Choice of Rebels Part 1 WIP thread

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@Wulfyk
3b. “The core plan for the temple raid involves entering it undercover as a group of pilgrims, including one child into the group might be very useful to make them look harmless and less suspicious.”

I disagree Wulfyk, the MC and his bandit crew already take precautions to not appear suspicious. For example, they appear in small groups from different as well as multiple directions, and adding any children to the fold would unnecessarily pose risk to the child and to the plan itself.

Plus, they’re disguised as pilgrims–I doubt priest and such would question them in their time of faith unwarranted , and you also have to consider that the bandits are there to raid, so suspicions don’t really matter in the end because they aren’t there long enough to warrant any questioning. Really the plan was: come inside, lock the doors take stuff and leave quickly lest anything went awry.

In the game you are also constantly told that children don’t participate in raids, which is why so partly the reason why so many mouths have to be fed with so little men. I doubt the band would be okay with the harming of their young children considering this. The kids also seem to do other less dangerous task instead anyway, and should probably stick to doing task in the helot camp itself.

So to summarize: adding a child to raids is not going to fly with everybody else and it poses unnecessary risks. I would prefer if Havenstone continued the story rather than add anyway,

“The MC obviously wouldn’t have chance interaction with Calyse by now, but maybe she can give her/him another title later, perhaps “the Liberator” or “the Conqueror” after s/he establishes the rebel’s rule over Rim Square or “the Merciful” if s/he spares the nobles there?”

I’m not sure if sparing noblemen would warrant being called “the Merciful.” The MC has multiple chances to show compassion throughout the text to the upper/lower caste in society, but never given a title for it. I also don’t like the idea of being called “the Liberator” or “the Conqueror” for taking over a pretty insignificant place.

Perhaps if an entire province experienced rebel rule would the MC be given these titles. A future game should allow you to reach this goal, as I do not see the MC achieving this currently. Also, if you go through so many titles in one game it would feel silly.

@Havenstone Hey, the wealth stat also doesn’t go over a certain threshold in the statscreen by the way, not sure if you noticed this or not, but I just wanted to inform you just incase.

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@poison_mara, well, I rather like minor NPCs and want to know what happens to them off the MC’s story. I think mentioning them by the way is a good thing, players like me will note and appreciate such little things and the ones like you can easily skim over it. I think this is best to keep both kinds pleased.

@Heavenstone,
5. I think a scene featuring a kangaroo court session and the gruesome execution of an obviously innocent scapegoat would should be included in chapter 1. Might be a merchant or yeoman and an aristo with better connections commiting some crime together and the arisot gets away free while the other one gets scapegoated and suffers a cruel punishment, or a more powerful noble family solving a feud with a poorer noble by means of judicial murder for a made-up charge for heresy or treason that is confirmed with a confessio by torture. The MC would be either an observer of the trial & execution or even a whitenss. All the main aspects of the judicial system you’ve listed above would be shown in game. This event could be included between the opening events and the harrowing with flashbacks, or you could make this a fourth opening.

11.a. What’s the usual attitude of nobles in a district towards their aristarch? I remmber a scene where the MC sais that they’re taking the place of a legitimate king (can’t remeber how to get to this scene, I hope i didn’t get it wrong). Is the Aristarch usualy the most rich/powerful noble in a district? And how is s/he selected?

@Drbg, you’re right, after reading you detailed analysis I agree that taking a child to the temple raid isn’t a good idea. Although it always ends without casualties, the MC can’t know this ahead for sure.
I still hope that @Heavenstone will include some scenes featuring Yetta and Calyse in the upcoming chapters.

Your post also refers to two things that I wanted to include in my next set of suggestions, but I’ll do it here:

  1. I think the MC shouldn’t go through so many titles, s/he should accumulate them like Daenerys. There’s no reason for people to stop calling the MC “lie-breaker” if s/he earns the title “open-handed”, or for the authorities to not call him/her both “shame-veined” and “child-killer”.
  2. The wealth stat has a major bug. It doesn’t change after individual raids and only displays an amount of money after all missions are over. The resulting wealth also does not correspond with the amounts mentioned in the game text.
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@WulfyK, @Drbg, that thing with wealth is a feature not a bug–though clearly not one I’ve presented in an ideal way. Your winter raids don’t immediately affect your wealth because you’re living hand to mouth, fencing/paying for grain and eating everything you bring in. Only at the end when you choose to stop raiding or run out of raiders does the game calculate the net impact of the winter on your wealth–have you had to deplete whatever meager wealth you captured from Rim Square, or do you retain something extra after everyone’s been fed and looked after? And yes, the “change” left over after feeding everyone is unlikely to resemble the specific amounts mentioned in your raids; most of those will have gone on keeping people alive.

Yep, I’ve already agreed above that the MC should be able to stack titles rather than the stats screen only showing their main one.

I like the idea of an episode that really shows the official scapegoating mechanisms in action–but I don’t see it fitting into game 1.

Attitudes toward the aristarch vary hugely from district to district and noble to noble. The aristarch is selected by the archon with the assent of the Hegemony (usually the province’s Alastor Strategos and Archimandrite); it will be the noble best able to keep order, which will usually though not always be the richest house.

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Oh man, please keep up the good work man! I cant wait to be able to play the next bit!!

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@CamoNerd and @Player, thanks so much for the encouraging words – and believe me, I can’t wait either.

