I also chose "all shall be well," so it’s weird that we got different choices. What kind of choices did you get instead?
I think one of the themes of fallen london is the difficulty of being a morally upright person. So yeah, its gonna be hard to RP a good person.
But in the patriarch, running away doesn’t mean your character was okay with it, maybe this was a moment when fear overcame their beliefs.
I also chose "all shall be well," so it’s weird that we got different choices. What kind of choices did you get instead?[/quote]Wow, that is interesting!
I had my daughter, I was not a member of the Stags, and
at the end of the hunt, after the PP shoots my daughter in the knee, I had the choice to ambush him myself or to wait and let her stab him. I let her stab him (in the knee), and we don’t know what happens to anyone in the Stags after that–though it’s implied that the PP survives because it says that the Stags "cannot fulfill their pact."
edited by an_ocelot on 4/3/2016
[quote=Kukapetal]
Why do I "have" to be someone who is morally gray? Why do I constantly have to suffer if I don’t? Why does it feel like there’s no place for me here?[/quote]
In the story as I played it, the PP was clearly willing to kill my Aunt so she could be eaten. Even if the events of The Seven-Day Reign happened to me in real life, I would have no qualms about killing the PP to protect her. It sucks that your character got stampeded into "making" a moral choice neither you nor the character as you see it would have chosen, but not all FL stories end up that way. Much turns, not only on the choices you make, but on how you interpret what is described in the storylets as happening.
edited by cathyr19355 on 4/3/2016
How’s the journal issue?
I’m actually really looking forward to this one as it sounds perfect for my character, whose attitude towards these sorts of things is usually along the lines of:
"I saw weird stuff in that place last night! Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff! And I want in."
But who also honestly loves her Aunt. I also want to learn more about the Stags, to match that learned about the Parthenaeum in the last story.
But I’m not starting it till the journal’s fixed.
an_ocelot, I actually did get the same choices as you, then.
I just chose to ambush the Patriarch myself since I figured my idiotic little protege would be more likely to stab HIMSELF if I left it up to him. Then he stuck the crown on the unconscious Patriarch’s head (which I let him do because ??? ) and we left him there for the rest of the Stags to find, listening to his terrified screams in the distance because…we’re just that bad*ss, I guess. Hooray.
So I guess I’d have gotten the less OOC ending if I’d made the choice you made, but since there wasn’t anything in the text indicating which choice would lead to which outcome (the choices seemed to boil down to which course of action would be more likely to save your protege/aunt/daughter, with no indication of the Patriarch’s fate one way or the other) I don’t see how I could have known.
Looks like this problem could have been avoided if they’d just stuck in an extra decision after the Patriarch had been subdued: “leave” or “put the crown on his head and leave.” Then the decision would have been in the player’s hands instead of being based on an unrelated choice made beforehand.
Anyway, thanks for your answer :)
Kukapetal, thank you for explaining–and yes, I agree with you.
I can definitely see kukapetal’s point. I’ve had a rather opposite experience in that my character has actually become a better person when when they started out, but I could see how someone could very easily be beaten down.
Additionally, in-character I see nothing wrong with the cannibalism of the king. Is that fact that this king choose to sacrifice unwilling others instead of taking the sacrifice upon himself and promote his own above the rest. But the king choosing to give himself up for the whole of the group - that does have some nobility.
Well, this story was an emotional roller-coaster. Beautifully written and illustrated, of course. Mechanically, a little experimental and a little traditional - I liked the options to include different family members and such. Certainly made me more affectionate for my Inconvenient Aunt, the old rogue! As for the story itself…
[spoiler]The pagan elements of the Stags at first made me regret not joining them… and then banished that regret soon after. The idea of an old boys’ club enforcing depraved and thoroughly illegal behaviour to create a bond of silence between its members, enabling future conspiracies - well, that’s ripped straight from the headlines. It certainly explains some of the references we’ve seen to old Stags previously. I loved the shout-out to the story of Artemis bathing, too. As for the central conflict, the cannibal king devoured by his own sons… well, it’s powerful imagery. It is a bit of a shame that the ramifications of decisions weren’t always clear beforehand - I’m still not entirely sure how one’s different decisions lead to the Stags’ pact being/not being perpetuated, and it would be nice to have a bit more agency in that decision.
Incidentally… the last Exceptional Story featured the Pathenaeum, and this one the Stags… will the third in the trilogy also be club-centric, I wonder?[/spoiler]
[quote=Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook]
Incidentally… the last Exceptional Story featured the Pathenaeum, and this one the Stags… will the third in the trilogy also be club-centric, I wonder?[/quote]
Will the Dilmun Club become a viable Affiliation at long last? ;)
I bought an exceptional friendship to visit the House of Chimes (will publish the results in due time) and went there to see the opinions. It does really tell a lot about Fallen London the fact that I saw many reactions that boiled down to
“Cannibalism AGAIN?! How dull.”
