Fallen London Memories Competition

[color=#0066ff]Ten years is a long time, and we’ve seen you get up to all sorts of inventive and unexpected things across the decade - but there’s plenty we must have missed! Share your memories of the Neath for the chance to win a completely exclusive prize.[/color]
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[/color][color=#0066ff]Submit your memories in any format you like (written, drawn, baked, crafted, photographed - as you please!) and our favourite in each of the following categories will win a [REDACTED] Companion for their Fallen London character![/color]
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[/color][ul][li][color=#0066ff]Worst Idea of the Decade: What’s the foolhardiest thing your character has ever done?[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0066ff]Most Characterful Affectation: What’s unusual about your character and their lifestyle?[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0066ff]Best Headcanon of the Decade: What’s clearly true, according to you?[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0066ff]Co-Operative Play of the Decade: What has another player done for you that’s made your day? (Both of you will receive a [REDACTED] Companion if you win.)[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0066ff]Real Life Memory of the Decade: How has the Neath had an effect on your Surface life? [/color]
[/li][/ul][color=#0066ff]You can enter via the dedicated channel on our Discord, this thread, or via email to replies@failbettergames.com.
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Written entries may be a maximum of 300 words long. Entries in any other format can be accompanied with up to 100 words of explanatory text.[/color]
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[/color][color=#0066ff]The competition is open internationally, and will close on 10 February 2020 at noon GMT. Here are the full terms and conditions. Good luck![/color]
edited by h4nchan on 1/11/2020

[quote=Hannah Flynn]

[ul][li][color=#0066ff]Best Headcanon of the Decade: What’s clearly true, according to you?[/color]
[/li][li][color=#0066ff]Co-Operative Play of the Decade: What has another player done for you that’s made your day? (Both of you will receive a [REDACTED] Companion if you win.)[/color][/quote][/li][li]for my head cannon, the zub doesn’t by any known form of physics work, it is held together entirely by spit and grease and prayer. I’m fairly certain it gained a consciousness after a trip to polytherm, (its listening ,its watching, its waiting.) [/li][li]for co-operative play, I must thank mr sian khan for the citnami ball, it is a wonderful role play opportunity that has really fleshed out my character.
[/li][/ul]

Worst Idea of the Decade: Seeking, of course. It’s a good idea, but not a wise one. Should I give something up? I have done so much harm… and yet I did not give up the search.

HM time to boil down a year of zailing into 300 words.

You will see a terrible essay with these strange grammars and phrases. In this regard, I want to say sorry in advance.
I am from China, and I have only been in Fallenlondon for only three months. Compared to &quotfallenlondon&quot, I have been in &quotsunless sea&quot for a longer time, about 3 years.
In China, &quotsunless sea&quot was once dubbed the Sea of IELTS because it contains a lot of unusual words. Everyone knows that this is an excellent game, but language barriers have blocked these curious new players.
I was forced to row a shabby &quotEnglish&quot boat, wandering lonely on the ocean full of &quoteccentric words&quot.
Benefiting from a delicious friend, it took him about two years to produce the Chinese translation version of sunless sea by himself. This makes the game &quotsunless sea&quot more known in China. Some new players of the sunless sea eventually joined the wonderful world of &quotfallenlondon&quot.
I want to nominate this player for &quotCo-Operative Play of the Decade&quot, but unfortunately this player is no longer active. At least on the Chinese forum, he has not spoken for a long time.
Therefore, I would like to nominate those translators who speak different languages. With their love for fallenlondon, they will tell the stories in fallenlondon to more people in their own language. Let more people touch this beautiful world.

Just now, I learned the account of the producer of the Chinese version of &quotsunless sea&quot. This is his account page: Fallen London
Whether or not he is still playing this game, I will nominate him.
edited by chiche on 1/13/2020

Co-Operative Play of the Decade: Has to go to by buddy Coleton (Fallen London) I met him sometime early 2018 via the “Who Else is Here” box, our first interaction was me challenging him to a fight to the death. He politely declined but invited me to dinner instead.

