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Choice of Games | Hosted Games | Heart's Choice

These are the following games found under the Hosted Games Label of Choice of Games.

Games with their own pages:

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    The Evertree Saga 
Written by Thom Baylay. Consists of The Evertree Inn, Sordwin and Lux: City of Secrets.

In The Evertree Inn, the Player Character decides to stay in a tavern for the night when a series of mysterious deaths plagues the tavern.

In Sordwin, the Player Character goes to the island of Sordwin at the request of a lord. However, an odd illness plagues the island.

In Lux: City of Secrets, the Player Character investigates the mysteries and secrets of the city while trying to balance their own responsibilities and priorities.

This series contains the following tropes:

  • Promotion to Parent: The PC can play this straight if their surviving relative is either of their younger siblings or inverted if it is either of their parents.

The Evertree Inn contains the following tropes:

  • Doorstep Baby: Wen the halfling maid was adopted by Mrs. Dupree after she was abandoned by her parents in one of the guest rooms.
  • Inn of No Return: The Evertree Inn is one due to an angry dryad.
  • The Reveal: The killer is a dryad who is guarding the Evertree, a special tree where Mr. Dupree gets the wood for the inn.

Sordwin contains the following tropes:

    Fatehaven 
Written by Devon Connell.

    Hero or Villain 
Written by Adrao. Consists so far of Genesis and Battle Royale. The player is a comic book-style superhero (or villain), launching a heroic (or criminal) career, and later being abducted by aliens to fight in their arenas. Notable for its extremely high level of Character Customization for this company's games.
  • Almighty Janitor: Your Power Level in the stats is only determined by your starting strength and isn't affected by later developments. As you can be enhanced by more meteors, genetic engineering or plain old practice and training, or by building more gadgets later, its accuracy is very questionable later on. It's not impossible to defeat the Steel Aeronaut while being technically a yon-kyu (barely more than human in power).
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: One available power, with a list of possibilities. Even the game admits which animal you choose is mainly cosmetic and the animal powerset is very generalized (you can play as a winged rabbit or snake person).
  • Badass Normal: The MC can potentially be one if you spend all your points in starting money and prior achievements, (such as getting a PHD or being practiced in martial arts) during character creation.
  • Bank Robbery: Mostly what you'll be involved in if you play as a villain, until you exhaust the main storyline and start setting up your own criminal empire.
  • Boring, but Practical: They don't give access to some of the flashier powers, but the earth and animal powersets let you buy superhumanly high numbers in almost every stat, armor, and a Healing Factor of varying speeds. In most instances such mundane things as high strength, health and armor are just as good, if not better, than a bunch of zappy powers.
  • Cheat Code: Has an option to input secret codes available on the author's social media pages. One of them even seems to be a Shout-Out to My Hero Academia ("AllForOne", which lets you buy any power you want, regardless of the category you pick during character creation).
  • Difficulty Levels: Although the choice doesn't affect how powerful the enemies or tough the skill checks are, but instead your character's Super Weight. In "ridiculously easy" your character is in the top tier as one of the most powerful superhumans in the world, whereas in "impossible" you don't have the points for anything decent, and have pretty much nothing going for you except a snazzy costume.
  • Elemental Powers: The powersets include some based on the classic four elements, plus light, darkness and time.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: One available power. Your inventions can be loose or built into a suit of Powered Armor.
  • Gladiator Games: When you're abducted by aliens to fight in them in the second game.
  • Gravity Master: Besides Super-Strength and causing earthquakes, the earth powerset involves this.
  • Guide Dang It!: You really need to pay attention to all the rules and prompts that show up, especially in rolling up your character's powers. For instance, when playing as a Powered Armor character, some options for your suit aren't even shown unless you buy a massive boost to your Intelligence stat first.
  • Healing Factor: Another available power, comes in slow and fast versions.
  • Human Aliens: Many races arose from ecosystems seeded across the universe by the Dha'saram Elders, and are therefore physically similar to the Elders; oxygen-breathing bipeds with two sexes.
  • An Ice Person: The water powerset includes ice powers.
  • Kyu and Dan Ranks: Power Levels are in Japanese (because the Japanese were the first to make a real study of superpowers), starting at i-kyu (first degree) and descending to yon-kyu (fourth).
  • Magic Meteor: How all the heroes and villains in the game got their powers. A giant meteor was going to hit Earth, was blown to pieces, and everyone who developed powers found one of the pieces.
  • Mage Marksman: Some power sets offer a projectile-enhancement capability.
  • Mighty Glacier: The Earth powerset gives access to abilities like high strength, health, armor, and sped-up healing, but almost nothing in the way of movement powers or agility enhancement.
  • Mind over Matter: Some power sets offer telekinesis powers.
  • One-Hit Kill: If you're thinking of playing a villain, look into having a high Psyche. Otherwise, look forward to an ignominious instant loss to a telepathic superhero once you launch your villain career for real.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: They're a result of a contagious earlier meteor infection. They can absorb other powered beings' attributes by drinking them, as well as gaining a variety of other powers. The protagonist can become one in the first game.
  • Point Build System: Besides the general questions/choices to generate your character's stats typical of the system, you have a variable amount of "hero points" depending on the difficulty setting you to pick for the game. These are spent on things like available powers, higher stats, and starting money reserve.
  • Power Levels: All the enhanced individuals are rated on a scale depending on the strength of their powers, with i-kyu (first degree) being the most powerful known and counting down from there. The player's will vary depending on the difficulty level they choose at the beginning.
  • Set Swords to "Stun": Using a sword or gun to defeat an enemy is no more lethal than punching them.
  • Shout-Out: When explaining power stat rankings, the categories harken to the adjective-based system used by Marvel Super Heroes, using a lot of the same words, especially for the higher levels (Monstrous, Unearthly).
  • Super Hero Origin: Right after you've been zapped by the meteor, apparently whatever you ended up touching determines your powerset. A lot of them make a certain "comic book" kind of sense (I.e., you thought you were burning so you doused yourself with water and got water element powers, or you thrashed around and ended up touching an animal and developed powers similar to it). The "time" origin stretches credulity even for a comic book superhero story (you touched your watch and gained the power to control time).
  • Superhero Packing Heat: Your superhero can have a gun and use it to capture bad guys. Some characters can even enhance their bullets with energy.
  • Super-Speed: Available to varying levels in the air, time, and animal power sets.
  • Teleportation: Some power sets have this capability available.
  • Time Master: The time powerset.
  • Villain Protagonist: Sound like fun? Go for it!
  • Wall Crawl: One available mobility power, depending on the set you pick.

