Characterising Kate

I think I tend to play a combo of crusader and waif. I have a thing for strong women getting corrupted, so I like to have a bit of that confident, head-strong tenaciousness give way to more waif-like actions and behaviours. She doesn't lose her crusader idealism and strengths, but circumstances just kinda force her to endure (and eventually enjoy). I like my crusaders to eventually take back control on her own terms (which have by now been thoroughly corrupted); she's not broken, but she has definitely begun putting her talents to a different use.

I think writing multiple dialogue options and decision points for different character archetypes will be a time-consuming task. I think it may also limit player choice because the player will be presented with several options, but only one will be right for 'their' character. What would you say to letting the characterisation happen in the player's own mind? Instead of four tailored options, offer a simple binary choice. In any given situation, Kate can be enthusiastic or reluctant. Don't explore her motivation, but let the player decide. She might be enthusiastic because the player wants her to be a slut, or because they think it's important for her cover. She might be reluctant because the player's Kate is clinging to her dignity, or she wants to stay in control, or maybe their Kate is just not in the mood tonight. If you let the player develop the character in their head, you can avoid the trap of writing a whole scene that clashes with the player's own vision. It may be harder to leave the character as more of a tabula rasa, but this is a game and not a novel. The player should be in control. Instead of presenting one of four alternate pathways, allow them to make it up as they go along.

for the last update where you tried to offer insight into a "fragile" mindset i think it would be more effective to have some sort of emotional transference to a character typically it would be someone she sees as protecting her like steph for helping her with bonaht or ian for being constantly there as protection watching over her etc. i suggest you maybe try to write a scene where she goes out with steph and the girls again and maybe ends up trying to hookup with steph or ian is waiting outside the club one night and walks her home and ends up spending the night with him at the safehouse etc. there would need to be a trigger to start this emotional connection such as the bj to bonaht escalating to sex or bargirling for the vip group for the first time

Regarding my "Kate" I think the best way to describe her is by using the atributes of the Lifepath, which you've said will bring back in the future and I always play it before a full playthough of the current game, in this case she is in many ways full of contrasts: -She is EASY and has high OPENNESS, she wants to have adventure and experiment new things and people, both regularly and sexually, if it's an opportunity to go through something she hasn't before she'll take it (at the end of the current version of the Lifepath she has a "bodycount" of 65 people and is more than willing to reach the triple digits), which is the reason she joined an Intelligence Agency when she was asked, for the excitement it would bring, which goes in contrast with her low CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, she is undisciplined and unreliable, doing whatever she wants without thinking it through first, like climbing an abandoned building only realising later that she brought no food or water, which is not the best quality for an agent (honestly if there was an option she not only would have spent the night with Max and risk having a morning quicky before rushing to make her bags and run to the airport, she would go so far as to ignore protocol and continue with the Stag Party on her first night in Bangkok and sleep with one of the guys, only realizing her mistake when she woke up in the morning and realized she now has to rush to a meeting with her fellow agents hangover and without underwear). -She has high EXTRAVERSION, the soul of the party, highly sociable, loves to party and is great at making friends, however that is slightly marred by her higher than average NEUROTICISM, which makes her overly worry about how she is doing and if they truly like her, which in turn leads to her high AGREEABLENESS, she wants to satisfy everyone, to the point that she has little backbone for herself, honestly even if it was possible to get out of some of the sex scenes, like say the "Audition", without affecting the mission she still would have gone through with it out of sheer pressure, which considering she is SUBMISSIVE is something that she realizes she actually quite enjoys. -She has high INTELLECT, which is great for both University classes and as an Analist, however she wants more than that and experience thrills both in the Army Corps and as Field Agent, which is actually very difficult for her, because aside from her lack of discipline she also has very bad COORDINATION, she is quite the clutz and has problems with some basic tasks, in game she always get the worst dice results possible when it comes to tasks, which leads to things like flashing the lantern at the wrong place, taking the maximum time possible just picking a lock or even failing in something as simple as tripping a waitress in heels (something which is much harder to fail than pass and requires many tries), which leads to things like ending up with a hacked phone full of naked pictures of her. So basically the way I role-play her is that she is, in many ways, the absolutely wrong choice for the mission, which she got solely by virtue of being hot as hell and willing to strip in public, but she will try to do the best she can with her limited skillset to arrest a dangerous criminal, and get some glory and excitement while she is at it.

