Fantasy Opera: The Theater of Memory

One of the coolest things about IF Comp is that every year, you come across brand new authors who bring something fresh and idiosyncratic to this hoary old genre of ours. So one of the highlight of last year’s Comp was getting to play not one, not two, but three games by a debut author that boasted a high level of craft and shared a common vibe – cozy, nonviolent D&D-inflected fantasy focusing on romance and mystery – but managed to each put their own spin on things. Of Lamp Post Production’s trio of games in their annus mirabilis, though, Fantasy Opera: Mischief at the Masquerade seemed like it would most benefit from elaboration. That’s not because it was a weak entry by any means; far from it, playing a private detective in a magical version of early-modern Venice trying to track down an anonymous threat to a world-premiere opera was all sorts of fun. But its use of RPG elements felt like it was crying out for elaboration, and its shorter running time meant the romance elements didn’t have as much room to breathe. So while I very much enjoyed the author’s other two games, I was happy to see that it was Fantasy Opera getting the sequel treatment this Spring Thing.

And this second installment proves that 2025 was no fluke. Theater of Memory boasts the same strengths as the author’s earlier work: while you’re in a different city, investigating a different music-related mystery, once again there’s a wide cast of appealing characters, design that feels responsive to your chargen choices without evoking FOMO, and lush art illustrating proceedings. But there are some differences too – notably, you can’t actually romance any of those appealing characters, which is a good choice given that the timeframe of the investigation is once more fairly curtailed, and there’s a new dream-analysis system that enlivens the game’s central metapuzzle.

See, this time out you’ve been called in to discover why all the musicians in the company of a newly-built theater are plagued by uncanny recurring dreams. While the first stage of the investigation proceeds in a straightforward-enough fashion – you interview your client, then a bunch of the people who’ve been affected, with your choice of whether to specialize in observation or charm, or build expertise in matters mystical, magical, or (m?)architectural providing slightly different clues – there’s an intermezzo section where you’re tasked with identifying key commonalities in the various dreams before proceeding to the climax.

There are some slight rough edges in this bit – in particular, I found distinguishing between “love” and “romantic relationship” when sussing out shared themes to be a bit overly-narrow – but there aren’t penalties for guesses so far as I could tell. And solving the puzzle isn’t that hard, but made me feel very satisfied: the groundwork for the eventual revelation is well established, and even once you get the overall gist, working through the exact mechanics of how to end the haunting is a very fun process, and again, one that isn’t overly reliant on what skills you picked or how poorly you’ve been rolling (I think some unluckiness with dice meant I didn’t fully understand how the (Spoiler - click to show)paintings worked until relatively late in the process, despite magic being my best skill, but the game still made me feel like a clever detective who’d figured everything out, with the only indication to the contrary being a deduction from the number of points I was assigned at the end).

Throughout, there’s a pleasing attention to detail that enlivens the world and the people in it – it’s a straightforward mash-up of early-modern Italy with 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, I suppose, but there’s real research undergirding the first part of that equation (just read the detailed source notes in the afterword) and while species is a big part of how the characters are defined, they play against stereotypes as often as with. The prose, meanwhile, remains direct and keeps the pacing up, while offering more than enough specificity to draw you in:

"You walk over to the bass singer. The pacing minotaur towers intimidatingly over your average human stature. Long, curling horns extend from his bovine head, and the floor of the wooden stage seems to tremble whenever he hits his lowest notes."

It’s true that few of the ensemble come through as strong characters in their own right – I felt like I only got a good read on the maestro who hired me, as well as the trio of suspects, who get more detailed backstories and conversations – but again, that feels like a good decision given the game’s length and structure. And keeping the focus on the NPCs relevant to the mystery is similarly appropriate to the genre.

All told, this second installment in the Fantasy Opera series makes a good case for this as a sturdy framework for a procedural, and for the author as no one-hit – or three-hit – wonder. Keeping the brand identifiable while bringing fresh mechanics and storytelling approaches to each game is an impressive feat, and whether Lamp Post Productions goes with another sequel, or something brand new in the house style, sign me up for whatever’s next.