I love that version of the MC. All the extra details on their route make for some pretty ominous foreshadowing (my favourite bit happens if they talk to Adrian about The Mist). I’d definitely recommend it as a playthrough to people interested in trying to figure out what’s going on.
9 Likes
Also, it’s really funny to have a limited amount of Arthurian knowledge, randomly input names of Arthurian characters for giggles, and then find out that the one you grabbed is still alive. And also maybe Merlin’s parent??? Or an interchangeable name for Merlin?? A brief glimpse just told me that the dude was a bard 
Edit: so I yoinked one of Merlin’s names apparently, woops
3 Likes
Magic : 15 Physical : 34 Intelligence : 40 Charisma : 20
Bold : 27 Sweet : 59 Sassy : 24 Optimist : 14
Health(at Climax) : 58 Health(Final) : 92 Serious Injuries : 2
Caution : 19 Will : 7 Apathy : 0 Purity : 0 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 2 Denial : 3 Coward : 0 Silent : 12 Mute : false Pottymouth : 3
Serenades : 0 Interpretive Dances : 0 Lore Dump : 19 Lore Dodge : 0
Tech : 55 Medical : 20 Internet : 0
Club : fencing Talent : agility
Crazy Theory : None Crazy Theory Level : 0
Fear Level (at Climax) : 26 Corruption : 9 Mindcontrol : true
Adrian Affinity : 89 Adrian Flirt : 1
Weapons : fencing sword
Achievements : Possessed | Sword Dancer |
====
Oh my gosh - this WIP is such a breath of fresh air! I’m seriously impressed with how much mileage you got out of Choicescript; the chaotic text and sound effects were great, but I especially loved the little Wiki tooltips you sprinkled throughout the demo haha. The writing is fantastic as well. I like that MC has a smidgen enough of personality not to come off as a complete blank slate. I’m not too big on either Arthurian lore or isekai stories, but I found myself so engrossed with this IF! Definitely going to be keeping close tabs on you. ^0^
5 Likes
My poor saves 
Looks like I’ll have to brave the gauntlet of Merlin’s lore dump and guide once more.
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Wait…isn’t there an achievement for avoiding listening to that?
2 Likes
There is, but I prefer to have my characters be reasonably knowledgeable about what they’re getting into. Maybe I’ll skip it when I do a full Cloudcuckoolander playthrough, just to see how that turns out.
Having just completed a few playthroughs of the newest version, I noticed a few issues that remain:
Mistakes
Should be do instead of due.
Many instead of may.
The shouldn’t be capitalized.
Adrian offers Irish coffee to an alcoholic. For context, Irish coffee is slightly more alcoholic than the average beer. Also, the Irish should always be capitalized.
The game automatically equates suspicion of Merlin with hostility towards them, despite the possibility of a suspicious MC acting polite and/or friendly. Even if Merlin picks up on the MC’s suspicion, the MC wouldn’t know that.
Stats screen lists name twice if a nickname isn’t chosen (and yes, I do think I’m very funny).
Didn’t bother screenshotting this one, but since Merlin’s Guide is meant to be in alphabetical order, Aglovale should come before Agravain in the Major Allies: A section.
3 Likes
How do you get greed and cereal killer?
2 Likes
So while you are still in your apartment at the start of the game, during the time where you can customize your character it will eventually ask you what your sin is. The serial killer option comes up later, after you finish playing through your club route, while walking home you decide on what your secret is.
7 Likes
To select greed, the MC can’t have fear itself or death as their phobia. To be a serial killer, they can’t have blood or death as their phobia.
8 Likes
Ah so that’s what’s keeping me all this time, thank you
4 Likes
Lmao this sh t is scary not gonna lie playing this in midnight is scary
3 Likes
okok finally did a play through on my computer to have an easier time sharing the fencing club. this time i did pay attention to adrian’s username for how you met if your hobby is gadgetry, since i usually just glaze over it nbd.
- hecatomb: a large sacrifice or slaughter
- rue: to regret
Wanna tell us something there buddy? wanna share with the class adrian?