I just think Kate, being an analyst in her original posting, makes most sense being a waif. It is true though that the only other thing she could possibly be is the femme fatale. The crusader and alpha female archetypes could be something that emerges and develops during the mission, depending on player choices maybe?

All these make her sound like a veteran pro spy but to me Its her first mission in the field, she's skilled, resilient and knowledgeable but lacks experience, is in too deep and knows it but doesn't want to disappoint higher ups so pushes herself to carry on. Gradually becoming more accustomed to the environment, more corrupt, Whilst spending time with the girls or in the job or outings during time off make her more relaxed, more flirty and more forgetful. Silly mistakes like handing out her phone number or Instagram or where she's staying that could lead to encounters where she knows she messed up and needs to sort it herself outside of spy stuff or potentially use the moments to gather more information and just embracing her more slutty side because shes used to it being so casual at the club. The last update made this kind of weird as she has done so much more so far and for the most part shrugged it off or enjoyed it, that making such a big deal out of this small thing felt very off pace and the addition of the new girl just felt too soon and like the story had switched to her.

Hmm, I feel like I would struggle to play any of these other than WAIF, with the character as written. Her role is too passive and reactionary at the minute. Maybe Crusader would work, but Alpha Female and Femme Fatale I don't feel like the writing supports it: 1. There is little opportunity for Kate to do things of her own accord. Sure, she can choose to take advantage of an opportunity, reacting to things in the moment, but I think both the alpha and the femme fatale archetype would be characterised more by *making* those opportunities. Deciding to play characters off each other, taking initiative etc. Atm everything Kate can choose to do is to either take advantage or not of external offers. 2. There is a lot of self-doubt and anxiety baked into the internal dialogue, which makes it hard to imagine her as anything other than WAIF. All of the other archetypes feel like they should be a lot more confident about what they're doing/not doing. Kate as currently written feels very much like analyst-pushed-into-the-field and now in somewhat over her head, but adapting on the fly. Very much WAIF, with an optional slutty side. I like that, but I'd like to see more opportunity to develop that into more of an outright hedonistic persona. The 'Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll' girl that Reuben Sealey refers to above. Someone who's not necessarily that headstrong and wilful and manipulative (which as above, I don't feel like the gameplay currently supports), but who's along for the ride and the thrill of it and willing to enjoy it.

Mine is a WAIF with a little/sometimes overconfident Alpha Female mixture. She is there because of the mission. Her legend is just her legend and not the truth. She has to do things with others for the sake of the mission. She enjoys it because the situations she is in are arousal, sexually exciting. Of course she is not a nun but neither a whore or prostitute. She has to keep up the picture not just at the workplace but almost everywhere because she dont know if the criminals watching her or not.

Mostly 'Survivor'. So basically WAIF with less submissive, but more stoic and self ironic traits. Maybe a hidden painslut then?

a different style I guess, I seem to play in Brat/Goth Modes. waif-Ish, submissiveness check, Flirty check, compliant- hell no and definitely not the Good Girl! Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’roll,

The way I play Kate is more or less... she's smart, competent, and she wants to do well and do the right thing.... But her libido is basically insatiable and likely to override those drives. That's a fairly good reflection of my tastes when it comes to games/stories like this; I like my heroine to be corrupted/seduced/for her resistance to crumble. If it were me writing the story, purely to satisfy my own tastes, she wouldn't end up switching sides completely, most likely, but she would probably end up 'too far gone', to some extent. Maybe she ends up becoming a permanent double agent or mole, or she ends up kind of in between somehow? If you've seen all of Homeland, especially the last season, there's a character who more or less does this. If you've seen the last season, I think it should be fairly obvious whom I'm talking about. I'm not saying that's how this game should develop, but that's sort of an indicator of the style/approach I use when playing Kate. Hope that makes sense :) On a related note, I'm quite hopeful for mind control / hypnosis content to be included at some (probably distant) point :) Though I'll still enjoy the game a lot without it, no pressure.

