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Cultist Simulator: The Thread Has No Walls Cultist Simulator is the latest game by forums favourite Alexis Kennedy, who founded the studio that made Fallen London and Sunless Sea, and who wrote the delightfully creepy Horizon Signal chain for Stellaris. The game is a take on the old Cthulhu mythos concept: you are a person in a kind of alternate-universe 1920s London who by one of a variety of paths becomes aware of tantalising mysteries and forbidden knowledge etc., and gradually goes mad trying to understand them. Or, potentially worse, you succeed. On the way there are cults to found, X-files types to avoid, and such sights to see.  Mechanically, it’s a plates-spinning simulator, where you drag cards into a variety of boxes with countdown timers to represent how your character juggles work, occult study and the business of founding and running a cult devoted to eldritch horrors that man should not wot of. It looks like this, and if you’re concluding that the only reason to play it is for the writing you’re probably right.  Most of the fun of the game is about learning the lore and putting the pieces together for yourself. That said, the UI is I think deliberately unintuitive so here are a few non-spoilery basics that I feel it could do a better job of explaining:
Have fun now, and careful what you read in case it reads you back.
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Jun 4, 2018 02:11
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 09:04 |
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Nightgull posted:How do I get a promotion at the reason job? After I get promoted to alden’s asst I mean There are two ways that I know of, and maybe others.
E: f;b
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Jun 4, 2018 03:27
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Working the 9-5 is for chumps, struggling painter daubing pictures of what he sees in dreams is where it's at (it's also a lot less stressful; just keep painting when you need money). The way the mechanics feel right in this game is unreal.
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Jun 4, 2018 03:46
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Well, I’m going to take a break after this last run. I had a great cult going, tons of cash, everyone a disciple, and the weary detective. Both Mr Alden and the younger Glover were found mysteriously dead in front of cracked mirrors, and I had just made it to the Board. ...and the loving Bureau of suppression got me. I messed up the timing and my smoky friend was still trying to destroy the damning evidence when it was snatched away, and they went straight to me, ignoring all my cultists and hangers-on. I’m going to take a break. Can’t bear the thought of grinding through all Morland’s books again 
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Jun 6, 2018 17:14
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So despite swearing off it I was drawn back in long enough to get a standard enlightenment victory. It was a bitch getting all the timers together, I nearly lost all my health and died coz I missed seeing the slider, and I forgot how to ascend and had to keep eating my disciples to avoid running out of Reason. By the end I had most lores at 12, had kicked in all the capital, shire and continent buildings plus 3 from the Land Beyond the Wood and 2 from the place beyond that. Apparently there is a place even beyond that but nobody has that much time. What’s even the point of exploring those regions? Is there an easier way through the Peacock door? It’s a total PITA repairing the item that gets you access every time.
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Jun 7, 2018 16:16
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That would be Heart, I guess. In terms of super endings for the future, I guess it would involve that one mega ritual that eats like 7 cards.
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Jun 9, 2018 00:26
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Yeah, I think fascination is you seeing things the mortal mind wasn’t meant to comprehend and then becoming “of course, Carstairs is now quite mad, poor fellow”. Dread keeps you balanced, but too much of it and you just give in to despair.
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Jun 9, 2018 02:45
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Pirate Radar posted:I'm at basically the same point you are except with Forge instead of Lantern. Just grinding away looking for more Forge lore so I can get to that big 36 goal. My only advice really is to keep plugging away because, for instance, 8 isn't the max for items so if you're a point or two off there then any expedition could theoretically put you over the top. It is to be assumed that they called in either the army or the occult resources available to the Suppression Bureau. By implication the mortals that ended you were all pensioned off afterwards, a more civilised alternative to purging. I like to think they get sent to The Village from The Prisoner.
