This is my second Exceptional Story and I’m really enjoying it! I’m…I suspect about 3/4 of the way through the plot and will probably have more comments once I’m done.
Tangential question – there’s a chance my Exceptional Friendship will expire before I finish the story. This won’t affect my ability to keep playing it, right? (I’m going on a trip and figured I’ll just re-up when I get back since I doubt I’ll be playing much while abroad).
Yeah, I still maintain that could have been the perfect reward at the end . . . like, when we pick one of the five/six endings, four of those are somewhat aligned with the companions we collected, so we could have been allocated one of them in accordance to the choice we made :) I would have absolutely have loved that to happen, and it did seem like it was setting itself up for that . . .
. . . still, I can understand not wanting to hand out companions (especially as it’d require changing their qualities, as the qualities they currently have only make sense for the one story and not for all in-game usages). I’m still a little sad about it, though XD[/quote]
Agree! Heck, I’d be happy to keep them even as just window-dressing souvenirs of the story with no powers in themselves.
[quote=SarahTheEntwife]This is my second Exceptional Story and I’m really enjoying it! I’m…I suspect about 3/4 of the way through the plot and will probably have more comments once I’m done.
Tangential question – there’s a chance my Exceptional Friendship will expire before I finish the story. This won’t affect my ability to keep playing it, right? (I’m going on a trip and figured I’ll just re-up when I get back since I doubt I’ll be playing much while abroad).[/quote]
Once you’ve started a story, its there until you finish it.
Oh, could I get a PM too, pretty please?
[quote=suinicide][quote=SarahTheEntwife]
Tangential question – there’s a chance my Exceptional Friendship will expire before I finish the story. This won’t affect my ability to keep playing it, right? (I’m going on a trip and figured I’ll just re-up when I get back since I doubt I’ll be playing much while abroad).[/quote]
Once you’ve started a story, its there until you finish it.[/quote]
Thanks!
PM sent.
1st: Pm please?
2nd: while a mechanical mish mash and a delight concerning the art, I’m left mostly confused. Like ok the voice wanting the body is Storm, though I still don’t understand him being on the roof stuff (why is this angry sea god that’s dead just chilling on the roof). I don’t get what the deal is with the body, with why Storm or the Bazaar would want it, and while I vaguely recall this red science being mentioned before I’m just altogether lost. On the other hand a body that’s been changed from its normal form is of obvious use to the Rubbery Men so at least I not totally lost.
Now my problem is to pick an ending. Probs won’t do the Eaten one, tempting as is. Might do the Fisher King one, as giving it to the Bazaar definitely will shake things up somehow, even if I don’t know the details, and honestly I just like their faction.
edited by Cthonius on 7/1/2016
edited by Cthonius on 7/1/2016
Sending PM. Will also include a few basics of red science. (Can’t really explain storm, myself)
edited by suinicide on 7/1/2016
I’d also appreciate a PM with reward spoilers…
Thanks!
edited by dov on 7/1/2016
The urchins watch, sullenly, as you drag the coffin away. A sulky crackle of thunder sounds from the roof of the Neath. Slivvy, the Stuttering Urchin with the liver-coloured birthmark, clutches his head.
Back in the sanctuary of your home, you feast. The thing’s flesh has a texture somewhere between jelly and squid, laced with stringy gristle. Wine helps it go down. The fingers are boneless, and easier to manage. Experimentally, you nibble on one of the intricately-jointed tarsal bones. It is porous, and crumbles chalkily. Deep within the ribs, though, your questing crimson fingers discover a human heart, a human spine. Did he (it was a he) wreak these changes on himself? Was it an act of sacrament, or survival? After a certain point, you suppose the difference is irrelevant.
You wrap the innards in greaseproof paper, tie it with string, store them in your larder. Tomorrow you can have leftovers.
SMEN +1
To prevent like 3 more pages of PM requests and such, here’s the text, and the reward for the SMEN ending.
