How would the ROs be as queen/king consort co-ruling with an MC much more just and kind than their father?
Good question!
Connor/Nora: they've trained for this their whole lives and they are kind and just people, they would undoubtedly make excellent rulers alongside a kind and just MC and would not have a problem sharing power and letting MC take charge of their own kingdom.
Mirabel: she wasn't trained for court life and there would definitely be a warming up period as she struggles to learn her new position and work through severe imposter syndrome and the hatred of the court, but she has the potential to be a great and kind leader, and the common folk would probably end up loving her as much as she loves them. I could also see her becoming quite zealous, possibly overly so, about going after corruption amongst the nobility, which could earn her a lot of enemies. She's also very opinionated and might struggle with supporting the MC in situations where he disagreed with her, but likely she would agree with a kind and just MC on most significant matters.
Garrett: also not trained for this, hates the spotlight, and never really wanted to lead anyone, but he's also just an honourable and dutiful person who would do his best to rule justly. It would take some time for him to earn the people's trust, but I think the soldiers in particular would eventually grow fiercely loyal to him. Nobles probably less so but they would probably tolerate him at some point.
Evangeline: unless she has a change of heart, she probably wouldn't agree with a kind and just MC on a lot of points and so would have to find her own ways of getting things done, perhaps undermining MC's authority in the process. She would be a powerful ally though. Basically she'd be the sort to make some really ethically questionable decisions for the sake of the MC and the kingdom (at least, that's what she tells herself).
Justin: he'd be pretty useless tbh, barring some strong degree of character growth. He's very disinterested in power and politics and would happily let MC sort through all the administrative details while he throws feasts and challenges the system.
the process of claiming something back or of reasserting a right, such as:
a: reformation, rehabilitation
b: restoration to use : recovery
"There are few who are so lucky as to retire at your age, and you'll admit, you had to jump through many hoops and silence many bad men to claim as such. But it would all be worth it for the future you had planned out for yourself; for them. Your precious child. Your light in this filthy world.
But now they're gone.
And you wonder why you even bothered."
Play as a retired hitman, whose moniker is still whispered throughout the criminal underworld, trying to adapt to the mundane civilian life of North American Suburbia in the mundane city of Haven Lake, Minnesota. A civilian life they had planned to share with their one and only child- now gone from this world.
Between serving tables and trying to find a hobby, their life in Haven Lake is, without a doubt, peaceful. Ordinary. Monotonous. Boring. They wonder if they will ever be any of these things, or is something like them just not meant to roam amongst the sheep.
And then one day they discover that Haven Lake has worked very hard on its white picket fence veneer, and that the things that go bump in the night are much, much closer than they thought.
This is a 18+ modern fantasy romance story that will include; graphic violence, mercenary killing, grief, child death, violence against children, discrimination based on wealth, race and personal identity, and sex and sexual themes.
You are playing a(n ex-) professional killer, with a set of behaviours that range from morally grey to immoral, depending on your own set of beliefs. Whilst you can customise your character in looks, personality, gender, sex and sexuality, this mentality is semi-set and has the potential to either improve or worsen based on your own choices.
Please read and play with discretion, but remember that this story, above all, is about love. I hope you enjoy.
Demo (WIP)
Brighid/Brogán Conroy (F/M)
Your boss, owner of the Blue Moon, an Irish pub-diner, is a six-foot-five tower of a person with a penetrating resting bitch face. Gruff, irritable and yet protective all the same, B prefers to run their establishment in peace and keep to themselves- and is willing to stand their ground for it.
B is a middle-aged White Irish person with thick dark brown hair that falls past their shoulders, streaked with silver at the temples and usually tied back to keep out of their face. They seem to be in their late forties, though the presence of persistent frown lines and old acne scars across their lightly tanned skin ages them further. Their intense, forest green eyes alongside their scowl make them an intimidating presence, let alone their strong, powerful build. Broad in the chest and generously padded in the middle, with the muscles to match, most clothes end up ill-fitted, though they seem to care little. B tends to wear simple, hard wearing clothes like jeans, trainers, t-shirts, and simple solid colours.
Both Brighid and Brogán are visibly hairy though Brogán keeps a beard that reaches his collarbone.
Cecylia/Cezary/Celestyn Król (F/M/NB)
A mysterious nighttime regular at the Blue Moon bar, C is both an enigmatic and solitary customer, but talk with them long enough and you'll soon be treated to their particular brand of gallow's humour as well as their little patience with fools. It's a mystery why they continue to suffer them every night.
