I would like to see some more diverse view points in the prologue.
I didn’t get much of a feel for the religion, or the opportunity to be particularly devout. I could choose the religious answers, I could see the need for a priest to come see my followers, but it just didn’t have that much of an impact on me, the player.
Perhaps if there had been an option to speak to a spiritual advisor of some sort after the helot is hunted down. Someone who preaches the true religion, who can help shape your own religious beliefs, and who of course disappears for doing so. Someone you trust who you can go to confess your sin, an old, sympathetic priest. That or give more depth to looking for the answers in books. Books aren’t that interactive though, unfortunately.
I’d like to see those religious ideals being captured better. I’d like the option to be able to preach religion to the helots. I think religion can be an extremely strong driving force for this sort of rebellion.
I’d also like to see the nationalistic, wanting to free your homeland, path built stronger. The using the old names starts on that but a fierce pride in your heritage, a tendency to use the old customs, to want to celebrate the old stories, to remember the old heroes, to choose the old ways, to celebrate all the great things the nation did and was before it was conquered. I’d like some passion in regards to your heritage, a fierce sense of nationality. A great pride. It doesn’t come across strong enough.
Our father doesn’t seem that concerned, but what of our mother? Is our national potentially tied up with her? Did the dead mother raise us on stories of how it used to be so much better with the old ways before we were conquered? And who would speak of our oppressors and everything we lost, kindling dreams in an impressionable youth?
I concur that there is an issue that needs to be addressed here. I’m not quite buying into the noble’s innate goodness as a motivator for freeing the slaves. Slave-owning societies have existed because people are not inherently good. People only have an innate compassion for those who remind them of themselves. This is why upper classes tend to have greater concern for their own wallets than they do for the plight of the impoverished. This is also why the oppressed so often turn around and become oppressors themselves once freed. Compassion for those not like ourselves isn’t intrinsic, but something that must be taught or learned and continuously cultivated. I see little of this in my character’s background, who unlike us, doesn’t have the benefit of a modern education in a highly affluent democratic society. So much like @Drazen, I’m just not seeing why my noble character would care enough to launch a rebellion. I’m kind of seeing my character go “Meh” too. Nevertheless I’m still very early into the story, so things may change, I’m only reacting to the leading questions and insinuations the story is making regarding when my character decided to launch the rebellion.
@P_Tigras, there’s no such thing as a compassionate group or society, but some individuals are more compassionate than their milieu. Well before modern education or affluent democracies, a few folks had figured out that every human is a worthy object of compassion. In this game, the MC’s late mother is one of those people (though that’s only made fully explicit if you choose to be a particularly compassionate noble).
Moreover, sometimes a shared traumatic experience can break through the barriers and help us achieve compassion for those who seem superficially unlike us – and that’s what I’m perhaps clumsily trying to suggest in the prologue, from the MC’s formative years.
Between those influences, I’m trying to sketch a background that makes it plausible for a “noble” player to be more compassionate than the norm… if they choose to be.
The oppressed turning around and becoming oppressors is a theme that will get a lot of mileage in Choice of Rebels. The MC has a high potential to end up as an oppressor, whether you begin the game as an idealistic noble or a desperate helot.
@Havenstone I completely agree. The reactions of many on both sides to the Zimmerman trial verdict are illustrative of the fact that we still have a long way to go.
I also think that you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that a shared traumatic experience can create empathy and compassion where there otherwise would be very little to none. Now if the helot who something terrible happened to was your caregiver who possibly wet nursed you, someone who protected you and made you feel safe, or even a child your own age whom you knew well, all of these things could potentially traumatize our young MC, especially if the situation hit our MC from several of these angles at once, eg. your caregiver and protector were a married couple who had a small child your age that you knew well. Say one of them was sexually assaulted by a corrupt Astor, and when they complained, another was chosen to be fully drained in the next harrowing, while nothing happened to the Astor. Whether it’s the child your own age that is harrowed, or one of their parents, reminding you of your own loss of your mother, this is going to hit hard. There’s a lot of potential pain here to people the young MC cares a great deal about, pain that will affect the MC’s view of the empire. And pain is a very good, if often harsh teacher, much better than our own public schools.
what does blood stat do?
is is the more you use the more powerful you become or twisted and mad? combine that with high ruthlessness and we have a dangerous mc.
This is the outcome of the current run. I’ll reserve further comments until Ch 3 is fleshed out more, though I will add it seems as if when you want the ‘big money’ you have to go after the church.