New page, new link to the game and the draft world map.

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@Havenstone
Thanks for clearing up my confusion on wealth. And to be clear- I wasn’t complaining about title stacking so much as gaining an overt amount of them.

@WulfyK Glad I could convince you, and thanks for bearing with my mistakes/errors. I was on mobile xD

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@Heavenstone, I believe that you can make it better after the rewrite. BTW, what is the worth of one drachem? How much does food cost on the legal and on the black market?

It was a long time ago and you still haven’t redone it.

Adding a complain about the cruelty and arbitrariness of punishments to the choices in the first conversation with Breden should be possible. This would inform every player about it.

@Drbg I often write from a mobile too, and many other users.

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Please tell me you used civ5 to create the map lol,I like the game so far but how far are you from finishing ? sorry for all the questions

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@WulfyK, a drachem is roughly a day’s wage for an unskilled laborer. At this point in rural Shayard, barley costs 6 drachems a bushel, wheat 8; any trader who sells in bulk to the Whendward Band whacks on an extra drachem per bushel for the risk. Your band’s bare subsistence grain needs through the 16-week winter are in the vicinity of 700-800 bushels.

It was a long time ago and you still haven’t redone it. Fair enough. :slight_smile: Course, I also haven’t put out a major update since then, just one which fixed errors and found/replaced Empire with Hegemony. But your impatience is understandable, and I can only apologize.

@The_Royalist1, I used Hexographer to make the map. The next version will be hand drawn. I’m still a ways from finishing the first game, alas… watch this space for updates.

1 Like
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@Heavenstone

How many bushels do they get from raiding the barns? And how many from the supporting helots?

What do you think about allowing the player to choose how much s/he spends above the neccesary level after it has been reached? Keeping the rebels on minimal rations and have more money at the end vs. Buying more food of better quality but have less money left, how does this sound for you?

No problem then, I’ve begun fearing that you forgot it or changed your mind.

Which program will you use for this time? @TheMaker drew maps in Photoshop for his WIP and they look amazing.

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Hey @WulfyK, I’ll pin down the bushel amounts when I update Ch2 to make sure it all makes sense logistically! And I’d been assuming you’d stick with minimum rations (not half-rations as at start of winter), but I’ll think about adding the choice to have better rations once you can afford them, increasing morale.

I expect I’ll scan in a hand-drawn map–I don’t have Photoshop.

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huh. From earlier – you can choose a symbol for your rebellion? I’ve literally never seen that option. How do you find it?

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Also, I still wonder what could I do with the tons of food I have. I only have 43 people and I have triple of needed food could be awesome if I:
-I was the charismatic rebel a give food to dirty helots could be a brilliant move. Robin hood or Castro style.
-Sell the food to my friends in the merchant guild in exchange a small weapons cache I still having only seven Maces and rusty .
-my helots become so fat i have to mount a gym to put them in line lol. :wink:

i just thing why hell im raiding if i already had food lol i only gaing food.

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@Iello, it was something that grew organically out of one branch of the Telone path when I was writing it six months ago. (“As you catch your breath, you consider how to justify two dead Alastors. You don’t want their vengeful captain to wonder what brought you back to Rim Square – that could lead him to Bleys. There needs to have been an obvious reason for your raid tonight. It would have to be something showy and symbolic, to distract the authorities from thoughts of theft or kidnap. Some defiant anti-Hegemonic graffiti in the public square might be enough…”)

Characters who don’t take that path will get the choice later, regardless. (Similarly, the choice of whether a Theurgy-wielding character wants to be called a Theurge, Goete or Wisard currently only exists in the temple raid because it grew out of that story thread, but will be offered later to every high-INT character).

Mara, at the moment the game uses a pretty simple food-cash conversion. Any raids you do over and above what’s needed to feed your band add to your wealth at the end of the winter – whether you’re raiding helot barns for grain or market towns for cash. And then you can use that wealth to buy helot love… though not, currently, weapons, as the game states that your raids don’t bring in enough cash to arm the band. I’ll have a second look at that when I’m bringing everything together. Really, you should have enough to buy a few more rusty maces. :slight_smile:

1 Like
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…Is there any benefit to playing a high-INT character who is NOT a theurge? If not, perhaps there should be, since becoming a Theurge is (based on what I’ve seen) something that can be missed.

Just a thought.

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@OtherGrimm

Plenty. If I remember correctly Theurgy wasn’t even originally part of being a high INT character.

Let’s be honest, though. Is there anyone who wouldn’t immediantly jump on the chance to do magic? :wink:

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Haven the new WIP Fatehaven is challenging you for a spot on the best WIP’s list. And giving a pretty successful effort to be honest.

1418

Uh-Oh. Shots Fired.

1419

;3

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@Havenstone, where and how does the band store their grain? Raiding the barns and begging from helots first should give them a lot of grain.

Buying the rusty maces during the winter could make sence if the MC plans a combat-loaded mission for the end, like attacking the alastors or the de Merres. Otherwise, this should happen after the winter is over, and you should add buy more weapons to the options list then.

If theurgy wasn’t originaly intended to be a part of an INT 2 MC, perhaps you should allow literate (=noble) MC s with lower INT to learn it as well. Of course they would perform worse then those with INT 2.

@Beezlebub there’s a thread called “What Are Your Favorite WIPs?” here, I think we should continue this discussion there.