KickStarter Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones - a Lovecraftian Computer RPG

[Jacob]

Why not go for the traditional isometric view? The current top-down grid looks kinda weird.

For the HoMM 1-2-3 feels of course.

I just realized it was mentioned in the OP. My bad.
But in this game the grid sticks out more than in HoMM.

 

[V_K]

looks kinda weird

That might be on purpose - we're talking eldritch things beyond human comprehension, after all.

 

[Scrawled]

Yes that is exactly what is it, turn sequencer. At the start of each battle turn, the computer will roll initiative to arrange the action orders of all characters/enemies and it will be subject to many modifiers.

How does turn order work? I can see little icons on the top of the image, presumably the order of action during battle?

 

[Scrawled]

Yes of course, hex grids are there to let the player see things more clearly and it can be toggled on/off with such a switch.

I hope the battle grid can be turned on/off on demand?

 

[Scrawled]

Enjoy the "Investigator" Archetype, one among 7 different archetypes which can be chosen by our players.

*Prologue Story: The character is an ex-cop who currently works as a private investigator. The latest case of a missing child turned out to be much more complicated than a common kidnapping.

*Investigation, Firearms and Psychology skills will be able to reach the maximum level.

*An Investigator is more likely to find hidden items and will have unique dialog options with NPC's from the same background.

http://www.stygianthegame.com

 

[Ninjerk]

Proper investigator should probably get a Browning Hi-Power lookalike.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

He should have the special ability to cast unlimited wisecracks.

 

[Zombra]

I am highly nonplussed at the idea of a combat RPG of this type. Resource management, item stat comparisons, hit points and xp, this all seems bizarrely inappropriate. Grinding levels against cultists to eventually fight mini-Cthulhus in broad daylight on a hex grid ... it's going to be a very hard sell for me. A big part of horror is a lack of information ... even if you hide enemy stats from the player, mathing everything down takes away all the magic. You took 22 hp damage, you have 68 left, so you know you can probably tank 3 more hits before you die. What's scary about that? Just seems like a doomed idea, and not doomed in a horrifying eldritch way, just doomed in a disappointing way.

Looking forward to the Kickstarter pitch and more information. Who knows? Maybe you'll hit the magic combination. Good luck Cultic Games.

hmmm. At least 3rd Lovercraftian themed rpg that is coming. (Witch House and Call of Cthulhu are the other ones)

I guess you don't mean this?

 

[Ninjerk]

I am highly nonplussed at the idea of a combat RPG of this type. Resource management, item stat comparisons, hit points and xp, this all seems bizarrely inappropriate. Grinding levels against cultists to eventually fight mini-Cthulhus in broad daylight on a hex grid ... it's going to be a very hard sell for me. A big part of horror is a lack of information ... even if you hide enemy stats from the player, mathing everything down takes away all the magic. You took 22 hp damage, you have 68 left, so you know you can probably tank 3 more hits before you die. What's scary about that? Just seems like a doomed idea, and not doomed in a horrifying eldritch way, just doomed in a disappointing way.

Looking forward to the Kickstarter pitch and more information. Who knows? Maybe you'll hit the magic combination. Good luck Cultic Games.

It really does look like it misses the point.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

But in this game the grid sticks out more than in HoMM.

They should make the hexes non-Euclidean.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

I guess you don't mean this?

Here.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/witch-house.107133/

 

[Xathrodox86]

The flavor text talks about "Angst points". I'm already hooked.

 

[Scrawled]

We definitely understand your concerns Zombra.

One of the themes that Lovecraft emphasizes the most is how powerless and fragile we are against these entities and we believe this theme can be explored with the help of game mechanics within the borders of a turn based combat structure. For example, when the action round comes to a panicked character, with trembling hands, he could only reload three bullets into his revolver instead of six even though he spends the necessary number of action points or in another occasion he may lose his round by the absolute terror he's engulfed in while witnessing a scene of a ghoul eating one of his party members or he might receive a permanent mental disorder from the consequence of a spell which helped him survive the previous combat scenario.
As Cultic Games, within the boundaries of our stylized visual approach and stat systems, we are trying to make the most loyal game to the source material we are so passionate about while creating a mechanically interesting and enjoyable RPG. As the game begins after the awakening of the Old Ones, mythos entities aren't so rare anymore in our doomed town of Arkham, but you definitely won't find elements like tentacle boss fights or destruction of an Old One with a super grenade in Stygian

Lastly, we can say that the game balance is strongly towards suspenseful interactive storytelling rather than combat encounters but when that time of dispute comes, we want our players to have a tight tactical challenge against these horrors.