Since then we’ve been regularly rp-ing with each other, I strongly believe most of my Making Waves are just from hosting dinners and drinking coffee with him with the occasional chess game and (non lethal) sparring. I remember sending him tons of rats when he was grinding for his wedding (Fallen London)

If there was a “Best friend” quality above acquaintance, Coleton would be above and beyond that.

(Haven’t used the FL forums in a long time, so sorry if formatting is weird)

[ul][li]Worst Idea of the Decade: What’s the foolhardiest thing your character has ever done?
[/li][li]Most Characterful Affectation: What’s unusual about your character and their lifestyle?
[/li][li]Co-Operative Play of the Decade: What has another player done for you that’s made your day? (Both of you will receive a [REDACTED] Companion if you win.)[/li][/ul]
In retrospect, spending approximately 3 hours (in correspondence/guessing with actions,) in the labyrinth of tigers, all the while only gaining 3 Tincture’s, might’ve been a bad idea. Managing to get stuck in the Tomb-Colonies twice was probably the most foolhardy, though. D__n the Royal Family! They couldn’t consecutively sit still for a single afternoon!

Apart from my character’s massive wardrobe (involving a plentiful stock of bunches of ragged clothing,) and a loose hoarding obsession, compared to the Neath’s various mysteries, I’d say my character was normal. Although, I have to say, it must be hard feeding so many pets, and carrying 10 different ‘weapons’ all the time.

I’d thank Michael Long for accepting my ‘A Boxed Cat?’, for what with the odds and all. Nonetheless, I suspect some foul play involved, for I immediately opened the Starveling Cat from a bundle of oddities. Personally, I don’t think it’d be worth a penny apiece. The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Someone help, it’s turning everyone into maniacs! (No offense to them, of course!)

[quote=Hannah Flynn][color=#0066ff]or via email to replies@failbettergames.com.
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edited by h4nchan on 1/11/2020[/quote]
psa don’t put the full stop at the end of the email adress if your sending them an email :)

Headcanon: The candles are a workaround for a Name washed away with irrigo. The old Name was a sigil of the Correspondence that looked much like a candle.
Surface: I got a friend to start playing just so I could betray them.

(My new main is The Forgettable Curator, in the unlikely even that I win.)
edited by The Elfin Cannibal on 1/11/2020

[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Most Characterful Affectation:[/color]
[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]
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I have never died.
Well, okay, that is already sort of untrue. I did miss my coin flip with Feducci back then, but I was wearing the amulet. SO I declared that does not count. As it doesn’t. Even a rat agrees to that.
Besides that, I have not died. Not once. I am two shadowy points away from maxed stats, I have seen all free content I have found on all areas (well, aside from some hideous criminality, since I am a proper lady, not a thug) and SOME paid content (mostly due to the hideous poverty of my alter ego on the Surface world) but I have never seen the boatman, or the Screens of Death ™. And I intend to keep it that way. Now, I do know that doesn’t do me any good in the long run.
But one can imagine, that when one day the Neath bursts open like a cocoon and the light of judgement falls down upon the crevices and every last one of you shrivels like a priest in a pantyhose, I will remain alone, me and a smattering of newly escaped prisoners, whom I and my mighty stats will rule over like a queen.
[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)][/color]

Most Characterful Affectation:

Allegedly, I have stolen. Many times. Some might call me a Master Thief. This quality of mine is, if it could be quantified, has a level of 175, whatever that means. Of course, I’m not too sure what they’re talking about; my criminal record is as clean as Slowcake’s soul.
edited by Skyzzor on 1/11/2020

[quote=Hannah Flynn][ul][li][color=#0066ff]Real Life Memory of the Decade: How has the Neath had an effect on your Surface life?
[/color][/li][/ul][/quote]

So you are me, the Storyteller in a Changeling: the Lost Campaign which takes place in Victorian times. The PCs are people once abducted by the Fae, who returned to London forever changed.

