My Stygian Diary – P.1 – User Article

teasers

Sometimes you’re lucky. I would never have found this quirky but intriguing RPG if I hadn’t bought a pig in a poke on a whim.

The work of HP Lovecraft have fascinated me since my youth. It all started when I was looking through the early work of in the early 1990s Metallica heard and came across the instrumental track Call of Ktulu. In times when I didn’t have access to the Internet, it wasn’t that easy to find out what was behind it. Then, when I came across Lovecraft and his story Cthulhu’s Call, I gradually read all the stories about the “Ancient Ones”, then played the Cthulhu pen-and-paper role-playing game with my friends, as well as various board games and dealt with PC Games dedicated to the topic – and there are quite a few. Since I like the setting so much, I even had a lot of fun playing games that others didn’t go down so well with. Most recently, for example The Sinking City (in the test, rating: 6.5), which I actually found really great, since I was able to generously overlook all the shortcomings. But I don’t know all of them.

Another weakness of mine is game bundles, I’m particularly prone to “mystery bundles” à la “pay 5 euros and get 10 random steam keys”. Another reason why my Steam library has now reached grotesque proportions, but let’s leave that. And this led to my “lucky stroke” that inspired me to write this user article.

Because one of those random steam keys was Stygian-Reign of the Old Ones from 2019. And I had never heard about it before, although I’m actually exactly the target audience. A role-playing game with turn-based battles (e.g. I’m tall Xcomfan), hand drawn graphics (I like hand drawn adventures) and Cthulhu setting. Gosh, you beautiful game, where have you been all this time? Why haven’t you made yourself known until today? A quick research on everyone’s favorite games site Gamersglobal brought four news to light. I learn this was a Kickstarter project. Unfortunately, there is no test here. But now I know the premise of the game: the child has already fallen into the well of no longer saving the world. For the Great Old Ones have already awakened, and we must find our way in this world.

Who is the boss?

The beginning is half of the whole

I launch the game and am greeted by Cthulhu himself on the title screen. He rises like a titan over a city silhouette and makes it clear from the start who’s boss here. Then I discover the option to create my own character. Memories of the pen and paper come back quickly. I am creating an aristocrat whose bloodline is cursed and who specializes in research and the occult to get rid of the curse. In addition, it has an esoteric touch, which in terms of gameplay will mean that I will be rewarded in conversations if I give esoteric answers. Alternatively, I could have used a pre-made character, but what self-respecting roleplayer would do that?

And then it starts. The opening credits tell me that a year ago, when all was right with the world, I had an encounter with the “Weird One” who told me to meet him in Arkham after “Black Day”. This Black Day actually came when the Great Old Ones awoke and the Apocalypse began. So let’s head to Arkham to find the Weird.

I wake up in the middle of the night in a shabby attic and there he is. The Uncanny. Before I can do anything, he turns and walks down the stairs. So I grab the gas lamp next to my bed and hurry after him out into the night. It is there that I first see the derelict Arkham as I follow the mysterious figure through the streets. In the square in front of my doss house I find a toppled statue of President Lincoln. A crude, improvised wooden statue of Cthulhu now sits enthroned on its pedestal.

Ghostly dancing couples suddenly appear out of nowhere, moving to the strange violin music. It’s almost as if the creepy brought them here just for me. As if that wasn’t scary enough, the couples stop dancing and start murdering each other. I avert my eyes and just see the Weird striding through the gate to Miskatonic University.

And then I wake up again. Aha, the oldest trick ever, a dream within a dream. Or was it real? The game is taking a toll on my sanity first, after all I just went through a horror. Alright. So I’m back in the attic, which I seem to have rented for the night, and there’s someone standing in front of my bed again. This time it’s my butler Werner. His character sheet tells me that he is destined to serve my family to the death. Then I spot my inventory (my things were conveniently stored in a chest in the attic) and first put on my neat aristocratic clothes, arm myself with a revolver and give Werner a baton. It also becomes clear that cigarettes are the new currency of the post-apocalypse. And then I go exploring.

Werner, my faithful companion. Until death.

Every path starts with the first step

Before I get out of the building though, I realize I’ve slept above a pub, the Old Eel House. The owner tries to coax a few extra cigarettes out of me by telling me I didn’t pay my bill last night, but I can easily refute that with my rhetoric skills. I give the slightly crazy man at the dartboard a lesson in manners and then it’s off to the street.

I start by wandering around, collecting lots of stuff and meeting a lot of obscure people. Pretty much everyone is upset, but no wonder. I find out about the local mafia and watch them kill an innocent passer-by. I talk to local residents and find many thugs protecting certain things. I visit an antique shop that only wants to accept keys as exchange objects and a gun shop whose owner seems to have some dirt on his hands. I also find buildings that remain closed to me. I’m talking to a woman who is looking for her husband. And I find a bench guarded by two thugs. At least that’s what I thought until one of the thugs explained to me that they weren’t guarding the bench, they were making sure nothing spilled out…

Arkham and its great sights.

fight against capitalism

While exploring the bank, I meet a nice bank employee who, at second glance, seems to have gone insane. Suddenly he yells at me and I’m unexpectedly stuck in my first fight. The game warns me that the fights can quickly become deadly, and there’s no shame in running forward. But what’s going to happen? I finish the first fight relatively easily, although I realize that maybe I should have put an emphasis on guns during character creation. Unfortunately, I also notice that the combat system is pretty crap, nothing compared to Xcom and the like, so I’ll wrap the cloak of silence about it here.

In the other rooms I find more and more bank employees who have gone mad, and then it happens: the bankers, armed with stones and a crazy scream, are simply the majority, and my trusty Werner crosses the Jordan with his baton in his hand. So he really served until his death. I’m just about on the gums to get out of the fight alive. So that was meant by the dangerous fights?!

I now have to endure the loss of Werner and suffer a trauma.
Hmm… reload or keep playing? Keep playing, of course, losing is simply part of it. However, I first leave the place of horror and go back onto the street. The game kindly tells me to get some rest, so I look for a nice little place to stay on the outskirts of town. When I stay overnight I read a little, which helps me to regenerate a little better. As soon as I fell asleep, I seem to be in the dreamlands. There I meet a man named Randolph Carter who tells me that he is looking for inspiration. Apparently this is the missing husband of the woman who met on the streets of Arkham and is now in the dreamlands…

The next morning a Spanish gentleman approaches me and asks if I would like to pay him for personal security. After a brief salary negotiation (in cigarette butts, of course), he joins me, how practical.

Where are all these crazy people coming from?