rikard.me/blog/021.txt                                Mon 31 Mar, 2025


                          Notes on Atom RPG


I was digging through some old files on my NAS, and I came across some
notes I took after having played Atom RPG for the first time in 2022.
Looking back at them I thought they were quite funny, so without
further ado here they are.

                                * * *

the first town you come to is troubled by regular bandit raids.

someone in the village is working with the bandits, and feeds them
with information about things going on in the village.

the village leader tasks you to find this snitch and bring them to
justice.

you do this by talking to the various "big" npcs around town.

none of them have any specific dialogue relating to the bandits,
except one.

if you have high speech, you can trick him into thinking that you want
to work for the bandits

he opens up and admits that he's working with the bandits, and tells
you how you can join them.

instead of persuing this path, the game just offers you one single
dialogue option as a response:

"let's make this perfectly clear. you're the village snitch, right?"

like what in the actual fuck kinda option is that??!

why does my high intelligence / high speech build character not have
the option to keep him in the dark, to make him think that he's not
being investigated, that i don't know about there being an informant,
and that i want to work for him? this could lead to a whole section
where i infiltrate the bandits, get closer and closer to the inner
circle, and eventually are eventually able to bring them down from
within.

but of course we can't have fun, so the guy admits to you that, yes,
he has been feeding the bandits with information, and he realises that
you're not actually interested in joining the bandits.

he asks you to please not tell the village leader that he's the
snitch. if you have high speech you can convince him to pay for your
silence, which he gladly does.

after he's paid you and you've promised to not tell the village
leader, you of course run straight to the village leader and tell him
all about the snitch.

the village leader says that the man must be disposed off somehow, and
you can offer to kill him. the village leader is disgruntled by this,
but agrees that it's the best way to solve the issue.

the village leader says that he doesn't want the man killed in broad
daylight, inside the town. you have to lure him outside the town and
kill him in the wilderness.

so with this new task you run back to the snitch, ask him to pretty
please come outside of town with you to an abandoned shack.

he of course asks you why, and you can use your high speech to say
that you have friends outside in the shack who are looking for a place
to stay, and that maybe he can help. since the writing in this game
sucks complete fucking donkey dick, the man immediately agrees to come
with you, despite knowing that you are not on his side, and that you
most likely have ratted him out to the village leader since you
fucking beelined it to the leader's house immediately after talking
with him.

anyway, you take him out to the shack and bash his head in with a
shovel.

you then go to the village leader who gives you 300 rubels for your
efforts, and asks you to join the bandits for him as a spy...