Most reliable way to get notability to 2?

So I’ve been sitting on the &quotan unsigned message&quot card for about 2 weeks now, and I’d like to use it to improve my professor. It’ll take me 22 making waves to force the slowcake card to change my notability but I’ve only been able to get my making waves up to at most a 15, and that’s with the hallowmas event that practically guarantees 11 making waves. Therefore I’m at a loss at this point and any advise or assistance would be much appreciated.

Okay, first thing’s first. If you’re going to do a notability grind, you need BDR. Anything that can raise your Bizarre, Dreaded, or Respectable will be invaluable to you, because the more BDR you have, the fewer waves you need to grind. BDR gear is more available to POSIs, but if you can’t access it, you can go to the Bazaar and purchase some clothing that does.

Also, social actions are your friend. Dinners are decent sources. Winning at social actions also bring waves, but that’s not really efficient. The best way to gain waves is through item conversions. I think there’s a guide somewhere in these forums for it, but the gist is, third tier conversions give waves. My preferred grind is to side-convert in circles, because you ultimately don’t lose any resources (and actually gain some, because the conversions are 50->51.) Only three side conversions actually give waves, but they make the waves grind much much easier.

I do have POSI. Would it be on the side streets that I get the BDR gear? Also, thanks for the side-conversion tip. Will give that a shot.

The POSI specific BDR items are things like your club (+4); affiliation (up to +4); transport (mostly +2 but there is a fate-locked +4 option); possibly your ship or spouse. Then there are various hats; clothes; weapons and pets that give varying amounts. For boots and gloves there are only 1 of each that give any BDR points.

They all add up and the higher the total the easier it is to get more notability.

You can also get 1CP of making waves + 47 honey, repeatably, by doing the last option on Life of the Mind in the Court. For notability 2, that’s good enough without much BDR gear (you’ll want the gear for higher levels.)
edited by Grey Kestrel on 11/11/2014

To make sure it’s clear–you need the Sidestreets or other storylines to fill in the POSI slots, but standard inventory gear that gives BDR can be bought at the regular Bazaar or through earlier stories. If you’ve unlocked the University, the academic gown is a free +1, and your Connected pet should be another. The Dilmun Club badge is another +1 that you can get through a story rather than spending money, in the weapon slot.

When it comes to POSI sources of BDR, you generally get cards that then add a storylet to the Sidestreets where you can pursue it further. Spouse, Ship and Home Comfort are long shots; you’ll want to focus on Transport, Affliation and Club.

Club does not include the Dilmun Club; you’re picking between the Stags or the Parthenaeum. But the Personal Recommendations can be tough to come by. The easiest are probably the Sedan Chair (+2 Bizarre) and Membership in God’s Editors (+4). They use mostly Strong-Back Labor and Collated Research; a Salon or an Orphanage need higher level items which, again, might be hard to come by at this stage. If you can get your stats up high enough and want to spend the Nex you can also join the Velocipede Squad to get the +4 transport.

The one other thing you can do in the Sidestreets is turn Making Waves into Nights on the Town at the Bridge Without. (You can change them back using the Rooms Above A Gambling Den card.) If you’re close to the end of the week it can be a way to bank Waves against Time the Healer.

Also–Social Actions! You can get Making Waves that way, particularly with private dinners or an appearance at Dante’s Grill. Non-POSI friends who aren’t using their Waves are a good target for the Grill.

Short answer, as everyone else has said: Get BDR. I wouldn’t even bother to try to advance on Notability before I had double digits of BDR, preferably 20 or more. (I have 26. I think I could get it to 27 by zacrificing my zubmarine for a pleasure yacht. Has anyone gotten it any higher?)

Long answer, see here. Slightly outdated basenote, as it does not refer to the social actions, but nothing in the basenote is wrong, as far as I know, and the thread has been active for a while with people contributing.

Thank you everyone for your input. And Breck for the thoughtful dinner invitation.

[quote=Humblest]Short answer, as everyone else has said: Get BDR. I wouldn’t even bother to try to advance on Notability before I had double digits of BDR, preferably 20 or more. (I have 26. I think I could get it to 27 by zacrificing my zubmarine for a pleasure yacht. Has anyone gotten it any higher?)

Long answer, see here. Slightly outdated basenote, as it does not refer to the social actions, but nothing in the basenote is wrong, as far as I know, and the thread has been active for a while with people contributing.[/quote]

I think the highest achievable BDR is 31.

