VN Ren'Py Karlsson's Gambit [v0.8.2B Final] [Grym Gudinna Games]

4.40 star(s) 166 Votes
Discussion Reviews (166)
Stan5851

Stan5851

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Ricthequick said:
I hope I didn't start a red herring chase to the "bomb" or whatever by sharing that message I got on Patreon.
All I can add is that back then I was on my 2nd playrthough, with a very dumb Kane, and while I was expressing my overall compliments for the VN I was pointing out how the 2 scenes at the begiining of that chapter:
  • Kane + Callista = Flashback in the undergrownd lake
  • Elena + Callista = on the hanging bridge
were imo working with a dominant (or at least partially sucessfull) Kane, one who's not suffering too much, but were giving me a whiplash effect with a submissive Kane who was suffering like hell (I think it was provisional K1, I was trying my best to fail at everything haha).

Why would a loving mother, by then fully aware of how badly her son is faring not do anything more urgently to save him?
She clearly could waltz in the Karlsson institute, and not only that, but also inside of Veronica's sancta sanctorum, what would stop her from helping him?

The answer is the one I got in that screenshot.
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Thank you for your detailed response. I always knew that Callista was not to blame for what happened to sub Kane. You know, we've had arguments more than once where I have defended Callista and some other thread oldtimers, on the contrary, have accused her of all the deadly sins...You know, something like this..."and where the hell was that loving mother who didn't want to take care of poor suffering slave Kane?".Yeah she's just "mother of the year" and that sort of thing in a sarcastic way.

There was always a legitimate argument on my part (as a player playing only the Dom route) that Callista had given Kane enough care and tutelage to allow him to succeed among these sharks, reaching K9 rank in a week and gaining brilliant prospects for the future.

Well, now, thanks to the context of your question you asked Tess and her answer, I too, like you, know why Callista can't openly intervene and defend sub Kane. And yes, it explains a lot, including to those players who are offended by the completely unfair fate of sub Kane and the fact that Callista supposedly does nothing for him/doesn't do it openly.
 
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Ricthequick

Ricthequick

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Stan5851 said:
Thank you for your detailed response. I always knew that Callista was not to blame for what happened to sub Kane. You know, we've had arguments more than once where I have defended Callista and some other thread oldtimers, on the contrary, have accused her of all the deadly sins...

You know, something like this..."and where the hell was that loving mother who didn't want to take care of poor suffering slave Kane?".Yeah she's just "mother of the year" and that sort of thing in a sarcastic way...

There was always a legitimate argument on my part (as a player playing only the Dom route) that Callista had given Kane enough care and tutelage to allow him to succeed among these sharks, reaching K9 rank in a week and gaining brilliant prospects for the future.

Well, now, thanks to the context of your question you asked Tess and her answer, I too, like you, know why Callista can't openly intervene and defend sub Kane. And yes, it explains a lot, including to those players who are offended by the completely unfair fate of sub Kane and the fact that Callista supposedly does nothing for him.
Click to expand...
I mean, starting from the premise that in a VN like this, is literally up to the player how much of a sub/dom Kane is, so yes whining about the mother not caring enough makes no sense.

Back then my point was more about subtlety, which I understand is pretty difficult to achieve when you have so many different paths, but if someone on their 1st playthrough (without WT) ends up being a very sub Kane... those 2 scenes are still a bit off imo.

It reminded me of personal experiences (smart and succesfull mother who doesn't show to care too much), so I over analyzed pretty much everything, because if we want to be honest Callista:
  • Sends Olivia to learn martial arts, that doesn't apply to Kane.
  • Teaches her how to be strong, teaches Kane... buh how to be gentle?
  • Actually plots with Olivia what's to come (that scene with Otto is still a bit a mistery for me), tells absolutely nothing to him.
Now, if the player leads him down the harsh sub path, Kane is risking a lot and in that conversation with Elena, while admitting that Kane is her priority, still glazes about Olivia (yes even if Olivia is bad Olivia).
Then she enters Veronica's secret lab and in the whole conversation she glazes about Veronica and how she wants to have Olivia and Kane succeed... maybe she could be doing something more proactive?

The point being, nothing wrong in having Callista prefer Olivia, heck my mother to this day prefers my cousin to me, despite me being the one who relocated back across the pond to take care of her and also being the most successful of the 2, one can't do much about personal preferences, but that's not how Callista is presented.

That's what prompted Tess to give me the answer, which absolutely dispels most of my concerns, for sure about the present and lack of proactivity from Callista, still leaves me as bit perplexed about the past thou.
 
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MilesEdgeworth

MilesEdgeworth

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Nov 8, 2021
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Ricthequick said:
The point being, nothing wrong in having Callista prefer Olivia, heck my mother to this day prefers my cousin to me, despite me being the one who relocated back across the pond to take care of her and also being the most successful of the 2, one can't do much about personal preferences, but that's not how Callista is presented.
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Yea, if anything, one of the talks between olivia and Kane indicate that Callista favors Kane.

Im still stuck on why she'd trade Kane's safety for Seth. There better be a helluva reason for that.
 
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Ricthequick

Ricthequick

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MilesEdgeworth said:
Yea, if anything, one of the talks between olivia and Kane indicate that Callista favors Kane.