But of course Faerie calls to them, and no matter how much they dread it, they have to answer. So how do you, the storyteller, depict Faerie, a land made of dreams, nightmares and beautiful madness, when the campaign nears its end and the players inevitably have to re-enter the land that changed them into something other than human? You get inspiration from Fallen London of course, and Seeking in particular.
Only one of your players is nine months pregnant. You warn everyone that they can stop the game if they are being uncomfortable, twice every session, but the FL storyworld proves too compelling. Nobody stops you, even when they eat their teeth and go down the well screaming. You play every week, sometimes for twelve hours straight. Everyone is shaken and everyone wants more.
The baby is born six hours after the final session. The parents, having learned nothing, make you the Godmother and return a month after for another campaign.
So this time, you base Faerie into the Sunless Skies. After all, the baby, your Godchild, came out fine.

Save that it never, ever stops eating.
edited by Jolanda Swan on 1/18/2020

[quote=Jolanda Swan]

snip

So this time, you base Faerie into the Sunless Skies. After all, the baby, your Godchild, came out fine.

Save that in never, ever stops eating.[/quote]
did they give the baby a fitting name

. . . yeah, okay, I think you win.

[/li][/ul]
Oof, this is a little hard to write. Around the time that I started playing Fallen London, something went wrong with my foot. Through nearly two years of frantic visits to specialist after specialist, struggling through endless physiotherapy desperately straining to see improvements, and wearing myself out hobbling around on crutches, eternally sweaty, exhausted and dischevelled, Fallen London distracted and entertained me, let me step out of my stressful, discouraging situation and into its strange world of mystery to go racing across roof-tops in the Flit.

Since then, adjusting to a permanent disability and the constant pain and inability to concentrate that goes with it, Fallen London’s kept on giving me glimmers of magic and excitement, in bite-sized pieces that work perfectly for hours of restless flipping through browser tabs looking for a moment outside of myself. I’ve lost much of my ability to enjoy reading books - the basic act of reading feels like walking through murky water now - Fallen London’s short-but-incredibly-engaging snippets showed me that I still love stories, and given me a path back towards finding them through the murky water. This is all pretty maudlin and melodramatic, but things are okay for me now, and I think it’s probably time I go ahead and be a little melodramatic in order to thank Failbetter and Fallen London for helping me get there. So, thanks, all of you! You’ve made something wonderful and I am very grateful for it.
edited by enail on 1/11/2020

I first joined at July 2017 and have been playing since. Here are some of my thoughts for Fallen London’s 10th Anniversary:

Worst Idea of the Decade: Buying over 100 Lucky Weasels from the Bazaar, only to realize that all of my Lodgings were infested with them. They got everywhere: leaving their &quotleavings&quot on the carpet, shedding their fur all over the lavatory, giving birth over my bed while Rattus Fabers were betting on how many were born per litter. Consequently, the best idea of the decade was to ship them all to the Court of the Wakeful Eye to see how long their luck holds out.

Best Head Canon of the Decade: Mr Veils is balding and/or has bald patches all over his body since his shed fur (which was turned into Veils-Velvet) never grew back. As a result, he took over the cloth trade and hides in darkness to hide his embarrassment. It is also why he has a natural kinship with at least one Snuffer when it comes to his other hobbits.

Best Cooperative Play of the Decade: After becoming a Patron and Paramount Presence, I have tutored many individuals in the ways of the Neath and its stories. I am especially proud of one of my former proteges, Frogvarian, who has been publishing a weekly newspaper, the Goosey Gazette, for almost a year now. If they are reading this, I want to take the opportunity to thank them for their friendship and consequent interview of Den Blackwell.

