Pnakotic
Posts: 266
4/1/2016
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I like the writing and structure, but the bugged journal recording, and some bad random-number-generation that seems to be railroading me into a conclusion without regard for the choices I made throughout the story, are really hampering my ability to enjoy it. It's really a shame to see interesting writing hobbled by code bugs.
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J. Ward Dunn, Glassman
Book of All Hours 9:99: Journey's end in lover's meeting. Progress is ascendancy.
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Dinjoralo
Posts: 9
4/2/2016
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I'm a bit annoyed at how I couldn't do the story with my aunt because I had gone through more of her storyline. It'd make the story seem more interesting than having some random acquaintance for the whole story. I'll keep going through, but that's my initial thoughts.
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Dinjoralo, a secretive gentleman who does whatever he fancies. Particularly loves the warmth of Hell's finest. Finds entertainment in watching flawed people live their banal, meaningless lives, while bizarre things happen around them.
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Optimatum
Posts: 3666
4/2/2016
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That... does seem strange that you can only have your aunt be involved if you've just started the storyline or paid for the Fate portion.
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Optimatum, a ruthless and merciful gentleman. No plant battles, Affluent Photographer requests, or healing offers; all other social actions welcome.
 Want a sip of Cider? Just say hi!
PM me for information enigmatic or Fated. Though the forum please, not FL itself.
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suinicide
Posts: 2409
4/2/2016
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Your aunt does leave the neath at the end of the non-fate part, so its not that surprising.
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/profile/sunnytime
A gentleman seeking the liberation of knowledge, with a penchant for violence.
RIP suinicide, stuck in a well. Still has it under control.
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Frederick Metzengerstein
Posts: 69
4/2/2016
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So… is the ‘journaling issue’ that many people have mentioned going to be fixed? I like recording my own journal entry titles which is why I haven’t started yet.
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Lord Hoot
Posts: 47
4/2/2016
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Just wanted to say this was one of my favourite stories yet. It gave a great sense of the macabre underbelly of FL life, and offered little hints of far-off places - perhaps the island mentioned in the course of the tale is spookier to those who've played Sunless Sea.
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
4/2/2016
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Things I liked about the Seven-Day Reign: a sacrificial king story! Saturnalian social reversals. And with a tie-in to Kingeater Castle, no less; I suppose in the Neath the Golden Age ended when the Great God Pan was eaten. There's a lot of great mythology here, and the best part was probably seeing the revels around town, and the dark underbelly that's the deeper rationale of (practically) all fraternal orders.
The chase at the end was a little more perplexing. Does it matter at all if you are caught or elude capture? (There doesn't seem to be any way to do the latter unless I missed something, as the patriarch turns sniper.)
And lastly -- there appears to be some new code that inserts different strings into a story's text depending on a player's quality, so that one player might get "Your Aunt" and another "Your Daughter" or "Your Protege" (or the default "The Sovereign" which I somehow ended up with...) Technically, this is great and could be used in all sorts of ways! However, in this particular story it's not only caused journal bugs; I also think the string-substitution is responsible for the hollow feel of this story. It has a richly painted backdrop, and I'm definitely in favor of revealing how awful the Young Stags have been all along -- but the substitutable character is at the center of the plot, and is generic by the very nature of substitution. There's one moment in the story where your daughter starts fleecing the Stags, your Aunt starts to lose her mind, and your protege goes a bit power-mad, and the endings are barely different (somehow I didn't get the choice to let my daughter kill the patriarch? did anyone echo that?) but these spots where character comes through just reinforce the characterlessness of the rest of the sovereign's reign. The substitutable character appears in almost every other scene in this story, but mostly feels like a wax dummy with an Aunt/Daughter/Protege mask on.
