Fri
2016-09-01, 01:31 PM
What's Daily Cthonicle? It's an indie procedurally generated mystery/story supernatural noir game, about running a newspaper that investigates supernatural happening. Eventhough most of the game is actually finished, it's currently in early access, mostly to actually put some User Interface in the game. It's a weird game, and the core gameplay is actually rather "floaty", but I like it a lot, since the premise and mood is basically my catnip.
The premise of the game is, something supernaturally creepy is happening, and we investigate and write stories about it to get money. The more interesting thing we encounter, the more money we get from the sales. And when we get enough clue on a case, we can publish a special edition, that signifies the end of a chapter. All mysteries and supernatural events seems to be unrelated at the start, but they're always, actually related to each others.
I'm not sure how long I can keep making this LP, especially since the game is procedurally generated, and if I'm unlucky with the generated mysteries and monsters, I could get stuck with all my reporters insane or injured without money to pay or their therapy or hospital cost, but we'll see what's going to happen when it happens, right?
It took me a while writing this first entry, because I'm not sure how to actually frame it. It's a noir game right, and I'm supposedly the editor of a newspaper, so I should be doing this in first person, with all the monologues and raining and such. But how would I frame me knowing about all the happening in the street with the investigation? So I just thought, whatever, it's better to actually write something and it turned out bad, rather than not writing anything at all. I decided to have it both way. Having the editor narrates in first person, and having hte investigation written in third person.
So without further ado.
http://i.imgur.com/keSMuwi.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FhrGd4TE-I
Let's play Daily Cthonicle.
....
I yawns and stretches. The clock on the wall shows that it's 2 in the afternoon, now. Around this time, most people would be dozing off and daydreaming about the way back home to cold beer and television. But I'm waking up from my dozing because my ragtag bunch of misfits are just arriving.
This is a small joint. We only have six full-time reporters. Most people wonder why we bother printing anything at all.
The answer is.
Because someone must at least try to bring light into the darkness.
And also because I know nothing else to do for my living.
I checked the big map of the city that's pasted into the big whiteboard we have. It's filled with taped notes and pictures, all the tiniest bit of rumours that we managed to gather from everywhere, and seemingly unimportant news that more boring news agency reported.
http://i.imgur.com/tZuRJeR.png
There's uneasiness in the air. Dogs everywhere are restless. The pound is filled with half-mad strays. Even Mutt, Dolores' canine companion, seems to be uneasy. It worries me.
I pull out the small notebook that's always in my pocket.
- There's a mysterious death downtown. The Nightwatch are on strike for some reason.
- Two people just suddenly disappear from the Bates Hotel. Curiously, residents also seems to be moving out from the neighborhood.
- People seems to be staying indoor after dark around the town's old fairground.
- There's a missing member of the occultist society. Residents also seems to be moving out from the neighborhood. The police seems to be sure that it's a kidnapping, but it's a puzzling and disturbing case.
- There's two mysterious death on the university. Someone seems to find an arcane circle drawn in one of the room.
-The night watch are on strike from the library.
-There's one mysterious death on the city theatre. People seems to stay indoor after dark.
-Two people are missing from the boarding house. People also seems to be jumpy, afraid of their own shadows.
I close my notebook. Hopefully, they all are just rumours, mundane crime that seems to be happening every single minute in this scummy city. But we might as well investigate. We need to put something in print after all.
I peer out of my office. All of the team seems to be here.
http://i.imgur.com/wCpW4hw.png
Sir Henry seems to be in good mood. I'm not sure what kind of Sir he is, though he does always look like some upper class git and keep calling us his chaps. But he's with us, and that's all that matters.
http://i.imgur.com/ndTDqGu.png
Adelaide is caressing the ornate cross that's hanging from her neck as she writes on her desk. Even after all this time, none of us know the history behind the cross, but she's never seen in the office without it.
http://i.imgur.com/0uSSrNS.png
Sam tips his fedora toward our resident scientist. "Hey doc." His pistol peeks from behind his coat. It's the only thing he keeps from his old job after the incident that costs him his private detective license. And his partner.
