Game director Henrik Fåhraeus emphasizes that the
studio isn’t trying to retread old ground, and its goals are a
bit different this time around. “Rather than trying to
match the width of Crusader Kings II, which is huge after
seven years of expansions and DLC, we went deep
instead, and thought about what it means to be a ruler.”
Yet, it actually still seems pretty wide. Massive, really.
There aren’t merchant republics, nomadic tribes are now
just regular tribes, and the inventory system—which lead
designer Alexander Oltner admits was horrible for
balance, and led to stat bloat—has been tossed out, but the
list of what’s been kept is a lot longer. Indeed, one of
Crusader Kings III’s most touted features, lifestyles,
sprang from the Way of Life DLC.
There are a lot of things for a medieval ruler to worry
about, from economic concerns to religious crises—you’ve
got a whole dynasty and your realm demanding your
attention—but through the lifestyle system you can work
just on yourself. Previously that meant picking a focus,
like warfare, and just getting a stat boost. In Crusader
Kings III, picking a lifestyle gives you
access to a trio of trees that would
look comfortable in an RPG. If you
pick the martial lifestyle, for instance,
you might focus on chivalry,
unlocking thematically appropriate
perks, and becoming a gallant knight.
Perks unlocked through these
trees will help guide your character’s
personality, as well as give you some
handy bonuses. Like its predecessor,
there are also traits that can be
unlocked through actions and events.
Spend a lot of time torturing
prisoners, and you’ll become a sadist.
Then there’s the stuff you inherit,
ranging from completely cosmetic
things, like being a redhead, to
practical ones, like being healthy. You
can foster these traits in your heirs by
picking a spouse with the traits you
want to pass on—kings don’t have
time for love, they’re too busy with
their creepy breeding programmes.“There are three main traits that
you can reinforce, either negatively or
positively,” says Fåhraeus. “There’s
health, intelligence, and beauty. They
exist in three levels, going from
positive to negative, so you can have a
very ugly person or a slightly ugly
person. But the personality traits, like
courageous, cannot be inherited
genetically. It’s very specific. If you
want a smart, beautiful, brawny type
of character, you can create that—you
can breed them.”BE YOURSELF
Despite being such a big part of
Crusader Kings II, role-playing was
largely optional. If your character was
a cruel idiot, that might be expressed
through events, but you could play
that character any way you wanted.
In Crusader Kings III, playing againstRIGHT: Character
portraits have been
replaced by more
emotive (slightly
creepy) 3D models.
LOWER RIGHT:
Maps! Menus! It’s so
hard to do captions
for these games.your personality will have some
dramatic side effects, all the way up
to your ruler losing their mind.
Thankfully, there are outlets for
stress, but not all of them are healthy.
An athletic ruler might work out to
relax, but some rulers might turn to
booze, sex, and torturing the poor
unfortunates in their dungeon,
potentially giving them some new,
grisly vices. But at least they’ll get rid
of those pesky stress headaches.
This doesn’t mean you have to
play a certain way. “We want it to
mean something,” says Fåhraeus, “but
not to the level of being the only
thing you think about. It’s an
interesting mechanic, but not
supposed to overpower your
gameplay.”
Dynasties can also level up. These
are your immediate and extended
families and the most important
groups you’ll be interacting with.Crusader Kings III
COVER FEATURE