The first story in the Season of Adorations is "The Pursuit of Moths". If it's the Gothic Romance of the season, focused on the tragedy of love and a sense of impending doom, then "The Murgatroyd Formula" is the Wry Satire of the bunch. It's basically a workplace sitcom, with the love theme of the season being explored through the somewhat antagonistic relationship between two sisters (and more distantly the father that got them into this situation).
The Murgatroyd Company is one of the big fictional post-fall conglomerates who keep popping up across the Fallen London universe. It's also a front for a major player in the Great Game, something that is sort of an open secret, to the players if not the people of London. Here you get a little bit of a glimpse at the family that created it. Tabitha and Harriet Murgatroyd get handed an Apothecary business from their father, and cannot agree on anything regarding the operations, to the point that they are unprepared for the grand opening. You more or less just get dragged in as a convenient bystander to tie-break their arguments and help with all the last-minute errands.
Harriet is somewhat older, and more business minded. She'd like something boring but profitable. She wants to prover herself to her father, because she want's to get more involved with the family business, both the public and secret aspects of it. Tabitha wants to showcase her chemistry skill, and is constantly looking for new, experimental, and morally dubious angles. She wants to succeed here, but that's more incidental. If it proves anything it's that she could be off on her own. She essentially wants to be a Fallen London player character.
The story is pretty light, there's lots of bickering and possibility for misunderstand. It's also likely to get a happy ending. It's rare for me to try ruining things for supporting characters, but there are often options to do so. This story is set up so that most at least of the outcomes come up positive for the sisters. The one who gets their product launched gets to see their ideas vindicated, but the other learns to respect their sister's ideas more. It is pretty easy to reconcile them to each other even if, for example, you talk Harriet into following her dreams and abandoning the family business.
This story really worked for me, the player and story sometimes disagree on what constitutes a 'good' ending, but Mary Goodden has a talent for having her characters bounce back from most outcomes while still allowing the player a lot of expressive freedom, so that you are unlikely to doom anyone in her stories by sticking to your principles. At the same time, she does great work fleshing out characters, and giving the player a lot of expressiveness in interacting with them. I know her stories don't seem to work for everyone, but you're a Goodden fan, or are looking to learn more about her, then I'd give this one a strong recommendation.
The Murgatroyd Company is one of the big fictional post-fall conglomerates who keep popping up across the Fallen London universe. It's also a front for a major player in the Great Game, something that is sort of an open secret, to the players if not the people of London. Here you get a little bit of a glimpse at the family that created it. Tabitha and Harriet Murgatroyd get handed an Apothecary business from their father, and cannot agree on anything regarding the operations, to the point that they are unprepared for the grand opening. You more or less just get dragged in as a convenient bystander to tie-break their arguments and help with all the last-minute errands.
Harriet is somewhat older, and more business minded. She'd like something boring but profitable. She wants to prover herself to her father, because she want's to get more involved with the family business, both the public and secret aspects of it. Tabitha wants to showcase her chemistry skill, and is constantly looking for new, experimental, and morally dubious angles. She wants to succeed here, but that's more incidental. If it proves anything it's that she could be off on her own. She essentially wants to be a Fallen London player character.
The story is pretty light, there's lots of bickering and possibility for misunderstand. It's also likely to get a happy ending. It's rare for me to try ruining things for supporting characters, but there are often options to do so. This story is set up so that most at least of the outcomes come up positive for the sisters. The one who gets their product launched gets to see their ideas vindicated, but the other learns to respect their sister's ideas more. It is pretty easy to reconcile them to each other even if, for example, you talk Harriet into following her dreams and abandoning the family business.
This story really worked for me, the player and story sometimes disagree on what constitutes a 'good' ending, but Mary Goodden has a talent for having her characters bounce back from most outcomes while still allowing the player a lot of expressive freedom, so that you are unlikely to doom anyone in her stories by sticking to your principles. At the same time, she does great work fleshing out characters, and giving the player a lot of expressiveness in interacting with them. I know her stories don't seem to work for everyone, but you're a Goodden fan, or are looking to learn more about her, then I'd give this one a strong recommendation.