Diaspora - Updated 12 February 2024 [First Draft Complete!]

But is Intimidation check really too high? And if yes, do other checks have different requirements? I’ve negotiated with 38% Intuition as my highest stat, favourably enough, by all indications.

The intimidation check there should be at 30% now (as of my last post, when the chapter was officially updated), it was at 35% before. We wanted to make it difficult, but after a few of our initial tests we did determine the only way to succeed was to hit every single intimidation boost, including being needlessly rude to Izzy, which I figured only a small percentage of the players would do.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it! And don’t worry about pointing out typos (that goes for everyone). Someone’s gotta do it, right?

We’re trying to set our skill checks based on what the maximum possible skills are, as well as how difficult we think the check should be. So for example, you can have a maximum of 38% intuition right now, but your maximum diplomacy so far can only be 29%. Just a result of fewer opportunities for that coming up, mixed with different point values awarded. But yes, different checks have different requirements.

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It is impossible to achieve success at the negotiation because of you use intimidation you will never have 15 relationship with Pan or 25 of intuitive/diplomacy.

@DUNGEON_MASTER Well, that’s embarrassing. Thanks for pointing it out. :slight_smile:

Yeah, this is my bad. I fixed it and then forgot to reupload. It’s at the right level now. Players should be able to pass that check without being rude to Izzy.

That’s technically not a typo; the idiom can be either “thing” or “think” (I googled it to make sure I was remembering properly, heh.) But like August said, please do point out typos where you find them; we’re glad to get the help!

This depends on what you count as success. I mean, a person who relies on intimidation is not going to be able to walk out of that negotiation with everything a skilled diplomat could get (when some of the “extra” stuff depends on a good rapport with the other negotiators). People don’t like it when you’re rude to them, after all. But characters who rely on intimidation can absolutely succeed at the negotiation—they can convince the Empire to let the slaves go and give you Divio in exchange for ferrying back the nobles and citizens. That’s quite a good deal for a small group of people who literally landed on the island the day before.

I fully expect there to be other situations in the game (likely more violent ones) in which players with high Intimidation will be able to get better outcomes than players who have to rely on other methods. Different approaches are better suited to different situations (and people), and we wanted to reflect that.

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Y I’ve been researching indigenous tribes that also look at how the Mongolians in the Turks were rating tribes particularly rating tribes have quite the cruel streak I mean they do terrible things to the people they made and their enemies. You’re lucky if you’re not molested and just adopted into the tribe. So will you be reflecting that my friend and if you are leading the tribe your ingrained with those values it’s how you set the standard for your adultship and as a leader. I feel like your character would have to be have deep respect to be able to pull off of a form of the tribal values or something incredibly drastic will happen. For example the scourge of God was pushed out by other Turks and losing his homeland and make him any less brutal.

So I think this demands a nuanced answer. Apologies if it turns into a text wall.

A few points:

  1. War is hell. It’s historically true that raiding cultures have done some very nasty things to the raided. It is equally true that more “civilized” groups have done things that are just as nasty. It’s misleading at best to attribute the cruelties of war to “indigenous groups” as though all of them are the same or the problem lies with them alone. I don’t suggest you meant to do that, of course; only that we’re going to be taking pains not to. We very much intend to avoid a version of the tired old civilization/savages dynamic where the only difference is that you play the “savages.”

  2. This isn’t meant as historical fiction. It’s more low fantasy than anything. As such, we don’t feel particularly compelled to reflect any one historical group, for better or worse. No doubt a good story could be told that way, but it’s not this story.

  3. Some of the darker side of armed conflicts, like the wars the Cine came south to escape, will probably be touched upon as part of various character arcs with the NPCs and so on. There will be multiple perspectives on it, as one might expect from the multiple different attitudes the characters have already expressed about violence and the like.

  4. The Cine are currently led by Chief Roise. She is not the sort of person who would allow excessive cruelty to be visited upon the conquered, and indeed the Cine culture finds that kind of thing dishonorable. Hence the attitude they have towards the Empire’s slavery. Historically, many raiding cultures took slaves. The Cine don’t. Likewise, they don’t condone rape or the murder of civilians. Were we trying to portray, say, the armies of Attila the Hun, that would be inaccurate, but see #2.

  5. Pulling too far away from the Cine’s traditional way of life will absolutely have consequences. As will adhering to it in the face of new situations and difficulties. Both approaches are going to have pros and cons.

