I’ve been thinking about it lately, and kindly ask more experienced citizens of the Neath (meaning - you) for advice and probably a share of their story: what’s the point of having second character in Fallen London, and is it worth it?
I don’t have one yet, but from so far it seems that apart from different Ambition and half a dozen of other stories (or even merely branches of stories) the gameplay will be same! Is it so?
Or you create second/third/you-name-it character solely for roleplaying reasons?
Look forward to hearing your opinion and expert view.
Sincerely yours, SirKwint.
P.S. Appologies if this someone has raised this question already, but with limited outcomes in search it’s a bit hard to tell for sure.If so, please share a link.
is it worth it? well, depends. I had alternative accounts specifically to experience different ambitions (other reasons to have alts: SMEN, which is a very destructive storyline. I’m doing it on my main bc #yolo. Roleplay reasons. Also, there are some mechanical advantages you could squeeze out of alts. Sending Menaces reductions between the alts and all that. Not sure if it’s hm, allowed, but it is an option.)
However, I rather quickly got bored by alt accounts and couldn’t quite get as invested in them as in my main accounts. So for me, it wasn’t really worth it. But a lot of people will disagree, certainly. In the end, it depends on how much free time and dedication do you have ;)
I like having different characters. That way I can explore different content (Ambitions; Occupations; different paths through Exceptional stories or just regular content). I try to not let them interact with each other very often.
But I have a lot of time IRL and I really like Fallen London.
If you’re interested in roleplaying a completely different character, -or- if you’re interested in seeing what content you missed out with your first character (Maybe because you didn’t know better, didn’t check the wiki, RP-reasons, etc), I’d definitely recommend it :D
In my case, it also made waiting for actions a bit easier.
I made alts for alternative experience, but they typically degenerate into being some sort of dumping ground barring exceptional accidents.
Maybe make a second character to experience Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name, perhaps? For some people, choosing a different Ambition doesn’t really bring much of a different experience, but SMEN is in a league of its own. edited by Estelle Knoht on 7/6/2017
SMEN requires an alt. Either to avoid damaging your main, or to become your main after your old main is too mangled to keep using for general gameplay. edited by Harlocke on 7/6/2017
I made an alt because I wanted to see the other ambitions. That’s the theory, but I haven’t gone very far at all with it. Ideally I’d need two more to see all four, and I’d like to do that, but I’m not sure I’ll actually ever get around to it.
Right now my alt is mostly just playing through all the stuff I already did but entirely forgot about, and seeing all those opportunity cards I don’t get any more on my main. I am actually quite enjoying that. Sometimes I just want more of a Fallen London fix and my main is out of actions. And while the election is on, her on-demand menace reduction is coming in quite handy.
I think once I have started to run out of things to do I might make another alt purely for the purposes of SMEN. I really don’t want to put my main through that. Her self-destructive tendencies have other outlets.
I created my alt by accident. Originally, you needed a Twitter account to play Fallen London (which was then called Echo Bazaar). But the connections between the game and Twitter were somewhat buggy. So when FBG first made it possible to play the game via one’s e-mail account, I wanted to transfer my character to my e-mail account. Instead, I screwed up and created a new character. I was afraid that attempting to collapse the two characters into each other afterward would lose me the years of progress I’d made on my main character, so I decided to keep the characters separate.
Otherwise, I have nothing much to add to what’s been said. I agree with Harlocke that it’s good to have an alt if you want to play the Seeking Mr. Eaten content (and that’s what my alt is now doing), and I agree with some of the other commenters that it’s nice to be able to play some stories from different points of view, or to replay, through a new(er) character stories that one has mostly forgotten.
Having an alt to refresh your memory on early stories is great. I made one after the “Making your Name” revamps were completed and I’ll likely do the same once the Renown conversions are through. Aiming for SMEN long term is a good plan; if playing your alt gets boring, you can nail them to the sky and walk away.
I’ve got four characters, one for each ambition, and I’ve taken each to the cap on the ambition content. I still consider Tay1or to be my main character, though.
I created my second character because my first began Seeking. My first character is now my alt and my second character is my main; in other words, alts and mains are a matter of perspective.
If you’re not an Exceptional Friend, having an alt might help. You wouldn’t have to change your playing habits much, since you can just empty the candle on one account and then empty the candle on the next, and it gives you effectively twice the actions to play with, as well as the opportunity to experience different storylines, especially the Ambitions or Seeking.
Playing an alt is more time-consuming, though, and it can grow boring if you don’t have a goal in mind. I’ve only really kept on playing my first character because of Seeking, and if it wasn’t for that, I probably would’ve left them by the wayside a while ago. Really, it just depends on how much time you have and how much you want to invest in the game.
Good insights–I wanted to do all the ambitions, but I also really wanted to just play more, and that 20-action candle was a pain. Once I got to the current end of the ambition story, I really scaled back on the other 3 characters and only really trot them out for the election, Christmas, etc. Tay1or is an exceptional friend and currently working towards SoTC 21.
My alt doesn’t get super heavy usage but replaying through the early game was fun and I’m enjoying seeing another ambition
Also my second account has a much clearer character than my first bc I went in to FL the first time sort of trying to do/see everything while with Julliah I pretty much only make decisions ‘in character’
My main was tossed to SMEN. I don’t rp as much as I should even with my ‘alt,’ but it’s nice to see a new ambition and was def worth it, but I’m also not juggling multiple characters since one is permanently gone to SMEN.
My main, Aardent, is headed North. Her husband will replace her as my main character. My three com padres serve to keep me from becoming completely bored with grinding for resources. I have to make the most of my time since it is very limited, and I find that RP with my own alts is more expedient than trying to work around other players schedules. I also don’t want to disappoint others when I can’t reply to a social actions within reasonable a reasonable time. Mostly, I just like having multiple personalities.
I have two alts. Different Ambitions, different faction alignments, mostly different contacts, often different response to same situations. The main does get more attention - I often check in from the phone app on her, but the alts only get played when I get to the comp. I definitely like having them, it helps with the burning curiosity “what would happen if I chose differently?” Real Life™ is deterministic enough, I like having options in virtual environment.
Like Aardent, above, I like having multiple personalities. But none of mine are going North in the forseeable future. Not my thing.