Your English rocks, my friend. The first posts I published in this forum were almost gibberish. So your writing is totally fine, many people here are not native so you never would have a troll telling you “Your English sucks” In fact sometimes people send me encouraged pm about hey, your English is better good job! And it’s awesome to cheer me up to improve a lot more. So be free post, and if someone doesnt understand you only have to explain more whatever you don’t know for certain how to write it.
And about Fae, in many fantastic legends fae are the magical people, some people portrayed them as fairies other as elvish. Here is not exhaustive explored how exactly they are but having account Lancelot (Barbie) talking about it is people with magic powers and glittering eyes.
Phew I’m relieved that what I’ve written was understandable ! Such good people on this forum really ! Ooh now I can really understand all the situations with fae in it thanks !
@Elfwine wow. Upon review of the choices my different Guens made I found that your evaluation was actually pretty correct in that the ones that made decisions based off trust and mercy usually end up with the worst situation. I think thats kind of sad because oftentimes the most merciful and trusting people have the strongest spirits so Im worried that maybe the perception is that these Guens are- not strong- which would be a shame. Not only that, but the monarchy (Hrothulf and Cornelia esp) owe Guen a life debt so it would be very cool to see this acknowledged later on in a situation where Guen’s mercy actually benefits her ( @jeantown). I’d also like to see how a pragmatic Guen v. a kind/merciful Guen are seen by the people, because whereas pragmatism could be seen as cold and lose favor, mercy could do the exact opposite…
@jeantown I’m glad you’re feeling better! Also, I’m not sure if this has been asked, but could you give us a gauge on England’s support for Arthur’s ideals? We know how Morgana and Lance feel but we don’t know how the people feel about his dream for England and this could really affect Guen & Arthur as the Queen and King later on. Finally, is it possible for the people of England to like Guen more than they like Arthur, or at least see her as the more responsible ruler? Just curious…
@jeantown Since playing Guenevere, which, i must say, is my favorite WIP ever, I started to get a lot more interested in royalty related stuff. I’ve started and in some cases finished watching Camelot (I thought it was terrible), Merlin, Reign, The white queen, tudors, borgias and so on. And I had to say, in Guenevere Lance is blond and Arthur brown haired, but on tv shows they switch that and I keep imagining lance being Arthur because of the hair. And they seem to always portrait Merlin being young and I think of him being old. Also, I imagine my guen being more like Mary Stuart from reign or Elizabeth woodville, and my Morgana is definetely Morgana from Merlin. Arthur and lance are the ones that keep changing since lance was Arthur in merlin, Francis in reign, and Arthur again in Camelot. Arthur, on the other side, was Edward on the white queen and all of lances options. Lol
Good Girl Guen is completely in love with Arthur and believes in his vision wholeheartedly. Mordred’s plans are basically the opposite of everything she wants for Britain. She’s especially against propping up the social hierarchy, and would likely view his idea of a reward-and-punishment oriented justice system as despotic. Not to mention, Arthur is the love of her life, and she’d never let anyone harm him while she’s still breathing.
For Jealous Guen, it’s not about ideals. Although her love of Arthur did play a part in her decision, her main motivation is her pure, unrelenting hatred for Mordred. She’s hated him from the moment of his conception, when that wicked old witch he calls his mother seduced her beloved Arthur. Now that its all out war, Jealous Guen can finally make right her failed attempt to kill that demon spawn when he was still an infant. And if she’s lucky, she may be able to finally END his mother as well.
I’m still uncertain about a few major things for Confused Guen (like whether she’ll continue her affair with Morgana, and/or start one with Lance) but one thing I’m very certain about is that she does love Arthur and does believe in his vision. Although she might be slightly interested in a more organized legal system, Confused Guen wants to achieve this by suggesting it to Arthur and trying to fix things internally rather than by overthrowing him.