I hope we can prevail and win you over as a Lovecraft and RPG fan when the game gets released. Thank you for your sincere comments!

I am highly nonplussed at the idea of a combat RPG of this type. Resource management, item stat comparisons, hit points and xp, this all seems bizarrely inappropriate. Grinding levels against cultists to eventually fight mini-Cthulhus in broad daylight on a hex grid ... it's going to be a very hard sell for me. A big part of horror is a lack of information ... even if you hide enemy stats from the player, mathing everything down takes away all the magic. You took 22 hp damage, you have 68 left, so you know you can probably tank 3 more hits before you die. What's scary about that? Just seems like a doomed idea, and not doomed in a horrifying eldritch way, just doomed in a disappointing way.

Looking forward to the Kickstarter pitch and more information. Who knows? Maybe you'll hit the magic combination. Good luck Cultic Games.

hmmm. At least 3rd Lovercraftian themed rpg that is coming. (Witch House and Call of Cthulhu are the other ones)

I guess you don't mean this?

http://www.stygianthegame.com

 

[Zombra]

Great reply, Scrawled. You are certainly talking the talk! Again, I look forward to the Kickstarter pitch, and I think we all hope you can walk the walk.

$$ on standby.

 

[Scrawled]

NEW CHARACTER ANIMATION!!!
NEW CHARACTER ANIMATION!!!
NEW CHARACTER ANIMATION!!!



http://www.stygianthegame.com

 

[Ninjerk]

OK that looks nice than I thought it would end up looking. Proportionally it reminds me of that cartoon with the little girl superheroes with the scientist father.

 

[HoboForEternity]

nice, it looks 3D? is it?

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Honestly not much I can say about this. Doesn't look like it would work as an RPG. Could be fun in a non-horror way if it had interesting mechanics, classes and encounters but that doesn't seem to be the selling point of the game.

Dark Corners of the Earth had the same issue. It was brilliant at first, especially the hotel chase sequence but the moment you got a gun the game turned into an FPS and a bad one at that.

A big problem is that Lovecraft's horror when it came to creatures was based purely on suggestion. He only gave minor hints on what they looked like and your imagination did the rest, fueled by the previous buildup of the story. Not sure if this can be accurately represented in an rpg. Only thing you could do is follow the same tale pattern as Lovecraft, creating an earie feeling, a sort of "buildup" and add disturbing visual cues for the player. One guy suggested making the grid shape non-euclidean, that would work. Just draw them in really weird shapes and have it impact positioning as well, which would cause some distress to the player in later encounters.

Lastly, for the monsters, since Lovecraftian beings cannot be represented neither in form nor in colossal shape (in the case of an isometric rpg) make them as disgustingly horrible as possible, as grotesque as you can. Not much else you can do to get a reaction out of the player when it comes to monsters. The ghoul you posted did nothing for me, looks more like a cute alien than an eldritch horror.

Decrease lighting in some levels, raise it in other, alternate between claustrophobic arenas to very open ones to alternate between kinds of vulnerability and, most importantly, have good music to go along with it.

 

[Zombra]

Dark Corners of the Earth had the same issue. It was brilliant at first, especially the hotel chase sequence but the moment you got a gun the game turned into an FPS and a bad one at that.

I was just thinking about why I loved Dark Corners so much. The beginning was great, certainly; but I felt like the game was very strong overall until the end where you get the infinite ammo laser cannon.

The answer is obscurity. No UI. Not knowing how much damage I've taken exactly. Not knowing how many bullets it will take to put down that thing. It also really sold the idea that fighting usually wouldn't work. I was convinced that I'd be torn to pieces if I was ever caught.

