Quest: Blood Legacy

[HypnoticBob]

So, I've completed the quest "Blood Legacy." Beside being disappointed at the very limited options as to what to do with

Lord Harond, I find it very odd and unwarranted that there should be any reputation gained or lost with some of the possible choices. Especially the choice that allows me to murder him and leave no trace that my character has been the one to do it. If i'm leaving no trace it was me, how can I possibly gain or lose reputation?

The entire point of reputation is (believed) knowledge of actions performed. Even though I actually performed an action, no one knows about it, thus effectively rendering my actions (to others) as unknown.

[Zenicetus]

I don't know if you did it the same way I did...

 

 

After cleaning up the dungeon and setting the girl free, I went to the Inn and killed him in his room. It seemed like the right thing to do, not just as punishment, but to keep him from doing it again with someone else. 

 

"I killed Lord Harond and left his body on the upper floor of that stinking inn. It was no less than he deserved."

 

...but it's not unreasonable to think that I was seen leading my party to that location (plenty of eyes on the party on the way there). As the only powerful party in the town along with the Lord and his men, word might have gotten around. It made sense that I lost rep in Defiance Bay where a bunch of fellow aristocrats hang out. It also had no real repercussions (I guess I should spoilertag this, but it's pretty obvious at that point):

 

 

It's one of those "smoke and mirrors" side quests in the game, that makes you think you're making a choice that might matter, but it doesn't. By the time I reached this side quest, my reputation back in Defiance Bay didn't matter at all. There was no point going back there, and nothing carried through to the end game from this particular side quest. Nobody in the town reacted differently either, when I went back there occasionally to visit the blacksmith and buy stuff. The whole faction rep system in the game seemed a bit underdeveloped to me.

 

 

 

[NathanH]

I do find it a little annoying when a scripted quest breaks the standard game-world rules. Ideally, the reputation/crime resolution system would be robust enough that killing Harond assigns you the appropriate reputation penalty simply because it's known by relevant NPCs that you were involved with him and you went to see him and then he was dead, and that this system is in place for all other situations that share these properties or some of these properties, without need for developer scripting. Sadly, such mechanization is not really ever done and further nobody seems interested in attempting to do it---essentially, RPG developers are not particularly interested in really being RPGs.

 

Another interesting point is that tracking such things by a simple numerical representation of "reputation" is way too simplistic. You should leave that situation with the possible reputations "not suspected", "suspected murderer", "known murderer". This is rather different from the alternative reputation "blackmailed a powerful lord" that another resolution can lead to, and yet will be tracked by the game in essentially the same manner.

[notker_biloba]

I agree with the other posters, and I want to add that the resolution options were rather lacking. Can't I turn Harond in to the authorities? If not, can't I put him in my dungeon? Or if he were contrite, and I could not turn him in, I could exact my own justice by demanding a massive amount of money, either in lump sum or on a payment plan. I'm sorry, but 1200cp just doesn't seem like a sufficient punishment for this jerk.

[Blunderboss]

I agree with the other posters, and I want to add that the resolution options were rather lacking. Can't I turn Harond in to the authorities? If not, can't I put him in my dungeon? Or if he were contrite, and I could not turn him in, I could exact my own justice by demanding a massive amount of money, either in lump sum or on a payment plan. I'm sorry, but 1200cp just doesn't seem like a sufficient punishment for this jerk.

He is Defiance Bay noble , so no u cant put him in ur Dungeon , and Authorities would not do anything to a wealthy noble .

Edited March 29, 2016 by Blunderboss