


You get to pick a belief system at the game's beginning. Stygian also gives you plenty of chances to roleplay your character. Following the clues from your dream your character travels in and around Arkham, through the dream world, and what lies beyond. In your nightmares a mysterious stranger hints at a way out. To make matters worse all legitimate order has collapsed, and the city has been taken over by cultists and criminals. The city has recently been swallowed by an unnatural darkness and is apparently cut off from the outside world. Your character finds themselves dispossessed and restless in the city of Arkham. But Stygian is also a game made on a tight budget, and unfortunately that limits its otherwise excellent potential.Ī lot of things in the game have picturesque descriptions. Stygian's visuals are drawn out of pulp comics, and this along with its unusual mechanics and setting make it a pretty unique RPG, which stands out against the mass of fantasy, sci-fi, and post-apocalyptic RPGs flooding the market. As a result, you'll find that having your character run away from battle or taking drugs or drinking alcohol is often preferable to fighting against hopeless odds and using up precious ammunition or spiraling into insanity. And in this case survival doesn't only mean not dying, but also not succumbing entirely to madness. In Stygian you don't play a hero, but at best a somewhat capable person who has to survive unimaginable horrors. Stygian is a horror RPG based on the pen and paper RPG Call of Cthulu, which in turn is inspired by the works of horror writer H. That was the beginning of my aristocratic character's journey into Stygian. Turned out of my ancestral home by a mob of cultists and gangsters, and with only loyal butler Werner helping me, I wake up from a horrible dream in a seedy tavern in the city of Arkham.
