anghraine

I've mentioned liking Divinity: Original Sin. I do like it, I love it! But--

Okay, first of all, if you aren't familiar with the game, let me 'splain. (Spoilers after the spoiler gap)

It's basically a nostalgic old school fantasy RPG à la Baldur's Gate mixed with modern mechanics and organic interaction with the environment (a group of enemies are standing in a mud puddle? electrocute the water and get 'em all!). It's got the good old "wtf" aesthetic and quirky locals and all that sort of thing.

You play a pair of Source Hunters, an elite group that hunts down users of corrupted magic, who are fresh out of the academy when you start and have no particular relationship. At pretty much every turn, each character gets the chance to react to the various circumstances that arise and to debate with each other (disagreements are literally solved by playing rock-paper-scissors). How they interact impacts their relationship to each other, which can be mutual antipathy, deeply in love, or anything in between. (You select the gender of each.)

Each preference they express with their individual reactions develops a personality trait. There's a long set of personality traits, and you can't always guess which choices will develop which traits ("bold" and "independent" are different traits, for instance). So rather than an alignment system, you have instead an array of personal qualities, each which grants a particular advantage.

Of course, you can deliberately choose traits for their advantages/disadvantages for the character's build, but since I always play as characters from my novel, I have fun playing them as near to their personalities as I can, and let the chips fall where they may.

ANYWAY.

In D&D ~~and real life~~ I'm a natural lawful type. Unsurprisingly, I inclined towards the obedient trait in D:OS, even with the more hotheaded character. Partly that's because I wanted to echo the devotion of the characters, so depending on which gets selected for the conversation, the other often gives way. So I've got one character who is SUPER obedient, and one who was originally independent, but eventually slid out as their relationship became closer.

You also have sidekick companions, who will likewise respond to what the Source Hunters do. It might alienate them, it might win their approval, it might encourage them in one way or the other. I was a generally benign, inspirational leader to my companions, while also somewhat resigned: sorry, that's The Way Things Are. Anyway, I got them at Level 3 and we're all now Level 15, so we've been together a long while and built up a friendly relationship, etc etc.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

At this point, one of the companions is pressured by their evil former mentor to join him in his life of blatant villainy to return to the idyllic mentorship of the companion's youth. And I was like, lol, we're literally standing in a river of blood from ALL THE PEOPLE HE'S INVOLVED IN MURDERING, I think she'll-

Companion: I... I don't know. My mentor taught me everything I know, made me everything I am. I should obey, shouldn't I?
Source Hunters: No. No, you absolutely should not. Come on, let's go.
(duh)
Companion: Well ... you've shown me over and over how important obedience is.
Source Hunters: wait, are you-
Companion: I SHALL JOIN YOU, EVIL MENTOR

And she does! And she joins him in trying to kill you!

I poked around, and yep, it's totally because I made "obedient" choices along the way. Aghhhh.