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Scheming Princess Quest

Reader mode
redaeth said:
I think this is a honey trap, the Fate Points look sweet indeed, but Events are things that only happen once in a while. We should use them while we can.
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Guile is totally Honeydicking us - Seth Rogan'd agree with me, I'm sure!
 
[X] The servants know much

[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity.

Right now, we need to build alliances and resources. Increase what we have then get to work. Courtly behavior didn't happen, so that REALLY needs to happen next round or we're going to fuck ourselves over big time.
 
[X] The servants know much
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity.

Honestly, still a bit baffled that people managed to ditch courtly behaviour at the last minute.
No amount of magic is worth that.

Anyways, without that we only have our natural charm so targeting people we don't need etiquette for seems sensible, especially since investigating the likely harmless secrets of a 10-year-old doesn't actually fall into our skillset.
 
[X] The servants know much [0]
[X] Focus on providing a steady, if modest, flow of funds to put to use here in the capital. [0]
 
[x] Acquire a suitor of your own [0]
[x] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity. [0]
 
redaeth said:
I think this is a honey trap, the Fate Points look sweet indeed, but Events are things that only happen once in a while. We should use them while we can.
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Bobs Beard said:
Guile is totally Honeydicking us - Seth Rogan'd agree with me, I'm sure!
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Well basically. Do you want to be able to change your classes or take other really hard options (relatively) safely, or do you want to not miss one of your two choose-able yearly events? The benefits of the events do cover a wide spectrum, but can be anything from acquiring companions, to getting cool swag, to getting in over your head and having to successfully extricate yourself from bad situations. Though the first year events are mostly pretty mellow.

These are the hard choices you have to make, friends.
inverted_helix said:
[X] Lull them into a false sense of security [-10] – Do nothing, and save your strength. [Forgo the event and gain Fate points for later endeavors.]

I feel like any of the first set of options besides getting a suitor are reasonably good. Considering we're currently 10-11 getting a suitor now is too early. We want to have that as a possibility to entice people into doing things for our favor. As long as people still know we're on the market they might do things just to curry favor to improve their odds. Also our beauty isn't as apparent yet.
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Point of order: you already have suitors, Caelis Valera is still a bit medieval that way (although really, power is an aphrodesiac in any age). This would be picking one to align with, which admittedly may be premature.

I do think you're underestimating your beauty, though. You and your brother are still growing into the apex of human sexuality, but you're still mind-numbingly cute right now.

Effectively:
wz8ilbW.gif
 
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I just assumed getting a suitor had nothing to do with looks and sexual attraction and everything to do with politics and power.
We are a princess in a medieval society.
 
Everybody wants to be married to the princess of their kingdom. You need the Regent to sign off on anything (or your brother when he becomes king, if he wasn't going to have you killed), but you can sort through... oh, at least half the nobles of marriageable age in the kingdom, pick which one you like, and quietly suggest (to the noble, I mean) that you might accept a suit...

Pretty much instant +rep gain with that family, in the lingo of World of Warcraft. Although unwise actions later could flip that around.
 
Yeah, I'm thinking dismissing the suitor option is in fact a terrible idea.

People don't change much as they grow up and impressions left as children are INTENSE. If we want a genuinely obsessive suitor who is absolutely prepared to walk over our dead brother's body to win our hand, starting on them while they're a child is probably ideal. That said, we skipped Courtly Manners, so I don't think we can safely explore that option right now. We'd screw up somehow. Next year.

[X] The servants know much
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity.
 
[X] The servants know much
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity.
 
drake_azathoth said:
Yeah, I'm thinking dismissing the suitor option is in fact a terrible idea.

People don't change much as they grow up and impressions left as children are INTENSE. If we want a genuinely obsessive suitor who is absolutely prepared to walk over our dead brother's body to win our hand, starting on them while they're a child is probably ideal.
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The trick there would be finding a suitor who can feasibly match our brother.

Unless we want the suitor to nobly and tragically kill themselves in our name. He won't win (at least on his own), but he will weaken our brother's position and open up options.

Fun idea, but chancy proposition. Also I don't trust Guile not to give us a sympathetic Kuno and make us utterly unwilling to sacrifice him because then we'd lose the HAM!
 
Hymn of Ragnarok said:
The trick there would be finding a suitor who can feasibly match our brother.

Unless we want the suitor to nobly and tragically kill themselves in our name. He won't win (at least on his own), but he will weaken our brother's position and open up options.
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Any suitor we choose would come from a noble family. A noble family of wizards. And said family would have a LOT to gain from us becoming queen, and even if we don't put forward any promises, they'd have reason to support any potential king-to-be in his efforts. They'd be not only likely able to match our brother's magic with greater experience, but have the skills to manipulate the situation politically to hinder our brother's efforts to establish himself as heir.