C is a young White Polish-American with ghostly pale skin and a slender, bony build that is only barely balanced out by their tall five-eleven height. C, however, despite their apparent underweight, is a classic beauty, with a sharp, triangular jaw and even sharper cheekbones. Contrary to their angular appearance, they have aloof piercing blue eyes, downturned and soft, and pretty, rounded lips. C keeps their light brown hair buzzed down to the skull for convenience, and their tapered ears and thick left brow are dotted with jet black piercings. They usually wear various shade of black and grey, but they always wear something that covers their neck.
C is mute and communicates mainly through ASL and, if necessary, text-to-speech.
Herminia/Helio Rhodes (F/M)
The newest part timer to join the day-shift, H is an exuberant, positive and larger-than-life person, freshly graduated and back home to help care for their little sister and figure out what they're going to do with themselves. They are happy to be the centre of attention, but find just as much joy pulling others into the spotlight with them, too.
H is a young Hispanic American adult with a broad, cheeky grin that easily softens their square jaw and slightly crooked hooked nose and lights up their wide hazel brown eyes. They stand at an even five-foot-eight with a triangular athlete's figure, chiseled with muscle, and their olive skin is deeply tanned by years under the sun - evidenced by the tan-lines between neck, chest, armpit and hip line. H keeps their curly red-brown hair short and charmingly tousled, usually swept back off their forehead with a thin plastic headband. H loves to wear bright, colourful sportswear that exposes skin and is easy to exercise and move in.
Helio and Herminia are both transgender, and Helio keeps a curly stubble chin curtain beard with a matching upper lip moustache growing in whilst Herminia is clean shaven.
Olabisi/Olajide/Ola Adeoye (F/M/NB)
A local librarian from a small but old downtown public library, O still somehow has the energy and time to be friendly and optimistic despite the rigours of public service. Curious, hard-working, and a little lonely so far from home, O is always happy to help and teach others even at the cost of their own free time.
O is a young Black Nigerian with a soft, round face framed by elegant thin black locs that reach their shoulder blades, embellished with silver cuffs. Outside of work, they prefer to leave their hair down. Otherwise, they like to twist it up into easy to manage styles. They have cool, dark brown skin and even darker, almost-black brown eyes with bright yellow, almost golden rings around their pupils. Standing at five ten, O has an elegant, plump, and curvacious figure with long limbs and pretty hands. They keep themselves well-groomed with shapely brows and gently styled baby hairs across their hairline. At work, they wear smart but still comfortable clothes and are fond of ruffles and low collar shirts. Outside of work, they enjoy loose, elegant styles with patterns and artful stitching in various rich colours. They usually favour a thick cardigan or jumper too.
O is shortsighted and wears frameless oval glasses with silver effect arms. Olajide keeps a trimmed, short, full goatee whilst Ola maintains a neat anchor goatee.
Majid/Marzieh/Mehr Ahmadi (Unknown)
A mysterious, unseen hand of the Ahmadi family that seems to have a finger in every pot in the city. You see the name M. Ahmadi at the top of nearly every donation list, at the bottom of many contracts and, most importantly, as a permanent fixture on the city council. You wonder if you will ever catch a glimpse of this supposed pillar of Haven Lake, when not even a photo seems to exist of them.
"31" (F!NB/M!NB)
A shard of your past. A memory, more than anything, these days. A part of who made you who you are.
I saw a post on Reddit about too many ROs in some games. The discussion was about whether it’s best to have many ROs but less equal time spent with them or less ROs but more fleshed out in personality.
My opinion is that I prefer less ROs who are fully realized characters but I also know that sometimes the story demands that an RO doesn’t get equal time than the others until later on even if there is less ROs in general.
I think one series that gets a good balance is the golden rose because there’s going to be about 8 ROs in total for the series but in the first book you spend more time with 2 and the other ROs come in when they need to for the story.
I like that, I don’t like the idea of shoving in an RO where they don’t belong to try to make equal time spent between all ROs and thus cheapening the ROs personality and narrative of the overall story. If they just come up out of nowhere to me it does no service to their character, to me ROs are characters before they’re are ROs.
My two-part article series is now complete. This is an in-depth look at romance as mechanic in roleplaying games. It is a discussion of a number of elements related to writing and executing romance.
