How come everybody (of mixed gender) share the same dormitory
Why wouldn’t they?
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That was largely my assumption. In a world where people don’t assume that people of the same gender are any less likely to be sexually interested in each other, standards of modesty will work differently.
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Yep, that was my main thought. I didn’t want to say something with the sleeping arrangements about the setting that I didn’t mean.
Trivia time!
When I was first figuring out the concept, I strongly considered gender-split schools where if the MC was a girl, Gallatin would be a girls’ school and all your dormmates would be girls, and Archambault would be a boys’ school. And vice versa, similar to Choice of Broadsides/Pendragon Rising. The idea was that the setting would respond to that, so if the MC went to Gallatin their gender would be the one that was expected to focus on etiquette, being a socialite, and deportment, where the Archambault school’s gender would focus on leadership and politics.
But with more discussion and consideration, I came to the conclusion that it would harm non-binary inclusivity - would non-binary people always be in the less leadership-focused school? What would having a “non-binary school” say about the setting’s gender norms? What would happen if students realised they weren’t cis partway through their school year? Although on a superficial level I liked (and still like) the idea of a setting where people didn’t bat an eyelid at an all-male school focusing on politeness, marrying well and decorum, I don’t have the experience or expertise to trust that I’d handle a gender-discriminatory setting competently while making it trans- and non-binary inclusive.
So long story short, everyone sleeps in the same place because a) there isn’t any gross behaviour in the game, b) separating people by gender wouldn’t prevent that anyway, and c) Gallatin would never dream of suggesting that their students would be so inappropriate to get up to consensual funny business in the dorms.
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So… If that would be the way you’d decided to go with then would that mean that being gay (or nb interested in other nbs) would be a big adventage when it comes to available ROs?
Anyway the whole world setting made it feel like gender just isn’t such a big deal as it is in RL, it’s social class what matters. So to me mixed dormitories doesn’t feel out of place here either.
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Yep exactly 
But to get together with one of the fancier Archambault people you’d need to go for a gender that wasn’t your own. Which ultimately wasn’t something that Abby and I thought was a good idea (credit to Abby for initially bringing up the non binary inclusivity issues! this is one of many reasons to share your ideas before they’re set in stone!)
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That sounds terrible! 
To have to pass up on romancing Princess Rosario bc I’d only get to meet the male counterpart of her if my MC is a girl… I really glad that you decided to change things and thanks to Abby too then.
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I can’t quite remember because it feels very long ago now, but I think around that stage I was considering having an incognito royal at Gallatin, so Rosario would have been a dormmate and you’d find out they were royal and have to decide whether to keep the secret… But it ended up being rejigged pretty quickly - there was so much going on and I didn’t want one dormmate overshadowing the others! Maybe there’ll be secret royalty in some other project 
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I really enjoy hearing about all the thought you put into the game, especially in regards to gender, and I wouldn’t change a thing, but man if an all-boy charm school doesn’t sound amazing.
I still feel that Archambault and Gallatin would have slightly different curriculums, based on social position rather than gender. If Archambault has mostly aristocrats, many of whom are going to inherit titles, it seems that it would at least make a show of preparing their students to handle politics and economics, even if most of the actual focus ends up on etiquette and social graces.
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Yes definitely! Archambault is more about teaching leadership, politics, economics, rhetoric and so on.
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I really want a game on Archambault now.
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Ahem, Prince Rosario, but I agree that original concept would also have hammered home the story that I dislike that “marrying well” would have required an opposite gender marriage and as a consequence of that that getting together with one of our same sex dorm mates, hi Max, would have been seen as scandalous.
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Yeah agreed. It’s a theme that isn’t without merit, but it’s not one I’m so into in exploring at the moment - at least not in CoG.
Oh by the way, while I’m talking early concepts! I was poking around in our bookshelves and found these ancient notes about Crème ideas. I think this may be the earliest existing paper evidence of the game - I do remember scribbling something down while half asleep while I was still writing Blood Money but that’s been lost to time. “1st” refers to primary stats and “2nd” to secondary stats. This was before I had started anything particularly concrete and I nixed quite a lot of it by the time I started drafting the outline. Supernatural sickness? A twin?? I can barely remember a lot of this but who knows, maybe it’ll end up getting folded into something down the line 
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I’m a big fan of the bullet point that just says “creeping doom.”
Especially it being in the same list as “exams” and “speed dating.”
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First off, absolutely love the game. Secondly, I’ve been able to complete all of the accomplishments except for Model Student. Was just curious if anyone had advice for stats I need to achieve this. Thanks a bunch!!!
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Help Renaldt fire one professor instead of protecting one of them.
Do not get sent to the mines by pretending to help Renaldt.
At the graduation blackmail Renaldt instead of going publicly.
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Thank you so much!!!
You also want to avoid getting caught doing things like sneaking out, cheating, or poking around where you shouldn’t be 
good luck!
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