A New Festive Tale Available for Fate!

Fallen London
121

Relative newcomer to FL but the first 3 pages of this thread are glorious. I think I may have to play this story and, for that matter, The Gift.

[ETA: after catching up with the rest of the thread, I may wait on playing this story, at least until I do The Gift. And @RobinAlexander, your comments were very helpful, not just as a player, but as a pro writer who may want to enter narrative game design at some point. Choices gotta matter.]
edited by GregM on 12/18/2017

122

I seem to have gotten lost: after completing 3 days of preparations and saying the wedding is ready, I can’t find a storylet to progress any further?

123

That sounds like a bug, you should send a report.

124

Because this isn’t an Exceptional Story. You have already gotten your free story for December. This is another story that the writers and developers have taken some of their no doubt very precious free time to scramble together and create in addition to the normal stories, and the tie-in stories, and the other preparations for the holiday, and work on Sunless Skies.

That we are getting another full length story for Christmas in addition to the Exceptional ones is for me very generous. Sure it is tradition by now, but that does not make it any less commendable of them. If you don’t want to show your support for the extra work by getting and playing the story then you have no need to buy it. Demanding that you get it for free seem a little ungrateful to me.
.
edited by Akernis on 12/18/2017

125

[spoiler]After seeing the afterparty…I’m glad I made this wedding happen. The Veteran Privvy Chancellor though his fifth bottle of wine, drunk Lawyers, a man free from debt and a actually happy couple. I consider this a win.

…Of course, this now means I need to change my destiny. Daam it. On the plus side, the Mountain Of Light looks closer then ever for a Destiny I suppose… [/spoiler]

126

I missed so much lore. I didn’t know there were opportunity cards to be read.

So… I did the most characteristic thing I could do in such an ignorant situation.

I made the wedding… perfect.


&quotOh boy, I’m sure getting a lot of options to cause the wedding to flop! Why would I want such a thing for these two? I know absolutely nothing about any potential motives for this marriage other than their love for each other!! Joy! Joy! Catch the bouquet, you ladies!&quot

So. Yea. I inadvertently got a happy ending through lack of knowledge.

This… disturbs me.

127

Fate stories during December have become something of a tradition. The ES is still going to happen, and all exceptional friends will get that one.
edited by suinicide on 12/18/2017

128

For the ‘Gad About in the Library’ card, can anyone PM me what happens if you’re successful on perusing the collection? I must have done that card some 30 times and I don’t think I’ve ever succeeded the Matter of Luck attached to it!

129

I keep getting 25 Proscribed Material. No idea if it is a success or a failure.
Also, am I right in noting that their marriage will bring on a war? This much is obvious early on.

130

The part I don’t particularly like about stories like this is that the outcome won’t matter if it can be changed. They can’t hinge anything on this story because not everyone will have even done it. So even something potentially big like a royal wedding just… can’t be unless it only has one outcome. It’s not at all time-efficient for people to factor in big changes like that for future stories.

Jenny’s school worked because you can refer to its existence without dealing with the part of the plot that can change. Some stories hint at far future Big Things or Big Possibilities, but they’re so far off you’ll probably never see them. A wedding is something here and now.

[quote=Tystefy]So. Yea. I inadvertently got a happy ending through lack of knowledge.

This… disturbs me.[/quote]

Ignorance is bliss.

131

Seriously, can someone summarize what everyone’s deal was? I’m very intrigued as to why the Veteran Privy was so mopey… and Virginia’s whole shebang.

I still cannot believe I told her to be quiet and suffered no immediate harm.

132

Alright finally finished with the story. That took a long time waiting for all those wasted Actions to refill.
Time to review it. Overall I have to admit that I was disappointed. I was happy that I played it, but despite it featuring my very favourite character and others that I quite liked I won’t rate it anywhere near as highly as the Gift.
Now my, obviously very biased, pros and cons.

Pros

  • I adored the ‘mood’ texts of this particular story. They were by far the best of any of the stories in my opinion. They were longer and provided far more depth and detail about the event and the feelings of the background characters like the palace staff. [/li][/ul][ul][li]As usual the writing itself was great. The descriptions delightful and evocative. Even if I got nothing else out of it I am still happy that I got to immerse myself in such a pleasuble read.[/li][/ul][ul][li]I liked the undercurrent theme of war with the Elder Continent running beneath the wedding itself. And the new lore we got, little though it was, provided an interesting light on Feducci and his relationship with his home. I hope this leads to something greater down the line, like us actually getting to invade or at least visit the Elder Continent in more detail. Please, can I get to introduce the Captivating Princess to the Injurious Princess? I get the feeling it will be the start of a beautiful, if cataclysmically lethal, friendship. [/li][/ul][ul][li]I loved to see Baseborn and Fowlingpiece. I don’t think that we have ever seen the two of them in the flesh before, and I adored them. I could clearly see why they are the leading experts on the law in London and their presence made sense, given the importance of the to-be-married couple. [/li][/ul][ul][li]As much as I dislike the action sink of the opportunity deck mechanic this time, I did like the cards themselves. The writing was good and there were several nice hints and callbacks to earlier adventures in the Shuttered Palace.[/li][/ul][ul][li]I liked the wedding ceremony itself. I thought the atmosphere there was excellent. Even if it felt a little abrupt afterwards.[/li][/ul][ul][li]I, of course, have to mention it featuring my favourite character, which in itself would have made me buy the story, everything else be damned. And I adored the scene with her, but, as said below, that itself has some reservations.