**Magic** : 10 **Physical** : 20 **Intelligence** : 22 **Charisma** : 35
**Bold** : 71 **Sweet** : 58 **Sassy** : 7 **Optimist** : -13
**Health**(at Climax) : 37 **Health**(Final) : 100 **Serious Injuries** : 2
**Caution** : 25 **Will** : 7 **Apathy** : 0 **Purity** : 1 **Cloudcuckoolanderness** : 4 **Denial** : -3 **Coward** : 0 **Silent** : 24 **Mute** : false **Pottymouth** : 3
**Serenades** : 1 **Interpretive Dances** : 0 **Lore Dump** : 27 **Lore Dodge** : 0
**Tech** : 30 **Medical** : 0 **Internet** : 40
**Club** : fencing **Talent** : lucid
**Crazy Theory** : None **Crazy Theory Level** : 0
**Fear Level (at Climax)** : 31 **Corruption** : -2 **Mindcontrol** : false
**Adrian Affinity** : 87 **Adrian Flirt** : 5
I really love both routes for hobbies available right now. both sets of club members are utter delights and so enjoyable. i did notice that with fencing its easier for me anyway to choose the sour and sassy options than in the polo club. I think its the possibility of a one sided rivalry lmao.
10 Likes
Magic : 17 Physical : 32 Intelligence : 26 Charisma : 33
Bold : 187 Sweet : 10 Sassy : 128 Optimist : -17
Health(at Climax) : 73 Health(Final) : 100 Serious Injuries : 2
Caution : 39 Will : 13 Apathy : 0 Purity : 0 Cloudcuckoolanderness : 34 Denial : -2 Coward : 0 Silent : 49 Mute : true Pottymouth : 6
Serenades : 0 Interpretive Dances : 2 Lore Dump : 1 Lore Dodge : 0
Tech : 10 Medical : 50 Internet : 0
Club : polo Talent : lucid
Crazy Theory : werewolf Crazy Theory Level : 2
Fear Level (at Climax) : 6 Corruption : -2 Mindcontrol : false
Adrian Affinity : 78 Adrian Flirt : 8
Weapons :
Achievements : Possessed | No Rescue Needed | BBQ Deferred | Unbeatable, Unbreakable
5 Likes
Merlin’s Guide to Minor Enemies has been finished. Here’s a preview…
Next up is Adrian’s Guide to the Biblical Apocalypse + a whole bunch of text messages and phone calls that the MC is owed. Feel free to drop any suggestions for ringtones. (Keeping in mind that the default ones will need to have sound files that are free to use in the public domain so no Billboard Hot 100, alas)
I also updated the game with a few bug fixes and suggestions from here and Tumblr. Otherwise, thanks for all the comments and stats!
Fear level has been trending kinda high in the fencing route stats. Have people been using the vending machine to lower it or not?
As has been mentioned, the whole timebubble thing is based on common supernatural folklore that often appears in popular media (with the details changed to fit the OKS plot & setting). You can actually discuss with Merlin the name of the phenomenon in different languages during their extended lore dump talk.
I’ve only seen the first season of JJK, so I can’t say how close “curtains” is to this implementation of the concept. Off hand, of all the manga, anime, and such I think the “kekkai” in X comes the closest since it also does the entire no normies in the barrier and you have to do such&such a thing to escape the barrier or have the damage inside transfer back to the real world.
Besides what’s already been said, the potential reincarnations for the MC, other Harbingers, and saboteur(s) are everyone mentioned in Merlin’s Guide. Including the minor sections I haven’t finished writing yet. *coughs*
I see someone didn’t get the Unbeatable, Unbreakable achievement. It’s totally possible to get the best of Lancelot. Even if the Camelot MC doesn’t have the stats for that, it’s also possible to tie with Lancelot (or to at least not outright lose to him).
Otherwise, it’s been mentioned by Merlin ingame, but I’ve also come out and stated it myself (since it comes up so often and some people thought it was a bug). Harbinger MC & Camelot MC have two separate stat screens for a reason. For the most part* the stats/decisions/talents/personality of the current MC is not transferring back in time, so it’s possible to play the Harbinger and Camelot MCs as diametrically opposite in all ways.