     Life of a Space Force Captain 
Written by Mike Walter, Life of a Space Force Captain is a story about a youngster from the Sol System who joins the Darian Space Force as they begin to explore the galaxy and face a threat to the Earth.
  • Badass Normal: You can be a badass space force captain even if you're a pure Solarian who never embraces either psionics or cybernetics.
  • Bizarre Alien Sexes: Reticulans have No Biological Sex and reproduce through cloning. Meanwhile, most Linnera are male drones, unless they morph into female queens. However, while both species' members are customarily considered male, they include individuals of all gender identities.
  • Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Cybernetics inhibit psionic abilities, including the natural abilities of Aurellians and Linnera. This goes both ways, and it's impossible to affect a cyborg or synth with mind-affecting psionics.
  • Dumb Muscle: Orroks are big, strong, and not very smart by nature. Much of Krag/Flok's storyline is about overcoming their natural deficiencies through sheer hard work and becoming an engineer.
  • Cyborg: One path to power is through giving yourself cybernetic implants.
  • Fantastic Racism: It's...a thing. Orroks and Reticulans don't get along because Reticulans enslaved Orroks in the past and still do, they just don't call it slavery. Meanwhile, just about nobody trusts the Linnera or Synths, because they're creepy. And while most Solarians get along with other races just fine, Earth has an organization for the Purists, who are human supremacists.
  • The Greys: The grey-skinned, black-eyed Reticulans, who were called the "Grey Men" since they came to Earth before humanity moved into space. They have No Biological Sex and reproduce through cloning, though they do have gender identities, and are the most intelligent and strong-willed race, with a strong preference for scientific careers. Most Reticulans are psionic, but some instead use cybernetic implants. While they're not quite Always Chaotic Evil, their species as a whole is involved in extremely skeevy stuff, including slavery and Alien Abduction. They are also genetic purists to an extent; they use randomizing factors in their cloning, incorporate useful randomizations into their racial DNA, and are willing to accept legal Reticulan-alien hybrids, but any Reticulan who is too impure is killed.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Aurellians communicate through shifting skin colors as well as through speech and empathy. So they tend to go naked on their homeworlds, and it's impolite not to stare at them.
  • Job-Stealing Robot: A subplot revolves around this. Work is very hard to find if you're uneducated, which most Orroks are, but with the DSF shipyards on Mars, there's a significant need for the heavy labor that they're eminently suited for. But the DSF is planning to build an automated factory which will put the Orroks out of work. Malko, a crime boss involved in labor racketeering, would really like it if the factory wasn't completed.
  • Massive Race Selection: There are six PC races: Solarians, Aurellians, Orroks, Reticulans, Linnera, and Synths.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Orroks are generally Dumb Muscle, which is why only exceptional Orroks make it to the Academy and join the DSF. Krag/Flok (depending on gender) wants to be an engineer, and while they have trouble with math, they make themselves into engineers through a lot of hard work and mechanical talent.
  • Post-Scarcity Economy: Food, VR and other necessities are free, and work is optional, but Darian society still uses credits to handle scarce goods and allow people to skip the line. Credits are officially earned through being a productive member of society, but there's still black markets where credits are earned...less legitimately.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Orroks claim to have a history as this, but nobody knows just how true it is. In the present day, they're an uneducated underclass and few are admitted into the military.
  • Space Elves: The Aurellians are a species similar to humans but Long-Lived and best known for their alien beauty, and also have a natural talent for psionic empathy. They make the best diplomats in the star cluster.
  • Space Orcs: The Orroks; it's in the name. Seven-foot-tall four-armed brutes, they're big, strong, and not very intelligent, and were enslaved by the Reticulans before the Darian Space Force forced the Reticulans to free them. They have legends of a past as a warrior race before the Reticulans took them away, but it's impossible to know how much of this is true, and currently they're mostly used as cheap general labor and mob goons in DSF territory. They have no nation of their own, but can declare independence on Mars with the appropriate push.
  • Square Race, Round Class:
    • There's nothing stopping any species from taking up any specialization on shipboard. An Orrok PC won't be pushed into being Security, though that's their more obvious place. Indeed, the Orrok crewmate is an engineer, while the security officer is Aurellian.
    • It's possible for the naturally psionic Aurellians or semi-psionic Linnera to abandon their Psychic Powers and embrace cybernetics. Likewise, nothing forces a Synth to get cybernetics, and they can remain a Badass Normal, though they integrate better with cyber than any other species.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: Several resolutions to the climax involve dropping a bigger hammer on the Suvarians, even if that hammer is no friend to humanity. The Darian Space Force will not survive, though humanity will - just how well humanity makes out depends on who you call on.
  • Voluntary Vassal: The Loophole Ending has the Darian Space Force surrender to the Aurellians and be annexed by the Kingdom of Europa in exchange for protection from the Suvarians. It's one of the better endings, since the Aurellians are most interested in taking the Earth's oceans for living space and aren't shown oppressing humans.
  • We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future:
    • The DSF shipyards on Mars use a lot of manual labor, which is a major employer of Orroks (who otherwise often can't get jobs due to being uneducated). One plotline is about an automated factory which would be more efficient, but put the Orroks out of work.
    • The Reticulans also employ Orrok labor. They used to enslave them until the DSF told them to cut it out; now they just keep them uneducated and employ them.

