quote=Reused NPC]I have to say I enjoyed this one. I wonder if this is perhaps related to those street-signs I keep getting from surprise packages? It’s interesting to see how the revolutionaries find inspiration prelapsarian maps (not that these folk are necessarily revolutionaries). About the story in specific, I kind of wish the Calculating Heiress played more of a part in it; I’d be interested in interacting with someone who obsessively mapped out London for years. I also wish there was more of an indication as to what happened to the Waterhouse Society after the end of the story.
I wonder if this has any insights for the Mysteries tab? It does seem focused on prelapsarian London, after all.[/quote]
It’s possible the Heiress will reappear in other stories this season. Since the season is about the Neath’s effect on London and vice-versa, she would be a good person to talk to after examining the full picture, as she herself would have done so many, many times.
I enjoyed this ES greatly also. NOT because it has a lot of lore (it doesn’t), and not even because of the writing. But the experience of playing the storylets felt wonderfully as though I really was out and about. mapping London one step ahead of the authorities. And I was happy with the ending I chose.
The only ending I can’t find echoed is the second one, “find an archive for it”.
Are the rewards for any of the endings noticeably different from the others? unique items or echo value? I’m leaning towards keeping the map because I like collecting unique shiny things, like every other magpie in this world.
Oh no… this Exceptional Story is My Aesthetic. (I’m still hemming and hawing over the final decision - not quite sure what the different options represent.)
I’m not sure what option would be the most in character choice for the Bishop. He misses the Surface, so he’d be mightily tempted to keep it. However, he would also want to share the work with others, so an appropriate archive would also be a good choice.
I do have one question though.
Which Master was helping us through our journey? I can’t tell which one it was.
It’s the first time I used spoiler tags, so hopefully they turnout alright. edited by Winthropx on 6/1/2018
I chose to betray them, because I’m not a very nice person at all, and the reward was immensely disappointing. I’m sure there’s a moral here about the wages of sin, but still…
[quote=Amalgamate]The only ending I can’t find echoed is the second one, "find an archive for it".
Are the rewards for any of the endings noticeably different from the others? unique items or echo value? I’m leaning towards keeping the map because I like collecting unique shiny things, like every other magpie in this world.[/quote]
Same on both counts.
I’m sorry to say that I was disappointed by this story. It was just rather dull. Putting the map together wasn’t that interesting, there was not much in the way of lore development, the stakes didn’t feel very high, and the final choice was difficult not because it was a complex and interesting moral dilemma or anything, but rather because it didn’t seem to matter all that much and the implications weren’t quite clear and (as some comments in this thread demonstrate) the writer had his own ideas about what they meant that didn’t align with the way reasonable players could interpret them.
Normally I make decisions based on roleplaying, but I honestly wasn’t invested enough to be drawn towards any of the options (aside from not betraying the society) and so I chose the extra option I unlocked by having enough map progress to do so (partially on the admittedly specious assumption that it was probably a "better" option because you needed to perform better to have access to it) and ended up feeling disappointed and dumb for doing so (based on both the reward and the written description of my character’s actions).
I don’t understand why there wasn’t an option to preserve the map, reconnect with your contacts in the Waterhouse Society, reform the organization and relinquish it back over to them (the "archive" option didn’t seem to imply that). That would have been the option I would have chosen. I did not understand why a raid on their HQ would necessarily result in the entire organization disbanding. edited by CogDiss on 6/1/2018 edited by CogDiss on 6/1/2018
This was absolutely one of the stories where I had to choose between the ‘right’ (in terms of what I really believe is right) choice, and the ‘right’ (in terms of mechanical in-game benefits) choice. In the end, I went for the first option (principled), and sold out the Society to the Masters. All hail the Masters!
I did like the mechanics in this ES, I love mapping out places, so having the chance to do so in FL really had me thrilled.
But now I’m stuck between ratting them out, keeping the map or hiding it. My character is quite against the Revolutionaries, since he is against the destruction of all lightsources.
I know ratting them out gives a Connected: Masters CP, keeping it gives you an item, but what about hiding the map?
Thanks ahead!
Enjoyed a lot of this ES. Definitely liked the concept, and trawling through hints of pre-Fall London was a lot of fun. From London myself and so it was especially interesting to see all the coded hints to places I know and have been to, and it was interesting to look at how the corruption and deliberate obscuration of London-as-it-was had impacted people and their identity.
