Christianity and
Islam. Each is
made up of tenets
and doctrines,
representing their
rules and
opinions on
things like
divorce and
homosexuality. Some are just
flavor, but others have a tangible
impact. Then there’s the list of
sins (yay!) and virtues (booo!) to
round things out. But if none of them
speak to your soul, you can just make
a new one...TOP: That escalated
to murder pretty
quickly, or pretty
normally for
Crusader Kings.
LOWER RIGHT:
The map covers the
same ground as
Crusader Kings II, but
it’s even larger.
you can have a
viable kingdom,
even if loads of
people hate you,
but it could cause
a problem for
your heirs.
They’ll inherit all
that hatred, but
people won’t be afraid of them.
Another way you can exert
influence over people is through
religion. Crusader Kings III features
three large religious groups—
Abrahamic, Eastern and Paganism—
and then specific religions, likebranches—houses—that get their
own heraldry, a motto and some
extra autonomy. Instead of CKII’s
model, where dynasties are these big
monolithic groups, landed members
of your dynasty can try to carve out a
bit more agency for themselves by
forming an offshoot.
Don’t expect dynastic civil wars,
but the houses will try to expand
their influence. On the off-chance
you end up losing your position as a
dynast, you can try to reclaim your
power by being the best head of a
house, until everyone recognizes it. If
your dynasty dies out, it’s the end of
the game, but until then there are
ways to become top dog again. House heads also get some
powers that allow them to flex their muscles, like being
able to legitimize bastards or disinherit people.
With these changes to dynasties, Fåhraeus is hoping it
will shore up a problem with its predecessor. “One of the
things that’s a weakness in Crusader Kings II is there
aren’t any permanent entities that you can operate
throughout the game. There’s not a nation, your titles can
switch to a duchy or a kingdom and then back to a county,
characters keep dying.” Only dynasties are permanent, at
least until you run out of heirs, so effort has been put into
giving players more progression and unlocks via dynasties.
If you can’t be bothered to keep the nobles happy, you
can always rule by fear. You can increase your Dread
value, eventually making people too terrified to plot
against you. The impact depends on the vassal’s bravery,
however, and bold vassals won’t be cowed. It does mean
“I WAS NEVER REALLY
HAPPY WITH THE
NAME CRUSADER
KINGS”