Maybe there's a meta-commentary in there about the figurehead nature of public power (is one president or prime minister so terribly different from another?) but there's also a strange interaction with the other fate-locked characters, your aunt and daughter. They're leached of color a little bit in the process. There's a fruitful comparison to be made here with Flint; some people commented that it didn't seem to matter much which Deputy you chose, because it was all flavor (of regrets and advice) with no system effects. The same is true in Seven-Day Reign, but the Flint deputies aren't really present in the story *except* at moment when they behave quite differently, so the underlying sameness isn't quite as oppressive; there's very little "generic deputy" writing.
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Positively antique
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/metasynthie
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
4/2/2016
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metasynthie wrote:
And lastly -- there appears to be some new code that inserts different strings into a story's text depending on a player's quality, so that one player might get "Your Aunt" and another "Your Daughter" or "Your Protege" (or the default "The Sovereign" which I somehow ended up with...)
It is not new, actually - it is just the same as Addressed as / Gendertitle where you set a quality and have the noun change according to it. The default is 0 for this particular one, which makes for particularly fun reading in the journal.
The comparison to Flint's deputy is interesting, but I want to add a comment: It doesn't work as well here as Flint, because caring about your Deputy is not a thematic thing in Flint. Here, the stress is on Family Ties - but right from the start the presence of a generic protege makes it very awkward, especially when combined with the Risk selection. A player will expect their Aunt and Daughter to exist after this story, maybe with a risk of permanent loss, which adds a bit of gravity to the story. Not so much with the Mauve Shirt that will cease to be relevant whether he survives or not.
You can't let your friend kill the Patriarch when the Risk option is on - and you can't betray them when the Risk option is off, basically.
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Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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Danko
Posts: 142
4/2/2016
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I've noticed many people think Stags are evil after this story.
I think you're mistaken.
[spoiler]The usual stags members actually have no idea about who the Patriarch is and just go along with him for fun. They know nothing of the cannibalistic ritual and don't participate in it. If you're a stag yourself and ask the real members of the stags their opinion at the start of the story they will tell you just that. The 'evil' ones are the Patriarch and his company of influential ex-stags who just use their ex-membership to meet up and scheme things.[/spoiler]
So I wouldn't be all dissapointed in the Stags club if I were you.
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Danko
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metasynthie
Posts: 645
4/2/2016
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Isn't that more or less what's referred to as "the banality of evil?" In this case, the especially banal parts have to do with stealing Constables' pants and whatnot.
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Positively antique
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/metasynthie
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
4/2/2016
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metasynthie wrote:
Isn't that more or less what's referred to as "the banality of evil?" In this case, the especially banal parts have to do with stealing Constables' pants and whatnot.
Fun fact! Being not familiar with the term, I googled it to find "Hannah Arendt" as the first related search 
[spoiler]
Anyway, Danko, that's what I figured as well, but it is still nasty in a way. Basically, the innocent outer layer of the club is filled with prospective members, who are filtered until the useful ones are picked out to be a true Stag along with the Patriarch's sons. It is likely that most of the bad tradition will continue as the Patriarch has probably taught them the whole deal, save for the loophole of substitute sovereign. [/spoiler]
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Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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MidnightVoyager
Posts: 858
4/2/2016
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I clearly misunderstood something and ended up ending the investigation miles earlier than I wanted to, so I didn't terribly enjoy the story. Oh well.
Not sure why that was even an option, really.
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Midnight Voyager - A blood-cousin to predators. Collector of beasts. Affably mad.
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xKiv
Posts: 846
4/3/2016
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metasynthie wrote:
(somehow I didn't get the choice to let my daughter kill the patriarch? did anyone echo that?)
I wanted to echo that, but the game bugged out and didn't let me.
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https://www.fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/xKiv - a witchful, percussive, dangermous and shadowry scholar of coexplodence, hopsidirean, and walker of fallen kitties.
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Kittenpox
Posts: 869
4/3/2016
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Frederick Metzengerstein wrote:
So… is the ‘journaling issue’ that many people have mentioned going to be fixed? I like recording my own journal entry titles which is why I haven’t started yet.
