#robot murder mystery game | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

medakakurokami · 10 months

Text

I finished over 100 visual novels, here’s a long post with some recommendations

Last month I hit 100 Finished VN’s over on the VNDB and I thought I’d shoot out some recommendations while the Steam Summer Sale is going on (even though some of these aren’t going to be on Steam)

I already have finished up some stragglers and caught some shorter titles so it’s up to 104 Finished, but all the better. I have been reading some VN’s since 2015, but it really became a hobby and a genre I was invested in during Covid lockdown in 2020. I had trouble getting into some of the popular titles, but a couple of games that were lesser known at that time really blew me away that year and I started digging more into the medium. I still have a lot to try out and other classics I’m still interested in trying, but here’s a top 10 I’m confident in recommending to most people, at least the kinda people that would follow this blog. A few of these recommendations are actually multi-part series, but hopefully accessible all around.

Planetarian ($10 on Steam and Switch, ~$5 on sale)

This is a very late entry onto this list but I think it’s an easy recommendation. This is a very short 2-4 hour visual novel that got a well received 2 hour movie adaptation in 2016, but it was strong enough that even while knowing the plot everything still hit hard. It is a story set 30 years after an apocalyptic event destroys most of the world, as a human junk-trader comes across a planetarium with a somehow-still-functional robot named Hoshino still performing her daily duties after 30 years without customers or coworkers. It can come across as a bit saccharine, but it is a quick, well made, and effective tearjerker.

Narcissu 1st & 2nd (Free on Steam)

Narcissu’s first two parts are pretty compelling stories to do with suicidal ideation within the scope of the terminally ill. Which is to say they’re also real tear jerkers, and pretty open about some harsh self-reflective emotions. They both have stellar endings, and can be quite immersive despite the very limited artwork (if the screencap looks weird, the game’s art exists within a narrow strip on the screen, with a sentence or two reading out the story underneath it). Maybe the least accessible on this list, but a $0 price tag makes it easier in some sense to get into.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When The Seagulls Cry (~$50 on Steam, $30 on sale)

Umineko you’ve probably already heard of, and here’s me recommending it. Umineko comes in two parts, on Steam referred to as the Questions Arc and the Answers Arc. Despite the split, the overall story follows the events of a certain day on Rokkenjima Island in 1986 as a family meets to discuss their inheritance and their family’s mysteries. Unbeknownst to them they are soon haunted, over and over again, by the revenant of the Golden Witch said to live in the woods of their family’s island.

I’m in the minority of preferring the Questions Arc, where well written and deeply human characters find themselves in deeply inhumane and nonsensical scenarios. The Answers Arc back seats some of that to start delving into an esoteric explosion of clues and backstories, and was still very entertaining even if I was more invested in the episodic stories than the overarching mystery. This may also be seen as inaccessible, $30-50 for a slightly older title and over 140 hours long on average playthroughs, but it is deeply absorbing.

Witch on the Holy Night a.k.a. Mahoyo ($40 on PS4 and Switch)

Mahoyo is me and Nasu’s marriage counselor, it really made me see the good in him. It follows a young witch co-habitating with her magic colleague and the puppy-like boy that unwittingly steps into their world at risk to his own life, just as unexplained apparent murders are witnessed in their town.

This could possibly be a higher level recommendation, though it was apparently intended to have sequels and you can somewhat feel that in the isolated feeling of its main conflict. Despite this, the game is definitely worth experiencing for its classy charm and extremely well made action sequences that at times make you forget you’re not watching a full anime film. It’s also a showcase of Nasu’s strengths in writing character interactions and comedy, and he finally lets Show take over and stops Telling you piles of mage society worldbuilding quite so often. It is also has some of the highest quality production value I’ve ever seen, second maybe to...

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon ($20 on Steam/Switch, less than $10 on sale)

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon is an explosive opera of art, energy, color, and of course music. It follows the orphaned Marco and her dragon compatriot Arco as they hunt for treasure across the cosmos, finding their way to Earth on the hunt for Marco’s mother.

If Umineko’s 140 hours seems steep, Marco has you covered with a quick 6 hour rundown of a rebellious orphan fighting back against her space alien menace to find her own sense of place and identity in the universe, along with ALL the friends she made along the way. If Mahoyo feels like an anime film sometimes, Marco actually just has fully animated FMV cutscenes that are fun as hell and have their own unique artstyle to the VN itself. Thousands of pieces of artwork and a 52-track OST fill the game’s short runtime with no cut corners and and overflow of passion from the devs. Honestly even if you don’t want to read it go buy it, it’s cheap and they earned it.

White Album 2 (You’ll have to be creative to find this one)

This is the only recommendation that’s currently only available in an adults only 18+ Rating for the English translation. That being said, it’s one of the few erotic VN’s that felt justified in its pornographic scenes. The story is split into two releases: Opening Chapter and Closing Chapter.

