How To Win Friends And Influence People(In Fantasy Aristocracies)
The Mechanics Of Friendship In Axioms
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Becoming Friends
Friendship, and other social relations, are a key aspect of the simulation of Axioms. They’re also far more seriously considered than in mediocre faux relationship games like those from Paradox. Even life sims like Academagia fall short, at least in detail. Characters and their relationships are governed by their personality, their ideology/culture, and their personal interests and desires.
In order for a relationship between two Characters to qualify as a friendship it needs to meet several requirements. The two Characters need to have some level of “Interest Compatibility, whether that is a single interest they are both devoted to or a collection of interests that combine to meet the threshold. They need to have a high “Raw Opinion” of each other, and they need to meet a Trust and a Respect threshold. Finally their Personality and Ideology need to have some level of similarity.
That isn’t the end however. These thresholds increase as Characters gain more Friends. Depending on Personality there is a limit on the number of friends that can be siblings or cousins, as well as uncles/aunts/nieces/nephews. Some Characters have a Familial personality and some have a Societal one. Similarly social Personality spectra increase the number of potential friends if the Character tends towards the high postive end. There’s some impact on whether Characters have a small group of close friends vs a wide network of quasi-friends.
Characters can become friends even if one or both has a lot of existing friends assuming their Personality/Ideology/Interest affinity is high enough. Similarly Characters can pick up new friends in specific Interest/Personality areas are less well served. Becoming someone’s fourth or fifth gym bro is harder than becoming their first philosophy buddy.
Characters can also be aware that their position on some Personality or Ideology spectrum is rare and rate potential friends higher if they connect there, and the same for interests. Sure George Podebrady is a bit grating but he shares my dream of transnational cultural and religious institutions. This situation would be vaguely similar to that of Philip during his time as a hostage in Greece.
The Purpose Of Friendship
All of the stuff above mostly deals with how and why Characters become Friends. Friendship, and various other relationships likes allies or lovers, is something like a special bonus to fidelity for Characters. What is the difference between two Characters who are Friends and two Characters who merely have very high Opinion, Trust, and Ideological affinity?
Friendship modifies the impact on Opinion of OpinionImpacts from Actions, Agreements, and other sources. Friends are less likely to be persuaded through blackmail or bribes to betray each other. Alliances and Marriages have a similar effect though different relationships don’t work identically. Friends will evaluate actions directed at others less negatively than a neutral party and in some cases will take personal negative actions more seriously.
Friends are more likely to sign on to neutral endeavors like Conspiracies and keep the faith, even in bad times. Additionally Characters may be aware of the Friendships and other Relationships of Characters they know well. Characters who are “transitive friends” will try not to hurt each other due to the impact on their common friend.
Strong Friendships can be part of a larger lattice of support for things like long term transgenerational interfamily relations. A liege who is friends with his retainer/vassal, assuming that subordinate is well liked by his family, has a much stronger level of support from a group of Characters.
Think of a fantasy story where a loyal retainer/family of retainers sticks by the lord for generations or hundreds of years. Children have a larger likelihood of being friends with the children of their parents’ friends both by natural exposure and intentional effort by parents.
Interests In Relationships
Interests are one of the standout features of how Characters connect in Axioms. Debating philosophy, riding horses, cooking, dancing, carousing, training, crafting, etc. Socializing with Characters you share Interests with is easier in a lot of ways. You both gain Happiness bonuses/lower Dissonace more effectively because you both naturally enjoy the same Activity. Characters like you more if you pursure shared Interests vs more generic relationship building Actions.
As noted before groups of young elites like the friends of Philip of Macedon have often leveraged those relationships and talent sharing into iconic historical events. Or in the case of fantasy iconic parts of worldbuilding lore. Pioneering Interest groups at magical or military or mercantile academies are a major plot point of many well known speculative fiction hits.
Axioms may not quite have the immersiveness of a traditional academy sim but it gets close and sometimes has unique features plus it grounds the experience in a wider world. The same for playing an “adventurer” character vs a traditional RPG. In a way the experience is actually closer to a good tabletop group than a traditional crpg.
Friendship And Romance In Social Simulation
I’ve discussed in a previous post about Social Occasions how Axioms has a relatively unique Social Calender like aspect because the player and the NPCs can all potentially host and attend one off or recurring Social Occasions ranging from common parties to religious festivals to grand military celebrations.
Part of courting or other romantic action probably includes dancing and feasting and socializing at these events. Building “friendship affection” vs “romantic affection” has some similarities. Participating in or at least supporting the “Interests” and “Desires”(ran out of room to handle desires in this post) can generate both. Dancing or inviting opposite sex characters to Social Occasions is more typically a romantic activity.
It might be more interesting to view the Social Occasion system with more information about how character interactions work that you could have had reading my original post about it. Who you Invite and what parts of an Occasion you spend time at are very important. Social Occasions are a chance to meet Characters who wouldn’t always be geographically accessible, whether for good purposes or for fell ones.
Two characters, whether potential friends or potential lovers, might meet only at these Occasions because neither would otherwise travel outside their own provinces regularly. Additionally in some cases you might have to choose between more than one person as far as spending precious social time.
Consider in a coming of age story where who you spend summer or winter holidays with or w/e is an important part of how others view the MCs priorities relationship wise. This is actually one of the more major ways to “break up” friendships or romantic relationships. The player, but probably not the NPCs, can even manipulate these situations intentionally.
Conclusion
Axioms provides a variety of systems to add flexibility and nuance to the more common “raw opinion meter” mechanics of strategy, and in some cases even more social focused sim, games. I looked at titles like Academagia, Kudos, and King of Dragon Pass and tried to figure out the most elegant and immersive way to do “more” with character interactions. As the player, and this goes for NPCs as well, you have to manage your Attention Points as well as material resources, picking and choosing a limited number of other Characters to seriously engage with.
Especially in cases where you need to connect with someone who you don’t have a strong affinity with. Should you utilize “transitive friendship”, just eat hits to Dissonance and Happiness, trade of on more Attention Point heavy Actions, and so forth.