I received some interest in private messages in possibly making that random Pretty Princess Simulator idea that my brain conjured up in its usual meandering way into something of a reality. The problem is that it wasn’t that fleshed out of an idea, as I started to flesh it out in private messages, my always indecisive self, started coming up with junctures in the design where the idea could go in different directions. Thus, I am coming here and putting my word vomit of ideas out into the public for all of you to enjoy and comment on to hopefully narrow this into something workable.
Also, I have like zero time to commit to a project, so something is probably not going to come out of this, but who knows? Maybe someone else will get inspired and take the baton. Also also, if this happens, it will probably be on Ares, because that’s where one of the interested parties said they were comfortable running, so that decision has been made.
So read away; then comment away. Or not. You do you. Without further ado…
The 3-6ish Month Seasonal L&L Romantic Contest Server
First up, the various possible general premises of the setting.
Don’t Hate the Crown Prince(ss); Hate the Game
This section is going to be the wordiest because it was my original thinking and also bits need more explanation. As I said, the Bachelor(ette), the Mole, Million Dollar Secret, Bridgerton Fire Emblem, and Unicorn Overlord were all bubbling away in the crockpot of my brain when this got cooked up. There was also probably some manga and anime stewing away in there too. My original thought then was a ridiculous harem scenario. “The Crown Prince has come of age to start courting and find some wives and lovers! Come compete for a chance to win a place in the Imperial Household!” We’ve got an Emperor who is doing his damnedest to sit on the sidelines and watch this unfold to his amusement. We’ve got a scheming Empress trying to make sure her bestest baby boy gets the bestest lady friends. We’ve got a Crown Prince who honestly would rather be out hunting game with his best buds, because he’s already got enough side pieces that he is fine in the romance department. We’ve got some noblewomen who don’t find the Crown Prince particularly interesting but want the fancy titles. We got other noblewomen who think the Crown Prince is their kind of jam, but all these other title-hunting noblewomen are getting in the way. We got some brothers and friends of the Crown Prince getting annoyed that he is getting all the attention. Antics ensue.
The positions open (giggity) are First Wife, a number of Second Wives equal to the number of nations part of the Empire (current thoughts are five or six elaborated below in setting fluff), Consorts, and Mistresses (originally called Concubines but there’s a bit of baggage with that word, so Mistresses might be what it gets called). The First Wife will become the Empress when the Crown Prince becomes Emperor. This is the gold medal. A winner is you. Her firstborn will become the next Crown Prince(ss? To be discussed later). The Second Wives just stay Second Wives. Their firstborn become the Viceroys of the nations.
Consorts are basically noble mistresses. It’s a recognized position, but they don’t join the Imperial family. Their children will belong to the consort’s family, not the Imperial family. As this is a formal informal relationship, it comes with prestige but no authority in the imperial government. If the consort is a woman, her kids will probably get some primo positions in the imperial government, because Uncle Emperor likes their mom, but nothing is guaranteed. It’s also a noncommited, nonmonogamous relationship. No divorce or messy scandals occur if either one decides they are no longer that into the other. They just part and go their ways. Also also, these relationships don’t have to be heterosexual. The wife positions are about making kids. The consort positions are not, so these positions are likely to be the sex that the Crown Prince(ss) is actually into.
Mistresses are the commonfolk mistresses. Again, it’s a recognized formal informal relationship. The mistress gets some prestige, the kids will probably got a sweet position that other commoners would kill for, but the two parties can, in theory, part ways and there is no issue. In practice, unlike for a noblewomen, a common woman might have a harder time breaking up with an Emperor who really doesn’t want to be broken up with. It really helps to have a family that has its own army. It is generally considered a bad idea for the Emperor to have a mistress with a commoner who works for or is sworn to someone that isn’t in the Imperial Family, because there’s a question of loyalty. So mistresses tend to come from either staff in the Imperial household or the servants of the wives. Thus, a lot of noblewomen gunning for a wife position will try to arrange for the Crown Prince to fall for one of their servants, so they get one of the wife positions.