Opening is a short and powerfully delivered love triangle narrative following Haruki, Setsuna, and Touma as their hastily formed 3-man light music band falls into itself with feelings. It’s charming but gut wrenching and sweeps you into its drama very effectively before kicking you on your ass in the end.

Closing Chapter is a long and drawn out disassembling of their lives as they fail to heal from the wounds of the relationships seen in Opening. It, to great effect, takes the readers own experience with how fun and passionate the Opening Chapter was, and shows how trying to cling to halcyon days can make us so dispassionate about our present lives. Painful stuff! Good music, too.

The Princess, The Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 1 & 2

a.k.a. Noratoto ($40 on Steam for both, ~$15 for both on sale)

This is a very personal recommendation, and maybe one more easy to make on this blog where many of my followers might be receptive to sincere but slapstick ecchi comedy as art. Every route is highly different however and to me, some are pretty average for galge, while others stand out as amazing. The comedy writing as well feels like it was written by someone with actual comic writing experience, and not just regurgitating the usual ecchi manga jokes.

The general premise of Noratoto is the protagonist Nora, being transformed into a cat by Patricia the princess of the Netherworld, and he must reverse this curse via a kiss before it becomes permanent. A benign fairy tale premise, but one that somehow gives way to underlying stories about existence and finding purpose in families and where that leaves those without families or with abusive or divided families (it is from the same developers as Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, and the themes of finding identity without family match up very closely). Uniquely it is a visual novel written somewhat in 3rd person, narrated by a motherly voice as if the VN was being read to you as a bedtime story.

Like I said, it is dependent on route and some come across as your usual ecchi gal-game schtick, but some stick out, and if every route was as high quality as Nobuchina’s in the 2nd game, it would probably be my favorite visual novel.

The Original Ace Attorney Trilogy ($30 on most platforms, $10 on sale)

You’ve almost certainly heard of Ace Attorney already and have most likely played it. This is me telling any Ace Attorney fans reading that the original trilogy still reigns supreme (regardless of Turnabout Big Top). This is also me telling anyone who has held out on trying Ace Attorney to try it, and to start with the original trilogy.

Obviously this trilogy follows the Meme Man Himself, Phoenix Wright, as he defends the innocent and brings the guilty to justice acting as both lawyer and his own main investigator. While each case presents a unique mystery, the original trilogy has an underlying arc that reaches from beginning to end with a massive conspiracy that Phoenix has to breach to bring justice to the perpetrators and resolve the memory and regrets of his beloved mentor.

These games have some speedbumps as you may be banging your head against the wall trying to find the right evidence, but the experience that breaks through does so with gusto, succeeding on what it sets out to be: games that make you feel like you’ve brought justice to the world.

Utawarerumono Trilogy ($40/60 each on Steam, trilogy bundle $62 on sale)

Utawarerumono was my first proper visual novel, and it set the standards pretty high. I’ve posted about it several times in the last few years, and it remains one of my favorites. It is a labor of love on the part of the developers (the same developers as White Album 2), who developed the latter two games over the course of several years and have made this the spearhead of their company for the time being. Which makes sense, since it is about war.

The first game follows a masked man who is given the name Hakuoro waking up in a rural village with amnesia, confused about the strange population of beast-men living there. Despite not understanding his situation, his ingenuity brings the village prosperity. When the local lords try to put the village under their thumb, Hakuoro and the villagers are able to turn the tides against them. Their village grows into a kingdom as Hakuoro seeks the mysteries of himself and the world around him.

The latter two games pick up some twenty years after the conclusion of the first, and follow a man who is given the name Haku, waking up in the woods with amnesia confused about the... you get it. He is met by Kuon, a young girl on her way traveling to the capital of their nation of Yamato. Haku graciously accepts her help getting out of the cold woods, and decides to join her to the capital. As events play out, Haku finds himself under the direct command of the nation’s leader the Mikado, and carries out missions on his behalf as the nation continues to drag itself into war and conflict and Haku also seeks the truth of his identity.

These games are expansive in scope while still putting a large focus on the day-to-day lives of its characters. Around 100 hours across all three games it is impressive how much story it manages to fit in, but the pacing does bounce around between sweeping conflict and sleepy conversations. It is also in part, a strategy RPG game with the battles in the war being controlled by the player. These are decently made, especially well in the third game, but don’t ask too much of the player and the story remains the main focus and biggest portion of the runtime.

The House In Fata Morgana a.k.a. Fatamoru

($40 complete version on PS4/Switch, ~$40 main game + expansion on Steam)

I’ve gushed about this enough on this tumblr, I’ll keep it brief.

