Just had sex in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, no big deal. Got down to it in m'lady's chambers between a few buckskin blankets. I'm guessing it was very nice because I've been rewarded with this Alpha Male buff, a +2 to Charisma. All that barking paid off. It's only temporary though, so I'll have to re-up soon. It sure is nice having a medieval-era penis. 

OK, so I have a confession to make: I did not mean to have sex with the digital woman. This is actually the second time I didn't mean to have sex in this game but ended up having sex anyway. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance, sex happens whether you want it to or not, a bizarre concession for a game steeped in player choice. But before I get too upset about all this sex I’ve been having, let's recount how it went down. Maybe I'm to blame. 

Spoiler alert: We're about to get down and dirty and discuss some early game quests in detail. 

In the opening hours of Kingdom Come, the player-protagonist Henry runs off to Talmberg in order to warn the local lord of an incoming Cuman army. They'd just laid waste to Ratzig, murdering Henry's parents and burning the place to the ground. Rough stuff. So when Lady Stephanie, the noblewoman married to Talmberg's Sir Davish, paid close attention and offered care to a grieving, injured Henry, I interpreted it as goodwill—and it was! She was kind to me in a time of need, stepping down from her highborn status to comfort a poor stinking peasant (still me). That's what all nobles should aspire to.

An early sidequest, 'At Your Service, My Lady', takes you to Talmberg to assist Lady Stephanie with preparations for a friend's wedding. Throughout the quest you learn about her husband's long imprisonment, who left a spritely middle-aged knight and returned years later as a weary, frail old man. Her elder by decades, Davish's return also marked the early departure of Lady Stephanie's youth.

So I brushed off her light flirtations. I assumed she was just happy to have a hot guy do her chores and talk to her. It must be a lonely life as a noble in a small village and Henry represented something unexpected and vital. I thought we were just friends. And friends buy each other gifts, right? For finishing friendship quests? Normal, yeah? But when she gifted me an expensive shirt, things started to get weird. She told me to put it on in front of her. Listen, I'm not a Christian man, but my Henry wouldn't risk it. He wants to keep his head attached to his body.

Even so, I was intrigued by the potential of a relationship questline based around hiding an affair from the neighboring lord that saved my ass. Given the option to change in her room (while she looked away, of course) I said OK, expecting nothing more than some bad flirting and a thank you or four. I figured it was one step in a series of clandestine quests in which we tested each other's boundaries and eventually did the deed (or I ended up dead). I didn't want to piss her off, so I figured listening was the best way to avoid a spell in the stocks. 

Lady Stephanie and Henry went from chatting about how nice the shirt was to suddenly crying and hugging and kissing and falling over onto the bed. This was unanticipated. Though not present for the sex itself, I'm pretty sure they didn't just leave things at some over-the-corset fumbling after the cutscene faded to black. 

My Henry had sex with a woman he didn’t mean to—a significant character choice made for me off the back of some mild  flirtation and poor signposting. Why even have an option and achievement for completing the game as a virgin if it's going to be wrestled away from us pure, chaste Henrys? It played out as a weird and stilted sequence that assumes a lot about the player behind the wheel. Maybe I'm not the horny boy Warhorse Studios envisioned at the receiving end of Lady Stephanie's steamy shirt gift. 'Sex-haver' is not an interesting character trait. I'm sure every highwayman and beggar got some back when—I'm just disappointed the quest wasn't used as an interesting storytelling opportunity. An affair with the wife of the lord that saved me? Dangerous. That's some pulpy romance novel shit.

Instead, the quest, and the relationship with Lady Stephanie, just fizzles out. There's no further insight into her character, like how she's dealt with being alone for so long, what it means to be a noblewoman in a chaste Christian society, or even what sexual foibles the elite dabbled in at the time. Butt stuff, armor fetishes—who knows?

For me, it harmed the process of curating my own Henry. Here’s a character defined by his doofy naivete and what you choose to imprint on him during his rapid transition from serf to knight. Now that I know Kingdom Come is going to make significant choices on behalf of character—and being a newly-made page in medieval Bohemia who just banged a blue blood feels like a big deal—then it feels like maybe my own choices won’t matter so much in the long run. I was willing to chalk it off as an oversight. 

