One Knight Stand - King Arthur x Among Us Apocalyptic Road Trip (WIP 900k, Patreon 1M+)(UPDATE 10/25/24 + 84k - Duel of AoE Spells)

No problem, and I’m happy to help. I can see why some people would be divided on the content, but personally I loved it and found that it really helped to make this WIP stand out much more compared to the others.

I did two more police detective playthroughs to test it out- and both times I made extra sure I had the Glock-19 in my inventory- but the option to shoot Ed (and wave it in front of “Shaggy’s” face) was still grayed out.

Your ultimate weapon is unknown.

You are currently armed with…

I would’ve shown the grayed out option as well, but I’m not sure how to add it here without getting rid of the choice format.

Oh no, I understand that. I was more curious about what made you decide to prune out Pride, Envy and Gluttony instead of the other four you ended up settling with.

Interesting… so I guess that means we’ll have to deal with some of them but not others. I am hoping that Lucifer pops up at some point though, specifically because Merlin said there was no chance of them appearing. That was the equivalent of throwing a saucy wink at Fate.

… Okay now you’re just showing off.

Seriously though, that’s genuinely impressive, and I’m a little jealous of how easy it was for you cook up a story this big.

Good thing luck is my best stat. But thanks, that does help put things into perspective. So theoretically, as long as the magical bits are kept separate enough from the science bits and don’t make up a whole object, things should be fine?

Well, unless things getting explosive is the point, in which case you just jam the two sides together as much as possible and throw it at your target before you’re caught in the blast. I feel like Percy would like that option.

How about using magic to mimic science or technology? Same end result but using a different sort of blueprint to get the desired outcome.

They’re pretty good VN indie games. I’ve played four chapters of the former and the demo of the latter, and highly recommend both if you’re a fan of hooking up with eldritch horrors and uncovering disturbing mysteries. Y’know, if you ever get more computer space (or have a Steam Deck).

Slay the Princess Trailer

Scarlet Hollow Trailer

Slay the Princess is releasing in about a week, which is partly why I have it on the brain right now.

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Wow, I don’t know what I was expecting when I clicked on this link some random 3 am without reading the synopsis, but I was not prepared. This was a whole trip of horror, comedy, and Arthurian legend that just kept on going!!! I honestly had so much fun. This was such a wild read for me to go into blindly, my goodness. Like the thought process of wondering if the apartment was actually haunted, if my MC was just insane, to horseback riding, to those WILD secrets, to a magical girl suddenly appearing (?!), to suddenly remembering this all started with a dream of King Arthur… like wtf.:sob:

I felt like a kid in a candy shop with the amount customization and response options available. Sometimes I would feel overwhelmed… like oh… I just want my character to say every last option.:sob:

It feels so great coming from a game feeling like the player character was my favorite person (so far).

Also, the references were an absolute delight to me.

Haha, looking forward to more!

Magic : 14 Physical : 32 Intelligence : 38 Charisma : 15

Bold : 150 Sweet : 117 Sassy : 118 Optimist : 22

Health(at Climax) : 76 Health(Final) : 100 Wound : healed Serious Injuries : 1

Caution : 25 Will : 5 Apathy : 0 Purity : 0 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 17 Denial : -4 Coward : 0 Silent : 6 Mute : false Pottymouth : 2 Intimidation : 0

Arthurian Lore : 2 Serenades : 2 Interpretive Dances : 2 Crimes : 0 Known Crimes : 0 Reject the Call : 0 Ward Status : 6 Lore Dump : 0 Lore Dodge : 0

Tech : 60 Medical : 10 Internet : 30 Criminal: 0 Botany : 0

Club : polo Job : computer programmer Hobby: gadget Talent : tactics Using Pseudonym? : false Pet : None Dibs : Merlin

Childhood : abuse Secret : inhuman Crazy Theory : None Crazy Theory Level : 0 Two-Faced : True True Optimist : True

Vice : greed Addiction : internet Fear : spiders Fear Level (at Climax) : 15 Corruption : -1 Mindcontrol : false

Random Appearance: false Attractiveness Level : 1 Striking : 1 Body Type: 1 Height: short Best Feature: lips

Tattoos : 0 Striking Tattoos : false Scars : 0 Striking Scars : false Piercings : 1 Striking Piercings : false

