Johannes Cabal, Necromancer!!

[TheLaughingOne]

I have no idea if anybody here knows of the Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L Howard, but it is one of my most favorite ones at this time, I have all the book sin audio book format, and listen to them often, i badger the author (and character) on twitter, and its about the only thing i do on twitter.

And joking with the Author earlier, i joked about the chances of a Johannes Cabal Interactive by TellTale games.. And he said if they contacted him, he would be down.. ... Soo... I have taken to sending them a message asking if they would do it, and starting a petition to show peoples interest!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/243/994/926/the-creation-of-a-johannes-cabal-interactive-game/

I hope there isnt a problem with me posting it here, but i would love to get some word out and with some miracle, make this actually happen, and if not, at least i can say, "I did my best, and it came pretty close".

[Mathim]

I got about 1/3 of the way into The Fall of the House of Cabal but it just wasn't grabbing me like the rest of them did.

What exactly do you mean by an interactive game? Are you talking about something like one of the Walking Dead games, where it's based in the reality of the series but not necessarily based around the main characters? I've never played one of those, it just doesn't seem like there would be enough to do like in most RPGs I'm used to, but if I'm wrong, please elaborate.

[TheLaughingOne]

Hullo!

I mean more along the lines of Wolf Among us, Batman, or game of thrones (in you have interludes where you play horst or other characters for a time), where you would be playing the game as Johannes, either going through one of the books (with some additional extra turns and twists) Or an original story, as the author has stated he enjoys doing short stories.

[Mathim]

But what would that entail? Stealth-dominated gameplay with thievery and assassination, or a balance of that along with larger battles involving necromancy and summoning? I'm just having a hard time picturing a concrete vision of something that I could compare to an existing game I might be familiar with. I get that some games are played like a visual novel but I would want something a bit more active than that. With minimal quick-time events.

[TheLaughingOne]

Well, im not a TellTale games developer, nor am i JLH, im a fan who is trying to point out to the company that there is a fan base which could make it profitable. Hopefully.

But.. In my head, i'd remake Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer, into the game. keep the original story and have parts where you could alter the end outcome, but focus more on the random cities that werent visited, playing through as a matter of puzzle solving (figuring out how to get a Mark to sign a contract) social interaction (tricking a mark into signing a contract) combat (forcing a mark to sign a contract) or so forth. The means of completing the game are up to you. You could follow the story pretty closely in largely signing people already going, or go for marks that are less deserving, and in that it alters how the ending plays out, giving it some good replay function.

Games of the like i would suggest are...

Tales of the Borderlands
The Wolf Among Us,
The Walking Dead,

My three favorite ones. Episodic in nature, good stories, and likeable characters. There is action, which is partially quick time, but not the "SUDDENLY PRESS X TO NOT DIE!!" kind, but you have a set time to make a decision, and overcome some hindrances in the decision.

[Oniya]

TellTale games are a bit 'Choose Your Own Adventure', a little investigative play (examine this object, go to this place, talk to this person) and some QTE.  I know there are some YouTubers who went through 'A Wolf Among Us', which is based on 'Fables' (fairy tale creatures) living in a modern city.  You play as Bigby Wolfe, a police detective investigating some strange murders.

[Mathim]

I never played that type of game before, at least not one that had a smaller scope than something like Fallout: New Vegas. I guess it could be fun but I like elements of exploration, treasure hunting, leveling up, that kind of thing to be part of a game if the formula is like that described. I know the petition isn't going to dictate the content or structure of a game if they do decide to make one, but that's what I'd want from it. I wouldn't mind if it was in chapters and each book was a chapter, so they'd all be very long, detailed adventures in and of themselves, and replayable once completed (like in the various Lego game adaptations.)

[TheLaughingOne]

Well, the games do involve a good deal of exploration and treasure hunting, its possible to find alternative routes, special items to help in some situations, or even completely change the nature of what is happening with what you find, though leveling isnt really a thing..

here is an example of how some of the social and combat worked in Wolf Among us, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbxdvenVrR8 (spoilerific warning in video!)

Think the old Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, Space quest, and so forth, with some more active action mixxed in.

[Mathim]

Actually now that I think about it, if they made something like Bioshock, that would probably be great for this story universe. Lots of exploration, things to collect and use, and you're confronted with ethical choices like sparing or harvesting Little Sisters (comparing this to the whether or not to trick some rube into selling their soul) or fighting off a Big Daddy just to get to them (using force rather than trickery). That kind of thing, I could totally get behind. But with some kind of leveling up system so that combat feels worthwhile. I'm just one of those obsessive collector/achievement gamers so I want to feel like I mastered something I'm playing.

Or maybe each book/stage could teach you a different skill and you have to travel back to each one to unlock every possible door or event or whatever. Makes it feel more like a Zelda game which are almost universally regarded as awesome. Actually, if the game had the elements of Bioshock, but the look of a Zelda game (i.e. not first-person), that would be the best combination for it. I'd rather have a more artificial representation of Cabal, for some reason I just don't ever want to see him with a face in real life. Horst, on the other hand, I could handle seeing in a live-action adaptation.

