This is the transcript of a Question and Answer topic I ran on Patreon. A question were asked by patrons and answered by myself, to the best of my ability:
1: Colby Hill asks: First time hearing about it, can you give an tldr elevator pitch for it?
A: Play as an officer of the French Army through the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Fight in historical battles and navigate treacherous political crises to win glory, earn promotion, and potentially change the course of history.
2: Javier Ricaurte asks: So from the May Narrative Outline we know that it’s possible to change the outcome of Waterloo, but how much change could it be done to previous points in history? Taking into consideration that we must end on Waterloo no matter what.
A: In a lot of ways, history is a cascade of causes and effects. If certain events don’t shake out one way or another, then everything that follows becomes differen.t Normally, I’d be happy to lean into this and create the sort of branching structure I’m familiar with, but if Shadow of the Eagles is going to follow the trajectory of the Napoleonic Wars, then certain things need to happen: Louis XVI needs to die, Napoleon needs to crown himself Emperor, the invasion of Russia needs to fail.
However, within these constraints, I’m going to try to allow the player as much space as possible to change history in ways which affect their character, but not so much the broader sweep of history, especially as they reach higher rank. As a salient example: the twin battles of Jena-Auerstedt will still be French victories regardless, but if you’re the right rank and make the right decisions, maybe you’re the one who beats the Prussian main force, not Marshal Davout. The broad result would be the same: the French win both fights and the Prussian army is annihilated – but it’d also mean that the player character would be the one to receive the personal glory and reputation of fighting and winning the most stunning victory of the War of the Fourth Coalition.
3: Joachim von Volkenrose asks: Will we be able to play as non-French members of French Army?
A: Not explicitly. The prologue and character generation system as I have it right now specifies that the player character is one of the “National Volunteers” of 1792, who signed up in Paris. That could still mean that they’re not ethnically French, but it does mean they have to be in that place, at that time.
4: Juan Cuevas asks: Napoleon’s generals and marshals racked up an impressive number of titles during the time of the Empire. Will the player have a chance to gain some of these titles, and if so, are we likely to see any sort of commentary on the betrayal this could mean if the player held legitimate Republican convictions in the times of the Republic?
A: Yes, on both counts. The player character will have a chance to break into the Napoleonic peerage, going up the ranks. Most Barons and Counts of the Empire had no specific title attached to them (they were simply Baron/Count [last name]), but they did come with an annuity which I plan to model. There is one specific victory title which I also plan to include, and I’m sure you could probably guess how you get that one.
The player character’s loyalty to the Republic and its ideals will also be tracked, both traditionally, and through their relationship to General Dumas as a character. Dumas was a hardcore Republican who was fully devoted to the progressive ideals of the revolution (the fact that it abolished slavery probably helped) while keeping himself aloof of most of the excesses of the Terror. Part of the reason he fell out with Napoleon was because he saw General Bonaparte as a potential tyrant as early as Italy. He’s going to serve as an impromptu “representative” of revolutionary ideals during the time of the Directory and Consulate (and into the Empire, if he lives) which the player will be able to engage with, either as a diehard Republican or a Bonapartist convert.
5: Mawee Elmi asks: Historically Napoleon’s marshals were quite spread out: Netherlands, Spain and Russia for example, how many exotic locales of the wars should we expect our character to see?
A: As many as I can fit. There’ll be campaigns which I plan on leaving out (the initial war in Spain and the invasion of Portugal, for example), but by the time you’re done, your character may well have campaigned in every part of Europe except for the Balkans – as well as Egypt, Palestine, and Syria.
6: Lucullus asks: How will the game handle the MC’s class background?
A: My current outline has the player character’s social class decided at character creation, where they can choose between a coming from one of a selection of backgrounds representing a cross-section of ‘common’ backgrounds (day-labourer, shop clerk, petty criminal, etc) or an aristocrat. These will determine your starting skills and stats. There are definite advantages to choosing to be an ‘aristo’. For one, you’ll have a classical education fit for a member of the traditional military aristocracy, which includes a far broader degree of skill training. However, it also means you start on pretty thin ice with just about everyone around you, and as the Terror ramps up, that noble blood is going to make your loyalty suspect (especially after your fellow noble officers start defecting) and make it much easier for your player character to get in trouble with the Committee of Public Safety.
You don’t want to get in trouble with the Committee of Public Safety.
7: Tree Leaf asks: What sort of character traits and character customization are you planning for it?
A: I’ve tried to create a stat and skill system which both covers every part of the scope of the game while remaining simple enough to be intuitive. One of my goals was to have all relevant character information available to the player on the same screen as the rest of the game, which will create a relatively streamlined, simple to navigate experience – maybe even simpler than a Choicescript game.
If you want more information, I posted a mechanical outline last month which goes into more detail about the intended stat and skill system.
Character customisation will be a lot more bare-bones, really just a name. I’m going to let the player fill in the gaps here. Most reactivity will come as a result of the decisions the player makes through the story.
8: Jason Lopez asks: What interested you in writing this and how do you feel like it will challenge you as a writer?
A: Honestly, this project is going to challenge me a lot more as a coder, project manager, and a game designer than as a writer.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll definitely be learning to do new stuff regarding procedural events and emergent narrative, but I’ll also be working in Twine, which has far more features – and is commensurately more complex to script in than ChoiceScript. I’ll also be doing UI design, and trying to contract some sound and art as well. It’ll be a more fully featured project than most of my previous work, and it’ll also be self-published.
So that’s a lot of new stuff I need to tackle by myself.
Paul Wang 