You are a formless soul who is led by the hand of a mysterious maid through the doors of a mansion on an unknown plane of existence. Through each door lies a story of the house in a different era, all following people bound together in ways that leave them cruelly and violently undone by the end of their stories. The connection between these stories, the mystery of the house and the supposed witch that resides within, and the mystery of You the wandering soul all slowly unravel in a bloody show of catharsis and soul. The game is dripping with traumatic poetic text, grating beautiful music, and all of its atmosphere geared toward being oppressive yet enticing. One of the best things I’ve read.

Honorable mentions:

Va-11 Hall-A and Endless Mondays get shout outs as some of the best Original English Language VN’s I’ve read, with cool artstyles and a mature cast they manage to be fun and relatable. Va-11 Hall-A delivers a great arc for its protagonist and Endless Mondays has great dialogue on the threat of automation of creative industries.

Grisaia Trilogy and Hatsumira are both absolutely raucous trilogies that are a lot of fun. Not wholly recommendable to all, Grisaia has some strong moments and a hilarious unique cast but is a mess overall (but we love Michiru). Hatsumira is a bit more consistent, a more stable and fantasy-oriented Grisaia.

A.I. The Somnium Files duology are detective games with highly divisive endings, but great comedy and characters that make them very easy to get through and enjoy the whole way to the end. It’s just a toss-up whether you’ll like that ending.

Sakura Wars games are finally being translated, and they are a great showing for anyone who wants to try some classic dating sim stuff but with some pizazz thrown in with the setting and mecha combat.

The Tears to Tiara duology by the same developers of Utawarerumono and White Album is also one to keep an eye out for. The first game's definitive version isn't available in English and the second game is stuck on the PS3 and no longer available digitally, but if they ever come out on Steam they are worth your time.

Nanairo Reincarnation and Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche are also two solid ecchi comedy galge. Both have surprisingly deep and genuinely heartbreaking underlying mysteries and conclusions.

I still have a lot I wanna read, Planetarian is the only Key novel I’ve read. On the docket are Labyrinth of Galleria, Little Busters, the 9 -nine- series, and Kara no Shoujo and White Album 1 releasing on Steam this year. Some classics I didn’t mention are Fate/Stay Night, Muv Luv, Steins Gate. Muv Luv I read Extra and enjoyed it, but never pulled the trigger on reading the rest, I may at some point on a whim. Steins;Gate I played through half of on PS3 and now my PS3 is in the closet, the VN is really good and has a unique atmosphere to the anime, buuuuuuut knowing the plot has made it hard to want to restart on PC or another console. Steins;Gate is good, if anyone is reading this far and hasn’t seen the anime or read the VN, do it.

#long post #i'll only tag the main ones #planetarian #narcissu #umineko #witch on the holy night #marco and the galaxy dragon #white album 2 #the princess the stray cat and matters of the heart #noratoto #ace attorney #utawarerumono #the house in fata morgana

375 notes · View notes

shionch · 3 months

Text

Hey everyone! If you enjoyed It Lives Within by @itlivesproject, you might be interested to know a few members of the team made a brand new original visual novel called Death of the Artificer.

DOWNLOAD

What kind of game is it?

A murder mystery in a sci-fi setting.

What's the story about?

The planet H-004 has only five inhabitants: a reclusive scientist, a paranoid doctor, a scrappy mechanic, a shady mining executive, and a surprisingly human-like AI system.

If your intel is right, one of them is a murderer.

Play as Hordeus Sung, an IA agent sent by ICARUS (Intergalactic College of Animatronics, Robotics, and Universal Science) to investigate the death of Dante Gallagher, H-004's late Superintendent.

Remember: not everything is as it seems, and loneliness… is everywhere.

Features:

About 25k words.

Two endings.

Credits:

@immemorialmarketeer and @hashiedraws for the beautiful art, and @win-chan for helping with the story.

#death of the artificer #visual novel #murder mystery #sci-fi #renpy game #renpy visual novel

63 notes · View notes

giveamadeuschohisownmovie · 2 years

Conversation

Random video games, described badly:

The Quarry: London Tipton and her dumber friends team up with Sam Raimi's brother in order to fight Jacob Black's family.

Persona 5: A self-insert anime boy and his attractive friends enter the Upside Down from "Stranger Things" in order to get adults to cancel themselves on social media.

Mass Effect: Self-insert protagonist teams up with the characters from Farscape in order to stop Robo-Cthulhu.

Resident Evil Village: Indestructible man fights fairy tale monsters in order to reassemble his unholy baby.

Ace Attorney: Lawyer who doesn't know what a cross-examination runs a firm where his only employee is a former murder suspect.

Danganronpa: Whiny, unextraordinary boy who doesn't know what he's doing watches as the actual main character tries to solve the mystery of the game.

Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End: Old guy and his family murder dozens of people and cause widespread destruction in order to find the treasure from Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Last of Us: Old man who caused widespread destruction in the past decides to doom humanity because he learned the power of love.

