I took the middle road on this…tale and all I got was a searing enigma. It said I got an outfit or something but…nothing was added to my inventory?
You didn’t get an outfit, you got some cloth and the enigma. The cloth represented the outfit.
So we get some fancy clothes,
Presumably from The Fingerkings it’s implied,
And we cut it up into valuable scraps and sell it to The Bazzar? I don’t know about you but if I gave a valuable gift to a person and they destroyed it and sold the pieces I’D BE be really mad at them.
Well, as being seen wearing that outfit would immediately mark you as the enemy of the Duchess, and every cat in the city, I don’t think that cutting it up into little pieces is necessarily a bad idea. And the gentleman who gave it to you can be practical at times.
Bah. I decided to support the Prince-Bishop, and the reward I got for THAT was utterly, utterly useless. And that’s after pouring a whole bunch of expenses into the case. All I got was
a Bright Brass Skull. Which is useful for raising Connected: Hell up to 20, and absolutely nothing else. And I’ve already got 50+ in that.
A Searing Enigma and some rags would’ve been a real improvement. I wonder what you get for siding with the catty wife…
Well, at least the story was interesting. Still would’ve been nice to get SOMETHING out of it, but I suppose I had fun.
From the echoed endings
The reward for supporting the Viscountess appears to be 5 Direful Reflections. Aside from, you know, letting the Fingerkings win a position close to London, I don’t really regret my choice of rewards…
Well, I guess in terms of purely monetary value, all the rewards clock in at about the same - 60 echoes, give or take. Depending on what you do during the case, though, you’re gonna burn through a bunch of goods along the way too.
Seems like the ‘middle road’ option really is the best, though - if you ignore the… problematic implications. And I’m not just talking about who you’re helping. Gotta have some sympathy for the cats too, right?
But the rewards… well, you can always use another Searing Enigma, right? Plenty of uses for those. Not so much for the other stuff.
edited by BlakeTheDrake on 6/1/2015
[quote=BlakeTheDrake]Well, I guess in terms of purely monetary value, all the rewards clock in at about the same - 60 echoes, give or take. Depending on what you do during the case, though, you’re gonna burn through a bunch of goods along the way too.
Seems like the ‘middle road’ option really is the best, though - if you ignore the… problematic implications. And I’m not just talking about who you’re helping. Gotta have some sympathy for the cats too, right?
But the rewards… well, you can always use another Searing Enigma, right? Plenty of uses for those. Not so much for the other stuff.
edited by BlakeTheDrake on 6/1/2015[/quote]
Apart from selling it, there’s only one use for a Searing Enigma that I’m aware of, and that’s creating an Impossible Theorem. Which makes it about as useful as anything else for the average player.
At any rate, I can’t imagine that any of the rewards seem so superior to players that they would end-up making an out-of-character choice because of them. I mean, the implications of each option are pretty clear, and most players will have already decided on which side of the Parabolan fence they sit.
Searing Enigmas and Parabola Linens are also a (rather expesnive) way of Making Waves, which can help push you over if you’re making a drive for a high level of Notability.
Well, I guess the immediate implications of the choice are clear (i.e. choose party ‘A’ or party ‘B’), but despite reading all the text and playing all branches that I could find I couldn’t really understand why to pick any one side. There was a conflict, but I just couldn’t figure out what the real issue at stake was. Was one party lying? Were both? Is there even a way to determine it? Does it matter?
For example, you’re told to question witnesses. You ask one of them for info and get the answer "my relationship with [him] is not relevant…". You question another witness about the supposed inappropriate "revels" and get a response that indeed there were revels but those were expected. So what’s the point? You learn nothing either way.
Of course, it might be something very obvious that I’ve simply missed, but my personal experience with this month’s story is that while the text and atmosphere are wonderful as ever, the story is weak and incoherent.
So as much as I would have loved to make an in-character decision, I just picked based on the expected end rewards because the choice seemed arbitrary to me and devoid of context or meaning.
I’m happy to see, though, that others have enjoyed this story and I’m looking forward to see what’s to come next month.
I did have to re-read some storylets in my journal to piece it all together, but I found the story came together nicely around halfway through. I’ll PM you my interpretation, if that’s okay!
I’d like a PM of your interpretation myself, just to get another perspective. What I saw gave me a rather… cynical impression of the whole business.
