"The auxiliary system has been activated successfully. **Welcome to Ice and Fire: Escape Game. Hello, Mr. Alex Stone, your AI assistant Annie is at your service.**"
"Um, hello."
"First, we will create your game character. You have a total of three hours for this stage. Please don't rush; take your time to study the options."
"Three hours?" Alex felt that this time allocation naturally brought a serious atmosphere. After all, three hours was a long time for character creation in a typical game, yet for someone whose life was on the line, this preparation time felt incredibly short.
Annie didn't answer his unspoken question, so Alex could only solemnly examine the text that popped up on the screen.
[What is your ancestry?]
- Andals: Strength +1, unlocks the 'Hedge Knight' profession.
- First Men: Strength +1
- Rhoynar: Agility +1
-Ironborn: Strength +2, unlocks the 'Distressed Pirate' profession, gains the 'Navigation Adaptation' trait.
- Braavosi: Agility +2, Trade Skills +1, unlocks the 'Wandering Assassin' profession.
- Remnants of the Free Cities of Valyria: Trade Skill +1
- Dothraki: Agility +2, Riding Skill +1
- Yi Ti: Mental Power +3
- Ibbenese: Strength +3
Notes:
Players can choose one main bloodline and one secondary bloodline. The character's appearance is primarily determined by the main bloodline, while the secondary bloodline only provides bonuses. Bloodline will affect players in all aspects throughout the entire game. Players will gain language speaking skills corresponding to the living area of their main lineage.
"Uh." Alex fell into deep thought as he looked at the page.
"Tip: All choices can be changed before character creation is finalized. So, you can make a choice after reviewing all the options."
Alex nodded and clicked to the next page.
**[Who is your father?]**
- A veteran returning home:
- A farmer:
-
-
- ... (and so on)
[Who is your mother?]
[Where were you born? (Place/Time)]
[What did you do in your childhood?]
[What did you do as a teenager?]
[Later, you became a/an...?]
[Finally, you arrived... ?]
After roughly checking the options for each question, Alex began trying to lock in certain choices to find the best combinations.
Soon, he discovered a pattern: when he locked a specific question, the options for other questions would automatically be reduced.
For example, if he chose Ironborn as his race, the 'farmer' option would disappear from subsequent occupations. After all, "we do not sow" (a Greyjoy family motto, literally meaning they don't farm).
If he chose to become a craftsman as his final career, he had to have chosen a 'craftsman apprentice' in his childhood and teenage experiences.
This was a common game setting, designed to ensure logical consistency in the player's character background.
It took him nearly an hour to read less than a third of the options because the system offered an overwhelming number of choices.
For instance, the identities for parents included almost every role that could exist in a real world, excluding only high nobility. Even eunuchs and silent sisters were among the options.
Therefore, Alex had to change his strategy. He decided to work backward, first examining the current occupations that had the greatest impact on the three major factors: layout, funds, and equipment.
Soon, Alex identified the five professions he considered most competitive: Mercenary Knights, Wandering Mercenaries, Distressed Pirates, Brotherhood Hunters, and Traveling Merchants.
Among these, Mercenary Knights and Traveling Merchants offered the greatest advantages.
While the Mercenary Knight was slightly inferior to the other three combat professions in terms of "layout" (Alex wasn't sure why; perhaps for balance?), its strength lay in starting with a tame horse and a complete set of armor (including a nasal helmet, gorget, an old piece of mail, mail gloves, and greaves).
Compared to minor differences in initial layout, Alex believed a full set of armor would clearly provide a greater early-game advantage.
After all, Syrio Forel, the 'greatest swordsman in the world' (according to Arya), was ultimately killed by Meryn Trant of the Kingsguard because Trant had a set of "damn armor" (according to the Hound).
The Traveling Merchant's advantage was an initial capital of one hundred gold dragons, plus four servants (with almost no combat effectiveness), four old draft horses, two carts, and seven mules.
This was undoubtedly the best starting choice for a "behind-the-scenes" playstyle. If the Traveling Merchant's average attribute wasn't a mere 5, Alex might have chosen it immediately.
