Best First Officer

Sunless Sea and Fallen London blog.

[failbettergames]

Return to University today in Fallen London! 

For a while, it’s been technically advantageous to never finish your University storyline. We’ve sorted that out, tidied everything up, and added some new activities besides.

Keep reading

[carnelian-exile]

YESSSSS YEEEEESSSS YYYYYYYEEEEEESSSSSSS

[autumnbrambleagain]

You started me on bat HRT we are literally next-door neighbors in the same apartmentcrab don't try to pretend you thought you were just breaking into some rando's apartment

[autumnbrambleagain]

Mr Happles: how do you know about the pigs???

Mr Cards:

Mr Cards: it was in the orientation pamphlet you gave me????

[carnelian-exile]

Thank you Last Duchess 🙏 as usual I owe you my life

[carnelian-exile]

I literally can't remember what I did for the cheese monger storyline

[fallenfoxtail]

Heres a question. How do your Fallen London OC's deal with sickness. We all know death isnt really a problem, but how do they deal with something like a head cold that wont kill them? Or like food poisoning? Whats your OC's go to when it comes to getting sick?

[carnelian-exile]

I think the Comtessa's storyline is one of, or the, first sobering point in FL. Sure, you've been having a good time, making contacts, role-playing a Victorian, etc... And then you're confronted with an ambiguous, horrifying fate of someone you were tracking down, and face an utterly hopeless decision. It's memorable for that, for all its faults.

[anarchistkale]

From a narrative game design perspective it's one of the most compelling, weighty, fucking diabolical choices I've ever seen.

You're given very limited information about the situation, and everything you do learn is so ambiguous that it could plausibly support either one of two interpretations of what is going on. And then you're presented with the final dilemma, a horrifying and deeply ambiguous situation with only two possible outcomes. There's no clear "right" choice, you have to make a call based entirely on your character's values and how they would interpret the situation.

It's brilliant on so many levels! The ambiguity of the situation means that you can't optimize it in any way: play through every branch in the preceding story, dig through the wiki, do whatever you want, there is no right answer either narratively or mechanically. You have no choice but to consider the dilemma on its narrative merits and decide what you think is right. It also does an admirable job setting up a situation where there really are only two options, without that limitation feeling gamey or forced. The process can't be reversed, the Comtessa cannot be flesh again. All you can do is let it happen or put a final, definitive stop to it. And then whatever you pick, there is no clear resolution, no confirmation of whether what you did was right, and no matter what you do you will always be haunted by the specter of that choice, the horrifying implications of the possibility that you were wrong.

Off the top of my head the only other game I can think of that contains compelling choices of this calliber is Fallout New Vegas, one of the best digital RPGs of all time. Truly, the Comtessa is an all-time great piece of writing and narrative game design, and definitely one of the early highlights of Fallen London.

[carnelian-exile]

Test

[carnelian-exile]

You can only delete poll reblogs on desktop.

[carnelian-exile]

Test

[carnelian-exile]

I think the Comtessa's storyline is one of, or the, first sobering point in FL. Sure, you've been having a good time, making contacts, role-playing a Victorian, etc... And then you're confronted with an ambiguous, horrifying fate of someone you were tracking down, and face an utterly hopeless decision. It's memorable for that, for all its faults.

[yizhidaedra]

❤️❤️❤️love them❤️❤️❤️

[fallowhearth]

I've finally achieved my goal in Fallen London. I love my milling crowd of spouses. Can I have this in real life too please?

[viric-dreams]

Still thinking about her (the Wellspring). Spiritual successor to this piece.

[whatcha-thinkin]

Through exotic perversion of science you have the opportunity to add a color to the rainbow! Which will you choose?

apocyan, the color of memory

cosmogone, the color of fertility

gant, the color that remains when all others drain away

irrigo, the color of forgetting

peligin, the color of the far horizon

violant, the color of desperation

viric, the color of dreams

the prompt calls this perversion and I ain't no pervert - at least not this kind

replace the entire rainbow - let us destroy what is for the sake of what will be

Voting ended onApr 28, 2024

[shazzbaa]

NIGHTMARES IS INCREASING...

Samuel is dealing with the horrors just fine! hes fine. just needs a lil laudanum to take the edge off. Just a little, tiny, several bottles of laudanum,

wheezes and collapses HI HELLO I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED..... THIS!!!!.... I don't know what possessed me to make this out of pixels but im v pleased with how it came out!!

[Everyone has been extremely cool abt this!! but just to be sure: no Fallen London spoilers/suggestions/hints in tags, replies, etc. please! I'm still in the middle of some of the stories referenced here and I'm excited to discover it all for myself! ]

Nightmare sources referenced here:

A small, velvet-lined box from Light Fingers

The coiling spire bit from Light Fingers

Poor Edward from Light Fingers

I Shot the Albatross from the southern wind zee dreams

and of course, the Comtessa

At some point during Light Fingers I finally grabbed some laudanum to help with nightmares before some zee trip or other, and discovered that once you're Important, taking laudanum gives you "A Less Than Laudable Laudanum Habit" and that the initial, normal result is locked once your habit gets over level three. Naturally, I HAD TO KNOW.... WHAT HAPPENED AT OTHER LEVELS.....

I'd also decided to finally do the rest of the Watchful MYN at University, which I'd already heard about from several friends as a place where you are constantly going insane from the mundane stress of just, like, uncooperative witnesses while trying to solve a murder. The timing ended up perfect -- Samuel just coming back from the horrors of the Orphanage in Light Fingers and Trying To Be Normal And Hold Down A Normal Job For A Bit, and maybe just a lil laudanum to keep it together for class, and when withdrawal is ratcheting up everything, some annoyances like "can't find info for your murder investigation" might just tip you over the edge,

hilariously he hit level 8 on the laudanum habit -- helpfully labelled "a wretched slave to the hellish stuff" and the point where it stops working altogether -- IMMEDIATELY before running into a step of light fingers where you have to get rid of all your nightmares before you can proceed. HAHA OOPS.

ANYWAY HE STILL HAS IT BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT, IT TAKES A REALLY REALLY LONG TIME, TO KICK A LAUDANUM HABIT...... i, uh, dont recommend giving urself a laudanum addiction but narratively im having a great time lmao

[elementofdawn]

i don't have a double of yourself city ready but just thinking about what that city conversation would be like knocks the breath out of me. your city self gushing about how much it loves its spouse and you just have to come out of that knowing that you have to live the rest of your life as the version of you who fumbled a considerate and caring sapient tract of land willing to make it work in spite of the deception that marred the beginning of your relationship. how do you even recover from that.

[carnelian-exile]

I would shove a diamond in my heart myself

[carnelian-exile]

Kinda wish metempsychosis wasn't cancelled. I'd really like to do an ambition again

[elementofdawn]

mr fires cutiepie traits

[carnelian-exile]

-Not killing the hybrid even though it looks so tasty