A constable strikes a pointed conversation with you outside your doorstep. Been out much, lately? See any masked packs of man-hunters on the streets? Ingest any unanticipated poisons?
Hello, delicious friends. Today we’re releasing a new, free update for late game players.
Hearts’ Game is a new activity that exists in the tradition of Knife-and-Candle – a nameless game of poison and delight, run by Mr Hearts from the old (but recently renovated) Gamekeeper’s Cottage. You’ll gather a team of practised murderers, and pursue a target handpicked by Mr Hearts.
I want to be clear upfront that this is not a replacement or a revival of Knife-and-Candle. It doesn’t have a social component, and the rules and fiction are quite different. Hearts’ Game originates with the professional activities for endgame professions; after seeing the positive response to those, we wanted to once again do something similar in scope. This time we’re doing one big activity that we will gradually expand with each update, adding new cards and adjusting the game as we go.
To begin, make sure you are a tier 2 Person of Some Importance (Extraordinary Mind, Shattering Force, Legendary Charisma, or Invisible Eminence); and that you have at least 200 Dangerous. Once you do, a card called ‘A Dangerous New Pastime?’ should appear.
The true nature of the game will only reveal itself over time. I’ll leave the process of discovering how it all works to you. Good luck.
The option made available after picking your teams informs us about the outfit, but, as many others, maybe you didn’t fully register that information before clicking!
I wonder how long is the season.
It seems that basic strategy is to get some direct progress first and the second half of the way is for spending preparations.
Judging by rewards EpA is around 4. Maybe a bit more since we can sell organza in Rat Market.
Right, having completed a round, I’ll say this: I do very much enjoy this new addition to the endgame!
I’ll need to try it again soon, with a full candle worth of actions and a proper outfit, to see how it really flows. Because it seemed a bit long to me as it is, but I was really not trying it under the best circumstances.
The rewards look nice, too, and I’m really really curious as to what the trophy (or trophies) is.
I would just like to offer a congratulations to our brave wiki editors, who have already begin filling out pages only three hours after it has been released!
I wish my team had a name! Right now I have to settle for saying “me & the boys.” Me and the boys are going out for a round or two.
I like my team. I have two Accomplices that test against my main stat (Shadowy). I have something to use Moods on now! What a novelty.
I’m curious to see how this will evolve. It definitely looks like a long-term commitment. I won’t see all of the accomplices for quite a while, since you stick with your team.
Based on inference and guesswork. Everything is provisional. FBG could patch things when you’re not looking, or even when you are.
Elusiveness: Chance to increase by +3 CP per action, but that chance reaches 100% by 7 actions into the Round. This is a timer to the round’s end, but slowing you down is even more important than the hard timer.
Poisoner’s Progress: CP gain is reduced by your Elusiveness. This is a big deal because if you get behind it’s very hard to catch up. A Round can become Doomed if Poisoner gain becomes slower than the inevitable march of Elusiveness.
Poisoner’s Preparations: actions that require more Preparations also give more Poisoner’s Progress. The largest, to my knowledge, requires 4 prep and gives 14-E progress.
Personally I’m leaning in favor of the high-prep actions, because they are not as blunted by Elusiveness as much. I’ve only attempted low-prep actions during the Tutorial, but they just seem like it’s too easy to get underwater with Elusiveness and not be able to recover. Perhaps it’s viable with aggressive play and using Roots to mitigate Elusiveness.
I’m running with a Shadowy team (Spine and Liver), and it’s working out quite well: Liver has an action that grants 2x Prep, and Spine’s cards have high-prep, high-progress options. (Talons contributes minor prep.) Compared to my team in the Tutorial where I wasn’t able to make progress quickly enough, this team is able to make significant Progress even with high Elusiveness. It feels easier to right the ship after some bad card pulls.
YMMV. Definitely helps that Shadowy is my best stat.
Can one ever change teams? I’ve lost about 13 rounds now with a crap KT team with no option to change, though several of those were fast-fails by referee (to finish up an obvious loser) which says it would end the round as a loss.
Oh, wow, the 2x prep options seems nice. The team I put together all tests Kataleptic Toxicology, but the best Prep available gives just 1 CP, and I assumed everything gave 1. I’ve been spending 6 actions increasing Prep, then the rest on the 70% KT checks to get 8 or 6 progress on success. Occasionally clearing my hand for 2 progress if I get bad draws (no 6 or 8 progress option).
So far I’ve won 3 and lost none, but all 3 were real close victories, 1-2 turns away from failure.
I’ll keep playing with this team until the end of the 10-round bout and then change it, try some of the teams that have 2-prep options because those seem great.
I could have sworn I’ve seen one. I think after the end of the round, or at the beginning of a round, there’s an option to toss out your current team and make a new one? But I haven’t played it yet.
According to the wiki, it’s the “Separate from your Accomplices” option of the “Another Round” storylet, which you get redirected to at the end of a bout, after you win or lose: https://fallenlondon.wiki/wiki/Another_Round%3F
