History VideoGame / KingOfDragonPass

%% * BarbarianTribe: The Orlanthi and their various tribes and clans, of course.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The Orlanthi respect combat ability a great deal and determine leaders by individual merit. Orlanth and Elmal are both mighty warriors, and their followers are prime picks for Chief. The unique character Kallyr is the daughter of a penniless outlaw, but her talents (particularly Combat and Leadership) are so phenomenal that she can become your clan's Chief at the age of 14.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: Towards nobles. And [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Earthshakers]]. And your people will become immensely happy if you protect them, hold feasts, and win battles.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Earthshakers, dinos of the shambling, plant-devouring variety. It pays to be nice to them.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: After committing to the endgame event chain, your tribal monarch cannot die of old age.

** In general, this is a dumb idea, even if Orlanth's first law is "Violence Is Always An Option." You're not at the top of the food chain in Dragon Pass, and attempting to oppose the surrounding powers is likely to lead to one of several events labeled [[NonstandardGameOver Clan Destruction]]. Furthermore, to become King of Dragon Pass, you need an ''alliance'', which can't be won by violence.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: Few other fantasy worlds prominently feature duck-men.

* EverythingsBetterWithCows: This being an early medieval society, cattle is used as currency. The more you have, the richer your clan. But if your herd dips below 500, watch out.

* TheAlliance: What your tribe starts out as.

* BarbarianTribe: The Orlanthi and their various tribes and clans, of course.

The gameplay itself is a strange mix of strategy, [[RolePlayingGames RPG]], and VisualNovel; the usual macromanagement of the clan is spiced by individual decisions of the nobility and story choices made in a {{Gamebook}}-like format. Should Voskandora the war-leader engage her opposite directly using her axe and battle magic, or try to keep herself safe behind her thanes? Should the clan pay the extra five cows worth of goods to try to find a wife for one of the ugly carls? These are all in the player's hand and might have seemingly unrelated long-term consequences.

* GenreRoulette / MixAndMatch: a blend of a resource-management SimulationGame and a VisualNovel, with some RPG elements.

* CoversAlwaysLie: Fighting the Feathered Horse Queen is probably the ''last'' thing you want to do, however cool they made it look on the cover.

* KubrickStare: One of the younger trickster portraits does this.
* HeadInTheSandManagement: A chaos attack event gives you a choice to simply wait until the creature passes your tula rather than attacking it, except that no matter how many times you choose that option the monster would never leave. Instead, the flavor text will mention how you keep waiting while the chaos creature eat your clan children one-by-one until you finally attack it.

* BadassBeard: All worshipers of Lhankor Mhy have beards. ''All of them.'' If genetics have seen fit to deny them the opportunity to grow beards--for instance, because they're women--that only means they have to make them.

* VideoGameCaringPotential: *Towards nobles. And [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs Earthshakers]]. And your people will become immensely happy if you protect them, hold feasts, and win battles.

The sequel, ''[[VideoGame/SixAges Six Ages: Ride Like The Wind]]'', was released in June 2018.

** Otherwise, this is strongly-discouraged; a key element of success in heroquesting is following the script as closely as possible; deviate and at best, your champion will simply fail in their endeavor and be booted out of the realm of the Gods, with the quest being labeled a failure. At ''worst'', your champion can wind up throwing off the narrative so much that they wind up lost and wandering in the Gods' domains, which will likely end with their death, or [[FateWorseThanDeath something much worse.]] Obviously, this is also considered a failure. Even in the rare cases where ditching the script manages to work out, your clan will have ''serious'' trepidation over what your effective-rewriting of the myths actually foretells.

* PyrrhicVictory: [[spoiler: You can invoke this If your tribe turns against you and you have the Earth Clod, which is essentially a magic weapon of mass destruction that causes a catastrophic earthquake. The rest of the tribe will still successfully dethrone and destroy your clan, but the losses you make with the Earth Clod ensure the other clans are just as beat up as yours which leads to the tribe as a whole to dissolve. This still results in a NonStandardGameOver, so it mainly serves as a way of [[CatharsisFactor getting back at the tribes who turned on you.]]]]