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TyrannyThe Code of Hammurabi posted:229 If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder shall be put to death. Julius Caesar's Commentary on the Gallic Wars posted:Toward evening Caesar ordered the gates to be shut, and the soldiers to go out of the town, lest the towns-people should receive any injury from them by night. They [the Aduatuci], by a design before entered into, as we afterwards understood, because they believed that, as a surrender had been made, our men would dismiss their guards, or at least would keep watch less carefully, partly with those arms which they had retained and concealed, partly with shields made of bark or interwoven wickers, which they had hastily covered over with skins, (as the shortness of time required) in the third watch, suddenly made a sally from the town with all their forces [in that direction] in which the ascent to our fortifications seemed the least difficult. The signal having been immediately given by fires, as Caesar had previously commended, a rush was made thither [i. e. by the Roman soldiers] from the nearest fort; and the battle was fought by the enemy as vigorously as it ought to be fought by brave men, in the last hope of safety, in a disadvantageous place, and against those who were throwing their weapons from a rampart and from towers; since all hope of safety depended on their courage alone. About 4,000 of the men having been slain, the rest were forced back into the town. The day after, Caesar, after breaking open the gates, which there was no one then to defend, and sending in our soldiers, sold the whole spoil of that town. The number of 53,000 persons was reported to him by those who had bought them. The Developers explaining their inspiration for Tyranny's evil posted:Ive found most of my inspiration comes from non-fiction: fascism, American exceptionalism, drug cartels, capitalist corporations, and militaries through the ages have all provided a great deal of inspiration as to how evil wins.  TheGreatEvilKing, what is this? Tyranny is an isometric CRPG in the vein of the old Infinity Engine games. You play as a Fatebinder, a servant of the evil Overlord Kyros, who has conquered the known world over 400 years(!) and your job is to enforce Kyros' Law, which is very draconian and evil apparently. Three years after the initial conquest of the Tiers, the locals are rebelling, and Kyros' armies are paralyzed by pointless infighting between two of the generals. You are sent in to resolve this mess before Kyros has had enough and kills everyone. Things proceed from there. Now, I want to say that Tyranny isn't a bad game. It does several things I absolutely adore such as the spellcrafting system, the now-ubiquitous hyperlinks in dialog, and rigging up the little portrait models to show character expressions. It is, however, a flawed game. Combat is grindy and repetitive and there aren't a lot of different enemies so you end up fighting the same pack of spear dudes. The game starts you as a devoted servant of the evil empire (you literally fight in the initial conquest) and gives you the option to betray Kyros and ramble about freedom in the first...20 minutes. The plot collapses in the third act and it's not quite clear why or how - unfortunately, I can't explain without spoilers. This isn't an Ash of Gods or a Numenera, but we're here to take a look at the good and the bad of this CRPG. What I want to keep in mind is that Tyranny is vaguely inspired by the ancient world, yet the developers operate on modern morality. Kyros' armies enslave their enemies off screen, yet we see very few slaves in game. Compare this to Caesar above, who brags of enslaving 53,000 people in a propaganda piece he wrote to sell himself to the Romans. Look at the developers' influences - the history of 20th century ideologies like fascism, despite the game being set closer to the nominal past actual fascists like to invoke. The ancients are not modern people with bad technology, and they're not dumb and uneducated either. They thought very differently than we do, and I think it's going to be very interesting to compare Kyros's empire, which the game portrays as the triumph of evil, with what people actually did in antiquity. Caesar was known for mercy despite enslaving all those people and threatening to decimate his own troops. Kyros' laws literally allow anyone to surrender to the Overlord and have their lives spared, a deal that's much better than what ancient conquerors will offer you. The question before us is, does this make for a better or worse narrative? So join me on our quest to navigate this weird mishmash of ancient worlds, modern morals, and magic as we go on our adventure with Tyranny.    