Going down the personal side
2 for Tanned Mask (from the Feast of the Exceptional Rose, IIRC, costs fate)
1 from any of a number of suits and the like available from the Bazaar
1 from the Lenguals from the bazaar
3 from the golden spike rosary (Feast again, cost fate)
1 from Kingscale boots (bazaar)
4 from either the Ubergoat (costs fate and a lot of money) or the Bifurcated Owl (costs a lot more fate and a lot less money)

Going down the home comforts
4 From gods editors (Gold cards / side streets)
4 From ratwork velocipede (fate)
1 from ‘Probably a coincidence’ (Fate, Christmas Time, or at a singular point elsewhere)
2 from the pleasure yacht (Side streets)
3 from Boneless consort (fate, Flute street)
4 from your club (doesn’t matter which, gold cards / side street)

And 1 from your tattoo (again, doesn’t matter which, Feast again, fate again)

And yes, when you’ve got all that, getting the first few points of notability is not a problem once you have the amanuensis’ attention.

Edit: forgot that tattoos are fate-locked
edited by RandomWalker on 11/11/2014

Without paying fate:
1 from expensive hats from the bazaar (numerous choices)
1 for expensive bazaar clothing
1 from lenguals
2 from Iron Republic journal
1 from kingscale boots
2 from Overgoat or Unfinished Hat (don’t think that there’s a 3 point buyable pet?)

4 from God’s editors
2 from the Clay Sedan or respectable landau
1 from shrine of St. Joshua (midnighter profession)
2 from pleasure yacht
0 from your spouse
4 from your club

and 0 from your tattoo

Which totals 21
(Edit: forgot about the shrine, and that tattoos are fate-locked)
edited by RandomWalker on 11/11/2014

[quote=RandomWalker][quote=Humblest]Short answer, as everyone else has said: Get BDR. I wouldn’t even bother to try to advance on Notability before I had double digits of BDR, preferably 20 or more. (I have 26. I think I could get it to 27 by zacrificing my zubmarine for a pleasure yacht. Has anyone gotten it any higher?)

I think the highest achievable BDR is 31.

Going down the home comforts
3 from Boneless consort (fate, Flute street)
And 1 from your tattoo (again, doesn’t matter which, Feast again)

[/quote]

Ah, I forgot about the Boneless Consort. I should maybe get me one of those, although leaving the Celebrated Model would be… traumatic.

Also, I was sure I had a tattoo. I remember that storyline from last February, and yet I can’t find it in my inventory, nor does one seem to be showing up in my BDR balance. Is it possible I chose one without a BDR bonus? Where are they kept under the inventory/qualities system?

Your tattoo should be among your qualities, and also show up as a 1+X for one of your BDR qualities on the left side of the screen. It’d be the only BDR quality with a base level.

Oh, I see! It’s a dreaded quality inherent to me, because it’s a tattoo, rather than as gear.
Thanks!

Ooops. Tattoos are fate-locked too. Forgot.
They appear under ‘Circumstance’

[quote=RandomWalker]Ooops. Tattoos are fate-locked too. Forgot.
They appear under ‘Circumstance’[/quote]Well, technically Fate-locked, since you get the needed Fate-point before going into that part of the story. I’d be tempted to call the Fate-point for the Übergoat a technicality as well, but then, technically, you still have to have it or buy Nex, so…

Short answer, as everyone else has said: Get BDR. I wouldn’t even bother to try to advance on Notability before I had double digits of BDR, preferably 20 or more. (I have 26. I think I could get it to 27 by zacrificing my zubmarine for a pleasure yacht. Has anyone gotten it any higher?).[/quote]

I feel like this is a little excessive; Hannibal’s trying to raise a single Notability point for just long enough to advance his profession. An improved profession is a great way to get the resources you need for POSI items in the first place.

I can agree I wouldn’t try to go for a Tier 3 profession (5 Notability) without double digits of BDR.

[quote=Breckner]I feel like this is a little excessive; Hannibal’s trying to raise a single Notability point for just long enough to advance his profession. An improved profession is a great way to get the resources you need for POSI items in the first place.

I can agree I wouldn’t try to go for a Tier 3 profession (5 Notability) without double digits of BDR.[/quote]

It actually takes about the same effort to go from 0 to 15 Making Waves (1+2+…15 = 120) as to go from 15 to 22 (16+17+…22 = 133.)

One can quibble about the exact amount of BDR needed depending on play style, available cards, stats, etc. Probably none is strictly necessary if you have a good acquaintance, have the right lodging, and are willing to spend a point or two of fate. But I’d really advocate the BDR gear, especially since it’s yours to keep forever. In this case, 7 points of it will cut the difficulty by half.

…and a conjurer is born. Many thanks for everyone’s input, even the…loftier goals proposed by some. Something to consider in the future I’m sure.

In the end I had 3 points of BDR, and made it to 21 MW with this scheme from the linked page:

[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)]1879 Wine -> Honey -> Notions -> Visions Of T.S. -> Mysteries Of E.C. -> Incendiary Gossip -> Memories Of D.S. -> Brilliant Souls->[/color]
[color=rgb(194, 194, 194)]Tale Of T. -> Compromising Docs -> Stolen Kisses -> Favours In H.P. [/color]