My hopefully forum-safe guidance-ish interpretation of claims in the case (and what you can uncover during investigation) is:
[spoiler]One claimant’s case is based on:
- ancestors discovering, conquering, and defending the lands under contention (these tales turn out to be falsely manufactured)[/li][li]the dissolute addictions of the other claimant (these accusations turn out to be more true, but possibly the result of trauma at the hands (sic) of their enemies and pressures of being ambassador to said enemies)[/li][li]murmurings of collaboration with the enemy (these accusations are also probably false, given the motivations involved)
The other claimant’s case is based on:
- unfaithfulness and disrespect in marriage (nobody really bothers to deny that this is true, beyond suggesting that the marriage is an unimportant and draining sham)
So, the first claimant’s case appears to have more substance to it, but the substance is dubious. The second claimant’s case is less forceful, relying mostly on notions of marital fidelity and such.
The third, outside party doesn’t want the marriage to dissolve, but it’s unclear why (their stated reasons seem unlikely) unless it’s because it continues to sow strife in that society; if you take this route you later hear that both parties ignore the instructions of the (slightly more reluctant) judge to behave themselves, and things are as bad as they ever were.[/spoiler]
[color=#009900][Admin edit: removed extremely spoilery content accessed by a Means We Don’t Approve Of.][/color]
Also, it seems nobody has yet echoed one last snippet of information – what the second claimant’s confidant says if you fail a Hedonist test.
edited by Alexis on 6/2/2015
I was surprised that my Panther had nothing to offer on the case. But her previous interactions with a certain Gentleman ruled out that path for me, after which the choice became easy - had said Gentleman not advocated, I would have been much more inclined to go that route!
Guess I’ll add a little feedback.
I enjoyed the story. It was short and nice. If it was a regular fate-locked story, I’d rate it at 10 Fate.
The rewards were nice if not mindblowing, something I was expecting. I do believe it was a little too short and possibly rushed to really get acquainted and excited about, both plot and character-wise.
From what I see the tendency for those stories is to make them accessible for any level - no skill checks or special requirements for options.
Yet there are a few things I’d like to possibly suggest for further stories:
*More text and context - frankly, most of options in this story had one or two sentences, not enough to really feel the athmosphere for me.
*Skill-checks and special requirements for options. It’s alright to make the story accessible to everyone, but it’s also great to be able to have some advantage from owning a certain quality/item/skills. Makes you feel special, I guess. There were a lot of possible gambits in this story - Duchess connections, Matriarch, Starveling Cat, Cat-spies of the Flit, and so on, which sadly got unused. Yes I’d love to finish a story and get fun/rewards as a fresh character. But if I’m POSI with X years of experience and a mountain of rare stuff I’d like it to be recognized as well.
*Opportunity cards. Cards are always fun, and they help to somewhat prolong a story.
*Unique items. Something to remember the story. They can be purely for flavour and no monetary value. Like the Judge’s robe as a memento.
[quote=Danko]
*Unique items. Something to remember the story. They can be purely for flavour and no monetary value. Like the Judge’s robe as a memento.[/quote]
I wanted to second this bit in particular. The previous Exceptional Story gave you a chance to get a unique Dwelling, or some rare loot useful for crafting PoSI items (2X Book of Buried Bodies) or… something else? I don’t think I ever saw the full list of possible rewards. Either way, that’s a whole 'nother ball-game from what we’ve got here, no? Well, maybe the devs decided that they went overboard on the rewards of that first story and dialed it back on this one, but it still seems disingenuous considering the fact that the ‘Haunted House’ story didn’t COST you anything other than some actions, while this one provided a steady drain on a variety of semi-valuable items.
It is possible, though by no mean guaranteed, that the qualities from this story will unlock profitable options on future monthly content, or even a new opportunity card. Though I’d expect such a thing would be three months out at least, so those who haven’t played it can pay Fate to catch up.
The story itself is enough of a reward, in my opinion. I wouldn’t like it if each monthly-story gave an unique item. What is important in FL are stories, not material things. Well, that’s how I see it.
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned the opportunity card(s?) that come along if you side with the Viscountess, and the very nice reward it provides (albeit at a great cost)…
edited by Televangelist on 6/2/2015
Maybe nobody has seen it yet? If it’s a Rare card it might take a little while before more people get it. What does it look like?