This really looks better in video, but I suck at that. Sorry goons!   We will meet a lot of Archons. They're all assholes.       I really don't have a good historical comparison for these guys.   These guys are apparently based off phalanxes and I suspect are supposed to be the Spartan analogues. More on that later.   We'll be seeing a fair amount of these gentlemen over the course of the LP.    Anyway, that was the opening cutscene and next up is character creation! I need your help, goons!  We can be a man or a woman. The gender roles really do not matter because as a Fatebinder we literally have a blank check to do whatever as long as we keep Tunon and Kyros happy.   We need a portrait. We have...a lot of options. I will adjust skin color and whatnot to match the portrait, so please don't vote on that.    We need an origin for our evil person.  It legitimately doesn't matter what you pick because I'm shoehorning us into being a mage, and you can't stop me. The "guild apprentice" is apprentice mage, incidentally. We need two skills   Now, you might be asking why I'm letting you vote on this if I'm shoehorning us into mage? The thing is all of the "spells" options can be found during gameplay, but if you pick literally anything else you get free talents. If you pick the spells (that you can find really early in the game) you are essentially cheating yourself out of free talents. That said, magic is so overpowered in this game (and has a legitimately cool spellcrafting system) that I don't give a poo poo. Vote away. We need a banner As a member of the secret police/free reign judges/whatever the hell a Fatebinder is we get a cool flag and don't have to use Tunon's.      Lastly, we need a name!  And no, we can't name ourselves "Kyros", nice try! Decisions Lie Before Us! I need a gender, portrait, history, two skills/sigils, a banner, and a name! Choose wisely, because next we get to figure out what we did in the Conquest! Also, I'm shoehorning us in as a mage anyway, so we're really just picking whether we want some starting talents or to actually have magic to use. Update List Note that we only did two routes, so if you want to see Disfavored or Rebels...play the game! Cleopatra Jones Does Anarchy Cleopatra Jones and the Conquest of the Tiers Cleopatra Jones and the Unfair Edict Cleopatra Jones and the Laws of Kyros Cleopatra Jones and the Growing Realization We Might Be Totally hosed Cleopatra Jones and the Quest for More Party Members Cleopatra Jones and the Attack on Trap River Cleopatra Jones and the Limitations of the Fatebinders Cleopatra Jones and the Case of the Missing Iron Cleopatra Jones and the Sidequests of Kyros Cleopatra Jones and the Choice of Assholes Cleopatra Jones And The Terrible Realization That Everything Has Gone To poo poo Cleopatra Jones and the Great Betrayal Act 1 Postmortem: The Seeker of Power Cleopatra Jones and the Deluded Archon Cleopatra Jones and the Meeting in the Woods Cleopatra Jones and the Chatty Party Members Cleopatra Jones and the Burning Library Cleopatra Jones and the Hunt For Artifacts Cleopatra Jones and the Quest To Unfuck Barik's Life Cleopatra Jones and The Chat With Bleden Mark Cleopatra Jones and the Traumatized Archon Cleopatra Jones And the Courtroom Drama Cleopatra Jones and the Lying Mercenary Cleopatra Jones and the Quest for Revenge Cleopatra Jones and the Rocky Retort Cleopatra Jones and the Terrible Townsfolk Cleopatra Jones and the Ineptly Run Mercenary Company Cleopatra Jones and the Boring rear end Dungeon Cleopatra Jones and the Big Bane Beatdown Cleopatra Jones and The Last Tidecaster Cleopatra Jones and the Magicial Birds and Bees Cleopatra Jones and the Unfunny Chorus Comedians Cleopatra Jones and the Totally Legal Settlement Cleopatra Jones and the Rehash of Bad Faction Choosing Cleopatra Jones and the Enormous Pile of Assholes Cleopatra Jones and the Unwanted Trolley Ride Cleopatra Jones and TheGreatEvilKing's Descent Into Insanity Cleopatra Jones and the Triumph of Incoherence Cleopatra Jones and the Struggle of the Inept Cleopatra Jones and the Poorly Thought Out Ending Bastard's Wound Postmortem: Why Are We Here? Cleopatra Jones and the Last Survivor of the Shadowhunter Tribe Cleopatra Jones and the Town Full of Racists Cleopatra Jones and the Stonestalker Tribe Cleopatra Jones and the Attack on Treason Fort Cleopatra Jones and the Breaking of the Game Cleopatra Jones and the Chat With Barik Cleopatra Jones and the Forced Violence Cleopatra Jones and the Fortress of Fuckups Cleopatra Jones and the Weakness of Kyros