Detroit Become Human: Skynet/the squid robots from "The Matrix" decide to fight for equal rights when they realize that they're just as human as their creators.

Red Dead Redemption 2: A cowboy who looks like Josh Brolin is reincarnated into a deer.

Metal Gear Solid: Oscar Isaac fights a blonde, British version of himself while also dealing with a Russian cowboy and robot ninjas.

Assassin's Creed: The Illuminati and the not-Illuminati battle each other for centuries in order to deal with the fact that humanity are a bunch of sentient robots.

Devil May Cry 5: Guy with one arm teams up with emo guy reading a book in order to fight a demon sitting in a chair. The emo guy and the demon are later revealed to be both his fathers.

A Way Out: Two men look for...a way out.

It Takes Two: In order to play this game...it takes two...players.

1K notes · View notes

hearts4juzi · 5 months

Note

Could you list all of your Au’s and what each acronym stands for

YEAHYEAHYEAH!!! I HOPE I GET EM ALL LMAO THIS GOES SOOOO FAR BACK

this includes aus without tags but i'll tag the ones that have tags lol

EAPS au. Evan afton's pizzeria simulator: evan survives the bite and goes on to be scooped, later reuniting with an alive and healthy michael in ffps. shenanigans ensue

N? au. Normal? Aftons au: The afton kids survive and evan and michael, along with a ton of other characters, have to work to stop william elizabeth and a mystery killer

normal aftons au: just ur run of the mill happy au. everyones normal and silly

mm au. Murder Mystery au: Afton kids live and liz calls them to solve the mystery of their father's disappearance while they uncover certain... concerning things

Pitdad au: william gets springlocked before he can kill any kids and becomes springbonnie early on. springbonnie also becomes sentient and the two of them have to mend the family william has neglected for so long

dysfunctionally functioning au: Nobody dies but the afton kids have to learn to deal with their abusive household dynamic (important note! the abbreviation for the fic of this au is gbwwwg and stands for getting by with what we've got.)

Wizard's Quest au: Springtrap and William team up in ucn to escape while its in a fantasy type landscape

Michael's robots au: William, Henry, and Michael build the robots together following the deaths of michaels siblings. however not only does william has a lot of dark secrets, mcihael is learning a whole lot about his robot friends (like how. yk. theyre possessed)

Swap au: Exactly what it sounds like. Elizabeth is michael, michael is the puppet, evan is circus baby, charlie and sammy are golden duo, and theres other thigns im not getting into rn

fnaf x tadc au: just the fnaf characters getting put in the digital circus world

fnaf x ut au: fnaf/undertale crossover but i changed so much its unrecognizable at some points

Werewolf will au: william is a werewolf adn kills people and manipulates his friends while keeping his kids hidden for evil nefarious reasons

Employee trio au: William drags vanessa and henry into killing people and everything goes to shit

kill ur dad au: Michael kills william and drags evan in to help him cover it up. unfortunately, william always comes back

Traveling circus au: the funtimes, as humans, run a circus and meet elizabeth who got lost when her father had a springlock accident. while htye take care of her, william gets help from a shady wizard and things dont go well

Fnaf theatre au: where the fnaf game characters are a highschool theatre class and end up making a huuuge broadway show that retells the fnaf movie

anthro au: everyones a furry and the aftons are searching for william who disappeared many years ago

Golden memories au: Evan and Cassidy fail to keep william in ucn and end up losing their memories of everything past being killed (which includes meeting each other officiall) and help cassie throughout ruin

this isnt rlly important but good ending tfc au: novel elizabeth goes home with charlie instead of dying and they become friends

scrap baby's pizzeria: scrap baby (not liz), lefty (charlie), and molten freddy run a pizzeria in ucn and have to watch william while cassidy is away on torture vacation

Foxymike au: Michael is a robot william built years ago. he looks like foxy and ev n liz dig him up and decide to adopt him as their new big brother while william has a more special, evil plan for him

Lizzie time travel au: Elizabeth travels back in time after fnaf 6 and has to fix everything

the immortal and the restless au: Evan survives the bite and both him and mike work to fix everything, but they dont meet again until fnaf 6. evan burns down fnaf 3, and mike still gets scooped and all.

Fredbear sb plush au: Evan follows greg around as a possessed discontinued golden freddy plushy and they become besties

glitched mike au: au where michael goes looking for his missing sister and gets wrapped up in the remains of glitchtrap, whos clawing his way back to life

Zombiegolf au: Michael works at the pizzaplex and is bestfriends with monty and theres other lore but william is glitchtrap, evan and liz r there, and gregory is there lolz

Zombie apocolypse au: William accidently makes a zombie virus and everything goes to shit while his kids search for him and he finds his ex wife again

time travel crack au: Michael goes back in time but hes like. nine. and hes pissed as fuck and is trying to kill his dad wiht cassidy

fnaf wcm au: Ellis goes to the pizzaplex and meets the ghosts of the people who died there (most notably tony, gregory, and cassie) but somethings wrong. gregorys still alive...

