The Rightful Heir (WIP) [Minor Update 6/3]

SUMMARY: You’re the son/daughter of the King and rightful heir to the throne. 15 years ago, your noble family was betrayed and burnt alive when they were sleeping the in the castle. Fortunately, you weren’t in the castle when it happened. And they didn’t know about it.

After their death, the good friend of your father - Lord Arthur brought you to House Davria and took care of you. You become one of the best warriors of House Davria.

Since you’re the true heir to the throne, how will you take it from the current King?

ROs

Alec - The first-born child of Lord Arthur and your childhood friend. He’s two years older than you.

Ava - The only daughter of Lord Arthur. Your relationship with her is hostile for unknown reasons.

Julian - The second-born child of Lord Arthur and the youngest member of the family. He doesn’t care much about anything.

Princess Adeline - The only daughter of King George and the heir to the throne.

FEATURES

  • You can play as male or female.
  • You can choose your sexuality.
  • You will be treated differently based on your sexuality and/or gender. You can fight against sexism and/or homophobia.
  • You can betray House Davria or be loyal to them.

DEMO (6/3): https://dashingdon.com/play/domatess/the-rightful-heir/mygame/

197 Likes

Call me a sap but I love the rightful king/queen returns trope. :heart_eyes:

9 Likes

Me, too. Bonus points if it’s quite clearly established that “rightful king/queen” doesn’t necessarily mean “right king/queen”.

8 Likes

I’m enjoying this so far :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I’m injoying this so far I can’t wait for more I was shaking when I was reading of how much I was enjoying it

A very promising beginning. Will be sticking to this as it develops!:slightly_smiling_face:

A good beginning! Looking forward to more!

This was definitely a fun read! Fantasy settings are always of interest to me, and just from reading the plot summary you posted, I immediately wanted to play it.

I’ve only played through once so far, but I’m interested in the characters and learning more about them, who they are, and how their relationship with the Protagonist will change as the plot moves forward. There were a few spelling mistakes or errors, but overall I was intrigued and looking forward to each new passage. I’m certainly going to be keeping an eye on this, and I can’t wait to see more!

When you answer Julian, it doesn’t show what you are answering.

3 Likes

I really hope it goes that route! :smiling_imp:
“Bow to me peasants!” :joy:

Thank god! I love that you’re inputting this because it’s more realistic! And it’s nice to go against “society’s norms”.

I can only imagine the drama between the MC and Princess Adeline. I love it.

4 Likes

Um this is kind of confusing what is the name of the mc’s father? because from what i can understand King George is the one who took the throne after the murder of the previous king and what is the rank of lord arthur?

And the king should be addressed as your majesty and dukes as your grace or maybe it’s your preference.

Okay, so I have t agree with @Karl341: this is pretty confusing. A lot’s not really explained, and it might work better if there was a childhood scene that was used to go over various things (like the death of the family, the new king, etc). I’d especially like to complain about this choice:

You didn’t expect Julian there.

  • “Yes, you are wrong.”
  • “Maybe you’re right.”
  • Attack him with a blunted sword

What am I responding to here? Julian hasn’t said anything to me. :confused:

I would very strongly disagree. Topics like sexism and homophobia are pretty difficult to do justice to, and even if you do them right, it’ll still be less fun for a gay or female player. (And if you do them wrong, it may seem like you’re presenting them as “correct”, which I’m sure is not what you’re intending.) This is a game which is supposed to be fun for all players, and you should only include bigotry if you really have something to say about it other than “it exists”.

As for realism… no. An appeal to “realism” is the worst reason for including bigotry (aside from actually being bigoted), since it presents such bigotry as the natural order. I don’t know enough about the setting to say how fantastic it’s supposed to be, but it’s certainly not actual history, so you have no reason whatsoever to actually stick with actual historical bigotry.

