Scott: Cyclopean is a turn-based CRPG currently in pre-production under the banner of Iron Tower Studio.  I am the Lead Developer and Writer. The game is inspired by the stories and mythos of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and takes place in several of Lovecraft’s fictional locations in 1923 Massachusetts.  Based on the strength of the concept and some samples of the writing, Vince (of ITS) offered me the lead designer position for this second team, “Team Omega”, of Iron Tower Studio.  Currently I am joined in my toil by Felix, a professional illustrator, who is working on concept art and portraits.​

A lot of people admired the effort put into Dark Corners of the Earth, but I suppose it was too actiony to be called a “proper” RPG. There have been protests here and there that Lovecraft’s work cannot be translated to a computer game at all, and especially not to an isometric, turn-based game. Perhaps that is what’s put people off in the past. It’s strange that HPL’s work has such a broad range of influence in so many different kinds of media, yet direct translations are almost completely absent. Maybe it’s just too grim for the mainstream. Compared to Lovecraft, Stephen King is like your grandma reading a scary bedtime story.​

I’m not interested in interactive fiction games and I’d like more than a hundred people to play it. More seriously, I was into interactive fiction when I was younger – beating Planetfall was one of my signature accomplishments, thank you – but now I want to make a game I would play.

Here I might ask: Why not include the fiction AND the graphics AND the combat? Answer: Because time spent on graphics and content takes away from work on the writing. In Cyclopean, the writing is going to be a major focus. That’s just not the case with the (vast) majority of RPGs, loud claims otherwise notwithstanding. Folks will have to read what I’ve put out there so far (more to come), and decide for themselves if it can carry the game.​

A starting character will have a Sanity score of somewhere between 50 – 100. As conceived right this minute, the player will suffer a “minor neurosis” when his Sanity falls below 20, ie. a reduced base stat. This can be relieved by a good night’s rest. When Sanity falls below 10, the character is close to a complete breakdown. He may briefly wander at random, fumble and drop his weapon, accidentally injure himself, or freeze up during combat. Negative “shock” effects may also apply when the player takes massive (>10) Sanity damage all at once.

There will be no special quests for insane characters, however there is another “state” you can end up in, resulting from overexposure to Mythos creatures and events: Corrupted. A corrupted PC can see through the tenuous tissue separating the staid and sane world of men from the other dimensions and existences juxtaposed and sometimes overlapping our own. Exposure to these other worlds can be very taxing on one’s sanity. Unfortunately, corruption means the PC can also be seen by Outside entities perhaps better avoided. A player who chooses to serve a Mythos entity may seek out corruption and gain unusual benefits that balance the obvious drawbacks.​

The effect of sleep on Sanity is something that will need to be reworked. I’ve already had some good suggestions, like a constantly diminishing Sanity resulting from lack of proper sleep, which would lead to hallucinations. Naturally I want a system that creates a challenge for the player without being an uninteresting chore or a burden.

What’s key to me is that regaining Sanity and Life is not reduced to the red-bottle/blue-bottle method patented in the 80’s and endemic to CRPGs everywhere. I don’t want a player with 5 Sanity to just pull out a Stimpak and continue on. If the player is in Arkham, there’s always Sefton Asylum, but medical care isn’t socialized so it’s going to cost.​

I was reluctant at first to bring the Dreamlands into Cyclopean, because I don’t want to spread my efforts too thin. Then also, wouldn’t the Dreamlands make for a great sequel?[/naive optimism] But when I saw Vince bragging about his 144(!) quests in Age of Decadence, I thought maybe I’d better include a few more areas. Right now I’m considering a dream journey to one location mentioned by Lovecraft that you couldn’t get to by bus.​

Introducing what I call the S.E.D.I.W.P. system – the base stats are: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Intelligence, Will, Perception. There are nine available Skills (Mechanics, Mind, Deceit, Medicine, Arcanum, Physique, Clubs, Blades, Guns). Skills will range in value from 1-100, and maybe slightly higher, over the course of the game. The player earns a fixed number of skill points to spend each level-up. With skill points, you may purchase straight Skill increases, or Traits, which are special augmentations or rules tweaks. A Trait requires at least 25 points in its parent Skill. More advanced Traits require a higher Skill and sometimes have other prerequisites. Traits that are learned through study, like Pick Locks, require the player to access a library to purchase.

Examples: With a prerequisite of 50 in Deceit, you can purchase Forgery. If the player has access to a writing desk and writing materials, he can forge signatures and other documents to forward his agenda. With a prerequisite of 50 in Mind, you can purchase Mesmerism. Mesmerism allows the player once a day to assist an NPC to recover lost Sanity, as well as opening up dialogue options in applicable situations.

Traits for Deceit, Mind, Arcanum and Physique have been revealed on the forum so far. I’ll add more from time to time.

I think readers will also be interested in my conception of optional Character Backgrounds.​

I’m going to approximate the Fallout model of NPC followers: limited inventory control (no packmules), some AI options but not direct control over actions, no more than three followers. These people won’t follow you everywhere you go, either.​

Combat will have a role comparable to that of games like Fallout, by which I mean there will be plenty else to do, but the tactical combat will be a draw for anyone who likes that kind of thing.​

Alert readers will note there is no Charisma stat. Cyclopean will gauge a player’s performance in dialogue on a hidden Respect slider. An initial Respect score will be set based on the NPC’s general disposition and the player’s appearance and Background if appropriate. From then on, player questions and comments will influence the NPC’s Respect rating, which in turn influences the amount the NPC will reveal and determine his level of cooperation. A low Respect rating could result in withheld information, misinformation, or being attacked.

I dislike role-playing systems that rely on conversation stats, like Diplomacy, Gather Information, etc. In Cyclopean, I want the player to read and think about what’s being said, instead of clicking the highlighted line that indicates a Diplomacy check because he has a high Diplomacy. A player’s Deceit Skill will determine his chance of successfully lying. There are a few dialogue-related Traits, like Charm Opposite Sex, which will open dialogue options, but I intend to draw from all of the non-combat Skills for determining success. There won’t be any visual indication of which lines of dialogue rely on which stats. If a stat is being tested, which remember is only sometimes the case, the writing should at least hint at what is being tested.​

I think everyone is on the same page regarding the essence of Lovecraft. Of his many fine qualities, subtlety is not one. It is the complete insignificance of man in the cosmic order, and his existence depending entirely on that insignificance, on being hidden away in a forgotten corner of the universe, out of sight of the horrific entities lurking beyond. For now.

Are there other ‘horror visionaries’? I read good writers, and good genre writers (in any genre) are very few indeed. There aren’t any other writers of horror fiction that I regularly read. The reason I chose Lovecraft is that he grabbed me by the guts when I first got into his stuff when I was 14 and I’ve never forgotten. His work isn’t clichéd and isn’t derived from other works that came before, or even mythology. He made his own cosmos from scratch, without animated skeletons and blood-sucking vampires. How many fantasy or horror authors can you say that about?

Also, there are no elves. This is a big selling point for me personally.

I’d like to finish by inviting Codex readers to peruse the Cyclopean forum at Iron Tower Studio. This game is a work in progress, and as long as you’re not going to try and convince me to change the basic format (isometric, TB, etc), your comments and feedback are welcome.​