Cleopatra Jones and the Derailed Trolley Cleopatra Jones and the Beginning of the End Act 2 Postmortem: This Was Never Going To Work Cleopatra Jones and the Odd DLC Quest Cleopatra Jones and the Failed Archon Cleopatra Jones and The General Who Didn't Care Cleopatra Jones and the Quest to Get HIgh Cleopatra Jones and the Trial of Tunon Cleopatra Jones and the End of the Game Act Three Postmortem: I Am Kyros Boris Joins the Chorus Governor Boris and the Alternative Conquest Governor Boris and the Vicious Beating Governor Boris And The Distressing Fact Playing Melee In This Game loving Sucks Governor Boris and the Treachery of the Great General Governor Boris and the Wrath of Tunon Governor Boris and the Chat with Nerat Governor Boris and the Camp at Cacophony Governor Boris and the Rude Mercenaries Governor Boris and the Broken Captain Governor Boris and The lovely Leader Governor Boris and The Bad Decisions Governor Boris and the Mercy of Nerat Governor Boris and the Band of Fuckups Governor Boris and the Betrayal of Tunon Governor Boris and the Great Blame Game Governor Boris and the Sea of Boredom Governor Boris and the Adventures in Blowing People Up Governor Boris and the Unjust Trial Governor Boris and the Cowardly Surrender Miscellaneous Bonus Updates Bonus Update #1: Favor, Wrath, Loyalty, and Fear Bonus Update: The Bane Interlude: The Triumph of Evil Bonus Update: The Trial of Fatebinder Furia TheGreatEvilKing fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Nov 1, 2021 |
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Aug 28, 2020 03:57
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I vote for male, buff as can be. And the portrait could be the mustached fellow, sixth on the first horizontal row, War Mage for history, Unarmed Attacks as the primary and Atrophy Spells as secondary for skills. For the banner, I vote the sun-looking symbol surrounded by three dots on the first road. His name? Doyle.
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Aug 28, 2020 04:11
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I vote for the lady, column 5 row 6. It looks like she's eating her sword and frankly that's a level of insanity I really respect. As for history? Breakin' the law! It doesn't seem like we can specialize in swords though, so I vote dual-wielding and shortbow as our skills. For flag, it was close between this and the snake but I vote for the sonic rings. I guess we were breaking speed limits. Barb seems like a good name for her.
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Aug 28, 2020 06:46
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Muscly lady portrait (5,4) (e: 4th from the bottom) Guild apprentice Double lightning skills to grab energy shield and get further down the magic tree Second last one for the banner because it's a lightning sigil. Soras Rex WhiskeyWhiskers fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Aug 28, 2020 |
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Aug 28, 2020 07:14
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Trick Question posted:I vote for the lady, column 5 row 6. It looks like she's eating her sword and frankly that's a level of insanity I really respect. that but this gentleman with a goofy smile: 
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Aug 28, 2020 09:30
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Lady, Column 7 Row 3. Guild Apprentice Sword and Shield Javelin Banner, Column 2 Row 6 (The hand looking one) Name: Bertha  ---- Oddly enough, I actually beat this one. Funny how much a difference a game that, in spite of a number of bugs, was actually fun to play made. One of those fun things was the magic system, so I'm happy to see we'll be getting a good look at that.  ---- Being a better game than Stygian, I don't think I'll be doing a trivia corner often. Nothing to do with not remembering nearly as much off the top of my head  ...I still remember a few things, but folks will generally be better off fishing around for a wiki/guide if they yearn for trivia. That said, even this early on, I do have one piece of genuine, spoiler-free trivia: Steam some while back had a free to play day/weekend for Tyranny, letting players play the whole game for, well, free. Steam, or whoever was responsible, messed up such that the game was still wholly playable even after the free period was over, no messing with the files or anything. If you could find the folder for Tyranny, you could play. It didn't include DLC, so there was some incentive to get the game anyways, but I imagine there were more than a few folks who beat the game in the days after without paying a penny.
