Guenevere (WIP)

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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SQUEEE! You’re one of the best writers I’ve seen on this site, and given the company you’re in, I don’t say that lightly.

I particularly like your take on the Arthurian mythos (while I’m not certain that Marion Zimmer Bradley’s bid to integrate Wiccan themes into the King Arthur story has been a boon for the genre as a whole, I like how you did it), and I liked how your skills had tangible effects on how you solved your problems. And I especially liked how you could lie your ass off. You don’t get to lie like that in many Choice games; usually, when you say something in a CoG, it affects your stats as if it was the truth. Here, you can say stuff and be an absolute manipulative bitch, you can pretend to back Arthur while secretly plotting his downfall, and what you say affects only your reputation and trust.

Now, there seemed to be a lot of fake choices, which ordinarily I consider a design flaw, but here it made sense because of how much information was presented and how it made it clear that what Guen is saying and what she’s actually thinking have nothing to do with each other. Plus, it kind of reinforces the fact that at this point, Guen is still not in control of her own destiny; I’d expect to see more hard and meaningful choices later as Guen becomes Arthur’s helpmate or his enemy, and possibly a heroine in her own right.

Also, in book 1, your stats are pretty much locked into your initial choice and increase by a dot each time you get an increase option. I hope they’ll be able to increase more reliably in later training montages.

Bottom line, if you keep this up, this game will be an even better Affairs of the Court, which is already one of the best games on this site. I’m looking forward to seeing how the game continues.

One bug I discovered, though, when suggesting Lance and I could go behind Arthur’s back:

set lying +1 Lancelot seems even more troubled. “I don’t even want to let myself tell you how tempting that is,” he says. “Because I can’t do that to you or to Arthur. I’d never be able to live with myself.”

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@Ramidel :"> Thank you for all the positive comments and feedback! I have sort of a love/hate relationship with Marion Zimmer Bradley, so I tried to appropriate a few of the things I liked about her interpretation, and ditch the rest. T.H. White is also a big influence, mainly in the references to Arthur’s childhood, and in Merlin’s eccentricity and the anachronism of his workshop. I’ve also read a a decent number of the medieval texts, so they’re always in the background, even if I don’t feel obligated to preserve any particular part of them.

I do plan to have more “external” choices in the future installments. (And I’ll very likely be adding a few more active choices to part 1, after getting some great suggestions in this thread.) There will be an opportunity for another substantial stat-boost at the beginning of each section, along with more training opportunities throughout, so stats can get pretty high by the end.

thankyouthankyou for the bug report! That’s one of the things the auto-testers can’t catch. And you’ve discovered that the game is secretly tracking each time Guen (explicitly) lies or tries to do something deceptive! There are a number of hidden stats that affect things slightly in part 1 and will, I hope, have even more of an impact in the future. So, for example, if Guen spends part 1 deliberately lying every chance she gets, she may get some more blatant opportunities to lie in the future, or ideas for deception that wouldn’t occur to her if she hadn’t built up that part of her character. So if you like playing a deceptive Guenevere, you should absolutely be able to keep doing that! :slight_smile:

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Indeed, that’s good to hear.

I also hope that Guen’s lies have a chance of coming back to bite her somewhere even Lancelot never found. Because if there’s one thing more entertaining than playing a lying, scheming witch, it’s watching all those lies and schemes coming home to roost at once.

I notice that you merged the characters of Morgause and Morgana, which was an interesting decision…but it makes me wonder whether Mordred’ll be Morgana’s child, and if not, who the mother will be, and how either being her child or not will affect the plot (if he is, then it might be a trifle awkward when he accuses his own mother of plotting treason with her royal girlfriend, and if not, it makes me wonder where his support base will come from, if not the Orkney clan…Saxons?).

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@Ramidel … I don’t want to give away too much, but those issues will indeed be dealt with, and it will be more than a trifle awkward. :slight_smile: There are plenty of things I still have to figure out, but I’ve known what would happen with Mordred right from the beginning. I can’t wait to get there! (unfortunately not in the next installment, but eventually)

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I’m not very familiar with Arthurian legend, but I found this game very entertaining. I like all three of the ROs so far. Arthur is like an overeager puppy, Lance is just charming (and seems to care more about Guen than Arthur does - the “Am I the only one who’s noticed she’s bleeding” comment especially) and Morgana is like the only sane man in the trio. I’m looking forward to the rest of the story to see how the characters play out.

I felt that Guen’s attraction to Lance (and Lance’s to Guen) was kind of sudden, but it’s understandable if there’s some magic at work. To add to what others have said, I’d have liked to see more of Merlin, especially since Guen’s been told by several people to approach him to learn more about light magic.

The narrative was great. Especially with regards to Merlin. The “Lancelot was concerned that he would enjoy his way into the moat” comment made me laugh out loud, as did the cheese wheel.