Same. I hope FBG lets us know when the issue is fixed.
It's also disheartening to hear that others haven't found the story quite so enjoyable, especially KukaPetal's experience of the story. (Unless that was meant to be an April Fools thing that I simply failed to recognise because of time zone differences?)
So I suspect The Seven-Day Reign will be one I just get around to playing whenever, rather than doing it before the month is out. *shrugs*
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Kittenpox
Current [Fabulous Diamond] count: Twenty-Five (of 50). Halfway there! ^_^
Metaphysical Caprice: 11.
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Currently: Returned to the Neath, and regaining my footing in this place. :-)
NO PLANT BATTLES PLEASE.
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MidnightVoyager
Posts: 858
4/3/2016
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Well now I've actually finished it.
The final card sorta summed up my thoughts on the matter. It might as well have read "Well, that happened! Let's forget about it."
Eh, this one's not for me.
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Midnight Voyager - A blood-cousin to predators. Collector of beasts. Affably mad.
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Kukapetal
Posts: 1449
4/3/2016
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Kittenpox wrote:
It's also disheartening to hear that others haven't found the story quite so enjoyable, especially KukaPetal's experience of the story. (Unless that was meant to be an April Fools thing that I simply failed to recognise because of time zone differences?)
Not an April Fool's joke, just me MAKING a fool of myself by forgetting that it's a bad idea to post when I'm upset.
And I just wanted too clarify that, other than making my character assist in a horrific murder (which, admittedly, is a pretty big issue from an RPing standpoint), I had no other issues with the writing and thought the story was well done. I've just had terrible luck with RPing lately, but that isn't going to be a problem for anyone who isn't me 
Hats off to the writers for actually making me care enough to GET upset.
edited by Kukapetal on 4/3/2016
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Estelle Knoht
Posts: 1751
4/3/2016
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Kukapetal wrote:
Not an April Fool's joke, just me MAKING a fool of myself by forgetting that it's a bad idea to post when I'm upset.
And I just wanted too clarify that, other than making my character assist in a horrific murder (which, admittedly, is a pretty big issue from an RPing standpoint), I had no other issues with the writing and thought the story was well done. I've just had terrible luck with RPing lately, but that isn't going to be a problem for anyone who isn't me
Hats off to the writers for actually making me care enough to GET upset.
No, it is perfectly okay to post and open heart. It's just that the timing is kinda unfortunate since any serious declaration on April Fools are pretty hard to take seriously.
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Estelle Knoht, a juvenile, unreliable and respectable lady.
I currently do not accept any catbox, cider, suppers, calling cards or proteges.
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The Vengeful Huntsman
Posts: 7
4/3/2016
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I'm at the feast now with 130 of the seven day reign,[spoiler] do I have time to "Investigate the back rooms" before the Placid Patriarch's toast?[/spoiler]
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http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/The%20Vengeful%20Huntsman
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Hark DeGaul
Posts: 208
4/3/2016
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Wilhelm the Stalwart wrote:
I'm at the feast now with 130 of the seven day reign,[spoiler] do I have time to "Investigate the back rooms" before the Placid Patriarch's toast?[/spoiler]
I did it after the toast. You can hang around and investigate as much as you like before you carry on the story.
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The Dawn-Eyed Optician: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Hark%20DeGaul
That Vicar Who Ruined the Royal Wedding for Everyone (including himself): http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Hebediah%20Fix
The Dreaded Relative: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Your%20Aunt
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Rudiger
Posts: 49
4/3/2016
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I enjoyed this story quite a bit, mainly because it opened up the inner workings of The Stags which made for interesting reading and also confirmed the fact the "true goodness" seems to be something rather scarce in FL. Having realized that FL is a place where one might have to make some rather horrible decisions to survive or even do good in the long term my character is a bit of a morally complex individual and had no qualms letting a man who was going to kill his family meet the end he had been running from.
edited by Rudiger on 4/3/2016
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