     The Parenting Simulator 
Written By Matt Simpson aka Hustlertwo, as the name implies, you play a single parent raising their only child in various ways.
  • Disappeared Dad: If the protagonist is the biological mother of the child, she can explain that either the child's father divorced her, or he died in an accident on the way to work while she was pregnant with them.
  • Good Parents: Whatever route you go for in parenting your child, your kid will always respect and love you.
  • Happily Adopted: If the player chooses the adoption background as the reason why they are a single parent, the child will have the reason why he or she is adopted explained to them and express gratitude that he or she was adopted by the player.
  • Last-Minute Project: In one scene you have to help your child complete a diorama for history class that they have forgotten about, and that is due in the next day.
  • Missing Mom: If the protagonist is the biological father of the child, he can explain that either the child's mother divorced him for not being "good enough" to be a parent, or she suffered complications when she was giving birth to them.
  • Parents as People: The game ascribes to a "no wrong answers" approach to parenting methods, with the narration pointing out positives and negatives on nearly every decision you make. And there aren't really any options to invoke Video Game Cruelty Potential that would turn you into an Abusive Parent, what choices you make that could be considered harsh will result in narration pointing out pragmatic ways the choice could benefit both you and your child.
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: How the parent can determine their child's gender: by the color of the clothes the hospital dressed them up in. This can be inverted if the parent questions the gender norms of this, and there will be options for a boy dressed in pink and a girl dressed in blue.

