Do the stories that cost Fate to play (e.g., "A Trade In Souls") vary with the month/week/other period of time? If yes, does a story which has been withdrawn from the roster come around again later?
I’m guessing that most of the Fate stories are best suited for characters who have already developed considerable points in their abilities, or they would hold no interest for players who have been around for awhile. Are some of the stories better for one level of abilities rather than another?
About how much Fate can a player expect to receive per month, without going to the pocketbook?
The stories on the Fate tab do not go away. Some stories are good at all levels, while the Soul Trade is best completed early on since it’ll unlock various options at certain points in the game. Nothing major, but nice nonetheless.
You don’t generally get Fate through regular play. There’s a few points here and there, but nothing repeatable.
Under the Fate-tab (including “A Trade in Souls”). That content is (usually) fixed and is available all the time. That content will usually inform you of the broad level of the characters that it’s aimed at. A Trade in Souls doesn’t mention it because it’s fine for low-level characters. A Trade in Faces, on the other hand, states that it is suitable when one of your attributes is 50 or above.
As minor Fate-locked branches on otherwise usual storylets. These usually give some snippet of lore or extra resources without changing the game in any significant way.
Major Fate-locked storylines that are unlocked as you explore the game. Generally once those kind of storylines are available to you, you can safely try them. They will generally be of suitable difficulty to the point of the game where they are unlocked.
Exceptional stories. These are available as part of Exceptional Friend subscription and change every month. Once the relevant month is over the exceptional story is retired but returns three months later with a hefty upmark in Fate.
In addition to fixed content (most of which is free and some of which is Fate-locked) and monthly Exceptional content (which, by definition, is fate locked), the game also has seasonal content, which comes only once a year (although there are four distinct such events every year). Again most of this content is free but some of it is Fate-locked.
Thank you. I was reading another thread that was discussing the stories under the Fate tab, and it had referred to several that were not to be found now. But the thread was from some years ago, so possibly some stories have been withdrawn, but not frequently.
When the Exceptional stories become available, will they be withdrawn? I only have two stories marked with a month of origin under the Fate tab.
Many stories discussed in the other thread are simply advanced content (number 3 in my list above) that doesn’t become available till much later in the game. To the best of my knowledge no Fate-locked content has been retired from the game (with the exception of SMEN, which is a different story entirely!)
Exceptional stories last one month and then they disappear for three months. After that time they reappear under the Fate tab. So currently you can play 3 Exceptional stories:
*May (Haunting at the Marsh-House) - Silver-bordered under the Fate tab
*June (The Court of Cats) - Silver-bordered under the Fate tab
*October (Discernment) - Started anywhere in London by playing "An Exceptional Story: Burglary of a Cartographer’s Estate" and then going to the House of Chimes, which requires an Exceptional Friend subscription
You will see that the July, August and September stories are not currently available. In about two weeks Discernment will disappear entirely from the game (for three months) and will be replaced by the November Exceptional story. At around the same time, the July Exceptional story will be added to the Fate tab as a silver-bordered storylet. edited by genesis on 10/13/2015
I don’t think there are Fate-locked stories designed specifically for high-level players, nor that there will be. Keep in mind that Failbetter needs to generate revenue with these stories, so they’ll want to keep the target group as large as possible. edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 10/14/2015
Depends. Some of the fate locked storylines (like the advanced Labyrinth of Tigers + Flute Street, destinities, Foreign Office) will give you ‘best in slot’ items not otherwise available, which makes them relevant at any point. But I think the highest stat requirements are from the continuation of the Jack of Smiles case, at 130-140ish.
I would suspect that we won’t be getting high level fate locked content until we get high level non-locked content. I don’t think there are any 150+ regular stories yet.
The Elder Continent might hopefully be that content though, in which case Flint (which hopefully will be previewing some of the content and mechanics of the Elder Continent) could be the new “highest level” fate-locked content. Like all exceptional stories though, it’ll be beatable at level 1, so it won’t be too much high level stuff.