Skanky Guen was one of the most difficult Guens for me to decide on (and this decision may change). She’ll obviously fall for Mordred’s seduction, and probably have sex with him if she can find any way to do so. He’s a young, sexy bad boy; what could be more attractive?! But over the course of the story, I plan for Skanky Guen to slowly develop a strong friendship with Arthur, even though she’ll never fall in love with him. Although he’s just too innocent and naive for her romantic taste, she’ll come to like and respect him as a person after spending decades together. And Skanky Guen is loyal to her friends. So no matter how sexy Mordred is and no matter how charming and seductive, she will not let him kill Arthur. It’ll likely be a reluctant last minute decision (“Don’t judge, Mordred is REALLY good looking!”), but at the moment, this is the one I think she’ll make.
Currently Undecided: Ditzy Guen
Ah, Ditzy Guen. Who knew the Guen who’s basically my comic relief would prove to be the most difficult to decide on? She tunes out whenever boring subjects like politics come up, so ideals won’t make a difference to her. She’s another Guen who will fall for the sexy, charming bad boy. Ditzy Guen will be in love (or at least think she’s in love) with Mordred while he’s just stringing her along. The problem is that she’s also in love with Arthur AND Lancelot. She could never choose between the men she loved…but now she’ll have to choose. Which way she’ll jump (and if she’ll regret her decision)…is anybody’s guess.
Ruthless Guen is so obviously siding with Mordred. A stronger social hierarchy and moving as FAR away from democracy as possible (which she views as a bunch of idiots arguing over what to do while the kingdom burns)? A structured, organized system of governing? Using and manipulating the Romans for Britain’s gain? It’s what she’s dreamed of all her life…but better! Not to mention, Ruthless Guen will be slowly but surely falling passionately in love with Mordred. She’ll try to fight it, of course. With the way she’s abused and manipulated others’ feelings of “love” for her own gain, combined with her cynical view of human nature, she’s naturally afraid of her feelings being used against her. So she’ll be fighting it as hard as she can. Which makes me greatly look forward to when she finally gives in…
By Book VI and Book VII, Fallen Guen will have let her resentment and anger about Arthur’s actions in Book III turn into an all-consuming hatred for Arthur. She will want his head on a stick. And like it or not, joining forces with Mordred (and his army and magic) seems like the best (and possibly the only) way to make that happen. She’ll dislike Mordred on principle, but we all have to make sacrifices every now and again.
But then…she actually spends an extended period of time with Mordred. Talking to him, plotting with him, listening to his opinions and aspirations and worldview…and find herself agreeing with and admiring him. Fallen Guen still does want what’s best for the people of Britain, even though her ideas of what that is have changed along with her view on human nature; which has shifted to the cynical side after being betrayed by virtually everyone she cared about and having her ideals bite her in the butt for the first few books. (She would have reaped the long-term benefits of them later, but Fallen Guen is a bit impatient. She wanted good results NOW, and since she didn’t get them, began to think she was doing something wrong.)
Like Ruthless Guen, Fallen Guen will be fighting her feelings for Mordred as hard as possible. It’s not because she doesn’t want to fall in love, but that she doesn’t want it to happen WITH MORDRED. She views Mordred’s birth as the sole reason her life fell apart. She doesn’t want to like him, never mind actually fall in love with him. Additionally, she’s a little suspicious of any potential romantic partners after being so thoroughly betrayed the last time (with Arthur). But she can’t help herself. And although she’s not looking foward to it, I certainly am. The poor girl needs some happiness in her life after being miserable for so long.
I’ve been struggling with Canon Guen for a while now. According to the random websites I found on Google (reliable sources, I know ), Guinevere in the legend does assist Mordred, whether willingly or unwillingly (stories vary). As I’m portraying her sympathetically, I had a bit of a challenge trying to figure out a reason why a “good” Guen would side with “the bad guy.” But it’s all coming together now.
Canon Guen won’t like Mordred. She’ll see him as an arrogant, self-congratulatory, vindictive jerk. But like him or not, some of his ideas are exactly what she believes Britain needs.