I have also thought that the Crown Prince could be a Crown Princess for some seasons. It kind of defeats the Pretty Princess focus, because the noble ladies are the ones gunning to be the pretty princesses, and with a Crown Princess it’s going to be a lot of noblemen gunning to be the pretty princes. The Pretty Princess in this case is going to be the Crown Princess, and the Crown Prince(ss) in any season is just a macguffin played by staff, so the players don’t get to be the Pretty Princesses. Ideally the character will be played by a different staff member every day, that way they stay mysterious, aloof, and a bit weird. He/she may have been making eyes at your character all day yesterday but today they don’t even know who your character is. That’s just the way things roll with those flighty imperials. Anyways, I am still leaning towards this idea, because I would rather the setting be as minimally patriarchal as possible, which is hard for something with Regency-ish vibes.
The Crown Prince(ss) Finds One True Love
Switching gears, another direction to go in is in the more Western European tradition with a monogamous pairing. All the single ladies are gunning for the one and only one Princess Consort position. It’s much more cutthroat, more romantic (will your character be the one that enchants the Crown Prince with her personality, beauty, charm, and wit, making him have eyes for no other?), and closer to the Bridgerton mold. It also feels like it supports a non-patriarchal setting much better. (With the harem approach, a Crown Princess is going to have one First Husband and five to six Second Husbands, all of whom are expecting a firstborn out of her to fill specific governmental positions, so that’s a Crown Princess that gets to look forward to having at least 6 to 7 children. That sounds like something fun to RP about! ) However, I feel that there will be less politicking, as it’s an everyone against everyone else bloodbath for that one position. With the harem, Lady A could have a deep mutual attraction with the Crown Prince, but her family isn’t influential enough or rich enough for the Imperial Family to select her as a Wife. However, her best friend Lady B does have the necessary influence and riches, so Lady A is willing to settle for being Consort and use her relationship with the Crown Prince to get Lady B picked as a wife.
Everyone Finds One True Love
A slight deviation to the above idea is that it’s not just the Crown Prince(ss) looking for love. Instead once the Crown Prince(ss) and all or most of their siblings and first cousins are of age, they all debut at once and get courted. Now there are several positions open for people to gun for like with the harem approach, but there is still the romance of “you’re the only one for me” and no squicky “you must have 6 or 7 kids” if it’s a non-patriarchal harem. It does introduce a problem of Lady B might be a perfect match with CP Cousin #1, but Lady B now has to decide if they will settle for CP Cousin #1 or instead go for the gold with the CP, who they may not actually have much mutual attraction with. Then again, this may be a game element that is wanted rather than a flaw in the design. Let me know. This also seems like it will be the less cutthroat design involving a CP, but also have the less politicking too, which is a detriment. Rather than Lady A who hits it off with the CP working to become Consort and convince the cP to make her friend Lady B a wife, now Lady A just goes after the CP and Lady B goes after CP Cousin #1, who she is hitting it off with. Everyone wins, yay! But there is no drama to RP over, boo!
Fuck King of Orgy Mountain a.k.a. Bridgerton MUSH
I thought I would borrow a funny title from a silly idea that was once discussed on MSB. We jettison the Crown Prince(ss) idea into space. Now, instead, every year noble lads and ladies debut together, socialize, and get married (or not, see below). Basically we are making Bridgerton MUSH at this point (or maybe a new Kushiel server). This has even less cutthroated action and politicking than the above idea. It would be a kinder, gentler server about nobles dating. I don’t want to short change this one, though. While I find it the least interesting of the options (this just feels like more Kushiel to me just without the institutional, themed brothels), it was what one of the people who reached out to me originally suggested. So If this is what people are vibing with, works for me.
