Results of our fate-locked stories survey (January 2021 edition)

Here are the results for our survey on fate-locked stories for January 2021. Thank you to everyone who participated! And many, many thanks to Failbetter for linking the survey both on Discord and on Twitter. We've got over 300 votes this time, quite a lot more than last year.

As in our previous surveys, story quality has been calculated based on the average voted value. Possible values ranged from 1 ("Exceptional") to -1 ("Didn't like"), so stories with an average above zero were liked by the majority of players, while stories with an average below zero were not.

Most Popular Stories

Cricket, Anyone? (average vote: 0.91)
My Kingdom for a Pig (average vote: 0.81)
HOJOTOHO! (average vote: 0.71)
Por Una Cabeza *(average vote: 0.71)
The Gift (average vote: 0.64)

So ... Chandler Groover, huh?
I don't even know what to say. "Cricket" got an even better vote than last time and out of all the stories he's written only one just barely missed the top 20. Can somebody please just him an award or something?

"Lost in Reflections", the story that used to win this survey almost every time before Mr Groover came along, took a huge dive this time and isn't even in the top 10 anymore. The stories that improved their rating the most are "The Pentacost Predicament" (+0.19) and "Discernment" (+0.18), both of which had - in my personal opinion - unreasonably bad ratings in the last survey.

The most controversial story was - once again - "Fine Dining" with a variance of 0.5. It was already the most controversial story before but apparently it divides players even more a year after release. "The Marriage of Feducci" (var=0.4) and "Secrets Framed in Gold" (var=0.36) also keep being controversal, but "Daylight" (var=0.4) also needs to be mentioned now. For comparison, least controversial were stories written by some guy named Chandler Groover. (Can we just make him a saint? This is getting ridiculous!). Interestingly, "Last Dog Society" is also pretty far up that list. Make of that what you will.

Least Popular Stories

The Rubbery Murders (average vote: -0.58)
Factory of Favours (average vote: -0.37)
The Spinning of the Wheels (average vote: -0.24)
A Long-Lost Daughter (average vote: -0.24)
The Price of Loss (average vote: -0.19)

While "Rubbery Murders" and "Factory of Favours" remain the two least liked stories among players, most of the other stories at the bottom of the list are also no surprises at this point.

The stories that lost the most in average ratings this time around are "Flint" and "Secrets Framed in Gold" (both with a decrease of -0.21 in their average rating) and "The Committee" (with -0.19).

Below you will find the ranking for all stories as well as a list of stories that voters thought are worth buying based on rewards alone. For more details I've also put everything in a Google spreadsheet again. (Note that the spreadsheet has five tabs, they are easy to overlook.) So if you like you can fiddle around with the numbers on your own.

Ranking of Fate-Locked Stories

Below you will find the ranking of the stories from most popular to least popular, incl. the total number of votes and the average vote. For a detailed breakdown on how exactly players voted for each story, please take a look here.