Striking Clothes : false Heavy Clothes : false Long Clothes : false Flashy Mask : true Haircolor Striking : false Eyecolor Striking: false

Merlin Affinity : 63 Merlin Flirt : 43 Merlin Bond : 1 Merlin Gender : male

Adrian Affinity : 96 Adrian Flirt : 5 Adrian Past Bond : 0 Adrian Current Bond : 1

Weapons : squirt gun | polo mallet

Inventory : wardrobe | picture of foster family | laptop | Magic 8 Ball | pearls of protection | tech repair kit

Achievements : BBQ Deferred | One Small Step…

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I definitely had fun reading through this! I was impressed by how extensive the customisation was, and I can’t remember the last IF I played where picking a career felt like it had a real impact in the narrative. Some of the more random and goofy dialogue options struck me as kind of out there, but I also never felt like I was forced towards picking them and the narrative respected my choice to play things more or less straight; if there’s space for both sides of that coin, then great!

On which note, it was fun to mostly respond to texts via “ok”, “thanks” and [left on read].

The sound effects weren’t my cup of tea, and I reset in order to turn them off on pretty much the second screen, but tbh I really, really dislike fly noises in particular so it was a snap decision.

The zalgo sometimes got to be a little too much during the very interface-screwy moments; it felt like maybe one step too far, in terms of escalating tension?

I’m not sure how I felt about the section towards the end of the demo which prompts you to reconfirm how you feel about Adrian/Merlin and whether you’re putting on a front. I can understand perhaps shifting from “Adrian’s my pal” to “I’m crushing on Adrian” or vice versa, but having so many options, including “Actually he’s a stalker!” from back at the start, and the framing took me out of it - I went from focusing on the story to thinking very mechanically, moreso with the two-faced stuff. However, I gotta acknowledge that I’m not sure how you’d go about positioning that in a more organic way, I just struggled a bit to reconcile how I could really say actually, I was lying all this time when the narrative has been in my head so much.

I glanced at the Serial Killer and Imposter secrets without actually picking them, cause I was curious, and along with Inhuman, my true selection, they all felt very compelling. Great job.

My end of run stats:

Magic : 10 Physical : 32 Intelligence : 27 Charisma : 20

Bold : 66 Sweet : 111 Sassy : -40 Optimist : 62

Health(at Climax) : 54 Health(Final) : 100 Wound : healed Serious Injuries : 2

Caution : 16 Will : 4 Apathy : 0 Purity : 2 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 2 Denial : 1 Coward : 0 Silent : 16 Mute : false Pottymouth : 4 Intimidation : 28

Arthurian Lore : 2 Serenades : 0 Interpretive Dances : 0 Crimes : 0 Known Crimes : 0 Reject the Call : 0 Ward Status : 6 Lore Dump : 0 Lore Dodge : 0

Tech : 10 Medical : 50 Internet : 0 Criminal : 0 Botany : 30

Club : polo Job : paramedic Hobby : garden Talent : tactics Using Pseudonym? : false Pet : None Dibs : None

Childhood : abuse Secret : inhuman Crazy Theory : None Crazy Theory Level : 0 Two-Faced : False

Vice : wrath Addiction : smoking Fear : closed Fear Level (at Climax) : 18 Corruption : 1 Mindcontrol : false

Random Appearance: false Attractiveness Level : 1 Striking : 2 Body Type: 1 Height: short Best Feature: eyes

Tattoos : 0 Striking Tattoos : false Scars : 2 Striking Scars : true Piercings : 1 Striking Piercings : false

Striking Clothes : false Heavy Clothes : false Long Clothes : false Flashy Mask : false Haircolor Striking : false Eyecolor Striking : false

Merlin Affinity : 54 Merlin Flirt : 40 Merlin Bond : 3 Merlin Gender : female

Adrian Affinity : 76 Adrian Flirt : 0 Adrian Past Bond : 0 Adrian Current Bond : 2

Weapons : polo mallet

Inventory : Audrey III & herb garden | wardrobe | picture of foster family | Magic 8 Ball | pearls of protection | Arthurian Lore guide |

Achievements : Insomnia | Nepenthes | One Small Step…

(is this the most seriousface MC so far? I’m a little proud of myself)

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Thanks for all the stats everyone! I’ve finally finished collating them (and found a few more bugs indicated therein like how the loredump stat doesn’t seem to be adding properly). Otherwise, here is a sneak peek at the ‘average MC’.