    The Passenger 

Written by: J. Rolón

  • Amicable Exes:
    • If both Roach and Fiama are romanced, Roach will ultimately decide to give up on the MC rather than be a Romantic Runner-Up.
    • If Roach alone is romanced, they attempt to pull a Let's Just Be Friends on the MC — having previously been in a relationship with someone who they lost, and not wanting a repeat of the experience. Despite this, Roach and the MC can continue to be close friends.
  • Benevolent Abomination: The protagonist starts off as an utterly inhuman Eldritch Abomination, but depending on player choice can discover that Humanity Is Infectious and even fall in love.
  • Better as Friends: Despite very much being into the MC, Roach will eventually attempt to break up with them, saying they should be just friends.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Even if the protagonist is a brat towards her as a child and openly hostile to her as an adult, their older sister Livvie tries her best to look out for them. This includes throwing herself headlong at Tzr'nekre and getting her eyes melted for her trouble.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Should they have romanced Roach, the MC has the option of getting jealous and/or possessive when Roach starts flirting with Horizon's lieutenant and Horizon themselves, though airing these grievances will cause Roach to break up with them.
  • Cult: To power the MC up to face the Hunter, Roach proposes posing as the icon of worship of a local cult, the Yellow Scrubs. Unlike most cult leaders, however, Horizon turns out to genuinely care about the wellbeing of their followers.
  • Death of Personality: The protagonist indwelling its infant human host snuffs out their nascent personality.
  • Demonic Possession:
    • The premise of the game is an injured Eldritch Abomination bodyjacking a newborn infant to escape being eaten by a bigger, meaner eldritch predator called the Hunter.
    • After locating the protagonist on Earth, the Hunter begins indwelling human hosts in an attempt to kill them. Towards the endgame, Horizon gets possessed by Tzr'nekre, with the byproduct of it also taking over Horizon's followers.
  • Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?:
    • Fiama is a twenty-five year old single mother who is one of the romantic interests for the protagonist, who is an Eldritch Abomination using a human body as a Meat Puppet.
    • Horizon is the leader of a cult worshiping a god called Sadalsuud, and can end up being romanced by the protagonist under the belief they're Sadalsuud incarnate.
  • Distracted by the Sexy:
    • The MC's options for flirting involve exuding confidence... or becoming a blushing mess who is scarcely able to think straight around their romantic interests.
    • If the MC calls Roach's bluff and streaks to get their clothes, Roach is open about appreciating the show and becomes very flustered if the MC offers to have sex.
  • Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: Discussed and averted. If romancing Fiama, she will ask before they sleep together whether the MC is possessing a real person who can't consent. The MC will confirm that the human soul in the body is long gone and they are all that remains.
  • Easily Forgiven:
    • Livvie can forgive the protagonist for accidentally killing her father, bodyjacking her sibling, and getting her blinded — though her girlfriend Ara is less forgiving.
    • The protagonist can forgive Roach for trying to feed them to Tzr'nekre on account of their friendship or being lovers, admitting that it would be hypocritical of them to resent Roach given that they did to Roach what Tzr'nekre did to them.
    • If befriended or romanced, Roach ultimately forgives the protagonist devouring the rest of their species but gets angry if the protagonist keeps bringing it up.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • The protagonist is a shapeshifting extradimensional predator who was severely wounded by an even more powerful shapeshifting extradimensional predator called the Hunter.
    • Roach is the Sole Surivor of a Hive Mind entity that was devoured by the protagonist in the distant past and fled to Earth to escape.
  • Eye Colour Change: When the protagonist is about to be pancaked by a truck, they panic and try to draw on their eldritch powers... and the truck suddenly vanishes. When they return home, they see one of their eyes has turned solid white, later revealed to be a piece of Tzr'nekre's essence giving them one of its eyes.
  • Eye Scream: Livvie gets her eyes melted by Tzr'nekre to torture the protagonist by making them watch their sister suffer.
  • First Period Panic: Invoked in the prologue when the protagonist, if female, suddenly has a migraine in the middle of a sex-ed class at the same time as their first period — causing some of the students to mock them.
  • God Couple: The MC is an Eldritch Abomination indwelling a human host, while Roach is a lesser eldritch being shapeshifted into human form and was once worshipped as a deity, and they can become a couple fairly early in the story. If the MC has low humanity and maxes out their essence, they can regain their true form and leave Earth behind. Should they convince Roach to come with them, Roach happily sheds their human form and joins their lover in a cosmic honeymoon.