One question, and this doesn't necessarily have to be a spoiler, but Howard had said the Fall of the House of Cabal might be his last book, but did that one end in a way that it would be imprudent to just leave it at that, or could you see that this would be an appropriate stopping point?

[Oniya]

I think there were some achievements in 'Wolf' - like if you get through a particular playthrough with certain people left alive and such.

[Mathim]

I think there were some achievements in 'Wolf' - like if you get through a particular playthrough with certain people left alive and such.

Yeah, same with Bioshock. Depending on your choices with every encounter with a Little Sister, you could get a different ending whether you were merciful or ruthless. What would be an interesting idea is, depending on how far you progress in the game, and your choices up to that point, if you die in the game (even if you just reload from the last save) then you'll get different afterlife scenarios played before you can restart from your last checkpoint or whatever they use.

[TheLaughingOne]

I dont think Fall will be his last book, as the story isnt Truely finished, though how things go have strongly changed. Not to mention he has made mention of a second Lovecraft & Carter book, as well as others. Not to mention he seemed onboard with the idea of telltale game in the Cabal Universe, and possibly doing a brand new story for that.

[Mathim]

That's good, I do plan to finish Fall eventually and while I hate waiting between installments, I do want to see how things develop. I feel like even if the book ended the conflict it introduces, there's still too many unanswered questions to stop altogether.

It would be interesting to see multiple 'bad end' routes through the game, and just a few 'good end' outcomes, or even several weird and ambiguous ones to make us feel more at home in this bizarre world he's created.

Carnivals, trains, castles, airships, the Dreamlands, I don't want to lose any of that in a game, I want to explore all of these locales and more. So if it does follow an original story, I would hope it blends them all somehow. Maybe the Dreamlands could serve as a substitute for the real-world versions of every other thing described.

Since he's so infamous, there might need to be some kind of mechanic where he needs disguises or to not linger too long in one place or risk being recognized and have local authorities or lynch mobs out for him, kind of like in the early Grand Theft Auto games where you could avoid the law by running far and fast enough. Sure, you could gun them down and maybe manage to scare off a few of them, but they'd still want you dead, and be even more determined to do it from then on.

[TheLaughingOne]

Thing is the telltale games are more of interactive novels. Not like the japanese types where you are given a blank slate with  ahint of an outline and a linear story where your choices mattet in the most minor of ways.

The characters are themselves and the actions you choose are filtered through them, so if as johannes cabal you choose to try amd be comforting to someone, it is still Johannes cabal doing it as only he can.

They arent action games of running around blazing away, but part point and click games focusing on investigation and puzzle solving with good and solid action beats, and on occasion you are given big choices that can affect the storyline greatly, going to this place means you might miss a major clue at the other location, but find out more of another characters motivations behind their actions making them suspect, or clearing them of it, and in wolf among us

mumblemumblemumblespoilers

I  fights with beast, grendel, the woodsman, and other characters they remember how you treated them and it affects how they deal with you, gouge out beasts eyes? Later on he will remember that and hold it against you.

so your choices actually matter.

A big draw of the games is that the story changes depending on actions, Giving it a great deal of replayability. The action beats are quick and part quick time event and active. Again if you dont mind spoilers id check the video i linked so you can get a good idea.

[Mathim]

But then you might as well just have him write another book where you choose your own path through it, why make a video game out of that? You'd have to throw in all the kinds of bells and whistles I was talking about to make it worth it, at least for a gamer like me.

[TheLaughingOne]

*shrugs* The series they make are pretty popular considering they got liscensing rights to Batman and released the game recently. Plus two walking dead series, wolf among us, game of thrones, minecraft, jurassic park, back to the future, borderlands and a couple others point to this style being popular as well. And personally id perfer a game that follows the spirit of the novels more then a CoD clone wearing a vaguely cabal skin.

Johannes isnt a guns blazing action hero, he prefers to move and work quietly when situation allows, and when trouble gets to be to much is fine with ducking into the shadows and leaving the country without a look back.

and as for disguises, the closest he has done was adopting an accent in The Detective, and barely attempting to act as so.eone other then himself, and dye his hair while wearing different colored clothing, and in orborusus ouzo, he wore a pink cream colored shirt.

[Mathim]

I understand, I just want to feel more like I'm playing a game than reading a book or watching a movie, you know? Visual novels seem more like the latter and would make the replay value diminish. It would be the kind of thing you could just watch on youtube if you want to see all the different pathways. If the game has objectives, collectibles and whatnot, it would last longer and be more worthwhile, and worth keeping rather than wanting to resell it later. That's one of my main considerations when I get a game, because I tend to buy them to keep.

Also I decided to continue reading Fall of the House of Cabal. It's teetering between slow and somewhat intriguing, and I'm not quite at page 200 so hopefully it'll start getting juicier.