It’s that time of the year again… ;)
(Yes, we’ve done this before!)
Rule of thumb: to make the result meaningful, please vote only if you’ve played at least two thirds of these stories.
You can vote for your favourite story here.
While there were a few "meh" stories among these that didn’t do anything for me, my vote goes to Steeped in Honey, which left me angry, sad, frustrated, and wishing I hadn’t played it.
edited by phryne on 5/18/2018
Quite easily The Stone Guest - it was just plain boring, completely out of character for me, gave no interesting lore, and even felt a good bit out of place.
Every other story had something going for it - Trial and Error had the law machine thingy, Factory of Favours was amusingly absurd in concept (if rather average in execution) and gave me a tin of zzoup, The Attendants was boring but had some interesting lore in it, etc.
The Stone Guest just didn’t have much going on and was very tedious.
Trial and Error could have had a bit more going on but it did have some interesting things (it was cool to inspect a law machine). Factory of Favours was neat, if grindy.
I rather liked the stone guests introduction and build up, though the ending was somewhat underwhelming. Trial and error was just a waste of a good idea, with the law machine being greatly under used and the trial itself being boring, which is pretty bad when thats the climax. So thats why Trial and Error has my vote.
I disliked the Factory of Favours, it felt more like slog than an actual story, while this did fit the story very well, I just didn’t like the favour-grind all that much.
But otherwise I liked all the ES I played in the past twelve months great!
Factory of Favours’ satire of 21st century capitalism lifted it above average for me. I haven’t played Trial and Error, but The Sinking Synod is the only Fallen London ES I’ve played that was decidedly underwhelming
I’ve played all of them and I straight up couldn’t tell you anything that happened in The Stone Guest: I guess that wins by default. I enjoyed all of them while playing though, there hasn’t been one that I wasn’t happy to have paid for.
edited by The Revered Abolitionist on 5/21/2018
What’s up with all the Stone Guest haters? The ES had you literally taking part in a Grand Hunt, rattling through the Forgotten Quarter with the fiends of Hell on your heels as you angled for the perfect shot of a fleeing Don Juan! Call me weird, but I thought that was very cool.
Edit: This is not to say anyone is wrong by deciding it was their least favourite of the recent stories, but seeing as I found it, and that section in particular, extremely memorable, I thought I’d come out to bat in its favour. As always, your mileage may vary!
edited by Barse on 5/21/2018
When a single event is the only interesting thing in a story, then it’s a solid contender for the winner of this poll. Consider Trial and Error, because the law turbine thing (what was it called again?) is the main selling point of that. But the turbine is something you can’t see almost anywhere else, and gives a very interesting bit of lore as to how things like the Iron Republic might be managed, and Hell’s general modus operandi with their whole "all laws are mutable" thing.
In contrast, the Grand Hunt is nothing exotic or unusual. You can go to the Forgotten Quarter to watch it happen anytime. Sure, you can’t normally participate in it, but I feel like that would only be noteworthy if you really like devils and want to be part of their culture, or if you like adventure and excitement in general. The fact that it was arranged also cheapened it for me - if there was a story about having the Hunt set upon you, and your escape, I could see the appeal; but in this case, you literally walked up to some devils and were like, "Yo, can you hunt us? We need it for an art project" and they were like "Sure, can you do Wednesday?" and we could and so they did. Kind of ruined the mood for me.
So all in all, I personally found it mildly interesting at best, and certainly not enough to carry the entire story on its own. Although you also get to make rubbery hentai and put it on the big screen, so that’s neat I guess. (Well, my memory is hazy, but I do remember it involved rubberies and was really scandalous, so good enough.)
edited by Dudebro Pyro on 5/21/2018
[quote=Barse]What’s up with all the Stone Guest haters? The ES had you literally taking part in a Grand Hunt, rattling through the Forgotten Quarter with the fiends of Hell on your heels as you angled for the perfect shot of a fleeing Don Juan! Call me weird, but I thought that was very cool.[/quote]I’m with Barse ;)
Stone Guest was absolutely marvellous, an ES of the kind only Cash could write, completely singular in content, style, and execution.
Obviously, people’s tastes differ wildly. YMMV and all that.
re. Stone Guest
At the time, there was a lot of forum discussion about whether the film theme was anachronistic, so possibly that unease played into people’s assessment.
I think the anachronism of the filmmaking, at least from my perspective, misses the point. The Stone Guest isn’t just about film-making in the same way that The Rat Catcher isn’t just about menace eradication. The Stone Guest is about sacrifice for one’s art, but it’s even a bit more than that. It’s about what you sacrifice for your work, and it’s about power.
The choices you make throughout the story all point to that broader theme. The Grant Hunt wasn’t just about having an interesting and exciting adventure in the middle of the story, but it was about the decision you make at its beginning: a Grand Hunt just for show (the safer choice) or a more genuine Grand Hunt (risking everyone’s lives in the name of art). You have the choice to [be a good human being] and confront the Impressario about his treatment of the composer, but you have to recognize his arguments and, in our world, consider the sacrifices made in method acting, for instance (Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight is the first that comes to my mind).
And, of course, there’s the ending, which gave me both my favorite reward of any story - giving away my reward for a good cause - and one of my favorite quotes in all of Fallen London:
This might be better-fitting in the "Favourite ES" thread, but given that we’re talking about The Stone Guest now, it might as well go here.
I was not super fond of Factory of Favors. This surprises me because I like both the LBs and the Clay Men, but the fact is, they both were faceless factions. There were no real characters for me to connect with, except the Unfinished and the boring lady supervisor (and I didn’t feel for either.)
Also I was pretty green at the time and didn’t play it out to its full potential, so it is partially my fault maybe!
I was not a fan of Factory of Favors, Lamentation Lock or Trial and Error. But I did not think, in the end, Lamentation Lock or Trial and Error were BAD, just not really a story I like. Factory of Favors just felt like busywork and grinding, and I play these stories to get a break from grinding.
Honestly I’m surprised I’m apparently the only voting for The Murgatroyd Formula. For me that was the worst ES i have ever played by far…
I voted for Lamentation Lock since it was just plain silly. Didn’t have anything to go in its favor imo