"A Crown of Sorcery and Steel"—Overthrow the queen's clockwork iron army!

This is so awsome i have already reseted my achivments trice :joy: (not that i have played to end yet)

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Does anyone know the poly options yet? Just starting but I wish to know for the future.

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For a solo campaign, yea, this was pretty fun. Lots of good little moments, and the romance is really well done. The characters feel more tangible than their starting stereotypes would belie and while my lack of fighting skill(went mechanical and talky human this time around) did leave a dent in my success rate in certain spots, I did come out relatively ok.

Will need to dive in for a couple more rounds to get a good review together, but from a first go-around? Really, really well done. And a full story for less time than a one-shot session? Hell yea.

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This is a bit spoiler-y, so I’ll hide things for folks who don’t want to know.

For a player following the “good” route and not aligning with the queen at the end of the story, you can be in a relationship with any or all of your companions at the end, and encounter at least three of their love scenes in a single playthrough. Pursuing multiple romance routes will eventually lead to a moment where your companion acknowledges this and asks you whether you’d like to fully commit to them (which will end the other romances), end the romance, or embrace polyamory and continue multiple romances at once with consent.

On the other hand, if you pursue the queen’s route, you can play out all the romance paths through their love scenes, but once you’ve made your allegiances to the queen clear at the end of the story, things get a lot more complicated. The queen is not the type to share, and your companions will not all take kindly to someone who sided with the queen. That said, betraying someone you were in a romance with and ending up on opposite sides of the war certainly lends itself to drama!

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Big payoff. Congrats on the culmination of a lot of hard work! :partying_face: :muscle: :confetti_ball:

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Congratulations on the release @JoshMLabelle. This is an interesting read.

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Is there an option to abandon both sides of the conflict and size power for our own

Just finished reading. Very well written, with entertaining characters. Seemed to have lots of reactivity to choices.
Most important, the queen calls MC “my pet”, I’m sucker for shit like that.

My personal gripe about this is the portraits, would have preferred if they were in style of title card(or whatever the main picture is called.).

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Most important, the queen calls MC “my pet”, I’m sucker for shit like that.

The second I’ve heard this the fate of the world was decided. I fell for her right there and then.

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Short answer: yes, but it’s not so much a central path as something you’ll have to be tricky about.

Longer, slightly more spoiler-y answer: hmm, if you were to side with the queen and convince her of your loyalties, it would be awfully easy to stab her in the back and claim her iron army for your own once the resistance was defeated, wouldn’t it…?

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Haven’t finished the game yet, but I’m enjoying it so far! My only critique is that the diction seems a little too oral sometimes for non-dialogue narration (e.g. using “Shoulda” instead of “should have” or using “hell of a…”). But that’s just a stylistic preference. Otherwise it’s great!

On an unrelated note, what are the opportunities to learn spells from the different types of magic? As a human, I was able to learn alchemy and scribe magic, but I’ve had trouble with rune magic and bone scrying. I couldn’t pass the Charm check for rune magic even though it’s my second highest stat and I wasn’t able to pass the Learned check for bone scrying even though that was my highest stat. Are there other opportunities or are these checks just really high for non-Dwarves/Orcs?

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hey, you are the author huh? Got a bone to pick with you!

How dare you make this game so good? I had so much fun! And I’m not even done yet.

I had to stay late to do 2 playthroughs. I did a diplomatic Elf, and it was a Blast! Omg!

Then did an Orc warrior Goddess, and she kicked ass and drank everyone under the Table!

Hm, I still have to do human and Dwarf run.

Also, one dissapointing thing is…how my elf couldn’t revive the Keeper. Since mine was a forger of plants and food, and I was like ‘So, she get to be a scribe or whatever…what about the keeper? I want to be one! I’m peaceful and love Elfroot plants!’’

Outside of that, the Queen survived with my diplomatic elf. But yeah, my Orc chopped her head off lol

I also, loved how at the end everyone met back and had food and stuff. Loved the Epilogue!

We need a Sequel! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Would love that, but with how varied endings are i doubt direct sequel is possible.

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I’d be content with another story set in the same world.

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Unlocking all the forms of magic in the realm is definitely more of a “challenge” than something that is easy to do on a first playthrough.

It’s much easier to learn elven Scribe magic than the other kinds of magic in the realm, simply because it was a much more studied thing and dominant form of magic in the realm. So there are a few opportunities to learn elven spells, and they tend to be easier to get.

For the other forms of magic, there’s only one opportunity to learn each (if you’re not from that background), and as you’ve noted, the tests to do it are quite high. A highest stat, or a second highest stat that you’ve boosted once or twice, should be able to clear these, though! For your second example, had you dabbled in aligning with the queen at all? If so, Ibbahn is able to detect that and will refuse to share her knowledge with you.

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Hey now, I got a bone to pick with you too!!

thank you, you made my day :sob:

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I’m glad, you really gave us something fun to play. It’s like Dragon Age origin but without all the nightmarish crash (I had to go through) lol

Gonna do human+ elf romance and see if that heal one of my old butthurt. I’m pretty sure it would, since I’m totally smitten with the lady Scribe.

I also, loved how the diplomatic route was just…really DIPLOMATIC! You know how rare is that? I barely had to fight at all. I just used peace and talk and it worked. It was a blast! I loved that, and I love so much that once I’m done with human and dwarf run, gonna do another elfish fish Diplomat. Or a mage, haven’t dabbled in magic yet. So, we shall see.

And the companions were fun, but more than that. They had souls to them, y’know? I really got attached to them.

Also, noticed above someone saying the Queen calling them ‘Pet’? I didn’t see that. For my Elf, she called her ‘My Love’. What was that all about?

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That’s probably it! I was spying for the queen, but I thought I was in the clear after passing a check to lie about it. I may not have boosted charm enough for the rune magic, so that explains it. Thanks!

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I did a human smooth talking thief that sided with the Queen and screwed everyone else over.
I was pretty good except for the bard that the Queen brought to me to decide their fate in a cage. I decided to spare her life and make her our songbird hoping she would become more like her old self but she was too far gone. Next time I’ll probably either let her go or do a mercy killing.

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Finished my first playthrough and I found it a really fun time. The setting and characters are super engaging and I honestly found the choices to be really well planned. The party members had a lot of conflicting interests that were believable and in character, without a clearcut “right” answer, and without even optimizing my stats I felt able to do well, but still suffering some setbacks.

A really well done game!

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