Role-play made easier through name-changing?

**kvbrock82** · February 12, 2008, 04:09 AM

Hi,
i have tried my best to search this topic but unfortunately have not been able to come up with anything.

I try my best to keep tabs on my generals/princes/princesses/etc but as my empire starts to grow and the family tree gets longer and longer this starts to become a truly daunting task. Is there a way that a name could be assigned to the family members, which would make it easier for me by giving them familiar names? is there a program i could download that makes this easy to do without having to exit the game each time to mod the game manually?

If not, can anyone give me any tips on what they do to keep tabs and generally give the family tree a more familiar feel to it, where you actually can feel a sense of loss if say for example your prince dies.

Thanks
brock

**Samir** · February 12, 2008, 05:52 AM

nah

what I do is that I either take small notes, or focus on a certain character or theatre of operations. like the Venice wars with Byzantines, the baltic assault with the Danes, the voyage of Henry the Diplomat, etc.

you dont have to roleplay every detail in your campaign or be able to recall them 100 turns later, but if you think of a personality (maybe fostered by the characters traits and ancillaries) and act accordingly, then you will find your campaigns deeper and more interesting.

what I like to do is to think of my factions king and heirs plans.

while the king who is in charge might execute a certain strategic and political plan the heir might have other plans and has to wait until succession.

conquering a region, go on a crusade, finally cut down the fathers allies because they insulted the prince long time ago.a complete change of politics by the prince like suddenly a peaceful era, a redeployment to another theatre, a new campaign against a 2 generation enemy, or an enemy of the kings wifes faction (to please his mother)

rogue generals "disobeying" orders from the king and the results of their campaigns which have to be repaired diplomatically afterwards, etc.

**kvbrock82** · February 12, 2008, 07:25 AM

thats very interesting thanks... i guess concentrating on only the main characters and accomplishing pre-planned goals while taking down notes is the way to go.

**Samir** · February 12, 2008, 07:33 AM

also some mods help a lot with roleplaying. For example Stainless Steele has this settlement titles (Duke of Tortosa, Emir of Damascus) that alone aided a lot in immersion for me. DLV has a great rank system, Clouds over Europe is also filled with little RP gimmiks.

and to loose sometimes. a defeat is sometimes better for the dramaturgy then a victory

**kvbrock82** · February 12, 2008, 08:46 AM

thanks for the info... on the subject of mods, i am running the 1.2 patch and i have recently got back into the game. I am looking for some 'must have' mods that increase the enjoyment of the game; would you be able to name a couple?

**Samir** · February 12, 2008, 09:02 AM

Stainless Steele 4.1 is great with 1.2

DLV, Road to Jerusalem, Clouds across Europe, Heiliges Römisches Reich, all of them have a 1.2 version and add a lot of things, bigger map as well as small gimmiks.

just check the Mods section

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=211

depends on what you like. Some Mods have no america, some cut out certain parts of the map, some or region specific, some have tons of additional things included.

I personally play Stainless Steele and hotseated multifaction games. but I also played RtJ campaigns as well as DLV. DLV went too far when you play more than one faction though.