My main is "endgame" for the purpose of deck size and not in a remote lodging. Her current career level is 19, and that’s only because I switched from FiHPs to regular Favours. My newer characters are POSIs with raw stats over 100 and reasonably thick decks, aunts, black paintings, theosophisticals, tipsy Masters, the whole shebang (no creepstache though*). It really doesn’t take all that long for the deck to fatten.
Last Hallowmas I couldn’t participate at all, I just bought the lance with fate, traded a bit and went back to my regular grind.
I pledge my vote to whoever** promises to get rid of the creepstache.
** Except if the Princess promises to personally eat him. No. Just no.
I really like the much slower start to the election. Previous elections tossed us right into the action, with you choosing a candidate and campaigning before you’d really learned anything about them. The actual campaign’s story-lines were somewhat undermined by these mechanics. Before the candidates could get their messages out or the scandals could surface, the game created a huge psychological barrier to switching - losing progress, having to redo said progress, possibly missing out on rewards (unless you paid fate). So in a sense the election’s trajectory was governed mostly by first impressions. This also made the election season somewhat more frenzied as you had to push your chosen candidate now now now lest they be left in the dust.
Now we’re actually given a week before being asked to commit. So, there’s actually time to stop and think things over and discuss. Like, at the moment I can’t make up my mind between the Princess and Mr. Slowcake. If I had been forced to choose between them at the start, I would have selected one of them based on very limited information and that likely would have been that (the reasons would come later, hopefully they’d be what I guessed them to be). Now I can actually watch and weigh the candidate’s respective campaigns and promises.
The previous election mechanics made us partisans from the get go. The current mechanics make us voters in the first week, partisans in the second.
Though I do rather miss the social actions of being a Campaigner - collecting donations was rather fun. It also encouraged players to organize. Though I understand things were a bit unbalanced for Fixers (more doctors than patents) and Agitators (constantly under attack). I don’t really miss the debates - they were fun, but we have the same mechanics with chess and duels and debates would seriously clog your inbox.
[quote=Anne Auclair]Though I do rather miss the social actions of being a Campaigner - collecting donations was rather fun. It also encouraged players to organize. Though I understand things were a bit unbalanced for Fixers (more doctors than patents) and Agitators (constantly under attack). I don’t really miss the debates - they were fun, but we have the same mechanics with chess and duels and debates would seriously clog your inbox.[/quote]I was also really looking forward to the social aspect of this festival. With social actions having been removed (unless they make some sort of comeback next week, which there hasn’t been any indication of), there’s virtually no difference between the three electoral careers. Campaigning for donations last year and getting menace help from Fixers was a blast, and launching jolly attacks on other players as an Agitator would have been fun this year, too. And last year, solo players could still spend items and favours to gain election resources without needing to interact with other players. For this election, spending those favours and items is the only way to advance, so we’re essentially all solo players.
I liked the debates (although there were some mechanical problems with them; namely, being only able to debate one player at a time caused problems when your opponent took too long to respond, limiting the number of debates you could participate in). With a few tweaks they could have remained a fun addition of the festival.
Regardless, I hope that the loss of social actions is not a trend, and that they return in some form or another in future elections.
I entirely agree. Election-based social actions were phenomenal fun for me last year as a Campaigner (although I do understand things were a tad clunky for Fixers and Agitators) and during the debates (even if these, too, were a tad clunky). I do very much hope FBG tweaks the mechanics and brings Election social actions back for 1897.
[quote=Sinnouk]I… don’t understand the third poll. Ablutions?
Edit: picked Slowcake anyhow. edited by Sinnouk on 6/22/2018[/quote]
[li]
Old fashioned word for baths. I went with the Princess, not only because she is ironically the more contrarian choice than the actual Contrarian but because frankly she probably has the best baths in the whole city.
[quote=Sinnouk]I… don’t understand the third poll. Ablutions?
Edit: picked Slowcake anyhow. edited by Sinnouk on 6/22/2018[/quote]
Ablutions are cleansings. The text implies that the exhausted poll-workers didn’t understand the question properly, and it might have been about "abolition" or "evolution" or some such.
I particularly loved the reference to Marat, a Revolutionary who took long long baths because of his skin condition, and famously died therein.
I really, really hate the complete reliance on the Opportunity deck in this scenario. Since the election started, I have drawn exactly one Further Your Reputation card, one poll card, and three cards providing more info about the candidates. Leaving aside the complete unsuitability of any of the candidates, this lack of available election-related actions is shaping up to make this whole sequence EXTREMELY boring.
[quote=Hattington][quote=Sinnouk]I… don’t understand the third poll. Ablutions?
Edit: picked Slowcake anyhow. edited by Sinnouk on 6/22/2018[/quote]
Old fashioned word for baths. I went with the Princess, not only because she is ironically the more contrarian choice than the actual Contrarian but because frankly she probably has the best baths in the whole city.[/quote]
I wouldn’t trust the Palace plumbing, to be honest. Most of that place is a complete wreck. I would however trust the plumbing at the Brass Embassy. They have a truly marvelous heating system there, so sleek and modern! And I’d trust Mr. Slowcake to set the water to the perfect temperature.
As for how baths came to be involved in the Gazette’s polling - it’s been implied that the Captivating Princess has been deliberately trolling Hufam since the start of the election and giving him fits :P
If anyone wants to have a more extensive sheet about our candidates feel free to pop some messages or anything and I’ll try to make a complete recording of our beloved. edited by Skinnyman on 6/23/2018
If anyone wants to have a more extensive sheet about our candidates feel free to pop some messages or anything and I’ll try to make a complete recording of our beloved. edited by Skinnyman on 6/23/2018[/quote]
If anyone wants to have a more extensive sheet about our candidates feel free to pop some messages or anything and I’ll try to make a complete recording of our beloved. edited by Skinnyman on 6/23/2018[/quote]
Actually, your chart is less spoilery than sharing information under Spoiler tags, as most of us do, since to see it one must click a link that goes off-site. Thanks again.
It strikes me as a little weird to see people who accepted our current slaver, pirate, traitor Mayor draw a hard line at the Captivating Princess and Mr. Slowcake.
Also strange are people complaining that all the choices are bad - I find them all excellent! And I’m wondering what this says about me…?