Well roger that fellow colleague, good luck with it and I’m excited to play the thing !
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My only device when you do it just make it plausible. And deal with the appropriate reactions to the power that be at the time. For example the transgender non-binary emperor. Their reputation is in great and they came during a period of complete breakdown of Roman Empire. If it’s a woman figure either she’s a regent or daughter of the prior emperor. Under husband’s going to have to be a defect of military commander so. You would have to show their relationship as a partnership of co emperor. The easy way to deal with this have the spouse respect his wife and her ability to properly intern investor with authority and it’s not laugh at. And even during the crisis the third are the mighty Queen they were Regents for their sons. You can do it but it’s going to be really high stakes it can’t just be she’s the emperor something wild would have to happen but plausible but still wild for her to be in power.
Well, the author already stated that she is going to create an alternative universe, so this makes it open to have the author creating whatever reasons to have an Empress without having to be history accurate at all, lol!
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I acknowledge and appreciate the concern regarding my ability to make this seem plausible. I have, however, researched this topic for some time and will continue to do so to make this story as enjoyable as possible. How it hypothetically could have happened (I would have to take an educated guess on that one, since - as we all know - it didn’t actually ever happen), how the people, the senate, the military could react to that, how MC could stay in power and what could happen to them if they didn’t play the game of thrones wisefully. It is actually my main theme, what they would have to deal with while in the highest position of power. They wouldn’t just be the Rome’s first female emperor and nothing significant happens afterwards. That would make a dull story.
On a different note, I decided to close the poll because it seemed to stay around 50/50 and I think I’ve made up my mind now. Thank you all for the votes, encouragement and wise words. 
I’ll keep you posted when the beta will be available!
(In case you’re wondering about possible romances, I may be a historian but I’m also an otome enthusiast. 
Hopefully some epic romances coming right up!)
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So I’m more than a little late to the party here, but I thought I would chime in and give my support (for what that is worth!) to your story idea. Something set in Ancient Rome is a wonderful idea. There is just so much rich material to draw from and, not to knock on all of the comments in here, a little less publicly well understood, which gives an author the chance to educate the reader as well as a little leeway in how the story is presented.
While I understand why readers love the opportunity to pick different genders and other identities for their MC, I think the value of that to the author is a function of the story being told. If what you’re really excited about is exploring the unique aspects of being a female emperor in Ancient Rome then I think you should stick to it being gender locked. Not only does this let you tell the story you’re excited about, it also makes the entire enterprise more manageable as well as more balanced. More than a few CoGs I have played clearly had more content to identity X over Y. In and of itself, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it is important when you consider what kind of story you’re telling. Some adventures are neutral to a certain degree about who or what the MC is. The fun is in untangling the mystery or exploring the different ways to win (or fail) an adventure. In that environment I think it make sense to have as many character types as possible. But sometimes the fun is in experiencing a story from a particular point of view that isn’t necessarily the one you would pick for yourself or your character. This works really well when much of the story hinges on who the MC is, and your story sounds to me like it is exactly that kind of scenario.
Good luck with your future labors. I’ll certainly give it a whirl when you’re finished.
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I mean it doesn’t really need to be gender locked, like the idea is, that for whatever reason your character isn’t supposed to be emperor. Maybe, they feel the emperor made a bad choice making you his succesor? (maybe you’re a bastard.) Or hell it could just be the winston churchill story of, really? you gave power to that person? really? Maybe even have there be several reasons
blah blah exposition blah…But the Roman people aren’t a massive fan of you, why do you think that is?
A. they probably don’t like the fact I’m a woman (a woman emperor being utterly unheard of)
B. I’m a bastard, born to a slave mother with suspicions the emperor might not even be my actual father
C. etc.
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Yes, however I think the main focus of this game is that ur the first female emperor (or empress?). I rlly like the idea and I feel that the whole bastard thing has been done before, quite a bit.
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As has woman does job typically only for men, but kicks ass despite diversity. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still play this game if it was gender locked, but there are hundreds of reasons why you’re emperor, but people would rather you not be.
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Whilst that is true, focusing on the reason just being that you’re female rather than any other reason you listed mean more attention, more focus can be placed on this. If you could choose why you were an unlikely emporer/emporess unless the author slaved away for years it’s unlikely they’d have anywhere the impact than if they just focused on the mc being female. And whilst they are many stories as you said of a female doing a male dominated job/role, in terms of HG/CG there isn’t many, or indeed many female locked games at all.
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It’s true that it would take away some of the impact regarding the gender issue, I probably wouldn’t have as much time to really focus on that. And I don’t want to downplay it either, it would’ve been such a huge deal if there suddenly was a female Emperor.
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Think of all the times there was a female and I mean ruled in her own right of China It was two.
Roman Empire Least in the east maybe three time!
I’m looking forward to see how this is done!
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While I also studied history, I went down the archives route, I have always believed do what’s best for your story. Most of my Crusader Kings 2 playthroughs wouldn’t exist if I was always worried about historical accuracy.
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To be as clear as possible, when I voted for “female/male/non-binary MC,” I was thinking just in terms of an identity choice. I do think that focusing on the experience of a character who’s designated female at birth would serve you well, being really the impetus of this concept. There are so many unique dynamics that you could really get into here. But I’m not seeing any reason that would preclude this main character from identifying or presenting as male—and being emperor puts you in a position where you can do this more easily than the average Roman, albeit with risks of a far higher scale (which the character would be facing anyway). It raises many interesting choices—do you title yourself “imperator,” “imperatrix,” or how?—how do you dress?—if you get married, what role do you take in the ceremony? And all of these could be done for reasons of political power or personal identity; being able to determine your reasons for choosing these would be really interesting itself. There could also be differences between how you present in public and in private, in either direction. You just have a lot of opportunities here.
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You’re absolutely right. In fact now that I’ve thought about this and talked to you all about this, I think I’m most likely going to make MC female at birth. However, I will make it possible to choose if that is the gender you identify yourself with. Whether or not you feel that you’re actually female, male or non-binary. You could choose throughout the game how you represent yourself and whether or not that contrasts with how you actually feel about yourself.
I have so many other moving parts (alliances, friendship/rival ROs etc.) that it would make my workload a lot bigger if I were to include different reasons as to why MC isn’t fit to be the emperor in the eyes of others and how and why people would react to them because of this. I think that I would be downplaying the effect that MC’s gender at birth has (regarding their rulership) if I were to think that their male at birth counterpart would have it “just as difficult”. I mean it could be, but it would create a whole other level of variables if I wanted to portray it the way I want to.
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