I'm going to go against the grain a bit and suggest the allure of The Shattered Gaol is in large part illusory. Or, at the very least, very premature. I'm seeing people reference all the build-up we've had with the weilu skeleton, but what I mostly see is foreshadowing which I argue isn't quite the same thing. Our OOC anticipation for the weilu skeleton might have been building up, but in terms of the narrative itself the reminders of its existence haven't been tying into much.
I get that the skeleton is very cool, but that's all the more reason to make sure the groundwork is in position to actually make the most of its true introduction. We don't want a situation where there's a very dramatic entrance and then we just kind of waffle around or get expositioned at without doing anything. We need the capabilities to engage with the subject, in the context that it's found. And on that note, I think it's worth looking back at what this arc is for.
Spending time immersed with a group of non-hostile (but not safe) echo-masked Dream spirits for a chunk of time seems like a really good way for Ling Qi to build a solid foundation of Dream experience. It being an old Weilu party also ties into the history and Dream/Music boosting projects really well. The Gaol also touches on history, obviously, but if you look at the phrasing of the project, getting a snippet of the culture in action feels more in line with what it's about.
Then there's rewards to consider. It looks like two sites. "The Fantasian Revel" vs "The Shattered Gaol". Since this arc is about Ling Qi's introduction to the Dream, then we can look at these sites as... setting the tone of her development. And if that's the case, it's hard to justify the Gaol. The majority of our Dream resources and tie-ins, Sixiang, PLR, the Dreaming Moon, lean towards the party. Yeah, we don't want to just be about parties all the time, I certainly don't. But none of those resources have had any real exploration to date; the idea of this entire arc was to correct that very issue. Injecting a totally different, and incredibly narratively prominent, framework of Dream skill/trait development to take precedent over those still-yet unexplored resources strikes me as odd, even inappropriate.
It's actually because the skeleton has been foreshadowed so much that's it's dangerous to grab it as a very first choice. And I don't think grabbing it is even likely to be fruitful in the way people are hoping, with our shaky grasp on the Dream. Most likely result feels like opening up a new, skeleton-themed, questline for Dream development because we just don't have the chops to pull off anything definitive on first blush, not that it would be good for the narrative of our Dream development if we could. And opening up that line of development creates a huge, not really that productive, tension between development "paths" for Dream.
The skeleton has some kind of link/interest to Ling Qi. It has persisted through months of distraction, and I really doubt it disappears if we choose to spend a few hours actually getting a handle on the Dream. Maybe another opportunity doesn't come up for a while, but when it does we'll have the benefit of some foundation of experience and not be suffering under an obligatory narrative of broad ignorance and inability like we are currently.
[X] Enjoy the revel, and mingle with the echoes of the long dead and the dream spirits which might wear their faces. (Gain location access, The Fantasian Revel)
I get that the skeleton is very cool, but that's all the more reason to make sure the groundwork is in position to actually make the most of its true introduction. We don't want a situation where there's a very dramatic entrance and then we just kind of waffle around or get expositioned at without doing anything. We need the capabilities to engage with the subject, in the context that it's found. And on that note, I think it's worth looking back at what this arc is for.
The broader project, that we didn't even get to vote on, was to go on an adventure in the Dream with Sixiang in order to flesh out the place in the narrative and have Ling Qi start finding her Dream legs. A little more specifically, the Dream arc offered obvious tie-ins to the Echoing Grandeur and Hidden projects we voted for.Turn Plan said:
Spending time immersed with a group of non-hostile (but not safe) echo-masked Dream spirits for a chunk of time seems like a really good way for Ling Qi to build a solid foundation of Dream experience. It being an old Weilu party also ties into the history and Dream/Music boosting projects really well. The Gaol also touches on history, obviously, but if you look at the phrasing of the project, getting a snippet of the culture in action feels more in line with what it's about.
Then there's rewards to consider. It looks like two sites. "The Fantasian Revel" vs "The Shattered Gaol". Since this arc is about Ling Qi's introduction to the Dream, then we can look at these sites as... setting the tone of her development. And if that's the case, it's hard to justify the Gaol. The majority of our Dream resources and tie-ins, Sixiang, PLR, the Dreaming Moon, lean towards the party. Yeah, we don't want to just be about parties all the time, I certainly don't. But none of those resources have had any real exploration to date; the idea of this entire arc was to correct that very issue. Injecting a totally different, and incredibly narratively prominent, framework of Dream skill/trait development to take precedent over those still-yet unexplored resources strikes me as odd, even inappropriate.
It's actually because the skeleton has been foreshadowed so much that's it's dangerous to grab it as a very first choice. And I don't think grabbing it is even likely to be fruitful in the way people are hoping, with our shaky grasp on the Dream. Most likely result feels like opening up a new, skeleton-themed, questline for Dream development because we just don't have the chops to pull off anything definitive on first blush, not that it would be good for the narrative of our Dream development if we could. And opening up that line of development creates a huge, not really that productive, tension between development "paths" for Dream.
The skeleton has some kind of link/interest to Ling Qi. It has persisted through months of distraction, and I really doubt it disappears if we choose to spend a few hours actually getting a handle on the Dream. Maybe another opportunity doesn't come up for a while, but when it does we'll have the benefit of some foundation of experience and not be suffering under an obligatory narrative of broad ignorance and inability like we are currently.
[X] Enjoy the revel, and mingle with the echoes of the long dead and the dream spirits which might wear their faces. (Gain location access, The Fantasian Revel)
