I literally said to let the player choose from a limited list why they got married.
To quote myself:
And I even mentioned platonic soulmates as an option, which means you don’t “have to bang this dude”.
But the fact is, the MC is married in that instance. If that offends you, maybe the game’s not for you. Just like SoH isn’t for me because my MC was forced into loving her abductor and (kinda) rapist. I fucking hate it, so I stopped playing it. That doesn’t change the fact that some people love it.
The OP said the MC is married and hiding them from the vampire. I highly doubt they plan to have forced sex in the game. You’re assuming a lot.
I mean, let’s get real: in a game where the central plot is the MC hiding their spouse from a vampire, you can’t expect the MC not to be married. It’s like playing Assasin’s Creed and expecting Ezio not to be a fucking assassin.
having the option to customize them would be very cool (reminds me of odessa and i loved that wip)
would probably calm down some people who may be upset at it too maybe? its a nice compromise i think…
edit: being able to customize their personalities would prolly be a hassle to write due to all the dialogue differences but it would be cool to be able to do that still (plus it also adds more replayability to explore your relationship with your spouse with all the different personalities and ‘origins’)
On the subject of how to implement a spouse character, I second Mara’s comment that it would be ideal to allow the player to choose reasons why they married the person, particularly allowing the player to specify reasons that aren’t related to loving them. It’s not impossible but is a very hard sell to tell a player that their character has a specific emotional relationship with an NPC. I’ve also observed that these kinds of characters can be (often inaccurately) perceived as the author’s “favourite” or “canon” romance so it’s worth keeping that in mind.
I would advise imagining a player who’s playing with an eye to separating from the spouse and having a romance with one of the other romance interests. Is the concept allowing for that possibility? Is it still fun? Do the other love interests feel as vivid and vital to the plot? If not you may be at risk of railroading.
(As a note, Heart’s Choice games don’t have dynamics where you are forced to be intimate in them so there is no need for anyone to be concerned on that front. I’m 100% sure that if a Heart’s Choice game included someone you’re already married to, there would be zero expectation or pressure for intimacy that the PC didn’t consent to.)
It was not my intention suggest that, I have beta tested some of them, an one of the cores of the company and writers is that all romances feel real and consensual- Reason why I think Mat here is thinking add a lot of things to adress possible concerns in a very cool twist of ordinary plots.
o apologies to people if they felt attacked by my opinion, I am just a not very polite redacting.
Thanks everyone for all the comments. It’s made for interesting reading and it all is very helpful. For now I’m settling on having a choice of a set spouse purely to show the concept then if this is the one accepted then I can work with CoG to come up with what’s best
I do want to point out Heart’s Choice has had forced dynamics. Never Date Werewolves has such a forced dynamic. Motherhood is a very big thing to force onto a player/reader and I am sure people not interested in that sort of thing did not go reading it. As it was the basis of the story.
If it is an important part of the story, so long as the player has options on how they feel about it afterwards/currently it should be fine. Even if you decide they originally did it for X reason, but over time things/feelings have changed.
At the end of the day the MC is still a character in the story, the reader will never have all the options they want, and the choices you choose to put in there should be reflective of the story you want to tell.
I’ve edited my post for clarity. I meant “forced dynamics” as in forced intimacy, not the games having a particular premise (which… every game has a premise of some sort right? a game about being a mother requires you to want to play a mother, so does a superhero game require you to want to play a superhero). Thinking of the difference between “this game is about being a mother” and “in this game you must kiss someone whom you don’t want to”.
Ah if it’s common for Heart Choice games then I’ll stay clear of them. I didn’t realized there were more story types then the usual CYO stories I’ve read here.
I probably won’t play this because how confusing the dynamic here is because if you were married before being enslaved how and why didn’t the vampire know about the spouse or just eat you if they were hungry anyway?
TBH, being a Renfield* doesn’t necessarily sound all that bad. I can think of worse careers.
*A Renfield in the slangy ‘guy who does the daylight work for a vampire’ sense, not in the ‘guy who eats bugs in an asylum’ sense. That second one does in fact sound all that bad.
Basic notes for the origins are its a family business with your father being the servant as did his father before him, you’ve been bought and the vampire paid for your freedom in exchange for being their servant, the vampire saved your life and you want to repay him and the fourth one you want to be a vampire and work for them to earn that right.
Those are simplified just for the sake of clarity and not wanting to go too into detail yet.
Having preset occupations is good. Having set genders and personalities can help streamline things even more, although for the gender aspect, it’s maybe too rigid. It’s good to have a getting-to-know-you scene so that you know which one is right for you. Include some of their background, rationale, etc. Don’t make it feel forced, though.