Summary

Magic: 9.9
Physical: 24.5
Intelligence: 25.9
Charisma: 31.3

Bold (107.5)
Somewhat Sweet (92)
Somewhat Serious (31.6)
Somewhat Pessimistic (26)

On the threshold of being Cautious (19.6)
Exhibiting some Cloudcuckoolander tendencies (7.57)
Not in Denial (0.84)
Can be a bit Quiet at times (16.1)
Can swear a time or two, but not really a Pottymouth (2.88)

Knows about King Arthur, but not an expert (2)
Randomly burst out singing 0.8 times
Randomly busted a dance move 0.5 times

Job: Police Detective (followed by Computer Programmer)
Hobby: Gardening (followed by Gadgetry)
Talent: Magnetism (followed by Tactics)

Corruption within Acceptable Levels: (3.4)
Attractiveness Level: 1.5 (1 = supermodel, also no one chose anything lower than average)
Figure: Equally split between smaller (petite, slender etc) and average (lanky, curvacious). Only 1 person went with the larger frame (statuesque, burly etc)
Height: Pretty equally split between short, average, and tall.
Best Feature: Figure (followed by eyes)
Most Popular Body Modification: Scars (1.1)
Clothing Style: Split pretty equally between long and heavy
Haircolor: Normal
Eyecolor: Normal

I suppose to the surprise of no one, the incubus who looks exactly like your dream come true mostly has “I’m attracted to Merlin” as their bond. With a few people being friendly or manipulative. Merlin is also pretty equally split appearing as male or female.

Adrian is mostly split between being a friend or a potential crush.

Most Common Weapon: Squirt Gun (followed by Hunting Knives, then the Glock-19/Iron Lamp)
The Inventory: Pearls of Protection (followed by the picture from your past, your wardrobe, and the laptop).

That physical versus charisma stat may be why escaping from the monster under the bed seems to be the hardest stat check. Saving Pippa and protecting Merlin have ways to pass via mostly charm while the monster is unimpressed with your charisma.

Still, I tweaked some of the requirements to make it a bit easier in the next update.(After all, the successful escape route is longer than the rescue route, so I kinda want a few more people to be able to see it!)

It should’ve been Merlin suggesting to bring along Audrey (since they’re the only one who knows you’ll be traveling in a supersized motorhome). Adrian is obviously just jealous that he never had as much luck with his own Venus Flytraps. :wink:

Thanks for the stats (no worries, they showed up fine) and the comment on liking the potential horror-comedy blend!

Found the bug! The code calculating what the MC had on their person (versus stuff that was packed away in the luggage) wasn’t running properly after the packing was finished. This should be fixed in the next update. Thanks for the heads up, I certainly wouldn’t want all the pulling your gun options to be DOA.

Also, the stats you posted indicated that you chose to set a true option for your MC’s internal monologue at the end, but it didn’t say what the option was. Next time you’re on the ending page (no hurries!) could you check if there’s any other info after the Two-Faced: True part?

Otherwise, like with Addictions & such, I went with the four vices that had the most narrative and mechanical impact on the story. Greed and Wrath can end up screwing over the MC several times in Chapter 1, Lust seemed a no-brainer with how romance-focused the CoG audience seems to be (also a literal incubus in the story). Sloth is a nice ‘safe’ choice that has quite a bit of mechanical impact but isn’t as narratively traumatizing as some of the other vices (also it dovetails nicely with a potential plotline in Camelot).

Meanwhile, Gluttony is either going to manifest similarly to Greed (if the MC is gluttonous for something less obvious) or if I went for the literal version of gluttony… well, there’s no hunger mechanic in the game, it really wouldn’t have any impact outside of flavor text. If I was really determined to use all the seven sins, I could’ve added in Pride and Envy with a little bit of extra work, but it would’ve required more finessing than the four vices I went with.

Regarding Lucifer in particular, Merlin has their reasons for saying what they did. Whether their right, wrong, or obliquely lying remains to be seen.

Magic and technology can often do the same things, just in very different ways that are hard to mistake for each other. Like you can fly in a plane using normal physics. Or you can turn yourself into a bird via magic and fly that way. Or if you want to expend vast quantities of energy, you can cast an AOE spell that nullifies the laws of gravity. A lot of magic can be summarized as…

reject_your_reality

It’s just when you need both realities to work at the same time that things get dicey like when you’ve enchanted something technological (like a gun). You need the laws of magic to work to maintain the enchantment. You need the laws of physics to work for the gun to still fire. Now the two realities are colliding (and sometimes it works out fine, and sometimes it doesn’t.)

