I have found only one thread on the steam forums addressing this bug with no solution. I am supposed to go to samual to start the Lady Boyle mission. Samuel just stares at me. The marker is above his head.

I have reloaded multiple times.

Is there a fix that doesn't involve replaying the game because quite frankly that's not how I roll. Games get one chance to be game breaking and I never pick them up again. It's a shame because it was a pretty awesome game until it wasn't.

Great CS there Bethesda.

Silly idea, this - but I found an unmoving Samuel at one point in the game. Try visiting Piero in the Workshop and speak to him first (I don't think you have to actually buy anything - just go through the motions of it). Then hopefully Samuel will be awake again!

PS3 user here. I've encountered the same exact problem. Some bloke on the Xbox forums posted this problem, too. That was over 2 weeks ago and 'no one' has responded to him, bar myself!!
This is a howler of a bug, widely reported and appears on all systems. Someone from the dev team needs to get back to us about this!!

Absolutely shameful.

On the PC save can you upload a copy of the save file and post a link here - that way I could download it and see if it does the same thing here and try a couple things to see if it can be started.

Ok, folks. I think I have a fix. If this happens to you, simply step off Samuel's boat into the water and let the hag-fish chew on you a bit. Exit the water and now Samuel should respond, to take you to the party. See Bethesda/ Arkane? That's customer support!