You need to provide at least 4 reasons to break it off (or to at least have the couple consider it).
London and the Neath’s sake?
Basically, one option to make the case that the wedding would be bad for London, and another option to make the case that it would be bad to the Neath as a whole.
I’ve now completed this story (and returned from the tomb colony). Thanks to this nasty unexpected twist at the end and its implications I must say that this is the first time I truly regret spending Fate on anything in the game (and I’ve played practically all Fate stories, including the Rubbery Murders). Such a bad taste to end the story with…
Why? What was wrong with it?
As I wrote above: I would have liked to try and stop the wedding only if presented with reasons to do so which would fit my character. And in the absence of such reasons, I would have very much liked to not interfere and let the wedding happen.
However, the game requires you first to choose if you want to stop the wedding or not, and only then it tells you what reasons you can choose from. There’s no way to "Perhaps Not" or to select an option saying "Actually, say nothing".
This is why I asked for advice here and was explicitly told that if I were to choose the option to offer reasons to stop the wedding I’ll be able to back out of it. So I chose that option, and saw that there was no way to back out of it. Since none of the offered reasons appealed to my character I offered no such reasons and was kicked off the wedding and sent to exile for interfering (same as offering a few reasons, but not enough of them to persuade the couple).
It’s not a bad story (though also not one of the best). It’s just that this sort of mechanic which locks you into a choice before giving you a role-playing reason for it, together with following bad advice on the forum (which I’m sure was given by carelessness) led me to do something I very much tried not to do.
As I said - the only story for which I’ve ever regretted paying the Fate to play. From pure role-playing reasons, given the result I got I would have much preferred to never have played the story to begin with.
edited by dov on 1/8/2018
Anne, thanks for collecting all Airs. Even though I was playing the story for two days straight, I had missed one or two - the cat and rat truce, the excitement of the housekeeper. Lovely!
By the way, I played it on the first day it came out, had a great Neathmass after that, and I find myself still a bit unsettled by not knowing if Feducci is simply a mayor, soon to fade into the background in a few months, or our new prince. I hope the discrepancy will be addressed soon in a story, as it comes up any time I am having ANY interaction with him in-game.
You know, I was thinking that many people complain that the Neath never changes no matter what you do, and I always found that complaint weird: this is not a video game which requires and ending, and new people jump in every day, so you cannot really have a linear progression; you can only add and expand content. More NPCs, more locations. Some stories like the Cheesemonger or the pianist and the spirifer have a beginning and an end, but how would major changes work in the setting?
This story here is a prime example of why asking for changes is kind of asking the impossible. I would love to hear any suggestions of why I might be wrong (I do study games, but I am no game designer).
edited by Jolanda Swan on 1/9/2018
[quote=dov]
I’ve just tried this and in fact you can’t back out without selecting a reason.
That’s very disappointing. Had I known what the possible reasons are I would not have chosen to interfere with the ceremony. (Which is why I asked here in the first place).
Oh, well…[/quote]
Whoops, sorry for the misinformation.
I had chosen to select a reason against the marriage as Hebediah and, upon selecting one of the Virginia ones, was taken out of the ‘raise an objection’ menu and back to the ‘watch them kiss or raise an objection’ section. I assumed this meant that objecting took you back to the central storylet so you could object once and have them marry anyway if you decided none of the objections suited you, but I guess it must have just been a bug on my side.
FYI, regarding the “Prince Consort” debate:
I’ve submitted a bug report for a typo and used the opportunity to ask FBG about the validity of the “Prince Consort” title for someone marrying the youngest daughter of an Empress (and not someone marrying a reigning monarch).
I’ve now received a response that they’ve removed the explicit reference to “Prince Consort” completely, and have not replaced it (nor do they plan to at this time) with any other formal title for Feducci following the marriage. This way it leaves more room for player decision and role play.
Prince Consort might be defensible on the grounds that Feducci is himself a prince…if he is actually a prince.
How about the Captivating-Consort?
How long will the epilogue card last, after the story is complete? I’m debating buying it with some of the Fate I got over Christmas and want to know whether I need to hustle or not.
Its not a card, its a storylet, and presumably forever.