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Best Crusader Kings 3 modsPass the duchy

Pass the duchy

Six weeks after the release ofCrusader Kings 3, and there are already over 1200 mods, tweaks, and more to download. Paradox’s grand soap opera is as much fun to fix as it is to play, it seems.

Crusader Kings 3 Gameplay And Impressions | Royal RPG Meets Grand StrategyWatch on YouTube

Crusader Kings 3 Gameplay And Impressions | Royal RPG Meets Grand Strategy

Cover image for YouTube video

A lot of the more extensive mods are still heavily in development, so I’ve steered clear of most total conversions (aside from one that I couldn’t not highlight) and stuck to more general upgrades and rules for your kings and queens.I wouldn’t mod CK3 too heavily just yet. The developers are pretty active, and there can be some lag between the game and the mods that follow, so I wouldn’t download every file linked in this list in a single game. But picking a couple and rolling your own royalty should be fine.

How to mod Crusader Kings 3

Aside from one external download on Github, every mod is grabbed from the Steam workshop. After you subscribe and download the mod, you’ll need to activate it in the Mod tab of the game’s launcher. You can enable and disable all the mods there.

Best Crusader Kings 3 mods

Dropping More Game Rules into CK3 will allow you to bend the background sim in all sorts of exciting ways. It’s kind of essential if you’re always looking for a new way to conquer the world while retaining the overall air of what’s going on.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot. The map view is covered in hundreds of icons

Download More Game Rules

If you want to create your own king, design your own duke, or craft a count, Custom Ruler Designer gives you a lot of control over your dynasty’s first ruler. It’s a comprehensive list that lets you select sex and sexuality, education, a multitude of traits, and your ruler’s physical aspects. You can attempt to make Bob Ross into the despotic monster of Munster.

The designer is part of a quest chain that you access with F8 and selecting “Trigger Character Design Event Chain”. Completing it kills off your current ruler and kills or disinherits immediate dynasty members, so you should do it right at the start of a game.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot, showing a newly created character and a menu

Download Custom Ruler Designer

If you want to rename any character at any point in the game, Rename Characters will let you do so.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot, with a new character renaming menu

Download Rename Characters

Nameplates adds character information to those event screens that pop-up to inform you of the latest twist in the tale. Now you can see the names, relations and titles of anyone on the screen, should you want to plot revenge on then.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot showing a group of characters with their names and relationships now displayed

Download Nameplates

I love this. Fullscreen Barbershop lets you pose any character in the game for screenshots. It has very little game utility, but it does let you craft silly or serious shots of leaders and their families. Great for sharing a story about the time you decided to marry off your child to a pagan.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot showing a family posing for a screenshot. The new menu has selections for poses and the artworks background

Download Fullscreen Barbershop

A few more of the game’s issues have been redefined as alerts. If you don’t have enough knights, or a truce ends, it will now be flagged on the UI for you to see.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot showing an Ally alert

Download Expanded Alerts

A collection of mods that, all together, will enhance the readability of some UI elements. They’re based on CK2’s UI. Pick what you like from the list of three enhancement mods. All three work together.

A Crusader Kings 3 art showing a group of icons all highlighted in different colours

Download CK2 Style Interface Improvements

The Community Flavor Pack adds a slew of portrait accessories to give your character and AI more clothing options. There are a lot of hats and armour drawn from historical sources to retain CK3’s aesthetic, while looking very 1295.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot showing a group of three Norse-inspired characters

Download Community Flavor Pack

This might be the most impressive mod I’ve ever covered. There are several steps involved, but CK3 to EU4 Converter will enable you to continue aCrusader Kings 3campaign inEuropa Universalis4. That means you can run an uninterrupted game from 867 to 1821 onwards, leaping through Paradox’s historical strategy sims (there are convertors for Victoria 2 andHearts of Iron4, too) like Dr Sam Beckett. Oh boy.

This is the one mod that won’t come from the Steam workshop. The link below will send you to the latest GitHub release of the converter. When you run it, it will create a mod for EU4 that carries over the world state (as best it can), and the save game.

It’s an excellent idea to readthe wiki, as there are particular ways in which things have to be changed in order to work from one game to the other, but it’s from a long line of mods that all work on a similar theme, so the makers know what they’re doing.

Download CK3 to EU4 Converter

A piece of art showing the Crusader Kings 3 and Europa Universalis IV logos

Very Immersive Events and Tales mod already exists as a CK2 mod, and this is the CK3 follow-up.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot showing an event where a noble character has remembered a clever comeback for a disagreement days before

Download VIET Events

I can’t mention people eating each other without flagging up Princes of Darkness. It’s a complete overhaul (in progress) that will meld CK3 with the World of Darkness universe. Yup, you will become an immortal vampire, and as you’d imagine that has a significant effect on lineages and death.

Adopting that Sanguine Lifestyle will mean you’re now immortal, or at least you can’t die due to disease or old age. You can be put to death. Succession is way less of a concern, and marriages are now an entirely political tool as they don’t produce children. Religion is far more critical in WoD, creating the core tenant of your character. You need to manage your bloodthirst and stress, or you’ll unleash your inner beast.

The long life of vampires makes the mod a slower game. You learn at a far grander pace, and focus on devilish disciplines, like Blood Magick. There are historic, Vampiric events that you’ll need to deal with, like 1230 AD’s War of the Princes.

A Crusader Kings 3 screenshot showing off a vampire’s character development choices

Download Princes of Darkness