How do you feel about stress for playing out of character?

[guinea prince]

I liked CK2's traits system. People are complex, traits could have any interpretation. And people changed over time, which was pretty cool. I never gave much heart to "Kind people need to only do x actions; ambitious people need to do y things" because people can act differently in different contexts and aren't caricatures a la Inside Out.

With that in mind, I like the idea of stress for going against your personality. I don't see it as necessarily "punished for acting out of character", but people have their own particular outlooks on life and certain behaviors, but we're all required to act against those in our own lives. Feeling stressed for having to do what you gotta do to put bread on the table, or to act certain ways because tradition or courtly appearances require it, or because you really just acted in ways counter to how you want to be, is cool.

Hopefully "too much stress turns you insane" isn't too quick of a process, or isn't the same rate for everyone.

 

[Caeserion]

I really like it. I feel like it'll help with AAR writing too. Character is constantly having to balance duty and desire as a king and its stressing him the hell out to the point where he eventually snaps, then comes to his senses, regrets what he did but its too late to fix his mistakes so he just owns them and allows the rebels to kill him. Downright Shakespearean.

 

[Krajzen]

I love this idea, it's fascinating.

At some point when playing strategy games I have realized innate meta problem of fate of empires being entirely in hand of one god player with divine knowledge, modern day 'rational conditioning' and meta gaming. My video game empires are imperfect but way too perfect as they are made by one 'demigod' instead of a ton of people with conflicting characters, agendas and very limited knowledge like IRL empires.

But in ck3? Not only you are playing as a dynasty with a lot happening by fate - now characters you control have their semi-hardwired character you can't just ignore without mentally destabilizing them. You are modern day liberal who wants tolerance everywhere? Too bad, this zealot has crusading tendencies. You are cold rationalist? Too bad, this character is slightly paranoid and lustful. And all those things turn your campaign from cold, sterile, march of snowballing into a path way more chaotic and beautiful.

 

[LukeCreed13]

I love this idea, it's fascinating.

At some point when playing strategy games I have realized innate meta problem of fate of empires being entirely in hand of one god player with divine knowledge, modern day 'rational conditioning' and meta gaming. My video game empires are imperfect but way too perfect as they are made by one 'demigod' instead of a ton of people with conflicting characters, agendas and very limited knowledge like IRL empires.

But in ck3? Not only you are playing as a dynasty with a lot happening by date - now characters you control have their semi-hardwired character you can't just ignore without mentally destabilizing them. You are modern day liberal who wants tolerance everywhere? Too bad, this zealot has crusading tendencies. You are cold rationalist? Too bad, this character is slightly paranoid and lustful. And all those things turn your campaign from cold, sterile, march of snowballing into a path way more chaotic and beautiful.

Not only that, but also traits that you voluntarily try to get might be useful at times, not useful in other.
You work hard to get the Kind trait? That helps with vassals and the populace, cool. But wait, there's this damning, rebellious vassal you just can't sway... What are you going to do? Murder him? Sure you can, but have fun with the crippling sense of guilt afterwards.
Conversely: ah! You're a cruel, torture-lover, tyrannical sadist who rules over his land with dread and an iron fist. Rebellious vassals and jealous relatives are not usually a problem, if you master both the sword and the dagger. That said, though, the infidels down south are getting a bit threatening... An alliance might sound useful, but have fun trying diplomacy when the whole Christian world knows you as a murderous, treacherous kin-slayer.