SP - General Random events to improve Roleplay and make for compelling characters

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Bannerlord's roleplaying aspects are quite lackluster, especially if you consider it possibilities. The shift towards randomly generated characters has stripped us of the possibility to have atleast some amount of immersion through more curated storylines and characters.

How do you make characters compelling, despite them being randomly generated? I've played a number of games that tried to answer that question, but the one that did so most succesfully, at least in my opinion, is Crusader Kings 2 (I haven't played 3 yet, probably should)
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Crusader Kings, for those that somehow know about Mount and Blade but not Paradox games, is a medieval sandbox grand-strategy where you play as a dinasty, from one character to the next, from 789 to 1453. There are various start dates, so you can see the first years of gameplay being fairly curated, like Charlemagne's events, but soon it all fizzles out and the player is left alone.
The game basically has folders upon folders of events that can happen randomly, provided certain conditions are met: culture, religion, if married, if you're in campaign, as well as specific traits, which also unlock certain choices within these events
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Crucially, I want to focus on 3 aspects of CK events:
  • They allow to flesh out not just the characters but the world as well, through culture-specific events and more.
  • Traits play a significant role in the process. The character gains or loses traits and is given additional option because of one specific trait.
  • They can affect relationships, either by slight increases or dramatic changes. Friendships and Rivalries aren't people you have +100 or -100 relations with, they are made and undone with events.
Now, the trait system in CK2 is fairly extensive, far beyond the Merciful/Generous/Honorable sliders of Bannerlord, but still, things could be extrapolated from that. Beyond the obvious re-insertion of companion complaints, you can actually make it possible to build up the positive traits and make it worth it, not just by locking certain options behind an arbitrary "YOU NEED TO BE THIS HONORABLE TO DO THAT", but by scaling the rewards and penalties according to your traits. Yes, kicking that puppy was a bad look, but you're a mass murdering psycopath so it's not like the townsfolk were expecting any better from you, plus the local wildlife will stop eating from your food stores. If you do that while being a walking saint, the relations shock will be more severe while the loss in food be more consistent. It makes the player act in a consistent manner rather than just choose what would otherwise be the min-maxing solution. I also can't stress how important this would be to world building: the encyclopaedia entries of the various cities are great and tell quite the story, but I'd like to PLAY that not just READ it, perhaps finding some hidden imperial catacombs while waiting in Charas or participating in some Battanian ritual in Dunglanys.
 
I know at least one Warband mod, Gekkokujo, had something like this and it could have been some sub-mod that was in other things. Most of those just ended in a small combat encounter though.
 
I know at least one Warband mod, Gekkokujo, had something like this and it could have been some sub-mod that was in other things. Most of those just ended in a small combat encounter though.
So did Perisno (though it had clearly good and evil choices which isn't that great) and Pendor had "Heartbeat Quests" for your fiefs which relied on your steward's ability to implement the solution you suggested. To be honest, the latter would make a fine addition to Bannerlord, since now we have governors.
 
I would love to see many of the Crusdader Kings concepts incorporated into Bannerlord.

Right now, Bannerlord is mostly a fighting game with a very thin veneer of grand strategy.

The addition of more diplomacy and dynastic elements would provide more depth to the Bannerlord experience.
 
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