Cons

  • For a story seemed to center so heavily on Feducci and the Captivating Princess I was rather disappointed that they barely even felt like they featured in the story. I got one three-part conversation with each of them, and I didn’t feel like I learned anything about the Captivating Princess and the only thing I learned about Feducci I learned from the Bandaged Baron, not Feducci himself. I didn’t even get the chance to talk to either of them afterwards.[/li][/ul][ul][li]I think that this is the first time that an action sink in a story has actually bothered me. Making the plot-relevant card appear randomly in the deck was very frustrating. I would have by far preferred that there were all pinned storylets, or events that were automatically triggered once you reached a certain level of ‘Readiness of the Wedding’.[/li][/ul][ul][li]The wedding preparations itself felt… boring. Compared to ‘The Stone Guest’, where your role as organiser felt interesting and allowed you to weave your own influence into the events and the movie itself, this more or less felt like you were just a glorified servant. I wasn’t expecting horrors or revelations like in the Gift, but we have two of Fallen London’s most infamous, alluring, and dangerous characters at the centre… and nothing happened. You talked a little with some of the other patrons to gather a few clues and then the couple either wed or politely declined. [/li][/ul][ul][li]For the first time in a story I felt like everything I went through was kind of pointless. That might have been inevitable when the story was about something that I really wanted not to happen. Sure, I succeeded in preventing the wedding, but it doesn’t feel like I have really won anything from playing it, merely reset the world back to zero where I was before I purchased the story. I feel like if I could achieve the same thing by not playing the story something is wrong. Which leads me to…[/li][/ul][ul][li]This might be my personal feelings about the character in question, but if you sabotaged the wedding I would have loved the chance to hint or mention if you did this for the sake of love for the Captivating Princess. (And extend the same courtesy to those that felt likewise for Feducci). The lack of such an option seems especially glaring since we just had exactly that in the end of the Cherry Man story. Merely a hint to the Princess after the broken wedding and a smile in return would have made everything I worked and schemed for so much more worth it and justified it for me.[/li][/ul][ul][li]The presence of the Veteran Privy Chancellor. (okay, I am joking here, but please can I just poison his wine with a few drops of cantigaster venom? Pretty please?).

.
edited by Akernis on 12/19/2017

133

Pretty sure there isn’t actually a failure result there, as it doesn’t say you were fortunate/unlucky in the results. This has happened before for some Renown gain stat challenges.

134

I’m still a bit disappointed that the game let’s me prepare the wedding of two of my least favorite characters but doesn’t give me the chance to attempt to murder them. Perhaps one day FBG will let us murder these two walking nightmares, at least from now on I can reminisce about how I sabotaged their wedding and made an effort to prevent worse things to come.

135

I think I have encountered a bug. I am at the stage where you dress these two, and I cannot draw cards, I can only play the pinned storylets. I sent a bug report, but can someone confirm I should be able to draw cards at this stage - or that card drawing matters at least?

136

I saw the same thing and proceeded without drawing any cards. I don’t seem to have missed anything and nothing went more awry than I intended.

137

Just finished the story myself and could describe the experience as…understatedly pleasant. I thought the writing was wonderfully evocative of how a wedding, royal or not, is such a whirlwind of trivialities, personalities and piling up motivations, almost without addressing the actual couple at all. At least this has been the case at the many weddings I’ve been a part of on the Surface. While I do not particularly hold either the Captivating Princess or Feducci in high regard as people, I feel they do rather compliment each other rather well and could definitely see why a genuine attraction could occur between them…in addition to the mutual ulterior motives behind such a match. I therefore didn’t really see much reason to disrupt the proceedings, even while learning more and more from each of the other characters present.

Which brings me to the mechanics of how the ending manifests. Thankfully, upon reading this thread, I discovered that there was previously no indication of whether anything you did would affect the outcome, whereas now they are all clearly labelled…though I found there was no such warning on letting the Veteran Privy Counsellor interrupt the ceremony. A mistake, or is he really just that ineffectual? I wouldn’t know as I quieted him down, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me. But I digress. Without the labels, I probably would have been just as irritated as many who came before me and were locked onto one single path without realising. Part of what makes narrative gameplay with consequences effective is that you can tell what choices have consequences and therefore decide your choices accordingly. In this instance, with the labels added, I found it actually really evoked a real wedding experience: how much do you allow drama to occur/how much ‘honesty’ do you give to the bride or groom vs how much do you step back and focus on helping the wedding itself? To take an example from one of my surface weddings, you know telling the bride that you just overheard her father talking about the guns he keeps in his home, when he’s been telling her he doesn’t have any due to her being afraid of being in said home if there are any, could ruin the wedding with the drama and fallout between them. But you sort of want to tell her anyway. Maybe because you feel morally obligated to. More likely because you really want to see what happens when that lie is revealed and what her reaction will be. Approaching Feducci or the Princess and thinking you’ll tell them about the Veteran Privy Counsellor’s desperate affections for a laugh all of the sudden makes you stop and think when you’re reminded that yes, saying such things right before the ceremony can actually badly effect it.