  • Hive Mind: At the end of the game, after possessing Horizon, Tzr'nekre uses their connection to their cultists to take over them as well.
  • Humanity Is Infectious:
    • Twenty-six years of indwelling a human Meat Puppet can — depending on player choice — cause the utterly alien MC to learn how to feel affection and love, represented by the Humanity/Otherworldly stat.
    • After taking Horizon's body as a host, Tzr'nekre revels in exploring the darkest depravities the human mind has to offer, going from a hungry predator to a sadistic sociopath.
  • Humanoid Abomination: After the Hunter attacks the MC at the gas station where Roach works, Roach reveals that they are a lesser eldritch entity in human form, no Demonic Possession involved. The truth turns out to be a little more complex, as Roach is the sole survivor of a Hive Mind that was devoured by the MC in the distant past, and initially approached the MC intending to take revenge by either killing them personally or feeding them to Tzr'nekre.
  • Meat Puppet: In order to take action in the world without breaking reality, most eldritch entities need to indwell a human host or "casket" — usually destroying their mind in the process. Roach is an exception, having shapeshifted their true form to appear completely human aside from having Supernatural Gold Eyes.
  • In Love with the Mark: Towards the end of the game it's revealed that Roach sold the MC out to Tzr'nekre, wanting to avenge the Hive Mind they were once a part of, but they can end up falling in love with the MC.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Roach is more than happy to have casual sex with the MC and also shamelessly flirts with Horizon's assistant and Horizon themself. Should the MC get jealous or possessive, however, Roach will break up with them.
  • Magical Eye: When expending their power, one of the MC's eyes turns solid white. This turns out to be one of Tzr'nekre's eyes, and lets the protagonist see interdimensional portals. However, it also lets Tzr'nekre see through their eyes as well, making it a double-edged sword.
  • The Mourning After: When attempting to break up with the MC, Roach reveals that they were once the object of worship of a cult that came into conflict with a rival cult. Roach fell in love with the rival cult's charismatic leader, but the cult leader eventually grew old and died, with Roach not wanting a repeat of that experience with the MC.
  • Possession Burnout:
    • The MC accidentally fries the brain of the first human it tries to indwell, which turns out to be its casket and Livvie's beloved father.
    • The Hunter, aka Tzr'nekre, causes the bodies of those it possesses to rapidly decay until it takes over the body of Horizon.
  • Predator Turned Protector: If the protagonist has romanced Roach and wants to leave Earth, they can offer to keep Roach safe from other eldritch predators. Roach is flattered, calling themself the "sexy remora" to the protagonist's shark.
  • Red Herring: The Hunter's first human host is a worker at the gas station wearing the panther mascot costume. As Roach had been wearing it when the protagonist last visited, they assume that Roach has been taken over by the Hunter. It turns out that Roach's coworker was the host, and this was part of a trap Roach set up to get the protagonist killed.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Roach helps set the MC up as the deity of the local cult, the Yellow Scrubs, the MC wakes up to find Roach packing their things with the intent of leaving, but can be convinced to stay. If romanced, Roach will attempt to break up with the MC. Following an attack by Tzr'nekre, if befriended or romanced Roach decides to leave and attempts to convince the MC to come with them, but the MC is tired of running and insists on taking the fight to the Hunter, causing Roach to leave on their own. Whether Roach returns depends on how close they and the MC become.
  • Shower of Love: Invoked when the protagonist goes to Roach's apartment to clean up after the Hunter's attack at the gas station. The protagonist can invite Roach to join them, but is turned down... only for Roach to leave their change of clothes on the other side of the room as a prank to goad them into streaking.
  • Supernatural Gold Eyes: Roach's primary notable feature is their faintly glowing yellow irises, which are a dead givaway that they're not human.
  • The Tease: Roach delights in flirting with the protagonist — and anyone else who piques their interest, and gets annoyed if the protagonist gets clingy. The protagonist can give just as good as they get, sometimes leading to flirtatious sparring matches between them.
  • Was It All a Lie?:
    • After it's revealed that Roach was initially working with Tzr'nekre to kill the protagonist, especially if befriended or romanced, the protagonist's trust in them is left shaken even when they return to help defeat Tzr'nekre, and they can choose to confront Roach over the betrayal.
    • Even with high relationship values, Livvie is horrified to learn that her little sibling has been indwelled by an Eldritch Abomination, screaming at the protagonist to give her sibling back. Once she calms down, if her relationship was high enough she slowly comes to accept that the person she thought was her sibling was the entity all along.