In summary, I feel very strongly that you should not make this a world where a large subset of players have a significantly less fun game simply because it’s closer to what would have happened in the real world (ignoring that this isn’t the real world).

5 Likes

Looks like the royal guards aren’t doing their jobs properly. :face_with_monocle:

Seduce the princess and heir to the throne and become the king. :smirk:

6 Likes

I mostly agree, yet there is one part that may well be inescapable if this society doesn’t allow adoption of heirs and that is opposite sex marriage and fathering (or mothering) a bunch of kids.
I hope that dynastic adoption is something that can be instituted as my mc would prefer to adopt a promising teenager, rather than take a gamble on biological heirs maybe turning out okay.
That said I’d of course caution against making being gay the worse experience.

True, George may well be the better ruler, at least he certainly doesn’t seem to be a powerless puppet, which is what I’d most fear my mc who hasn’t been trained or educated for the job to become for Lord Arthur and his “supporters”.
The mc is apparently one of the best soldiers/warriors, yet that doesn’t mean they’re decent as an officer or commander and it certainly doesn’t give them the connections or education to effectively take the reins of the state.
Being a puppet figurehead of a “King” may well be worse than being a good soldier.

Which brings me to the point of the emotion potentially powerful enough to overcome all of these rational concerns: revenge.
Like @ParrotWatcher said give us childhood scene or two to actually make us bond with and care about our now lost family, even if they may have been worse at ruling then the current regime.

2 Likes

As a gay female player, I disagree.

I think it’s a bit ridiculous to take this out. Considering it depends on what type of world the author wants to make. If it’s a world with a darker tone, it would make sense to have it here.
Plus, what’s wrong with facing problems in a game that relate to the real world? It could actually help the person playing for all you know.

12 Likes

Yeah, I know that error, I will fix it soon.

English is not my first language, sorry about the mistakes :slight_smile:

MC’s father’s name is Charles. I think I didn’t mention it in the game. Sorry :smiley:

Sexism and homophobia are not strong in the game. If MC’s homosexual, they will not try to kill him/her or make their life miserable just like in realty. Just some Houses (Not House Davria) and the King do not accept same gender marriage. But if MC can become a King/Queen , he/she can change the law.

If MC’s female, people will question her skills and MC can shut them up by fighting them or using her words. I think it can be very fun for female players, no?

Well, royal guards are the ones who betrayed them :smiley:

7 Likes

This is part of the problem: people just base their fantasy worlds on the very Christianity-dominated Europe, and don’t look at other parts of the world. For example, just by looking at ancient Rome, I could point to Emperor Hadrian as a gay man in power who adopted his successor, and a lot of other Roman emperors adopted their successors, too. Admittedly, Hadrian did have a wife, for political purposes, but it does show that gay men adopting their successors was perfectly acceptable in historical settings.

Who would it help? A sexist or homophobe playing wouldn’t play as a woman or gay character, and they’d just see it as reflecting their own world view if they did. A gay or female player would just see the same sorts of things that we see in everyday life, and it wouldn’t really make the setting more immersive.

Well, that’s not as bad as I was fearing, but I’d still caution against it, if just because there’s really no reason to make a subset of players have to fight to get what other players are just given.

3 Likes

Because you can go against it. It’s another challenge. Maybe it can teach someone to stick up for themselves. I personally love when games have stuff like this, it’s other form of “let me prove you wrong”.

It adds replayability, shows the tone of the world etc. You could think of some reasons for keeping it in there.

I sense this is gonna be constant debate because we both probably find one another’s views, to put it bluntly, idiotic. So let’s end it here.

4 Likes

Homophobia and sexism will not be mentioned much but I think it’s a good thing because you can fight and gain victory over them. I’m sure it can make gay/female players feel better.They need that. It’s my opinion. But if people are really uncomfortable about it, I can change it.

Sorry if I couldn’t explain myself because my english sucks :smiley:

BTW, I am a gay woman :slight_smile:

8 Likes