To me things are the opposite. In my first play I need to be myself (in a different context obviously) to really get into the story. Curious differences.
I have. It was an heavy story, a solid plot and a good game (I’m liking this one much more, the other one was a solid one but this one is great, much, much better). My problem with the emotional aspect of the Divided We Fall book/game was the fact that we played established/fixed characters. I didn’t really get into the characters and what happened to them.
Guenevere (WIP) makes us play with Guenevere, but we get to make the character ours, with our feelings and personality. I didn’t felt that your game gave us that chance.
But don’t you think that I didn’t liked Divided We Fall, I liked it, it was a solid game, my only problem was with what I just said. It was clearly worth the money and time spent. But I can assure you that I’m loving this one, it’s really great, setting, plot and game-wise.
It’s a great. The characters, the events, our choices. Just one question regarding your writting style that I didn’t quite understood. Are you the kind of writer that prefer to leave to the player’s imagination the “what do you feel” question, or do you prefer to ask it to him and to add it to the story?
Sorry for the wall of text, I imagine that you have better things to do.
I’m not sure I’ll get into this sort of foreign policy and diplomacy into this game, so much to do already! Maybe a sequel? That’s a long way off. New Order however wouldn’t be keen on an anschluss, being nationalistic and anti-german…
@ruhenri I appreciate the feedback, DWF is an interesting one, obviously I’ve had a couple of years to reflect on it and there are certainly things i’d do differently. I wrote it in just a month and although it was incredibly satisfying, I think taking my time over it could have produced a more rounded result.
Good question, I can see why it’s standard practice to include “how do you feel about this questions”, it helps involve the player. I, as you may have noticed, don’t generally go in for them. I think it sort of breaks up the prose and flow and I guess I’m also asking the player to think for themselves and react as they like to events/characters, rather than them choosing how they think/react from a list. What are your thoughts on this?
No need to apologise! It’s great to have detailed feedback, and although there are probably other things I should be doing… well, this is more fun!
“We on the left will be their first target, I can assure you. Which is why we must steel ourselves for the coming battle. We are not going down without a fight like our German comrades. 1934 might well be the deceive year in the international fight against fascism. The year the left decides to stand up and be counted. Solidarity will lead that fight and we will be victorious!”
Should that be decisive?
Also, the von should not be capitalized as it is not really a name or a noun rather. If you want to get crazy on German sounding surnames do something like this: Alfred Maximilian Ludwig von der Freistadt zu Danube.
You don’t say.
Mussolini and possibly Hitler were left-leaning socialists at one point in time but turned around fairly quickly. Good point nonetheless, just wondering if it was possible even if it proves to be a sub-optimal choice.
My Cunarian MC would be that minus the hardcore since he can compromise with liberals and maybe socialists (or equivalents). He is accurately described as a social conservative, so you probably would like him the least.
My Wulframite leans right but is fairly liberal in some regards since he likes the middle class. He takes care of his subordinates/workers so I could see him supporting some socialist policies.
My Aetorian is a royalist but he would be willing to compromise with liberals and socialists just to further military goals, and he doesn’t care all too much about governance (his focus is military) until republicanism starts getting significant traction. He is the most likely to stand by the king to the last.
My Salt Coast MC is the most likely to be a republican but he hasn’t rejected monarchism just yet. I haven’t finalized many details about him though, except that he his cynical and mildly ruthless.
A much reasonable course of action than what your XoR MC is planning to do, therefore I support it. Seriously, he is the only one of your MCs that is on my dislike list and he ranks pretty high in it.
Is Moravia supposed to be a real country? Because there is an area in the Czech Republic called Moravia, although in World War One it would have been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
I believe that Alex said that Moravia is a completely fictional country, after writing about the spanish civil war he wanted the creative liberty of a fictional one.
My mc’s are always to a large degree products of their in-game history and Moravia, unlike the Hegemony, and for all its faults is a democratic Western country and a main tenet of the moderate, democratic socialist Solidarity route is working democratically and occasionally compromising, though to a lesser degree than the Social Democrats of course.
That being said I really do think that in any coalition with the Social Democrats, Solidarity should be the senior and largest partner as I have seen the results of the opposite and they were less than satisfying. Being absorbed by the Social Democrats (with most of the talent, like our mc being demoted to the back benches) is not really all that pleasant and in many ways the Social Democrats are a bigger existential threat to Solidarity (and other Democratic Socialists) then the fascists or the conservatives.
In a common CoG book I usually prefer to be asked, as you said it helps to involve the player. In a story where politics, political ideas and political feelings are at the center stage (such as this one) I believe that you made the right call, you would never include all the things that different characters could be feeling. So, in my non-expert take on the subject, I think that you should only ask that to the player when it is required by the plot (or at the end of the game).