http://i.imgur.com/4B3OkYx.png
Dr. Abrams seems to be busy to answer. He's currently tinkering with his contraption again. We're not really sure if that thing really record ghost noise, but as long as it also record ordinary noise...
http://i.imgur.com/RHkj3jZ.png
Emily sits besides the good doctor, using the communal pile of tools to do some maintenance on her personal handgun. "Doc, could you pass me the small screwdriver?" She seems to be the only one who trust Doc Abrams' invention enough to regularly help them take maintenance on them and bring them around. But unlike the doctor, she also believe that a gun is also a good investment for people in our line of work.
http://i.imgur.com/fL29flx.png
While outside, I can see Dolores is still trying to calm her whining dog. Usually Mutt is one of our most valuable resource, I can't count how many times that damn dog had warned us from certain destruction or uncovered some hidden evidence. But it's obvious that the dog is not going to be helpful anytime soon.
(Note: Each reporter has personal items. Those are their defining things. You can buy similar items in the shop, but normal items got used up in one encounter, even if the item is useless in the encounter. Personal items are permanent. Each items are effective for something and useless for something, most of the time it's common sense, or you can guess from the encounter's adjective.)
I cough.
“Okay, no need to make this longer than it should. It's all just rumours and gossips at this point anyway. Anyone have any preference what they'd like to investigate? I must put a veto on something though.”
I tap at the note and photographs we pasted on the university and the occultist society. The kidnapping and the infernal circle.
http://i.imgur.com/e0jbeqx.png
http://i.imgur.com/DCsw4lK.png
“I have a bad feeling on these two. If there's anything we know right now, this two places, something real are happening there right now. Call this a hunch, sixth sense, whatever. Don't go there yet. At least dig out what people know about those places first, before going there by yourselves.”
Sir Henry raises his hand.
“Old chap, may I go to the theatre?”
I sigh.
“Sure. But I must warn you, Henry. If you get too drunk on theatre booze and start punching actors again, we won't fish you from the drunk tank this time.”
He winks his eye. “It doesn't count if the clown hit first though, right?”
Emily puts her pistol on her jacket.
“Let me check what's happening on the hotel.”
Dolores follows. “I'll snoop around the downtown then.”
Adelaide raises her pen. “I'll go to the library. There's something I want to check there anyway.”
“And I'll go to the fairground.” Dr. Abrams looks up from the contraption on his desk. “I need to do some testing with the ecto recorder outdoor.”
For some reason Sam is just watching everything in silence, before suddenly saying, “I need to go to the hospital. I got a lead. I'll tell you about it later.”
(Note: This is because I forgot to screenshot and note what's the rumour in the hospital)
I nod. “Good hunting everyone.” And with that they all go on their way.
http://i.imgur.com/hT0IbFI.png
(At this point, I just send everyone to random places, because we have no clear encounter yet anyway. Later, we should send people with appropriate personal item to places where we think they could be effective).
...
Just as soon as Dolores steps out of the bus in the downtown, someone taps on her shoulder. She looks around, and caught off guard. It's Yee Steele! She's officially in the missing person list right now!
http://i.imgur.com/tFnvQj4.png
“I know you... you're from the newspaper right? Please write this.”
Just after she mention her piece, she attempts to disappear on the crowd.
“Wait!” says Dolores. But she's already gone. She thinks or a second, before moving toward the direction where the supposedly missing person went.
(Note: When we find someone, they will tell us something, and we can decide to follow them, or continue wandering around the area.)
...
Meanwhile, Sir Henry is enjoying his time as usual in the theatre. The show was alright, but it's not what he's here for anyway. He mingles with a lot of people, but there's no reason to follow anyone closer there... yet.
http://i.imgur.com/ZugmXRk.png
http://i.imgur.com/hjWpeQv.png
http://i.imgur.com/gIJvHxv.png
..
As Emily arrives at the hotel, someone approaches her.
“Hey Cat. What's going on here?” The female reporter opens with a greeting. Catherine White used to be Dr. Abrams colleague when he's still working at the university. Sometimes the crew went to her when they need scientific inquiries. But it seems this time the university researcher is the one needing her help.