#	Title	Total votes	Avg vote	Diff. to prev. survey
1	Cricket Anyone?	176	0.91	0.01
2	My Kingdom for a Pig	131	0.81	0.09
3	HOJOTOHO!	152	0.71	-0.04
4	Por Una Cabeza	127	0.71	0.04
5	The Gift	177	0.64	-0.1
6	For All The Saints	112	0.62	-0.02
7	The Shallows	129	0.62	0.02
8	The Icarian Cup	236	0.61	-
9	The 12:15 from Moloch Street	126	0.6	0.08
10	Caveat Emptor	203	0.6	-
11	The Ceremony	102	0.58	-0.07
12	Lost in Reflections	129	0.57	-0.12
13	The Brass Grail	103	0.57	0.04
14	Paisley	211	0.54	-
15	Go Tell the King of Cats	173	0.53	-
16	The Empress' Shadow	161	0.5	0
17	Flint	125	0.46	-0.21
18	The Persona Engine	92	0.46	0.13
19	The Calendar Code	89	0.43	-0.06
20	Where You and I Must Go	82	0.42	-0.07
21	All Things Must End	88	0.38	-0.04
22	The Rat-Catcher	82	0.37	-0.08
23	Tauroktonos	90	0.37	0.06
24	The Ballad of Johnny Croak	174	0.37	-
25	The Jack-of-Smiles Case	163	0.36	-0.05
26	A Little Pandemonium	84	0.35	0.03
27	Theological Husbandry	211	0.34	-0.07
28	Homecoming	194	0.33	-
29	The Blemmigan Affair	90	0.31	0.01
30	The Waltz That Moved the World	87	0.27	-0.14
31	The Attendants	83	0.24	0.05
32	Noises from Upstairs	99	0.23	0.1
33	Cut with Moonlight	83	0.22	0.02
34	Steeped In Honey	67	0.22	-0.04
35	Flute Street	232	0.22	-0.13
36	Five Minutes to Midday	72	0.21	0.03
37	The Chimney Pot Wars	68	0.21	-0.07
38	The Pursuit of Moths	68	0.21	-0.03
39	A Functionary's Confidant	77	0.21	-0.05
40	The Sinking Synod	101	0.18	0.03
41	The Heretic of Hollow Street	96	0.18	-0.01
42	The Century Exhibition	88	0.16	0.04
43	The Final Curtain	62	0.15	0.03
44	Older Not Wiser	206	0.14	-
45	Say it With Flowers	98	0.13	-0.08
46	The Murgatroyd Formula	71	0.12	0.07
47	Unto Dust	187	0.12	-
48	Upwards!	111	0.12	-
49	Written in the Glim	73	0.11	-0.05
50	Mysteries of the Foreign Office	114	0.11	0
51	The Bones of London	74	0.1	0
52	The Magician's Dream	78	0.1	-0.03
53	The Frequently Deceased	58	0.09	-0.03
54	Secrets Framed in Gold	166	0.08	-0.21
55	The Pentecost Predicament	48	0.06	0.19
56	A Trade in Faces	94	0.06	-0.01
57	The Stag & the Shark	88	0.05	0.12
58	Inconvenienced by Your Aunt	211	0.05	0.01
59	The Seven-Day Reign	52	0.03	0.06
60	Shades of Yesterday	121	0.03	-
61	The Web of the Motherlings	73	0.02	-0.1
62	A Trade in Souls	216	0.02	-0.05
63	Discernment	43	0.01	0.18
64	The Marriage of Feducci	76	0.01	-0.04
65	The Stone Guest	61	0	0.02
66	The Garden Embassy	102	-0.01	-0.04
67	A Court of Cats	68	-0.02	0.11
68	Lamentation Lock	74	-0.02	-0.07
69	Our Lady of Pyres	71	-0.04	-0.02
70	The Heart the Devil and the Zee	67	-0.04	0.08
71	The Haunting at the Marsh-House	58	-0.07	0.09
72	Fading to a Coda	199	-0.08	-
73	Required Repairs	80	-0.09	-0.07
74	Fine Dining	129	-0.09	-0.05
75	Daylight	85	-0.12	0.05
76	The Art of Murder	64	-0.13	-0.08
77	Borrowed Glory	117	-0.13	-
78	The Last Dog Society	44	-0.14	0.09
79	Trial and Error	58	-0.14	0.03
80	The Dilettante's Debut	181	-0.14	-
81	The Committee	89	-0.16	-0.19
82	The Clay Man's Arm	74	-0.18	0.06
83	The Price of Loss	77	-0.19	0.06
84	A Long Lost Daughter	96	-0.24	-0.16
85	The Spinning of the Wheels	118	-0.24	-0.04
86	Factory of Favours	74	-0.37	-0.04
87	The Rubbery Murders	46	-0.58	-0.18

Seasonal Conclusions

The seasonal bonus stories are unlocked when you have played all three stories of a season. Some of them are revealing some previously unknown lore and that shows fairly well in the ratings below (i.e. the ones that do tend to have a higher rating). "The Season of Revolutions" is the odd one out this time. I have no idea why.

#	Story name	Total votes	Average vote	Diff. to prev. survey
1	Season of Family Ties	38	0.64	0.12
2	Season of Stones	57	0.61	0.1
3	Season of Sceptres	56	0.59	0.03
4	Season of Skies	64	0.59	0.05
5	Season of Ruins	70	0.57	0.03
6	Season of Embers	58	0.53	0.03
7	Season of Animals	91	0.47	-
8	Season of Wrecks	55	0.42	-0.01
9	Season of Revolutions	52	0.38	-0.17
10	Season of Adorations	56	0.37	-0.04
11	Season of Hobbies	70	0.32	-0.06
12	Season of Endeavour	102	0.3	-
13	Season of Bargains	71	0.2	0
14	Season of Explorations	57	0.19	0.04
15	Season of Celebrations	67	0.12	-0.1
16	Season of Propinquity	68	0.06	-
17	Season of Silver	48	0.06	0.04
18	Season of Heart's Blood	48	-0.07	0

Spreadsheet for more details.

Fate-locked Christmas Stories

Again, most of these stories got pretty good results, with only minimal changes to last year. Note that the total number of votes varies considerably, so that every additional vote might result in large changes to the average.