Just finished this story via the final Opportunity card. Selected adopted daughter as the sovereign. Although I enjoyed the writing (and especially the tidbits about Kingeater’s Castle), mechanically I found this story to be very frustrating. I agree completely with those who have noted that
[spoiler]the chase sequence in the Forgotten Quarter was entirely too randomized; I felt frustrated and useless as my supposedly highly-skilled, well-armed character racked up failure after failure. Although I can understand the need for Exceptional Stories to be accessible to newer players, I would have really liked to see some additional options during the chase to get some extra time, foil the hunters, and so forth. Instead, every possible storylet was dependent on either blind luck or on the Reign qualities (which didn’t make much sense in the context of trying to hinder a group of hunters).
The ending Opportunity Card (based on final choice: ambush the PP) was IMO a very lame, weak ending to such a gruesome roller-coaster story. "Funny sort of week." …bleh! :: [/spoiler]
Overall rating: 2 stars out of 5.
edited by James Sinclair on 4/4/2016
I got the card for one of my three characters just now.
So I’ve finished this Exceptional Story and
[spoiler] let my Daughter stab the Patriarch (after winning the escape mini-game by a a landslide) but she got mad at me and I got Heartless for letting her have her revenge.
Can anyone link me to a Journal Log or tell me what she says if we stab the PP ourselves and what is written in the Opp Card at the end? [/spoiler]
I’d really prefer if I didn’t have to wait three months to reset this story just for a paragraph or two, unless there’s a big difference. My Seven-Day Reign number code is 310.
edited by Reinhardt von Stark on 4/4/2016
Posting merely to add weight, in FBG’s ears, to the comments of others: MidnightVoyager and an_ocelot have summed up my feelings well. Being hit with a Heartless gain/Steadfast loss for standing by my daughter and allowing her to be self-sufficient if she so chose? Yuck. Being unable to kill the PP? Yuck. And the ending-card was - as MV eloquently noted - essentially “meh.”
[quote=James Sinclair]Just finished this story via the final Opportunity card. Selected adopted daughter as the sovereign. Although I enjoyed the writing (and especially the tidbits about Kingeater’s Castle), mechanically I found this story to be very frustrating. I agree completely with those who have noted that
[spoiler]the chase sequence in the Forgotten Quarter was entirely too randomized; I felt frustrated and useless as my supposedly highly-skilled, well-armed character racked up failure after failure. Although I can understand the need for Exceptional Stories to be accessible to newer players, I would have really liked to see some additional options during the chase to get some extra time, foil the hunters, and so forth. Instead, every possible storylet was dependent on either blind luck or on the Reign qualities (which didn’t make much sense in the context of trying to hinder a group of hunters).
The ending Opportunity Card (based on final choice: ambush the PP) was IMO a very lame, weak ending to such a gruesome roller-coaster story. "Funny sort of week." …bleh! :: [/spoiler]
Overall rating: 2 stars out of 5.
edited by James Sinclair on 4/4/2016[/quote]
Apparently Dangerous 205, A Fearsome Duellist 7 and A Bringer of Death 4 just don’t qualify me for those sorts of physical exertions. My numerous harrowing battles with spies and assassins and repeated hazarding of the capricious reality of the Iron Republic must pale by comparison to womping a few inebriated fops armed with pointed sticks and custard.
(I didn’t have any particular IC or OOC reservations with leaving the Placid Patriarch to his just desserts, besides the missed opportunity for a new connection. I do agree that the denoument fell a bit flat. Hopefully this adventure will result in a closer relationship with my "Daughter" in the future, though, as she’s an interesting and underutilized character.)
Howdy.
My internet connection crashed, so I couldn’t see the result for the card at the end of the story.
I found the text in other peoples journals, but I have no idea what the end reward is. After checking my inventory, apparently it is nothing unique or remarkable, right?
My choices:
All shall be well, won the chase and stepped in.
All in all, in my opinion the story was far too linear and too cliché.
edited by Ysrthgrathe on 4/5/2016
[quote=Ysrthgrathe]Howdy.
My internet connection crashed, so I couldn’t see the result for the card at the end of the story.
I found the text in other peoples journals, but I have no idea what the end reward is. After checking my inventory, apparently it is nothing unique or remarkable, right?
My choices:
All shall be well, won the chase and stepped in.
All in all, in my opinion the story was far too linear and too cliché.
edited by Ysrthgrathe on 4/5/2016[/quote]
If I’m remembering right, I didn’t step in and earned a Primeval Hint without any significant reward from the card itself.
Am I right in assuming that an error report was sent to Failbetter about the journaling bug?
Having watched the complete Jeeves and Wooster TV series a while back, this made me laugh so hard! I can almost hear the voices of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry having this exact conversation.
Although, knowing Jeeves, I imagine he’d probably take care of the Patriarch one way or another, with Bertie blissfully ignorant as usual.