Ave once more, citizens – Ghoastus here! Nate s in Berlin for PDXCON this week, but I m still haunting his PC (I zoom into it through the floppy disc drive), working my way through all the games he didn t get around to writing about in the last few weeks. Today, I ve been playing This Merchant Life, an extremely gentle fantasy trading simulator that came out in August, and which RPS features mortal Brendan had a look at two years ago. It s come on a lot since then, and while there aren t really any Romans in it, I like it very much all the same.
Many artists, when satirising the fantasy genre, have reached for a good and obvious joke: in a world defined by singularly important heroes, what s it like to be something other than the hero? What s it like to sweep the pubs down, maintain the castle walls, or run the potion stalls – and isn t there a sort of heroism to be found in these mundane acts? After all, as my dear friend Cicero said, it is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.