(There are two types of helping NPCs, retainers and contacts. Retainers are people "on the know," other investigators, detectives, scientists, that know about the supernatural, and we can hire them to help us in our investigations. Contacts are the reporters' friends, relatives, acquintainces. Things can help us on various things (e.g, sometimes our reporter are horribly depressed or lost somewhere because of their investigations, and their friends can help to get them back on track).
http://i.imgur.com/UtB6gJU.png
“Hey Emily. I seem to find something... unusual here. You're used to deal with things like this right? Ever heard about something called a Necronom?”
“Uh... yes. Some sort of murderous supernatural monster.”
“How does it kill.”
http://i.imgur.com/LpWWjvJ.png
“I... um...” This is the problem with being known to deal with supernatural things. People just expect you to know about every single ghosts or monsters. Imagine if people keep asking you about all the weird liquids they find just because you're a chemist. But she can't disappoint Cat right now.
(Sometimes people ask us for advice. They'll ask about monsters or events that are happening in the town. Sadly, this time, we haven't even met this monster, so I don't know what to answer. I just picked randomly)
“I... think I remember they behead people.”
“Thanks, Em. I owe you one.” She says, before disappearing into the night, making Emily wondering what all that even about. Except...
Not even an hour later, some robed people passes by. Emily reflexively hides on a darkened hallway. Those are definitely some cultists of that new cult that recently pops in town. What are they doing here though? Emily pulls up her camera and starts covertly taking pictures.
http://i.imgur.com/1vR3t0X.png
(When you get advantage on enemies, you can either sneak to get better position in combat, or take a picture for extra money).
“Hey, what are you doing there!” One of the cultists notices Emily. And without even waiting for her answer, one of them draws a shotgun and fires! Emily dives to cover, and pulls her own pistol. The cultists don't seem to be interested in a drawn firefight, and after they found out Emily is not a pushover, they run away, leaving their shotgun and a wallet.
http://i.imgur.com/Nada4um.png
(You can notice that the pistol is effective. Obviously, firearms are effective item to be used against mundane opponents like cultists).
Emily picks up the wallet. Some money, but no identification. What was that even about. Curiouser and curiouser...
The premise of the game is, something supernaturally creepy is happening, and we investigate and write stories about it to get money. The more interesting thing we encounter, the more money we get from the sales. And when we get enough clue on a case, we can publish a special edition, that signifies the end of a chapter. All mysteries and supernatural events seems to be unrelated at the start, but they're always, actually related to each others.
I'm not sure how long I can keep making this LP, especially since the game is procedurally generated, and if I'm unlucky with the generated mysteries and monsters, I could get stuck with all my reporters insane or injured without money to pay or their therapy or hospital cost, but we'll see what's going to happen when it happens, right?
It took me a while writing this first entry, because I'm not sure how to actually frame it. It's a noir game right, and I'm supposedly the editor of a newspaper, so I should be doing this in first person, with all the monologues and raining and such. But how would I frame me knowing about all the happening in the street with the investigation? So I just thought, whatever, it's better to actually write something and it turned out bad, rather than not writing anything at all. I decided to have it both way. Having the editor narrates in first person, and having hte investigation written in third person.
So without further ado.
http://i.imgur.com/keSMuwi.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FhrGd4TE-I
Let's play Daily Cthonicle.
....
I yawns and stretches. The clock on the wall shows that it's 2 in the afternoon, now. Around this time, most people would be dozing off and daydreaming about the way back home to cold beer and television. But I'm waking up from my dozing because my ragtag bunch of misfits are just arriving.
This is a small joint. We only have six full-time reporters. Most people wonder why we bother printing anything at all.
The answer is.
Because someone must at least try to bring light into the darkness.
And also because I know nothing else to do for my living.
I checked the big map of the city that's pasted into the big whiteboard we have. It's filled with taped notes and pictures, all the tiniest bit of rumours that we managed to gather from everywhere, and seemingly unimportant news that more boring news agency reported.
http://i.imgur.com/tZuRJeR.png
There's uneasiness in the air. Dogs everywhere are restless. The pound is filled with half-mad strays. Even Mutt, Dolores' canine companion, seems to be uneasy. It worries me.