Frankly, we shouldn't look toward the capability of our suitor so much as the capability of his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

Our real challenge is getting a suitable candidate that is sufficiently pliable his family can't turn him against us, and preferably someone rash enough that if we encourage him to do something suicidal and render his suit null it's deniable. Because if we raise him from the dead after the fact he's likely to still be willing to help us out. That said, picking someone awesome and molding him into a pale reflection of our brother isn't terrible either.
 
drake_azathoth said:
Any suitor we choose would come from a noble family. A noble family of wizards. And said family would have a LOT to gain from us becoming queen, and even if we don't put forward any promises, they'd have reason to support any potential king-to-be in his efforts. They'd be not only likely able to match our brother's magic with greater experience, but have the skills to manipulate the situation politically to hinder our brother's efforts to establish himself as heir.

Frankly, we shouldn't look toward the capability of our suitor so much as the capability of his parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
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Our brother is an absurd prodigy with magic, so it's pretty unlikely that the suitor (if they're around our age) is ever going to match him there.

The family would have much to gain from this marriage, yes, but they also have much to lose if it fails. Fighting against the prince will be a significant gamble, on the battlefield or in politics. Especially if their families are as much a snake pit as our own.

Convincing the suitor to lay it all on the line is probably fairly simple. Convincing the family to back him to the hilt against the Prince and his power base is gonna be much harder. The family is probably going to prefer their efforts to be deniable so that no matter who comes up on top, they retain their current power and prestige.
 
Hymn of Ragnarok said:
Convincing the suitor to lay it all on the line is probably fairly simple. Convincing the family to back him to the hilt against the Prince and his power base is gonna be much harder. The family is probably going to prefer their efforts to be deniable so that no matter who comes up on top, they retain their current power and prestige.
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Sure, but even loaning their nephew Deniable Dark Artifact #17 from the family vault could even the odds and be deniable enough they don't expect much fallout if things go sour. The way our brother is already screwing around it's pretty clear that getting a solid family alliance from him might not be viable. He's just not committed enough to really favor any particular family even if he does marry someone from that family - and a lot of families just might not have a female member of the right age and reputation to make for a really viable candidate anyway.
 
drake_azathoth said:
Sure, but even loaning their nephew Deniable Dark Artifact #17 from the family vault could even the odds and be deniable enough they don't expect much fallout if things go sour. The way our brother is already screwing around it's pretty clear that getting a solid family alliance from him might not be viable. He's just not committed enough to really favor any particular family even if he does marry someone from that family - and a lot of families just might not have a female member of the right age and reputation to make for a really viable candidate anyway.
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Seems a bit of a long shot, since attacking the crown heir is probably tantamount to treason. And I think we can take a pretty good guess at how our uncle will respond to that charge.

Also, I'd say odds are good that if the attempt fails, the prince will take the artifact by some means. Probably legally as spoils or recompense. Although they'd be extremely lucky if that was all that happened.

As I recall, being fund guilty of treason would be the death of us. A lesser family? The entire family might suffer for this debacle if it came to light.

Having a suitor as a proxy isn't a bad idea and it's one way to get a family on our side, although it does tie us down in exchange. I'm nearly certain it will not be enough on its own though, and I do expect that getting the entire family to back us on this is going to be difficult.

These are some very high stakes here. They could rise to new prominence, or they could lose everything. Most people would probably be pretty happy with us married to them and our brother on the throne. A significant rise in status, royal blood to their line, minimal risk (that they know of). That's probably what most would be hoping for.
 
Hymn of Ragnarok said:
The trick there would be finding a suitor who can feasibly match our brother.

Unless we want the suitor to nobly and tragically kill themselves in our name. He won't win (at least on his own), but he will weaken our brother's position and open up options.

Fun idea, but chancy proposition. Also I don't trust Guile not to give us a sympathetic Kuno and make us utterly unwilling to sacrifice him because then we'd lose the HAM!
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How do you guys already know about Sir Thomas Kuno, of the illustrious Caelis Valeran Kunos?!
drake_azathoth said:
Sure, but even loaning their nephew Deniable Dark Artifact #17 from the family vault could even the odds and be deniable enough they don't expect much fallout if things go sour.
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You guys basically got it. The suitor is an easy gofer, and most of the available noble families are willing to slip some quiet help under the table, which may include mystical stuff or just good connections.

He almost certainly won't be a match for the Prince given the way you guys buffed him up, and the family will be holding an IOU, though.

EDIT: Oh, and most of the available Valeran families hate one another to some degree. Old bloodfeuds, recent bloodfeuds, prejudice...
 
Guile said:
How do you guys already know about Sir Thomas Kuno, of the illustrious Caelis Valeran Kunos?!
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...You know the funny thing is, I can actually imagine Kuno being effective here.

He's loud, he's a braggart, he's kind of a moron, and he's like this all the time.

Randomly challenging the prince? That's just Kuno being Kuno. That's normal. And therefore it's never acceptable to actually kill the annoying bastard.

Kuno makes for a surprisingly persistent thorn in the side. If nothing else a Kuno relentlessly splitting the Prince's attention and making him waste time sounds like an excellent measure, although if we waste too much the uncle will probably intervene.