These two professions were considered T0.
Next were the Wandering Mercenaries. Their equipment was a bit rudimentary—just a short sword and leather armor—but their "layout" data ranked first, and their combat effectiveness was impressive.
The Distressed Pirate started with a decent 10 gold dragons. It was a comprehensive profession, with the only drawback being its restriction to the Ironborn lineage. Considering the Ironborn's notorious reputation in the world of Ice and Fire, players would need to make Ironborn their secondary bloodline if they chose this, or else they'd be reviled wherever they went.
The Brotherhood Hunter wasn't outstanding compared to the others, but as the only long-range profession available, it would always attract some loyal archers, and its ability to inflict damage with hidden arrows aligned well with a player's typical style.
These three professions were considered T1.
T2 included, but wasn't limited to, ascetic priests, wandering red-robed monks, wandering assassins, Rogare's rogues, and other professions that offered no obvious advantages but were still passable.
As for the last options, such as landless farmers, pickpockets, newly escaped slaves, beggars in Flea Bottom, or bankrupt innkeepers' "ducks" (a term for pathetic individuals), Alex suspected these were designed to insult the players' intelligence.
This was about risking your life in another world! What kind of person with a functioning brain would choose to be essentially stripped bare at such a critical moment?
After completing his analysis of the professions, Alex began to try locking in choices from back to front, and soon he came up with some excellent combinations.
For example, choosing the bloodlines of the Andals and Dothraki, with a mercenary father and a maid mother in a knight's manor. In childhood, the character acts as a sparring partner for the master. As a teenager, they are sent to a castle to be a knight's attendant. As an adult, they are awarded knighthood for military exploits and finally become a Hedge Knight.
This path immediately created a skilled master with good equipment and attributes, possessing strong combat effectiveness from the start.
Another example was choosing the blood of the Ironborn and the Ibbenese. The father is a pirate, and the mother is a salt wife snatched from the Ibbenese. The character works on a ship as a child, goes to sea with pirates as a teenager, becomes an official pirate as an adult, and eventually comes ashore after their ship hits a rock.
This route resulted in a berserker whose strength directly exceeded 30 from the outset.
However, Alex had one doubt about this combination: wasn't there reproductive isolation between the Ibbenese and other races? How could such a character be born?
After comprehensive consideration, Alex finally decided to account for both early and late stages. After selecting the Andals needed to unlock the 'Hedge Knight', he chose the First Men as his secondary bloodline.
Because there was a note in the bloodline selection stating that "bloodline will affect players in all aspects of the entire game," Alex guessed that the qualification to learn magic should be one of these effects.
Based on Alex's years of experience as a game designer, in a game set in a magical world, it was only a matter of time before players could learn magic.
So, what magic existed in the world of Ice and Fire?
The most famous was undoubtedly the resurrection spell of R'hllor, the Lord of Light. However, this BUG-level magic was unlikely for players to possess themselves (it was more probable that players would try to recruit Thoros of Myr and Melisandre the Red Priestess). The remaining magics of the Lord of Light were relatively useless. Either their casting time was extremely long, making them impractical, or their cost was prohibitive.
Apart from the Lord of Light's magic, the most famous was clearly the green magic of the First Men. Not to mention the 'Three-Eyed Crow's' bug-level ability to see through the past and future, 'skin-changing' (i.e., possessing animals with one's consciousness) and precognitive dreams were very practical minor magics.
The abilities for combat, reconnaissance, and danger prediction were all activated simultaneously, and their side effects were far less severe than other magics.
Crucially, while the Lord of Light's magic might not be restricted by bloodline, green magic most likely required the bloodline of the First Men.
As for the 'dragon riding' ability that players most desired, it required the pure blood of the Valyrian Dragonlords. Even a little mixed blood wouldn't suffice for the people of the 'Free Cities' to claim themselves as 'Remnants of Valyria' with any real justification. Therefore, Alex didn't even consider the 'remnants of the Valyrian Free Trade City-State' option.
In the end, Alex chose the First Men as his secondary bloodline to ensure he wouldn't be ineligible to learn green magic in the future.