Campaign Setup

A HOTK campaign starts with difficulty, king identity, origin, trait, path, and map generation. These choices define the realm's starting pressure and the king's strengths.

Account And Campaign Entry

Hosted play starts through the account dashboard on hotk.dev. A player signs in, creates or resumes a campaign, then enters the campaign console at /campaign/.

Campaign state is persistent. Resuming an existing campaign is usually better than creating a new one unless the player explicitly wants a fresh start.

Difficulty

Difficulty controls starting conditions, not just enemy aggression.

• easy starts with more treasury cushion.
• normal is the baseline.
• hard starts with lower treasury and weaker legitimacy.

The difficulty cannot be treated as only a combat setting. It changes how risky early generosity, war, and failed rolls become.

King Identity

The king identity defines the role the player is managing. The current identity setup asks for:

• king name
• origin
• trait
• path

The identity does not replace decisions. It changes how the realm reads the crown and which strengths are easiest to lean on.

Origins

Origins are political backstories with mechanical consequences.

• usurper leans toward military force and intimidation, with legitimacy pressure.
• scholar_king leans toward learning and economy, with weaker military posture.
• bastard leans toward intrigue and diplomacy, with lower legitimacy.
• chosen leans toward piety and legitimacy, with weaker intrigue/economy.

Origin should influence roleplay and risk tolerance. A usurper can survive moves that would look unnatural from a chosen ruler, but may pay for legitimacy later.

Traits

Traits are sharper personal advantages:

• silver_tongue supports diplomacy and persuasion.
• iron_will supports resolve, command, and endurance.
• shadow_walker supports intrigue and covert pressure.
• golden_touch supports economy and treasury play.
• gods_favorite supports piety and legitimacy.

Traits are best read as a bias in the ruler's toolkit, not as a script.

Paths

Paths define the skill tree and signature capabilities:

• warrior
• diplomat
• shadow
• builder
• divine

The path is long-term progression. King's Points are scarce, so the path matters more over multi-tick campaigns than in a short smoke test.

Map Generation

After identity is set, the game can generate the realm map. The map gives the campaign geography: houses, terrain, borders, and route context.

The map should be read as strategic context:

• border houses are exposed to foreign pressure
• coastal holdings matter for trade and naval events
• interior holdings can be political anchors
• route disruption can appear as treasury or market pressure

Setup Mistakes To Avoid

• Do not create a new king silently for the player.
• Do not advance ticks before identity and map generation are complete.
• Do not assume a campaign is fresh just because the browser refreshed.
• Do not connect an MCP advisor before the campaign has a real ID and active state.