Then I met Father Godwin, a traveling knight turned preacher who doesn't really practice according to the good book. You're given the opportunity to go drinking with the guy, a night that spins out of control through a series of cutscenes and short interactive vignettes. After getting kicked out of the bar and climbing the church bell tower, a scene plays out in a barn in which Godwin has sex with a local, unnamed woman. Another woman approaches Henry, saying, "The priest has mounted up. What do you say, Henry—shall we take a little ride of our own?" I expected a short dialogue interlude where I could say yes or no, but the scene carries on and Henry bumps uglies again.

Damn, my Henry literally can’t stop getting laid. And again, what if I wasn’t into it? These sequences muddy how much control you have over his characterization in service of what the designers assume the player wants. I'm not mad Henry can have sex, I'm just mad the decision was made for me when I said I'd have a beer with a priest. 

If I can play as a conniving thief or honorable knight or choose to save a friend in danger or leave them behind, then why can't I have a meaningful degree of control over roleplaying my character's principles? Without setting up clear expectations for how much we can steer our Henrys, the more often characterization is wrestled away for flourishes constructed to titillate the player, the more I'm going to dread every dialogue choice. A promise to deliver some apples might end with Henry waking up in a field with his ass in the air. A chat with a merchant could very well end with Henry renouncing his religion and sprinting into the woods to build a house. I'm having fun with Kingdom Come, but I don't trust it with my boy anymore. 

Kingdom Come: Deliverance hasn't only been out for a month, but already modders are digging into the medieval RPG's files and making some welcome changes. These mods range from minor tweaks to the UI to completely new perks to hefty overhauls of the game's combat and economy. We've been keeping an eye on what modders are working on, and we've come up with a list of the best mods for Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

And for those looking for console commands to enhance your experience in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, we've got a handy list of those console codes, too.

Unlimited Saving

KCD has some restrictions on when you can save your game, limiting it to when you sleep in a bed or drink 'Savior Schnapps' (in addition to autosaves and saving upon exiting the game). The idea is that with limited saves players will be more careful with their decision-making and perhaps have to live with the choices they've made, good or bad. 

The idea of the Unlimited Saving mod, created by EddieShoe, is this: it's your game, so save whenever the heck you want. It allows you to save the game from the main menu at will, even if you don't have Schnapps in your inventory. There's still a hard limit of 30 saved games before it begins prompting you to overwrite one of them. This mod has been updated to work with patch 1.3.1.

Sectorial Lockpicing

Sectorial Lockpicking, created by Tyddy, adds visual spokes to the 'wheel' of the locks you pick. This gives you a visual aid as to where to keep your cursor while turning the lock, instead of only being able to rely on the yellow hover zone (I wrote a bit more about it here). It makes lock-picking a shade easier without making it completely easy.

A Sorted Inventory

Poor Henry, his pockets are stuffed with weapons, food, and loot, and it's a bit hard for the lad to stay organized. While you can sort in categories, the A Sorted Inventory mod by Haslami (inspired by another inventory sorting mod by Papirnehezek) tags every item in the game with a prefix that gathers them into lovely alphabetical lists by item type. At a glance, you'll be able to quickly find what you're looking for.

More Functions for Right Mouse Button

This mod is handy, literally: it allows you to do more with the hand resting on your mouse by adding extra functionality for your right mouse button. You can skip the intro movie, back out of cutscenes, close the map and inventory screens, skip through conversations, cancel haggling sessions, and much more. Very useful if you don't feel like tapping keys since you've already got a finger resting on that mouse button anyway. No need to memorize all its uses: it also adds a prompt onscreen.

First-person Herb Picking

Your interest in this mod is probably proportional to the level of your herbalism skill. If you're an avid weed-picker, you may be annoyed by the fact that every time you harvest a plant, the game takes you out of first-person perspective and into third. The first-person herb-picking mod keeps you in first-person view while picking plants.

