worlds and more game detail, but those weren’t options in the early years of the microcomputer. (Less because of technology and more because of a lack of innovative templates.) So instead, they prolonged the games by just making them hard. Permadeath was a common solution. Fantasyland goes a different direction by allowing you to save anywhere but almost always rolling the dice against you.

There’s a seed of a good game in Fantasyland 2041, and part of me wishes John Bell had waited several years and then developed it under the influence of, say, the Ultima series. I would have like to experience it with more complex commands, more thoughtful puzzles, interesting NPCs, and tactical combat. Instead, game design is as primitive as the world it inhabits, involving a lot of trial and error before the player learns enough to make a successful winning run.

As we covered in the first entry, exploring the land is a very linear process. The Hall of Heroes leads to Congoland, which leads to the Arabian Adventure, which leads to King Arthur. These first three lands are all quite similar.

            Each one has individual enemies visible on-screen who chase you around the map and attack you. In Congoland, these are tigers and gorillas. In the Arabian Adventure, they’re samurai. In King Arthur, they’re Modred and the Black Knight.

           I’m not sure I remember this part of Le Morte D’Arthur.

            Each has packs of enemies who can attack randomly at any moment (while you’re standing still or moving) but are not seen on-screen. Across the three lands, these progressed from headhunters and Zulu warriors to Turks and scorpions to knights and archers.

Each has physical features that are dangerous to bump into, running the risk of losing equipment or companions. These include swamps, logs, mountain crevices, fallen logs, and cliffs.

                       Each has random environmental effects (earthquakes, sandstorms) that have the same effect.

Each has treasure chests to find and loot, and villages where you can buy and sell goods and companions.

Each has a special spellcasting enemy–witch doctors, genies, and sorcerers–who are necessary to have in your party to “solve” the area.

Each culminates at a door to the next world, where you must use the magic of one of your spellcasters to progress.

            Each land is made of blocks of roughly 8 x 8. It’s tough to count exactly because the screens continually scroll. Each block can have a particular type of terrain. The manual organizes these blocks into named sections (“Jungles,” “the Desert,” “Baghdad,” “Stonehenge”) and gives you clues about what you need to accomplish there.

King Arthur’s world changed the rules a bit by allowing parties of knights and archers to join you when you (G)reet them rather than attack. This sounds like a good idea, but the most difficult feature of the game is keeping all your companions fed. You can only carry a maximum of 255 of any item, including rations, and every companion eats a meal roughly two game minutes. If you somehow get 100 companions in your party, you have at most about five minutes before they start to starve to You can barely move between all the death notices and the need to constantly stop and drop equipment, so once characters start starving, it’s basically a reload.

            I don’t remember why this was here.

          Thus, resource issues discourage you from developing a large party, particularly since enemy parties just scale to your size anyway. However, the “individual” enemies on each map–Modred and the Black Knight on King Arthur’s map–all have high strength and need a large party to successfully counter, particularly if you want to minimize the chance that they’ll kill your spellcasters. Thus, you have to find the balance between logistical annoyance and combat effectiveness.

King Arthur’s realm features a dragon’s lair, with the dragon guarding the sword Excalibur. The dragon has 50,000 strength, which can only be countered by a very large party. To defeat the dragon, I hung out near his lair, let hundreds of companions join me, killed him, grabbed Excalibur, and then dropped the companions. Having Excalibur among my equipment made the rest of the game a lot easier.

          Fighting a dragon to get Excalibur.

           There’s also a second artifact to find in King Arthur’s territory: a Ring of Power. The manual makes a big deal about the importance of Rings of Power, but I only ever found two, and as far as I could tell, they just sat in my inventory. I never employed them. Also in King Arthur’s realm: Holy Grails (plural!) show up in treasure chests and can be sold for a lot of money.

King Arthur’s world culminates in Merlin’s Labyrinth, another maze. Getting past Merlin involves using one of the magic items you’ve acquired from the witch doctor, sorcerer, or genie. Once he’s gone, you can progress to Olympus.

I’ll pause here to note that (U)sing items is one of the more annoying parts of the game. Every time you hit the command, you have to scroll through multiple inventory pages before you get to the place you enter the item’s number. Since the “B” key also scrolls through inventory, the developers should have had “U” just take you right to the number, in case you already remembered it. A lot of items, like scrolls, feel like they should be useable but are not.

            Inventory eventually gets very unwieldy.

         The Olympus level changes the rules. You begin at Olympus itself, a town where you can buy and sell goods. You must buy the ship Argos, which appears off the “coast” to the west. To get to the ship, you have to buy a longboat and (U)se it at the edge of the Olympus screen. Once you’re on the Argos, you need a sail, an anchor, and oars to operate it. You have to (U)se the anchor to lift it, and after that you can either row with oars, which allows you to go any direction but consumes more food, or sail with the winds, which is a little harder to master.

           Sailing away from Olympus.

          The level is populated with numerous islands. I couldn’t figure out how to land on the Isle of Delos to the west. A northwest island had the Cyclops, who carried 2,000 gold pieces. A northeast island had the sorceress Circe, who carried the second Ring of Power. Finally, an eastern island, Thera, had the portal to the next land. I should mention that we get the only complex sound on this level, with a cycling shhhhh suggesting waves.

