War Begins. Having received its ultimatum, Natrun needs to prepare for the incoming invasion. Decide what kind of army you will command, what alliances should be forged and where your loyalties lie in this 50k word update.
I carefully timed the release of this update so that it matches the in-universe date of April 30th. As such, I only managed to complete two of the five “mini chapters” that detail possible war preparations. The other three are all in construction and should be released sometime next month.
I’m glad you do. I’m a little anxious to put so many crazy and/or evil options in my game, since I know Hosted Games won’t look at them kindly, but the voice of Eiwynn in my head tells me to go wild now and maybe pivot later.
I love it! Ganymede is my favourite moon so very happy to see it used for a setting also really just love the little cultural tibits of the history of this place - just like Saturnine the world feels really rich and real and fully realised in a way that makes it really fun to play.
Played a MC on each of the difficulty settings and very about the fact we can play as a dirty little traitor wanting the city to burn - so curious how that plays out given the main conflict. Other two playthroughs had more supportive MCs so the city is seemingly only completely doomed in one run! Like all the characters or I’m loving to hate them, the republic representatives were a nightmare but in a good way.
All the little choices you can make are very fun regarding Kelpie, the Butler and choosing who holds the position (have not yet played a crazy enough guy to try the horse option but I love that it exists,) and I do enjoy the silly fake endings like the miner. Always a really nice balance of choices/options both for roleplay purposes and just for what I think will help the city/army.
Very excited to potentially meet a dragon as sauce was delightful! Tried my best to weasle out of the war with the actually it’s thousands but alas to war we go! The Archon was mysterious, I’m oddly hoping we get more interaction with Octavia despite the constant threats and very excited to see the other routes and where exactly the war goes. Loved it!
Will we get a second opportunity to amend the laws of the city? It’d bug me forever if that section was the only one and I only have a limited number of laws to pass/abolish
When Octavia attacks you after you are done with the Archon the “Parry with your own dagger” option has some missing text inside.
I don’t know if this is an oversight or intentional but the dagger option having no skill check/fail version feels weird (I don’t think that Octavia not being able to wield a dagger 100% effectively is an excuse for her to lose to an MC with weak brawn/dex), especially since attacking with the revolver does include a skill check.
Heads up, I just updated the game again. There’s a big change to the third chapter, which now lets you raise an army of undead to fight in your name. Other than, the update mostly just fixes typos and polishes out the existing content.
To be clear, you could finish the chapter right now, since the mini-chapters are all optional. Though waiting a bit is a perfectly valid strategy too.
I envisioned Octavia and Severin as secondary villains, minibosses for the MC to face before the grand finale. They will both be back.
I’m not planning another section precisely like this, but Natrun’s laws and internal politics will be a recurring theme/issue throughout the story. It’s not a “lawmaking done, time to spend the rest of the game fighting” moment if that’s what you’re afraid of. I’m trying to write a story about internal conflict as much as a foreign invasion.
Getting that outcome requires you to pick a dagger as your favored weapon, then choose the Archon chapter, then smuggle the dagger in and then use it against Octavia. It’s a very specific situation that, in my opinion, doesn’t require or deserve any more branching.
Can a character with weak Brawn/Dex score a cheap win that way? Sure. But I feel it’s more fair and interesting than having the player go through all of that just to fail a stat check. I don’t want a playthrough with low combat stats to be a merciless beatdown no matter what.
This is great. I’ve been meaning to read it for a while, and I’m glad I did. Love your world building, writing and the humour. I especially love the incompetent dictator options - appointing your horse as an ambassador etc. I’ve not been brave enough to select them because I’ve been playing my usual first run of wonderful, kind Mary Sue-ish MC (I don’t know why I do that lol), but I think I’m going to go for a second run and be hilariously bad.
Am also going to go and check out Saturnine now. You’ve got a fan.
(Also, I went for the skeleton army. Next round will definitely be mummies!)
Thanks, though I’m not sure what your plan for that is. You’d have to either get a link to the private beta (which I could DM you I suppose) or wait a couple months for the official release.
Question to anyone who played the game; Did you find the concept of Ganymede being a “hollow world” easy to understand? Or was it confusing and counter-intuitive?
As my patreon members know, I’ve been playing around with art assets like maps and diagrams. I could make a cross-section drawing of Ganymede if it helps players understand the setting better. It wouldn’t be good, since I am no artist, but I’d hate to lose prospective readers by making the very basics of the setting hard to understand.
about the fact we can play as a dirty little traitor wanting the city to burn - so curious how that plays out given the main conflict. Other two playthroughs had more supportive MCs so the city is seemingly only completely doomed in one run! Like all the characters or I’m loving to hate them, the republic representatives were a nightmare but in a good way.