This was how I understood the mechanics of this wedding to work. Allowing disruption to happen will help us learn more of that juicy ‘lore’ and satisfy our need for something ‘big’ to go down, but at the cost of ruining the wedding. And as I understand it, pursuing said options really don’t give you much more satisfaction in either regard than if you simply helped it along. I got Feducci’s motivations from his best man and others beforehand, and thus didn’t need to confront him with it. It quietly answered a few of my suspicions. The Captivating Princess’ motivations didn’t really surprise me in the least, though I feel like she perhaps slightly surprised herself with how much she’d fallen for Feducci. While neither of them would be reasons I’d personally pursue a relationship, I couldn’t honestly fault them for it and thought yes, they do in fact compliment each other rather well. And then during the ceremony, by helping it along, specifically by hushing Virginia, I actually was shown something I hadn’t picked up on before regarding her motivations in this affair. I felt kind of silly for not considering it myself beforehand.

The reception and aftermath were fun to witness in light of said choices and there was not much left over from this endeavour save for a constantly available option of some romantic notions. So in terms of gameplay, nothing very special is changed or given as part of this story. Lore wise, a couple of things are revealed, but that you could almost infer from other sources. Really, the meat of it is just the experience of being part of the wedding, the scenery and preparations and the palace and characters in the situation the writing evokes, and your personal feelings on wanting the wedding to succeed or not. Which is pretty much how it was set up to begin with, in my opinion.

Consequential summary for Failbetter, since I know you like your consequences: Little feeling of wider consequence as it’s either they get married or they don’t, for whatever reason, and nothing much seems to happen as a result. Great feeling of personal consequence within the story, as in choosing what to pursue when knowing the risk to the whole ceremony. Perhaps slightly dimmed if you’ve set out to ruin it from the beginning, unlike me.

138

Having finished the story…
Loved the writing, loved the focus on everybody else around the couple (poor butler!) loved the Elder Continent politics.

The actual wedding was… a let down. This was an opportunity to see the delegations from Europe, to find out a bit about what happens on the Surface in a world without London. It was a chance to see some Society types, the nobles you keep hearing about. A chance to dress up yourself. After the enormously detailed action-sink that was the Albion wing, the actual event seemed extremely short and two dimensional, painted on a backdrop. I suspect that the general feeling of a let-down in the forums comes in part from this very underwritten wedding scene - the couple is gorgeous, but nobody else save Virginia and the Counsilor is really there. I doubt the story would have generated so much anticipation if it was called &quotthe preparations for the wedding of Feducci&quot.

In the end, I chose to disrupt the wedding since a) it was going to bring another war soon and b) the devils wanted it, so it cannot be a good thing. It is a testament to the writing that I felt bad doing so, breaking two happy people apart. Then again, these two eat and/or sell people, so I will survive the guilt.

By the way, I do not get the complaints stating that our choices do not matter and nothing changes. I see the very opposite at work. In one version, the Princess is wed, Feducci is consort… in the other, nothing changes. There are two different universes at work here. I cannot fathom how it will work for those who did not play the story. What is the truth in the main game?
edited by Jolanda Swan on 12/19/2017

139

Out of interest has anyone attempted sabotaging just one side of the wedding? I’d be interested in seeing if it has a different effect on the flavour text but I’m also a sucker for weddings so I’m having real trouble committing to sabotage of any kind!

140

I finished the story last night and gave myself until the morning before posting my reactions. Occasionally I am surprised by something that my Felicity does, and this was one of those occasions. I personally do not like the current mayor, and I am indifferent about the princess.Therefore I expected to end up sabotaging the wedding gleefully and having the two of them go their separate ways. But Felicity didn’t do that, and I credit that to the writing and characterizations. She wanted this to succeed and wanted the two of them to end up happily together. So for me this story was a great success in terms of character building.

In terms of the game mechanisms, I fortunately stopped when reading the issues others had with the choices not being marked. That let me play it after the text was added about consequences - which I must say should be part of all future stories. I did not like the randomness of the story cards popping up in the deck - why not just assign them whatever cost in actions you want them to have in the first place rather than depend on some ‘average’ number?

I also felt that this story was much too big for one tale - that it would have been better as an entire season. There was so much material and so many characters involved. Heck it could have been an entire year’s worth of ES! I am hoping that in future ES we see the results of our choices here and there.

I very much enjoyed what was here, though, especially the chance for my Felicity to surprise me. Thanks!