            The Argos waits offshore while the party picks up the Ring of Power from the slain Circe.

         There was a lot of inventory shuffling because to enter Captain Nemo’s world, you need a submarine, which you can purchase in Olympus, but it’s enormously heavy, so you need people without equipment to bear the weight. Once you choose to enter the submarine, however, your companion and inventory maximums drop precipitously, and you have to jettison a lot of people and stuff.

           Handling logistics for boarding the submarine.

           Captain Nemo’s world is all underwater, and running the submarine into any object causes it to fall apart. I think you can fix it with “spare parts,” but I had neglected to purchase any of these, so any time I accidentally rammed into a coral reef, I had to reload. There are treasure chests that you can send divers with diving suits out to retrieve, but only at certain depths. I found the whole level frustrating and thus wasn’t unhappy when I found Atlantis in the northwest corner and immediately transitioned to the final level.

         I never figured out anything to do in the City of Eelmen.

         Dante’s Inferno takes place among brimstone pits and rows of demons who just stand there until you run into them, at which point they kill your companions. The City of Dis in the northwest is the first place to buy and sell equipment and companions since Olympus. Demons and Nosferatu attack as you explore, although I found that around a dozen knights plus Excalibur made short work of them.

               At least they make me feel “welcome.”

            Rivers of fire funnel you to the north, where you have to use a plank (sold in Dis) to cross an abyss. Finally, in the northwest corner, you find Lancelot or Guinevere being guarded by Lucifer. As long as you have the two Rings of Power and a Signet Ring from Camelot (the manual warns you to buy it), he or she will come along with you immediately.

          All I did was walk up to him. This felt anti-climactic.

        At that point–much to my furor–you have to reverse your steps and make your way all the way back to the beginning, traversing each of the lands in reverse order. That took longer than it should have because I had gotten rid of a lot of the items needed for the ship and submarine, thinking I wouldn’t need them again.

Returning to the entrance gives you a brief message that “You made it back with Guinevere” and then a “Final Score” screen that summarizes your wealth, experience, and time. The screen encouraged early players to send their disks to Crystalware for a chance to win $1000, with the winner chosen from the highest scorer to solve the game before 1 December 1981.

           201 days?! How do people take that much time off work in the future?

         One outstanding mystery concerns, well, “The Great Mystery.” This is what the manual has to say about it:

           To win the prize, you must solve the Great Mystery and beat out your competitors in treasure and courage . . . The mystery is unlike any of the others. It is not an anagram nor is it found anywhere on the disk in basic or machine language . . . At the end of the game, if you make it, you will be prompted to send your disk in if you wish to enter the contest. Do not try to make a copy to send in; it must be the original. At our plant, we have a huge score board, with a list of all the fantasylanders and their achievements. The person to solve the mystery and score the highest will be awarded a trophy and receive $1,000 in cash.

             So there’s supposedly some Great Mystery that you have to solve to win the prize–but it’s not the same thing as winning the game by finding Lancelot or Guinevere, which you presumably have to do, too. More important, the instructions only mention sending in the disk. How will the developers know that someone has solved the Great Mystery, too? Is it somehow recorded on the disk? Did they assume players would know enough to include a separate note? What did they mean when they say the mystery “is unlike any of the others”? Any of the other what?

A re-read of the manual produces few clues. There are poems that suggest using the rings or perhaps scrolls on the “666” of King Solomon’s Temple, but nothing I try works. Messages just tell me that those items are “already in use.” I’ve inspected the disks, and I can’t find any text related to a bigger mystery, but then again the manual itself warned me that wouldn’t work.

           Here’s a scene from Dante’s Inferno. I have no idea what’s going on, or who that guy in the center is. Touching any of the figures around him causes your companions to die. Maybe this had something to do with the Great Mystery?

            Fantasyland 2041 isn’t much of an RPG. It lacks any character development (I don’t think the “experience” statistic does anything for you during the game) or personal inventory, and combat is as simple as a game of War. I give it an 18 on the GIMLET, with the best scores (3s) in coencounters and inventory. I still don’t know the purpose of half the stuff you can pick up. I don’t believe I ever used a rope, a shovel, a spotlight, citrus fruit (I assume it was there to stave of scurvy, but no one ever ate it), quinine, a compass, a magic carpet, a box of sand, mushrooms, a lute, squid ink, a wooden stake, or half a dozen other items that didn’t seem to be weapons, armor, or treasure.

We also leave the game with some out-of-game mysteries as well. Why did John Bell announce in the manual that this would be his last great fantasy? What happened to him and Patricia Bell after 1982, when the last Crystalware title was published? How did it morph into Crystalware Defense and Nanotechnology of the 2010s, and what did Bell do in the meantime?

I’ve been exposed to three Crystalware games at this point, and all of them are similar in their interfaces, mechanics, and suggestions that something deeper is happening beneath the game’s surface. I have four more on my list and will probably be a bit less forgiving about their statuses as RPGs under my rules. Nonetheless, it was fun to see another example of a developer who, in the area of five-and-a-quarter-inch floppy disks, dared to dream big.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/fantasyland-2041-won-with-summary-and-rating/