POLITICAL PRISONER event: choice gated by Romulus's Courage

About this game

Developer: Mohawk Games · Publisher: Hooded Horse · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Stylized 3D · Screen type: Dialogue / Conversation

More Old World screens in the Gallery

What to study

Old World's events are its character system wearing a dialogue box, and this frame shows the full contract: prose first, mechanics inline. The actors are links (Egyptian, Egypt), the state change is bracketed into the story text ([Egypt Contacted]), and the three choices are priced before you commit, one is free, one is a fight, and one is greyed behind a named character's stat (King Romulus needs Courage of 2 or more), so a ruler's personality literally unlocks diplomacy. Best of all, the consequence of the hovered option is already showing underneath, Egypt: +40 Opinion for 40 Years, a diplomatic effect measured in the same years as the family tree, not in turns. Frame at about 0:40 in the Announcement Trailer (Steam), a scene-change survivor (v0_0014 at 40.19s) inspected at full resolution in this prep.

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

modal-dialog portrait-panel story-panel

Components

Parts on screen.

Window Portrait Map Clock Tooltip

Screen inventory

• header plaque in red wood and gold serif capitals: POLITICAL PRISONER, with minimise and close buttons at the modal's top right, the event is a window on the map, not a scene change
• left, the speaker portrait (an Egyptian queen in a gold uraeus headpiece); the body text names its actors as inline icon links, 'a party of Egyptian soldiers whipping a man bound by his wrists and ankles... attempting to infiltrate the treasury. However, the victim insists that he is innocent of the crimes.'
• a status line in green brackets closes the setup: [Egypt Contacted], the mechanical result is typeset inside the prose, not in a separate results box
• three full-width choice bars: 'Follow their advice and move along.' (highlighted, cursor over it), 'Fight them for possession of the prisoner.', and 'Convince the Egyptians to release him into our custody.', the third carrying its gate on a second line in green: Requires King Romulus is >= 2 Courage, with the character, comparison and stat all icon-coded
• below the modal, the consequence tooltip already open for the hovered choice: Egypt: +40 Opinion for 40 Years, duration stated in years, the game's generational clock

Top 3 colors

#14100c 24%#3c2f24 20%#4f4631 15%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Mohawk Games / Hooded Horse, Old World screenshot: Old World - Announcement Trailer video (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Hooded Horse.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-10-21. verified 2026-10-21: scene-change survivor v0_0014.png (40.19s) inspected visually at full resolution (1920x1080) in this prep; keeper file political-prisoner-event.png is a byte copy of that survivor

no published policy found (checked 2026-10-21); fair-use study use, takedown honored within 48h

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.