I have a feeling like the winner is pretty much predetermined this year… I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see another landslide! ;)
As usual, it would be best if only users who’ve played at least two thirds of these stories took part in the poll.
If you’re interested in previous years’ results, here they are: 201620172018
Something else: when this is over, I’m planning to make an Exceptional Stories Super-Poll, with only the best-liked stories of the past four years - and Flint - competing for the title of Best ES Ever :) edited by phryne on 5/17/2019
My immediate response upon seeing the title was Cricket, Anyone? Now… reading all my options… I realize I have some pondering to do.
EDIT: Voting for Cricket, Anyone? because it is the only story to drive me to think about a decision for ten whole minutes while I have the Jeopardy Final Question Theme playing in the background.
Oops, I voted on the poll before seeing the two-thirds stipulation, feel free to nuke my vote if possible (it was yet another vote for Cricket anyway :P)
I played at least seven of these and watched my husband play four more, so I think I have some basis to vote here.
In particular, I thought "The Bones of London" had the coolest reward (the Map of Prelapsarian London). "Written in the Glim" roused genuine emotions in me (including moral revulsion) but didn’t really change my view of known lore or of Fallen London. "A Little Pandamonium" gave me enough drama and enough of a new view of the lore that it’s my favorite of this group. Sorting between these three possibilities to choose my favorite wasn’t easy, and I was surprised, and a bit dismayed, at how little I recalled of most of these stories. I had to look through the forums and other places to recall enough to give a reasonably fair vote.
I watched my spouse play through Cricket, but there was something about it that didn’t quite resonate with me. edited by cathyr19355 on 5/24/2019
Honestly, I know The Price Of Loss wasn’t extremely well received, but something about it really resonated with me. It was short and I would have liked it to be longer, but I liked the personal, emotional feel of it.
Cricket, Anyone? for me. It is pretty much the Fallen London experience packed into the length of one ES. You start out with doing a mundane activity (University Cricket) with a little bit of weirdness to it (one of the team captains has a winged bat) which then snowballs to include the Great Game, a Devilress, the Masters and rewriting the laws of reality to make someone answer a question. And then you have to make a decision about what you learned! It doens’t hurt either that its mechanics encourage exploration.
The mundane leading to the extraordinary is one of Fallen London’s greatest strengths and it’s nice to see an ES mirror that strength so well.
Cricket, Anyone? was the obvious choice but I just wanted to voice my appreciation for Tauroktonos, which I really enjoyed (especially since it’s received no votes so far). Cricket, Anyone? and Noises from Upstairs are both very tough acts to follow, and despite that, Tauroktonos was actually really tense and enjoyable. It felt like choices actually mattered, and all of the main characters were interesting enough.
Holy cow. TAUROKTONOS was an incredible story and I’d almost forgotten it (it’s been a busy 3 months in real life). Epic, choices mattered, new lore, new-ish areas. This year really has been an embarrassment of riches: FOR ALL THE SAINTS and CRICKET, ANYONE seem destined to be Fallen London classics, deservedly so. But TAUROKTONOS ranks just behind them, in my opinion – it’s the equivalent of ALL THINGS MUST END – not as good as LOST IN REFLECTIONS or FLINT – still brilliant overall.
Here to third my appreciation for Tauroktonos, felt like a Darkest Dungeon run in the world of Fallen London, both mechanically and in how grim the world and theming of the story turned out to be. edited by Calliope Rannis on 6/2/2019
Favourite story: 1. Cricket, Anyone? (27 votes)
2. For All the Saints (8 votes)
3. A Little Pandemonium (4 votes)
Least favourite story:
Daylight (10 votes)
Required Repairs (8 votes)
The Price of Loss (6 votes)
I guess a poll not including Cricket, Anyone? would have been more interesting… ;)
For the record, this means that Chandler Groover has won the poll by a landslide for the second year running!
Participation has dropped even further from last year, so the sample size is quite small. I guess that if I’ll do another poll next year, I’ll wait until Election comes around because the forums are never busier than during that time… edited by phryne on 6/23/2019
Not an EF myself, but a housemate is. They did the polls last year but not this year, because of the requirement to have played most if not all of the stories. They’re one of the people who save them up and didn’t feel they could muddy the pool, having only played roughly half.
So it may not be the quiet forums alone that restricted the numbers, it may be that the rules conflict with people’s playing style.
Incidentally, thank you very much for your invaluable archiving and tracking activities! It’s a great help.