Hello! I played through a full Quest of your game and I liked it. I enjoyed seeing my knight grow to meet difficult perils and how that changed him. All the dangers I encountered fit neatly in my vaguely fantastic setting -- and though how perils are crafted doesn't bring itself to a climax, it's easy to deduce approximately how much of the story is left by how much reputation you've acquired, and so it allows you to craft your own.
Some thoughts (not ordered):
- I think it'd be useful if in the character sheet, alongside each stat, was a place to record your last used stat. Maybe not that important for people that don't journal too extensively...? But I found myself using the right-most box of the corresponding skill to keep track, so might as well comment on it.
- I would have liked for the liege bonds, the Legend, etc. to be put into play through the peril/intrigue prompts more often -- challenging the foundation of the character in more impactful ways. Similarly, the Sovereign did not permeate the story as much as I would have expected (though I never got them, the Sovereign's / Sovereign's Shadow intrigue prompts were soooo cool to me and would've loved more like that!).
- Maybe if you purposefully choose to fail a danger (as per Dishonorable) you can be prompted to change the lens of how the world sees you, your connection to the Sovereign, etc. instead of just "you choose to fail". I think it'd help to more seamlessly introduce the End of a Legend > Dishonorable result. Also, unlike Downfall, it was very hard to find reasons to choose the Dishonorable path.
- It's so smart to make repeated dangers be -1 difficulty :) Never happened to me (there's a lot of variety) but I thought it was such a neat way to combat bad RNG.
- The questions in page 24 are pretty unreadable.
- Adding a mechanic of critical successes could be cool. I once rolled 3 6s and gave myself +1 die on my next action, as a little treat.
- In the experience shop, I never reached for decreasing my reputation in any trait because I thought it took away from how the story was unfolding. I guess if you have a streak of bad luck and a crystallizing idea of who your paladin is it could be more tempting. Tangentially, I was itching for being able to buy a reroll. Maybe tied to how good you are in a stat (good at it = more expensive) so you don't just spam your highest.
- Okay last thing, an anecdote: in literally my last roll of the game (I already had reached Masterful 10 but needed to complete my intrigue) I had 4 exp and needed 5 to dispatch a wizard that was fucking Scary, so I pushed myself to do the intrigue with a resisted roll even though the game was "over" just to see if I could deal with the enemy in the background too. Just thought it was a neat moment of the mechanics pushing me to make a compelling choice :)