Monster Island au: (the fic for this is deep end!) au where the animatronics are giant monsters on an island where a bunch of kids get stranded (afton kids, mci kids, sb kids, ect)

mer cbby au: circus baby is a mermaid that michael befriends (not liz!!!)

Michaels plush shop: michaels family gets cursed as plushies and he realizes any plushy he makes comes to life so he just has a funny little plushy family

flashlight frights au: flashlight duo are springbon and golden freddy and they r besties while william runs fazbear frights and jeremy, michael, and vanessa are security guards there

fredbears pizza mania au: glitchtrap remakes the afton family in a video game and they become sentient

little nightmares au: au based on the LN games. full of angst and horror adn afton brothers

Cityscape au: Au where its all futuristic shenanigans centered around glitchtrap vanny and the sb kids

afton house of horrors au: au where the afton kids meet the very kind hearted robots fredbear, springbonnie, circus baby, and ennard. unfortunately for htem, williams testing his nightmare gas in that house

ucn mike au: post fnaf 4 mike gets stuck in ucn bc cassidy fucked up the timeline and hes stuck with william

warrior cats au: jsut fnaf retold with kitties

Elliz sb protag au: Ellis is the sb protagonist and befriends monty

Williams apprentice au: Elizabeth lives and becomes williams helper

Williams successor au: an au based on a post by @/puhpandas (go follow him!!!! NEOW!!!) where william tries to make evan his successor and evan flips him the bird

Afton family business au: a murder family au catered to me

the sun sets in utah au: Elizabeth, grown by now, returns home after college to find both it and the people in it have changed so much. Especially her family

Glamrock baby au: Elizabeth in the pizzaplex what will she do

marionette emily au: charlie is accidently killed possesses the puppet. henry takes her as his daughter still. what could go wrong? (a lot)

the puppet and the carver: Charlie is trying to get her father to move on, but he has work to do. So much work. A lot of charlie and henry angst n stuff

summer camp au: Michael dies and is a ghost and his family + cassidy investigate

those are the ones of note i can think offff they dont all have tags like i said. I'll link this on my pinned post btw so anyone can find it

60 notes · View notes

tk-sketches · 11 months

Photo

Sharing some footage from my little robot murder mystery game - there’s been a MURDER and YOU gotta solve it!! Gather clues! Compare witnesses! Yell at people!! That’s right - we’ve got it all!

(gonna try to get a demo out when i can!)

#artists on tumblr #indie games #robot oc #robots #pc games #mystery games #mystery genre #concept art #scifi art #cyberpunk aesthetic #illustration #oc #character design #gif art #gif warning #robot murder mystery game

2K notes · View notes

jewfrogs · 1 year

Text

specifically re: the professor layton series; people keep calling flora “boring” and “bland” but she has as much personality as any other character if you care to pay attention—although the writing of the games does do her some disservice in dismissing her & denying her interiority, she manages to emerge as a rounded and complicated and lovely character.

let's compare: what do we know about luke? he’s a little boy, between 10 and 13, a english gentleman in training. he loves the professor (+ flora & emmy), and his parents, but he’s much more concerned about being parted from the former than the latter. he likes to solve mysteries. he can speak to animals. he’s got a sarcastic streak, and he’s very defensive (and sometimes possessive) over people he loves, especially the professor. he holds grudges. he tends to cover up his fear with bravado (but he really is very brave when push comes to shove). he has an enormous appetite. he’s strong enough to sacrifice himself to save the world. he’s serious, sometimes somber. he acts older than he is, but he’s only a boy.

and, on the other hand, what do we know about flora? she’s a young girl, maybe 15, a little english lady. she loves the professor & luke, and she loved her father. she’s shy, somewhat unassuming, but she has a simmering temper. she’s been alone for most of her life, partly from circumstances and partly from choice. she was raised by robots, in a place designed to cater perfectly to her and keep her safe. she’s naive, oblivious, and a little clueless; she doesn’t understand danger. she steals a dog on a whim. she’s horribly afraid of being abandoned again. she leaves her home to live with people she's known for all of a day. she chooses to preserve her village but she chooses to leave (she only wants to know it’s there). she’s silly. she disguises herself when she doesn’t need to (and she doesn’t see that her disguises are see-through). she loves adventure. she’s curious. she’s nervous. she loves to cook, she can’t cook, and she can’t tell that she’s terrible at cooking. she’s cheerful. she’s well-read. she loves murder mysteries.

that is what we call A CHARACTER. a quieter one, maybe, but not an absent one. one every ounce as rich as luke’s. she is the light of my life and she is interesting.