Sorry for the long post, but you asked. And I'm glad you asked this question, because it's something I'm always thinking a lot about as I play this and I really think you should try to find some way to bring back some of these "archetype choices" to suit different Kate playstyles, and they wouldn't even have to be major choices. Compare it to the same way you could choose a response in Baldur's Gate based on your class or origin. You used a few of these tying back to Kate's origin story and I miss them because it made the game more RPG-like instead of having these static responses where I’m not sure which version of Kate I’m even playing. The Kate I always envision in my mind is a Black Widow archetype: technically a Crusader at heart that gradually becomes a mixture of Femme Fatale and a touch of Alpha. You talked about the origins of Kate's name - the name of the protagonist from the film Sicario. And I've always thought that this "Sicario Kate" is who a younger, greener Kate might've idolized and wanted to become. Before she fully understood the power of her femininity. But when Kate realizes how much her beauty could help de-escalate situations, she began relying on it more so than the gun in her holster and she treated it like a lethal weapon. My ideal Kate is not only charming and manipulative but young and beautiful and stacked – Kate is self-aware and not naive – she knows why she out of all agents was approached to take on this mission, she knows she’s the only one in the agency who’s equipped to do it. By not doing this mission she’s not only being selfish and putting the world in peril, but she’s also not living up to her idealized expectations of a patriot. That is her prime justification. My Kate operates like a psychopath in many aspects, completing this mission with machine-like efficiency she masks behind an artificial “ditzy bimbo” facade. Of course she still has human emotions, but is able to majorly suppress them under this single-minded conviction. It’s almost scary how she’s able to turn off the switch and jump into this role so effortlessly, and in my mind this unsettles even her agency somewhat. My Kate will use whatever tools necessary, no matter the cost, to accomplish this important mission, even if it means hurting or killing a few gangsters along the way. Now on this mission Kate discovers she’s reawakened her exhibitionist kink from her college days; what’s worse is she also enjoys the power she wields too much over these people and gets off on the idea of being so in control when everyone thinks she’s helpless. But she struggles with keeping that side of her buried deep. The mission objective must come first, even when it feels so good that she doesn’t want the ride to end. She doesn’t grapple with “how far must I go?” – she knew signing up that she would have to use her body to complete this mission. It’s more of “am I loving this too much?” Those are the dark urges my Kate wrestles with.

I play her as someone who is full of confidence, trying to be assertive and thinking she's in control but not realising that she's actually being a submisive doormat and falling deeper into their hands

I lean towards waif. I like when she listens to orders and submits to those in charge - whether it's her bosses or the ones offering to pay her for services. Unfortunately she hasn't been willing to do bargirl services yet, but hopefully soon her inhibitions are lowered and she engages in all sorts of debauchery.

My agent is a kind of Femme Fatale but with a weak sense of responsibility. I'm a player of the old version of the game, with Kate's extensive background. So she had a past with a maximum of encounters and twisted relationships. My Kate always has a giant sexual appetite, with very low moral standards. The more perverted, the better. I imagine she was recruited for that. The agency doesn't recruit her because she's brilliant, but precisely because she has no sexual limits. Instead of taking a competent girl and trying to talk her into doing lewd stuff (that has nearly 0 chance to work), they cast a girl with no moral limits and then train her to do certain jobs. It's obviously not official, but when asked if she's ready to embark on the adventure, it's rhetorical, or rather to verify if she's competent enought in the other classic agent skills (not if she's ok to suck d*cks). Anyway, she does what she does because she likes sex, the attention, the adrenaline rush and being a people pleaser.

