Going Rogue: Fhtagn Simulator

If only it didn’t lag so much.

Let’s get that out of the way straight off: Yes, it runs slower than snot, and will probably freeze up at some point. Such are the perils of small indie games.

And yet, that fact notwithstanding, I’ve put a solid 30 hours into Fhtagn Simulator — more than Slay the Spire. And this is a game where a run rarely tops 10 minutes. How did such a small game grab my attention so well?

The Game

Outside of combat games and dungeon crawls, there’s a growing category of roguelikes that add roguelike mechanics like deck-building and metaprogression onto a preexisting game type: Chess-likes, billiards-likes, Scrabble-likes, and many more. Fhtagn Simulator is a roulette-like.

Every round, a set number of cards (usually 12) are drawn from your deck and placed randomly on the wheel. The cards then activate in order. When activated, every card yields a certain amount of Spirit, the game’s currency, and may have additional powers such as destroying adjacent cards, drawing more cards from the deck, raising the Spirit value of another card, and so on. So far, so simple. But these basic mechanics conceal a surprising depth of strategy.

A true indie production by a three-person team, Fhtagn Simulator has a certain amount of homemade charm, from the pixel-art graphics to the sound effects featuring what I’m pretty sure is one of the devs saying the word “roar.” I genuinely love little games like this (and no, for those who don’t know me, I’m not being ironic). And it captures the Lovecraft tone unexpectedly well.

But how does it line up against our rules?

Simple Math: A

Since the mechanics are so damn simple — either the Spirit counter goes up or it goes down — the math during each card’s activation is, necessarily, very easy. The difficulty is less in the individual steps as in the cumulative number — any roguelike player worth their salt will quickly figure out how to use draws, spin reversals, and multipliers to expand one spin into dozens of activations.

Like Monster Train, a good Fhtagn Simulator strategy relies on using these stacking effects to create runaway high scores. But while this created difficulties when trying to optimize your combat strategy in Monster Train, here it works perfectly. Since you’re only ever trying to beat a set Spirit value and it’s only checked every seven spins, it’s not prone to the combat-game problem of “this one mook slipped past with 1 hp and ruined my plan.” It just doesn’t matter if your estimate is a bit off — a general vibe that this combination will create a big multiplier is usually sufficient. Then sit back and watch the Spirit roll in.

Deterministic Outcomes: C

I was inclined to give this game a pretty generous rating considering it’s a roulette-like, where the entire premise is that you don’t know where the cards will land. Random card placement does play a large role in the game, and an unlucky spin (say, your Bhole killing your Black Pharaoh) can easily lose you the game.

But on one level, the game still follows the general rule of deterministic outcomes, because the random element — card placement — precedes the usually-deterministic element — card execution. Most of the time it’s moot because you can’t do anything in between the two, but for the cards you choose to place manually, you can indeed guarantee a specific outcome. Usually.

The “usually” is the other catch. While the base spirit values are deterministic, a good-sized chunk of the deck has special powers with a chance of success, including essential cards for certain strategies. Most of these average out over the course of the game, but if the probability is small, it could just never get rolled, which can really mess with your strategy. (Other cards use a timer to specify that an effect happens every third or fourth activation, which I prefer.)

So between those two factors, I have to concede that this game is pretty weak on the determinism front.

Tradeoffs: A

The essence of a good tradeoff is that it’s incredibly effective under the right circumstances and useless or worse under the wrong circumstances. “This weapon does 10% more damage against one enemy and 10% less against another” is a meh tradeoff. “This weapon does 100% more damage against one enemy and damages you if you use it against another” is a great tradeoff — if you can pull it off. But strategy still has to be king; no one wants to lose a run just because the wrong enemy spawned.

And on this front, Fhtagn Simulator is downright brilliant. A typical first-round draft might be a Homeless (+4 Spirit) and a Sand Dweller (+3 Spirit, destroys adjacent human). The Sand Creature destroys the Homeless, and you’re now down 4 Spirit. Without a plan, basic interactions can easily leave you worse off than if you had done nothing.

But change the Homeless to a Child (+2 Spirit, grants +4 Might to its destroyer), and change the Sand Creature to a Formless Spawn (+1 Spirit, gains 1 Multiple when it destroys a human) — and add in the facts that Might increases Spirit and Multiple grants you Spirit more than once, and the strategy begins to emerge.

Fittingly for a Cthulhu-mythos game, nearly every strategy has this type of pyrrhic element, from Burning (which reduces a card’s Spirit) to Freezing (which prevents cards from activating) to spells (which have a negative Spirit value). The strategies with the best potential for runaway victories can also lead to catastrophic losses.

Intermediate Geometry: A

Given that the game is about placing cards on a roulette wheel, surprise! It involves geometry. Cards often affect their neighbors, so a lot of the strategy is in getting the right cards next to each other — tricky when you can only set the position of a couple of cards.

The chaos factor is in full effect here. There can be bite-your-knuckles tenseness at the beginning of a spin as you wait to see whether that Investigator will pop up next to the Elder God you just picked up.

Overall Grade: A-

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! The Elder Gods would consider this game a worthy tribute.

Metaprogression: Mostly Toy

There are ten difficulty levels, but a dedicated strategist should be able to march through them without much trouble, particularly if you learn one strategy and stick to it. There are two unlockable modes, Law and Chaos, with an achievement for beating it on each mode. If you are driven by external motivators, you’ve then achieved everything the game has to offer.

But where’s the fun in that? The real pleasure here is the sheer breadth of strategies you can pursue, and how different they all feel. A few have associated achievements, but many do not; they exist purely to make the curious go “I wonder if I could…” And the trick to some of them can be quite challenging to divine.

For the aficionado, I suggest attempting the following victories, organized roughly from easiest to most difficult:

• Shub-Niggurath victory
• Witch victory
• Bhole victory
• King in Yellow victory
• Burning victory
• Freezing victory
• Time victory
• Ghoul victory
• Cthulhu victory
• Stars Align victory
• Snakes victory
• Black Pharaoh victory
• Shoggoth victory
• Stranger victory

No, I won’t tell you the trick to any of these. As if I would rob you of the pleasure of discovering it yourself.

As for our award, there’s no feeling like building the perfect deck and watching it sweep you to victory in an overwhelming tide. What could be more eldritch than a relentlessly inexorable fate?

Honorary Award: Best Runaways

And that’s Fhtagn Simulator!

Be sure to catch up on our previous columns. And join me next month as we discuss one of my longtime favorites — but it might be new to you! And remember, if you have a tactical roguelike you’d like to see me analyze, you can always get in touch at ravenmaster@nightwellgames.

More Going Rogue

Tetra Tactics
Mortal Glory
Iris and the Giant
Meteorfall: Krumit’s Quest
Monster Train