*For the most part - a few very rare variables can transcend time, but agility isn’t one of them.
Looking at this, the telltale signs to the options raising sweetness are things like “patiently” “thanks” “gratitude” “acknowledge” basically anything indicating empathy with the person you’re interacting with or if the MC acknowledges someone when they have the option to simply ignore them (particularly if that someone is currently smack-talking them).
Otherwise, I went back and added some more serious options to the choices that didn’t have them before (Now you can wait for Adrian neither patiently nor impatiently and get that drink without being thankful!). Also another indication… the serious stuff rarely uses exclamation points.
That was the counterpoint to the “Yes! I want to be a harbinger of doom! Muahahaha!” option which I ended up pruning to get the choices down to 4. But you know what, I’ll add that one back in too.
Taliesin? Myrddin? Now that I think about it Merlin should probably have a slightly different reaction for an MC who’s using one of their (known) famous pseudonyms. 
(And now with the new update, they do!)
Thanks for the comments. Good news! No isekai here, just run-of-the-mill reincarnation. Bad news, plenty of Arthurian though. The MC should hopefully have a bunch of different personalities depending on how you play them.
All of those should now be fixed with the newest update. Also Percival wants to know your location for… reasons.
Adrian:
15 Likes
Is it wrong to think of the time bubble like the thing they used in the Artemis Fowl books? I don’t have any other things I associate with the concept of a time bubble.
2 Likes
I was codediving and I found this thing when Adrian offers a drink
*fake_choice
# Accept the drink with a word of thanks.
*set mute false
*set sweet +2
*set adrian_drink true
*set poison true
… Adrian, wanna tell us something about that drink you gave us?
24 Likes
If I had a quarter for every time I’ve said “Hey, Ardrian, what the ****?!” out loud reading this thread, I’d have $1! I can’t wait to see if the other Harbingers are as suspicious as he is.
7 Likes
It was Taliesin! Dude has more names than I thought he did.
3 Likes
Looking at the polls I find out Pippa from the polo club can be either saved by me or Adnrian or die, how do I do either one? every time I try to go after her I either do not get to far and fall off or my horse go way to fast and I fall off.
4 Likes
This makes a lot of sense. Between being given the option to feed Foreshadow after every conversation option with Adrian and later being prompted to give the rest of the treats to their horse, a Polo route MC is likely to get the maximum Fear Level reduction possible from the treats.
The vending machine, however, is a lot more unobtrusive, making it likely that even those who do use it don’t pick every option, resulting in maximum Fear Level reductions being much rarer.
If you want to bring it more in line with the Polo route, I’d suggest describing the MC as somewhat hungry and offering a prompt or two to use the vending machine between conversation options. This would likely make the average Fear Levels between routes more similar.
The option to attempt to manipulate Merlin doesn’t use the new m_hostile_external variable:
Also, Agravain is still listed before Aglovale in Merlin’s Guide. Not sure if that’s intentional or not, but I’m mentioning it again just to make sure.
It’s quite likely that it’s a red herring put there to mislead code readers, to be fair. Notably, the adrian_drink variable makes the poison one redundant.
Saving Pippa
- Feed your horse at least one treat, but not all of them.
- If your horse is Midsummer Knight’s Dream or Knight Rider, wait until they breathe out when tightening their girth.
- Attempt to rescue Pippa (obviously). Doesn’t matter if it’s voluntary or not.
You now have two chances to rescue Pippa. To succeed at the first one (“I loop the reins around my left hand and lean as far to the right as humanly possible as I reach for Enchanter Moon’s bridle.”), you need to fulfil ONE of these requirements:
- Body stat of at least 30
- combined Body and Charm stat of at least 50
If you don’t meet either requirement, you get a second chance (“Full speed ahead!”). To succeed here, you need to have ONE of the following:
- Body stat of at least 20
- combined Body and Charm stat of at least 40
- Luck talent AND win the RNG roll
Getting Pippa Killed
- Give Foreshadow (Adrian’s horse) either all OR none of your treats.
- Stick your head out of the trailer window and get possessed.
15 Likes