al2o3cr
Posts: 66
4/3/2016
|
Excellent story overall. The only thing I wished I had was a clearer understanding of what the "Reign of Terror" etc attributes were going to be used for; maybe have a less-critical interaction with the Stags that demonstrates the mechanic that's going to be important later?
Also, my character seriously hopes this isn't the last we see of the Patriarch and the Thirteen. Maybe it's an overdeveloped sense of vengeance - or maybe it's an unfortunate habit of listening to old wells too closely - but an outburst of inventively-crafted final exits for them (think Saw, but with moar ratwork mechanisms and custard) would be totally in character...
|
|
|
+1
link
|
Guy Scrum
Posts: 197
4/3/2016
|
Definitely not my favorite story.
[spoiler]Yes, the Neath is a dark and scary place with an unconventional view towards death, and yes, cannibalism is a predominant theme, but this felt gratuitous. We just finished the winter's triptych of sanguinary stories, got a brief reprieve in which the death was intentional and merely temporary, and now we're back to chopping up people and putting them in stew. It felt far too similar to The Art of Murder, both thematically and mechanically (starting with investigations and ending in a chase), but without the satisfying twist and interesting bits of lore. The twist here was only surprising in that I didn't think Failbetter would lean on such a well-worn trope. Employing cannibalism amongst the hijinks of the Stags cheapens its use elsewhere, like in the Mr. Eaten storyline, turning the horrible into something silly.
At least I feel vindicated in my prior view that the Stags are a bunch of assholes. Now I know that they're a bunch of assholes — assholes who eat people — and I'll do my best to avoid them in the future.[/spoiler]
On the plus side, the art really was lovely.
One final nitpick, and it is a very small nit: does it bother anyone else that Failbetter frequently uses the hyphen-minus (-) when they ought to be using an en-dash (–) or em-dash (—)? This story was full of them.
edit: Huh, I guess an en-dash looks almost exactly like a hyphen in the standard Failbetter font (Lucida Grande). Still looks weird to my eye though.
edited by Guy Scrum on 4/3/2016
--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Guy%20Scrum
Interactive fidgeting writer simulation
|
|
|
+3
link
|
Kukapetal
Posts: 1449
4/3/2016
|
Rudiger wrote:
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
Practically everybody plays as a "morally complex" individual, which is why the ending doesn't seem to have bothered anybody but me. And I suppose that if only one person is bothered by it, it's not that big of a deal, but...sometimes I wonder...is there NO room in the game for someone who wants to do something a little different? Almost from the beginning I've felt like the game was trying to force me into a certain moral alignment. Initially it was just by punishing me for moral choices, but at least I still HAD the choice. This is the first time my RPing has been outright hijacked by the narration.
[spoiler]I mean, there's nothing wrong with RPing someone who is just fine with the Patriarch getting what he deserves for trying to kill their protege/aunt/daughter, but not everyone wants that. I didn't want them to butcher my protege...but I didn't want them to butcher the Patriarch either. I didn't want them to butcher anyone. Why am I suddenly letting these monsters drag off terrified people to slaughter like animals? Why don't I care when it happens? Who is this guy and what has he done with my character?[/spoiler]
Why do I "have" to be someone who is morally gray? Why do I constantly have to suffer if I don't? Why does it feel like there's no place for me here?
|
|
|
+5
link
|
Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
4/3/2016
|
Kukapetal, I chose that all shall be well and I didn't get the choices you did, so I think the problem here specifically is that the game put a different spin on what things not being well (necessarily) would involve.
--
Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
|
|
|
0
link
|
Kukapetal
Posts: 1449
4/3/2016
|
Guy Scrum wrote:
At least I feel vindicated in my prior view that the Stags are a bunch of assholes. Now I know that they're a bunch of assholes and I'll do my best to avoid them in the future.
Every faction in Fallen London is a bunch of assholes. And (prior to this story), compared to many of the groups most people here have no qualms about consorting with and working for, a bunch of drunken idiots who played annoying pranks were practically Boy Scouts. Why do so many people have so much contempt for them?
|
|
|
+1
link
|
Kukapetal
Posts: 1449
4/3/2016
|
an_ocelot wrote:
Kukapetal, I chose that all shall be well and I didn't get the choices you did, so I think the problem here specifically is that the game put a different spin on what things not being well (necessarily) would involve.
I also chose "all shall be well," so it's weird that we got different choices. What kind of choices did you get instead?
|
|
|
0
link
|
suinicide
Posts: 2409
4/3/2016
|
I think one of the themes of fallen london is the difficulty of being a morally upright person. So yeah, its gonna be hard to RP a good person.
But in the patriarch, running away doesn't mean your character was okay with it, maybe this was a moment when fear overcame their beliefs.