The more structured legal system, definitely. The current justice system (from what we’ve seen with the rebellious barons) seems to be based on Arthur’s whims. Specifically in the case of the barons, many of the misguided peasants and common soldiers who followed them were killed in battle while the actual traitors went unpunished. Canon Guen views that as more than a little unjust, especially if it’s a good example of how “justice” in Britain works on a regular basis. But most worrying for her is, Arthur is a generally good-hearted, well-intentioned person, and it’s already this bad. Now imagine a tyrant with that kind of power. Canon Guen shudders to imagine it (and quite frankly, so do I). She views a more structured legal system with specific laws and punishments is exactly what Britain needs not so much because people suck but because kings (and queens) are fallible, and that someone’s life and death shouldn’t be decided based on one person’s whims.
Additionally, I got the impression from Book II that Britain is rather isolated politically with few allies. That Roman alliance could benefit the kingdom massively.
The stronger social hierarchy will be a downside to Canon Guen, as she does strongly believe in that facet of Arthur’s vision. She’s not as cynical as say, Ruthless Guen or Mordred, she does believe that a country ruled by the consent of everyone, without a monarch, could work and is something to be striven towards.
But although Mordred’s agenda isn’t 100% to her liking, Canon Guen will in the end conclude that the positives outweigh the negatives. Although some people (i.e. the people writing the history books) may call her a traitor for her actions, Canon Guen believes she’s doing the best thing she can do for the people of Britain.
Evil Guen will be officially siding with Mordred, but truly serves no side but her own. She plans to use his army and magical powers to obliterate Arthur, then betray him and kill him herself after they achieve victory. Although Mordred has some good ideas, Evil Guen has no intention of EVER sharing her power with ANYBODY. Making him fall in love with her before the inevitable betrayal is all part of the fun.
Jerk Guen is another Guen who will ally with Mordred for her own benefit. Namely, if Mordred kills Arthur, she will finally be free of her forced marriage and be able to live her life as she wishes (hopefully with Morgana is a major part of it). I can finally set this choice in stone now that @jeantown confirmed that Mordred won’t be enslaving the populace, committing genocide, fueling his powers with the blood of orphan children, etc. Because for all of Jerk Guen’s endless claims that she doesn’t give an iota about Britain, she couldn’t bring herself to knowingly leave the people in the hands of someone THAT EVIL for her own gain. As for Arthur, she will quite literally hate his guts after the events of Book III, and wouldn’t be troubled by his death for a moment. (Or will she?..)
@poison_mara Wow, I had no idea you had the willpower to allow Arthur to win in even one of your playthroughs, never mind 10%. Or are those playthroughs where you kill Mordred and rule alone?
Well, If @jeantown play her cards right. Making an interesting hardened Alistair ejem I said Alistair? IN WHO I WAS THINKING I WONDER? I mean Hippie. A perfect Mara could ended with him, respecting a more realistic reasonable medieval king with a weird wicked sense of humor , you know swooping is bad… In fact My Warden Mara is currently the Poison queen of Ferelden with a Hardened Alistair. After kill Anora and logain…
So if a real hardening could happen atleast one Guen playthrough I side with Hippie… And the rest. "Every one Hail Revan!!! LORD REVAN !!! Sorry Kotor one Sith ending is my cannon perfect ending for everything.
@poison_mara Umm…Alastair’s from Dragon Age…and I’m pretty sure Sith are from Star Wars…but as for the rest of the characters you just referenced there, would you mind either explaining who they are or telling me what movie/TV show/video game they come from so I can direct myself to the correct Wiki? Thanks!
@WulfyK Oh, no! I did forget Fallen Guen! I’ll edit that…either later tonight or tomorrow morning. Between writing all that and actually making all those decisions at the same time, that post literally took me HOURS to write.
As for Rebellious Guen, she fell victim to a “I changed her title without posting about it.” I changed it to Jerk Guen; NOT because I think she’s a jerk (I personally like her a lot), but because she’s basically my deconstruction of a Jerk Guen. When I created her (partly because I wanted to try some of the mean options), I tried to think of WHY a Guen would be mean to Arthur and Lance…even though being mean to Arthur is, like some have already said, like kicking a puppy. (It took me a few tries to do it! ) In her case, it’s because she deeply resents Arthur for her forced marriage and for not doing anything about it when, as THE KING, he had the power to stop it but chose not to. As for Lancelot, she was nice to him at first…until he kissed her against her will after she explicitly told him she’s not interested in men. So I personally think she’s at least somewhat justified, particularly in Lance’s case. However, for the people that aren’t inside her head, it just seems like she’s being a jerk for no reason at all. (Not to mention, she ignores and/or is outright rude to courtiers, ambassadors, and ladies in waiting because she views them all as two-faced liars.)
