Greetings! I am new to the game, and have a tendency to um…get sucked into things I like. I want to know everything about the lore. I want to know what will happen, what to expect,etc. I find that I actually obsess more if I don’t read spoilers than if I do. Maybe it’s the uncertainty of it all. Anyway, I’m a little frustrated because there’s a supprising lack of spoilers it seems. That’s probably a good thing though overall. For most people. How did you deal with this? Did anyone else have an unquenchable urge to know everything?
Anyway,
I came for the weasels.
Only about the queSt line that got ME interested iN the game in the first place. Beyond that, I had to look at the lore wiki to understand some things in game I didn’t quite get, and figured everything else out personally.
I think getting into the mindset of the character is a good start: imagine living in Fallen London. The average citizen has woefully inadequate knowledge of things like the Masters, the Bazaar, the various other intricacies of the Neath etc. And you don’t start playing as a distringuished professor.
Over time, as you progress in the game, play seasonal events, etc., you’ll accumulate snippets of lore, growing your knowledge and understanding. But you’ll still be playing as a citizen of Fallen London - a learned one, perhaps, but still far inferior on the Great Chain that beings such as the Masters and such. And there are almost certainly cosmic secrets that even the Masters aren’t privy to.
More pragmatically, a lot of lore is actually revealed in paid content (mainly Exceptional Stories, but also other Fate-locked stories). While the details of such content are normally kept hidden (e.g. not reproduced on the wiki), most people will be quite happy to discuss the knowledge contained therein, so as you get a better idea of how things work and start formulating specific questions about various things you can always just ask, e.g. right here on these forums. Ultimately, the lore is quite scattered and has to be pieced together, so there’s no shame in asking an experienced player who has done the work of digging through the text and cross-referencing obscure storylets to share their insights.
There are a lot of hints and suggestions throughout the early game, but it’s impossible to know what’s relevant until later. As in life, there’s a lot of misinformation floating around. What I’ve found helpful is to read through the relevant threads once you’ve completed an exceptional story or reached a content boundary. This way you can minimize any potential spoilers in advance, while fleshing out your understanding of the world in digestible chunks.
J-
To save you some end game frustrations, don’t be too curious about the Struggling artist!
I avoided spoilers too in the beginning and ended up regretting it. Not like in huge ways, but just in small OCD-ways. There’s just some stuff that you may not realize you’re missing out on or making an irreversible decision on until later. I don’t think it was anything super crucial but as someone that likes exploring everything, optimizing stuff, having a character with specific characteristics, etc., I considered restarting.
But I definitely get the appeal. I think there was a freedom to ignoring the wiki and just playing based on what’s presented. Now I’m stuck googling whenever I see a new card (and then proceeding down pages and pages of wiki to see where it leads), which is less fun, I think.
I wish failbetter would just make it so that it warns you if you’re making a decision or some sort or going down a path that’s going to introduce permanent cards into your deck, but I know some people feel that’s part of the stakes in the game so whatever.