I must say, I was expecting the raid on the monasteries to horribly wrong. Even though my character is primarily skeptical, to the point of atheism, I realize that people cling to religion. Martin Luther has been known to call reason a whore, and you seem to acknowledge this when you mention that intelligent argument may not be enough alone against their faith and fear of punishment. But somehow it becomes so, in the following setting . . .
A monastery . . . of probably less than fifty . . . in a town I am dubious I shall ever visit again . . . in which I convince all of twenty-five present followers that this particular religion may not be exactly correct, but still could be partially true.
And suddenly I am “Lie-Breaker.” As an atheist in life, I can say-people don’t become atheists with sudden boldness. It is truly a regression, for indoctrination and fear, faith and illogic, are all mighty weapons.
But now I’d like to get to my main irked point. The Theursies . . . their entire success is based on peoples belief in their dogma . . . and I’m telling people they’re [the Theursies] are lying.
. . .
. . .
. . .
Don’t you think these people might take a bit more decisive action? *frantic hand gesture* This is the analogical equivalent of someone saying that the Bible was wrong in Spain during the reign of the Inquisition! In blunt terms-they’d be all over this shit! I would wager to the point of: “Okay, on the count of three, we set the forest on fire.”
They would have not given me the winter to live; this I am sure of.
P.S. It’s painfully obvious Breden is the traitor if you sleep with them. The coldness of tears? It’s guilt. Le sigh. I’ll just push them off the turret in a battle.
@Havenstone why i have to be compassionate with slaves? i don’t want to its MY character if i want to be compassionate i choose a commoner origin. There are tons of good reasons to go against the empire than commoner who i like a noble don’t care. Why having tons of options of reveal already in text, you want mc forced to reveal for a cause not real credible in a noble in that setting. I could reveal for religion, for repression of trade and our old customs. For the old monarchy even for the cruel taxes or the don’t exist of a proper nobility court with power.
HELOTS:
Though most helots still don’t trust you, your popularity and credibility as a leader are slowly growing.
ARISTOCRATS:
You are the object of rabid hatred by the aristocracy, who will stop at nothing to see you hunted down and killed.
PRIESTS:
The priests of Xthonos dislike you for your impious offenses against the Imperial religion.
MERCHANTS:
The few merchants who have heard of your rebellion regard you as a bandit and hope the authorities take care of you quickly.
While playing I had what I’ll term a wicked thought, assuming Breden is the traitor either the MC causing Breden to become pregnant or Breden causing the MC to become pregnant will add some hard choices and interesting dialog to the game.
@Havenstone i love the not make masses destroy harrowing only when i have to rebel using the religion is nonsense. Also my father free me with the mystery hood guy. I kill breth? the traitor and
i want ask you why my horrible dad is with me!
He could sell me in seconds healways could have another daughter son with the prize of my head. He even say something for him you are mad and he don’t want me.
I could do something to him to show my love for the cause? or use him to attract nobles he could be convinced for you cause?
With regard to our childhood reactions of terror to the plektoi; I got that. It’s nice to think we’re untouchable, but you’re talking about mutated terror weapons, facing an 11 year old. The abject fear, and desperate urge to make them go away, seemed entirely fitting.
I would agree that the other reasons for rebellion could use some filling out. I liked @FairyGodfeathers suggestion regarding speaking with a religious figure in your childhood to help establish the MC’s religious viewpoint. I also think that the noble could use a scene where we confirm that the Empire oppresses the nobles as well (although, obviously not to the same degree as the helots). Perhaps after an earlier harrowing, a scene with a corrupt tax collector (if noble)? I think the kryptasts are best left as a lurking threat at this point. This could return very nicely, if you later get the chance to rob that self-same taxman?
One gambit I was disappointed I didn’t get to try was during the raid on the Church. It’s stated that Theurgy is a divine gift. The Church tries to portray any unsanctioned Theurgy as Xaos-worship, but it’s also stated that the helots have their own legends of helots being granted power to fight back. If I’m taking the “Joan of Arc” approach (that is, a religiously inspired revolt) I’d have liked to have used my Theurgy during the raid on the church, in an effort to show the watching helots that I truly WAS speaking with the voice of Xthonos, as opposed to the charlatan Ecclesiast who has corrupted his words?
@Dreckitt i agree with you another background to hate for nobles its good the tax man or maybe see a noble lost is rights or beheaded for ask for a courts of nobles or not taxes for nobles. Or even better a nobility from old times like my mc murdered for false conspiracy against empire.
@Dresckitt I don’t have an issue with the 11 year old being terrified of the Plektoi and wanting it to go away, my issue was with the 11 year old thinking about asking the theurge to kill him. That’s what I don’t buy.