#professor layton #ribbits

182 notes · View notes

theresattrpgforthat · 3 months

Note

Hey! Do you know of any adventures / adventure paths that features and supports non-violent scenes as the majority of the play content?

I've seen games that have so many rules/moves/etc for non violent resolution, but the actual supporting material (like, rooms/locations/characters/their routines/cool information) is very light, so the players have to generate pretty much all of the content themselves.

Theme: Non-Violent Adventures

Hello friend! I’m going to put a disclaimer here and say that I think that it would technically be possible to introduce violence into pretty much everything that I’m suggesting today - if the players really want it. What I’m presenting today are adventures that have the option to be non-violent, and it’s important for the table to be on board if they want to keep it that way. I’d recommend setting up a Session 0 with your group to make sure that everyone is able to talk about what they’re excited about, and what they’d rather avoid.

Second Sight Homicide, by Hendrik ten Napel.

They didn't see this coming… Twin clairvoyants put it to the audience: who is the real medium? When only one sister survives the show, this night out turns into a different mystery all-together.

The Sibyl Sisters have a long-running rivalry. Each claims the other sister is a charlatan and not a medium at all. To settle the score, Saige, the youngest, has challenged her sister Prudence to tour the United States with her. Every evening, both will try and contact the spirits of the dead. It's up to the audience to decide which sister is really making contact with the other side.

When the show reaches Brindlewood Bay, the Murder Mavens can't resist. Whether you believe in the afterlife or not, it's bound to get interesting. One of the Mavens even gets invited to the stage, together with a couple of other seemingly random theatergoers. While Prudence is busy summing the spirit of the Maven's deceased loved one, disaster strikes. A brief blackout. A murdered mystic.

Each story arc of Brindlewood Bay presents the characters with a mystery, and a series of clues for them to uncover. Together, the characters will assemble a theory, and then roll to determine whether or not it is correct! This means that planning for the GM is much easier, although the nature of the game does require a good bit of flexibility and improv.

While Brindlewood Bay deals with violent content (murders), the characters themselves, as elderly ladies, are not really expected to get into a fight. This is also a game with a lot of really good support, with adventures like this one made by third parties (like my Copper Shores supplement), but also officially-created supplements like Nephews in Peril, which comes with multiple mysteries, as well as a few new rules for folks who want to shake things up.

The Spring and Sprocket Express, by TTRPGkids.

An all-age focused steampunk themed premade tabletop RPG setting that can be used with any system that you want! It takes place on a magical train made of a wild variety of train cars that defy time and space! Make your way from one car to the next to save the train from bots, Dr. Wyverstone, and more!

This is a system-agnostic adventure that puts your characters on a steampunk train and pits them against the (villainous?) Dr.Wyverstone. Because this adventure is aimed towards kids, I would expect there to be plenty of opportunities for characters to find non-violent solutions to the problems presented to them. This game comes with a deck of cards that detail challenges, characters, locations and puzzles, such as tiny robots that steal bits of metal, or a large lever in the middle of the room, with no indication of what exactly it does.

This creator has plenty of train-themed adventures, such as The Midsummer Mischief Express or the Fall Fright Express, but they also have a game called Glyfi Scouts, a game about inter-dimensional scouts, earning patches and learning magical abilites. They’ve also written adventures for this game!

To Rob Death’s Dominion, by Xavid.

It is said that in a golden age long ago we of the world were not yet beset by uncertainty and doubt. The exalted beings who lived in those days knew their own worth, saw their own meaning. For held in the center of the world was the cintamani, a brilliant jewel of red and black and orange. It was the answer to all the sorrows of the world, the key that allowed desire free of suffering. It is the very jewel that proved that existence was worthwhile; in its light was illuminated a virtue and purpose within us each. It was made available to all, there in its temple in its shining city, and the miracle of that age was that none in the world sought to claim it for their own.

To Rob Death's Dominion is an introductory one-shot (one to four sessions in practice) mortal Adventure Fantasy campaign for the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine RPG by Jenna Moran. Play one of seven variously-queer international criminals from Earth's notorious Breaker One-Nine gang who've come to steal the cintamani, the answer to all the sorrows of the world, from the Headmaster of the Bleak Academy. Or play their dogged recurring antagonist, Inspector Bao! Or play Leonardo de Montreal, the Heartless Researcher, or Jasper Irinka, Death's Daughter, who seem to have gotten swept up in the shenanigans.

Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is a diceless ttrpg that focuses on slice-of-life stories. The base game comes with guides to playing very different kinds of genres, from Gothic, to Epic Fantasy, to Pastoral. To Rob Death’s Dominion contains quests and prompts that fit in many of these genres, but provide extra support for Adventure Fantasy in particular.

