[Spoilers] October's Exceptional Story Mechanic

Fallen London
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but just in advance: This involves October’s Exceptional Story. I give this to all of you, so you can get through a rather unreasonable mechanic that dooms everyone to burn alive and die. Read at your own peril.
Normally I would only post on Reddit. But this one was exceptionally awful. I don’t say that to be mean- I even wrote a letter in feedback thrilled about a hidden bit of Lore I found just last night and resubscribed in sheer adoration of the game. Please understand, I wouldn’t write this if the October story didn’t slam us that hard.

Some may get lucky. Congratulations to those that do. This is my attempt to save people grief, an island full of the burning dead, and so on. No I don’t remember the exact quality names, but given you achieve none of your goals otherwise, if I don’t say anything the unreasonable way the designers set this up means you are somewhat…screwed. Read this when you reach the Pyre if you truly want to participate.

Obligatory pause for those that want to not read on. Respect your wishes and wish you luck.
So, first off! Surprise! You need to do a whole bunch of stuff before going to the first event if you don’t want them all to kill each other! They say nothing about descending hostilities, but in mine the Conflagration or whatever burned the false sun worshipers alive after it forced me into supporting her since I made an earlier mistake. You have no choice- it has a deadline it tells you nothing about and then…bam. You’re supporting one faction to kill everyone. Despite wanting nothing to do with it. If you don’t save the leaders at the End, they die too. Yeah. Bit morbid. I wish I hadn’t played this story if they’re just gonna force me to grind out all my actions and watch everything go down.

How can that happen though? Well simple! See, if you don’t gather ten of each faction reputation, and then select a new option that appears, then somehow know to go to the Abiding Wife to talk to her about it, you can’t select the third option that appears when you go to the Event. Bam, you’re done, do not pass go, do not get to go back and grind up qualities. You’ve doomed your voyage, and will be supporting them in killing each other after three more events it will make you continue. It doesn’t explain it, it doesn’t let you go back- and it even adds to the qualities you need to go down but they don’t tell you about. In the end, burning people and wreckage. Sigh. You get to stand in the middle of it all, watch them either leave or die, Brazen Iconoclast does not come back to London or burns away her own soul, and you lost the good end.

Hopefully someone else has a chance of succeeding where I failed. The worst part of all? Because I got to watch the bad ending, the game forces me to watch the Bluejacket sobbing on his deathbed full of regret. I hate the developers a little right now. This was… depressing to watch a dying man crying his heart out because I was forced to support his Iconoclast murdering everyone by way of a mechanic.

Luck to you, friends. May you succeed where I failed ;-;
edited by Nyarllathotep on 10/1/2016

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If by a good end you mean you want an ending where nobody dies, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong story. The neutral options make it very clear that you’re scheming against both factions at once in an attempt to make them come to their senses. (And the option requiring 10 of both Ascendencies is visible from the beginning.) The story is quite explicit that the two factions are at each others’ necks as is, and anything upsetting the tenuous balance will lead to serious conflict. The question is which faction will come out worse, or whether they’ll kill each other entirely, the leaders getting plot armor of course.

It’s also impossible to lock yourself into an ending from your choice at the first ritual. For each ending you have to support that path at least twice out of three times, except for the sabotage path where choosing each option once also works. In addition, the ending possibilities are quite a bit more varied than I think you realize:

  • The Conflagrati win[/li][li]The New Sequencers win[/li][li]Both sides die[/li][/ul][ul][li]The Iconoclast dies[/li][li]The Iconoclast stays there with the Conflagrati[/li][li]The Iconoclast returns to London[/li][/ul][ul][li]The Visionary dies[/li][li]The Visionary leaves alone[/li][li]The Visionary stays there with the New Sequencers[/li][li]I think something else?[/li][/ul][ul][li]The Bequeathment goes to the Wife[/li][li]The Bequeathment goes to you[/li][li]The Bequeathment is sent to the Iconoclast[/li][li]The Bequeathment is given to the Iconoclast in person[/li][li]The Bequeathment is sent to the Visionary

So for the four different aspects of the ending, the first is determined by your choices, the middle two you get two options depending on your choices, and the last one you get two possibilities guaranteed and potentially a third depending on your choices.

In conclusion, I realize the mechanics weren’t as immediately clear or intuitive as would be ideal, but trust me when I say this was a lot more transparent and involved less railroading than some past stories. coughfiveminutescough
edited by Optimatum on 10/1/2016