    Relics of the Lost Age 
A trilogy written by James Shaw.

  • Adventure Archaeologist: Protagonist Dr. Spillane goes on harrowing adventures around the globe to keep the titular relics — all purported to have magical powers — out of Nazi hands. Cleo Stone, introduced in the New Orleans chapter, is another, and she and Spillane can engage in some friendly (or perhaps more than friendly) one-upsman-ship.
  • All Girls Want Bad Boys: A Spillane (of any gender) who romances Zhu — Repentant or not, the guy's still got war crimes under his belt. Also applies to Maria.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: The Big Bads of the game — who you're actively trying to beat to the relics — are about as vile as you'd expect of the upper echelons of the Third Reich, but the (figuratively) nameless ground-pounders you meet have at least one good thing to be said about them. In Tibet, you meet one who's obviously just a terrified kid out of his depth and another who believes deeply enough in Sacred Hospitality to offer medicine to your deathly-sick friend — even if his underlings are clearly uncomfortable with it — and later in Hong Kong you have to track one down to advance the story and find him so utterly traumatized by the ColdBlooded Torture he's been forced to help with that he dares not sober up. One of them dies no matter what you do, but the other two might just survive their encounter with Spillane.
  • Amazon Chaser: Abdul for Esme and/or Spillane, and a Spillane who romances Cleo.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: If Spillane is played as skeptical, it will eventually border on this—the relics all actually do what they're supposed to do when Spillane touches them, meaning that Spillane can see bits of the future, heal injuries or melt enemies with a stone, read and control minds, etc., but still not believe in magic.
  • Battle Couple: Abdul and Esme.
  • Corrupt Cop: As expected of the Jim Crow South, the cops are almost entirely in the Klan's pocket, which causes no end of trouble for everyone during the amulet chapter.
  • Cunning Linguist: A possible specialization for Spillane, allowing them to translate pretty much any ancient language and speak at least one non-English dialect wherever they go. Canonically, they speak "over a dozen" languages.
  • Easily Forgiven: An option during the Hong Kong chapter. Unusually, the recipient's pretty mad about it.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: A possible sign that Zhu might not in fact be Beyond Redemption is his obvious — if suppressed — horror at finding a cannibalized human corpse on the mountain. He also doesn't seem too happy about it if you shoot the bear attacking Stevo, although he's willing to accept that one as necessary.
    • Later, if you agree to vouch for Maria during the climax (and don't just tell her to keep her mouth shut), she'll admit that if the Nazis are actually right about the Relics and their powers, she'd never forgive herself for helping them find them.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold: Zhu's usually described as some variation of "cold" or "icy" when he gets particularly mad.
  • Evil Redhead: Maria. Overlaps with Spicy Latina.
  • Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Zhu has this reputation even before the Sanity Slippage starts to kick in on the mountain. He's... Not as okay with it as he once was.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: Spillane faces one when everything comes to a head in Hong Kong: Either leave Zhu to die in a Suicide Attack on the Colonel who betrayed him to try to recover the last relic, or abandon the relic — and thus let the Nazis complete the set — to help Zhu get his revenge. Depending on how well he and Spillane get along, it's possible to talk Zhu down and get him to help you instead.
  • From Bad to Worse: The Congo chapter. First, you learn that the local Efe tribe have turned inexplicably hostile, and they try to kill you on your way down the river. Then it turns out they have a very good reason for the hostility when you discover what "The Rabid Dog" has been doing to them and the local miners at his trading post. Then, just when you've beaten the soldiers and everyone is free and safe, the Nazis show up with more troops and a lot of guns demanding Spillane's head.
  • Gentle Giant: Abdul, so long as you don't threaten or insult anyone he cares for.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: If Spillane fails the necessary skill check, Paulus will torture them. The narrative will note that it hurts a lot, what penalties Spillane will take to future checks and mention what tool Paulus used, but doesn't give the details.note 
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Esme is a bit more... Boisterous than most examples, but she's still a genuinely good woman, and often breaks up human trafficking rings or derails Nazi and/or Soviet operations on her and Abdul's adventures.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the Congo chapter, Spillane can try to turn themselves over to the Nazis to keep everyone else alive, but it just inflames the crowd's desire to fight even more.