No GPS and Remove Compass

If you're looking for a bit more of a challenge and added immersion, this No GPS mod will remove you from the map each time you use it. The basic version of the mod will still center the map on your location, but the full version will center on the spot you last added a map marker. Finding your way around will require a bit more work, since you won't simply see your precise spot on the map. For an even bigger challenge and more realism, there's also a mod that removes your compass.

Perkaholic

You'll have to start a new game to fully enjoy this mod, but Perkaholic by Xylozi adds perks to Agility, Unarmed, and your Bow skill. New perks for Agility will let you take even less damage from falling, while perks for Unarmed will give you faster sprinting speeds, more damage during combat, lessen the rate of bleeding from wounds, and more. Bow perks include greater accuracy, better odds for poisoning, and more frequent knockouts for striking an enemy in the head.

Very Unintrusive Reticle

The UI in KCD isn't exactly sleek, and the reticle onscreen at all times (except when using your bow—more on that in a moment) is a heavy yellow dot that isn't exactly attractive to stare at all day. Very Unintrusive Reticle by Lobuno de-colors the reticle and makes it mostly transparent, so you will barely see it unless you're really looking.

If that's a little too unintrusive for your tastes, there's also a mod called Unintrusive Reticle by PcFreaky99 that you can try, which isn't as unintrusive at the Very Unintrusive one, but it still less intrusive than the vanilla one. I think that all made sense.

Restore Halberds

Restore Halberds, a mod by Tahknall, turns polearms into primary weapons and displays the experience bar for your (normally hidden) polearms weapons proficiency. That means you can now equip, repair, and use polearms as either two-handed weapons or one-handed with a shield, on horseback or on foot.

Roads Are Dangerous

Roads Are Dangerous, created by Zaatch, is a mod for players looking for a bit more conflict while fast-traveling. It ups the chances of running into trouble while moving across the map, and includes an optional module that adds different types of enemy encounters, like the Merry Lads, who are bandits dressed as noblemen, and bigger, tough warriors called Berserkers. 

No Stamina Visual Effects

Let's face it: Henry is no superman, and that's by design. While it's natural he can't run or swing a heavy sword for very long without getting winded, you may not be a fan of how the game informs you that Henry is almost out of gas. The color drains from the screen and your vision blurs, and there are audio cues to tell you that you're low on stamina—but it's all pretty heavy-handed. The No Stamina Visual Effects mod by TheCorex comes in three versions: no visual cues, no sound cues, or both visual and sound cues removed (meaning you'll have to keep your eye on your stamina meter to tell when you're out of juice).

Bow Dot Reticle

Remember that yellow reticle that (perhaps) annoys you because it's always present? Well, it may also annoy you that it vanishes when you use your bow. Some folks like it that way, making aiming more challenging, but others wouldn't mind a little aid when loosing arrows. The Bow Dot Reticle mod, by FoX_D3ff3nd3R, keeps the aiming dot in place when you ready your bow. Good hunting.

No Helmet Vision

I feel like everyone has a limit when it comes to how much realism we want in games. How much do we really want? Like, really? While it makes perfect sense that when you wear a helmet in a first-person game it would obstruct your vision, you may not really want that. No Helmet Vision, by JustAnOrdinaryGuy, removes the obstruction so you can have a clean view of the world. Perhaps it's not realistic, but it may be more enjoyable.

Volumetric Fog Enabler

Apparently, volumetric fog exists for Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but it was left dormant by the developers. Volumetric Fog Enabler, by Moosan82, lets you turn it on if you'd like to add a little more atmosphere to your surroundings.

Dark Times Overhaul

The first really ambitious-sounding mod for KCD, now in beta, is Dark Times - A Difficulty and Balance Overhaul, by sidewayz24. It's making changes to lots of aspects of the game, tweaking carry weight, stamina regeneration, XP gain, jail time and punishments for crimes, random encounter chances, and more. 

The mod tunes the economy, making changes to vendor pricing and replenishment times, as well as tweaks to combat, making enemies more difficult in battle. It's even overhauling perks and visuals. The end goal is to make progression slower, the economy harsher, and combat more challenging. It incorporates a number of existing mods: check the mod page to see exactly which ones, and to read a more thorough description of Dark Times (or to submit feedback if you've tried it).

