I need a shirt that reads ‘I attempted a threesome with royalty and all I got was this lousy Night Whisper (and 10 levels of Scandal)’
So I left the area in order to get a bigger card lodging, and I can’t get back. Did I blow it?
You should be able to return while at the Shuttered Palace.
And a Night-Whisper for being scandalously thrown out.
So, this business of not being able to draw cards when the game is indicating that you should be able to draw cards? (At the point where you have the storylets called "Preparing the Princess" and "Preparing Feducci" - as reported by a couple of people earlier in this thread)
Is this happening to absolutely everyone, or am I just among an unlucky few?
I figured there were just no cards to draw - that it was a cardless stretch of the story.
Speaking of, I’m at that point. I wouldn’t mind asking the couple a question or two, but I don’t want to actually sink their relationship. How curious can I get before it actually starts causing harm?
I just got a support email confirming that this is indeed the case, Sir Frederick.
Seems a bit odd, though. Usually when there are no cards to draw, the game doesn’t present you with a full deck and a hand of slots to draw them into, it simply has nothing there at all. That’s what puzzled me.
Nope, no way to return while at the palace, or court.
[quote=Sir Frederick]I figured there were just no cards to draw - that it was a cardless stretch of the story.
Speaking of, I’m at that point. I wouldn’t mind asking the couple a question or two, but I don’t want to actually sink their relationship. How curious can I get before it actually starts causing harm?[/quote]
[color=rgb(34, 34, 34)]Shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. [/color]
[color=rgb(34, 34, 34)]
[/color]
[color=rgb(34, 34, 34)]Note that you will have another opportunity to raise the quality of interest, so be judicious.[/color]
Characterization, at the forefront, was such an important factor to this story. Despite barely seeing the royal couple throughout the story (which can also be considered a negative, mind you), I felt that I more or less understood their stance on the marriage along with all the intrigue and motivations surrounding them from side characters worthy of some spotlight. Also, something I’ve noticed from Cash’s stories is that they know how to humanize a character and manipulate your decisions, even when involving characters you don’t like. I have a love/hate relationship with Feducci and his revolutionary bravado, and I’m just as likely to root for the Captivating Princess as I am to laugh when her plans come crashing down (I’m still not over that kidnapping from the Gift, btw). Yet here, we got to see a bit more into their personalities and personal lives. We got to see the plausibility of Feducci having the moral high ground of all things, not to mention the devilless’s oddly admirable values on the matter, for wanting to distribute life and wellness equally among the people in a revolution where no one has to die. The genuine love between these two monsters, for what short amount we got to see, seemed touching for two people who might start a war out of boredom. Even without the practical benefits of their marriage for everyone else, I still found myself wanting to see these malicious lovebirds together in the end. And the Privy Counsellour, despite my hate for the man, felt so human! We saw him struggle with his feelings of love, rationalize with himself on sides of the choice to intervene or not, and faced with a decision to make his opinion known for a futile attempt at changing the situation and failing even to do that. Not once did I want him to succeed or have a "happy ending", but I consider it a success if you make me empathize with a character I’d sooner throw out a window than talk to.
As for the negative, well, most of it has been made clear by others. Even with the clarification to the choices presented to the player, it felt upsetting to know that my work up to that point with all the side characters amounted to nothing since I had to avoid mentioning their storylines to Feducci or the Princess for them to be together. You have the option to speak up or not, but when you can skip a fair portion of the story’s important interaction/lore and still get your ideal result, there’s an issue with the game design. Granted, the outcomes boil down to the wedding being broken off or going as planned, so it’s difficult to have a middleground outcome between the two. Ideally, we would have spent this time going through the side stories alongside the general planning for the wedding and then be presented with options based on those storylines while meeting with the bride and groom so that you could manipulate their opinion of the marriage for the better or worse; holding your tongue, lying, manipulating the information, giving your advice, or just telling the truth could all have been options so long as they were an active decision on your part with a clearly differing outcomes based on your choice. If the cards were to be kept as the mode of access for these storylines instead of just presenting them to the player upfront, then they could be placed as markers required to end each day of preparations for the story before you succeed, though I’d recommend a higher chance of appearing in the deck so as not to annoy players with story content hidden behind optional opportunities.
