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[/color][/color] [color=#0066ff]Midnight visitors are common in London, but visiting royalty is rare. Accompany an Injurious Princess on a perilous errand: the recovery of her brother from a tyrant’s clutches. Journey through the northerly realms of the Elder Continent, navigate the politics of a poisonous court, and beware the spider’s kiss.[/color] [color=#0066ff]
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[color=#0066ff]Writing: James Chew[/color]
[color=#0066ff]Editing & QA: Olivia Wood[/color]
[color=#0066ff]Art: Tobias Cook[/color]
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[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP[/color][/color]
[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:[/color][/color]
[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private member’s club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/color][/li][/ul][ul][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Access to Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found, a shop in the Bazaar where you can exchange currency earned through playing Exceptional Stories for exclusive companions and items[/color][/li][/ul][ul][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/color][/li][/ul][ul][li][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/color]
You no longer need to log in to claim your Exceptional Stories! If you have an active subscription when one is available, you’ll receive it automatically.[/color][/font][/color]
[quote=Captain Blood Storm]Oh, Injurious Princess. It’s been so long, I was worried you’d been forgotten about.
…now if only I remember what I actually recommended you to do about the whole usurpation thing.[/quote]A quality called "A Mirror for Princes" on your Myself tab should tell you what you did! :)
Mine says: "A Mirror for Princes 300 - In your game with the Injurious Princess, she reclaimed her throne"
No, it’s not. The storylet to go to arbor immediately only gives you 3 “time to remain”, and it only works once. If you use that up, you have to go back to Arbor the normal way, by drawing the card, in order to progress the story.
I enjoyed the story, but the choices and the ease of engendering doubt in the prince or princess felted hair-trigger and heavyhanded, not, to my understanding, that the quality made any significant difference. Nevertheless, it was great fun and I really enjoyed the lore. The end of the adventure felt anticlimactic and railroadish, but the "bones" of the story were good. edited by FeldonSmithe on 11/26/2021
[quote=Feldon Smithe]I enjoyed the story, but the choices and the ease of engendering doubt in the prince or princess felted hair-trigger and heavyhanded, not, to my understanding, that the quality made any significant difference. Nevertheless, it was great fun and I really enjoyed the lore. The end of the adventure felt anticlimactic and railroadish, but the "bones" of the story were good. edited by FeldonSmithe on 11/26/2021[/quote]
Agreed. Did anyone else feel the brother’s arguments were pretty weak? Like sure, MAYBE the House’s fortunes could improve but there’s a Tyrant in charge which the story makes clear is a Bad Person and well, it seems ludicrously naive to think that positive social change will come when a woman who was willing to feed someone to spiders in order to seize power and shows no interest in bettering lives will magically overlook the person she is effectively holding hostage trying to have his way. And most of the workers don’t seem keen on change either. And really, more than anything getting the poor lad out of that gilded cage seems like a more worthwhile endeavour than continuing to pretend the Tyrant would lend him any actual authority.
…also like, I really just wanted to see a princess fight a giant spider. For which I’m happy you basically got the chance to politely go WILL YOU FIGHT? OR WILL YOU PERISH, LIKE A DOG?! to motivate the giant spider to go out in a blaze of glory. I could’ve only been happier if I got the chance to somehow bring in my Vake steed to deliver a surprise Randy Orton-style RKO to somebody, since the steed does make regular trips over the Zee to the Elder Continent.
The whole ES felt railroadish, really. Click, read a snippet, click, read a snippet, click… almost as linear as "Fading to a Coda". I realize not every story can be as mechanically interesting as "Cricket" or "Paisley", but unless the writing or the subject matter is truly exceptional, I end up feeling that there’s not much to sink my teeth into with a story as mechanically flat as this. Didn’t help that this ES was hugely action-intensive, with the reward at the end being the usual 62.5 E, paltry at this point with the new economy.
The huge number of typos also continually took me out of the experience. Maybe I’m extra sensitive to them because I’m an experienced proofreader, but it seemed like almost every other storylet had a blaring mispunctuation or missing word.
I don’t mean to be excessively negative–the story as a whole was enjoyable and it was nice to see a continuation of the Injurious Princess’s story. I guess overall, with so many dozens of ESes having been released at this point, each one (that’s not written by Chandler Groover) becomes less and less memorable.
The whole ES felt railroadish, really. Click, read a snippet, click, read a snippet, click… almost as linear as "Fading to a Coda". I realize not every story can be as mechanically interesting as "Cricket" or "Paisley", but unless the writing or the subject matter is truly exceptional, I end up feeling that there’s not much to sink my teeth into with a story as mechanically flat as this. Didn’t help that this ES was hugely action-intensive, with the reward at the end being the usual 62.5 E, paltry at this point with the new economy.
The huge number of typos also continually took me out of the experience. Maybe I’m extra sensitive to them because I’m an experienced proofreader, but it seemed like almost every other storylet had a blaring mispunctuation or missing word.
I don’t mean to be excessively negative–the story as a whole was enjoyable and it was nice to see a continuation of the Injurious Princess’s story. I guess overall, with so many dozens of ESes having been released at this point, each one (that’s not written by Chandler Groover) becomes less and less memorable.[/quote]
Despite my agreeing with you, my attempt to upvote your post resulted in an apparently uncorrectable downvote. My apologies.
I was more excited about playing this one than any since "We Absolutely Meant to Go to Zee". I was looking forward to lots of lore and I got it! For that I am grateful.