#	Story name	Total votes	Average vote	Diff. to prev. survey
1	A foolish Rubbery Man	95	0.66	0
2	Urchins of the Knotted Sock	31	0.56	0.12
3	A trio of devil poets	95	0.53	-
4	February of the Calendar Council	30	0.42	0.07
5	The Gracious Widow	33	0.33	0.08
6	A gang of rats	69	0.33	0.01
7	The scholars at Benthic	28	0.29	-0.05
8	The Duchess	80	0.28	0.04
9	Some inebriated Zailors	28	0.13	-0.09

Spreadsheet for more details.

Buying stories based on rewards

You could also vote if you thought it was worth buying certain stories just for the rewards. This is especially interesting for stories that are not all that popular, namely "The Spinning of the Wheels" or "Inconvenienced by your Aunt". While I did mention it in the survey itself, I keep wondering if players actually considered how the value of some of these stories has changed with the recent Winter Balance Patch *squints at Empress' Shadow*

Story	Total votes	Worth buying	Not worth it
Theological Husbandry	225	83.11%	16.89%
Flute Street	237	80.17%	19.83%
Inconvenienced by Your Aunt	212	77.83%	22.17%
A Trade in Souls	224	76.79%	23.21%
Upwards!	115	76.52%	23.48%
The Empress' Shadow	162	66.67%	33.33%
HOJOTOHO!	144	62.50%	37.50%
Caveat Emptor	189	55.56%	44.44%
The Shallows	125	51.20%	48.80%
The Blemmigan Affair	95	50.53%	49.47%
The Sinking Synod	98	48.98%	51.02%
The Spinning of the Wheels	130	46.92%	53.08%
Cricket Anyone?	165	46.06%	53.94%
Flint	124	44.35%	55.65%
Cut with Moonlight	84	44.05%	55.95%
The Ceremony	102	43.14%	56.86%
The Gift	165	42.42%	57.58%
Brass Grail	103	34.95%	65.05%
All Things Must End	100	28.00%	72.00%
Long-Lost Daughter	97	27.84%	72.16%
A Trade in Faces	91	26.37%	73.63%
Mysteries of the Foreign Office	115	26.09%	73.91%
Haunting of the Marsh-House	62	20.97%	79.03%
Fading to a Coda	151	19.21%	80.79%
The Frequently Deceased	64	18.75%	81.25%
The Marriage of Feducci	78	15.38%	84.62%

We also asked about small Fate purchases this time, but none of them got recommended except for the fate-locked expeditions. Conversely, all the Fate-purchases we asked about that were not part of a specific story got recommended. The Whitsun Device even got almost as many positive votes as "Cricket, Anyone?".

Fate purchase	Total votes	Worth buying	Not worth it
Experimentation Device at Whitsun	120	93.33%	6.67%
Final equipment level at University Lab	198	90.40%	9.60%
The Pendant of Helicon Amber	90	70.00%	30.00%
Fourth assistant at University Lab	155	61.29%	38.71%
Hiring the Silk-Clad Expert at University Lab	108	59.26%	40.74%

Story	Total votes	Worth buying	Not worth it
Expedition to the Gallery of Serpents	117	86.32%	13.68%
Expedition to the Temple of Uttermost Wind	111	78.38%	21.62%
Attending Mr Wines' revels as a guest	137	48.91%	51.09%
Shroom-Hopping	133	47.37%	52.63%
The Miniature Menace Contract	78	39.74%	60.26%

Spreadsheet for more details.

This time around, we also asked to name which fate-purchases that are not stories would be worth it apart from their stats. That last part was obviously overlooked by many participant because we got quite a few votes on items with no uses.

Out of more than 300 participants in the survey, only 54 made suggestions. Removing answers that just mention stories voted on before (I get it, you really like your Aunt! ;)) and answers that were too general ("old election items") and items with no actual use, left the following answers. Although, keep in mind that you could name multiple things here.

The most often suggested purchases were:

Item	#Votes
Cloud-Filled Sphere	8
Your Perpetually Festive Rubbery Friend	7
none at all (fair enough!)	5
The Neathy Tarot	4
Augmented Electrostatic Machine	3
Portable Fingerking Moot	3
A Crimson Captain	2
Skip the ship grind	2
Incarnadine Fur Robe	2
A Bedraggled, Forlorn Fox	1
An Assuming Judge	1
Boneless Consort	1
Intrepid Deacon	1
July	1
Morally and Physically Flexible Rubbery Cat	1
Mutersalt	1
Nadir Spouse	1
Rubbery Yes-man	1
The Iron Correspondents	1
Very Lenient Judge	1
Subscription	1

Both, the Fur Robe and the FL Subscription, are technically not valid answers because one is too general and the other doesn't cost Fate. But they're close enough to add to the table. I highly suspect that some companions like the Fingerking Moot or the Deacon or not on this list purely for their uses in the game, but what do I know...

For reference, here are the links to our previous surveys in