Another disappointment comes from the disconnect from the story and its highlighted couple. Not only did we not get to interact with two of the main characters of the story until the very end (and even that was scarce), but it was also a letdown to know that related items/qualities to the story were not an option to use. Whether when meeting the couple or going about your daily preparations, it would have been nice to use related content that would be relevant to the groom (Feducci’s lance, his certificate, the A Fearsome Duelist quality, membership to the Dilmun Club) or the bride (Indulging in Unusual Pleasures aka having tasted red honey, an Acquaintance with the Captivating Princess, Renown: Society, The Gift). These could have been used when talking to the main cast or simply going about your daily business. How cool would it have been to relate the scratching in the walls to your experiences in The Gift, or to comment on your past connections to the Princess depending on your ending of that storyline? What if we got to look further into the affairs of the Dilmun Club by observing political happenings during the event or pressing Feducci into explaining how his plans fit into theirs? Heck, something as simple as bringing up your own possible Committed quality if you’re in a relationship or pulling out a Memento of Passion due to their relation with love could have been a nice tie-in to the regular story and the character as a person. It could have played a small part in deciding if the marriage succeeds or fails, but could have been a simple flavor text calling back to the player’s history, so I felt that the story missed out on a lot of potential interaction with the story. As a sidenote, on the topic of disappointing, it kinda sucked that the reward was an average 62.5-priced item when the past Fate stories during the holidays involved either an item unique to the story itself or the potential for rarer 62.5-priced items depending on your ending. It’s not necessary a gripe with the story, since it was more of an expectation than a failing or a guarantee on Cash’s part, but it was discouraging nonetheless.
After finishing the story with a successful marriage and mulling over it and this thread, I think the overall experience was good but disappointing. Not bad, mind you, though I can understand where everyone draws their issues, but certainly not excellent either. Despite my complaints so far, I want to make it a point that Cash has worked on some of my favorite stories for FL, so I don’t want to come across as bashing on the guy for no good reason. I think he’s worked well at manipulating my feelings in a storyline and has a wonderful way with words, I just wish this story could have been better because I know he’s capable of it and to see untapped potential in a story is always disheartening. For what it’s worth, though, the story on dangerous love and political intrigue was enjoyable in of itself and the story overall earns a positive opinion on my part. Not as high of one as I would have liked, but a positive ranking nonetheless.
edited by Sir Joseph Marlen on 12/21/2017
Is my character meant to be an idiot? Why does it say I ask Feducci "How does it feel to be about to become Prince-Consort?"
He’s not about to become that. Not unless he’s marrying Queen Victoria herself. He’s marrying her youngest female child, that gets you an Earldom at best.
Well, that’s that, then.
I’m put a little in mind of The Castafiore Emerald (Les Bijoux de la Castafiore) by Georges Remi. It was one of the later Tintin stories, where Remi decided to experiment with the form. He wanted to see if he could write a Tintin book where nothing much happened, and still sustain it as an entertaining and enjoyable read. So Tintin and friends don’t go off globe-trotting or exploring, don’t have a dangerous adventure, and don’t break up a ring of dastardly criminals or political extremists. They stay at home and we get a whole lot of slapstick and character comedy, wrapped up in a bogus whodunit centred around a missing jewel only for it to turn out that nobody really dunit at all. There is also talk of a society wedding that never comes to pass.
I feel this story was similar in some regards. Nothing much happened, at least with the way it played out for me. We had some lore insights, a parade of peculiar and grotesque characters, and a whole lot of inconsequential stuff going on in a stately home.
Les Bijoux de la Castafiore wasn’t universally well-received at the time, for it was such a departure from the usual Tintin fare. But in time it has come to be regarded as something of a classic to Tintin fans. A whole book where nothing really happened, and I was thoroughly entertained. The Marriage of Feducci also felt like a story where nothing really happened, but frankly I was rather bored throughout. I never really felt engaged (pardon the pun), and didn’t care what happened, which is odd, because my character is Feducci’s man to the bone, you’d have thought I’d be heavily invested in it, one way or another. But I felt so far away from it all, like someone peeking through a window. As the previous poster pointed out, I felt it was a huge waste to not involve our various qualities with the main characters. If I spent the money to do so, it would play out exactly the same for my alt who has never met either of them as it did to my main who is closely linked to them both.
Time will tell if it will mature to classic status in the fans’ memory in the same way as the Tintin story did, but I have my doubts.
[quote=Plynkes]Is my character meant to be an idiot? Why does it say I ask Feducci "How does it feel to be about to become Prince-Consort?"
He’s not about to become that. Not unless he’s marrying Queen Victoria herself. He’s marrying her youngest female child, that gets you an Earldom at best.[/quote]
To be completely fair, there has so far (as of 1895, and indeed as of 2017) been precisely one spouse of a British queen to bear the formal title of Prince Consort, and he is not currently (in any timeline) in much of a position to complain about the usurpation of his title. It’s not especially well-established.
It’s arguable that the Captivating Princess is the first person in the line of succession who is fit to perform the public duties of a monarch, so Feducci might have been on the verge of becoming prince-consort-to-the-heir-presumptive, but that’s something of a mouthful and evinces a surprising knowledge of royal protocol for a player character who, let’s face it, only fairly recently escaped from New Newgate with the rozzers on their heels.
So how come Bertie has been cut out of the succession? I thought he was one that wasn’t a monster?
I don’t think anyone but the spouse of a reigning monarch gets called a consort, but I may be wrong there. I feel it would be more likely that Feducci would be made Earl of Somewhere, upgraded to Duke if the princess was confirmed as heir.
[quote=Plynkes]So how come Bertie has been cut out of the succession? I thought he was one that wasn’t a monster?
I don’t think anyone but the spouse of a reigning monarch gets called a consort, but I may be wrong there. I feel it would be more likely that Feducci would be made Earl of Somewhere, upgraded to Duke if the princess was confirmed as heir.[/quote]
Ah yes, Edward! This is literally the second time in a week that I’ve completely forgotten about the eligibility of the poor old Redundant Heir (apparently I really need to play The Gift again). And I’m fairly sure you’re right about the usage of ‘consort’, so yes, I agree, this is probably worth a bug report. (I would submit it myself but I raised a ticket about the spelling of ‘protégé’ yesterday so I feel like I should behave myself for the next little while.)
No need for a bug report, I don’t think. I’m quite happy with the explanation that my character doesn’t know a Prince-Consort from a packet of Fig Newtons. :)
This was an ok little story, but not the longest narrative arc. Really, unless you felt a need to disrupt the wedding plans a great deal of the storylets weren’t much to pursue, though it is interesting to encounter Baseborn and Fowlingpiece. And to see Virginia again. (And typically uninteresting to watch the Veteran Privy Counsellor moon around about everything, as usual.) Their stories never ran very deep, though. I didn’t learn much about B&F besides that their defining characteristic is apparently being roaring drunk at all hours. Feducci and the Captivating Princess are two of the most luridly fascinating and mysterious characters Failbetter ever created and we don’t get much more about them. So while a wedding of rogues and monsters is in itself a fascinating idea, there isn’t nearly as much meat on the bones of the story as I would’ve hoped.
Also… this story was a bit odd in that it allows you to potentially influence the course of events in Fallen London in a huge way… by just doing nothing. In general when you do something Exceptional in Fallen London, it’s more along the lines of saving the city in some strange way no one will ever know about, doing some favor for (or disservice to) a terrifying and powerful entity operating in the shadows, embarking on a spooky expedition for forbidden knowledge that is enriching to the player but may never be shared with the NPC public, and so on. The player and their relationship to figures in the Neath are changed, but the Neath itself never changes.
In this case, we’re seeing a potentially enormous political alliance fall into place, but it’s then just put on indefinite hold. The couple will likely be newlyweds still five years from now, despite that the choices a player makes have the potential to radically altering the game world (or more to the point chooses not to make; if you manage to disrupt the wedding everything goes back to normal); and this potentially creates a situation where players are playing very different versions of London based on the choices they made here, which is unusual and potentially awkward… the only way to avoid that awkwardness is for Failbetter to sit on the plot point forever and never advance this story arc.
So while some players have complained that they were a bit surprised by the effects of their choices and compared that to Family and Law, I’d compare the two stories in another way; it’s unusual when you can greatly alter the lives of characters who exist in many separate story arcs. For example, I follow Ambition Nemesis, and I’ve offed a good number of folks along my vigilante crusade, but the people I could kill off only existed for the purposes of that story, so the Neath as a whole remained unaltered; only I was changed by my knowledge and experiences. In the conclusion of Family and Law I could make decisions that lead to the death of the Cheery Man, who is a significant figure in a number of Fallen London plot arcs; that creates a noticeable hole in Fallen London, which isn’t really filled by any other character or mechanism - it wasn’t like the Cheery Man got a Trusted Lieutenant to swing in from the wings and take over being the new Cheery Man in a clean succession of power, or you used a snuffer assasin to take his place and give you a new contact in the underworld who appears to be the same contact in the underworld. Instead… just gone. In this case, depending on your choices, Feducci is now suddenly a nob and he and the Princess are making invasion plans for a conflict that can’t transpire without making major narative changes to Fallen London/Sunless Sea (Sunless Skies is very much its own animal given that some major changes to the cosmology have already happened there).
So in the end here there is a strange and vaguely unsatisfying feeling that the game world has been very much altered in apparent and public ways, but nothing is really going to happen “for now”. It’s a very different feeling than all the things we do in the shadows.
re. prince consort:
An example from the UK monarchy would be Princess Anne, incidentally. Neither of her husbands got any title at all, though her first was offered and declined an Earldom.
edited by Jermaine Vendredi on 12/22/2017
i’m still disappointed that there was no option to challenge feducci to a duel for the princess’ hand, and therefore huffam will never have the pleasure of printing out this iconic headline
Do I understand correctly that is some Londons, such as mine, Feducci and the Captivating Princess are not married and in some Londons they are married?