Skip Intro Movies

It's perhaps a minor annoyance, but still: having to press E every time you launch the game because the narrator wants to tell you the same thing he's told you every time you've launched the game... it grows tiresome. (Though it's a bit like a minigame: can I cut him off before he finishes saying "Charles"? Yes!)

Anyway. The Skip Intro Movies mod by PcFreaky99 cuts the narrator off automatically. For good.

We'll continue adding to and refining our list as more mods appear, and if you've been using a great Kingdom Come: Deliverance mod that you don't see on this page, please tip us off in the comments below.

The first time I met Theresa, I found her entirely forgettable. She was nice but plain—not nearly as memorable as Bianca, the flirtatious bar maiden. I never could have imagined that, days from now, our two lives would become inextricably bound together.

Note: This post contains some spoilers for Kingdom Come: Deliverance's first few hours.

Moments after I complete my daily chores, a swell of panic sweeps through the small town of Skalitz. On the horizon, villagers spot a mounted army of Cuman barbarians. Sigismund of Luxembourg, King Wenceslas' brother, had brought them into Bohemia to stir up chaos while he attempts to take the throne for himself. In the span of minutes, they charge into the town and begin slaughtering everyone.

Instead of going to the castle, I try to save my parents who were trapped in the village square. I watch helplessly as both are murdered. With the castle gate now closed and an army of Cumans chasing me, I have only one choice. I flee.

Fortunately, a secret path takes me out into the farmland beyond the town. Here, the Cuman forces aren't nearly as dense, but as I glance over my shoulder, I see one chasing me. I have my father's sword, but I was barely able to beat up the town drunk for the money he owed me—I'm not eager to take my chances on a trained soldier. I keep running.

As I near the road that runs along the mill, I see an unattended horse waiting. How fortunate, I think. Then I hear the screams. Just beyond the horse, three Cumans are huddled around something, struggling. With a sickening twist in my gut (and thanks to some inner monologue from Henry), I realize the three soldiers have pinned Theresa against the wall. They're trying to rape her.

I freeze, unsure of what to do. Looking behind me, I see black pillars of smoke rising from Skalitz—everyone is dying or already dead. The Cuman chasing me from the castle is still on my heels and only seconds behind, sword in hand. I look back to Theresa who can't see me through the three Cumans pressing her up against the wall, pinning her arms back so she can't move. She continues to scream for help. I mount the horse and ride away. In addition to the one chasing me, there's four of them and all I have is a sword I can barely use.

How could I possibly hope to save her life? 

Liar, liar 

It's a decision that, a week later, continues to haunt me. As we've already wrote, Kingdom Come does an incredible job of putting you in the shoes of a lovably oafish nobody. I'm no hero—and I'm definitely no soldier. And with the entire town burning, with everyone dying, can I really be held responsible for choosing to save my own life instead of another's? 

After fleeing Skalitz, I arrive in Talmberg and learn that those who had fled to Skalitz's castle, including my lord, Sir Radzig Kobyla, were able to escape the Cuman siege and are riding south for Rattay. In time, I would join them, but first I want to return to Skalitz to bury my parents.

After defying the Lord of Talmberg's orders, I sneak out of the castle and make for the ruins of my hometown. Sheets of midday rain pelt roads covered in the bodies of slain villagers. A few looters and bandits pick through the remains but scatter when I threaten them. I find my parents in the town square right where they had been butchered. I get a shovel and dig their graves.

At this vulnerable moment, a gang of bandits emerges from the woods to rob me. I am outnumbered almost six to one, but their leader decides to take me on by himself. Against his massive club and without formal combat experience, I'm not able to put up much of a fight. He beats the shit out of me and then, using my father's sword, prepares to finish me off.

"Hey, goatfuckers!" The bandits turn, momentarily distracted, to see Theresa standing behind them defiantly. "The games are over," she says as Talmberg knights come charging through the gate to drive the bandits away. At this point I have suffered such grievous wounds that I am barely conscious. I wake up days later in Rattay, with Theresa watching over me. She'd saved my life.