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Aug 28, 2020 09:56
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Muscular Dude Middle of the third row from the top. The helmet wearer. Guild Apprentice Unarmed and Mace The highlighted strange calipers, forth row, third from the left Jean-Luc The calipers (and the promised misunderstandings of historical tyranny) inspired me to create measurehead from disco elysium.
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Aug 28, 2020 12:00
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VictualSquid posted:Muscular Dude This is the best possible choice.
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Aug 28, 2020 12:26
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I remember playing this around the time it came out and my biggest gripe was that, despite being Radio Free Kobold fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Aug 28, 2020 |
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Aug 28, 2020 15:08
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Arcanuse posted:Lady, Column 7 Row 3. this guy seems to know what he's talking about I second this vote
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Aug 28, 2020 16:08
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Radio Free Kobold posted:I remember playing this around the time it came out and my biggest gripe was that, despite being I was going to rant about this, trust me we are getting there.
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Aug 28, 2020 16:30
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Radio Free Kobold posted:I remember playing this around the time it came out and my biggest gripe was that, despite being I figured that it's something we as players don't know, but our characters would (to varying extents).
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Aug 28, 2020 17:07
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I do badly wanted this game to be great. The idea of playing the bad guy enforcing the evil law in a CRPG sounded fascinating and the game is good sometimes but it just gets in its own way too much.
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Aug 28, 2020 18:06
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Brawny Lady 2nd portrait from the right on the Bottom row Noble Scion Unarmed and War Mace Falcon banner Kyra
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Aug 28, 2020 18:19
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VictualSquid posted:Muscular Dude Yes.
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Aug 28, 2020 18:50
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Arcanuse posted:Lady, Column 7 Row 3. This.
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Aug 28, 2020 19:03
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Portrait: Fourth row, second column Origin: War Mage Skills: Unarmed Attacks; Shortbow. I would like to cast Fist please. Banner: First row, fourth column. Name: Well, we are basically a mage-officer with immense extralegal authority and carte blanche to bring justice as we like? Those who hear of our coming will be possessed by untold Dredd.
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Aug 28, 2020 19:18
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VictualSquid posted:Muscular Dude I never really tried going full magic, always used it as a secondary option to support some kind of a weapon build. Looking forward to seeing it in action.
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Aug 28, 2020 19:30
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VictualSquid posted:Muscular Dude I'll change my vote to this, it's clearly superior.
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Aug 28, 2020 21:37
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Wooo, I loved playing Tyranny when it came out... Although looking back, I think I loved the potential more than the actual end result.
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Aug 28, 2020 21:45
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As long as we go Muscle Mage IŽm fine with whatever. And I sincerely hope that you wonŽt have us voting for the entire pre-story viegnette because then youŽll probably be ready to start the actual game sometime next year
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Aug 28, 2020 21:48
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We should be super-buff woman that enjoys fighting with greatsword and war mace. We used to be a diplomat
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Aug 28, 2020 21:53
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Hell yeah, Tyranny is the second-most underappreciated game Obsidian has done. Guild Apprentice Frost x2. You know what to do.
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Aug 28, 2020 22:02
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Hey, it's this game. I picked it up after enjoying PoE but never got past the prologue and given recent events it's real hard to go back to. For builds I like big weapons but beyond that don't really care.
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Aug 28, 2020 22:10
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Sylphosaurus posted:As long as we go Muscle Mage IŽm fine with whatever. I'm thinking we vote on the ability, locations, and whether we favor the Disfavored or Scarlet Chorus more.
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Aug 28, 2020 23:26
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obviously elite phalanxes are cooler than a bunch of khorne cultist wannabes
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Aug 28, 2020 23:47
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If the Disfavored wanted us to side with them they should have called themselves something else.
