I am very curious about next Estival theme. What do you expect to see? Guests from which corners of the Utterzee will visit us next year? What secrets they will bring to uncover?
My top-3 most wanted themes are:
Spiders. Some migration of big and hairy monsters, with MA focus items for sale. Maybe, we could even visit Saviour’s Rocks!
Nuncio and some secrets of undelivered mail. From times of the Sunless Sea it was a big unsolved mystery for me.
Circus from above. Guests with famous European show visit Fallen London , but after show they disappear and steal something valuable from the ________s. Pursuits, investigations and drama.
What about nothing? There’s a bunch of different events going on, all of which seem likely to cause one disaster or another, and various factions and beings doing all kinds of suspicious or ominous things, and we’re all frantically working to shore things up and investigating to try and figure out what the real plans are - but all the events conclude peacefully and all the suspicious activity turns out to have totally mundane causes!
And then our PCs go extra-mad from an inability to accept nothing is going wrong, and the climax is that we have to escape from a new super-madness location!
I do wonder if next Estival will be something roof-related again. Around then we might be coming up to the conclusion of Firmament and a tie-in could make sense.
Another theme: Someone spent fourth city echos, causing the reopening of a number of old forsaken accounts and associated contingencies.
General chaos, economic crisis, the impending Default of the Bazaar; and just maybe, the answer to what an Echo really is worth.
Something that amuses me to think about is if the next Estival could be Londoners preventing various different crises before they even have the chance to begin. Lorn Flukes converging on London? Assemble a choir and they’re away, just in time to deal with the fact that the bats all seem to be evolving into curators, etc. etc.
More seriously than my last suggestion, I think it would be an interesting change to do one where the stakes are largely personal rather than something city- or world- spanning or earth-shattering, some kind of threat or change to the PC or their situation. I enjoyed that they brought in some personal stakes with Southwark for this year, but I think bringing it right home to the PC might make it enough to be the main focus of the Estival. It would be tricky to give it that “big,” community feeling, though; I suspect cleverer minds than me could pull it off, but I could also see why it wouldn’t be something they’d want to take on.
Indeed, some situation revolving around the Roof or even the High Wilderness seems fitting and could be very interesting. We still have very little idea regarding what’s going on with the igneous dreams and everything Firmament-related simply screams with the Judgments’ shenanigans. We already have quite a few cosmic superpowered entities present in the Neath (Bazaar itself notwithstanding) which have settled into inaction, but whatever’s calling to the players in Firmament might upend this fragile balance, as would an entry of another agent from the Judgements into the Neath.
Imagine the cosmic and existential horror if something akin to Storm, Salt or Stone decided to finally act on its orders or take up its beef with the Bazaar. And the unimaginable alliances and compromises such a crisis might require - Calendar council working side by side with the Masters to stop a mortal threat to both the Liberation and the Bazaar’s survival; the Dilmun club having to share its secrets (the horror!) with the Foreign Office to counter schemes of the Presbyterate; the Glass and the Shroud forced to work side by side to preserve the Is; the Iron Republic having to become consistently inconsistent to oppose the influx of Law released by such an adversary… Heck, even the Church might have to ally with the Devils (again) to fight against such a Lucifer sent by the Judgments.
On the other hand, many of the other suggestions are also quite interesting, and I could definitely see something more personal and concerned with the player character. There’s a rich trove of possibilities, and numerous institutions and individuals that many players are involved with which could enable this communal aspect - stuff like Making your name or Making waves and Notability, players could need each other’s help with Slowcake’s or situations with their ships, the various Clubs they belong to, Ambitious Barrister or other people everyone knows could be involved etc. Much of this would be aimed at least at POSI players, but it’s usually so and there are ways to make this temporarily relevant to early players as well. It could be a great Crisis of Identity of the quintessential Londoner. Mind of London contracting an encephalitis, anyone?
FBG has previously mentioned “Apocalypse Fatigue” being an issue with Aestival, and I agree with that. XK-Class Extinction Event Scenarios get a bit stale after five in a row.
The issue with “personal stakes” is that Aestival is a community event. The event needs a diegetic explanation for why ten thousand Londers are working together to fill a shared progress bar. So far the first segment of Coilheart Games is the one that managed to thread that needle the best, being a large-scale community event that was happening on the human scale. I kinda wish the twist wasn’t another Crisis but I did appreciate the stakes felt slightly lower, like Bad but not “London ceases to exist” type bad.
Maybe for the next one some English colony gets translated into the Neath, and the main storyline is about helping all the new folks adjust to the setting. His Amused Lordship will personally oversee making sure a welcome party is stocked to accommodate a small country.
Fair enough and I like the concept you outlined, be it a new influx from the Surface or opening up significant diplomatic relations with a hitherto little-explored or unknown Neathy entity/nation.
On the other hand, a lot of people have come to expect (and enjoy) some dramatic stakes as well, and as far as I’m concerned, they’ve been quite good at making the Crises work differently enough that I’ve never felt bored or tired of the concept so far.
You know, there’s so many apocalypses we’ve not tried out yet!
I think a good Estival Idea would be a nice normal Summer festival.
Something like “The Estival of Festivals”
Players are given a choice of running a stall or a ride or a food stand, with some investment options to add text flavor
Introduces a short “Hawking” or “Selling” carousel to receive items based on how many people you attach to your stall.
Interact with various foreigners, gain a few new affiliations
have there be an end goal for the player like a “You sold the most” Trophy (Home comfort +Persuasive / +Respectable)
The whole estival is just a front for one of the Masters to consolidate wealth to pay off a rather embarrassing debt. (or if you want to flesh out some other high profile characters.)
Have there a “mysterious grand finale” on the day the Estival ends: A king kong in an iceberg style finale perhaps.
If you manage to ‘win’ the event you are given 20 bonus estival tokens, enough to buy one of the weaker Summer items.
Hosted in London so the city can prove that it is still a major power and a ‘Jewel of the World’ even after The Fall.
Or maybe for other reasons? Perhaps the players can decide by their choices why London is hosting the fair (themes, etc.)? Is it to prove London is still important on the World’s stage? To impress the other Neathy powers? To appease the Bazaar so it puts off grabbing Paris for another year? To bring everyone in the Neath together in peace? Or just to show off the wonders of the Neath?
And of course players will have to decide which exhibits to support and build up. As the wonders of the Neath can’t show themselves off on their own!
And while this (hopefully) won’t lead to another city-wide disaster. There’s all sorts of chaos and intrigue that can result. Who will keep the surface tourists from getting killed / fingerkinged / snuffed / abstracted? Who will keep F.F. Gebrant’s Exhibit from killing everyone? Will the Tracklaying Machine finally work? What is Koloman or the LoN up to? Will factions develop (infernal, Bohemian, etc.) and which will you support / sabotage?
The possibilities are vast and do not involve exploding London! (much)
(This was originally suggested by player Valentine Fogsreach in a DM, but she asked me to post it here.)
and I like the concept you outlined, be it a new influx from the Surface or opening up significant diplomatic relations with a hitherto little-explored or unknown Neathy entity/nation.