  • How We Got Here: The game begins when Spillane has been captured by the Nazis, who have somehow acquired the six relics and want to interrogate them to find out how they work. Each object gets a flashback chapter — where Spillane remembers how they got to it and what it does — and then Spillane has to decide what to say to their torturer.
  • Impoverished Patrician: "Impoverished" is debatable, but Abdul's family ruled an emirate until the British Empire ousted them from power.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: Abdul may reveal himself to be this in London.
  • Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Downplayed between Esme and Abdul, since he's perfectly willing and able to throw down if need be, but he may admit to Spillane in London that he's never really picked up her wanderlust or thrill-seeking since they've been together; he mostly just follows her around the Middle East so he can be with the woman he loves.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In the New Orleans chapter, Spillane has dreams of a chalk-white creature offering them... Something. Elliot later describes making his Deal with the Devil, whose description perfectly matches whatever Spillane saw. Whether it's just nerves and coincidence or something really did visit Spillane is never confirmed.
  • Never Found the Body: Zhu dies in a cave-in at the end of the Tibet chapter, but you don't actually see the rocks crush him, nor does anyone find his body, so of course he turns up again later. He'll even lampshade it if you say you saw him die, reminding you that you saw a cave-in.
  • Not Helping Your Case: If Spillane asks Winton Elliot — the young blues musician reputed to have sold his soul to the Devil for talent and accused of robbing a museum and leaving Satanic imagery at the scene — if he really does worship the Devil, he insists that there's no need to since the Devil already owns him. A thoroughly exasperated Cleo tells him to not say that to anyone else.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: "Esme" is apparently short for "Esmerelda". Possibly also a Meaningful Name, since she has green eyes.
  • Politically Correct History: Zig-zagged. Characters you meet and interact with tend to be nicer than is probably realistic about nonbinary or gender-nonconforming characters, and people are a lot more willing to admit to currently of formerly being in same-sex relationships than they likely would've been at the time. However, it's explicitly noted that Spillane is either ethnically white or able to pass for it, and knows that Tulane University (which is still segregated at this point in history) would never have hired them otherwise. Plus, plenty of otherwise sympathetic characters have period-typical attitudes, although they can be argued with about it.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: The main villains are, of course, Nazis. Also prominent in the amulet chapter, where you go up against the Klan.
  • Proud Beauty: Zhu is at least as aware of his good looks as Spillane. He agrees if Spillane implies it that it was at least part of why he was recruited, since it apparently makes Honey Trap easier to pull off.
  • Pulling the Thread: There are several threads you can pull to prove that Elliot didn't steal the amulet (It's pretty obvious that he was arrested as a fall guy, but you still need something concrete to hang your suspicions on). The biggest is that Elliot wrote an illiterate's "X" in the prison register, meaning he couldn't have written the "Hail Satan" found at the crime scene. Also, the guard investigating the noise was struck from behind, but heard the noise from inside the building, so there had to have been more than one thief. However, the cops are obviously corrupt, so it's not a matter of just pointing out these discrepancies—they know Elliot didn't do it, they just don't care.
  • Polyamory: Esme and Abdul are Happily Married in all but name, but are perfectly happy for one or both of them to get with Spillane (or anyone else).
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Any Spillane who romances Abdul.
  • Take That!: A light-hearted one to Indiana Jones: At one point, Spillane has the opportunity to grab a bullwhip. Whether you do or don't, the narration will say that an archaeologist with a bullwhip is a silly idea.
    • There's a couple later during the London mission:
  • Tap on the Head: Spillane both gives and receives these regularly. Neither side seems to suffer any long-term complications.
  • Touched by Vorlons: It turns out that Spillane can use the relics because they're descended from one of the original six humans an alien race known as the Most High interbred with, allowing them to manipulate the stone that powers the Most High's tech. Thousands of people can use them by now, but Spillane's work as an archaeologist means they keep running into them.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: The Congo chapter is one to Heart of Darkness. You come upon some soldiers garrisoned at a remote trading post who have fallen under the sway of a sadistic tyrant and enslaved and tortured the locals. There's even a Kurtz, although this one is a perfectly decent guy who was against all the brutality and got imprisoned and tortured himself for trying to stop it. Spillane has to help the captives bust out and revolt.