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Aug 29, 2020 00:58
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Arcanuse posted:Lady, Column 7 Row 3. Okay that's pretty good, let's do this
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Aug 29, 2020 02:49
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VictualSquid posted:Jean-Luc I see where your mind went but do we want our character to immediately get destroyed with a sickass spin kick by the first hobo we run into
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Aug 29, 2020 02:50
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Radio Free Kobold posted:I remember playing this around the time it came out and my biggest gripe was that, despite being I mean without getting into spoiler territory you get told the important ones early on. Sure it doesn't go into fine detail but do we really need to know all of the ordinances and miscellaneous minor laws of Kyros' domain? (Yes)
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Aug 29, 2020 03:19
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Deki posted:I mean without getting into spoiler territory you get told the important ones early on. Sure it doesn't go into fine detail but do we really need to know all of the ordinances and miscellaneous minor laws of Kyros' domain? (Yes) yes, when some peasant comes to me about how the roofbuilder scammed him i need to know the appropriate body part, and whether it's to be crippled or removed and so on i can't just go "we must burn down the house with both of you inside" or "he should give back the money", or maybe i can? i don't know. either way there are supposed to be rules here and i can't consult them. i cannot establish effective adjudication without consulting former precedents and appropriate reference documents. Radio Free Kobold fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Aug 29, 2020 |
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Aug 29, 2020 03:53
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Radio Free Kobold posted:yes, when some peasant comes to me about how the roofbuilder scammed him i need to know the appropriate body part, and whether it's to be crippled or removed and so on You are expected to have memorized them because your boss has inhumanly high standards.
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Aug 29, 2020 04:15
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Radio Free Kobold posted:yes, when some peasant comes to me about how the roofbuilder scammed him i need to know the appropriate body part, and whether it's to be crippled or removed and so on I'm assuming that mechanically and possibly in canon Kyros' law is just whatever you say it is when questioned?
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Aug 29, 2020 05:51
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VictualSquid posted:Muscular Dude I'm going to vote for this. Bertha had her time.
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Aug 29, 2020 06:35
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Crane Fist posted:I'm assuming that mechanically and possibly in canon Kyros' law is just whatever you say it is when questioned? What is the spoiler policy?
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Aug 29, 2020 06:46
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Xarn posted:What is the spoiler policy? Spoiler tags but otherwise go nuts.
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Aug 29, 2020 07:41
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Crane Fist posted:I see where your mind went but do we want our character to immediately get destroyed with a sickass spin kick by the first hobo we run into I mean, that would only happen if he was an ex-gym teacher with a deep seated love of disco music and how often does that come up?
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Aug 29, 2020 08:31
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While the talk in the OP about the anachronism of the morality of the game relative to the time period it's meant to represent is true...stories are told for an audience. In this case, a modern one. Grounding characterization in actual accurate portrayals of morality circa antiquity would probably make it hard to relate to, or indeed hard to derive any useful message from, for a modern audience. This is not a documentary.
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Aug 29, 2020 20:26
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I had a really hard time with Tyranny until I started playing mage and decided to stop trying to play Evil Lawyer and instead play Heroic Protagonist. The game worked better if I played as a good person in a bad world, trying to beat the odds. Not what I expected from the marketing, but sure. Anyhow:  - Because I really like that portrait.Diplomat - Because no one has ever regretted being good at talking in an Obsidian game Unarmed Attacks & Shortbow - Mainly because they give Subterfuge skill and bows are useful early on.  - Because 💗.Names are hard, but I'm going with Cleopatra Jones. Looking forward to seeing how on earth you vote your way through The Conquest in a timely manner, since it's surprisingly reactive...
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Aug 29, 2020 21:38
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Radio Free Kobold posted:yes, when some peasant comes to me about how the roofbuilder scammed him i need to know the appropriate body part, and whether it's to be crippled or removed and so on Honestly, Kyros' law is more or less covered in the intro and it amounts to "Don't make Mom/Dad miss their show or so god you're all going to regret it."
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Aug 29, 2020 22:10
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