Crème de la Crème Discussion and Romance Guide (Spoilers Within)

No, not really… cars get into accidents all the time. I believe “Gossip Girl” had at least one major drama inducing car accident each season it was produced. I’d expect at least one here. lol.

Here I go spamming Hannah’s thread. Sorry @HannahPS.

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Actually it was a great story idea … after the car is turn over , MC stuck inside the car, depending on relationship with Blaise prior to her/his dismissal … we can call out for Blaise’s help to pull us out… :-):stuck_out_tongue:

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Upon seeing this Thanks Hannah, now my MC will be the laughing stock of Galatin when people learned they met a fowl end. ( You deserve that, you know you do.)

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@Eiwynn not spamming at all, it’s a nice discussion!

So, I have some ideas about games in the same world, though they’re quite nebulous at the moment. I think it would have a similar vibe of social manoeuvring and a bunch of romantic stuff, but also some politics (like nation-spanning or internationally-influencing events), maybe some spying. (Disclaimer: this is all very not set in stone!) Possibly some characters reappearing, but a different PC.

My pet I-most-likely-won’t-do-this-but-if-I-could-make-it-work-I-would idea is putting the Crème de la Crème classmates into a First World War-esque situation and turn it into a grim survival story, but there are various reasons why it wouldn’t necessarily work in practice. The planned end states are a bit too varied to be able to bring all the characters together in a smooth way, and maybe most importantly it would be very depressing, and hard to give the PC much agency or empowerment without glorifying war (not to mention I have little experience of writing army stories). Maybe for some fanfiction one day!

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You had me at World War 1

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Ohhhh… perhaps MC and friends could be diplomats, helping out in negotiating parley in multiple conflicts to prevent war :slight_smile:

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Pardon my ignorance but what do you mean by that?
I mean whats glorifying war?

finally found this

images

Shity quality though :sleepy:

:fox_face:

Extremely into it, Rowan wants eight of 'em.

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This sounds amazing!!! Omg! As for getting them together I assume they would all be inducted as cute young officers (at least I hope they are my mc makes as miserable a private as he would a manual labourer :worried: ) If you worry about the war aspects I wonder if you could get somebody like @Cataphrak to consult?

All the classmates would look super-cute in uniform.

I would want it to be quite grim and miserable rather than adventurous or heroic, is what I’m thinking. Not that adventurous/heroic war stories don’t have merit, but making them isn’t my thing. (Though who knows, I might make one one day…)

@idonotlikeusernames maybe one day! Spying and politicking is probably more my bag currently, but never say never…

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I’m just saying if you do make it one day the war aspects should be the least of your worries. There are a lot of great people on this forum who are surprisingly and somewhat scarily knowledgeable about the horrors of war. Right @cascat07 ? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Personally, @Cataphrak (sorry to hassle you) does a good job portraying the realism of war whilst not glorifying it as a great thing, rather a grim but necessary cause, like @idonotlikeusernames says. I’m actually rereading my WW1 book, so it’s bound to have some interesting things that I could add/contribute. In the end, it’s up to you, I don’t want to pressure you to do something outside your comfort zone.

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Of course, no pressure felt :slight_smile: Future stuff is a ways in the future anyway, so I’ll see how things look when the time comes for future projects!

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If I were to help you brainstorm your idea, I’d begin by suggesting making the story a prequel instead of a sequel. Creme de la Creme is set in the late 20’s, so you can actually go back a generation with the characters and explore their parents involvement with one and the others during the Great War years.

Since your development of the parents are vague at best at this point, you can easily structure them to lead to the Creme de la Creme setting at the end. The variables already included with the MC parents present clear alternative paths and you’ve set yourself up for success already.

Writing about war does not mean glorifying it. An example, which you can draw upon is: “This War of Mine.”

Here is their descriptor:

While, unusual in gaming, this approach is seen elsewhere both in stories (Anne Frank) and movies (Schindler’s List) and done with great impact.

The personal accounts of civilians caught in war during the Great Conflict is another source of material to draw upon for your non-gloryifying telling of war.