The survivors of the Skalitz massacre are now refugees living in a ghetto built around Rattay's Pirkstein castle. Theresa, however, is fortunate to have an uncle who owns a mill outside of town and offered to let both of us stay there. Being one of the few characters I already know, I want to spend more time with her. Before long, it's clear that she has a romantic interest in me and I fancy her too. We take a walk along the river and talk in semi-playable cutscenes and scripted dialogues, and on another date I take her to the inn where we dance and drink. It's kind of nice to have a break from all the murdering and political upheaval in Kingdom Come's main quests.

I decide to finally ask Theresa how she survived Skalitz. She seems hesitant, but the dialogue tree gives me a rather long list of questions, so I begin clicking them one by one—asking about Sir Radzig and the townsfolk, getting her perspective on the raid. And then, without even thinking, I ask how she escaped the Cumans.

"I thought I was finished, but I grabbed a dagger from one of them and—wait, how did you know what happened to me?" She asks suddenly. I freeze. Without even thinking about what I was saying, I accidentally revealed the truth that I was there, watching her assault and doing nothing to stop it. I panic for a moment, but am then given the awful choice to lie.

Like most RPGs, Kingdom Come has conversational skill checks that open up new dialogue options. Often this means threatening or schmoozing someone, but this time the option is to lie—to make Theresa think that I had simply misspoken. I hastily tell her that I was speaking generally and didn't know what she was talking about and, because my speech skill was high, she believes me.

In the heat of the moment, I respond with a knee-jerk white lie to avoid revealing my cowardice, but then the truth of what I had done begins to sink in. As if it wasn't bad enough that I had watched the person I am now dating get assaulted and did nothing, I had just lied about it to her face. I feel like absolute trash.

No deliverance 

My cowardice in Kingdom Come haunts me in a way no decision in an RPG ever has. I blew up Megaton in Fallout 3, became a Sith Lord in Knights of the Old Republic 2, and killed every Little Sister in BioShock without batting an eye. But entering into a relationship with someone while actively concealing that I had left her to be raped and murdered is a new level of fucked up. But what's upsetting me is that I am not intentionally roleplaying some evil version of Henry. His decisions are my decisions.

When the roles were reversed, Theresa risked everything to save my life. After first arriving in Rattay, she confesses that when she distracted the bandits, she didn't know that the Talmberg knights were already on their way. She risked her life to save mine, but doesn't even know that I refused to do the same.

Like a lot of aspects of Kingdom Come, its ambitions are often let down by its execution. I realize this when I finally work up the courage to tell Theresa the truth. I expect that she'll be viciously angry or, at the very least, upset that I had kept it a secret for so long. I know it will be the end of our relationship, but if I can't undo my decisions I can at least atone for them. 

Only I don't have to. When I tell her, she brushes it off like it was nothing and immediately forgives me. The limits of Kingdom Come's storytelling become immediately clear. Days later we go on another date and this time we sleep together and that is it. Her questline is over and she never brings up what I had done to her. It is obvious that developer Warhorse Studios had no real intention of exploring that trajectory any further. While a part of me is relieved that I'm off the hook for my disturbing lapse of character, a bigger part is frustrated that such a well-constructed moral conflict is spoiled and unaddressed in service of a sex scene.

Even if Theresa and my story lacks a satisfying conclusion, it's still deserves recognition for how deeply it affects me. Without it needing to be obscene or overly graphic, Theresa's assault disturbs me to the point where I'm struggling to continue playing—not because of what happened, but because of how disappointed I am in my response to it. My version of Henry is supposed to be a kind of rags-to-riches hero, but instead he's a giant asshole and an even bigger coward. And maybe what disappoints me is that this says more about me than I'd care to admit.

When developers are busy filling a game world with text and textures, they often take the time to sprinkle in a few Easter eggs: hidden references to other games, films, books, and pop-culture. As players make their way through Kingdom Come: Deliverance, they're discovering that Warhorse Studios has slipped some Easter eggs into their sprawling medieval RPG.

Here's what players have found so far in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which include references to The Witcher, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and even the X-Men. The game hasn't been out long, so there's bound to be more to come. Spoilers below, if you want to find all of this yourself.