One thing that I usually like at rpg is the “personal\normal life” scenes, something like (after that second chapter) having some me time, at home doing whatever we want, taking a walk through the city, going to a coffee or a restaurant, visiting our family, etc.
It usually helps me getting into the setting, feeling that my character is real, take some time to breath, or even seeing first hand how broken Moravia is.
Politely interrupting his comrade with a punch in the table… yelling mode: “I believe that our great leader Stalin and his great mutache made it clear that there is no such thing as social-democracy, only social-fascism. To even talk about joining them is a clear treason to the workers’ movement. Proceed carefuly my dear sir”…
I’m not the one you originally asked this of but each writer has his own style and yours works for you and I think also for most of us and perhaps with your style of writing omitting these sort of fake choices really is a case of less is more.
Well it occupies bits of real-world geography though so this is more properly an alternate or parallel timeline or uchronia, where history diverged somewhat at a vague point in the past to create this country.
To be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure. Definitely to be a cabinet minister. Party leader/prime minister is a possibility that i’m considering. You just need to look at how quickly and unexpectedly Stalin, Mussolini, Franco or Hitler emerged from obscurity and came to power to see how it was possible at this time period.
Most politicians are monsters to somebody, that’s an occupational hazard I’m afraid.
As for more generally I can see my mc be a “monster” to monarchists for calling and winning a plebiscite on the future of the monarchy as they will most likely argue that even if the current Queen made some very foolish decisions in hindsight that he should just have allowed one of her children, or even cousins or other relatives to succeed instead of opportunistically calling that plebiscite and destroying x number of centuries of the country’s history.
And that is the sort of more respectable academic and historical opinions we might get written about us if we’re a relative moderate and democratic minded democratic socialist or even social democrat in disguise.
If we go radical then vilification by certain segments of the population as well as international opinion and academia is likely to be practically guaranteed.
@Rogar 's question has made me look back at my notes and clarrify my thinking re ultimate direction of the game. (of course I love planning far off chapters rather than writing the one i’m up to!)
Basically the structure looks something like this…
-Intro chapter, immediately after May 1934 election
-2nd chapter, July 1934, street violence
-3. October '34, all about the economy, government is trying to pass budget
-4. February '35, Von Harzberg invites fascists into government, political fallout of that, which leads too…
-5. March '35, Election campaign
-6. April '35, Election day, results and consequences
-7. April '35 Forming a government, opening of parliament
-8. June '35, side that lost takes drastic action (coup, rebellion, general strike?)
-9. Depends what happens in Ch. 8, either coup success and change of government or descent into civil war
-10. Consequences of Ch. 9, war or suppressing opposition (if took power with coup)
Chapters 2-5 are open world in the style of the new update, then it takes on a more story based format
(My God, how am i going to write all that, twice!)
And while I’m at it in terms of giving you insights, here’s something that I came up pretty early in the planning stage, what I rather boldly termed the Romance Matrix… the l and r in brackets refer to left and right wing paths
But just to clarify, and I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but Solidarity and/or the Left can actually, legitimately “win” the elections of 35’?
Can moderation actually help us here and prevent a civil war, though likely at the cost of selling out much more to the social democrats and perhaps even the liberals than my mc would like, or is the New Order side simply too strong and widely supported for that?
Else things seen to look fairly bleak for a democratically elected left-wing government ,much like they did in Spain, as Moscow is the only foreign party likely willing to “help” but that comes at a cost not likely to be acceptable if we want to stay moderate, as the French Third Republic is useless and Germany is of course firmly in the hands of the Nazi’s.
So only one option gay and one for lesbian as a romantic interest? Talk about making some strange political bedfellows; I’d assume polar oppisites on the political spectrum might be angst material?
Is kant really the only leftist female romance for males? Because if yes then yikes look like my dude is off for a single life. I dont care about my partner gender much but I see franz like a buddy more than anything.
It’s tough but possible. Nigh on impossible for solidarity to win alone, but in a leftist coalition it’s achievable.
I’ve obviously not finalised this part of the game (or even started) but my idea is that the more popular you are the easier it will be to nip civil war in the bud. So I guess the success criteria is quite similar to the election. Then again it’ll also depend how ruthless you are once you are in power in disarming/suppressing your enemies, like the popular front government didn’t do in Spain, and so civil war broke out.
On the first point, yes for now. I hadn’t planned for any cross spectrum romances in terms of left with right, too much hate…
Might add some more, make that matrix nice and symmetrical…