--
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.
|
|
|
+1
link
|
Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
4/3/2016
|
Kukapetal wrote:
an_ocelot wrote:
Kukapetal, I chose that all shall be well and I didn't get the choices you did, so I think the problem here specifically is that the game put a different spin on what things not being well (necessarily) would involve.
I also chose "all shall be well," so it's weird that we got different choices. What kind of choices did you get instead? Wow, that is interesting!
I had my daughter, I was not a member of the Stags, and
[spoiler]at the end of the hunt, after the PP shoots my daughter in the knee, I had the choice to ambush him myself or to wait and let her stab him. I let her stab him (in the knee), and we don't know what happens to anyone in the Stags after that--though it's implied that the PP survives because it says that the Stags "cannot fulfill their pact."[/spoiler]
edited by an_ocelot on 4/3/2016
--
Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
|
|
|
0
link
|
Catherine Raymond
Posts: 2518
4/3/2016
|
Kukapetal wrote:
Why do I "have" to be someone who is morally gray? Why do I constantly have to suffer if I don't? Why does it feel like there's no place for me here?
[spoiler] In the story as I played it, the PP was clearly willing to kill my Aunt so she could be eaten. Even if the events of The Seven-Day Reign happened to me in real life, I would have no qualms about killing the PP to protect her. It sucks that your character got stampeded into "making" a moral choice neither you nor the character as you see it would have chosen, but not all FL stories end up that way. Much turns, not only on the choices you make, but on how you interpret what is described in the storylets as happening. [/spoiler]
edited by cathyr19355 on 4/3/2016
--
Cathy Raymond
http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/cathyr19355
Catherine Raymond aka Mrs. Rykar Malkus http://fallenlondon.com/Profile/Catherine%20Raymond (Gone NORTH)
|
|
|
+3
link
|
Anne Auclair
Posts: 2215
4/3/2016
|
How's the journal issue?
I'm actually really looking forward to this one as it sounds perfect for my character, whose attitude towards these sorts of things is usually along the lines of:
"I saw weird stuff in that place last night! Weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff! And I want in."
But who also honestly loves her Aunt. I also want to learn more about the Stags, to match that learned about the Parthenaeum in the last story.
But I'm not starting it till the journal's fixed.
--
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Anne%20Auclair
|
|
|
0
link
|
Kukapetal
Posts: 1449
4/4/2016
|
an_ocelot, I actually did get the same choices as you, then.
[spoiler]I just chose to ambush the Patriarch myself since I figured my idiotic little protege would be more likely to stab HIMSELF if I left it up to him. Then he stuck the crown on the unconscious Patriarch's head (which I let him do because ??? ) and we left him there for the rest of the Stags to find, listening to his terrified screams in the distance because...we're just that bad*ss, I guess. Hooray. [/spoiler]
So I guess I'd have gotten the less OOC ending if I'd made the choice you made, but since there wasn't anything in the text indicating which choice would lead to which outcome (the choices seemed to boil down to which course of action would be more likely to save your protege/aunt/daughter, with no indication of the Patriarch's fate one way or the other) I don't see how I could have known.
Looks like this problem could have been avoided if they'd just stuck in an extra decision after the Patriarch had been subdued: "leave" or "put the crown on his head and leave." Then the decision would have been in the player's hands instead of being based on an unrelated choice made beforehand.
Anyway, thanks for your answer 
|
|
|
+3
link
|
Kade Carrion (an_ocelot)
Posts: 1372
4/4/2016
|
Kukapetal, thank you for explaining--and yes, I agree with you.
--
Social Actions: send them to Kade Carrion (she/her; no Tournament of Lilies, please). an_ocelot has gone NORTH and cannot benefit from social actions!
Possibly-Useful Things: Spreadsheets and hints and link collections, oh my.
|
|
|
+1
link
|
Shadowcthuhlu
Posts: 1557
4/4/2016
|
I can definitely see kukapetal's point. I've had a rather opposite experience in that my character has actually become a better person when when they started out, but I could see how someone could very easily be beaten down.
Additionally, in-character I see nothing wrong with the cannibalism of the king. Is that fact that this king choose to sacrifice unwilling others instead of taking the sacrifice upon himself and promote his own above the rest. But the king choosing to give himself up for the whole of the group - that does have some nobility.
--
https://www.fallenlondon.com/profile/Dirae%20Erinyes. Closed to calling cards, but open for all other social action. I also love to roleplay.
|
|
|
+1
link
|
Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
4/4/2016
|
Well, this story was an emotional roller-coaster. Beautifully written and illustrated, of course. Mechanically, a little experimental and a little traditional - I liked the options to include different family members and such. Certainly made me more affectionate for my Inconvenient Aunt, the old rogue! As for the story itself...
