Ashenmaw - Dragons of Marrowoods (WIP) (Dragon Fantasy) (Update 09/18/25 62k total, 28k per read)

The Marked also has static personalities you can choose along with other personality variables

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To be honest when I first replied I was thinking of a system I’ve seen before where, for example, Phyron meets the Whelp for the first time and starts insulting them, there then could be choices like:

  • Snark back (antagonistic relationship)
  • Be sad, you didn’t choose to be born! (neutral relationship)
  • His animosity goes entirely over your head, introduce yourself with a smile (oblivious friendly relationship)

Then the relationship could improve or fall apart depending on your choices from then on :thinking:

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I don’t really want to set the personality too early, nor do I want to have a relationship system like that.

It’s too easy to unwittingly lock the player (and thus interactions) into a certain path like that :frowning: But I’ll see what I can do

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That makes sense :smiling_face: I hope you have good luck finding one that works for your story

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Thanks. And there’s still time. First we gotta manage to become a drake. (yes, there’ll be some timeskips)

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It’s needed since we’re not gonna play as a newborn whelp to get to that stage. At that stage the game will truly begin since we can start to make choices to do stuff instead of learning about everything. Setting up personalitys can be tricky in games like this but the payoff will be worth it since it add more life to the MC instead of a soulless machine.

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little bit of progress update… Kassias is struggling…

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He is struggling? With what? :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

unless the whelp perceives it/recognizes it, even, as Kassias ā€˜claiming his property’

If I may suggest, perhaps you can have Alerhon commenting about how Kassias is treating the (red flight) whelp as his property.

My cynical MC: ā€œI’m not your help, Cashews.ā€

Explaining the Gods. Not in the sense that he couldn’t do it, but Paddy is heckling

I’m starting to like Paddy already as a partner in crime when it comes to annoying and/or insulting Kassias.

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Explaining the Gods. Not in the sense that he couldn’t do it, but Paddy is heckling

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Hm, lemme think.

I think Vendetta has something like that where you can choose if you try to find justice for your fathers murder or vengence which changes quiet significantly how your character views things.

Samurai of Hyuga is another interesting example cause you basicly set your personality across the first 1/3 of the first book and then it becomes a mechanic where you get rewarded for ā€œstaying in Characterā€ for the rest of the story. The mechanic changes even intentionally across the Following books.

Then you got something like fallen Heros that changes basicly what kind of villian you want to be. Its simple in nature there, as you basicly pick how your Character reacts for each Situation and you got multiple ā€œarchtypesā€ to pick from each time. I just mentioned it here cause I think its well done in those games.

And I know that there are games whetr you can pick a personality trait like: ā€œmy Character is rather quiet or stoicā€ somewhere early on in the game and then it gets used to Show how your Character reacts through out the game. I gotta check though which ones that where again. I think Dragon Kin employs something similar but I gotta check.

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I don’t like being forced to choose a personality so early into the story until I know what I’m dealing with. I need to understand the character - their background and circumstances - so I can ā€œfit their shoesā€ and think like they do. I want to understand them so I can become them.

What’s more, I find myself quite often changing and adapting as the situation evolves. Sometimes I can start stoic and ruthless, and slowly grow or develop a different attitude as the story develops (or vice-versa). It’s called character development.

Static personalities can work if done correctly, however, I find that in these stories that usually involves (or devolves) into min-maxing to ā€œwinā€. At that point I start losing interest in the game because I’m no longer roleplaying, just picking whichever option I have the highest points in…

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What I’ll probably do (I think I either said here or on tumblr? i forgot) is that you build a up your personality stats through choices, and at a certain point you can pick a ā€˜core’ personality based on those stats.

That will only affect dialogue etc.

If i can pull it off

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Neat! Definitely give it a try. This is a WIP, so if you find something better in the near future, you can always change the mechanics.

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