Here’s my entry for Co-Operative Play of the Decade:

There is a character named Fenoglio who I used to interact with a lot. We both needed lots of Making Waves at the time, so we made a practice of meeting at Caligula’s Coffee House. In the in-game messages we’d exchange, I invented a NPC named Bertram Griggs, who usually was assigned to bringing us pot after pot–in exchange for very generous tips. He has a wife named Florabelle, who works for Beatrice’s Tea Shop. (I was sad that FBG hadn’t opened Beatrice’s yet, as it would have allowed a better description of Mrs. Griggs’s circumstances, but we managed.) Griggs, as we call him, is a young man who is definitely going places some day–perhaps he and Florabelle will someday open a restaurant of their own.

Eventually, I became a Paramount Presence, and Fenoglio achieved the in-game goals he had that had required Making Waves, but every once in a while we exchange invitations to Caligula’s to catch up with each other and reminisce about the good times.
edited by cathyr19355 on 1/13/2020

Here’s my entry for Most Characterful Affectation:

My character came to Fallen London to avenge her murdered lover, but as her search for his murderer extended into years, she decided her ultimate goal was to help London vanquish Hell. She quickly became one of the CVR’s most prolific suppliers of Souls and Infernal Contracts. She was so effective that the Church (Renown: 52) has already decided how to canonize her after her permanent death. Hell has never suspected her, in part because she has, while caught up in perfecting her cover, accidentally sold her soul–twice! But she located and re-acquired it each time, and will not risk its loss again.

To work against Hell with maximum effectiveness, she decided to show as little partiality among the factions as she could. Her Renown among Constables and Criminals alike is 50, because while she works for one, she gives that work everything she has. With the other factions, her Renown is 40 or more–except for the Bohemians, and that is because she required so many Bohemian Favours to become Poet(ess) Laureate and a Paramount Presence. Her Renown among Bohemians is presently 35, and steadily growing.

Her other peculiarities make her appear to be yet another Fallen London social climber. She is an expert Zee Captain. She is also an avid participant in Knife and Candle; an Apple of Discord proudly fights for position on her massively over-crowded mantelpiece. Her dozen-or-so properties are occupied in part by a motley collection of cats (including 3 Starvelings) and weasels. Despite her occasional enjoyment of &quotPass the Cat&quot, her standing with the Duchess remains high (Connected: 604).

But her main objective continues to be to frustrate Hell at every turn. The Bishop of Southwark is one of her dearest friends–in carefully guarded privacy.

edited by cathyr19355 on 1/13/2020
edited by cathyr19355 on 1/13/2020

OOh, nominating a co-op player is tough for this - because everyone I seem to think of is no longer playing! But it IS a memories competition, so nominating someone from ancient history seems legit. My most memorable times were way back in early Echo Bazaar days. I was M_L_G at the time. On the old forums, the ones that preceeded these ones. The people to help figure out SMEN (original edition), our original plant-fighting ring, mapping out the new areas like the Iron Republic or Polythreme… Crawlkill, travellersside, DrJkl, so many others. If I had to pick one, I’ll nominate woogawoman. I remember she set up a whole private wiki, with all sorts of things, where we mapped out new areas. I definitely remember using it when the Iron Republic just came out, and same for Polythreme. Those were the days.
edited by Amalgamate on 1/12/2020

Four years ago, I descended to the Neath, for reasons best left unknown. I was young and naive then, though I thought myself strong. I let a Quiet Deviless tempt me, knowing I could never be swayed. I was wrong, and then my soul and the Deviless were gone. I searched desperately. I hunted through every piece of the Relickers’ scraps. I followed the Devils’ hunts in the Forgotten Quarter. Perhaps the lawlessness of the Iron Republic could nullify a contract. If my contract came alive in Polythreme, perhaps I could convince it to show me the way. It was all for naught. I gave in and consoled myself with the luxuries of the Embassy. I let the irrigo wash away my sorrows, week after week. Slowly, I forgot. Until one day in the Flit, an Urchin handed me a small, raggedy sack, full of scraps and a single bottled soul. It had been so long I almost didn’t notice, just another abandoned soul, like so many others. But no, this one was mine, at long last it had come back to me, and I’ll never let it go again.