Spirifier or Shephard? I can't decide

Fallen London
21

Well after reading all these replies, i’ve decided to go with Spirifier. for reasons of profit, and deeper connectionn with the Brass Embassy

I felt a little bad about it briefly, then i started remembering all the things i’ve done up until this point, to reach 140 (unmodified) Dangerous

[quote=Anne Auclair]
So, role play wise, if your character wants to get close to Devils then he’ll need to get comfortable with being underhanded and dealing in souls. .[/quote]

To be honest, i think it’s only the deception i have an issue with. I’d much rather stab someone to death and collect their soul as it floats out.

22

[quote=Charlotte_de_Witte]

What I mean is you have, as you say, been awesome. Not because you got a reward for doing so but because you made a real(ish) sacrifice to do the moral thing. You don’t pray on the innocent and destitute pulling their souls out violently with a fork and sell them off to vain selfish devils for a few pennies. [/quote]

No I haven’t. I’ve played the same game as everyone else but because of my poor role-playing decisions, I’ve gotten fewer rewards and been locked out of more content. My only &quotreward&quot is knowing I didn’t do mean things to imaginary people who can’t actually be hurt.

That’s not being awesome, that’s being an idiot who cheated herself out of a richer playing experience for nothing because she initially assumed the gameplay mechanic would be a bit more even-handed to maximize RPing potential.

Now that I’ve gotten to know the mechanics better, I’ve come to understand that there is simply a &quotpunishment&quot path and a &quotrewards&quot path. Those who choose the punishment path are told to suck it up because it’s &quotrealistic&quot and potentially shamed by being told that they shouldn’t even want rewards like the other players get because being nice to imaginary people is its own reward. Those who choose the rewards path can do whatever they want and get lots of money and cool stuff and never have to face consequences for any bad things they do because realism and morality don’t apply to the rewards path, only the punishment path.

This game really isn’t designed for RPing a variety of characters, it’s designed for playing as a villain. There’s nothing wrong with that, as playing as a villain can be fun and interesting, but then, if that’s the case, unless someone is REALLY invested in playing as a good guy purely for the sake of doing something different, &quotvillain&quot is without a doubt the path a player should take.

So again, OP (and I’m sorry for hijacking your thread), choose Spirifer. Don’t make the same mistakes I did :P

23

My character picked Shepherd and I’m rather satisfied with it. The card isn’t immediately lucrative, but it has lots of long term potential.

Fallen London seems at best an anti-heroes game. Even if you’re well intentioned you’re going to do lots of questionable things (thievery and casual violence, for a start). But seeing as the game keeps track every major decision, there’s plenty of time for some of the really evil ones to catch up to you and some of the really good ones to suddenly offer some long term benefit.

24

[quote=Anne Auclair]My character picked Shepherd and I’m rather satisfied with it. The card isn’t immediately lucrative, but it has lots of long term potential.

Fallen London seems at best an anti-heroes game. Even if you’re well intentioned you’re going to do lots of questionable things (thievery and casual violence, for a start). But seeing as the game keeps track every major decision, there’s plenty of time for some of the really evil ones to catch up to you and some of the really good ones to suddenly offer some long term benefit.[/quote]
Yes, I agree with the sentiment. down here, in the lawlessness of the neath, there’s no question of whether you’ll do nasty things or not, the question is how much you’ll do, or how long you’ll hold out. i went in assuming i’d be a jerk, but my hands have been almost completely clean the last three months, though. (running out of content and not having money to spend on fate will do that. I’ve almost never done anything but expeditions.) The only exception is taking advantage of [D12 mrS], and given my personal feelings on the people behind [pick a gender], i can’t say it’s not more than a petty revolution against the throne.

I do think people can do a pacifist run- where you don’t kill anyone, temporarily or permanantly, and maybe don’t even fight them without a challenge- or even a morally positive run- but neither is very rewarding, and both are absurdly difficult to reach endgame doing. Retaining you virginity in persuasive is tricky too- is it even possible by now?

No stealing is obviously impossible, but you can stick to people who deserve it.

All kinds of decisions have come back to bite me. some are doing the right thing, some are doing the wrong thing, some are doing anything at all. (For instance, I don’t want to finish the rat-[__F_E] story on my next account, i want to stop right before i get to claim the reward, since both routes give a card to the deck, and I don’t like having useless cards. Certainly not worth doing until i need 1 point fate for the ubergoat, at least. Meanwhile, there’s no cards until i start it.)