For Pastoral gaming, you might want to check out Fortitude: by the Docks of Big Lake, while Fortitude: the Legendary 139 is more suited for Immersive or Gothic play.

Gothic Society: Monastery, by Martian Machinery.

The sound of thunder echoes outside the walls of Verges Abbey. You raise your head, the sanctity of matins shattered by the voice of the heavens. You attempt to disregard the unease that echoes in your mind, stilling your thoughts with the recitation of familiar mantras. All is quiet.

The sunrise brings news of the death of the abbot. The refectory is rife with worried looks, and innumerous whispers follow the prior's announcement of the performance of last rites that will be held later in the day. Apparently, he died of unnatural causes.

Gothic Society: Monastery is a setting expansion for Good Society and Gothic Society. Games played in this setting take place entirely in a monastery in the Middle Ages, with the players playing members of a monastic order - monks or nuns.

Good Society is a game all about romance, scandal, and maintaining the proper reputation in polite society, and the supplements created for it, such as Gothic Society, place a lot of similar restrictions but change the setting in some way. This supplement places your characters into a middle-ages type of monastery, and while it’s meant to be horrific, much of the prompts ask you what your characters do after violence has already occurred.

If you want something a bit more goofy, you can also check out Bird Society, which turns all of your Good Society characters into birds, or Drama Society, which is all about the actors and artists in a movie or stage production.

Sister Escape, by KTPie.

In this Blades in the Dark score, a rich noble hires your crew to break out the love of his life out of a convent of the Church of Ecstasy. However the high bounty for what he explains as a "simple breakout" seems to be too good to be true.

In this convent of the Church of Ecstasy you will find hollow servants and sisters alike roaming around the courtyard and participating in both public and private rituals. Should you enter its library of hollowing you might find the convent's Head Mother, Mother Erma, doing her own research on Cleansing rituals.

Blades in the Dark doesn’t necessarily need pre-written scores, but they can certainly be helpful in providing you with a pre-set list of NPCs, obstacles, and set description. This is one such example.

Because this is set in a grim, Victorian-era, ghost-ridden steampunk city, I can’t guarantee that these will be non-violent, because the methods involved are up to your table more than anything else. If your players want to focus on infiltration and deception, then they’ll likely choose methods that are more focused on stealth and subterfuge. If you as the game runner want to keep the game non-violent, then you’ll also want to make sure you’re introducing threats that can be dealt with in non-violent ways. If you feel like this is the setting for you, then I’d also recommend checking out the Hour of Chains collection of unofficial scores by A Couple of Drakes: you’ll get a lot of really interesting, diverse scores to play with for any motley crew of criminals.

Some Rec Posts You Might Find Interesting

Magic School Mysteries

Tavern Games

Studio Ghibli Games

Drama Drama Drama

Woodland Community

Non-Gritty Low Fantasy

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #dnd #game recommendations #asks #non-violent adventures #supplements

33 notes · View notes

twowink · 7 months

Text

like the some enstars characters were cast in an ssvrs-recorded mystery show that's basically "a detective banquet" (very detective conan-style premise) hosted by rei with some detectives who are other characters with unique gimmicks. rei Fucking Dies via cyanide. tatsumi is originally accused but mayoi clears his name because he was watching everyone the whole time before the banquet started. everyone talks for a little with real world intermission before they return.

suddenly, Enter Helicopter Stage Top. hiyori travelled through a storm to a random island to eat a quiche made by niki (?!?!?), tried to bribe the murderer out, and then got bored and offered to take people out on a ride in his helicopter. however, there is a bomb! hiyori apparently may have skydiving experience and everyone jumps out but are subsequently disqualified. anyways tomoya locks hokuto up in a room, saying it's to protect him, and then tomoya is alone in his room (which is right before the scene in the beginning of the story, where he was recording a video because he had a bad feeling)

himeru enters tomoya's room and accuses tomoya of being the culprit. tomoya accidentally sedates himeru. hokuto, having escaped the room he was locked in, enters tomoya's room and finds the sedated himeru and the tranquilizer on tomoya, and naturally pieces together that it was tomoya who sedated himeru.

tomoya explains that the company that created hokuto as "a robot that would learn human emotions" had chosen to end the project soon and recall and scrap hokuto. tomoya had found out about this, and was offered by "a man in black" (wording implying it was a man in black from the organization from detective conan) the deal that if tomoya assassinated rei, hokuto would be able to live. he wanted to keep it a secret from hokuto so he wouldn't be burdened by the knowledge, but hokuto starts crying, finally having experienced a bitter human emotion, points a gun at tomoya, and then twitter nerfs a couple of the tlers tweets.

and then hajimes like omg you guys did great tomoya was so handsome and everyones like haha good run crew cant wait for this game to be released hahahaha.