@SwanMaiden Aww, thank you!! Without the nicknames, there’s no way I could keep track of them all!
Buggy, You have to play KOTOR!!! Seriously. Knights of the old republic is an old Bioware game from the time before EA. It is from 2003 more or less. And happens in the old time thousands of years before Luke, even if you don’t like Star wars it is a great great game From Bioware. The evil options are some of more wicked machiavelian scenesyed in a Video game there were a second part by Obsidian Not half of good as the original but another great game. There are even a port for Android phones now amazing made because the fan community of this games are legion. If you could get a copy get it you Probably would love it also SWOTOR is not KoTor .
@Finian Yeah. I don’t mind - rant and all, event - having some of these just blow up in Guen’s face, but it would be nice to see something make it so that you have to know when this is the right response rather than learn that it won’t be the right response.
If Hrohulf and Cornelia are so treacherous that nothing can bind them, that at some point is something I’d like to be able to use against them (if we don’t get the life debt thing).
Some sort of way of showing being good can involve strength, though.
@Elfwine No, it would not rest lightly, but, as you say, Mordred doesn’t envision tyranny for his own personal glory. High taxes, sure, but he’d want them to be fairly assigned and free from corruption or favoritism. His ideal social system would even allow for some upward mobility within clearly defined ranks (while Arthur would want to throw out the ranks entirely), since Mordred believes that people at the bottom of the pyramid need to have a sense of hope in order to be productive – better for the peasants to dream of becoming minor gentry through hard work and ingenuity (because one or two of them have actually done that) than to dream of overthrowing the whole system.
@ticktock Sounds like your Lesbian Guen could go a lot of different ways in the future! I hope to hear how she handles herself in the events to come.
@Interestedparty Yay, drama! I do hope to make it possible for Guen to support Mordred as king but keep Arthur alive and well (basically side with Mordred and use her influence with him to save Arthur).
@OtherGrimm I’ve been wrestling with exactly that question. At the moment, I’m considering adding two hidden stats that appear on the stat screen only when they get high enough: Stealth and Deception. (Seems appropriate that those wouldn’t be visible in the first game.) I do love the simplicity of the four-stat system, and how the combination of any two at the beginning is almost instantly a character concept. On the other hand, as you say, it seems odd that Guen could learn to use a sword but not a bow. And what if people want to imagine their Guen as a fantastic archer but not much of a melee fighter? So should I add a separate stat for archery? If so, should it be available from the beginning (because why wouldn’t it)? But I really don’t want to lose the tight simplicity of the four stats at the beginning; I feel like they’re very user-friendly for my readers who aren’t used to RPGs. So it’s more likely that I would, as @poison_mara says, just assume that Sword!Guen also has proficiencies in other weapons. So maybe I should just rename the “sword” stat as “combat?” Doesn’t seem the same, though. And none of that is really an answer, sorry! Anyway, maybe combat Guen will get a chance to use a bow while defending Camelot, regardless.
@Arya Thank you; I’m so glad you enjoyed it! And I’m delighted that you saw both the good and bad sides of the characters. That’s what I’m going for! This post from a few days ago answered some questions about what “fae” means. Let me know if I can tell you anything else about it. And your English is just fine! As Mara says, we have many, many people here whose first languages aren’t English. Thanks again for posting!
@Finian Just because a certain choice leads to negative consequences doesn’t mean the person who made the choice isn’t strong. In any case, as I’ve said before, it’s just going to take time for all the consequences of Guen’s choices to be made clear. I absolutely want to avoid the idea that there are “right” and “wrong” choices as much as I can; an immediate negative consequence does not mean that something is the “wrong” choice, and there may still be longer-term positive consequences.
