How bad do I have to be?

Fallen London
1

I’m braaaaand new here, and find myself most drawn to the storylets that let me pursue writing commissions and romance passionate bohemians. Given the chance to do something violent or treacherous, I’d rather not. Accordingly, I’ve built up my persuasive to a reasonable number in just a few days, while my dangerous and shadowy are languishing badly.

How far can I advance in the game focusing on just the stories and skills I like pursuing? Will I eventually need to become more wicked? I like the character I’m creating, how much do I need to compromise their values to advance?

For example, I’d like to someday enter the University, but not by snitching on people to the cops. Is there an alternate route to becoming more watchful? And I’d like to help the Blind Pianist smuggle someone out of Hell, but I apparently need to become far more shadowy. Can I do that without becoming heartless and ruthless? Whether or not it’s strategic, I’m enjoying becoming magnanimous.

Thanks for tips on this early-game strategy for someone who’s brand new to it all.

By the way, what does Seeking mean and why do folks shun it?

2

As far as individual early-game stories go, all of the ones marked ‘Making your Name’ must be done at some point to advance the main plot (there are four different branches of MyN, one for each of the main stats). Anything not marked ‘Making your Name’ is optional and won’t unlock anything huge. There isn’t much of a penalty for neglecting some stats early on, but a lot of mid/late game content is gated behind a check that requires you to have all your stats up to 100 (with equipment), so don’t make the same mistake I did and have to spend ages grinding one individual stat that you ignored.

Seeking is a story somewhere in Fallen London that you really shouldn’t do. You’ll know if you come across it.

3

I’m not sure how much it would take to be a “compromise” of your character’s values, but for the most part the game’s stories don’t railroad you into particularly good or evil roles. Usually you have a choice of methods, and of course you always have your own personal justifications for what you do. I will say you never have to directly kill anyone permanently if you don’t want to (though it may often be tempting to engineer the demise of others or neglect to help them; I often have that problem when sailing at zee, since saving sinking ships isn’t profitable).

I would suggest just following the Making Your Name stories and if you don’t feel like continuing one of them, then don’t. Nothing is truly required.

As for Seeking… don’t do it. Following that road to completion will permanently destroy your character and likely your sanity. It’s an end-game thing for people who want to quit the game with a bang, or have alts to sacrifice to satisfy their curiosity.

4

To advance shadowy you’ll eventually need to commit a lot of burglaries. Burglaries are also the practical source of many items you’ll need later on. And dangerous will require you to participate in fighting rings and a dueling society. So you’ll have to be both a criminal and a fighter, but you don’t have to do anything particularly evil or treacherous.

5

Worth noting: depending on your character’s morals and politics, it is possible to progress by stealing only from the villainous. For instance, stealing seized books back from the secret police, or stealing souls from Hell to return to their owners. In short, you have to be a rogue, but you don’t have to be a damnable rogue. Similarly, while making your name means proving your mettle in the fighting-ring, you don’t have to be a brute and a murderer - it’s possible to stay on the path of the honourable martial artist.

6

It’s possible to make it through FL with only a slight tarnish on your escutcheon, but this is Hell, after all, and we’re all damned. Most of the stories in which you will engage have solutions that allow you to be as good or bad as you wish. The exception is Seeking, which will require you to be a rather nasty individual to advance the story, although you can be as nice as you please in your social interactions. But Seeking is not something a new character should be concerned with (or could get very far in), so avoid it. It is a controversial narrative creation by founder of FL (who just retired from the company recently), to explore some of the darker themes of the human psyche and to create an obsession for players who have done it all several times already. As noted above, the ultimate end of Seeking is the literal destruction of your character and removal from play.
In short, you don’t have to be bad at all, so long as you don’t consider a rather liberal attitude towards the possessions of others to be bad. One could be very bad indeed, if he chose, and it is often more profitable to be bad, but comporting yourself with honor and decency is well within the bounds of the game.

– Mal

7

[quote=Monique Deja] How far can I advance in the game focusing on just the stories and skills I like pursuing? Will I eventually need to become more wicked? I like the character I’m creating, how much do I need to compromise their values to advance?
[/quote]

As a fellow new player I had many of the same issues - I wanted to focus on being curious and social but soon found myself with choices that I did not like. I agree with the other comments that you can definitely pick and choose your stories and still do fine. However I have come to believe that these choices are designed to make you slowly compromise and become darker. I might be imagining it, but I have felt that almost from the start. My solution/reaction is to have my character slowly become more accustomed to what the city seems to be about - which in game terms means I sometimes will pick choices because it seems more normal to her now. It feels very much like a change in character brought on by the environment she is in, yet still partly holding on to her own values. Hopefully that makes sense!

8

@Felicity Anne Stratford: there might be something to that, I agree. I think FL consciously wants to be a bit darker than the typical goody-two-shoes RPG, and wants to encourage the player to make compromises that blacken the soul, ever so slightly. That said, one can get by quite nicely by being mostly nice. Or one can be irredeemably evil, but hey, the Brass Embassy is full of the irredeemable evil, and Lucifer remains a gentleman.
And your first profile link is definitely broken.

