Silly exploit

I suspect I am shooting myself in the foot by pointing this out, but The Flit contains two storylines (stealing paintings for the Topsy King and preparing for a big score) that overlap and both require Casing. Since all the storylets in preparing for a big score cost 3 actions, you raise your shadowy much faster if you steal paintings instead. This is a little bit ridiculous from a story perspective and a fairly serious exploit, so i figured it was worth pointing out. Now, back to amassing art in preparation for my theft from the Brass Embassy!

This sort of thing is a known consequence of using qualities like Casing and Fascinating to track progress across multiple storylines. There’s actually a much more outrageous one which involves grinding Investigating by interrogating people in the University, then using what you have learned to uncover Rostygold caches in the Flit. It’s the most profitable thing in London which isn’t down to chance.

More recent content has generally avoided this sort of thing; maybe someday the existing stuff will be changed, but it’s probably not a high priority.

Don’t forget painting portraits in the Shuttered Palace to draw inspiration for your grand ballet or scientific novel. One option even gives you free Nightmares reduction. :)

Here’s another silly exploit that’s unrelated to the OP: When naming your newspaper in Doubt Street, you can name your Salon (or presumably orphanage) instead.

Failbetter, if you decide to “fix” this, please don’t unname my salon. I rather like the title “Liberal Arts but Better”.

The various pet cards which offer naming services allow you to name other pets not related to the card. I accidentally named my urchin Missus Fuzzbucket once O.o