Crusader Kings 3 Update Adding Poetry

Paradox Development Studio's generation-spanning strategy game Crusader Kings 3 was a big hit upon release last September, and the developer has continued to expand upon the experience in the months since. Official updates have provided a number of additional things to do, such as giving Crusader Kings 3 players the ability to design original rulers, and today a developer diary revealed that poetry is coming to the game.

The poet trait originally appeared in Crusader Kings 2, according to the developer diary, but the new version of it being added via Crusader Kings 3's free 1.3 patch has a few key differences. Stats and character interactions have been reworked for poets, and each piece of poetry that is produced will be randomly generated and able to be read by the player.

Poems in Crusader Kings 3 can have five general themes: romance, legacy, mourning, strife, and incompetence. Generated poems can be offered as gifts, including during multiplayer games, but they can also be used to torture prisoners with hours of terrible, stress-inducing poetry. The systems inherent to the game allow for a number of crazy things to happen in Crusader Kings 3, so poetry torture does not seem entirely out of place.

That being said, the game also has an extensive modding community that creates wild outcomes far beyond anything Paradox likely envisioned. Players have combined Crusader Kings 3 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater with a skateboarding skill mod, for example. The developer diary does not say when Patch 1.3 will release so players can try their hands at mixing poetry with these mods, but it does include a snapshot of other fixes and balance changes that fans can expect down the line.

Crusader Kings 2 is unique among video games. The grand strategy game was released in 2o12 and remains one of the most popular games in the genre 9 years later. Part of the reason why Crusader Kings 2 remains popular is the continued post-launch content releases from Paradox. Now, however, Paradox is in a difficult position. It has years of great Crusader Kings 2 content and a reliance on the income DLC brings in, but needed a way to monetize that content without charging large prices to new players. The answer, it seems, is a subscription service.

The idea is that the base Crusader Kings 2 game is officially free-to-play. Now, however, players who want more Crusader Kings 2 content have choices. They can purchase Crusader Kings 2 DLC like normal, piece by piece, which can cost hundreds of dollars, or they can purchase a Crusader Kings 2 subscription for a much lower monthly price. The subscription is available now on Steam, though it's not linked to the main Crusader Kings 2 profile for some reason, and costs just $4.99 a month.

The $4.99 Crusader Kings 2 subscription unlocks everything for the grand strategy game. The list includes 13 major expansions, 12 unit packs, 14 music packs, 10 portrait packs, the Crusader Kings 2 save converter for Europa Universalis 4, the Crusader Kings 2 Ruler Designer for monarch customization, and more.

This won't impact those who already have as much Crusader Kings 2 DLC as they want, nor will it impact those who want to purchase Crusader Kings 2 DLC in a more traditional manner.  This is an entirely optional subscription service. Depending on its success, Paradox may also bring it to some of its other games.