Worldres
Explorer
Thank you so much for your answers, everyone!
About Book 4: Funnily enough, when I asked Mona's player (uh, my fiancee, whom I live with) which adventure she liked best, she immediately answered "not Always on Time!" I asked her why, and she told me she felt like she was under intense stress the whole adventure. Then, the next day, when I asked everyone during the session what their favourite was, Mona's player said it was "Always on Time!!!" I asked her why she changed her mind. She told me it had the highest highs and the best characters, even if she didn't enjoy what she perceived as the on-thin-ice feeling. She said one of her favourite moments of the campaign was seeing Lya hug Luc on the train platform, and welcome him into the Ob. Even though it was such a small moment, it tied together everything she needed to know about Lya in an instant. And every time Ashima Shimtu shows up, the players go nuts. I think Adventure 4 really is greater than the sum of its parts.
Personally, I loved the Escape Nem portion. Half of my players ended up in Nem and the other half were still on the train, so it felt a lot like that scene in Inception where Joseph Gordon Levitt's character has to try and put everyone into freefall without gravity. He is completely alone and scrambling to solve a puzzle involving dragging a bunch of unconscious people around and doing clever things with the environment. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is fighting for their lives.
About Book 7: I didn't want to go into detail on my post because it was already long enough, so here is my non-flippant answer. I loved hearing the Obscurati justify itself. You had people like Ottavia (and Cula, on the face of it) who were genuinely trying to do good, and then on the other end of the spectrum, people like Catherine, who were obviously just trying to consolidate power for themselves but trying to maintain plausible deniability. (Even then, Catherine is the "worst person you know just made a great point" character, after Nic). Seeing both the very best and the very worst of the Obscurati in a sort of day-in-the-life way was great. And my favourite game moment ever was Amielle's speech, followed by Catherine's anti-Nic breakdown, and then the tense final vote where everything clicks into place. Good stuff.
About Book 8: It's probably my second favourite. I actually got misty-eyed when I read Dala's death for the first time. Kasavarina is an extremely compelling character, and I also enjoy her chemistry with each character. I think its quality kind of speaks for itself, honestly.
By the way: I saw the little "Zeitgeist Fiction" thread a little while ago, and thought to add that my players write little short stories from time to time, but I chickened out. They have over 60,000 words of stuff so far, though! Gatria's player decided to post all of hers in one volume. If you have time, I recommend checking out the most recent chapter, where Gatria and her familiar, Lucita, provide Kasavarina an outlet into which to pour her rage after they discover why Launga died. It is a perfect little microcosm of how the party fed into Kasavarina's pre-Obscurati traits, for better or for worse: I'll Be Okay - Chapter 12 - NotARedHerring - Zeitgeist: The Gears of Revolution [Archive of Our Own]. (Chapter 10, a very short story where Gatria remembers Pardo's abuse as she trains at the Martial Academy, is also great.)
And yeah, there are so, so many good adventures. I think I'm looking forward to 10 and 12 most, next.
You joke, but my players ask me regularly if they'll ever get a chance to play Adventure 1 and 2, or "do it all again". I told them we could try 1 and 2 after everything was finished just for fun, and if they reasonably enjoyed experiencing a story they already knew the outcome of, I would be willing to do NG+ Hard Mode. But first things first.
About Book 4: Funnily enough, when I asked Mona's player (uh, my fiancee, whom I live with) which adventure she liked best, she immediately answered "not Always on Time!" I asked her why, and she told me she felt like she was under intense stress the whole adventure. Then, the next day, when I asked everyone during the session what their favourite was, Mona's player said it was "Always on Time!!!" I asked her why she changed her mind. She told me it had the highest highs and the best characters, even if she didn't enjoy what she perceived as the on-thin-ice feeling. She said one of her favourite moments of the campaign was seeing Lya hug Luc on the train platform, and welcome him into the Ob. Even though it was such a small moment, it tied together everything she needed to know about Lya in an instant. And every time Ashima Shimtu shows up, the players go nuts. I think Adventure 4 really is greater than the sum of its parts.
Personally, I loved the Escape Nem portion. Half of my players ended up in Nem and the other half were still on the train, so it felt a lot like that scene in Inception where Joseph Gordon Levitt's character has to try and put everyone into freefall without gravity. He is completely alone and scrambling to solve a puzzle involving dragging a bunch of unconscious people around and doing clever things with the environment. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew is fighting for their lives.
About Book 7: I didn't want to go into detail on my post because it was already long enough, so here is my non-flippant answer. I loved hearing the Obscurati justify itself. You had people like Ottavia (and Cula, on the face of it) who were genuinely trying to do good, and then on the other end of the spectrum, people like Catherine, who were obviously just trying to consolidate power for themselves but trying to maintain plausible deniability. (Even then, Catherine is the "worst person you know just made a great point" character, after Nic). Seeing both the very best and the very worst of the Obscurati in a sort of day-in-the-life way was great. And my favourite game moment ever was Amielle's speech, followed by Catherine's anti-Nic breakdown, and then the tense final vote where everything clicks into place. Good stuff.
About Book 8: It's probably my second favourite. I actually got misty-eyed when I read Dala's death for the first time. Kasavarina is an extremely compelling character, and I also enjoy her chemistry with each character. I think its quality kind of speaks for itself, honestly.
By the way: I saw the little "Zeitgeist Fiction" thread a little while ago, and thought to add that my players write little short stories from time to time, but I chickened out. They have over 60,000 words of stuff so far, though! Gatria's player decided to post all of hers in one volume. If you have time, I recommend checking out the most recent chapter, where Gatria and her familiar, Lucita, provide Kasavarina an outlet into which to pour her rage after they discover why Launga died. It is a perfect little microcosm of how the party fed into Kasavarina's pre-Obscurati traits, for better or for worse: I'll Be Okay - Chapter 12 - NotARedHerring - Zeitgeist: The Gears of Revolution [Archive of Our Own]. (Chapter 10, a very short story where Gatria remembers Pardo's abuse as she trains at the Martial Academy, is also great.)
And yeah, there are so, so many good adventures. I think I'm looking forward to 10 and 12 most, next.
You joke, but my players ask me regularly if they'll ever get a chance to play Adventure 1 and 2, or "do it all again". I told them we could try 1 and 2 after everything was finished just for fun, and if they reasonably enjoyed experiencing a story they already knew the outcome of, I would be willing to do NG+ Hard Mode. But first things first.
