If it still exists thats a choice not a stat far as i recall.
Well I choose the choice that suggest it but it didn’t do anything so I assume it should relate with a stat.
I believe it was based on a failed charisma or reasoning check. But the losing of the tongue migh’ve been removed.
Ah I see, thank you for the info!
Never apologize for sending me feedback on the game’s errors! It only makes the game stronger! Thank you so much for sending me this information, and I really appreciate it!
Sorry, I removed the functionality to actually lose the tongue at this time, in order to do research on how to make disabilities such as that effective, please see the Updates in the main page for an explanation of it!
You are absolutely correct! That feature has been shelved for the moment, and will be included in stretch-goal style updates after the base game is done. Thanks for answering this for me!
3 Likes
Will the father and his maid have further role in the story?
1 Like
I mean, possibly? I am considering a few places within the story where they can come back and demand the PC provide them with things, and then cause problems if they aren’t satisfied. Stuff like that.
Can I ask why you ask?
1 Like
Just think they’re interesting for later encounter either for MC revenge on them or to be shown obedience.
4 Likes
That’s a very good point! I’ll have to do my due-diligence to make sure this happens!
2 Likes
I really like Historical china, so this game is right up my alley, keep it up 
9 Likes
Just read your WIP…
I really, really love it 
Your writing is so intricate while still being easy to read with good flow, and the worldbuilding is so exceptionally detailed, I’m actually really surprised at the amount and level of chinese historical inspirations covering society, family, and palace life that you’ve incorporated into your story.
I really liked how much care you put into writing reactions and descriptions after every choice we made regarding stats. Also, this is one of the most detailed character creations I’ve read on this forum, and I usually don’t like it when character creation gets too detailed, but in this case, I can tell from your writing that you have the ability to integrate most of our personal appearance customizations within the story in a meaningful way (in fact you already do in what’s already published in the demo, which is awesome haha)
The story is interesting and pulled me in quite easily… our MC has such a rough beginning 
Looking forward to our path of rising power in the imperial court!
Also, may I ask how you know so much detailed intricacies about chinese historical fiction tropes? Do you watch a lot of c-dramas or read chinese fiction novels set in historical times?
3 Likes
Holy shit you’re gonna make me cry. TAT Thank you so much! I’m really glad to hear that because I was very worried about not having enough touches of the cultural background. As a white lady, I have to constantly consider whether I’ve been respectful enough to the culture, and I put a lot of thought and time into making sure I understand why these things are tropes in the original genres, and why they appear. It’s only right that I do so, since I didn’t grow up around these sorts of cultural mores, you know?
THANK YOU FOR NOTICING. TAT I keep a page of Callbacks, specifically to remind myself to make sure that I’m using them.
So it is a combination of reading WAY TOO MANY fan-translated CNovels, watching WAY TOO MANY c-dramas (including Untamed, Empresses in the Palace, Tale of Yanxi Palace, etc.) and reading SO MUCH FANFICTION for these series, that I obsorbed a lot of it by nature. Then, I got into RPing it, which led me to researching it, which led me to writing this game! XD
You would not believe the rabbit holes I have gone down to learn these things. It’s a Special Interest at this point. XD
11 Likes
Very glad to have encountered your story! And yeah, I really appreciate that you put so much thought and effort into understanding not only a different culture but also the literary tropes from that culture’s fiction scene. This really inspires me and gives me motivation personally to do more research about cultures that I’m not from when I’m writing about them as well!!
That’s awesome!!
SAME!!! i love historical c-dramas 
Empresses in the Palace is a GOD-TIER TV SERIES in china at this point, it’s literally such a powerful cornerstone in chinese TV it’s insane the amount of influence it has.
Empresses in the Palace is great because it’s very clear that the women, while they have a multitude of vices and very much do not hesitate to kill each other, do this not to fight for a man (the emperor)'s love (other than very few exceptions like Hua Fei), but because of the societal structure that they were born and forced to live under. The very fact that they’re in a system that is by nature cutthroat and unequal, means that they must become cold-hearted tacticians.
