After losing my soul for the 3rd time this Hallowmas, I’ve been beginning to wonder about something. With all the social interaction involved in the game and across the forums, why hasn’t someone devised a social interaction to help the soulless find their souls? The idea follows similarly to that of A Game of Chance. But instead of just sending packages to random Londoners, soulless individuals would request Surprise Packages to be sent to their address from other players. Those players, when they obtained the Give A Gift! card, would send a package to a soulless player of their choice in the hopes of the package reaching A Bundle of Oddities… quality of 200 to return their soul. The sender could in return ask for some form of payment as a thank you (a mutual package in return, an invite to Caligula’s, some other request, or perhaps no payment at all), in which they would list in the topic page. Simply state that you’d like to either receive or send packages on the page and list what you would like in return or what you’d be willing to pay with.
Normally I’d post the full version on the Bazaar section of the forums so players could try it out. Unfortunately, I don’t have much more than an outline for the idea, and said outline is merely a messy guideline riddled with possible errors and flaws in the system. That being the case, I figured I’d run the idea across players on the Salons before putting the idea into action. Perhaps you could give me a few ideas on how to better the system, or just your over opinion for or against it. Maybe you’d even like to take up the idea and adopt it as your own. I’d just like to see something done for the soulless population of London, so any advice or help you could spare would be much appreciated. edited by Sir Joseph Marlen on 11/9/2015
Since that card costs 1000 pence, I think a directory of social actions and their value in echoes should be listed in that thread’s OP. an_ocelot made a nice one in their thread so I think you should ask them permission to use it in your future thread.
May I suggest that rather than focusing on simply supplying the soulless, you could instead convert this to a general "Gift Exchange" thread. That way, you can also attract the less Magnanimous citizens of London to help you out.
Related to this topic, can anyone directly confirm that they’ve gotten their soul back through a Gift Box or Bundle of Oddities more than once? Here’s why I ask:
I have an alt who regained their soul through a Bundle from a Visitor last Hallowmas, then promptly turned around and sold it again for Cantigaster Venom with the seasonal offer of the devils. Shortly afterward came the nerfing of many of the easily repeatable options to get Bundles with the appropriate value for getting a soul back, but she still had access to The Student Body at the University and so camped out there for months trying to get it back (as well as opening perhaps 30ish gift boxes from friends/proteges). Along the way, she gained 10 Starveling Cats and at least that many Devilbone Dice, each of which has the same narrow odds as regaining one’s soul. This finally convinced me she either had the worst luck in the Neath or that regaining one’s soul the free way was a one-shot deal, and she had already used her one shot. I coughed up the Fate to buy back her soul and have made sure she keeps her metaphysical caprice firmly reined in from now on.
Having had this somewhat frustrating experience, it seems worth noting if folks are going to start sending along gift boxes to those who may have been parted from their soul on multiple occasions, but I’d love to hear if others have had more success.
Gloria’s sold and reclaimed her soul a few times. As long as getting the soul back doesn’t give or change a quality it won’t change anything because the game has no way of knowing whether it’s your first time or your tenth time. The Fate method of reclaiming your soul alters your metaphysical caprice quality so that it knows how many times you’ve used that option.
Since that card costs 1000 pence, I think a directory of social actions and their value in echoes should be listed in that thread’s OP. an_ocelot made a nice one in their thread so I think you should ask them permission to use it in your future thread.
May I suggest that rather than focusing on simply supplying the soulless, you could instead convert this to a general "Gift Exchange" thread. That way, you can also attract the less Magnanimous citizens of London to help you out.[/quote]
That’s a great idea! The though had crossed my mind before, and I agree that it would draw more attention than just for the soulless. I know that A Game of Chance has something slightly similar, but it’s less of mutually sending each other packages and more of sending people stuff because why not and the chance of someone sending you stuff as well. There’s also the risk of someone not reciprocating someone’s package, but there comes a likewise risk with the previous guideline so there’s no harm there in changing it. Personally, considering the community of Fallen London, I doubt that will be a major problem among the players. So yeah, thanks!
Alright, I think I have it done! It’s under the Enlist Other Players section of the forum under the title Surprise Package Postal Service. Feel free to give it a shot or lend it some criticism.
Sara, did Gloria get her soul back via The Student Body or by other means? I’m not sure that The Student Body still gives bundles with the right value for retrieving souls.
Other means. I’m thinking the student body might be capped at one point lower than the value needed to get your soul back, but I haven’t done any testing for it so I just commented on the other aspect of the post. I also brought up the reason why the free method wouldn’t be locked out after the first time just in case someone has observed a change in that behavior; I haven’t played that branch in months, so my information may be somewhat outdated.
Edit: To be slightly more transparent in my experience of retrieving souls without Fate - Gloria has lost her soul multiple times, but had it back before the change that prevented the Fisher-Kings from returning one’s soul. Madison has lost her soul once, but her retrieval of it happened post-update. Madison got hers back via The Student Body, so she may have hit that window in which that storylet still worked for it.