– Mal
edited by malthaussen on 10/17/2016

9

[quote=malthaussen]@Felicity Anne Stratford: there might be something to that, I agree. I think FL consciously wants to be a bit darker than the typical goody-two-shoes RPG, and wants to encourage the player to make compromises that blacken the soul, ever so slightly. That said, one can get by quite nicely by being mostly nice. Or one can be irredeemably evil, but hey, the Brass Embassy is full of the irredeemable evil, and Lucifer remains a gentleman.
And your first profile link is definitely broken.

– Mal
edited by malthaussen on 10/17/2016[/quote]
Or, if you ask the right people, heaven is full of the irredeemably evil, and all the ones who can be redeemed are in hell. Maltheistic Christianity has almost certainly bloomed with the vast numbers of crooked-crosses down here, as has a more… accurate view in-universe. In general, london’s religion is mostly christianity, but there’s a tangled mess of true-and-false faiths down here as well from locals or simply imaginative londoners, and apatheists.

More on-topic. Watchful lets you choose whether to aid hell, or hinder it- it’s your choice which you do, but there’s no middle ground- either you’re aiding or hurting criminals. if you’re talking about the devil, though, you get to choose your course of action at the story’s end.

Dangerous forces you to kill a rat (that’s not a euphemism, by the way), as well as a number of sentient rats who have invaded your house and waged war upon you. The latter, though, can be done with no murder whatsoever- just talking them down and maybe not buying food for yourself and for them to steal, and all other storylines can be completed without any murder involved- with the exception of a single, really nasty thing that anyone with sense would only regret that they didn’t kill the entire population.

Shadowy requires stealing, but some of those factions really deserve a good robbery. Hell, the ministry of censorship, and so on. it’s more efficient to steal from the factions that don’t as well, of course, but you can do it only playing a robin hood. That said, yes, shadowy is about stealing things, so… you might need to avoid that. Early game, you rob someone who probably doesn’t deserve it, and even if they did, you didn’t know that. On the other hand, they were wealthy enough that I doubt you seriously harmed them.
edited by Grenem on 10/17/2016

10

[quote=malthaussen]
And your first profile link is definitely broken.
edited by malthaussen on 10/17/2016[/quote]

Thanks @malthaussen - I am leaving it there just in case they go back to the old way. Maybe I am being optimistic?

–Becca

11

[quote=Felicity Anne Stratford][quote=malthaussen]
And your first profile link is definitely broken.
edited by malthaussen on 10/17/2016[/quote]

Thanks @malthaussen - I am leaving it there just in case they go back to the old way. Maybe I am being optimistic?

–Becca[/quote]
You’re not, I’m pretty sure this is a bug. Still, it’s probably going to stay broken for an indeterminate period of time.

12

You do have to break into a police station at one point, but you can do it in order to find all the unsolved crime files and solve them yourself.

Also, as a person of some importance you can open up your own orphanage.

13

True murder is also incredibly rare in London, due to to the Neath’s curious effect on mortality. Even in the rare instances where you do kill someone, they usually just wake up a few hours later with a bad headache. Permanent murder is pretty rare and even has its own special quality to track how often you do it, Bringer of Death. And it’s pretty optional to permanently murder anyone, and when you’re given the choice sometimes it’s morally gray whether it’s actually a noble act to kill your target.

14

Or an accident- In-so-far as a perma-death in the black ribbon can be accidental.

15

Who else can you permanently kill in the black ribbon? I thought it was just the drownie and vendrick, and both kills are deliberate should you choose to battle them.

16

Can you get through the black ribbon without killing anyone for real? I know the drownie you can just persuade, but I don’t remember whether the Vendrick duel is mandatory or not.

17

The lethal Vendrick duel is not mandatory. If you dealt with the Drownie, it’s the only option open, but you can ignore it.

18

Duelling Vendrick is not mandatory. You can bypass him and go on to the Fencing Master.

– Mal

19

is still mad at herself for killing Vendrick

For some reason I thought that since I didn’t kill the Drownie, the poor guy wouldn’t die. I still don’t know why there isn’t an option to tell him she isn’t dead.

20

I’m not sure how much harder sticking to the lighter side of shadowy activities is now, as I got to the high reaches before the making your name revamps hit and didn’t choose the option to start those quest lines over from the beginning.

I know I managed to do pretty well keeping the outright burglaries aimed at &quotacceptable targets&quot like the censors of the Ministry of Public Decency, spirifers, and the like instead of robbing the little people (help the regular constables take out the robbers, murderers, and arsonists plaguing the common folk, but undermine the special constables wherever possible). I try to keep most of the rest of my shadowy activities centered around spycraft and digging up secrets, rather than nicking valuables. Yeah, there’s a lot of breaking and entering, and maybe the occasional bit of blackmail, but it’s all either in service of helping out the little guy, advancing the cause academia and proper scientific investigation into neathy mysteries, or just your typical good sport as part of The Game.

As for perma-killing someone, I don’t think there’s anywhere where that’s actually required. Even in the Nemesis ambition, you have the choice to kill or spare certain key characters. I chose the former, because I didn’t come all the way down to the Neath NOT to wreak bloody vengeance on my brother’s murderer (though my character does seem rather more occupied with academia and publishing scientific papers…with a bit of poetry and novel publishing, crime solving, and some spy-mastery as side hobbies).