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June in Review

Once again it is the first Saturday of the month, so let's look back on what has happened during the previous month.


Vassal interactions, part 2


Last time I wrote about vassal interactions, specifically a system of private meetings. Work continued on this. The bad news is that I vastly underestimated the amount of work needed and didn't factor in losing a bit of time to illness. The good news is that I finished the final one of those 120-ish events last night!



Mechanically speaking, these give the player a chance to influence vassals or else be influenced by them. Sometimes meetings go very well and result in additional boons: improved relations, gaining willpower, or even securing a promise of support in a future war. Having a few vassals pledged to assist you beyond the requisite 40 days of military service per year does certainly help after all.



When meeting with people with whom you have poor relations, or with whom the meeting goes badly, sometimes the results are less desirable.




Continuations events, continued


Long ago I wrote about continuations events. For those not around in those days, these are events that unfold over time. After being started they are continued later — sometimes much later. Rest assured that these are still being added. These vassal interactions gave a few opportunities for fun continuations events in fact. Part of the reason I've been a bit quiet about these it is hard to talk about specifics and not spoil things. Though Dei Gratia Rex is more about emergent stories than fixed ones, there are still some surprises.


Patron saints


What might a particularly pious person talk about in these meetings? It occurred to me that at some point the topic of saints to whom they had a particular devotion might be such a topic. The only problem was that people in DGR didn't have these special devotions! They do now.



It was a relatively easy thing to implement, and I'll probably do more with it if time allows. An interesting thing about it is that people choose these patrons based on their personality and lifestyle. Someone whose business is war might have a devotion to St. Maurice, while a scholar may instead opt for the Venerable Bede. Someone who only gives lip service to the Church probably doesn't even bother to choose anyone at all. The logic is a little more in depth than that, but that's the general idea.

What's next


There are a few extra tweaks needed on meetings. Next up is a much smaller series of meetings with the burgesses. Also I still need to add an entry point for these meetings during the itinerant court (though naturally with different attendees). After that, new content!