I just checked: they do work. If you try to get the Breck people to help and you have Breden with you, you should succeed (it says: “Unfortunately, nothing you say will change their minds. [page break] Only Breden’s intervention turns the tide.”).
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Thank you so much! It’s an absolute nightmare haha!
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My mistake. You are correct; where the problem I had was with Breden and de Firiac together, with Breden as my second in command.
This is with a Combat 2 PC, Charisma 1:
In addition to your deputy Breden, you bring in your best trackers, Ciels and Alira, to talk with Labedan. You ask Elery Skinner to join you as well; her eye for terrain will be vital in carrying off the raid.
*I also include Suzane
Then pick:
Try to incite Brecklander peasants to attack the shepherds and take the sheep themselves.
Then choose:
“My name is Alya de Eramant – and we’ve business with the flocks of House Keriatou.”
And this is the end result:
They glance at each other, but none of them seem to have found your appeal compelling. “Best be leaving now, kuria de Eramant,” the white-haired woman says at last, flat-voiced. “We don’t want any trouble. Not with you, and not with the Karagonds.”
Unfortunately, nothing you say will change their minds.
Then you get these options:
- I grudgingly accept defeat. Time to get back to the woods before we’re discovered.
- I’ll take the small band I have and try to ambush the Keriatou after all.
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Separate error/bug from the one above. I got the following error:
hounds line 2752: Expected Choice Body
Also, some language you might want to clean up:
Unfortunately, the hostile The helots listen eagerly to your rebellion’s message.
That part between ‘the hostile The Helots’
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Maybe the cover could be armored Phalangites marching, their heavy armor obscuring their faces, making them look like these organised group. The Phalangite counterattack is something common to most playthroughs, wether you fight them or not.
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If Breden’s your deputy, the game treats it as though you don’t have Breden with you on the raid (and so you can’t use Breden’s charisma to convince the Brecklanders). Bsheep cannot be true if breden is your deputy, which seems like a bug:
*if (bred_here) and (deputy != “Breden”)
#I also include Breden.
*set bsheep true
(and similarly if you want to bring Breden and someone else: you can’t pick those options if Breden’s your deputy).
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Yep, that was what I was getting at. I thought it was a bug; thanks for at least confirming my observation in the code.
I think the defining moment of the game is the 4th Harrowing. It’s the moment when you can’t escape it be “choice of rebels” rather than “choice of keep your head down and mouth shut.”
I imagine the depiction of the moment Chirex levitates the MC. She is levitating in the background with an indistinct harrower just to her side on a platform and the MC in the close fore just the back of the head in shadow. In between is the seething crowd and some startled looking alistors.
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NO PLZ NO 
I’m very mule-sensitive after this game!
Can’t even eat my alphabet soup cuz every spoon be like “We’re in bad shape, kuria. We’ll need more mules than we have now.”
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On the other hand if that system does everything possible to deny you a meaningful existence as a human being, you don’t think that changes the calculus a bit?
Well my mc here will do his utmost to ensure that doesn’t happen, even if he has to tear down the fabric of society to hunter-gatherer tribes in order to do so.
Tearing down the (caste) system absolutely comes first to him, everything else is a secondary consideration at best.
This though, particularly the second part is likely to be true here, no way around that. Even though my mc’s attitude towards the old system is that he despises everything it stands for.
From the previous discussions on this thread, I think that I am, at least in theory, less of an Hobbesian than some of you guys, although I certainly do not endorse any radical political actions in the present-day in practice.
Awww…a nice horse steak will fix you right up. 
Will it still be up after April 20th? I haven’t got the time to test it until then, because I’m preparing for some exams. Speaking of testing, though, I’d like to express my interest in participating in the beta. I’ll have plenty of time after April 20th.
I’ve been thinking a bit about the cover.
And I began to study what I liked about some of my favorites in CoG’s catalogue, and I’m now convinced that a cover doesn’t need to reflect a scene that’s present for all characters, and it can work well if the scene is striking or important (Guns of Infinity’s Forlorn Hope is a big deal inside and outside the story, and Choice of Robot’s cover reflects an optional choice that players get very early in the game, let alone the fact that it’s a well composed image).
It can be scene that exists and still leave an impresison, as we see with Petal Throne’s cover, featuring the very firsc scene in the game.
But it doesn’t need to be a scene that exists (Choice of Romance’s new cover, with the crown and the hands, is an example, and in a way, so is Midusmmer’s). There’s one thing, I’d say, that all those illustrations have in common:
They play with themes.
All the covers I mentioned, in a way or another, condense some elements of their respective stories, they reveal a few of the characters and the setting, but most of all, they’re showing a bit of what the work is about, to try to pass a feeling. Midsummer’s might not have the MC and Prenzie dancing in the woods, but it confirms the merry, light-hearted present in the work. Choice of the Pirate’s cover feels much more like an action film, with a supposed MC, a pirate and a corsair above a bustling ship, conveying an aesthetic of adventure and chance.
So I’d say that Rebel’s cover should reflect one of its themes. How do we do that is above me, since I’m no professional artist. However, I’d like to kick back the idea of having the cover be shapes making a firecamp in the Whendward Woods, that shows what the rebellion’s about, gives a glimpse into the setting, ans shows how the freedom fighters have to fend for themselves in a largely uncaring world (at first) and be comforted by the spark of change.
Or something like that. This turned out so rambly, I’m sorry, I just wanted to throw a few ideas and be helpful a bit.
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Right, I’m back. 
Thanks, everyone for all your comments and suggestions!
This was my first thought, too. Though I’m worried that Sontra is right and it’s too complicated to make good cover art.
That was my first idea for Game 2. (And the Archon’s floating palace for Game 3)
While I think it would capture something core to the game, I’m not sure whether “outlaws walking/starving in the wilderness” can be drawn in a sufficiently dynamic way to get people to click. Or at any rate, whether it’s the most dynamic option we could go for. And I’m not sure whether clothing-optional Simon will get us banned from the App Store. No, wait, I’m sure. Armored Phalangites… maybe.
I’ll have a look at the bugs folks have found in the next day or two. With my other commitments, the alpha should still be up at least through the end of the month.
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A picture of a mule should grace the cover… just saying.
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I was going to type this myself but you got to me first. The scene at the fourth harrowing defines the game. The rest is just details.
I’d say that’s a good choice. Easier to make than a Harrower, and most players will only get it when they finish the game.
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Awww…
Too bad it’s too late now to adapt the game to CoG’s forthcoming adult line of products, eh?
Silly prudish Apple.
Sadly my mc has yet to even convince the boy to go clothing optional in the game itself too. 
Actually a nice rendition of the world map could work too, maybe have it in the background, with a tiny bunch of rebels surrounded by those armoured phalangites, set to the backdrop of the map of the Hegemony?
Or is that too expansive, for cover art?
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Talking about clothing @Havenstone Could have some sort of flavor choice to dress like a regional dress or like imperial way. And dress like a commoner or more like a noble… nothing to extensive but could be a nice detail of how shown your rebel
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OK, I’ve fixed – I think – the problem that was crashing Chapter 4 (hounds) for some of you and uploaded a version that should work. Sorry about that.
The other fixes have been made in the working document I’m banging away on with my COG editor. I’ll upload them within a couple of days.
I think we may end up going with different icon art and cover art – a bit like Sea Eternal, whose icon is that lovely tentacle plus the game title, and then has the merfolk images for the cover image. So the cover art can be a bit more expansive.
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