A slight alternative to this is to go even more anti-patriarchy, make heredity matrilineal, make marriage not be a thing in the setting, and the whole premise becomes debut together, socialize, and hook up a bunch so nine months later, the next generation is born to carry on their mother’s family. I find it an interesting concept, but I’m not sure if it has anything going for it other than “fuck the patriarchy and also each other, a lot” which might be enough. You tell me if Shang but with a much tighter (giggity) setting is what I should be aiming for.
Some non-romantic concepts came up as ideas for a seasonal L&L server as well:
Ars Magica-esque Tribunal
The mages of the setting meet up every X number of years (I think it’s 7 for the Tribunals of the Tribunals and 33 for the Grand Tribunal of all the Tribunals in Ars Magica) to hash out shit. The server fires up, people take characters off the roster or chargen a lesser character, and we politick out whatever it is mages politick over. Maybe hold a few promotion test: “Oh you want to become a Grand Magus. Well you’ll have to show off some new spell you created or an enchanted item that impresses the testing body who awards that rank.”
The Senate
You know what kinds of bodies used to meet for short few-months long sessions to politick and hash shit out? Parliamentary bodies! The server basically runs the few months of a parliamentary body. Probably something with a Roman or Venictan feel. But it could be Rome/Venice IN FANTASYLAND! Or Rome/Venice IN SPAAACE! A.k.a Dune.
The Conclave
There’s a whole netflix movie about this, and JD Vance offing the real Pope is bringing it into focus in the real world. The Fantasy Pope of Fantasyland has died. Time to figure out who the new Pope is. This is basically the Senate but with 1,000% more religion!
If the L&L Romance thing seems to go well, maybe we’ll incorporate these others into the setting on a combined server. Some seasons are the debuts, some seasons are parliament meetings, some seasons are the mages, and some seasons are the Church. Who knows?
The Setting
This is the final section, I promise. So what I was thinking and has been my thinking for a setting for an L&L game for a long time is a fantasy island world. The landmasses get no bigger than Madagascar. Why? It’s basically Sci Fi on a more understandable to use real world humans level. Planets are now islands. Spaceships are now sailing ships. An island that is just desert is more realistic than a planet that is somehow inhabitable by humans yet is just desert. So there are five or six nations that control archipelagos near each other. In order to allow for some differing ethnicities, so the nobility isn’t just all white people, each nation could be a different race to get a little diversity going. Each nation would also have a different culture, so there can be some tensions between noble families there.
About half of the territory in the Empire would be controlled by the noble families. There aren’t bannermen. One family isn’t the liege of another family who is the liege of another family. All the noble families are the same rank in the hierarchy and are under the Imperial family. Each family has their estate lands and that’s theirs to control. The other 50% is held by the Imperial family and administered by the appointed bureaucracy. Each nation’s archipelago has a Viceroy at the top to whom the noble families in that archipelago report to. The Imperial lands in that archipelago are divided up into provinces administered by appointed governors, who are also likely to be nobles but can be commoners. Below them are magistrates, which are equally likely to be noble or commoner. The noble families also tend to use magistrates for the subdivisions of their estate lands.
I am currently thinking that the Imperial Family started as an outside people who immigrated to the area with superior technology and conquered and integrated the peoples that were already there. Part of me wants to make them originally elves who have since become half elves by marrying into the noble families, who have now also become somewhat half elven. These wouldn’t be long lived half elves, more like the Hylian variety in Legend of zelda games where some of the NPCs are humans and some are Hylians (generally they are all Hylians but there’s a few where there are humans, not including the Gerudo, without the elvish ears). Having elvish features, e.g. pointed ears, nonhuman hair or eye colors, could be a marker of prestige. However, this gets a bit into a colonialist vibe, which could be very off-putting. Then again, it’s a L&L game, a genre which focuses heavily on class stratification, with a Regency vibe, so colonialism is a bit fitting.
Anyways, that’s all I’m writing for now, and is mainly the general premise. Let me know if any of that sounded interesting, sounded terrible, sounded like fun, sounded offensive, sounded squicky, if you have ideas or tangents you want to build off of that, or whatever. Also, nothing will probably come of any of this, but who knows?