I believe people say that it really broke the stereotype that dramas about “imperial harems” are silly/petty soap-opera stories about women fighting with each other over the emperor. In fact, personally I would even call it a “权谋剧” (political power-struggle drama).
Haven’t watched Tale of Yanxi Palace, but that was definitely very very popular as well.
Nice omg (and we’re very glad you did!!)
XD a great Special Interest for sure, there are TONS of material for you to watch/read/learn haha
1 Like
YES~! YES! THIS THIS THIS EXACTLY. THIS is what I want to portray in my own work too! Like, yes, there’s going to be a path where you can have true wuv with the emperor, because it’s a game, but HONESTLY, that’s not the POINTTTTT.
Oh wow. Thank you for helping me with defining this. Is that pronounced Quánmóu jù? Machiavellian Drama is the what Google Translate is defining it as.
Yanxi palace is heavily more about the romance and the emotions, than political maneuvring, but it VERY MUCH has one of the BEST villainesses I’ve EVER seen in one of these.
There is! But there’s also oddly not a lot??? like, there are NO real games (just mobile games) about this subject, and there are SO FEW commercially translated novels… TAT I have to rely on Novelupdates and youtube to find new ones. PLEASE SHARE RECCS IF YOU HAVE THEM.
1 Like
Not translated, but SL Huang’s recently released The Water Outlaws is a fantasy retelling of The Water Margin.
https://worldcat.org/title/1395002113
Might be something you enjoy based on this conversation!
1 Like
Weird, the link didn’t load and when it did, it was a sorta sketchy site? Um… But by doing a small bit of my own googling, I managed to figure out that the Water Outlaws sounds like it would be something right up my alley! I’ll take a look! Thanks a ton for this recc!
And @brushmen to answer your DM, since I think it’s relevent here for others to read too, I’m mostly playing around right now with what I do Anglicize and what I don’t, aiming for the aesthetic feel of the setting, which is lent to by saying things like “Incense stick’s time” rather than “Two Hours”. that said, I’m considering a system where the PC can pick if they want Only English, Anglicized words with possibly-oddly-worded explanations, or JUST the Pinyin (Shichen, Xiongzhang, etc.). But that’s a STRETCH GOAL system, not a “I’m gonna do that right now” system, as it would require a lot of overhauling and I’m not about that life rn.
Edit: I did just have a thought that might work, though… Maybe making a little foot-note text file, and then making the foreign words links that take to those pages, and then allow the player to come back, if they need a definition. Kind of like on AO3, where words are linked, and then you can click a link at the end of the definition and it takes you back to where you were when you exited the text. But would that be a gosub or a goto? hmmm…
3 Likes
That is weird about the site not loading. Worldcat is a website that lets you look up books in nearby libraries, and definitely isn’t sketchy!
Glad you were able to find it, anyway. 
2 Likes
yep, the pronounciation is right ^v^ Machiavellian Drama sounds pretty accurate for a more western-based audience as well
: D awesome!!!
I don’t read c-novels, and yeah there are actually not many good desktop video games about palace/court intrigue without it requiring the player to pour money into it almost endlessly (not counting IF of course - there’s quite a few other pretty good ones on this forum, although most haven’t been updated in a long time)…
for c-dramas though, if you haven’t watched it already, both Nirvana in Fire and Nirvana in Fire 2 are excellent with regards to court intrigue, political power-struggles, factional disputes, and interesting character relationship dynamics.
I’ve never heard of these ones, so I’ll have to get looking! Thanks for the reccs! I have an entire novelupdates list for the novels I read. here’s a few:
Please be warned, some of these are porn-y, and some of them are very, very problematic. XD Make sure to look at the tags and trigger warnings before reading any of them. XD My favorites are:
Wang Family’s Peasant Woman, Journey of the Peasant Mother In Law, Beloved Empress, and The Prestigious Family’s Young Lady and the Farmer, and To Be A Virtuous Wife.
5 Likes
Oh yeah i have read a few of these some good, some bad, some cliché.
2 Likes