But I have to echo that I partly wish there was a bit more development to the story itself. I think I’m probably being affected by the memory of last month’s story there, and the similarly recent Pursuit of Moths – both stories that I really enjoyed and were intensely character-focused in their choices and consequences. It’s fine that other stories go off in a different direction than them, and I think going through the different areas of London and piecing together fragments fits in well with Fallen London’s tone and mechanics; but it does have a feeling of ‘go through this, repeat, make blanket final choice right at the end’. I liked the Scholar, and the interactions I had with her were fun, but I don’t find myself as invested in this choice as I might be.
Well, perhaps it’s just a case of different strokes.
If anyone has an echo for the archive choice, give me a shout. I’m torn between it and the ‘hide stories’ option (partially just because the latter has a special requirement). I assume the revolution option advances the Liberation? edited by Lavaeolus on 6/1/2018
This seems to be the closest option to preserving it for the Perspicacious Surveyor / the Waterhouse Society. Given it’s the obvious intent in the text that follows, and there appear to be a bunch of folk who would like to pick the option that best supports the Society, it’s a shame that intent isn’t obvious before clicking the button.
I enjoyed this story. As others have said, it wasn’t the most lore-rich, but I really liked getting to see snippets of how prelapsarian London fits into fallen London. I suspect it helps that I’ve lived in London for almost a decade, so could see hints of things that might not be obvious to someone who isn’t as familiar with real-world London geography.
January! You rapscallion! So the two options that align with the motives of the Society are to distribute the map among sympathetic citizens, or hand it over to the Council to keep in the Museum of Injustice? A tricky question. The Museum can take better care of it as an artefact, but, arguably, the knowledge it represents can be better seen and shared in the hands of the public. Ideally, we’d be able to duplicate the thing, and distribute copies.
I agree with you, Sir Fred. However, preserving the map–even privately as one of own assets–struck me as better than nothing, for at least in theory a subsequent ES could give an opportunity to make it more widely available. :-)
What I’m hearing about the distributing option is that it’s to tell London’s stories to those who find the map scraps. Naturally, these map pieces are of prelapsarian London, so it’s unlikely the Masters are entirely for it. Yet these maps also have stories of their own, which, if the rewards for the distribution option are to be believed, includes several love stories. Would this perhaps be why the Masters are assisting us? Or perhaps these stories have already happened, so they’re not important to the Masters? Perhaps the map’s story as a whole, of devotion to reassembling prelapsarian London, comprises a love story all its own?
Yeah, no, I don’t like that. No matter how much cartographical fun I had, I won’t forget how bitter I feel about the story itself.
[spoiler]I already had problems with how bare-bones the story felt and how vague the final choices are about what will happen after, but after learning what the archive option actually is… nope. See, endings don’t have to appeal to everyone, but when TWO of them benefit a faction that already gets attention every so often, there’s a b____y problem imo.
Maybe I’m bitter because it was the only time your choice actually added something to the story. I also disliked what a jerk the character is in the ending where you keep the map for themself, while in my mind all that Leonard wanted to do was add it to his trove of secrets like a dragon hoarding treasures - I can’t imagine him putting it on display in such manner, at all.
Talking about choices, the early choices regarding how you style your map was kind of cute, but it just turned silly when you choose to include deliberate inaccuracies in it. Surprising that it sounded they took my map at face value - how good is this society at mapping, actually? It definitely did no good to my opinion regarding them. I had expected someone to at least raise an eyebrow at it, what a shame that choice only affected literally one unimportant line.
And that brings me to another point: the Society felt severely lacking. The only interaction with them was very brief and after the raid they’re just gone. Poof. No more. Also, the Surveyor and the Heiress (however brief her presence in the story was) sounded like they have more story to tell, but it’s not there. The story ended before much could happen. So much missed potentials.[/spoiler]
Really, the only good things about this ES for me are the process of mapping the city and the possibility of getting a new expanded inventory item (though playing this story just for it isn’t worth it).
Does anyone have a good list of what happens for each option and what the rewards are? I see discussion as if everyone was aware of everything but no concrete info, so I’d appreciate a summary.