Regarding stats, I think it’s quite realistic for increases to be +1, since iirc all stat-raising actions occur over the span of a day or so. If there are going to be timeskips between Books, I’d like to have a chance to increase my stats by a bigger margin.

So yeah, would love to see more :smiley:

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The warm fuzziness will keep me warm this winter :"> (even though it doesn’t snow here)

Well I hope that you’ll take your time and do what you need! All in good time, there’s no need to rush! I’m already liking Book 2 despite the fact that I don’t know what’s going to happen. All I can imagine is my Guen going all Game of Thrones-Margaery Tyrell “I want to be THE Queen.” 8-X

On a side note, I might have a tiny suggestion? I’ve recently played-through with a Dark Magic + Leader Guen and a Warrior + Leader Guen, and I realized that both of them execute Hrothulf in the same fashion. The only difference being that Warrior Guen could actually end him cleanly without any help while Sorceress Guen’s attempt wasn’t so smooth. I was thinking that maybe if you played a Sorceress Guen, she could use her magic to kill him? That way, you can differentiate different Guens and her abilities? Because, why use a sword when you have magic? It’s completely up to you though!

Also, do I sense a bit of foreshadowing going on during your wedding reception when you’re talking to Morgana and Gareth wakes up and says, “I dreamt that Sir Lancelot killed the bad lady.”? :wink:

Thank you again and I hope you have a lovely time this holiday season! :slight_smile:

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@RingoStar, I’m glad you liked the characters! I wanted there to be legitimate reasons for Guenevere to like or not like each of them. Lancelot does fall for Guen unrealistically and ridiculously quickly (and worse, with little or no basis in who she really is). Love at first sight is such a huge convention of the tradition that I wanted to get it in there but leave it somewhat open for interpretation. Part 2 should offer a little more insight on what happened.

Several people have asked for more Merlin, so I’ll have to see what I can do. :slight_smile: Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a big role in part 2, but he will have more substantial things to do in part 3 if all goes according to plan.

Since each part is set three years after the last, each one will start with Guen specifying which skills she’s developed since the last part. Most likely there will be 10 and 5 points available at the beginning, with opportunities to get a few more points over the course of the story, as in part 1.

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Liking it a lot, superior than choice of romance so far :slight_smile:

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@ceecrab, I will try hard to make it possible for you to be THE Queen! :slight_smile:

That’s a good observation about executing Hrothulf. In the second half of the story, there are little things here and there that Guen can do depending on her skills – she makes some otherwise unavailable strategic observations if she has Leadership, and if Arthur breaks his arm, she can heal it if she has Light Magic. If she has Dark Magic, she identifies Hrothulf’s magic amulet herself, but there’s not much payoff for that, since Morgana identifies it later if Guen doesn’t. If she has Sword, she succeeds in executing Hrothulf herself. (because I thought it would be unrealistic for a person who’s never held a sword in her life to be able to slice right through someone’s neck on the first try… um… because realism is, of course, my biggest concern when writing a fantasy story… yeah… :wink: )

It would be cool if Dark Magic Guen could execute him in some other way, but I see two obstacles:

  1. If she’s not planning to tell Arthur the truth, it needs to look like H. was killed in battle. (But I could work around that.)

  2. Killing someone outright with magic is a very scary ability! Even if she did something like hypnotize Hrothulf into killing himself, that seems like something only a super-advanced sorceress should be able to do. (As opposed to a low-level warrior chopping off someone’s head.) And if I give Guen the ability to kill someone with magic once, that sets a precedent for her to do it again… in fact, it raises the problem that a Guen who hates Arthur would probably want the option of doing the same thing to him!

That said, the clean execution has a better emotional payoff than just identifying the amulet, which is kind of useless. If I can think of some way for Guen to use dark magic to help with the execution, without it being too overpowered, I’ll try it out!

Foreshadowing… well, whether or not something turns out to be foreshadowing may depend on some of Guenevere’s choices… perhaps Gareth is seeing something that will happen in an alternate reality where she chose differently… :slight_smile:

And a wonderful holiday season to you as well! :slight_smile:

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We could posion him and make it look like he had an heart attack?

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Hm… maybe a single-use dark magic item (poison or otherwise deadly) that Guen finds in Merlin’s tower?

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Merlin’s the wrong magician to provide something like that, though. :slight_smile:

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Merlin wouldn’t use it or make it himself, but he might be keeping it safe, or just not be aware that it’s randomly mixed in with his stuff… not sure, though. It’s going on the list of things to ponder.

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One question about your backstory:

It seems like there is no discrimination between light and dark magic – Morgana openly practices dark magic and Arthur has no problems with this, nor does anyone seem surprised or shocked if Gwen practices dark magic. This may or may not be in keeping with the King Arthur mythos (I don’t know enough to say one way or the other), but it is definitely violates current fantasy traditions, which /always/ include discrimination (generally, justified) against the practitioners of dark magic.