I pull out the small notebook that's always in my pocket.
- There's a mysterious death downtown. The Nightwatch are on strike for some reason.
- Two people just suddenly disappear from the Bates Hotel. Curiously, residents also seems to be moving out from the neighborhood.
- People seems to be staying indoor after dark around the town's old fairground.
- There's a missing member of the occultist society. Residents also seems to be moving out from the neighborhood. The police seems to be sure that it's a kidnapping, but it's a puzzling and disturbing case.
- There's two mysterious death on the university. Someone seems to find an arcane circle drawn in one of the room.
-The night watch are on strike from the library.
-There's one mysterious death on the city theatre. People seems to stay indoor after dark.
-Two people are missing from the boarding house. People also seems to be jumpy, afraid of their own shadows.
I close my notebook. Hopefully, they all are just rumours, mundane crime that seems to be happening every single minute in this scummy city. But we might as well investigate. We need to put something in print after all.
I peer out of my office. All of the team seems to be here.
http://i.imgur.com/wCpW4hw.png
Sir Henry seems to be in good mood. I'm not sure what kind of Sir he is, though he does always look like some upper class git and keep calling us his chaps. But he's with us, and that's all that matters.
http://i.imgur.com/ndTDqGu.png
Adelaide is caressing the ornate cross that's hanging from her neck as she writes on her desk. Even after all this time, none of us know the history behind the cross, but she's never seen in the office without it.
http://i.imgur.com/0uSSrNS.png
Sam tips his fedora toward our resident scientist. "Hey doc." His pistol peeks from behind his coat. It's the only thing he keeps from his old job after the incident that costs him his private detective license. And his partner.
http://i.imgur.com/4B3OkYx.png
Dr. Abrams seems to be busy to answer. He's currently tinkering with his contraption again. We're not really sure if that thing really record ghost noise, but as long as it also record ordinary noise...
http://i.imgur.com/RHkj3jZ.png
Emily sits besides the good doctor, using the communal pile of tools to do some maintenance on her personal handgun. "Doc, could you pass me the small screwdriver?" She seems to be the only one who trust Doc Abrams' invention enough to regularly help them take maintenance on them and bring them around. But unlike the doctor, she also believe that a gun is also a good investment for people in our line of work.
http://i.imgur.com/fL29flx.png
While outside, I can see Dolores is still trying to calm her whining dog. Usually Mutt is one of our most valuable resource, I can't count how many times that damn dog had warned us from certain destruction or uncovered some hidden evidence. But it's obvious that the dog is not going to be helpful anytime soon.
(Note: Each reporter has personal items. Those are their defining things. You can buy similar items in the shop, but normal items got used up in one encounter, even if the item is useless in the encounter. Personal items are permanent. Each items are effective for something and useless for something, most of the time it's common sense, or you can guess from the encounter's adjective.)
I cough.
“Okay, no need to make this longer than it should. It's all just rumours and gossips at this point anyway. Anyone have any preference what they'd like to investigate? I must put a veto on something though.”
I tap at the note and photographs we pasted on the university and the occultist society. The kidnapping and the infernal circle.
http://i.imgur.com/e0jbeqx.png
http://i.imgur.com/DCsw4lK.png
“I have a bad feeling on these two. If there's anything we know right now, this two places, something real are happening there right now. Call this a hunch, sixth sense, whatever. Don't go there yet. At least dig out what people know about those places first, before going there by yourselves.”
Sir Henry raises his hand.
“Old chap, may I go to the theatre?”
I sigh.
“Sure. But I must warn you, Henry. If you get too drunk on theatre booze and start punching actors again, we won't fish you from the drunk tank this time.”
He winks his eye. “It doesn't count if the clown hit first though, right?”
Emily puts her pistol on her jacket.
“Let me check what's happening on the hotel.”
Dolores follows. “I'll snoop around the downtown then.”
