- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Just wanted to call this out because I love the 'wolf rustling' phrase. I have such great images of wolf ranches and wolf drives and two men facing each other at noon waiting for the quickdraw with wolves growling in the background.
Johann... I like Johann. He's the kind-of-a-jerk-but-actually-nice bro with a ready grin and a quip, that people like right off the bat. He's confident enough to show off to Mathilde and spring surprises on her, and he's totally willing to play back-seat hype man for us, setting us up as the big cheese to the apprentices. I think he's fun, enjoys the time he spends with us, and is someone I think Mathilde could feel... Not silly going to for comfort and protection. The puppy-dad aspect is good too, it shows that he can do care and nurture as a real thing, not just a temporary mask.
And I really liked the moment of flirting where he stripped out of all his clothes with our help and we 'demurely turned away'. That sounds like something Mathilde knows she wants, but is too polite to gawk at.
This is technically a CK2 based quest, right? The relative lack of that mindset is pretty surprising to me.
I'd note that genre wise it would owe way more to Jane Austin and period romances than to adventure novels- I can see it being weird for someone who has avoided that half of the aristocratic-oriented literature. But it is very much a thing in fiction which honestly examine the decisions women got to make with any agency in those periods, so it feels a bit... 'ewww, girls are icky' to write it off as creepy and weird.
Mathilde needs no lover!
When she wishes to pass on her legacy she can do it to an apprentice.
A cute little apprentice who we can teach how to sword and to magic, and to ohhh its so cute
Apprentice is good, but power trio is better. Partner+apprentice and we've got a found family that can adventure together.
I don't think Mathilde needs someone who understands her, I think she needs someone who can support her. We never really understand other people: we can't model mind just as completed as our own in our heads, even if experiences and vocab are shared. I put a lot less importance on the idea that you need a partner who has done and felt the same things as you, and a lot more on the idea that they need to trust and understand and communicate a lot. They need to understand not the weight of responsibility, but the effect it had on you and how they can help you still be a person with it hanging on you.
So someone who is a peer is a romantic nice-to-have, not a critical thing. People can be different and find the relationship more rewarding because they get to give each other context.
I kinda get the impression you never pay attention to men as potential romantic partners, and so read stories with female main characters in the same mindset? He's definitely interesting, and the textual hints are there that his is interesting *to Mathilde*.
This is revulsion over the idea of manipulating people and running Machiavellian schemes using their emotions and love lives in general, right?
We're probably going to want to avoid the assets and agents side of intrigue then.
I'll be honest, I kinda agree, I felt really shitty about that potential guard captain whose life we blew up selling gossip and then never hired.
But meta-wise? It feels perfectly valid to look at the stats of the thing you are thinking of adding to the character sheet.
Welcome to how many of us feel about the discussion around buying another pistol. Or a rifle. Or when we were fighting over the sword. Or Theurgy. Or necromancy.
Those have soured me a lot on the idea of power progression. And so now I vote for research, and social, and city building.
Point being, romance discussions are a bit of a relief from the discussions around getting more killy or 'one weird trick to bring the most powerful EVEH!'.
Let us have this.
That's fair, but poor equivalence: AP spending has payoffs. New weapons, skills, assets. Relationships are ongoing, contingent, and cannot ever be considered 'done' until they fail. (Death or breakup.)
So unless there is a mechanical benefit to having a beau, some number-based payoff, I don't think that we should be weighing 'pointless' actions (because you know that's how they will be labeled) against actions with rewards.
It's a bit meta, but that's a structural setup to prevent friends-and-family relationships. It's the fight that led to social turns in the beginning.
But Belegar feeling differently is going to change what tasks he selects for us, how much we can wheedle out of him at need, potentially removing malluses to leadership/Diplo rolls.
What impacts do you see family AP spend as having, on a quest-level scale? If there aren't any, I'd argue there should not be AP spend because 'no mechanical benefits'.
Yes! We don't see these things in her internal monologue but it is very important to remember they are real parts of her personality.
I worry she is losing the ability to be honest emotionally with people: all her interactions are from behind a 'smug, all-knowing' mask and that drives isolation like nobody's business. She *needs* someone to ground her, and cover for the places she can't see she needs help.
Talk to me when we go a turn without discussing ways to get the power to rival gods.
I'm kinda thinking that it is going to be omake that tip a person into 'interesting'. Like, I'm pretty sure nobody would even consider Soizic for a social if I didn't keep writing her- and I liked the Johann we got in the most recent side story a lot.
So: Pitches for Husbandos should be in omake format! May the best grabber-of-thread's-fancy win!
That sounds enormously pessimistic. Learning how to trust someone is kinda half of romance, I think, and odds are good that communication (understanding why and when someone feels like lying is the best choice, getting a grip on those circumstances, learning to read and judge them) is enough to build that trust.
Watch your back? Yeah, stressful and bad. Know that they are their own person with their own needs who will choose against you if you push them? This is critical. I've seen more relationships fall apart because one side just didn't realize things were going sour until after it exploded than I have where lack of trust killed it.
That dwarf can drop some sick beats! You can feel the whole Karak bumping and crashing when the Grimelord smashes that hammer down.
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