I was recently looking over the four existing Ambitions, and I noticed that there are some unused combinations for the main qualities involved. In other words, the existing four break down like this -
Nemesis - Watchful and Dangerous
Bag a Legend - Dangerous and Watchful
Light Fingers - Shadowy and Persuasive
Heart’s Desire - Persuasive and Watchful
The unused combinations are -
Watchful and Shadowy
Persuasive and Dangerous
Shadowy and Dangerous
So it got me thinking, what if there were three more available Ambitions that used these qualities to sort of… define the course of their story? I thought it would be fun to share my musings on the subject, and see if anyone else had ideas for new Ambitions.
Shadowy and Dangerous - King’s Crown - This Ambition is all about becoming the King of London’s criminal underworld. You start out building your own gang, and carving out a piece of territory in Spite. Over the course of the story, you have to remove several key players from power, including well-connected people in the Palace, the Docks, and… well, the Topsy King isn’t really hurting anyone. Eventually, to earn your actual crown, you must venture to Hell itself to prove to the Devils that you’re the baddest of them all!
Persuasive and Dangerous - Revolution! - You came to London to bring the revolution and shake the very foundations of the earth. You start out by gathering a following in Veilgarden and making small moves against the Masters. Eventually you are faced with the decision to either join the Calendar Council or work against them. Your efforts to strike a blow against the Masters will eventually bring you back to the Surface, where you can gather allies for your cause.
Watchful and Shadowy - Checkmate - You came to the Neath as an agent of one of the great Surface powers (you can choose which one). Your mission is to infiltrate the highest levels of London government and military, and bring them down from within. At least initially. You may change your loyalties as you progress through the story, eventually discovering that every side you play the game for is controlled by more sinister, secretive forces.
While I particularly enjoy the idea of King’s Crown, as that would indeed fit my Ambition perfectly, let’s be honest. Four Ambitions are huge projects for them to get new content out for on a regular basis. Increasing that to The Number would be…challenging, at best.
My only criticism is that each of the new ambitions tie themselves down to a faction, whereas the old ambitions at least somewhat avoid this. Otherwise, a grand idea. Unlikely to happen, but a grand idea still.
Sounds like a neat idea. You should write them up.
Maybe write up the copy and put it up on Storynexus as a proof of concept? That way you can revise and edit before submitting to FBG.
Technically, there is 8 free "slots" at the moment. I could have shared my thoughts on general direction of each, but I am sure you would not appreciate that.
Man/Hour question.
It seems like each ambition "slab" has 3 options in average, and each route (including storylet, option description and result page) takes 2-5 A4 pages filled with TNR’14 text content. Current length of "bag a legend" is either 71 or 72 "slabs", which means that average ambition’s size would hardly be less than 400 previously mentioned pages.
Ehm… Unless you are Leo Tolstoy, maybe it is worth focusing on writing and composing one ambition ? edited by Andrew Astherson on 9/17/2015
[li]Checkmate strikes me as cool. A lot of implications and clues are already in the game about what the surface powers are doing and one could focus on the admirality more. Maybe have a portion of it take place in Khan’s shadow as you track a well known informent for the white and gold. I’d say the cheesemonger would fit in there quite well assuming you hadn’t killed her… Might give collated research and blackmail material a few more uses as well.
You could also focus on other groups (brass embassy, criminals, society) and how they interact with and manipulate the great game.[/li][li] edited by sebastian olmen on 9/17/2015
Thank you for the responses, I was merely musing, and seeing if anyone else had similar ideas. My plate is a bit full to be writing what amounts to a whole interactive novel. I also quite enjoy the existing Ambitions, and I think of course the priority should be finishing those, rather than writing new ones.
This is a good idea, and I might try my hand at it later on. I wrote a way-too-ambitious game in Storynexus, and then abandoned it. Maybe writing in Fallen London’s world would inspire me a bit more. The thing is, it seems like if I wanted to break into interactive fiction, it would be better to start in ChoiceScript or something like that, where I could make a little money while I’m building a portfolio.
[quote=Nigel Overstreet]Sounds like a neat idea. You should write them up.
Maybe write up the copy and put it up on Storynexus as a proof of concept? That way you can revise and edit before submitting to FBG.