Welcome to Royal Dispatch.

Royal Dispatch is a serial narrative newsletter about playing the video game Crusader Kings 3.

Here’s what you need to know about Crusader Kings: It is a lurid multigenerational centuries-long medieval telenovela occasionally interrupted by wars. It’s not a game that you “win.” You might take over a lot of territory, or you might not. You might control a kingdom, or several kingdoms, or even an empire. None of that matters. What’s important is all the messy drama.

You don’t have to play Crusader Kings to understand Royal Dispatch. The newsletter is composed to be intelligible for non-players. Royal Dispatch is intended for amusement only, not as a strategy guide or game tips or anything useful or practical in any way.

Each week will tell the story of one monarch in the player dynasty, from coronation to death (or abdication, or … whatever) from a particular extended playthrough of the game. Sometimes one ruler’s story will be involved enough to require several newsletters to tell. Some monarchs might enjoy only a very brief reign due to complication or misadventure.

The Royal Dispatch playthrough uses “Ironman” mode, meaning only saving on exiting the game. No saving and reloading to correct mistakes or rethink earlier decisions and play them differently. There are no mods in effect.

Occasionally, Royal Dispatch includes brief intermissions from the playthrough to talk about relevant or intriguing subjects brought up in the course of gameplay.

For a more fulsome explanation, see this dive into the background, thinking and compulsions behind Royal Dispatch. See also this glossary of terms for the non-player, provided so every newsletter doesn’t have to re-explain the concept of, say, confederate partition inheritance. There is also a running cast of characters, updated with each installment. And for good measure, an introduction to the real-life parallel for the player dynasty.

The newsletter is free. Royal Dispatch is written and played by Chris Mohney.