I do, I suppose, tend toward a pattern where the ostensibly “good” choices can have immediate negative consequences, because I feel like that happens a lot in real life – if you tell a child they can’t have two desserts, you’ll get a tantrum, but the child will, one hopes, grow up to be healthier in the long run. Conversely, skipping the gym may feel good in the moment, but if you never exercise, there will be negative consequences. I believe that people make evil decisions because evil is often the easier choice, with the more positive immediate consequence; good choices, on the other hand, can be really hard up front. So I would ask once again (also @Elfwine) that readers reserve judgment on whether or not I’m punishing “good” choices until the whole thing is finished. Arguably, part of the reason that merciful and trusting people have the strongest spirits is that they stay true to their ideals even when those ideals don’t appear to pay off.
The Britons have mixed feelings about Arthur’s ideals. Many of them follow him simply because he’s Uther’s son and the Pendragon king, and for no other reason. Some follow him because they don’t think it’s worthwhile to go against him. Others truly believe in his ideals and would do anything to help him achieve his dream. As the series progresses, we’ll see different factions and their feelings, and Guen will be able to influence different groups of people. Neither she nor Arthur will be able to please all the people all the time; no matter what, there will always be dissenters (but those dissenters will be different depending on Guen and Arthur’s actions). It will absolutely be possible for the people to like Guen more than they like Arthur, especially if she deliberately tries to make herself look more responsible than he is.
@bellamyb In that case, you probably have a lot more expertise than I do! I too have seen a lot of adaptations in which Arthur is blond and Lancelot brown/black haired; I don’t know why that’s the prevailing depiction, other than that Lance’s biological family is French and therefore people think (thanks perhaps to Walter Scott’s erroneous representations of Saxons vs. Normans in Ivanhoe) he ought to look darker. Anyway, I gave Lancelot the blond hair because I generally associate him with light imagery, and Arthur brown because I think a lot of people tend to associate brown hair with sincerity (I guess maybe because there’s so much fake blond/e hair out there?) In any case, it’s not really important, and I hope readers will picture them however they like – as I’ve said before, picture them all as South American or Mongolian if that makes you happy. As for Merlin, mine is based on the T.H. White version (as represented in Disney’s Sword in the Stone). I think the tendency to make Merlin younger comes from the success of the BBC show, but I’m enjoying old Merlin. (There are plenty of other young male characters in this story anyway. ) And I also like Morgana from BBC Merlin a lot, though mine is a little older and has a different personality.
@buggygirl11 oh my wow… ::bows to your dedication:: I loved every second of reading that! Thank you so much for helping me think through how Mordred’s ideas would look to so many different kinds of Guens with different motivations.
I personally love the Geoffrey version, where she tells Mordred she has to go to London to go shopping for clothes for their wedding, and then locks herself in the Tower of London and refuses to come out. For some reason I just think it’s hilarious to imagine a medieval queen using shopping in London as an evasion tactic. Not to mention the “I’ve had it with this; I’ll be in the Tower and nobody better bother me until this crap blows over.” Highly doubt I’ll be able to incorporate that into the game, but I love it.
This is a great point.
Very true.
Exactly. Though he does have some magic abilities which he will be using in truly evil ways – as a means to an end, of course.
@poison_mara Only time will tell if Hardened!Arthur will be hard enough to meet your exacting standards.
@SwanMaiden Seriously! Buggy is my hero and my inspiration. Glad you’re enjoying it!
And, in other news, I made that FAQ we talked about a while back. It’s on my blog. I’d be grateful if the folks who have been hanging out here for a long time could take a look, and let me know if you can think of any other questions that come up repeatedly. I tried to keep it simple, but it’s still pretty long! Eventually I’ll add a link in the game and to the first post of the thread.
@jeantown I was reading through your response and please don’t think I was attempting to criticize or speak badly about the amazing work that you have done! It was instead, something I had noticed while thinking about my playthroughs and while I do think that having all of those negative consequences immediately is extremely discouraging, its also important in determining the type of person that Guen will turn out to be- whether she will stick to her ideals or not. Also, its not just you, specifically, its life in general. Optimistic people get beaten down really hard by life and its just a bit sad.