I would say doing the right thing often comes back to bite you- but then, I’m not sure i’d be appreciative of doing exclusively the wrong thing’s rewards, either. I’ve had petty things bite me horribly (see, sending a monkey to steal coins. sure, vile, not good, etc. but 28 echoes? seriously? for a tiny chance of 1 coin?) And had doing noble things do me great harm, or no harm.

I killed a legion of men for the c____e-__n__r, permanantly, and i lost nearly all connections to the great game, but i should have had a worse penalty… or perhaps it wasn’t major enough, in their eyes, to be worth seeking vengance for. I would think it should come with some penance i’d have to do to get back into the game, but maybe this happens frequently. I considered that to be a &quotgood&quot decision then, and i still do. The game is a stain on the city, and it’s one made by humanity. I’ll gladly dabble in it, but then… I’m not always good. Having the chance to help might mean hurting someone else.

I’d think it should be easier to have bad stuff happen to you for evil choices, both short term and long term. Some of the nastiest options should give menaces even on success, and others should give qualities that enable future punishment to the level of the crime.

But, then, this isn’t u____tale. Making the choice to be good, or even just be better, if good isn’t an option, is the hard route. it’s easy to hurt. it’s hard to help.

If you can keep your morals about you and still progress through the game, that’s more impressive than any number of glasses of bazaar’s sorrow.
edited by Grenem on 1/24/2016

25

Something that I think bears remembering is that there are a lot of currently useless tracking qualities, and a bunch of qualities that say ‘this might be the key to your future’. Stuff like Fist of the Bazaar, as well as a few from EF stories and fate (Empyrean Redolence, Lost in Reflections, ect.). Since a lot of these come from decisions (though not always between right and wrong), I’m interested to see how these will be used later. Perhaps people will get their comeuppance later down the line.

So if it’s 1894 now, only 14 years to wait!

I still like the shepherd/spirifer choice though. Instead of a reliable reward, it feels like people give you the occasional favour (just a shame that you have to pay into all of them).

26

[quote=Grenem]I do think people can do a pacifist run- where you don’t kill anyone, temporarily or permanantly, and maybe don’t even fight them without a challenge- or even a morally positive run- but neither is very rewarding, and both are absurdly difficult to reach endgame doing. Retaining you virginity in persuasive is tricky too- is it even possible by now?

No stealing is obviously impossible, but you can stick to people who deserve it.[/quote]
You know what? Challenge accepted.

No murders, no fights except in self-defence no thefts, no carnal delights, no infernal entanglements for this lady. Let’s see how far she can get.

27

[quote=Passionario][quote=Grenem]I do think people can do a pacifist run- where you don’t kill anyone, temporarily or permanantly, and maybe don’t even fight them without a challenge- or even a morally positive run- but neither is very rewarding, and both are absurdly difficult to reach endgame doing. Retaining you virginity in persuasive is tricky too- is it even possible by now?

No stealing is obviously impossible, but you can stick to people who deserve it.[/quote]
You know what? Challenge accepted.

No murders, no fights except in self-defence no thefts, no carnal delights, no infernal entanglements for this lady. Let’s see how far she can get.[/quote]
but doing this you can’t do the making your name stories for dangerous and shadowy, becoming PoSI might be a problem

28

[quote=Passionario]
No murders, no fights except in self-defence no thefts, no carnal delights, no infernal entanglements for this lady. Let’s see how far she can get.[/quote]
i believe the Persuasive storyline requires at least two relationships, in veilgarden and the court. being asexual seems difficult

29

a little guidance; after a short job at a hospice, a devil has offered to be a soul fence for me.
is there more to the storyline, or have i reached the end? that seems rather short

30

I haven’t played it from the spirifer side. But yeah I’m fairly certain that’s the “end”. Of course the main benefit is for the storylet and MOST importantly RP value for your character. Jump in and see what playing a spirifer does to ya. That’s the fun part.

31

I think of Ambition as the &quotmain questline&quot and everything else as open world content. If Fallen London were structured as a typical single player RPG, most roleplayers wouldn’t think twice about completing a run where they didn’t participate in seduction or thieving. Getting (RP-)locked out of content feels worse when you’ve been playing a character for months or years, and can’t finish the game yet. But in the end it’s no different from most other games: it focuses on certain themes and topics, and if you choose to oppose them you can cut through a more unique path at the cost of missing out on the well-lit content highway.

