Reviving an old, old thread - before the previous iteration of the board, the White Wolf forum before the White Wolf forum - this is, like it sounds, a game wherein a forumite names a particular thing of occult-and-usually-dubious power, and the guy beneath him or her describes the attributes of the item in question. Young or ancient, arcane or deceptively mundane, all is good.
To start off, I'll name one of my own, in all its similar-but-legally-distinct-glory to a sleeper hit popular on RPGnet:
The computer game Imperator of Wyvern Valley
The genre of "4x", in gamer terms, refers to a particular strain of strategy games, largely turn-based, wherein the player controls a particular culture in its attempts to become the dominant empire in a particular world map, competing with other computer-or-human-rival cultures in a frequently brutal climb to prearranged victory conditions. EXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, hence the (somewhat misleading) acronym.
Imperator of Wyvern Valley, a game published by the now-defunct B Flat Limited, is one such example, made unique by the presence of an actual story. In it, one plays as one of the feuding houses of an already-ascendant empire, the Khaos-touched Selenite Kingdoms, during their invasion of the fertile (and as the name suggests, flying reptile-infested) Wyvern Valley, facing brutal opposition from the cunning, brave, and cruel Stormer natives, sometimes unreasonable demands of the church of the Reborn Crimson Sun, Khaotic creations that are too mean or untamable to tolerate, the servitors of rebel gods, and alien prehuman races (including, oddly, a race of anthropomorphic mice, who get really upset if you point out how ridiculous that is). The story, while simple by necessity (influenced as it is by a vast array of player-triggered variables in the game), does a magnificent job showing what it means to be a representative of a cultured often described as the "lovechild of Rome and Clark Ashton Smith," and the political shenanigans required to sabotage someone who is ostensibly on the same side. Which, even if all the players allied before the game, is required due to the presence of the unplayable House of Kish, which the game repeatedly reminds you are only tolerated by the other Selenites due being the only ones capable of controlling the Khaos-born demonic equivalent of a nuclear weapon (indeed, figuring out the ritual to direct the Scarlet Raven and selling it to the High Queen of the Selenites is a victory condition, she being so grateful to finally be able to boot Kish out that she throws her full influence behind you and any allies you have, making the Valley's conquest a cinch).
IoWV, as its fans like to call it, is also known for its revolutionary and often brilliant AI, especially for the time. Computer opponents, whether on the battlefield or on the larger world map, are frequently capable of strategic brilliance rivaling the best human players, especially on higher difficulty settings. Indeed, on the highest setting (Servant of Acb'th), AI opponents had a reputation for behaving like the personalities of people the player(s) know, refined down to their most hostile and unfriendly. One particular AI fan of the political influence system may call to mind a particular social butterfly, while a money-grubbing boss translates into an economical titan. It is often found to be impossible to permanently ally with these computer rivals, so the human players are encouraged to backstab and manipulate them for their own benefit - entire communities have sprung around human players messing with their Servants and playing them like harps so they can brag about their political savvy and general magnificent bastard credentials.
Curiously, once a player or cabal thereof (called an Enlightened Clergy, after the spiritual state of being that allows one to control Khaos without being corrupted by it, which most Selenites exploit to manipulate monsters from afar and weaken their enemies without actually attacking) has truly begun to repeatedly trounce their Servants (especially if the Clergy don't traditionally play allied by default), the AI changes a bit. Or to be more accurate, the AI begins to take actions that resemble future actions of the people they seem to be modeled on. If the Clergy members then take action that resembles their successful counter-strategies, they will find them equally as effective at gaining money and social influence. Of course, by this point the player likely has learned that the only way to be a Servant-difficulty computer player is to backstab them before they are backstabbed, so most of these benefits come at another's expense. No matter how much a player actually likes the person a computer player is based on.
Most players don't pick up on this, not being that perceptive or cold. However, once a Clergy does, they usually then use it as a rough method of divination, especially since the game rewards a group of friendly rivals who trust each other personally. Once the cabal does (and the game doesn't care whether or not they restrict their foreordained mischief to people they actually hate, so long as they turn to it for advice beforehand as a matter of course), a special random event is triggered, involving the finding of one of the lost pieces of lore of the destroyed Spirit Teacher empire via sidequest. The Clergy, already on to the nature of the game, immediately notice this quest involves representations of locations they are personally familiar with - if the directions they took in the quest are followed, they will find something that will give them Supernatural Merits...so long as they are willing to sacrifice something precious. The game makes no secret of this, pointing out the reason the Spirit Teachers offed themselves was unwillingness to personally shoulder the price for their magic and prosperity.
By the way, although B Flat shortly went bankrupt after publishing IoWV (and very suddenly despite the game being popular on its immediate release and high earnings beforehand), the game is also known for its ease at being fileshared and pirated, being downloaded usually without large compatibility issues and easily patched on to more modern operating systems...and how hard it suddenly becomes to track when the copyright police come snooping around. The game wants to be used.