I'd call her a reverse femme fatale. What I mean is that to me she's someone who is very competent and skilled at what she does, but rather than manipulating other through sexuality, the suddenly sexual nature of her mission manipulates her into doing things that are beyond what is strictly necessary for the job.

I alternate between two Kates: one is a slightly bookwormish analyst waif who's trying to approach things from the textbook but is in way over her head, with the intent of eventually growing her into a Crusader/FF sort (so a heroic journey narrative). The other is an over-confident Alpha (or Alpha wannabe) sort who initially treats it like an adventure vacation but gradually gets corrupted and ends up broken (so WALL STREET but with more sexytimes).

A mixture of Waif & FF, maybe? Look, Kate's just an analyst (albeit a damn good one) who more or less blunders into an advanced undercover mission. ('Cause let's face it: any agent with *actual* field experience would have plain refused the mission – or she'd come up with at least a dozen, better alternatives.) So she's doing the best she can, but the situation keeps getting out of hand.

I play her with the hope of "corruption" in the future, that she might realize somewhere in the future she actually enjoys her life working in the bar, especially after she becomes a bar girl, and might even switch sides to the mafia in order to stay in that life. Extreme scenario - she realizes that she enjoys her life so much she might switch sides just to keep her work in the bar, like they might want to fire her and she won't try to keep her job for the mission but because she actually enjoys it, so she will tell them who she really is and will beg to keep working in the bar, and will agree to work as a double agent for them just to keep her life there.

Mine is somewhat of a mix of Crusader and Waif with a more Femme Fatale side beginning to emerge.

I picked other, and the role I have in my mind is Kate in over her head. It's sort of like waif, but one more nervous and anxious. Basically instead of her having an infinite reserve of willpower, I like to consider her in a more realistic sense, if she's put through shit constantly, that's going to have an effect on her. It's *kind* of similar to a victim characterization, but I think a better term of someone actually struggling in a profoundly stressful environment. This is a traumatic situation, and she's going to be traumatized sometimes, and that's trauma she's going to need to process and overcome in her downtime. Or not, this also works to set up Bad Ends.

Like others have said, I play her as somebody who wants and tries to be a femme fatale but can't quite pull it off because of her natural submissiveness.

I play my Kate as a mix of Black Widow (basically Alpha Female with a whiff of Crusader) and Slut (a combo of the sexualized parts of Waif and Femme Fatale). She is career-oriented, assertive, tenacious, and headstrong, but not so much a bitch or an idealist. She simply finds being a spy and action heroine her ideal path. She also has a huge slutty side with all three kinks that was mostly latent before the mission (although it may be part of her background) but is quickly awakening and blossoming under the stimulus of the HCC environment. Depending on the circumstances and which kink and side of her personality prevail at the time, it may take more the form of acting flirty and turning on the charm, or of enjoying being objectified, degraded, and submissive (hence a combo of Waif and Femme Fatale). Uses manipulation as a tool, but craves as much sexy fun as possible. Quite at ease with being undercover in the HCC, also because of her past experiences: she was the party slut and moonlighted as a stripper/escort at college. She is genuinely aroused by the sex-worker experience because of the combined effect of her kinks.