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Jun 9, 2018 08:36
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Also re the lion, boar, bull and donkey ARG stuff, and to show how badly this game affects us all: “De Leone, alto, tauro et asino” (On the Lion, The Boar, The Bull and the rear end) is the 16th in the first chapter of Aesop’s fables by a Caxton print from the 15th century. It goes like this (apologies for my translation to any proper scholars): “When a man has lost his dignity or office He must give up his initial audacity or hardiness Fast So he is not injured and mocked by all Just as Aesop showed in a similar fable There was a lion that in his youth was fierce and tore it up Proper Outrageous Then when he got old A Wild Boar came up And TORE HIS poo poo UP like, I’m talking body parts over here, over there, steaming intestines in the trees, generally hanging, in revenge for the lion eating and killing the poo poo out of boars in his youth Then came the bull, who took one look and then charged him with horns, hurting the lion terribly Then the donkey got his in and kicked the poor lion right in the head as he was lying there after these last couple of assaults Then the lion burst into tears and said “When I was young and powerful everyone had some loving respect, they feared me. And now, I’m old and feeble and close to death, ain’t nobody thinks I’m worth a poo poo, y’all calling me weak and useless. And that makes it loving worse.” AND THEREFORE THIS FABLE WARNS MANY THAT ARE RAISED IN DIGNITY AND DEFERENCE SHOWED TO THEM HOW THEY MUST BE MEEK AND HUMBLE, FOR JOHNNY NO-FRIENDS IS TOTES AT RISK OF THIS”
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Jun 9, 2018 09:01
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Caidin posted:I don't know that you can do anything to old G but you've dealt with young G that Passion slot in your work day stops being a Bad End and turns into working for a board seat for the benefits I mentioned. I believe it is an accounting firm. It’s left ambiguous though.
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Jun 10, 2018 01:52
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So on the lore speculation, all I’ll say is that whoever in this thread wrote that taking notes on the game resulted in something that reads like the ramblings of a crazy person was absolutely right. E: “2, 15, 12 - not enough! The Sun = John Sonne? Sun divided - must have been undivided once - can reforge? Is Light different from light?”
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Jun 10, 2018 03:42
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:So what's the overarching story behind the "Hours" or gods or whatever? People can basically ascend to immortality by getting through enough magic doors? There seem to be a few categories of supernatural creature:
That’s my read anyway, welcome input.
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Jun 11, 2018 01:43
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I think the Worms are something like Laird Barron’s Children of Old Leech: Malevolent creatures that are physically giant worms that can slip inside peoples’ bodies and take them over. IIRC one of the early books refers to Coseley as a “Worm of Worms”, which I think means he was possessed? Also the two immortals who would be fun to hang out with are Big Chris Illopoly and that Lord dude who made all the demons play parlor games and spent twenty pages of his diary complaining about not getting laid with the Witch-and-Sister, or possibly Teresa.
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Jun 11, 2018 01:51
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Yeah but victims don’t contribute a lot of power, so they’re a wasted slot compared with one that could have eg an 8 or 10 power influence
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Jun 11, 2018 14:33
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I think all the ascension victories are “standard” victories. The other category is minor victories, such as being an accountant at G&G for the rest of your life. There seems to be a rich and poor version of that one, judging from the achievements.
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Jun 12, 2018 00:52
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“Don’t mind Carstairs, funny looking fellow but a whiz with a spreadsheet. If he asks you out to lunch, say no.”
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Jun 14, 2018 06:45
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Josef bugman posted:Okay so, was thinking about doing a write up (as opposed to a let's play) of the game. I was thinking of having it structured like interviews with cult members, with investigators and so on and never actually talking to the Player Character until the end. This sounds amazing please do it.
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Jul 19, 2018 12:44
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Envious of you guys and your romances. I’m stuck finishing a pre-existing game where I’m ascending in grail with a heart cult. Haven’t seen any of the new stuff yet. I did enjoy summoning a mirror maid again to murder the Hell out of the accountants tho. That never gets old.
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Oct 18, 2018 03:35
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Yorkshire Pudding posted:Well your cult isn't exactly a secret given when you send Heart cultists out it says that they're out there talking up your "society" and getting rid of Notoriety and stuff. I mean obviously you're not telling everyone your cult is dedicated to you becoming a god, but it's not a secret that all your peeps get together and do...something. It does bug me at some level that only one of your minions can be doing a thing at the same time. Like I’ve inducted 21 people into my cult plus assorted hangers on, you’d think I could order them to destroy evidence and get me a god drat coffee at the same time.
