Zakkarii Aarlen

I spent this evening creating the beginnings of my royal family for a game of Ballads of Dawn, a solo romantic fantasy TTRPG in early access. The game's setting is Vilderine, which is governed by a parliament monarchy. I decided it'd be fun to start by creating some details about the royal family. Here's the play-by-play process of it. It displays differently in my Obsidian file so I apologize for the awkward layout of it!

Note: "50/50" means I flipped a coin. "Likely/Unlikely" means I used the Freeform Universal oracle in the Solo TTRPG Toolkit plugin for Obsidian. "Deck" means I utilized my Character Design Deck.

Family & Offspring

I want an older monarch with no living parents but with living siblings. I wanted potential for several branches so I selected a d10 for siblings.

• How many siblings do they have? (d10) = 3
• Do they have a consort? (50/50) = No
• Do they have concubine(s)? (50/50) = No
• Do they have children? (50/50) = Yes

Children would have been outside of marriage and concubine relations. It is more likely that they would be few in number so I selected a d4 for the following question.

• How many children? (d4) = 2
• Are they twins? (Unlikely) = No
• Do they share the same parent? (50/50) = Yes
• Was the relationship with the parent a secret? (Likely) = Yes
• Has the relationship remained a secret (heads) or is it now public knowledge (tails)? (50/50) = Remains a secret
• Is this a long-term relationship? (50/50) = Yes
• Selected a d20 for next question since the monarch is older.

How many years apart are the children? (d20) = 7 years

Going to assume the monarch is aware of the children regardless if they birthed them or not, for my own decision.

• Does the public know of child 1? (50/50) = No
• Does the public know of child 2? (50/50) = Yes
• How old is child 1? (d100, reroll if over 50) = 11

This means child 2 is 4 years old.

Also, going to assume both children are alive, to make things easier.

Does child 2 live in the royal palace (heads) or with another member of the royal family (tails)? (50/50) = With another member of the royal family.

Monarch's Details

Already established senior age above.

• Age (d100, reroll if under 55 or over 80): 77
• Gender (deck + my own decision) = Male
• Cis (heads) or trans (tails)? (50/50) = Cis

Earlier in this process, I had decided that there would be a means for people with any body type to produce a child, likely magical. This will explain my next question. I skipped child 1, because since the public is not aware of them, but is aware of child 2, it is extremely unlikely that the monarch produced child 1.

Did the monarch produce child 2? (50/50) = No

Decided monarch and siblings will be humans.

• Body type (deck) = Average height, slender
• Skin tone (deck) = Medium-dark warm brown
• Eye color (deck) = Muted warm red
• Hair color (deck) = Dark warm green (moss), that is greying
• Hair style (deck) = Medium length hair pinned up in an ornate arrangement that accommodates the crown
• Other physical details (deck) = Moles, Heterochromia Selected a muted green to pair with the red eye.

General disposition (deck) = Calm

Utilized my "Career (Broad) card to server as a general focus for his governance.

Governance focus (deck) = Business, merchants, trading

Name (Fantasy Name Generators) = Frederick Chares

Frederick's Lover

Roll for the lover's ancestry:

1. Human
2. Elf
3. Dwarf
4. Beastfolk
5. Orc
6. Goblin
7. God
8. Human

Roll result = Human

Thought it would be spicy if the lover was much younger than Frederick, hence the following parameters.

• Age (d100, reroll if less than 25 or older than 40) = 31
• Gender (deck + my own decision) = Nonbinary
• Reproductive equipment, female (heads) or male (tails) = Female
• Are they still lovers with Frederick? (50/50) = Yes

Determined current opinion of Frederick, meaning how stable is their current relationship:

1. The relationship is on the rocks, unstable
2. The relationship is built on emotional intimacy, and stable
3. The relationship is built on physical intimacy, and stable
4. The relationship is built on an imbalance of power, and is unstable
5. The relationship is intimate in both ways, and stable
6. The relationship is full of love; there are other reasons as to why they keep it secret, and it is unbreakable

Roll for result = 6

(Initially I rolled a 4, but I rolled again because I decided that 4 was not that interesting. Then I rolled a 6 and I am extremely happy with that.)

Exploration of why the relationship remains secret, and the lover did not become a concubine or consort.

Out of the two, who does not want the relationship to be public the most?

• 1/4: Lover
• 2/5: Frederick
• 3/6: Both are equal on this desire

Result = 5, Frederick

Note: This doesn't mean the lover wants it to be public. They could also agree with this decision.

Potential reasons as to why Frederick wishes it to remain secret:

1. Keeps the lover out of court intrigue and harm's way
2. The lover has personal goals/ambitions that would get ruined
3. The lover has zero desire to join the court and Frederick respects their wishes
4. The lover lives in Khulgana and it could spark political drama
5. The lover travels frequently for their work (or for adventure) and Frederick doesn't want to chain them down
6. Frederick (and potentially the lover) have an ulterior motive for this decision - explore further for nature of this motive

Result = 6 Oh my.

Checking to see if any of the above ideas apply.

• Does the lover live in Khulgana? (50/50) = No
• Does the lover travel frequently? (50/50) = No
• Does the lover live in Vilderine? (Likely) = Yes
• Does the lover have personal goals or ambitions that would be ruined if the relationship was public? (50/50) = Yes

Checking the nature of the ulterior motive and goals/ambitions.

Does the lover's goals/ambitions align with Frederick's (heads) or does he simply support them (tails)? (50/50) = He merely supports them; they belong fully to his lover and are not his own.

I decided at this point, I will not dig deeper, in case this was something I could thread into gameplay.

Frederick's 2nd Child

Decided to skip child 1 for now.

• Age: 4
• Ancestry: Human
• Gender (deck + my own interpretation) = Female
• General disposition (deck) = Angry, moody, petulant (perhaps bitter about separation from her birthing parent)

Name (Fantasy Name Generators) = Osalle (Oh-sah-yay) Chares

To be continued...

I stopped here for the night. I will likely do some similar rolls for Frederick's 3 siblings and see how long their branches go, then determine which family member Osalle is living with. I have zero intentions of playing as her, but seeing as how her parents' motives are questionable and one of them is a monarch, it is possible she will come into play somehow regarding the throne.

After that, maybe I'll actually go back to reading the rule book. xD