On the matters of manners.

I have been playing FL for nearly a year now. Two months ago I joined the leagues with no intention to fight anyone and put no invitations in the forums. I eventually got my prize tokens and brought a knife of lost sky, and a shroud. And then I was immediately jumped with no prior warning with an elusive attack and had my hard won gear stolen by [another player]
Now he isn’t responding to my frantic letters in the hopes of getting my gear back so I dont have to wait another month…
Is this sort of behavior considered polite? He is clearly a character that had no need to steal those items from me and yet he did so anyway…
What is polite and what isn’t here?

[color=#e53e00]Hi guys - locking this thread, as it’s turned into social shaming for someone who is playing the game as it is allowed to be played. In general it’s poor show to police player actions which aren’t exploiting any bugs via public outings on forums, and I’ve seen it happening more often of late. Can we strive to avoid it?[/color]
edited by babelfishwars on 12/8/2015

How did he know if you never attacked anyone?

I’m sorry that you lost your stuff.

Personally I don’t play K&C any more because I didn’t enjoy it, for similar reasons. If this is a risk you no longer wish to take, you may wish to drop your form to keep yourself from being attacked–perhaps after you get your stuff back.

I was in his contacts from hallowmas… Something I truly regret now. I suppose I have to save up for an infernal sharpshooters rifle to replace the knife now.
And there go my two moods in the desperate hopes of getting my stuff back…
edited by The tearful archaeologist. on 12/7/2015

Live by the candle, die by the knife.

Poor show poacher, poor show!
edited by Hobnail on 12/7/2015

Isn’t that backwards? it’s the candles that are truly dangerous, here. The knives are simply… well, i should say generally, the candles are the dangerous ones.

Honestly, try contacting him via private messaging on this forum. I believe he’s active here?

Honestly, I wouldn’t call that impolite. Kind of the point of Knife and Candle is that investing in prizes carries risk - that’s why you’re allowed to steal them in the first place. And it’s hardly common practice to warn your opponent before you ambush them. You can (and should) try to steal them back if you need them, you always have a chance to win attacks even when the opponent’s stat is much higher than yours. If you absolutely need that knife on a long-term basis, then swipe it back and immediately quit the league.

Unfortunately the Iron League is an anything goes kind of a fair. Polite? Polite isn’t really the point when you’re stabbing people and taking their stuff. If you’d like to duel like a gentleman the Moon League is more involved but requires willing participation and has options that one can take to ensure no one takes your stuff.

As certain storyette cards show, the game used to be…more refined. Then certain…undesirables showed up and &quotUmpires&quot were needed. The example above is exactly why we could use umpires here for players.[/quote]
No, it’s not. All the knife-and-candle text implies the game is exactly as dirty as it is on our end, if not more, and the umpires only get involved if non-players are involved. If takuza is massacring knife and candle players by the boatload, she’s not a problem, but if eolande, in self defense, blows up a city block, she is. This is the idea in every storylet associated with being a knife-and-candle umpire.

EDIT: which is not to say there are not matters of etiquite/honor, there are. they just have no need to be enforced, and i feel it would ruin what little flavor the game has.
edited by Grenem on 12/8/2015

Personally, I think it’s impolite to attack someone whose contact one only has because of the Hallowmas list. Contacts were given there for Hallowmas purposes not to invite hostile actions. However, not everyone’s going to agree with this view. Keeping a stance will leave one open to Knife and Candle attacks from people like that. As such, if you won’t want something like this to happen again, it might be best to abandon your stance for a time.

You could get your stuff back by attacking in return - the attacker always has a certain advantage in Knife and Candle, though this is modified by the opposed stats. For the record, using your moods does not help in Knife and Candle, to the best of my knowledge. I believe the only stat test is of the specific Knife and Candle stats (elusive, baroque, and savage).

If you’re not willing to strike back, the next month should bring you enough prize tokens to replace the knife at least. A month isn’t that long. So, while I genuinely understand you feeling shocked and upset, let me comfort you with the thought that it’s nothing you can’t get back soon enough.

In the interest of fairness, the Hallowmas list probably added a large amount of contacts to his list. Keeping track of them all would be rather difficult. But it is rather impolite to ignore someone trying to talk to you.

That genuinely didn’t occur to me, so thank you for pointing it out. As it happens, I do recognise every contact in my list as either being from Hallowmas or from the rest of the game, most likely because of the number of times I feverishly checked my Hallowmas spreadsheet to make sure I reciprocated everyone who sent me a confession invite. But, on reflection, that is probably not the usual way of going about things…

Edit: Happily, it appears that the OP at least has a knife again (one shows in the profile at the moment I’m checking, anyway). http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Cronomancer~Callum
edited by Zareen Bakara on 12/8/2015

No, but mood cards allow you to attack in the Iron League.

Seriously, what you experienced there is only what K&C is all about. It is a dirty game, meant to be played dirty. Polite isn’t even a thing there. If that’s not your style, opt out of it - I don’t enjoy it, that’s why I don’t play.
edited by Rupho Schartenhauer on 12/8/2015

Thanks - I foolishly forgot that the mood cards also give an opening. I only play Knife and Candle occasionally with a couple of alts, and even then I never would have thought to use a mood like that.

So I received a token from uh… a generous player. I haven’t done anything with it although it makes the “a polite invitation” opp card cost 2 actions more. What should I do with it? Are there NPC’s that I can fight with it instead. I don’t like fighting with players (in this game anyways).

[quote=Zareen Bakara]That genuinely didn’t occur to me, so thank you for pointing it out. As it happens, I do recognise every contact in my list as either being from Hallowmas or from the rest of the game, most likely because of the number of times I feverishly checked my Hallowmas spreadsheet to make sure I reciprocated everyone who sent me a confession invite. But, on reflection, that is probably not the usual way of going about things…

Edit: Happily, it appears that the OP at least has a knife again (one shows in the profile at the moment I’m checking, anyway). http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Cronomancer~Callum
edited by Zareen Bakara on 12/8/2015[/quote]

Indeed, A soft hearted widow helped me. What makes this whole affair even more infuriating is the person who attacked me still has a knife and shroud. Which meant he had multiple and no reason to steal someone elses gear other than to ruin someone else’s day. If I was to attack someone I would at least be polite about it and use savage or baroque. I wouldn’t mind being attacked by baroque because even if I lose it increases the quality and I would only lose an easily obtainable lens. Having multiple items that take months to obtain each taken for no reason at all is just absurd. I can understand it being a dirty game but I never asked to have my items taken by someone who didn’t even need them. I didn’t even get the three rings that I lost to him back as he immediately pawned them off to the bazzar.

Perhaps I am soft-hearted too, but I tend to agree in not understanding someone who would use Elusive to attack when they have multiple of a type of item. However, this game has people with all kinds of goals. Sometimes people choose to acquire a certain number of a type of item, for roleplaying reasons. And, while you have a stance, there’s nothing you can really do to protect yourself from someone who might attack for this reason. So your best bet is probably now to abandon your stance. If you have enough tokens to buy a Chrysalis Candle, you can do that right away. You’ll still be considered to be in the game, just taking a break and thus not open to attack.