Im still stuck on why she'd trade Kane's safety for Seth. There better be a helluva reason for that.
Click to expand...
Does she really thou? In Karlssons Gambit's world being unprepared is recipie for disaster, which is even more likely to happen if you are a male.
(you can also ingore me, I'm just typing here what I was wondering haha)
 
MilesEdgeworth

MilesEdgeworth

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Ricthequick said:
Does she really thou? In Karlssons Gambit's world being unprepared is recipie for disaster, which is even more likely to happen if you are a male.
(you can also ingore me, I'm just typing here what I was wondering haha)
Click to expand...
The best she could do for Kane in terms of the gambit is ensure that her and kane grew up close. Well either that or raise him as a snob that hates poor people but I doubt shed do that
 
H

Hazardgaming

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Jul 29, 2018
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If Callista had wanted to maximise the probability of Olivia and Kane ending up together, then she wouldn’t have raised them to believe that they were siblings. If Kane says that he can’t view her as anything other than his sister, then Olivia says the following in the spa area:
“But I don’t think I’m going to tell you everything I know. After all, you did reject my offer to be on my side so to speak”

If Kane also rejects the other Karlsson sisters as well.. what will Callista’s bridge plan amount to? She could have raised the three with Nadia while helping Cynthia build and prepare the DeKock Syndicate for a potential war or at the very least being able to demand assistance with the survival of both Seth and Kane once Alexander is dead.
 
MilesEdgeworth

MilesEdgeworth

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At this point, I'm not sure exactly why Kane would realistically listen to Callista at this point. I'm sure it'll likely be the player's choice, but so far she's faked her death, stood idly by while he was wrongfully imprisoned, and allowed him to be put into a life-or-death program. Before someone says it, this is all from Kane's pov not what did or did not happen.
 
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Canto Forte

Canto Forte

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Jul 10, 2017
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This game world is spoiled with inconsistensy: in a real world where Assassin creed exists, Batman Begins exists—where both parents of Bruce and Desmond never prepared their kids for the cutthroat kill or be killed economic and vengeful reality they lived in - being assassins or court of owls cultists who knew full well their kids would need to know alliances, escaping torture or death attempts on their lives - even just because Alexander in this world is a vengeful insufferable psicho and the people he left in charge are pure evil psicho slave driving mass muderers - this game failed spectacularly when put against the pitfalls of those franchises - or this game did splendid in emulating the dumbest whishful thinking immaginable coming from parents living in abject fear for their lives but letting their kids utterly defenseless against unsufferable odds.

Stan5851 said:
Plus, imagine how hard it would be to justify sub Kane's failures if it turned out that he had been preparing for Gambit from a very young age, "knew everything he needed to succeed", and still screwed up.
Click to expand...
Hazardgaming said:
“But I don’t think I’m going to tell you everything I know. After all, you did reject my offer to be on my side so to speak”
Click to expand...
It is the age old: keep enemies closer, enemy of my enemy is my circumstantial friend - and if anything, Kane should know by now he neeeds majority of allies to actually rule the company, not just hold some illusory throne while mass murderers keep attempting to dethrone him.
MilesEdgeworth said:
why Kane would realistically listen to Callista at this point. I'm sure it'll likely be the player's choice, but so far she's faked her death, stood idly by while he was wrongfully imprisoned, and allowed him to be put into a life-or-death program.
Click to expand...
 
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Stan5851

Stan5851

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Oct 18, 2019
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Canto Forte said:
This game world is spoiled with inconsistensy: in a real world where Assassin creed exists, Batman Begins exists—where both parents of Bruce and Desmond never prepared their kids for the cutthroat kill or be killed economic and vengeful reality they lived in - being assassins or court of owls cultists who knew full well their kids would need to know alliances, escaping torture or death attempts on their lives - even just because Alexander in this world is a vengeful insufferable psicho and the people he left in charge are pure evil psicho slave driving mass muderers - this game failed spectacularly when put against the pitfalls of those franchises - or this game did splendid in emulating the dumbest whishful thinking immaginable coming from parents living in abject fear for their lives but letting their kids utterly defenseless against unsufferable odds.
Click to expand...
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PickerLewd

PickerLewd

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Corporate Development Memo 8 June 2025

Hello all!

Just another weekly post!

The poll is pretty straightforward in terms of what people think, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to follow the results and keep grinding away on the update!

I've got to get up pretty early tomorrow so will keep this one a bit short and try and do a really long post next week as I approach 2,000 renders in the near future.

This week, I did 103 renders and we're now at 1793 renders, barely under 100 a week for 18 weeks of work on the update.

When I hit 2000 renders, I will be kind of close to where I want to be overall, and I will start compiling/organizing everything to see what is left. I originally wanted to do only 2,000 but I might want to tweak a tad bit higher, but we'll see. I am still just starting the secret sub path so I feel like I want to make sure there is enough content for each path.

The sub path is pretty far along with maybe 2-3 more games and the dom path is a little bit behind in time but pretty close. The secret sub path is my focus very soon so just starting that content.

It's really weird for me to feel like I've barely done anything with 1,800 renders but that's how I feel with my work nowadays.

I'll try and do a much longer post next week with more detailed thoughts on everything but I'm just plugging along and getting closer!

Personally, I might have to take another 3-4 day trip in about three weeks but it shouldn't impact much if anything. But it might change a specific day I write the weekly update itself if I know I am running around so I'll let everyone know if there's an issue on that front.

My entire wedding budget is done and finalized and mostly everything is already prepped/booked so I feel like a huge sense of relief but I know more stress will come later. I hope everyone has a great week and talk soon!

Love,

Tess

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4.40 star(s) 166 Votes