You guys basically got it. The suitor is an easy gofer, and most of the available noble families are willing to slip some quiet help under the table, which may include mystical stuff or just good connections.

He almost certainly won't be a match for the Prince given the way you guys buffed him up, and the family will be holding an IOU, though.

EDIT: Oh, and most of the available Valeran families hate one another to some degree. Old bloodfeuds, recent bloodfeuds, prejudice...
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I'm starting to agree that losing courtly politics was a very bad move. By taking a suitor we're taking a step down and aligning with a particular faction, with all the baggage. As an unaligned princess we're above them on the playing board and can manipulate them from more comfortable neutrality.

There's probably some people who hate our family, but eh.
 
Hymn of Ragnarok said:
I'm starting to agree that losing courtly politics was a very bad move. By taking a suitor we're taking a step down and aligning with a particular faction, with all the baggage. As an unaligned princess we're above them on the playing board and can manipulate them from more comfortable neutrality.
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...Yes. SURELY allying with none of the noble houses is the optimal move. Because it's not like the prince will try to get help from any of them... Or any of the scions of the noble houses will take poorly to being ignored.

There's a word for someone who refuses to play the game. It's 'pawn'.
 
Hymn of Ragnarok said:
The trick there would be finding a suitor who can feasibly match our brother.
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Our brother is a super prodigy, but even without matching him we can find someone who is high quality
Guile said:
Acquire a suitor of your own [0] – Men are paying you more and more attention lately. It would not be hard to sort through the vacuous nobles that have been trying to pay court to you for a likely candidate.
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Note that we sort through them to dismiss the chaff
 
We're 10. We know nothing whatsoever of the factions in play.

Sure ignoring the game is a bad decision.

But making a move before you've even looked at the board or learned the rules? That's beyond awful.
 
drake_azathoth said:
...Yes. SURELY allying with none of the noble houses is the optimal move. Because it's not like the prince will try to get help from any of them... Or any of the scions of the noble houses will take poorly to being ignored.

There's a word for someone who refuses to play the game. It's 'pawn'.
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I never said don't ally, I was talking about suitor's specifically. That's a very firm connection that's more or less irrevocable outside of extreme circumstances, and would leave a mark even then.

When our loyalty seems up for grabs people court us with offers. Because we can be made to go one way or another people will devote more effort to gaining our favor and aligning us with them.

I'm thinking less join a faction, more play something akin to a mediator or diplomat. We're neutral ground so we're open to more parties. We may have the ability to set factions against each other. Just like how noble families may give support under the table as it were, so we can give support or show favor to various factions without being firmly tied down.

Plus, it lets us feel out the waters in relative safety before committing to a side. If we want to commit.
 
I still say we're more likely to get better results by playing the game and not picking a suitor at this point. If we pick a suitor we get a single set of allies and all of their enemies and we've burned a huge card.

The longer we hold onto that card the more everyone treats us nicely in order to build up their chance at it. It means less significant support from the one we'd have chosen, but more support overall. Also less likely to gain us that family's bitter enemies.
 
inverted_helix said:
I still say we're more likely to get better results by playing the game and not picking a suitor at this point. If we pick a suitor we get a single set of allies and all of their enemies and we've burned a huge card.
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'Suitor' is not the same thing as 'fiancé'. It's perfectly acceptable for girls in nearly any culture to have multiple suitors, because the word just means 'somebody who wants to marry someone'. Encouraging someone and then dropping them could have consequences, but I don't think putting in points to be hilariously attractive and then discouraging suitors or ignoring them for years and years is very smart.

It's 'Acquire a suitor of your own', not 'pick a suitor' or 'choose a fiancé'.
 
You're currently acquiring suitors like normal girls acquire a change of clothes. This choice is basically picking a noble family to throw in with (/use for your own ambitions and discard when no longer necessary). Nothing official, but you can promise to remember them fondly if the subject comes up with your Uncle.
 
[X] Lull them into a false sense of security [-10] – Do nothing, and save your strength. [Forgo the event and gain Fate points for later endeavors.]
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity. [0]
 
[X] The servants know much
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity.
 
[X] Lull them into a false sense of security [-10] – Do nothing, and save your strength. [Forgo the event and gain Fate points for later endeavors.]
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity. [0]
 
[X] Lull them into a false sense of security [-10] – Do nothing, and save your strength. [Forgo the event and gain Fate points for later endeavors.]
[X] Focus on building up its limited resources and increasing prosperity. [0]

Getting Fate points now is important because we did not leave any after character creation. Why? Because that means we have more options in the following years.

This is especially obvious when you looked at the option of: (Write-in any other single directive. Complex or ambitious directives may require fate points to avoid failure. [0+] )

It means that we need points to be able to make plans that are outside of railroads from the Regent, or personal actions that might still require Fate points to reinforce.

And it's kinda obvious that at the point where we're not going against either the Regent or the Prince we do not need to expend extra effort in the barony - we should take this chance to expand on the resources that it can call upon for now.
 
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