But I was so disappointed with the lack of choices when you got deep into the action of this one. Too many of these stories give few choices in high-drama situations where there is CLEARLY another choice that would move the story in a different way. I had this problem with the conclusion of the Blind Pianist and the Spirifer when I was standing on the ship’s deck with the bottle of violant ink. I had no desire to open Parabola for this endeavour but there was only the option to do it .
In this one it was almost that bad. I can’t cope with having been given the info that would answer a question burning in the mind of an NPC standing right next to me, but never getting an opportunity to share it–not even in the aftermath; of course I’m talking about getting mind-to-mind communication from the giant spider, whom I then could only advise as to the MANNER of her death, with no chance of facilitating a dialogue!
I’m sad that I couldn’t figure out how to start the rebellion, with my pragmatic character who doesn’t love spiders. She does love art, freedom and a good fight, and was ready to throw down. edited by Azora Perlino on 11/28/2021
I didn’t get this story… I still don’t understand why the big spider had to be killed or replaced, I don’t think I really understood what the consequences of those two options were so I didn’t know how to pick. And in the end I didn’t even get to pick, the prince took the sword and killed the spider (even though earlier, he’d been the one wanting to replace it? why?)
I think my choices made some difference, because it sounds like there were different endings possible, but I have to say I really have no idea how the things I picked led to the outcome that I got. edited by amalgamate on 11/28/2021
I have to admit, I’m not totally sure how I feel about this story. I absolutely adored the lore, the characters, feeling like I was getting away with a heist for most of it. But the mechanics felt non-existent, and the choices felt vague and opaque. For example, I was repeatedly respectful to the Spider’s works, intending that something that would never be reproduced should be honoured (though if given the choice I would have disagreed with just hiding them away as well). But this sowed doubt in the Princess? I mean, I’m not upset about it ultimately, since what happened seemed to be what the spider wanted. I guess I just ended up feeling like an interloper in an issue I didn’t understand with no idea how I was affecting things, which was fitting for the situation but is not exactly how my favourite stories usually leave me feeling. I think it would serve stories that attempt such high themes as this to either have nuanced options to match or clarity in what we’re actually choosing. Ultimately I certainly didn’t hate it though, I’m mostly left hoping this is just a preview of Vesture and we’ll see much, much more of it one day.
Most importantly, the Injurious Princess has at this point been emphatically added to my "need to wife" list. Along with like 4 others this year, so I’m gonna need a drastically expanded polyamory option. Please, Failbetter, you’re my only hope.
Actually, we’ve had Vesture and even the Princess before, in the Season of Sceptres frame story. The epilogue to that season involves you playing a game of strategy to determine who rules Vesture.
The Princess was also associated with the Arbor story and has popped up during Hallowmas.
Like some others here, I’m on the fence about this story.
Good points included the amazing journey from Arbor to Vesture and the description of the House and the weavers.
But I ended up with a story that didn’t pan out at all the way I hoped or wanted. Decisions that were based in my character’s own preferences and traits, or choices that seemed rational at the time, had results for the actions of both the prince and the princess that made no sense to me at all. At one point, it seemed the order in which the storylets were selected had an impact on their confidence or the lack thereof.
I’d be interested to know if anyone managed to keep the spider alive? The degree to which the House had to be dismantled on the way there suggested not, but who knows. I also wondered whether there was a path through the story that enabled the outcome desired by the prince / the Tyrant.
One small niggle: In the epilogue to the Season of Sceptres, featuring the Princess, it was possible (though difficult apparently) to achieve an outcome where she returns to Vesture to conquer it. I had hoped for a link back to that, or some indication that she has made progress.
I seem to have enjoyed this more than most, but I agree with previous comments that mechanically there could’ve been more to it.
Vesture seems to have institutionalized artistic change with its Doctrine of Originality, similar to how democracy is a way of institutionalizing revolution. With the end of a Great Spider comes an end to an artistic idea, preserving only craftsmanship but not vision. This puts you into a situation where arguing for change or revolution in Vesture actually means arguing for continuity and conserving older art styles. It feels weird being branded a conservative Londoner when arguing for the flourishing of art styles, but I thought that made for an interesting position to be in.
Influencing Prince and Princess did sometimes seem to happen somewhat too subtly. After I made my choices and saw the doubt accrue, I could see how it could be interpreted that way, but it made it more difficult to consciously choose a direction.
In the end I kept the Great Spider alive, but only for a while. The Prince wounded her (it? him?) to die slowly, but giving enough time to raise an heir. I also advocated for rage, so I ended up with the Spider raising a rebel heir against tradition.
Somehow I have been kicked out of this story. Being unfamiliar with Arbor I appear to have taken a wrong turn and found myself back in London with no way back (never got around to exploring that place, as the card always seems to pop up when I’m in the middle of something else). I presume (though I don’t know) that I can get back to the story via the regular card, but I haven’t seen that card since the story released, and it’s now nearly April.
I can only judge the story as I find it and so far I have found it to be rather crappy, as for me there is no story. Enough time has passed that I don’t even remember why I was going there. This is a nice enough idea in theory, but as a game play mechanic it sucks, big time. I have almost completely lost interest in this story and the only reason I am still even thinking about it is because I want to get what I paid for. Please don’t use a mechanic like this again, FB.
This is the nature of all the Exceptional Stories. They are only available via an action in London during one month. However, you might be able to go to your lodgings and find it in your Exceptional Story Library. That was added so players could play the Stories that they missed starting. I don’t know if that will work for you since you say you had already started the story.
