This is a very valid argument. I wouldn’t mind a wait-out-the-future ending, though. Especially not if you could approach the story with that as your initial goal. Then when the opportunity presents itself, you’d have to decide whether you’re ready to risk it. Based, for example, on whether you tried to change the past as little as possible.
3 Likes
My preference is for the possibility to return to your own future (possibly with a time-lost love interest), because that adds a serious moral and personal choice and a potential goal for your MC. Your own future is an alternate timeline from the world that Ironheart’s events create, of course, but I don’t consider that a problem - it just means that multiple timelines can “exist,” which is fine.
Regarding the all-just-a-dream construction, I disagree that it’s that simple. In a setting with multiple universes, existential questions are actually important. “What’s a dream? What’s reality? What matters to you?” In Silverworld, for example, the past only exists because it can be travelled to; does that make it unreal? (Well, the gold is real enough…) Do the locals matter if you can return home? Does your own home timeline matter more than the timeline the False Icon wants to create? Taking it back to Ironheart, if the PC can go back home, it’s up to the player to decide whether their time as knight or emir in the Middle Ages was real or a dream.
If going home is flatly impossible, that means that that story is closed off, and any PC who “wants to go home” is out of luck. Which has its own charms, of course.
8 Likes
I like this one. If any future endings, imo the above seems be the most fitting and believable, with bonus points for being an easter egg. When you think about it: the amount of change the “super fuel” brings to the setting, how would you even define where your former home is to start with, time period-wise? The butterfly effect is going to play a big part in the end, with anywhere MC comes back to showing world ever more alien.
4 Likes
Sorry if this is mentioned somewhere and I missed it, but what Islamic sect is the Caliphate? Is it Sunni, Shia or one of the smaller sects?
1 Like
Good question! Although I currently only touch on it once in the story, the Caliphate are assumed to be Sunni. The Caliph is Saladin, whose Sunni Ayyubid dynasty has deposed and absorbed the Shia Fatimids just as it did in history, only in the world of Ironheart his superior technological clout meant this process started earlier and has been even more all-encompassing.
There are still some Shia Muslims in the game, most notably Rashid ad-Din Sinan, the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, who leads the Nizari and whose purposes are often at odds with both the Papacy and the Caliphate.
4 Likes
So far, so good. Mechs and sci fi really pulled me in.
Go go ass kicking and skirt chasing !!
Speaking of skirt chasing… It’s a shame that spunky reporter won’t be an option… Ahh…well, at least she gave good hea… ooops .
2 Likes
Yea I started off reading it hoping for that
Then Went oh welllll, crud let me go back maybe if I?..nope that sucks. Ok moving on with the story.
I did like the story style.
Edit: R.O
I came for the intresting sci-fi fantasy but the “spunky reporter” was cool
1 Like
first off — I am VERY Intrigued and hooked to this story.
Throw me back in time ANYDAY
I hope to be able to see more of the RO John Arryn??? (I instantly thought GoT but eh.) He is an interesting dude. Lions and Gazelles ???
I am a sucker for romance so I do hope the MC will get more beastly action 
At first read I was a bit confused and had a hard time imagining the scene where the MC was thrown back in time to. I guess reading now that it is a time travel story really makes sense (I thought humanoid aliens).
Also, I am most defiantly not a political person and I believe having a small description about each political movement that was happening would greatly help. (did I miss this some where???)
I will have to replay again for more comments
1 Like
I really didnt expect the ending sighs
1 Like
@Jule @Drakeye Glad you liked it, sorry to have cut off that particular option so early. 
@Feather John is one of my favourite ROs too. I think he’s also the only one who will potentially stick with you whatever choices you make over the course of the game. He’s easy-going like that!
I’ve been wondering about including a glossary and a brief summary of the period that you can access from the stats screen. I’ve been reading so much about it myself lately that it’s very easy for me to overlook phrases/events/locations that may not be obvious to most readers.
@Malachi_Joseph Sorry! Hopefully the later chapters will show why it was necessary…
5 Likes
If, after you address all other needs, you still have the time and resources to compile this, it would be appreciated by many of us.
From experience, I know that these types of features will not be used by everyone or appreciated by all, yet it does go a long way in solidifying the loyalty of others by being a feature that they use and appreciate.
9 Likes
I like them and usually read them if they’re included in a book or game (and I also use them in a lot in my own games.) If you want to write one go for it. If it’s tucked into the stats page and out of the way, people who like looking at that sort of thing can, and everyone else can happily ignore it.
3 Likes
@Eiwynn @Jacic Thanks, I’ll definitely do something like that. At the moment, if you choose history as your hobby in the prologue, you’ll get little extra snippets of information throughout the game (“You remember from your reading that…”) but these are really more like gameplay hints and Easter eggs than proper explanations. I think a glossary accessible by all players is what’s really needed.
2 Likes
Speaking of hobbies, the stat page really ought to address the second hobby one can choose- you know, working out, playing chess, etc.
2 Likes
Yes, you’re quite right. I have to admit I haven’t touched the stats page for a while but I’m aware it needs a lot more work. I also need to put in most of the stats for the 12th century - your archon’s abilities and upgrades, your fief’s wealth, population, religious make-up etc. I’ll revamp the whole thing once I get the final chapter finished (hopefully not too far off now…).
5 Likes
As the other users have mentioned, it would help! but this is secondary to your main game content obviously. I for one like to just jump into the game and just read the story the first playthough. If everything is there then I wouldn’t have to rely on a glossary.
I usually just check that out before starting the second playthrough.
1 Like
Well, the poll has finished and it seems there’s no clear winner. That’s war, I guess… 
The discussion was very useful, however, and I’m now inclined to add one fairly well-hidden ‘return to the future’ ending along the lines I discussed a couple of posts back. Hopefully that will satisfy those for whom that’s an overriding goal without sacrificing any of my original intent.
I now have another question I’d like to throw out there and this is a pretty broad one:
In later chapters of Ironheart, it’s revealed that some of the characters who’ve travelled back in time have been keeping alive elements of their own lost ‘21st century’ culture in their new environment, teaching Beatles songs to medieval bards, trying to paint Picasso and write Shakespeare from memory, setting up basketball tournaments and BBQs…
My question is, what would you try to keep alive if you knew all human culture from 1200 onward would die with your memory of it?
5 Likes
Anime
Chocolate
Marron glace
My laptop (my games)
…
Rubik’s cube, D&D, aviators. Also integral and differential calculus, lest pundits get bored.
2 Likes
Modern idioms and internet memes. Which are a category of idiom, if you think about it. So, yeah.
I feel like trying to replicate “masterpieces” would be too difficult and intimidating, but then, maybe these characters are more talented than I. I had a whole bit after this about the cultural power of different types of art, but it was turning into an essay and obviously off-topic.
2 Likes