Maids & Masters (& v0.13 & Magach)

Right up front, I want to say I've taken on a bit more outside work for a dev friend who wants to rework his renders for the first chapter of his story. I'm about halfway through, and while I don't expect it to impact the dev cycle of v0.13 too much, it does mean I won't have a lot to share while I focus on getting that done so I can return to MnM full time. Maybe you'll hear more about that once my work is closer to being implemented in a release, maybe you won't. Only time will tell.

For now, I want to talk a little more about Magach. Like I mentioned a few posts ago, Magach is rather large, but only the homes relevant to the story are going to be accessible. Lore-wise, this is because a lot of death and violence happened in the village recently. Before the new Master stepped into his position, Magach was in chaos. The previous Master had just been killed, some Servants were trying to restore peace through violence, others fought against them in an attempt to gain their freedom, some Folk fled, and a handful of the dead Master's children were smart enough to just lock their doors and wait for the dust to settle. Fast forward a few years, and while there's a new Master, there's also been a new murder - this time one of the scions that thought they were safe. And if they aren't safe, who is? Better to just keep those doors locked and keep to yourself, even if someone comes knocking. Especially if someone comes knocking.

Mechanically, I just didn't want to risk drowning you in information. While red herrings and other means of misleading the reader are common in mysteries, having over 30 maps be interesting enough to explore while also not being relevant to the mystery you're trying to solve is - to put it bluntly - a bad idea. I've seen enough complaints about "empty maps," I really didn't want that frustration to bleed into what effectively boils down into a giant puzzle.

That does leave me with another issue, though. A new village would normally mean new Folk girls, which often means a new potential mother or other event(s) to find. With all these locked doors, I can't really do that. Except yes I can. I have something planned that doesn't quite fit the previous villages, but I'm going to save that for another week, once I've had a bit more time to prepare a reveal for Patreon.