32

[quote=Passionario][quote=Grenem]I do think people can do a pacifist run- where you don’t kill anyone, temporarily or permanantly, and maybe don’t even fight them without a challenge- or even a morally positive run- but neither is very rewarding, and both are absurdly difficult to reach endgame doing. Retaining you virginity in persuasive is tricky too- is it even possible by now?

No stealing is obviously impossible, but you can stick to people who deserve it.[/quote]
You know what? Challenge accepted.

No murders, no fights except in self-defence no thefts, no carnal delights, no infernal entanglements for this lady. Let’s see how far she can get.[/quote]

Can you make a journal or blog about this character’s life? Sounds interesting.

33

[quote=Nanako][quote=Passionario]
No murders, no fights except in self-defence no thefts, no carnal delights, no infernal entanglements for this lady. Let’s see how far she can get.[/quote]
i believe the Persuasive storyline requires at least two relationships, in veilgarden and the court. being asexual seems difficult[/quote]
I believe they can, in fact, end platonicly, though i might be mistaken. (At least one of them can.) The point, after all, is making your name known to them, and to those who watch them. Becoming BFFs to the degree that, were you a TV show, half your fanfic is shipping the pair despite the fact that your relationship is solely platonic is an accaptable method of doing this. In short, you don’t need to do the thing, just to take your relationship far enough that most would think you would. At least, IIRC.

My opinion was that the reason it’d be tricky is all the one-action seduction options, many of which only take one misclick to initiate. The feast of the rose could well be the worst time to try this, of course.
edited by Grenem on 1/24/2016

34

She’s no Taupe-Waistcoat, but I’ll try to scribble some of her thoughts as I go along here.

35

[quote=Robin Mask]
Ah, well, Mr Wines shall have fun: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Mr~Wines[/quote]

Don’t be surprised if that name gets changed at some point - I’ve seen at least one other person claim a Master’s name and they were renamed after a little while.

36

it would probably be wise to contact FBG support about it now
or else get to work roleplaying Mr Wines so well they won’t want to remove it.
There’s a Saint Joshua around here who is drenched in irrigo

37

Brief update: ALP has already ran into content walls for 3 of 4 main stats.

With Shadowy, even the first step of Making One’s Name requires stealing. For Persuasive, she’s predictably stuck on the &quotseduce Heiress or Jewel-Thief&quot step. (I’m choosing to interpret it as a possible violation of the conduct. An orgy doesn’t stop being a sin of lust just because one is tripping on honey throughout it). With Dangerous, getting the rats to leave the lodgings through parley and patience took a lot of Airs juggling, but there’s no such luck in the fighting rings.

As for Watchful, she’s currently trying to grind enough money to buy enough nevercold brass and souls from the Bazaar, since ordinary methods of acquisition tend to require either theft or working for the devils.

38

And Spirifiers will never be far from 15 Heartless, which makes perfect sense.

Oddly enough, Fallen London is the only game I have ever played where I have wanted to be an absolute bastard character. Normally it pains me to replay something as a selfish jerk (looking at you, Baldur’s Gate series) but not here. Probably 'cause it’s actually rewarding. And occasionally funny…

39

And Spirifiers will never be far from 15 Heartless, which makes perfect sense.

Oddly enough, Fallen London is the only game I have ever played where I have wanted to be an absolute bastard character. Normally it pains me to replay something as a selfish jerk (looking at you, Baldur’s Gate series) but not here. Probably 'cause it’s actually rewarding. And occasionally funny…[/quote]

Perfect sense? really? If and when i’m a spirifer, I’m trying to get parasitic spores away from people so they can truly be themselves, rather than a link in a chain that prisons us all. They may not realize it, but they’re all the better for the &quotloss&quot. Sure, they don’t agree, but more fool them. if you take away a bad- like, lethal bad- batch of prisoner’s honey they will cheer, and if you destroy red honey they’ll do the same, but if you take away the parasitic star-foods, they call you a monster. there is no justice.

edited by Grenem on 1/29/2016

40

So ALP made it to Forgotten Quarter. Should launching an archaeological expedition for the Thieves’ Cache count as stealing?