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Okay that’s a good Nuance answer brother and it is your game in the end day. I think what really what shocks me it’s an American is I grew up God the last 25 year having an image tribes kind of being these mostly peaceful. It depends was tribe many tribes even the nice ones own slaves which I found kind of shocking. Some tribes were incredibly old some split off from others eat less than 100 years prior to their contact with the English. I know in the case of the Americans if they weren’t screwed over by bad treaties. And this is the perspective of Western tribes particularly Southwestern tribes. Since many of them were raiding tribes. The Comanche had an intense brutal streak there train from Young to torture their enemies not speaking into the horrible things they do to the women that capture. Mind you they don’t make no qualms about it and everything they do even the brutality is for the band. What broke the Navajo is they made too many enemies. And the commander that was fighting them literally lived with the plane tribes for 10 years of his life when he was a fur trapper.

I see a mixture of influences here you’re more looking at the Turkish tribes that I feel like I’m guessing or more inspired by their contact with the Romans Byzantium Empire. Which could be incredibly interesting angle I got. Since a lot of time those dramatic and Turkish tribes were christianized some of them even converted to Judaism like the famous Khazar and there are Jewish Khan. What’s interesting is that when they also converted to Christianity is it would normally be some heterodox or heretic branch of the religion. For example many of the Germanic tribes were Aryan. If it wasn’t for Clovis converting to the Latin right which would eventually become Catholicism Europe could have looked different. And religion was a big deal because the territories they conquered were former provinces of Rome and allowed to have a relationship with Rome and turn learning some of their Technologies and techniques. That practice is quite common as well during the later Roman period. All stretch of imagination but I got faith in you brother. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foederati

My other question to you is how much would old feuds with other tribes and clans play into the game on top of the interaction with the empire.

@Rogar Yeah, here I’m just gonna lean on the fact that it’s really not historical fiction, heh. There are very very small elements taken from history, but we make no claims to accuracy or resemblance with any real events, places, groups, or individuals. So I guess if you’re expecting something like what you know of historical raiding and/or tribal cultures, you’re going to be quite surprised. I encourage you to not go in with those expectations; I’m afraid we’ll disappoint you if you do. :slight_smile:

Well, as we have it, Clan Maghnus has traveled a great deal further south than most of the Cine would ever bother/dare. At this point, there’s no reason to expect that any other clans will follow suit, but we haven’t planned to such a level of detail that I’m completely willing to exclude the possibility. Some of the history with other clans may come up in NPC interaction and the like, but at this point, I don’t expect it to play a big role otherwise.

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You got good writing and I’m generally looking forward to the development my friend!

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Yah unless a work specifically says “historical fiction” I don’t hold it to any accountability beyond being faithful to its own lore. I actually love seeing groups and cultures that don’t have a parallel to our own because it’s something new ya know?

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Alright cool. I’m glad to help out :slight_smile:

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Hey everyone, just making the official announcement that the game has been updated with an interlude section following Chapter 2.

The interlude covers a three-day period where you can direct the efforts of the clan to prepare for what’s ahead, as well as stop by for conversations with Roise, Aisling, Cormac, Izzy, and Daghan if you so choose. Sorry for the delay, July was a pretty hectic month for both of us, and though almost all of the interlude is optional content, the total writing ended up being considerably more in terms of word count than Chapter 2.

Regardless, it’s finished now, and we’re getting right to work on Chapter 3. I hope you all enjoy digging into the characters a bit more. We’re looking forward to pushing on to Tarracina.

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Update! I love the NPCs, they feel alive. Mom kicks so much ass, and the others, I have to protect them. Pan is really interesting, I’ll be waiting to see more of them in the future. I’m sure they’re just as deadly as they’re adorable.

I found a small thing; while I’m talking to Daghan before choosing what to answer when he asks how are we going to act towards the Castulians (I think it was?), if we’re going to change or keep the tradition, it reads “goto daghan something” at the end of the next to last paragraph.

Anyways, so great to see Diaspora again :relaxed:

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Oo, thank you so much for pointing that out. I found it, and it should be fixed now.

Glad to hear the NPCs are growing on you. There will definitely be more of Pan in the near future. :slight_smile:

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There you guys are, I was looking for this thread for the past few days and couldn’t remember the name. I am glad the story is still active!

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Yup, we’re still here, humming along. With luck, the next update will be along a little sooner than this one was, so we don’t accidentally get our thread closed for inactivity again. :sweat_smile:

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Oh, also! We’re interested in knowing how y’all are approaching the game. What’s your preferred stat spread, what do your numbers look like after a total playthrough, what sort of strategy you prefer, how the NPCs are coming off to you, and so on.

It’s possible (if annoying) to figure out what the maximum value of any given stat (e.g. diplomacy) is, but if we knew more about what actual players wound up with, we figured it might help us set future checks somewhere reasonable, and so on.

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