[spoiler]The pagan elements of the Stags at first made me regret not joining them... and then banished that regret soon after. The idea of an old boys' club enforcing depraved and thoroughly illegal behaviour to create a bond of silence between its members, enabling future conspiracies - well, that's ripped straight from the headlines. It certainly explains some of the references we've seen to old Stags previously. I loved the shout-out to the story of Artemis bathing, too. As for the central conflict, the cannibal king devoured by his own sons... well, it's powerful imagery. It is a bit of a shame that the ramifications of decisions weren't always clear beforehand - I'm still not entirely sure how one's different decisions lead to the Stags' pact being/not being perpetuated, and it would be nice to have a bit more agency in that decision.
Incidentally... the last Exceptional Story featured the Pathenaeum, and this one the Stags... will the third in the trilogy also be club-centric, I wonder?[/spoiler]
--
Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
|
|
|
0
link
|
Optimatum
Posts: 3666
4/4/2016
|
Sir Frederick Tanah-Chook wrote:
Incidentally... the last Exceptional Story featured the Pathenaeum, and this one the Stags... will the third in the trilogy also be club-centric, I wonder?
Will the Dilmun Club become a viable Affiliation at long last? 
--
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.
|
|
|
+6
link
|
Professor Strix
Posts: 616
4/4/2016
|
I bought an exceptional friendship to visit the House of Chimes (will publish the results in due time) and went there to see the opinions. It does really tell a lot about Fallen London the fact that I saw many reactions that boiled down to
[spoiler] "Cannibalism AGAIN?! How dull."[/spoiler]
--
The Inescapable Professor, London's Most Academic Detective. Open to consultation from Mondays to Fridays, above the Silver Binding bookshop, Veilgarden. Half the payment in advance, half after closing the case. No refunds.
"THIS SATURDAY, in MAHOGANY HALL, delight your eyes with the DARING FEATS of the DAPPER ESCAPIST. Gape at his CHARM and WIT and his CLEVER TRICKS OF ILLUSIONISM. No mirrors used."
---------
Social actions welcomed. Will take menaces if not currently grinding that one stat. Send them and cross your fingers.
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Professor%20Strix
My alt loiters suspiciously if you want to:
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Derek%20Davis
|
|
|
+6
link
|
James Sinclair
Posts: 253
4/4/2016
|
Just finished this story via the final Opportunity card. Selected adopted daughter as the sovereign. Although I enjoyed the writing (and especially the tidbits about Kingeater's Castle), mechanically I found this story to be very frustrating. I agree completely with those who have noted that
[spoiler]the chase sequence in the Forgotten Quarter was entirely too randomized; I felt frustrated and useless as my supposedly highly-skilled, well-armed character racked up failure after failure. Although I can understand the need for Exceptional Stories to be accessible to newer players, I would have really liked to see some additional options during the chase to get some extra time, foil the hunters, and so forth. Instead, every possible storylet was dependent on either blind luck or on the Reign qualities (which didn't make much sense in the context of trying to hinder a group of hunters).
The ending Opportunity Card (based on final choice: ambush the PP) was IMO a very lame, weak ending to such a gruesome roller-coaster story. "Funny sort of week." ...bleh!  [/spoiler]
Overall rating: 2 stars out of 5.
edited by James Sinclair on 4/4/2016
--
James Sinclair
Curator of the Sanguine Ribbon Society 🗡
 A fully-fledged rêveur of The Night Circus.
Wines is red
Spices is yellow
But old Jack-of-Smiles
Is a murderous fellow
☠
|
|
|
+4
link
|
RandomWalker
Posts: 948
4/4/2016
|
I got the card for one of my three characters just now.
|
|
|
0
link
|
Reinhardt von Stark
Posts: 1
4/4/2016
|
So I've finished this Exceptional Story and
[spoiler] let my Daughter stab the Patriarch (after winning the escape mini-game by a a landslide) but she got mad at me and I got Heartless for letting her have her revenge.
Can anyone link me to a Journal Log or tell me what she says if we stab the PP ourselves and what is written in the Opp Card at the end? [/spoiler]
I'd really prefer if I didn't have to wait three months to reset this story just for a paragraph or two, unless there's a big difference. My Seven-Day Reign number code is 310.
edited by Reinhardt von Stark on 4/4/2016
|
|
|
0
link
|
Ewan C.
Posts: 675
4/4/2016
|
Posting merely to add weight, in FBG's ears, to the comments of others: MidnightVoyager and an_ocelot have summed up my feelings well. Being hit with a Heartless gain/Steadfast loss for **standing by** my daughter and allowing her to be self-sufficient if she so chose? Yuck. Being unable to kill the PP? Yuck. And the ending-card was - as MV eloquently noted - essentially "meh."
|
|
|
+1
link
|