I wanted to relive the magic so I tried a second playthrough a few years later, but discovered that it couldn't work twice. I instinctively remembered just how dangerous everything was. With metaknowledge, it was a pretty simple task to just kill everything. I still think DCOTE is a masterful game, even if it is less than half-baked, because it kept its gameplay secrets very well. Once you know them, of course, it's not the same, but if you go in cold, it's fantastic.

I feel like Stygian could benefit from similar principles. Get rid of the numbers. Force the player to figure out what will work and what won't by trial and error. Downplay the "wargame" elements. Teach him that it's best to run from the unknown as much as possible. It's OK if he runs from a fish man because he doesn't know he can kill it with one shotgun blast. That's the mindset you want, isn't it?

And, most importantly, have good music to go along with it.

The ambient 'music' on the game's website has me convinced that they are going to have excellent sound design. It freaks me the fuck out.

 

[Lacrymas]

The ambient 'music' on the game's website has me convinced that they are going to have excellent sound design. It freaks me the fuck out.

I was just going to mention that the music on their website is good and it shows some kind of professional composition background.

 

[Grauken]

NEW CHARACTER ANIMATION!!!
NEW CHARACTER ANIMATION!!!
NEW CHARACTER ANIMATION!!!



http://www.stygianthegame.com

I like most of the art I've seen so far, but this looks just terrible, like from a cheap 3d adventure that came out en mass a few years ago, would prefer more traditional 2d animation 1000 times over this

 

[Space Insect]

Dark Corners of the Earth had the same issue. It was brilliant at first, especially the hotel chase sequence but the moment you got a gun the game turned into an FPS and a bad one at that.

I was just thinking about why I loved Dark Corners so much. The beginning was great, certainly; but I felt like the game was very strong overall until the end where you get the infinite ammo laser cannon.

The answer is obscurity. No UI. Not knowing how much damage I've taken exactly. Not knowing how many bullets it will take to put down that thing. It also really sold the idea that fighting usually wouldn't work. I was convinced that I'd be torn to pieces if I was ever caught.

I wanted to relive the magic so I tried a second playthrough a few years later, but discovered that it couldn't work twice. I instinctively remembered just how dangerous everything was. With metaknowledge, it was a pretty simple task to just kill everything. I still think DCOTE is a masterful game, even if it is less than half-baked, because it kept its gameplay secrets very well. Once you know them, of course, it's not the same, but if you go in cold, it's fantastic.

I feel like Stygian could benefit from similar principles. Get rid of the numbers. Force the player to figure out what will work and what won't by trial and error. Downplay the "wargame" elements. Teach him that it's best to run from the unknown as much as possible. It's OK if he runs from a fish man because he doesn't know he can kill it with one shotgun blast. That's the mindset you want, isn't it?

And, most importantly, have good music to go along with it.

The ambient 'music' on the game's website has me convinced that they are going to have excellent sound design. It freaks me the fuck out.

I highly agree with getting rid of numbers.

 

[Scrawled]

Here's the "Academic" Archetype.

*Prologue Story: The character was a researcher at Miskatonic University. When he was sent to a remote expedition, he couldn't be aware of the doom waiting him patiently under the frigid wastes.
*Science, psychology and medicine skills will be able to reach the maximum level.
*A character with academic background will benefit more from books and have unique dialog options with npc's from the same background.

http://www.stygianthegame.com

 

[Prime Junta]

This pitch is growing on me.

 

[mutonizer]

Conflicted here too.
Dig the vibe overall but any mention of "combat", especially sold as turn based tactical (which I usually enjoy), doesn't ring true in a Lovecraftian context. I know it's kinda "done" in the CoC games and it was clarified that it's merely combat to "survive" but I'm too core with Lovecraft's stories I think and I just cannot really see it working as a game mechanic. Turn based combat is too...precise, too analytical. It means all kinds of stats that the player can analyze, compare, comprehend and ultimately abuse. In most game I'd say: go for it but here, I wouldn't.

Could be wrong though. Good luck in any case.