Crusader Kings 3’s Game of Thrones mod already created some amazing stories on its first weekend

Bessie’s Teats, Hodor the Princeslayer, and fun family time
Crusader Kings 3’s Game of Thrones mod already created some amazing stories on its first weekend
Crusader Kings 3’s Game of Thrones mod already created some amazing stories on its first weekend /

The highly-anticipated Game of Thrones mod for Crusader Kings 3 is finally out and the level of detail the developers put into their creation is truly impressive – as are the stories that are being generated for players. Just like Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy titles are great for producing some cool alternate history timelines of our own past, this mod is fantastic at making what-if scenarios in the A Song of Ice and Fire world happen.

Players have already posted some fantastic runs and events on the mod’s subreddit, such as an Intrigue-focused run with Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish by HomemPassaro, who made use of the character’s fantastic Intrigue stat to murder his way to the Iron Throne with Catelyn Tully by his side.

IFellIntoASnowdrift, who played as Robert Baratheon, got a letter during his rebellion against the Mad King containing details about a recent battle. It revealed that his great rival, Prince Rhaegar, was slain by none other than everyone’s favorite giant, Hodor – knowing Bobby B, he’d likely laugh himself half to death upon hearing that Rhaegar was felled by a witless stable boy.

The level of detail in CK3 AGOT is deep, as user gamehiker’s discovery of a funny event shows: Remember Robert and Ned’s conversation about their amorous conquests during the war on the show? Well, Bessie with the blessed breasts is a character in the game and can be recruited into your court. If you do so as Robert, you can get an event to rename a location called The Teats to Bessie’s Teats, which is indeed a very Robert thing to do.

Crusader Kings 3’s Game of Thrones mod gets last-minute manicure

Then there is the story of MrElephant, who as Robert not only had to deal with an incestious affair between Cersei and Jaime, but also between his bastard son on the Kingsguard and bastard daughter – there is an option to “invite them for some family time” because Robert has Lustful as a trait. Yes, Crusader Kings and Game of Thrones really are made for each other.

My personal playthrough as Tywin Lannister started very differently from what author George R. R. Martin wrote as well: The Mad King crushed Robert’s uprising and executed him, Eddard Stark, and their families, giving the Stormlands and the North to other houses, before I could even bring the Westerlands into the war. It didn’t help that Jaime died in a duel with Howland Reed, reducing my sympathies with the North greatly.

At least Rhaegar died in battle in this timeline as well, opening the way for some interesting succession shenanigans – murdering Aerys was simple enough, since basically everyone in the realm wanted him dead and Tywin has a hook on Grand Maester Pycelle, and so the Mad King found a fitting end being torn apart by the mob of King’s Landing.

Aegon, Rhaegar’s eldest son, took over as a child ruler, but my plan to murder him (and marry his sister to Tyrion) failed at the last moment, when his clothing stopped him from “accidently” falling out of a window. My agent gave up my name, putting me on the king’s hitlist. Fortunately, I was able to rally most of the Lords Paramount to my side in the two wars that followed after I declined being imprisoned and executed – the last one ended in Aegon being deposed in favor of his disfigured and maimed sister-wife, Rhaenys, who had paid the price for fancying herself a warrior queen. Rhaenys didn’t have any children and the chances of that remaining so were good due to her injuries. Tywin then got friendly with Viserys and Daenerys, who had settled at Storm’s End after the Baratheon boys’ execution, marrying relatives into their line – just in case the crown would pass over to them.

CK3 AGOT Tyrion Lannister.
Tyrion Lannister packs some impressive stats :: Paradox / CK3 AGOT Team

However, Tywin would not see the project of taking over the Iron Throne through. Taking the reins from his father, Tyrion Lannister did not have a bad history with the deposed Aegon, who had remarried in the meantime. Desperate for an ally after becoming a mere landed knight, Aegon agreed to a matrilineal marriage of his only son and heir, Aenor, to Tyrion’s daughter, after which he thankfully died in a battle. Once Aenor took the throne as Rhaenys’ heir, reached adulthood, and fathered some children, the Lannister takeover was complete – safeguarded by Tyrion and later his son Gerion’s lifelong tenures as Hands of the King.

CK3 AGOT Lannister king.
Ambitions were finally realized when Marq Lannister took the Iron Throne :: Paradox / CK3 AGOT Team

CK3 AGOT got its first patch after release on April 17, 2023, and you can find all the changes here.


Published
Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg