So, the mechanics are a little more complex, but the central question of this story seems to be whether or not the Prince will Be Gay and/or Do Crimes. Much worse crimes than the phrase usually implies,in this case.
XD that’s exactly it.
i really played hoping that it would come out to "be gay, do crimes but only cool and fun crimes".
And i had his mom come in and save the day (thanks mom), so i’m very glad that didn’t result in an automatic return to the status quo.
A quick summary of the mechanics involved in determining whether he agrees to the Captivating Princess’ proposal, since there are some unintuivite factors involved.
[spoiler]Secretly, whether you let Alexandra (Mom Princess) know you’re going to meet the Captivating Princess hugely changes the calculations involved, as well as leading to very different scenes between them all.
If you do not fully inform her, the Red Temptations requirement for him to agree is [Enchantment + Disenchantment], a frankly absurd amount that requires you to play every Red Temptation source you can get (except letting him sit out while you report to Alexandra, which is unnecessary and just as likely to tilt things the other way).
If you do inform her, the Red Temptations check is instead an uncertain but very low value - I’ve heard needing 2 Red Temptation mentioned, but it could scale off of Enchantment/Disenchantment in some strange way too. Further investigation is needed.
It seems that having his mother barge in and try to protect her precious child really reminds him how much he’s grown tired of her leading his life, which makes him likelier to accept the Red Honey in the moment.
Speaking more practically, this means that Knows/Untempted and Doesn’t Know/Tempted are much harder to achieve, and Knows/Tempted + Doesn’t Know/Untempted are much easier.
Also, here’s the text for Doesn’t Know/Tempted, since it is one of the challenging ones, and I know people had been curious about the ending. It’s quite neat:
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Amets%20Estibariz/22529115
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Amets%20Estibariz/22529233
[/spoiler]
Huh. That actually makes some sense.
I did let his mother know, but I got the ending where he stays in the neath but not red-honeyed, since prior to that I’d been increasing his enchantment a lot.
I think that the amount of info you get from the story you mention varies depending on the choices you make.
As I recall, in my playthrough of The Gift, there was a fairly detailed up-close encounter with one of the altered siblings, and a (frankly more than) sufficient description of the others seen in a mirror.
I suspect at least some of the other ESs (and non-ES Fate-locked stories) that involve Victoria’s children contain additional info, too, but I’m afraid I have no idea which ones or how much any more.
I really enjoyed this one.
It’s a small complaint, and I’m not 100% sure on whether this is a bug on my phone-site or not, but I missed the page image changing to the different areas as I went - Veilgarden for the honey den, the palace for the palace, Ladybones (maybe) for the tutor’s home. Part of what made My Kingdom For A Pig and Homecoming really lasting memories for me was the BOOM! moment where the page turned into something I wasn’t expecting, and it would have been cool to see something like that for the dream sequences in this story, especially the latter.
Still great fun though.
This was one of those stories that didn’t actually change your location in the game when your location in the story shifted. Not a bug, it’s just they do that with some stories and not with others, it seems. I much prefer it when they do, as it adds a little immersion, but it doesn’t actually affect my enjoyment of the stories all that much.
Hmm, that still doesn’t really make sense. My red temptation was only 3, so even if it was working out Enchantment- Disillusion (9-4) It still should have worked out as less. As I say, I don’t really have a problem with the ending I got. It just seemed strange that it was dictated by the thing I’d been actively avoiding accumulating.
As soon as I can reset this story, I’m going to try for a high-Disilluon/high Red Temptations/informed Mom Princess run to see if I can get the chap to go full Red.
I thought I could get the poor young man to reject the Captivating Princess.But puzzlingly, even though the red seduction attribute was far less than the other two, he still couldn’t refuse her in the end.
Also, what the Captivating Princess did to his mother was disgusting, and the ending also annoyed me a little, as his mother was forced to see her son accept the red honey and … would turn into a monster.
I’ve never been a fan of stories relating to royalty and this was no different. I have to say though, the Captivating Princess made an even worse impression on me.
Like some of the other posters, I really enjoyed the intimate scale of this ES, especially some of the ‘little’ moments like his shock when he met his former mentor, or seeing him try honey for the first time, or even just introducing him to the Rubbery Men. It really made the Neath come alive through his first reactions to everything.