Thanks for the comments! 3AM is the perfect time to read Chapter 1 (bonus points to do it in the dark for full self insert experience). It’s great to hear that the MC is being so well received. Hopefully I can make the other characters just as interesting.

Thanks for the comments! Alas, I’m afraid I must inform you that someone reported a -85 sass for their MC, so yours is only the second most seriousface at this point.

Also, a quick heads up that if you ever forget to turn off the audio at first, you can turn it off from the normal Stats menu too so you don’t have to reset the whole game.

Regarding confirming your opinion on Adrian… all the options are available to everyone since, depending upon how you play, MC can come across some rather suspicious things which might cause a negative reevaluation for him. Going by the stats that people have been posting, it doesn’t seem that most players are going down that route, but it’s still possible.

The placement of the reevaluation also varies depending upon what happened in the chapter. The MCs who got kidnapped at the end of Chapter 1 won’t come across it until the middle of Chapter 2 (although I’m not sure if that placement would be better for the MCs who willingly came along or not).

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I had wondered how (if, really) you were going to tie the vices to the Arthurian bits of the story. I can see how all of them would fit, particularly when it comes to the fall of Camelot. As for not including Pride and Envy, have you considered including them as non-player accessible options? It’s always seemed to me that pride and envy had rather a lot to do with the story of Arthur, from Uther’s Merlin-assisted kidnapping and rape of Ygraine all the way through to Arthur’s eventual betrayal and death.

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Ok I’m getting frustrated how do you NOT get possessed?

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I jumped from the bed to the chair and then kicked away a thing and was good

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Ooh, I didn’t find the option to turn off sound from within the game, but I expect I was looking for the same button as I remembered seeing already from the main page.

Regarding reevaluations, that makes sense, I suppose missing anything obviously sketchy can make that scene have the feeling that I had about it.

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Doesn’t really answer my question. No matter what I do, I find myself only with like 2 options and I’m railroaded into “haha dumbass you’re possessed.”

I would very much like not to be

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It depends on corruption stat and your choices. What is your character work, hobby and secret?

@Person-Man, you played youself:

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Security guard (I play on mobile, detective sounds cool but isn’t available), gadget hobby, and a changeling.

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this was absolutely massive of a demo- i’m very impressed and invested! i’ve only managed to complete my first run, but i plan on going back and trying different options for different outcomes! the atmosphere is so engaging and so immersive, it was really difficult for me to step away from the game and actually do my real life responsibilities. i’m already buzzing with excitement for my next run.

i’m so curious to see who MC is as well as everyone else! adrian and merlin are v charming and i’m intrigued to see how their dynamic with mc and eachother evolves. i’m not entirely sure how this apocalypse is going to go, but my mc will certainly treat it as another “average tuesday” kinda thing to keep what sanity he has throughout, lol.

my current stats!

Magic : 10 Physical : 17 Intelligence : 23 Charisma : 37

Bold : 130 Sweet : 145 Sassy : -14 Optimist : 27

Health(at Climax) : 69 Health(Final) : 92 Wound : healed Serious Injuries : 2

Caution : 35 Will : 2 Apathy : 0 Purity : 3 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 4 Denial : -2 Coward : 0 Silent : 21 Mute : false Pottymouth : 6 Intimidation : 0

Arthurian Lore : 3 Serenades : 1 Interpretive Dances : 0 Crimes : 0 Known Crimes : 0 Reject the Call : 0 Ward Status : 7 Lore Dump : 0 Lore Dodge : 0

Tech : 10 Medical : 35 Internet : 10 Criminal : 30 Botany : 0

Club : polo Job : wildlife biologist Hobby : criminal Talent : tactics Using Pseudonym? : false Pet : None Dibs : None

Childhood : abandon Secret : inhuman Crazy Theory : None Crazy Theory Level : 0 Two-Faced : True True Sass : True

Vice : wrath Addiction : smoking Fear : attention Fear Level (at Climax) : 20 Corruption : 5 Mindcontrol : true

Random Appearance: false Attractiveness Level : 1 Striking : 1 Body Type: 2 Height: average Best Feature: eyes