Part I: Why Romance? covers a number of introductory topics, including:
Why romance is a popular element, even in non-romance games
How romance becomes the "default" for character relationships, with romanceable characters being valued more than non-romanceable characters, and how this ultimately impacts in-progress interactive fiction games with public development cycles
The elements of romance in choice-based narratives
Part II: Playersexuality, Gender-Selectability, and LGBTQ+ Representation in Gaming Romance is a frank discussion of the strategies to handle diversity in gaming romances and the challenges that arise from different coding tactics:
What makes a good romance in interactive fiction
Utilizing multiple romance options and when too many romance options is too many
The playersexuality of functional bisexuality (making all romance options bisexual for the express purpose of being romanced by all player characters, regardless of gender)
The playersexuality of gender-selectable ROs and the mechanic's unintentional erasure of queer identity in a game's text
Both articles are available to read on Patreon for the Apprentice tier and up. 💕
ROs reactions to the MC asking to wear their favor for s joust?
Oh, what a delightfully medieval question! I haven't thought much yet about tournaments in Thestria but if there were a joust, it would mostly be a man's thing. Thestria's not especially egalitarian. So I'll focus on how the ROs might react in a more conventional situation (a prince MC requesting a favour or a princess MC offering one).
Nora: she would be expecting as much from her betrothed and would graciously offer something expensive and definitively Grimwaldian to emphasize the alliance forged between the two kingdoms.
Evangeline: she would act cool and collected but would be very excited to show off how she won the prince's affection, and would give him a very expensive, very obvious item to proudly showcase said affection. She may then proceed to "subtly" point it out to everyone she can.
Mirabel: touched but terrified, she would not want to make her budding, forbidden relationship openly known and would give MC something small and discreet.
Connor: would graciously accept the favour and take utmost care of it, displaying it proudly
Justin: he would do what he can to avoid jousting to begin with. If a princess MC requested he joust nonetheless, he might actually be pretty annoyed or disappointed for requesting he go through with such dangerous formalities, even if he might begrudgingly accept it in the end (if his love for or fear of MC is strong enough). If circumstances demanded he had to joust for some other reason, I think he would accept the favour with unusual sobriety. He'd be terrified of jousting, and would see the favour as a sort of good luck charm that he desperately needs, and a source of much needed bravery. He might not actually want to give it back.
Garrett: he would be surprised, honoured, and far more touched than he'd show, and would take great care of the favour with solemnity. He'd be a little worried that the favour might hint at his growing relationship with MC, and wouldn't broadcast it too obviously, but it wouldn't be too unusual for a princess to offer something to a trusted knight in her service so he wouldn't hide it either.
sweet and kind mc having a crush on mirabel but ultimately staying choose to stay loyal to nora how would this go ?
I suppose the level of pain here would be largely up to the player and how invested the MC becomes with Mirabel before committing to Nora. If I was playing this route, I personally would probably play an MC who has a light crush on Mirabel from childhood but never really expressed it except in brief, subtle moments (a longing glance here, an unnecessary touch there). Both would be torn, both would know something is there, but because neither is willing to act on it when they know it will never be, the pain would be a passing thing. Over the years, MC's loyalty to Nora would eventually morph into love and both he and Mirabel would move on.
Maybe that's a boring answer but we are talking teenagers experiencing these sorts of feelings for the first time, and at the end of the day those feelings aren't what carry a marriage. Action is. Commitment is. You've described to me a sweet, kind, and loyal MC, and Nora is also all these things, I can only imagine that two people sharing these qualities and values who put in the work despite not always feeling like it would forge an unbreakable bond over the years. It might be hard in the beginning, but marriage is always hard.
Didn't expect to go on a semi-philosophical rant there sorry 😅
how wound ros feel when mc loves them but cannot give them time after becoming ruler
Justin: would be quite annoyed. What's the point in MC being queen if she can't have fun with him!
Garrett: he'd find it hard but would understand completely and be thankful for any time the MC did spend with him
Connor/Nora: they've always expected this so might not even realize what they're missing out on. Like wdym it's not the norm to never see your spouse because you're busy ruling a kingdom?
Mirabel: she'd be frustrated and would try not to get angry because she knows it's not MC's fault but it might happen here and there...I imagine she'd be very lonely in that position too, with neither servants nor nobles really trusting her after her rise to power, so she might rely a little too much on MC's affections. There may even be some regret there. "I risked everything to be with this person and now I'm not even with him???"
Evangeline: she might actually get annoyed if MC didn't devote all his attention to the throne...she expects him to work as hard as her. Goals won't achieve themselves!
