Transcript of a video by Lydia Bennet, posted to her channel on the occasion of the Midnight Carnival expansion announcement for Hearts and Daggers III 

[Transcript lightly edited for readability. Original video runtime: 10 minutes.] 

Alright so Maria told me that half her friends have never played Hearts and Daggers Two and are jumping straight into Three, and I have been thinking about this for three days and I cannot let it stand. You need context. You need history. You need to understand what you are getting into. So. Here we are. Franchise overview. You’re welcome. 

A Brief and Probably Incomplete History of Hearts and Daggers 

Hearts and Daggers One came out about fifteen years ago, which means I was five and Lizzie was ten and neither of us played it. What I know about it is mostly from the lore sites, honestly. What I do know, and what I will always mention because I think it deserves to be mentioned, is where it came from: two, maybe three people and their AIs, working out on the frontier, nowhere near the capital, which is where everyone always assumes good games come from. They did not have a major studio. They did not have significant funding. What they had was this extraordinary fictional world, all Continental aesthetics, seventeenth and eighteenth century, velvet capes and lace jabots and rapiers, completely unlike anything in Albion’s own cultural tradition, and a game mechanic nobody had tried seriously before: you dress your avatar, you go to parties and salons, and you complete your missions by charming people, or stealing from them, or, and this is the part that got everyone’s attention, having them assassinated. 

It was not expected to be a hit. It was enormous. I am proud every time I think about it. That was our part of Albion, upstaging all the prestige games made back in the capital. 

Hearts and Daggers Two: The One I Did Notice 

Two is where most of us came in, and I will be transparent with you: Two is where Hearts and Daggers became the franchise that it is today, for better or worse. The world got bigger, the mechanics got deeper, they introduced the full faction system, and they gave us the Duke de Bon Aire as a proper central character rather than just a recurring NPC, and he is, I will not be arguing about this, the best thing in the franchise. He has been the series mascot since One but Two is where he became real. The writing, the design, the way his questlines reward you for paying attention to things that seemed like background detail three hours earlier. I made Lizzie complete his storyline in Two more times than I am going to tell you, just so I could watch it. 

They also brought in Capitaine Beau Geste in Two, who is this explorer type, very dashing, always just arrived from somewhere or about to leave for somewhere more interesting, and his questline is genuinely excellent and I completely understand why Lizzie was obsessed with him. I personally find him charming in a way that does not make me feel things, if you see the distinction, but I will absolutely talk him up to anyone who asks because watching Lizzie pretend she has no opinions about Beau Geste is one of my favourite things. 

Two also introduced the assassination respawn mechanic properly: NPCs come back after twenty-four hours with their memories of the incident intact. This changed everything, because now you needed to make sure that they didn’t find out whodunnit.

Hearts and Daggers Three: Where We Are Now 

Three is the multiplayer installment and it is a different kind of game, which upset people, and those people were wrong. Same world, same aesthetics, same fundamental toolkit of charm and theft and the occasional carefully arranged accident, but now you are doing all of it alongside and against other players who are doing the same things with the same tools, and the emergent social dynamics are genuinely more interesting than anything scripted. 

The faction system is fully developed in Three and your faction choice defines everything that comes after it. Kitty and I are in different factions, which has created situations. 

The most recent situation, since people keep asking: yes, I did assassinate an Earl that Kitty had spent two weeks charming into cooperation. I maintain that the information available to me at the time did not suggest I should not assassinate the Earl. Kitty maintains otherwise. We are at an impasse. 

The Duke de Bon Aire has a much larger role in Three than in Two, which I have wanted all along and his storylines have not disappointed. The espionage mechanics in Three are also significantly deeper than in previous installments. This is very much appreciated by Kitty and me and everyone else who finds that part of the game absorbing, in a way that occasionally crosses over into wanting to understand how certain things work in practice rather than just in the game. 

What the Expansion Looks Like 

Midnight Carnival. New zone, festival setting, incredible costume assets that I have been saving currency for since the first rumors, at least three confirmed new NPCs, and the Duke de Bon Aire apparently central to the main questline. Finally. 

There are rumors about a Beau Geste cameo. I am not going to speculate because the last time I speculated publicly about an NPC’s return, I was wrong and Kitty has not forgiven me. What I will say is that if Beau Geste does appear, I will be sending Lizzie a very specific message, and she will know exactly what it means. 

The expansion drops in three weeks. I have made arrangements. If you need me for anything during that window, plan accordingly. 

Including you, Kitty. You know what you did to the Duke. 

Pride & Planetoids is a space opera retelling of Pride and Prejudice, set among the asteroid families of the outer solar system. Lydia Bennet plays a significant role in the story.