Tattoos : 5 Striking Tattoos : false Scars : 1 Striking Scars : false Piercings : 0 Striking Piercings : false

Striking Clothes : false Heavy Clothes : false Long Clothes : false Flashy Mask : false Haircolor Striking : false Eyecolor Striking : false

Merlin Affinity : 66 Merlin Flirt : 40 Merlin Bond : 1 Merlin Gender : male

Adrian Affinity : 94 Adrian Flirt : 3 Adrian Past Bond : 0 Adrian Current Bond : 1

Weapons : XM556 Microgun | Excalibur |

Inventory : wardrobe | picture of foster home | Magic 8 Ball | autograph | pearls of protection |

Achievements : BBQ Deferred | One Small Step…

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I’m not sure but i think the author said the security guard is always possessed or something like that

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Ah. Well, that’s weird I guess. Thanks

There’s definitely going to be side characters exhibiting more than enough of the other types of cardinal sins, so the MC won’t be alone with that. The MC can also exhibit the other sins as well (like someone who chooses Sloth as their vice can still be lustfully chasing after everyone), it just won’t be the main mechanic that’s punting them in the face.

As to the direct link to Camelot, that’s a bit more complex. It’s possible to still be exhibiting that same type of behavior both now and back then, but it’s also possible that MC (or someone else) got their original behavior/vice/sin traumatized out of them with what happened in their previous life (or vice versa… got an inclination for a particular vice due to what happened).

What you’ve been told about the security guard is true (if you ever told Adrian exactly what happened the previous night, that would foreshadow why it turned out that way). If you’d like to play as the detective instead, you need to chose a different phobia besides death, blood, fear, or attention as those are incompatible with that particular job.

Yep, it’s the Toggle Sound Effects button towards the bottom of the Stats menu choices. That should allow you to turn on and off the audio whenever you want.

Thanks for the stats and the comments! I hope your second playthrough is just as interesting as the first one. And yeah, Merlin and Adrian certainly have a dynamic going…

oks_kitten_fight

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It’s probably an unnecessary idea, but for some reason I wish it were possible for us to decide how the MC killed his victims in the serial killer path, Maybe depending on the choice, some status can go up? Like, killing in a brutal way could increase the MC’s strength more

Anyway, this is just a dark idea I had for some reason, don’t take it too seriously

O feel bad thinking about it :frowning:

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To fair they literally got away killing somebody without getting some punishment from the authorities. The mc had to be smart about it and end them quickly since they would be sus once bodies are found and can’t be caught at the scene. I hope we can get the driver some point so the mc can move on from the accident.

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The serial killer actually already gets a strength boost due to how they’re killing their victims. All the secrets get different boosts to align with that particular background.

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Nice. Glad I was able to help out.

I lost my old saves, so I redid my initial MC (which I’m probably gonna do again once the fencing route is complete). It looks like choosing to manipulate Merlin and or Adrien for your own ends triggers the two-faced stat, even if you decide that your outward traits reflect your inner personality. You see “The ‘Me’ that exists in my mind” in your stats once you confirm you want to manipulate your party member(s).

While we’re on the subject of ending stats, I’m curious about what the Ward Status is supposed to mean. I’m guessing it has to do with how often Adrian has to stop you from doing cool stuff?

Thanks for explaining why you picked the current Vices. Yeah, that makes sense, and I can see how Pride and Envy would require more build-up compared to the current set. And I suppose the Addictions are a good substitute for Gluttony anyway.

It’ll be fun figuring out which is true as the story unfolds, that’s for sure.

Ah, so both magic and science are already mimicking each other, but in ways that separate them by design. Sort of like a mix between the magic system in the Nasuverse (where technology is now able to replicate the effects of spells), and how Espers use their powers in To Aru (which is essentially forcing reality to conform to their own desires).

Minus the “Magic A + Science A = Error” problem, which is the result of two universal laws being largely incompatible with each other. Once again, thanks for the explanation.

If memory serves, it goes something like this:

Imposter Secret + 5 Charisma
Inhuman Secret + 10 Magic
Serial Killer Secret + 5 Strength
Lying About Amnesia Secret + 5 Intelligence

Don’t know how you increase your stats further though, other than a boost to Magic and Intelligence (and presumably other stats) during the hotel spell.

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i want to play recommended worst way possible but i cant peak Security Guard with fear phobia ??

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