It’s nice you are showing different reactions to Arthur’s reign, and super cool that Guen will be able to present herself as the better ruler. Will Guen ever come into contact with people who decidedly don’t like the decisions she has made as a ruler?
@Elfwine I’m thinking at this point we’ll just have to trust Jean, but being an optimistic person myself I can kinda identify with everything going wrong for Guen. As they say “good deeds never go unpunished”.
“Wait, so Arthur and Morgana will have sex?!” Yes. “Ew.”
Some people have asked about Lady Elaine, but I don’t know if it’s frequent enough to qualify as a FAQ. You should also probably put in something about how Lance’s not-love spell is not meant to affect his mind or resemble any sort of abusive relationship. Oh, and maybe Ditzy Guen. Other than that, I think you’ve covered everything.
I personally can’t stand stat-heavy games. There are some RPGs like Fallout 3 that have great stories, but I just don’t enjoy because of all the numbers. It’s not that I’m bad at math (I’m actually quite good at it and enjoy it). It just gets in the way of the story. I love how Guenevere keeps it pretty simple. Like you said, having those four available skills at the beginning creates an instant character concept; the dark knight, the holy knight, the sorceress, the no-magic knight, etc.
For years, I’ve been told that I “look smart,” but I’ve never understood what that meant. I recently found out it’s because I’m a brunette who wears glasses.
@Finian Oh, no worries! Sorry, that response was intended to be reassuring rather than confrontational, but I guess it turned sort of rant-y instead. And it’s not like I don’t want to hear that kind of feedback – if the negative consequences are discouraging, I want to know that they’re having that effect. But yeah, overall, it’s not my intention to write a story where kindness = weakness; the world has Game of Thrones already. Anyway, my plan is that Guen will encounter people who do and don’t approve of her rule, and that the people will be different depending on the nature of Guen’s rule. Whatever she does, someone will always approve, and someone will always disapprove.
@Mirabella Glad you enjoyed that. And you’re right, Elaine does come up a lot… trying to remember what people ask… I guess they mostly just want to know what she’ll be like, and what sort of relationship(s) Guen can have with her? So maybe I’ll add a QA saying that Guen will be able to see Elaine as a friend or a rival etc… thank you! And the not-love-spell… yeah, practically needs its own section, sigh.
Glad you like the four-stat system, too. I’m okay with stat-heavy RPGs, but I’m happier if the system is very simple up-front and only grows in complexity if/when the player wants it to. I didn’t originally intend for this game to rely so heavily on binary flags rather than stats, but apparently I just can’t resist crafting a character through accumulated choices more than numbers. In any case, I know that a good chunk of my readership is coming from VNs and not RPGs, and I don’t want the stats to be alienating if they don’t have to be.
Book IV in Avalon will be a dream coming true. And knowing that Morgana can be evil depending on Guen’s influence makes me want to keep her in a box away from the world.
Wow! Thank you so much! I was worried that you’d make me wait and find out. 
Not to mention, Ruthless Guen will be slowly but surely falling passionately in love with Mordred. She’ll try to fight it, of course. With the way she’s abused and manipulated others’ feelings of “love” for her own gain, combined with her cynical view of human nature, she’s naturally afraid of her feelings being used against her. So she’ll be fighting it as hard as she can. Which makes me greatly look forward to when she finally gives in…
I mean Hippie. A perfect Mara could ended with him, respecting a more realistic reasonable medieval king with a weird wicked sense of humor , you know swooping is bad… In fact My Warden Mara is currently the Poison queen of Ferelden with a Hardened Alistair. After kill Anora and logain…
I’ll edit that…either later tonight or tomorrow morning. Between writing all that and actually making all those decisions at the same time, that post literally took me HOURS to write.
Without the nicknames, there’s no way I could keep track of them all!
Sounds like your Lesbian Guen could go a lot of different ways in the future! I hope to hear how she handles herself in the events to come.
Anyway, maybe combat Guen will get a chance to use a bow while defending Camelot, regardless.
