How ambitious should I be?

I am about 2 weeks into my FL career… I haven’t yet chosen an Ambition, since I understand they are hard to change… am I missing out on too much and should I pick one and run with it? Or should I wait until I am sure?

I wasn’t too impressed with any of the Ambitions, none of them exactly hit the spot, but I did finally start one. From what I hear, they are long, convoluted, present difficult moral choices, and aren’t done yet. Yes, there is a lot of content, and they will take you all over London. You’re not missing anything if you don’t start immediately, though, and they quickly become tough challenges, so you might want to raise your stats a bit first.
Much larger thread about this here: http://community.failbettergames.com/topic687-picking-an-ambition.aspx

– Mal
edited by malthaussen on 11/17/2015

I went with the Heart’s Desire Ambition because none of the others applied to my character. Despite completing all the content to date she still doesn’t know what her heart ‘desires’ but perhaps yours will as they spend more time in London.

I personally have the Bag a Legend! ambition. Though it doesn’t always match my character’s personality and goals, I’ve enjoyed it quite a bit thus far. Note though that Bag a Legend, Nemesis, and Heart’s Desire are all one update from completion while Light Fingers is two away. The updates are pretty rare, as since Ambitions were introduced in 2012 or so, the first three I listed have received one each.

I wouldn’t really call Nemesis a drama, as most of the actual drama happens right at the start and supposedly closer to the end. Everything in-between felt more like a thrilling chase around the sinister and secretive (and so exciting!) places all around Fallen London. Not that it has to do anything with my not-so-stellar moral principles.
edited by Talkes on 11/17/2015

I would also add there are certain points in each where you have to make choices where you are not a good person, such as … freeing something that an individual doesn’t want freed, and that they may have had good reason for, or making them think that it was freed.

on the other hand, most of fallen london has sections where the only way forwards is to be a not-good person, and this is not really an exception.

I’m at the content boundary for Light Fingers (and still bitter that it hasn’t gotten its update yet) and have another character partway through Nemesis, and Light Fingers is my favorite of the two. It’s certainly… not what it initially appears to be. Light Fingers also gives you an explicit opportunity to reset your ambition for free about when it starts to go off the rails of the initial plot hook, so you can try it risk-free and reset if you don’t like it. The others, to my knowledge, don’t give you this chance, probably because their plots actually stick pretty close to their initial descriptions.
edited by Zantumall on 11/17/2015

I’ll add as someone currently in the Heart’s Desire ambition that while it is certainly comedic, it requires you to take more and more extreme actions to keep things moving the further you go. I’m currently stalled and considering buying a reset, because it’s getting to the point where my character would have to go much farther than he’s comfortable in order to keep the card game on track.

As a person who is currently ([very] impatiently) waiting for a Light Fingers update, let me put it this way: have you ever played the Thief series? The old games, I mean? Light Fingers brings them to mind, as far as dark, horror-y atmosphere is concerned. Plus a few unique twists.

Hell, this Ambition even makes you search an expy of Shalebridge Cradle at one point.

is it the six player, or the seventh? Personally, I had no problem with either’s options. The sixth may not want to have such horrible things happen, but they’re really not all that bad. Either you don’t like the sixth, and so you’re acting to spite their kind, or you do, and you’re acting on the knowledge that this can’t really be all that bad.

the seventh offers you the choice of three, and it’s highly improbable both the viable actions are against your morals. either you want to hurt him and his kin, or you want to help him. there’s not really an in-between, imo.Other than that, everything felt reasonable- though the stake is more the scale of traditional soul-sales than fallen london traditional ones, the forshadowing indicates.
edited by Grenem on 11/17/2015