The Age of Decadence

Iron Tower Studio's turn-based RPG set in a post-apocalyptic Low Fantasy world reminiscent of The Roman Empire and built on the Torque engine. The website can be found here.


 * After the End: An uncommon example in that the world wasn't even at "modern" tech level when things went explody.
 * Author Appeal: Of the non-sexual type, it's an indie game after all.
 * Bonus Boss: The "inn fight" in the combat demo
 * Media Research Failure: Neoseeker posted a preview. The problem? They referred to it as an "action RPG", despite posting a (very outdated) video of its clearly turn based combat in the same article. They also linked to a newly released demo designed to show of said turn based combat and the game's website, which includes the turn based combat as a selling point.
 * Choose Your Own Adventure: Some quests play out like this. They uses lots and lots of skill checks.
 * Item Crafting: The "create expendables" and "improve existing items" types exists as separate skills.
 * Low Fantasy: It's a cynical, brutal, low-magic world set After the End.
 * Point Build System: Rather than winning XP toward a Level Up, you win points that can be applied directly to skills, and only for quest completion.
 * Public Domain Artwork: The combat demo used Pollice verso for the "game over" screen. The use was temporary (presumably the existing "game over" image wouldn't work with the story of the combat demo).
 * Shown Their Work: Even in the demo, there are plenty of allusions to obscurer facets of non-Hollywood Rome. Sadly, all gladiator fights seem to be to the death.
 * Spiritual Successor: To Fallout and the many others that are also spiritual successors to it (such as Arcanum).
 * Thunderbolt Iron: The highest level of common weapon to be found.
 * Vaporware: It's an indie game.
 * Weapon Across the Shoulder: Two handed weapons default to this when out of combat.
 * Weapon of Choice: Unusually for almost any video game, each preforms widely different in combat in practice (even if how they do so is hard to describe). Also unusually is none of the weapons are "second tier" weapons for non-primary-combat characters, they are all roughly equal.
 * "Heroes" Prefer Swords: Will critical more often and can hit everyone around you in a whirlwind attack.
 * Knife Nut: Has low AP cost and accurate, will bypass armor often, and can "flurry" to get in even more attacks.
 * Blade on a Stick: Can push back enemies that try to advance, has "reach". (Un)surprisingly effective when combined with crippling legs and backing away from foes. Can impale foes.
 * An Axe to Grind: Can break shields, high damage for high AP. Also can access the whirlwind attack.
 * Straight Arrow: Can attack from range, but not up close. Downsides include ammo issues (As, at least with the combat demo, Ao D does not use Money for Nothing), low skill characters will often miss, low armor penetration (or if using pierceing arrows, low damage). Like all ranged weapons, shield users have a bonus to their block rate against ranged attacks.
 * Crossbows: Can attack from range, but not up close. High power with each shot, but slow to reload, like the bow has access to barbed/plain/piercing ammo for each grade.
 * Throwing Weapons: Being the only one handed ranged weapon, it is the only one that can use a shield alongside it. Are expensive, hard to resupply, and have low range, but can attack at close ranges unlike other ranged weapons, and deal more damage.