So this was a pretty great story. Unique and fun mechanics, and it really fleshed out the Urchins as a factions- we got to see what various gangs are like and how they differ from each other, and some nicely tantalizing hints about whatever’s going on between them and Storm.[li]
edited by Gilphon on 7/1/2016
That’s why I made sure to include actual stuff in my comment, even if it was just "I’m confused"
That aside, now knowing the basic gist of Red Science, the rest falls into place pretty handily. Ok, maybe not who these roof-humans are (I’m sure one of the other ES’s before I started my Exceptional Friendship deals with that, and if not than I’ll see a regular story sooner or later about it), but definitely seems like this story will become a signpost pointed to in the future when someone goes "wait where’d you find details about that lore topic?"
And while the mechanics were interesting, as I said they were too jumbled and honestly it was easier to just ‘Do Action That Gets Planning or whatever it was called,’ ‘Do Action to Reduce Mischief,’ ‘Do Action to Reduce Moral,’ ‘Repeat.’ I only sent out orphans early on to see what that would do, and otherwise ignored both sending them and using them as companions.
edited by Cthonius on 7/1/2016
Sometimes the oldies are the besties. In a lot of ways this was an updated version of the L.B. infestation war you wage early on, just with additional characters and mechanics. I found it all incredibly fun and am really liking this Season of Revolutions. Can’t wait for the third story.
I also loved all the new details about the urchin gangs. Like, I knew the Knotted-Socks used knotted-socks to brain people, I knew the Regiment had a military theme (and a b_____y cannon!), and I knew the Fisherkings didn’t touch the ground, but I didn’t have much of a picture beyond that. They all just kind of blended together into a sort of ubiquitous urchin mob, you know? This story did a great job in giving each of the gangs their own very unique character. So now, whenever I see a Knotted-Sock or a Fisherking, I’ll have a very definite picture of what they’re like.
edited by Anne Auclair on 7/1/2016
[quote=SarahTheEntwife][quote=suinicide]
Once you’ve started a story, its there until you finish it.[/quote]
Thanks![/quote]
More specifically, once you do the action in the House of Chimes that has "You’ve unlocked $EXCEPTIONALSTORYNAME!" It is normally only one of two actions inside the HoC to get this far and unlock it for playing whenever you care to finish the matter.
[quote=Cthonius]
And while the mechanics were interesting, as I said they were too jumbled and honestly it was easier to just ‘Do Action That Gets Planning or whatever it was called,’ ‘Do Action to Reduce Mischief,’ ‘Do Action to Reduce Moral,’ ‘Repeat.’ I only sent out orphans early on to see what that would do, and otherwise ignored both sending them and using them as companions.
edited by Cthonius on 7/1/2016[/quote]
Yeah, I also didn’t need the urchin companions to accomplish anything. I equipped the knotted sock since they do extra damage to morale, but it didn’t seem to really matter. However, I have stats in the 150-200ish range. In many exceptional stories I find myself able to breeze through skill checks with 100% odds, and I assume that’s because the difficulty is made with newer players in mind, so it’s possible to play exceptional stories without leveling up for months first. At lower levels, perhaps you need to rely on your urchins or otherwise fail a lot of actions.
The war is a pretty neat mechanic, but the dispatch-and-equip bit isn’t, since the benefits they provide aren’t much and can be easily compensated by a few actions.
Minor nitpicking: none of the urchins that live with you (the Grubby / Winsome Dispossessed / Laconic Prodigy) have anything to say about it.
I think using the urchins was more effective then not using them.
There’s also the urchin who likes to hang out on your roof. Though he might be off fighting in the war.
May I get a PM with the results of the more horrific ending as well please?
Oh, and I take it the final choice changes quirks, but by how much?
edited by Vel Farre on 7/2/2016
I liked the mini-game that played out across London. I did not like choosing between keeping my perfect 15 Steadfast or favoring my favorite Urchin gang. I’m sympathetic to the Fisher Kings’ cause, but cleaning up the Velocipede Squad was a long, thankless job, and Steadfast is all I have to show for it.
I guess it’s fitting that I had to favor The Regiment, since I started with them.
The part I really didn’t like was that none of the choices were actually un-steadfast, except for being arbitrarily labeled as lowering Steadfast. I got to 15 Steadfast because of RP decisions; I wouldn’t have wanted to make any choices that were really anti-steadfast.