The Patriarch and his sons were the only ones among the current members who knew what was really going on, so if a particularly notable member who knows the truth were to nudge others away from it, it would probably go decently. Sure, there’s probably still plenty of political corruption in the works we can’t stop, but I never really expected a club based around the irresponsible drunken antics of the young and rich to be a beacon of morality.
But anyway, I loved the ending to this story. The fact that it’s equivalently difficult at all stages of the game was a really nice touch.
This was fun! I liked how the chase was pretty nailbiting, something that I don’t get a lot as an almost stat-capped character. Haven’t drawn the final card yet, but this was a nice little bit of fluff, albeit with some dark themes.
I am going to be honest here and I apologize in advance to everyone offended.
I have to say after playing the last month’s exceptional story just a few days ago, which was emily-short-amazing, this story stroke me as very cheap and of a significantly poorer quality than expected from Exceptional Stories.
First of all, It was short and mostly linear, didn’t offer any significant choice and didn’t pay off, and I was very dissapointed that most text vignettes were barely 2-3 sentences long, containing the most generic information.
Worse, there was no character development, no character interaction, and the story itself felt kind of cliche out of a bad thriller movie.
Worst of all, there was absolutely no interaction with my daughter and no character development for her. She felt just lifeless, like any random nameless protege I do not care about at all. The initial promise of spending quality time with the person you care about was very much undelivered.
Also I actually quit Parthenaeum and joined the Stags just for this story. Was it worth it? No. It unlocked a total of one storylet at the very beginning that barely told me anything of note.
So needless to say this story left me a bit on the melancholy side.
Nonetheless, I understand that every ES can’t be amazing, and different authors have different skills and style, so I don’t hold any spite for Failbetter, and I’ll eagerly await the next month.
My interpretation is the current king doesn’t want to get eaten, so came up with this idea that there would be a sovereign just long enough to "count" and then they’d get eaten in his place. The rule is "every seven years we must sacrifice our sovereign", not "a person gets eaten after being sovereign for seven years."
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Yes, I think this is the meaning you get when you visit the hall with the paintings of the various Stags’ Kings. edited by Master Polarimini on 4/1/2016
I liked the story. It was a good time. But as some said, it felt more generic than the other stories. It was a pleasant experience nonetheless, and I fully understand that all Exceptional Stories can’t have a lot of content. So I’m quite satisfied. It was nice. Not incredible, but nice.
But the characters clearly lacked personality, the guy in charge was very… cliché, and my interaction with the Sovereign (my daughter) was shallow. Oh and the texts felt very short. That could have been better.
But anyway, it was an interesting story ! Thank you very much !
PS : oh, by the way, I really appreciated the bits of texts about the Stags and their behaviour. Their society, who didn’t interest me in the least prior to that Exceptional Story, is now a part of London that I like. edited by Emain Ablach on 4/1/2016
I would agree that I had mixed feelings about this one. Some of the folklore detail was good, and it delivered on the overall promise of latent horror, throughout the game. The art is very good. The picture of the protogee made me want to see him become a more recurring character. But, as others mentioned, I did not feel like I had the ability to influence the world very much. I too thought letting my protogee defend himself would make a character who had seemed very weak in his decision-making emerge more confident and competent and prepared to thrive in the Neath (and potentially as a new companion). The characters introduced among the Stags were pretty shallow, and did not change as a result of the story. The reward was very trivial. I thought the last story was quite good in making me feel like I had a number of choices at the resolution, and that mine were personal and had a small but lasting effect on how the rich treat their servants, and on how the Orpheus society functions. I would have liked to see some promise of longer impact on how the Stags function.
Has anyone actually given up their aunt to the Stags yet and, if so, is it worth it? Hark is at the crossroads where they have to choose whether they do or don’t and I’m conflicted. On the one hand I’ve worked hard to save poor Aunt Tilly, on the other hand something in me really wants to know what I get if I sacrifice her.
I did, and so far have not gotten much of a reward at all? The promised opportunity card was just being pranked by urchins. Maybe there will be another one down the line, but that’s all I’ve seen so far.
I don’t really care, because Breckner hated the aunt all along and I don’t really care about losing the very intermittent action refreshes, but I was a little surprised.
[quote=Breckner] I did, and so far have not gotten much of a reward at all? The promised opportunity card was just being pranked by urchins. Maybe there will be another one down the line, but that’s all I’ve seen so far.
I don’t really care, because Breckner hated the aunt all along and I don’t really care about losing the very intermittent action refreshes, but I was a little surprised.[/quote]
Hmm, I’ll probably let Tilly live then. As bizarre as it sounds I have a soft-spot for the woman and it would hardly be sporting to hand her over to a bunch of hungry humanitarians after I’ve expended so much effort keeping her alive and away from devils.
Tempting, but I don’t think I’ll go through with it. The Dawn Machine’s sacrificed plenty of people but all of them were eaten for a reason. Unless that Patriarch’s planning a trip to the Grand Geode in the near future I see no reason to let him escape his fate for a second time.
I have to admit, for a woman who I know for a fact is Not my character’s aunt, I too have a soft spot for her. I think it’s the brazenness of claiming to be my character’s aunt, that sort of confidence – chutzpah – bespeaks a con-artist of a truly singular character.
So one of my characters tries to be evil. He wasn’t going to sacrifice his aunt, because his aunt is useful, but this arrogant social climber who wanted to use me as a stepping-stool? Yeah, he needed to go.
Can I just say I LOVED the card that finished the story for this run? Beautifully evocative. edited by RandomWalker on 4/1/2016
I like the writing and structure, but the bugged journal recording, and some bad random-number-generation that seems to be railroading me into a conclusion without regard for the choices I made throughout the story, are really hampering my ability to enjoy it. It’s really a shame to see interesting writing hobbled by code bugs.
I’m a bit annoyed at how I couldn’t do the story with my aunt because I had gone through more of her storyline. It’d make the story seem more interesting than having some random acquaintance for the whole story. I’ll keep going through, but that’s my initial thoughts.
So… is the ‘journaling issue’ that many people have mentioned going to be fixed? I like recording my own journal entry titles which is why I haven’t started yet.