So basically the enstars detco story is fucking insane

#.txt #enstars #amia.txt

49 notes · View notes

txttletale · 1 year

Note

Do you have any videogames with strong narrative and story elements you'd be willing to recommend?

sure. i mostly care about games on the basis of their narrative and story, as far as i'm concerned the best gameplay is whatever complements that. here's my top ten:

pyre, by supergiant games

pyre's story is incredible. it's about people who've been exiled from society, and the things they build in exile, and whether society was really worth all that much in the end. it makes you make really genuinely difficult choices--i once deliberately threw a fight in this game because one of my party members asked me to--and it embraces failure as a mechanism by which the story can be advanced instead of ground to a halt.

disco elysium, by ZA/UM studios

if you've followed me for any period of time you've probably seen me talking about disco elysium. it's a masterful work of magical realism, it's melancholy and bleak and hopeful. it's about communism and cryptids. it's about all these things but it's nominally about being an amnesiac detective investigating a murder in a bleak post-soviet city that's been ransacked and occupied by international capital. and it's also very funny

heaven will be mine, by Worst Girls Games

heaven will be mine is about gay sex. it’s about other things but mostly it’s about gay sex. it’s about transgender lesbian mecha pilots fighting and fucking each other in their big robots which are metaphors for body dysmorphia and self-image and violence and hopes about the future. it genuinely reckons with the sci-fi genre and what it represents. every ending is a good ending because the characters will not let even the worst disaster be a bad ending.

hypnospace outlaw, by Tendershoot

hypnospace outlaw makes you a forum mod on a simulated early-2000s internet platform that you can only access in your dreams. it’s less about a linear narrative and more about getting to learn about characters through the strange and oddly intimiate things they post on their webzones. if you’ve met people you care about through the internet it will resonate with you.

paradise killer, by Kaizen Game Works

paradise killer is a murder mystery with no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer. don’t get me wrong, there’s an answer to the mystery--it’s possible to conclusively identify the murderer. but you can also walk into the trial the moment the game starts, accuse the obvious stitch-up suspect, present the circumstancial evidence you’ve been handed by shifty players, and get him sentenced. the game won’t stop you. imagine if instead of funelling you towards getting the ‘right’ answers in order to progress, ace attorney all hinged on what evidence you chose to present and how. the game won’t stop you from being wrong! figure out the truth yourself, or don’t bother--you’re an immortal blood cultist cop, you won’t be the one suffering the consequernces of your mistakes.

the beginner’s guide, by Davey Wreden

the beginner’s guide presses you up right against the wall by your lapels and demands: why are you playing this? how do you interact with art? what can you say about an artist from their work? is it right or fair to say anything at all? is the way you engage with the things you love healthy? it’s best enjoyed blind so i won’t say anything other than that--but it made me cry.

if not us, by ubq4

a tragedy that will pulverize you. interactive fiction about the aftermath of five doomed heroes failing to save the world. does really interesting things with IF gameplay to convey different emotions and perspectives. made me cry more or less the entire time i played it. beautiful prose delivered perfectly.

dujanah, by Jack King-Spooner

a surreal claymation genre-mashup story about grief and death. dujanah is looking for her dead husband and child in a world that’s sometimes whimsical and sometimes nightmarish. the shifting dreamlike atmosphere makes this game’s political points more pointedly and acutely than any amount of gritty realism could. there’s nothing else like it

cultist simulator, by Weather Factory

this isn’t a narrative linear game--it’s a roguelike card type thing, but it creates such a rich and textured world with an economy of writing that is absolutely fucking mindblowing. a few sentences at most are dedicated to any given topic, and put together they weave an incredible tapestry of the first interesting ‘cosmic horror’ setting to be invented for what feels like decades. (nb: the main writer of this game, alexis kennedy, stands accused of some pretty slimy shitty stuff--so be aware of that and look into it before playing it, probably)

suzerain, by Torpor Games

suzerain is a visual novel cleverly disguised as a strategy game. it’s not about moving armies around a board or building units or planning out cities--it’s about playing the character of anton rayne, newly elected president in a pseudo-Eastern European country caught between superpowers. the only good game about politics, you’re really forced to juggle multiple different allies and enemies at once, decide which political hills to die on, or risk being assassinated, couped, or invaded. if you like political intrigue and drama, this is where it’s at.

honorable mentions: Transistor (Supergiant Games) and Shadowrun Hong Kong (Harebrained Schemes)

transistor is a game with fascinating themes and a flawless sense of tone. its world feels so vivid and unqiue, and the ideas it plays with are fascinating--but ultimately i feel like it’s more style than substance. that fucking style though, unimpeachable. shadowrun hong kong on the other hand has a fairly weak narrative but some incredibly well-drawn and interesting characters and the rare totally (for me at least, ymmv) succesful integration of a pre-established backstory with freeform character creation.

#ask

273 notes · View notes