Adelaide raises her pen. “I'll go to the library. There's something I want to check there anyway.”
“And I'll go to the fairground.” Dr. Abrams looks up from the contraption on his desk. “I need to do some testing with the ecto recorder outdoor.”
For some reason Sam is just watching everything in silence, before suddenly saying, “I need to go to the hospital. I got a lead. I'll tell you about it later.”
(Note: This is because I forgot to screenshot and note what's the rumour in the hospital)
I nod. “Good hunting everyone.” And with that they all go on their way.
http://i.imgur.com/hT0IbFI.png
(At this point, I just send everyone to random places, because we have no clear encounter yet anyway. Later, we should send people with appropriate personal item to places where we think they could be effective).
...
Just as soon as Dolores steps out of the bus in the downtown, someone taps on her shoulder. She looks around, and caught off guard. It's Yee Steele! She's officially in the missing person list right now!
http://i.imgur.com/tFnvQj4.png
“I know you... you're from the newspaper right? Please write this.”
Just after she mention her piece, she attempts to disappear on the crowd.
“Wait!” says Dolores. But she's already gone. She thinks or a second, before moving toward the direction where the supposedly missing person went.
(Note: When we find someone, they will tell us something, and we can decide to follow them, or continue wandering around the area.)
...
Meanwhile, Sir Henry is enjoying his time as usual in the theatre. The show was alright, but it's not what he's here for anyway. He mingles with a lot of people, but there's no reason to follow anyone closer there... yet.
http://i.imgur.com/ZugmXRk.png
http://i.imgur.com/hjWpeQv.png
http://i.imgur.com/gIJvHxv.png
..
As Emily arrives at the hotel, someone approaches her.
“Hey Cat. What's going on here?” The female reporter opens with a greeting. Catherine White used to be Dr. Abrams colleague when he's still working at the university. Sometimes the crew went to her when they need scientific inquiries. But it seems this time the university researcher is the one needing her help.
(There are two types of helping NPCs, retainers and contacts. Retainers are people "on the know," other investigators, detectives, scientists, that know about the supernatural, and we can hire them to help us in our investigations. Contacts are the reporters' friends, relatives, acquintainces. Things can help us on various things (e.g, sometimes our reporter are horribly depressed or lost somewhere because of their investigations, and their friends can help to get them back on track).
http://i.imgur.com/UtB6gJU.png
“Hey Emily. I seem to find something... unusual here. You're used to deal with things like this right? Ever heard about something called a Necronom?”
“Uh... yes. Some sort of murderous supernatural monster.”
“How does it kill.”
http://i.imgur.com/LpWWjvJ.png
“I... um...” This is the problem with being known to deal with supernatural things. People just expect you to know about every single ghosts or monsters. Imagine if people keep asking you about all the weird liquids they find just because you're a chemist. But she can't disappoint Cat right now.
(Sometimes people ask us for advice. They'll ask about monsters or events that are happening in the town. Sadly, this time, we haven't even met this monster, so I don't know what to answer. I just picked randomly)
“I... think I remember they behead people.”
“Thanks, Em. I owe you one.” She says, before disappearing into the night, making Emily wondering what all that even about. Except...
Not even an hour later, some robed people passes by. Emily reflexively hides on a darkened hallway. Those are definitely some cultists of that new cult that recently pops in town. What are they doing here though? Emily pulls up her camera and starts covertly taking pictures.
http://i.imgur.com/1vR3t0X.png
(When you get advantage on enemies, you can either sneak to get better position in combat, or take a picture for extra money).
“Hey, what are you doing there!” One of the cultists notices Emily. And without even waiting for her answer, one of them draws a shotgun and fires! Emily dives to cover, and pulls her own pistol. The cultists don't seem to be interested in a drawn firefight, and after they found out Emily is not a pushover, they run away, leaving their shotgun and a wallet.
http://i.imgur.com/Nada4um.png
(You can notice that the pistol is effective. Obviously, firearms are effective item to be used against mundane opponents like cultists).
Emily picks up the wallet. Some money, but no identification. What was that even about. Curiouser and curiouser...