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Oct 20, 2018 10:28
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:How do I get the rivals to stop stealing all my ascension slots? Edit the save to erase all traces of their existence when it gets annoying enough. I like to think of it as being like that Laird Barron story where these detectives are just going down the road in their car and then the doors lock and the windows lock and they drown in their own blood out of absolutely nothing because whatever they’re hunting can rewrite reality on a whim. E: ok the subject of writing, sunless skies doesn’t have the magic of sunless seas or CS to me. It’s fine, even good, but it doesn’t do the signature trick of having these sentences that sound amusing or silly at first and slowly become horrifying as you start to understand the context. Beefeater1980 fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Feb 1, 2019 17:14
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Just got my first apostle victory, with Forge. Not sure I am any the wiser as to what actually happened: so I ascended to be an Hour by having a follower activate the Dawnbreaker device at the Flaw in the World and it...stopped the sun? Temporarily? And the poor schlub who did all the work gets dissolved and banished to Nowhere ? Also, Worms are dicks and keep eating my cultists. I think I failed nearly every curse check in that run.
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Feb 9, 2019 15:00
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Wait is Bancroft the guy who made all the summonable gribblies play party games and spent all his free time trying unsuccessfully to get his leg over with his mentor? That dude rules. Like, I think in one of the other books that contains a high end secret like L8 or L10 it’s mentioned that he had it set to music and performed publicly with fireworks.
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Feb 12, 2019 16:10
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And rise with me forever Above the shifting sands And stars will be your eyes And the wind will be your hands
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Jun 1, 2019 18:19
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The things that have clearly come across are that AK is a bully as a boss, a horrible ex who can turn cold and awful as soon as the relationship is over and he’s not interested in you any more, and a serial womaniser. Also that he doesn’t consider himself bound by the rules on appropriate behaviour at work (this is separate from actually being a bully; it’s that you are supposed to avoid things that even give the appearance of impropriety because it can really gently caress up a workplace when the boss doesn’t think rules apply to him). Combined, those are bad enough things to suggest that he really shouldn’t be in a position of power over *anyone*, and doubly so for young women. They are also perfectly good reasons to decide you don’t like someone. What has not yet been established, although it may yet be as more information comes out, is that he abused his position to have intimate relations with women who didn’t want to have one, or tried to. That’s the explosive, potentially career-ending #boycott possibility even if it falls short of criminal behaviour. Going on prior cases, it would not be surprising to find out that he did, but that hasn’t happened yet I don’t think.
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Sep 24, 2019 10:42
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It’s abhorrent to most people I would think.
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Sep 24, 2019 15:07
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I think the signs point to “deliberate provocation”. It looks like he and Lottie have circled the proverbial wagons. If anyone’s looking for karmic reassurance, it does seem like the whole thing has permanently killed his brand in the west (IIRC they had a blog post noting that Chinese consumers kept them afloat after this all became public).
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Feb 28, 2020 17:55
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Inexplicable Humblebrag posted:i am saliba irl Post/username combo on point
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May 29, 2020 11:05
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 09:04 |
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I finally got around to playing Exile. It’s good and flavourful, and it sucked me in for another week or so. Possibly says something disturbing about the human condition how satisfying it is to play these “spin the plates” games. The lore is doled out in snippets and through context as usual. What it covers, spoiler free: - When in history this is all taking place - Criminal underworld of the cults - More context for some of the patrons - A sense of place for the various cities - Some more bickering between certain Hours It’s more frustrating than base game, but also in some ways a better emergent story generator. An example gameplay loop would be: - Arrived in Tirana - Spent a year running a faith healing cult - Took part in a crime caper to get an artefact - Attracted the attention of pursuers - Betrayed a revolution for cash - Fled one step ahead of an assassin Eventually it gets stale but there’s enough variety there to keep it interesting until you’ve visited all the cities, and there is some metaplot around who your character is and the kind of demimonde of bottom-feeders in the cultist sim world.
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Jul 18, 2020 00:40
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