I will never forget the story I was told of a great grandmother’s struggle to find food during this time. Often she and her mother would visit the front and take the dead horses that were used by the allies for supply that expired or were killed in battle.

Even if you wanted to write about actual battle and such there are non-glorifying inspirations to look to, such as Red Badge of Courage.

It might have some depressing aspects but I’m sure you have the writing talent to turn the experience into a positive and even at times impactful experience such as done with “This War of Mine.”

Anyways, if you ever want to free-associate or bounce things off another, PM me and we’ll set it up.

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That’s very kind, thank you for the offer :relaxed: I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of memoirs about the First World War particularly, as well as a lot of war poetry and some historical fiction. And This War of Mine is definitely on my list of games to play - I’ve heard a lot of good things about it!

I think my main concern about such a project would be that the way I’d want do it, it wouldn’t be very much fun to play. Compelling and interesting, hopefully, but not very empowering for the protagonist and potentially a bit too grim. Whereas for a long project, especially a CoG one where PCs tend to have more agency (though there are exceptions of course), I’m more inclined towards a more society-focused theme with occasional dark bits. But it’s very interesting to consider different options!

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I believe you can achieve your goals without falling into the traps you are worried about. There are a couple of Hosted Games I would point you to for examples and inspiration.

The first is: “Divided We Fall.” This is a story about the Spanish Civil War and in my opinion, it does not glorify war but it is a very engaging and compelling game … and some, such as I, consider it “fun.”

The second is: “Somme Trench” a Choice Script game dealing with … WW1. Again, I do not think this game glorifies war but it is more focused on the soldier’s experience than either Divide We Fall or you seem to want to.

There is a huge fan base here, developed by @Cataphrak in his Dragoon series of HG works that enjoy a challenging, non-power fantasy type of war game. Paul’s MC goes through many trials and tribulations … even a “Dishonored” path that focused on the societal theme of Imperialism and its impact on a non-imperial power. If you haven’t explored this series, this might be another Choice Script game to explore.

I know this is way off-topic but I do not want you to strangle this infant idea of its life before you can see it mature and grow into a possible game that would enrich and benefit us all.

If I did not believe in you as an author and your ability as a writer, I would have dropped this already :two_hearts:

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I would also say that the war in the Infinity series is still satisfying for the player because we at least are an officer and able to make changes on the tactical, if not the strategic level. So the player/reader and their character are still “rewarded” for their actions, without it necessarily glorifying war or making the mc all-powerful (very far from it, in fact).

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Weekly update: December, Week 4

Week’s Wordcount: 7189 words
Total Wordcount: 198K words

I was all ready to post something apologetic about not having managed to work much over the holidays, and then calculated my weekly wordcount and…well, you see the numbers. I entirely underestimated how much I did, in a good way.

What I’ve been doing:

-Writing Chapter 7: Completed the early scenes of the chapter, as well as four major branches. I’m about to draw the branches together to make two, which is what will happen next week. I’m super pleased with my progress, not least because I wasn’t expecting to get so much done over the holidays, and right now it’s looking like Chapter 7 will be finished in good time.

As of this post, the teaser poll is still open so if you haven’t voted yet, please do! As an amusing side-effect, because I set it to show results upon voting I can’t actually see who is/are leading, which adds another level of suspense to the whole thing!

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@HannahPS I found myself immediately enjoying the premise as well as the collection of attributes. I’m not sure why, but I decided to simultaneously focus flair and poise. I was enjoying the character and the challenges he was offered.

I do think Blaise is a bit overdone. I’d rather he just be a strong-willed kid who hates that you are there rather than be such a little shit. He’s not the worst antagonist I’ve seen, and if he doesn’t come back then I suppose it doesn’t matter much, but he did wound my interest a bit, though not enough for me to stop playing. The little scene with the choice of beds was refreshing.

At the moment, I would definitely buy this game upon release.

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Thank you very much for the comments! I’m glad you enjoyed it despite not being so into Blaise, and hope you enjoy any later updates and the future release :slight_smile:

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