If it is intentional that practicing dark and light magic has no moral implications, you should probably include expository text when the player specifies Gwen’s initial talents along the lines of “Magic practitioners of /any/ school are viewed by commoners with respect, but not fear. Among the elite, the morality of practitioners is driven by their actions, not by what school they follow.”

If it /isn’t/ intentional, then… Well, I’m afraid that you’ll need to make some significant revisions. :frowning:

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@mreed: That’s a very good point. The magic system is totally made up, and not directly based on anything in particular from the Arthurian tradition (though certain magical effects are inspired by Arthurian stories).

There are two primary differences between light magic and dark magic: First, light magic doesn’t require time or materials, just the skill and energy of the caster. Dark magic, on the other hand, requires preparation and components. The other difference is that light magic can be used only for limited, always-beneficial effects, mainly healing and protection. Dark magic has a much wider range of possible effects.

Because dark magic can be used to harm people, it’s viewed as both dangerous and useful as a weapon. Most people know that Morgana practices dark magic and that she uses it to help Arthur against his enemies, as at Badon Hill. Some people (like Arthur) aren’t bothered by this at all. Others are wary and suspicious of her. She’s not going to be burned at the stake for it, but it makes most people nervous, so she doesn’t have a lot of friends.

I like your phrasing: “The morality of practitioners is driven by their actions, not by what school they follow.” That’s a fair description of how it works, with the caveat that many people are nonetheless afraid of dark magic practitioners simply because of what they can do. Guen has the option to be discreet about her own study of dark magic or not, depending on what kind of reputation she wants to have.

I can probably find some ways to make this more clear in the game.

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Is Arthur and his half sister going to hookup in your story

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@Quinesia, well, given their personalities in this interpretation, you can be sure that neither of them would intentionally or willingly let that happen. If it did happen ;), they would both be absolutely horrified, and it would most likely be a test of all the main characters’ relationships with each other.

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@jeantown
Regarding Hrothulf: I’m not exactly an expert about medieval battles, but I’d say “we cleanly chopped his head off while he was on horseback and charging on us” isn’t exactly a plausible cause of death, especially not with one of the best fighters the enemy has to offer. So if Guen plans on deceiving Arthur, she really should go for bludgeoning in his head, or something like that (after all, that’s what Pommels are for :wink: ).

As for killing him without the use of a sword (I’m reluctant to say “with magic” because there are a plethora of possibilities to kill without a weapon), I’d say the most likely for this scenario are either poison, as she could just use an overdose of whatever she has on hand that she used to weaken the attackers. Or stuff one of those bags down his throat, as that can’t be healthy in any way, though that could offer the possibility the failure. I’d say that’s one of the risks if you want to be a sneaky poisoner.
You could also ask @MaraJade . She has a thing for poison :wink:
Alternatively, there is suffocation and breaking his neck (the latter would be probably be a job for one of the knights due to a lack of physical strength on Guens part) for possibilities without weapon or magic.

Killing with magic… Some elaborate ritual that only works because you have him tied up and held down by one (or two) knights? As in, it would never work on someone else because he would fight against it (well, maybe on Arthur if you tell him it’s a new sex-technique).
Modifying his Hunter charm, seeing as it gives off sparks if Guen touches it (as in, turning the effect against him).

A stolen item from Merlin wouldn’t seem plausible. For one, if he secures his tower with that many barriers, he’d surely put one on a potentially deadly item, meaning that we couldn’t get it because we don’t know how to handle his barriers (yet).
And even if she’d get it, there still would be the need to take it with her to battle, and from there to the hill where she expects that the only action she’ll see is a little firework.

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@Nasdaxow, now that I think of it, when I was writing the lie-to-Arthur option, it did occur to me that claiming Hrothulf’s head got chopped off cleanly in battle was something of a stretch… and then I sort of forgot about it. :slight_smile:

All of this brainstorming is exactly what I need! Tons of great ideas here. (also good points about the steal-something-from-Merlin idea.) This should help me come up with several ways to refine that part.

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Okay, now I really can’t wait to see if my choices lead to Lancelot killing the “bad woman” who I’m assuming is Cornelia. But hey, anything could happen! I’m just really excited for now 8->

Hmm, I never thought about that and you’re right! Maybe if Merlin isn’t the right wizard who has stuff like that lying around or if he does and it’s almost impossible to get to, is it possible that Sorceress Guen concocted this single use poison? She could have nicked the ingredients from Merlin and made it in her room? Merlin *could* possibly think that it was Lancelot stealing his things again and she could have made it the night before they leave since, “Arthur spends all night overseeing preparations. I’m able to get a few hours’ sleep in my bedroom, but if Arthur sleeps at all that night, it’s not with me.”? She could have made it as a safeguard or something and only uses it when she’s sure she’s in danger/has to?

But again, you’re right when you say what’s to stop a Guen who dislikes Arthur, Lancelot or Morgana from using said poison to kill one of them? Sorry for adding to your headache! Like I said, it was just a suggestion so you don’t have to add it in! :slight_smile: