Ten words in heavy gold letters adorn the back of the invitation. ‘EVERYTHING LOST WILL BE LOVED; EVERYTHING LOVED WILL BE LOST.’
The Shuttering Photographer is spoken of highly in certain circles; they say her tricolour photographs are more vivid than life itself. Her latest exhibition, a meditation on love and grief, is open now – and invites an unusual level of audience participation. Will you give up control over the compass of your heart? Will you hold on tightly to loves old and new? For all is not well in the Sunken Gallery, and few can be trusted to find the truth…
Yeah, I took that option and it was ooooof. Like not mechanically so bad, but dang, that’s probably the worst things I’ve ever put my character through. Not even in a funny way. Just straight-up not gonna be ok.
Excellent writing, and whoever didn’t pick that option has not played the full story.
Completely agree–it was both rough and really well done in terms of the writing. This is only the second time that an ES has had what I expect to be a permanent effect on how I play my character. Heather Flowers did a fantastic job with this one.
Excellent story - great job beating the masters at the love story game Heather Flowers. Really enjoyed this one, deliberated over the choices and (ahem) memories.
Well, I didn’t want to take a chance on permanently screwing up my character. If that means I didn’t “truly” play it c’est la guerre I guess. I’ve put a LOT of time, energy and even money into this game, and I can’t afford to do an alt with late game stats now.
I played it safe, gave the the milk a miss all through, and I’m happy with the outcome. I solved a crime, helped a photographer whose future work I look forward to, got everyone out alive after the incident, and had a chat with a very nice devil. What a splendid evening!
I’m a bit averse to ‘true’ ways to experience a story myself. In ‘Where You and I Must Go’ (September 2016, goodness almost a decade!) I skipped out on staying on the lifeberg because I’d become so attached to the characters I was with that ‘You’ll never find out what happens to them’ seemed like a massive threat. Here, I didn’t feel as strongly for them as I did for the art. But yeah, being sensible is never the wrong option (though I don’t think they’d put players’ money at risk. There was some discourse around that back in the earliest forms of the SMEN and I seem to remember it settling on ‘it’s a terrible idea to give players the ability to lose things they spent money on even with sign posting’).
That said, I’m going to go and have a think about how long I’ve been playing this game.
Had I twice the money and time I would start a new person designed from the start to be the Neath’s most dramatic upward failure, sent along all the worst, regrettable choices in every story possible. I think it would be great fun.
