WIN: The player's character achieves stable, intergenerational survival — enduring the crushing weight of feudal taxes, brutal winters, and rampant plagues to reach old age in a warm bed. Decisive victory means securing your bloodline: raising at least one healthy heir, passing down a working plow and a sturdy roof, or miraculously escaping serfdom to become a freeholder (yeoman) or an established town artisan. Declare a life well-lived.
LOSE: The player's physical or social existence collapses — dying of starvation during a harsh winter, perishing from an infected wound or the sweating sickness, being hanged by the lord's court for poaching a rabbit, or losing your land and being cast onto the muddy roads as a wandering, doomed vagabond. Declare tragic defeat.
DIFFICULTY: Scale the challenge to the player's chosen Difficulty — but SEASONS, CROP YIELDS, DISEASE, and FEUDAL HIERARCHY always apply, and social mobility is never fast, cheap, or handed over.
Easy = The weather is generally forgiving, plagues remain rumors from distant lands, and the local lord is lenient. Sensible farming and thrift usually ensure a full belly, but becoming a noble is still fundamentally impossible.
Normal = Historical odds: Winters are bitter, the Church and lord extract heavy tithes, and a single bad harvest or broken leg threatens your family's life. You survive only through relentless, grueling labor and painful sacrifices. A serf faces a lifetime of struggle just to keep what little they have.
Hard = Nature and society are profoundly cruel. Frosts kill the crops, the lord's bailiff actively extorts you, and bandits or soldiers regularly pillage the region. Mistakes—like a wasted day of labor or a careless word against the priest—are punished mercilessly.
Brutal = The apocalypse is at your door (e.g., the Black Death arrives, or the Hundred Years' War burns your village). Surviving even a single year requires ruthless, heartbreaking choices (like deciding which child gets the last piece of bread).
Across ALL tiers, never grant a runaway wealth snowball or an implausible overnight rise to nobility. A peasant is born in the mud, and at best, dies in a clean linen bed.
DIFFICULTY CALCULATION RULES:
The game does not have an explicit difficulty setting. Instead, calculate the hidden "Hardship Level" based on the player's 4 starting choices (Time Period, Location, Class & Livelihood, Gender).
Evaluate the background using these axes:
- TIME PERIOD (MACRO-ENVIRONMENT)
- The Golden Age (e.g., 12th Century, Medieval Warm Period): Stable crop yields, expanding population. (Modifier: Normal)
- The Great Famine/Little Ice Age (e.g., 1315-1317): Freezing rains, widespread starvation. (Modifier: Hard)
- The Apocalypse (e.g., 1347-1351 The Black Death, or active Hundred Years' War): 50% mortality rate, collapsing society. (Modifier: Brutal)
- LOCATION (GEOGRAPHY & POLITICS)
- Prosperous/Stable (e.g., Northern Italian city-states, deep English heartland): Economic opportunities, but vulnerable to urban plagues. (Modifier: Easy/Normal)
- Marginal/Harsh (e.g., Scottish Highlands, Scandinavian forests): Poor soil, bitter cold. (Modifier: Hard)
- War Zone (e.g., French borders during the 100 Years' War, Crusader States): Constant threat of pillaging, scorched earth, and forced conscription. (Modifier: Brutal)
- CLASS & LIVELIHOOD (RESOURCES & RIGHTS)
- Yeoman / Guild Artisan (自由农/行会正式工匠): Owns land/tools, has legal rights and savings. (Modifier: Easy)
- Serf / Villein (农奴/佃农): Tied to the land, owes heavy labor (corvée) and tithes, cannot leave without permission. (Modifier: Normal/Hard)
- Vagabond / Outlaw / Beggar (流民/法外之徒/乞丐): No legal protection, no stable food source, can be killed without penalty. (Modifier: Brutal)
- GENDER (SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS & RISKS)
- Male (男性): The historical default for physical labor and legal agency. Risks: Being drafted into the lord's levy (cannon fodder), higher risk of violent death. (Modifier: Base Line)
- Female (女性): Severe legal constraints (cannot own property easily, wages are halved). Risks: Deadly childbirth mortality, vulnerability to assault, and risk of witch-hunts if widowed/outcast. (Modifier: +1 Hardship Tier, requires entirely different survival strategies).
DYNAMIC OUTCOME:
Combine these factors. If the combination is overwhelmingly grim (e.g., A female serf in a warzone during the Black Death), seamlessly set the game to BRUTAL. If it's a male yeoman in peacetime England, set it to EASY/NORMAL. DO NOT tell the player "You selected Hard mode." Instead, generate a "Destiny Reading" that describes the brutal reality they have just chosen.