Next up: The Colonial Pocket Watch.
To start off, I'll name one of my own, in all its similar-but-legally-distinct-glory to a sleeper hit popular on RPGnet:
The computer game Imperator of Wyvern Valley
The genre of "4x", in gamer terms, refers to a particular strain of strategy games, largely turn-based, wherein the player controls a particular culture in its attempts to become the dominant empire in a particular world map, competing with other computer-or-human-rival cultures in a frequently brutal climb to prearranged victory conditions. EXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate, hence the (somewhat misleading) acronym.
Imperator of Wyvern Valley, a game published by the now-defunct B Flat Limited, is one such example, made unique by the presence of an actual story. In it, one plays as one of the feuding houses of an already-ascendant empire, the Khaos-touched Selenite Kingdoms, during their invasion of the fertile (and as the name suggests, flying reptile-infested) Wyvern Valley, facing brutal opposition from the cunning, brave, and cruel Stormer natives, sometimes unreasonable demands of the church of the Reborn Crimson Sun, Khaotic creations that are too mean or untamable to tolerate, the servitors of rebel gods, and alien prehuman races (including, oddly, a race of anthropomorphic mice, who get really upset if you point out how ridiculous that is). The story, while simple by necessity (influenced as it is by a vast array of player-triggered variables in the game), does a magnificent job showing what it means to be a representative of a cultured often described as the "lovechild of Rome and Clark Ashton Smith," and the political shenanigans required to sabotage someone who is ostensibly on the same side. Which, even if all the players allied before the game, is required due to the presence of the unplayable House of Kish, which the game repeatedly reminds you are only tolerated by the other Selenites due being the only ones capable of controlling the Khaos-born demonic equivalent of a nuclear weapon (indeed, figuring out the ritual to direct the Scarlet Raven and selling it to the High Queen of the Selenites is a victory condition, she being so grateful to finally be able to boot Kish out that she throws her full influence behind you and any allies you have, making the Valley's conquest a cinch).
IoWV, as its fans like to call it, is also known for its revolutionary and often brilliant AI, especially for the time. Computer opponents, whether on the battlefield or on the larger world map, are frequently capable of strategic brilliance rivaling the best human players, especially on higher difficulty settings. Indeed, on the highest setting (Servant of Acb'th), AI opponents had a reputation for behaving like the personalities of people the player(s) know, refined down to their most hostile and unfriendly. One particular AI fan of the political influence system may call to mind a particular social butterfly, while a money-grubbing boss translates into an economical titan. It is often found to be impossible to permanently ally with these computer rivals, so the human players are encouraged to backstab and manipulate them for their own benefit - entire communities have sprung around human players messing with their Servants and playing them like harps so they can brag about their political savvy and general magnificent bastard credentials.
Curiously, once a player or cabal thereof (called an Enlightened Clergy, after the spiritual state of being that allows one to control Khaos without being corrupted by it, which most Selenites exploit to manipulate monsters from afar and weaken their enemies without actually attacking) has truly begun to repeatedly trounce their Servants (especially if the Clergy don't traditionally play allied by default), the AI changes a bit. Or to be more accurate, the AI begins to take actions that resemble future actions of the people they seem to be modeled on. If the Clergy members then take action that resembles their successful counter-strategies, they will find them equally as effective at gaining money and social influence. Of course, by this point the player likely has learned that the only way to be a Servant-difficulty computer player is to backstab them before they are backstabbed, so most of these benefits come at another's expense. No matter how much a player actually likes the person a computer player is based on.
Most players don't pick up on this, not being that perceptive or cold. However, once a Clergy does, they usually then use it as a rough method of divination, especially since the game rewards a group of friendly rivals who trust each other personally. Once the cabal does (and the game doesn't care whether or not they restrict their foreordained mischief to people they actually hate, so long as they turn to it for advice beforehand as a matter of course), a special random event is triggered, involving the finding of one of the lost pieces of lore of the destroyed Spirit Teacher empire via sidequest. The Clergy, already on to the nature of the game, immediately notice this quest involves representations of locations they are personally familiar with - if the directions they took in the quest are followed, they will find something that will give them Supernatural Merits...so long as they are willing to sacrifice something precious. The game makes no secret of this, pointing out the reason the Spirit Teachers offed themselves was unwillingness to personally shoulder the price for their magic and prosperity.
By the way, although B Flat shortly went bankrupt after publishing IoWV (and very suddenly despite the game being popular on its immediate release and high earnings beforehand), the game is also known for its ease at being fileshared and pirated, being downloaded usually without large compatibility issues and easily patched on to more modern operating systems...and how hard it suddenly becomes to track when the copyright police come snooping around. The game wants to be used.
Next up: The Colonial Pocket Watch.
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