    Totem Force 
Written by Tom Rayner. An homage to Toku superhero shows.
  • 12-Episode Anime: The game is explicitly inspired by anime, and consists of thirteen episodes.
  • Antagonistic Offspring: Anara eventually becomes this to her father.
  • Conspiracy Theorist: Scott believes that the government created clouds, is responsible for moon landing conspiracy theories, and is run by cockroach-people.
  • Henshin Hero: Downplayed. The heroes do have some of their power at all times, but they need to summon their armor to access it in full.
  • Informed Obscenity: "Frink," a fictional curse word which the characters use as a substitute for just about every real swear word.
  • Not Just a Tournament: The Heir to the Heavens tournament was, in fact, organized by the government as a field test of the TOT3Ms.
  • Tournament Arc: The Heir to the Heavens tournament.

    UnNatural 
Written by Sam Kabell. Consists of Season One and Season Two.
  • Armoured Closet Gay: While the PC is hospitalized after an attack in the SRT, Rogers would explain that they believed their feelings towards the PC caused their parents to have a divorce and took out on the PC. This only happens if Rogers and the PC are of the same gender and if the PC chooses to be friends again with Rogers.
  • Boy Meets Ghoul: One of the potential romances is with Denise, a lycanthrope or Lakota, a fae. This trope takes a turn when it is revealed that the PC is an Unnatural (to be specific, an Azure).
  • Bully Turned Buddy: Inverted as Rogers was the PC's friend until their parents' divorce. Played straight if the PC allows Rogers to be friends with them again.
  • Casting a Shadow: The Shade powerset allows the PC to manipulate shadows to create weapons, heighten their senses, and cloak them in the shadows.
  • Childhood Friend: Rogers and the PC had known each other as kids.
  • New Game Plus: There is an option to start the game after inputting three codes- that can be gathered throughout multiple playthroughs that can increase certain stats or give access to certain weapons.
  • Nephewism: After the death of their family, the PC goes to live with their Uncle Tyler and Aunt Elena.
  • Rescue Romance: Denise can be romanced if the PC saves her from having a prototype of the cure administered to her.
  • Shout-Out: The "adverts" are homages to other known Choice of Games such as Community College Hero, Tin Star and Zombie Exodus.
  • Silver Has Mystic Powers: Silver can be used to hurt and even kill werewolves while bronze is used for lycanthropes. Crosses made from silver are used to capture ghosts.
  • Would Hurt a Child: One of the victims of Case Zero is the PC's younger brother, Alex, who was five at the time.

Alternative Title(s): Life Of A Space Force Captain

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