Before Arthur

A prequel to the popular mod 'Age of Arthur' - enter the world of Dark age England, a place of treachery, despair and mighty legends. A land fractured into small kingdoms each trying to absorb their neighbors. 

Into this world you will create your character, choosing their appearance, traits and skills only to be thrust into a story of your own making. A blending of RPG sim and grand strategy, history and legend. You will meet and recruit a mixture of historical nobles and legendary characters; each helping or hindering your life & rule as you build your family and secure a place in legend.

Need to talk to a lord? Travel to their location or send out a messenger. Need food? Go to a town market, or hunt for your supper. Before Arthur is a life sim where your character has to physically interact with the open world to grow and survive.

• Manage your characters hunger, stamina and happiness by interacting with your open world.

• Talk to peasants, lords and rival rulers with expansive dynamic dialogue.

• Manage your inventory by buying and selling goods or keeping items locked away in your court chest. 

• Improve or sour relationships by your deeds and actions. Court lords and ladies, marry and secure an heir to the throne to continue your play after your character dies. 

Each NPC from the highest noble to the lowest peasant has their own personalities, skills and ambitions that drive their daily lives and build complex relationships amongst themselves. Watch the world change and come alive not only by the choices of your own character, but those of friendly and rival characters that share your world.

• Help influence your families skills and development through training, or placing a noble as a child's 'Charge'/Ward. Be sure to choose carefully as they could be the future of your house and next leaders of your dynasty. Will they be your greatest warriors, skilled administrators, wisest scribes, or a simple monk guiding your peoples spiritual development?

• Watch as the seasons change, trees & crops grow, cities rise and fall, and great armies march and burn their way to glory.

• Each character will go about their daily lives based on their jobs, personalities and relationships. Be sure to keep your peasants happy and their bellies full, seeing to their different needs can be challenging, but the reward is another day free of rebellion, or one less life of crime and banditry. Traveling nobles will seek an audience, merchants will trade in goods, and farmers will tend their fields all in real time.

• A complex economy of goods and prices affected by supply and demand, or world events.

No kingdom can thrive without strong leadership. Whether managing your own lands or entrusting skilled nobles to govern in your stead, the weight of leadership rests on your shoulders. Every decision you make will shape the destiny of your realm, from constructing buildings and enacting laws to delivering justice, hosting feasts, and holding court.

At the outset, you'll find most lands unclaimed and sparsely populated, leaving you to determine their purpose. Will you establish bustling towns and villages to produce food and goods, or fortify your borders with strongholds that train your armies and disrupt enemy supply lines? Perhaps you’ll dedicate your lands to the church, building temples and monasteries to nurture the spiritual well-being of your people and safeguard their knowledge.

The future of your kingdom lies in your hands. How will you lead it to glory?

• Create buildings as you grow your young kingdom, from placing housing, smiths and taverns, to more complex structures as your knowledge grows.

• Manage all diplomacy, using your family to secure marriage alliances and build strong relations with a potential friend. Send personalized messages to rival nobles that may be received differently based on their own personalities.

• Choose the right nobles to assist you in managing lands, as the wrong person in charge can foster rebellions, govern poorly, or even grow strong enough to challenge your rule through open revolt or treacherous plotting.

• Craft custom laws and punishments for any criminals, or hold great feasts for your loyal subjects. Hold court to hear your subjects problems and decorate your halls to impress visiting dignitaries.  

When diplomacy fails, raise your banners and arm your men. Decide between using cheap levies or expensive skilled warriors, yet either way remember that a peasant lost on the battlefield is one less tending your fields. Balance the needs of your army with food production, or face starvation come winter.

• Your troops equipment is limited to what your kingdom can produce or purchase so insure they are properly supplied before war is declared. Training your forces can be costly but often can make the difference between victory or defeat. While roaming mercenaries can help tip the scales, you will often rely on your local levies for the bulk of your army.

• Although battle tactics, moral and a leader's abilities can assist you on your march of conquest, you will find most wars are won or lost before the first spears are drawn or swords sharpened; as a well equipped and supplied army is crucial to a lasting victory.

• Defend your home from foreign invaders or lead your men across the borders. Choose to fight a war of attrition, burning villages and farms, or a quick, but potentially costly drive into your rivals heartlands, cutting through their armies and sieging their towns and fortresses.

• Fight massive battles, testing your tactical prowess and fighting skills, choose whether to risk your own life charging into the lines or stand back and watch your men fight and die in your name. Each choice has a cost and a risk however as your men will remember if you fought by their side, or stayed back - and whispers of cowardice can demoralize your forces faster than any enemy arrow. Lose your life however and you better have an heir standing by or your game will end.

• A massive open world to explore, build and battle in. From the cliffs of Dover to the Scottish lowlands and all of Wales.  

• Changing seasons, and weather that affect crop growth, character moods and battle results.

• Deep character development from managing your skills and traits, to your personal inventory and appearance. 

• Branching dialog that changes with your personality, honor and relationships. 

• Multiple paths to victory, through conquest, diplomacy or treachery.

• Dynamic quests and story elements based on game events and past choices. 

• Live the life of a King, or Queen as you rule and manage your realm.

• Choose between dozens of kingdoms each with their own culture, history and religion.