Ruler Designer Save Game Ck2

Can anyone honestly claim their immediate reaction to the new, non-2D character portraits in Crusader Kings 3 was anything but "Gee, I hope there's a Ruler Designer so I can make myself (but with a better jawline)?" Good tidings to you all! There is indeed a Ruler Designer in CK3 and players can indeed craft a be-jawlined version of themselves.

Be warned, ye players: custom character gameplay is a thorny undertaking. Player-crafted lords and ladies enter the Middle Ages as the sole member of their dynasty. Their death, without any heirs of their lineage, invokes the dreaded Game Over screen. Certain strategies can preserve a custom dynasty through the perilous first few generations... but may involve certain sacrifices of dignity and virtue.

10 Save-Spamming

Let's take a moment to be frank. The best method of ensuring your game doesn't end prematurely is by declining the chance to play in Iron Man mode. It's by being a low-down, dirty save-spammer.

Steam achievements will be unavailable, but in-game achievements (with enough patients) are almost guaranteed. While adjusting to CK3 and learning what to expect from the game's AI, this style of play really shouldn't be frowned upon. Players should simply be aware that it is addictive. Avoidance of risk and loss can become an unhealthy habit.

9 Don't Design A Hamlet

High school English refresher: Hamlet was a horribly imperfect prince of Denmark. His relationship ended with his girlfriend committing suicide; his attempt at rule ended in his death. If a player designs a character with as many flaws as Hamlet, their ruler is about as doomed as Macbeth (he was also very doomed).

What should guide character creation? The absolute biggest goal of a dynasty founder is to have at least one child. Therefore, the PC should not be given Chaste. The player should be cautious of unattractive qualities. They shouldn't choose traits that are counterintuitive to how they want to play, as these will cause the PC to become stressed and potentially suicidal. Don't make the PC disgustingly old. If any of these doom-bringers are essential to a character build, consider entering the game accompanied by a spouse and child.

8 Marry Wisely

Just as players need to avoid making their characters infertile, they also need to avoid roping them into childless marriages. For rulers who are allowed secondary wives... this section is less relevant. But for the rest: ensure the chance of children from PC marriage is high. Players may also want to make sure their first marriage snags them an alliance, thus also the military help critical for early survival. Spouses should also have good skills (and thus, good genes).

Female rulers absolutely have to marry matrilineally. If the child is not of the PC's dynasty, their game is doomed.

7 Helicopter (Or The Medieval Equivalent) Parenting

via PC Gamer

Children are the future, in the Middle Ages as much as now. As well as having the PC shoot out as many as possible, players need to ensure their children are well-tended. Give them skilled educators, don't forget to assign education focuses, and be wary of both sieges on the PC's capital and assassination plots.

Find a healthy balance with the marriages of offspring. Skills and alliances are particularly important for elder children. Matrilineal marriages likely mean sacrificing potential alliances, but they beef up future dynastic membership. If a player has enough children, a mix of both is ideal.

6 Consider Infidelity

Sounds like absolutely evil advice, but this is Crusader Kings we're talking about. The benefit of cheating on a spouse is the potential for more children. The downside: bastard children must be acknowledged and legitimized. This will divide the PC from their spouse. If the spouse is unlikely to produce more kids anyway: well, there is limited downside to upsetting them. Otherwise, legitimizing bastards is costly, both in relationship and prestige terms.

An Austin Powers-esque stratagem of not marrying until later in life and siring/legitimizing as many bastards beforehand can certainly prove shagadelic, baby. Being a lothario is certainly gross... but at least the player gets a big, potentially happy family out of it.

5 Embrace Cowardice

Death in battle is mainly just a concern for the knights in shining Iron Man mode, and it is quite a concern for them indeed. At a stroke, a lord slain and a game ended. Perhaps it isn't the heroic fantasy many a gamer craves, but having the founder of their prospective dynasty slink away from all fights is just good sense. Leave violence to meathead knights and commoners. This policy can be revisited when there's an heir around, ready to take over. At that point, it's perfectly fine to give the old custom character a noble death.

4 Trust Medieval Doctors

Given it's a medieval game... players do sort of have to trust medieval medicine. Sure, a court physician can easily leave a PC one-eyed or crippled after a failed treatment. But at least the PC gets to experience the thrill of being farted on by a eunuch or screamed at by a goat beforehand. That's classic medieval medicine.

Check the PC's court for someone with high Learning skill, high enough to warrant waiting for them to be become experienced as a Physician. If there's no one (and no one worth attracting via marriage to a courtier), then consider the Search For Physician decision.

3 Courtiers? Gotta Have Courtiers

A notable change between CK2 and CK3: it is now distinctly more difficult to bribe people. What else could possibly win people over? Strategy, charm? Ridiculous.

Skilled courtiers seem to be practically impossible to order Amazon-style from the Find Characters screen. Players need to instead take advantage of expensive prestige-based options to find knights and physicians. They can also capitalize on hooks to force characters into their court. Lastly, they can use marriages to amass talented underlings. A word of caution: to attract male help via marriages to female courtiers, only matrilineal marriages will do.

2 Buffer Territories

Find your own metaphorical (or literal) Poland on the map. Aggressive expansion can lead to dire repercussions, but playing strictly defensively — especially if a PC enters the game as a Count-level lord — can lead to sudden doom. Dynastic apocalypse takes only a single powerful lord fabricating a claim on the PC's single county. At the end of the ensuing war, barring the use of allied forces or mercenaries (or other clever life-saving schemes), the player's dreams of dominion are dead. Best to have a county or two in reserve.

1 Lick Royal Boots

No nuance here. If the player's custom character isn't the top dog of their realm, they need to figure out what to do about it. Why? Many rulers can revoke their subordinate's territory on a whim. How can one prevent this? By making the risky play for independence, perhaps. It can end badly, just about as badly as the risky play to make oneself the king.

The problem of having a royal boss can also be solved (in a much more sniveling fashion) via an alliance with the ruler. Given it's the Middle Ages, forging a marriage bond is a sure bet. Securing the hand of a king, prince or princess is no mean feat, however. Finding a hook with the ruler is the best option. No matter what the player does, however, it would be folly for them to dream of winning the non-matrilineally bound hand of a sovereign queen. It's not going to happen.

NEXT: Crusader Kings 3 Review: Putting The "Grand" Into Grand Strategy Games

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