Roach

You know Roach: it's the name of Geralt's horse (really, the name he gives all his horses) in The Witcher series, and in Kingdom Come: Deliverance you may come across a horse by the same name. She probably won't be standing on a roof, as the Roach we know and love does on occasion, but she's still in there.

There's even some dialogue regarding Geralt's sale of Roach to the horse-trader (click the upper-right corner to enlarge it):

The trader continues, saying "He said now he's settled down with a wife, he's afraid she'd want him to stuff her."

Witcher perk

Roach isn't the only reference to The Witcher in KCD. There's also an Alchemy perk called Witcher (its icon is a wolf, in reference to Geralt's nickname and medallion), which makes 30% more room in your belly for glugging potions, in a nod to The Witcher's heavy focus on potion-brewing.

Epona

Roach isn't the only famous horse you might meet on your travels: our old pal Epona is in the game, too.

It could be argued that a horse named Epona isn't necessarily a reference to The Legend of Zelda. Epona, a Celtic deity, was a protector of horses, donkeys, and mules, as well as a goddess of fertility, and she was later adopted by the Romans. So, it's a pretty fitting name for a horse even if you've never heard of the Zelda games. Still, we're gonna guess this is a reference to Link's horsie because that's far more fun.

Wolverine

Logan, Wolverine, Weapon X—whatever you want to call the surly Canadian superhero—makes an appearance in KCD, too. At least a part of him does. You have to look pretty closely in the image above to really see it (clicking the upper right-hand corner of the image will enlarge it in a new tab). 

Or here, I'll just do it for you:

It appears to be a skeletal hand hidden between a few rocks. The hand, as you can see, has three long claws extended. That's gotta be Wolvie's severed mitt. What's it doing in Bohemia in the Middle Ages? Well, time travel isn't exactly a rare occurrence in the X-Men. How he got his hand cut off—that remains a mystery.

Needle

Ah, Game of Thrones, that famous book series and television show that we are constantly waiting for and then consuming in one huge gulp when it arrives. In both the book and show Arya names her sword Needle, and wouldn't you know it, there's a sword in Kingdom Come: Deliverance that shares the same name.

Granted, when naming a long sharp metal thing, Needle feels like an appropriate moniker, but chances are this is KCD doing a hat-tip to GoT.

Dead witch

Coming across dead bodies is a common occurrence on the dangerous roads of KCD, but this corpse isn't your typical find. She appears to be riding a broom, witch-style. She's got a black hat, and just out of reach of her dead hand there is what looks like a magic wand. Witches get stitches, I suppose.

I'm not sure if this is in reference to a particular witch. Being old-ish, I'm not up on Harry Potter and my experience with witches begins and ends at The Wizard of Oz. Glinda had a wand, but she rode a bubble, not a broom. And the Wicked Witch traveled by broom (and by teleporting in a poof of smoke) but I don't recall her using a wand, just a lot of threats and an army of flying monkeys. If you have any further information on the identity of this witch, please contact the authorities (or just let me know).

Hot Fuzz

Nicholas Angel is Simon Pegg's character from Hot Fuzz. Angle, er, Angel, is tasked with tracking down some missing and quite elusive swans. In KCD, he appears as a Huntsman looking for help tracking down hare poachers. For the greater good, we're sure.

That vexing traffic cone

A number of players have spotted, oddly enough, a traffic cone lying in a raised wooden structure. What is a traffic cone doing in the Middle Ages? Shouldn't traffic be invented first? Some players have spent quite a lot of time trying to figure out how to get up there by climbing or jumping off nearby objects. 

Turns out, you just need to relax and have a drink or ten. Streamer snake627 got Henry blackout drunk and woke up next to the cone and the chest. Have a look:

Lord of the Rings

If you don't feel like tromping all over the world looking for Easter eggs, just have a peek in your inventory. If you've got a torch, the description reads "May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out." This is a reference to Lord of the Rings, specifically Frodo's Phial of Galadriel (a cool spider-scaring flashlight). When Galadriel gave it to him, she said, among other things, "May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

We don't expect to find giant spiders in KCD, but seeing as how there's a damn traffic cone and Wolverine's hand, it doesn't hurt to be prepared.