Miranda in ME2

Other possible types: 1) 'maverick': rebel to authority, she carry on the mission disregarding rules and going on by instinct (and not logic) and sheer bravery; 2)lassist: quite similar to femme fatale, but much more laid back: apparently rebel to authority, but for her passive, or 'lazy' behaviour, she prefers to create a multi-layered strategy to make her enemies fall in her mindtraps. Always (even if is a façade most of the times) chilled, easygoing and calm; 3)as other already said, 'fallen': this options will be available - I suppose - where and when Kate will start to fall to depravity, forget her priorities and decide to actively work for Thai Mafia (or worse)

The way I play my Kate is kind of a mix of all four options, eg when she's on that infiltration mission she's no nonsense, yet when pretending to be a topless bartender or when 'forced' to give a blowjob she's a bit more restraint/not entirly willing to do those type of things just yet, as she wants to protray herself as still being that outsider who's only recently joined and is not sure what she's supposed to do

completing the mission while having as much fun/sex as possible

I play "Katie" as a young woman in way over her head. For me, she's clearly being taken advantage of by Five Eyes *and* The Hard Rock, but she's building better personal connections at the bar. She's stuck in a position where she has to do the best she can to please everyone on both sides, but as the stress builds she cuts loose and parties with the girls, or slobs a drug dealer's knob for coke, and she's learning that she doesn't necessarily have to be ashamed of that. She's here spying on the Hard Rock because she's *supposed* to, because she's the agent of a first-world colonial super intelligence group - this is a person who can never have been in a position to question her life, society, or sexual liberation. Now that she's on the far side of the world getting banged by swedish businessmen and scottish expats, while dozens of strangers fondle her like a prized attraction at a petting zoo every working day, things look a little different - a little more wild, a little more free, and she realizes, a little more *fun.* I think John Smithe said it best above me, "Secret Slut."

I picked waif, crusader and femme fatale. Let me explain. The way I saw her character going into this game was that she had a strong, take charge attitude at the beginning. Going into this mission, she was more strong willed, and desired to become the kind of spy that is typically glorified in films like James Bond or Ethan Hunt and such. However, the deeper she falls into her role as a barmaid, as well as potential bargirl, the more she loses herself, becoming far more submissive and open to sexual relationships she would not have even considered a year ago. She’s already been basically green lit to use her body in any and every way to benefit the mission. So a BJ should be small potatoes at this point in the game.

Waif

I think that I had always considered them to be the Method Actor/Agent. Yes a tough and talented field agent but pragmatic enough to know that sex is a weapon and it is one that you hone to a razor sharpness. This time however it's going to get used a lot more than you might normally expect. Still as long as it's not impacting their physical health then hell you may as well enjoy it and maybe learn some new skills for going undercover as a Dominatrix in Moscow.

I don't know if this is too generic a response, but I'd say my usual play style is one of intention and reality. I like playing a character that thinks they are a paladin, someone who does their best and knows what is right and wrong, but is ever so slowly slipping further into depravity and submission. To make a term for it I'd say like "Oath breaker Paladin" / "Corrupted Paladin" / "Fallen Paladin." / "Fallen Hero" / "Secret Slut" / " Daisy Denial" / "Reluctant or Repressed Rachel"/ etc. Someone ever championing the "right and proper" thing to do, but betraying their words/ideals with their actions and fantasies that see them descending more and more into someone who just likes being exploited and observed. That dynamic is fun to work with. Especially whenever they have to justify their actions with themselves and their intelligence allies. She would love to be a femme fatale or a paladin proper. But she loves what she is doing and how she is being treated too much to do anything about it. (Maybe she'll accomplish her goal, maybe she won't. But whether she consciously accepts it or not, she's gonna have a good time along the way.) That's my two cents. Sorry for the novel.

Crusader who is susceptible to validation and overconfident in her ability to not be corrupted by nigh-constant sexual activity

I do like the story but the characters no matter what her personality is should be prepared what she’s walking into since we’re already very far in the story but so far she hasn’t had sex with a single client at the Hard Cock Cafe except for Conner, but when she did the BJ in the last update and rolling to resist throwing up from overwhelming emotions, that scene should be scrapped, I do think she should be willing to have sex with clients in order to maintain her cover and maybe each client she’s with could have connections that can benefit the mission and maybe better have relationships with some of them, but to make it better is each client you meet can be optional, if you are not the type you wish to see Kate have intimate relationships with they can always reject them.

Like this comment if your Kate is a total degenerate like mine