Now, I understand that the main focus of Sunless Sea is… well, the Sunless Sea, and not what goes on above Fallen London back in the surface world. However, I just feel that there should be more content for captains that travel to the surface.
Even for a story perspective, there must be a reason why the nations on the surface are so interested in what goes on underneath besides Darkdrop Coffee, and were both willing to finance the construction of the Cumaean Canal, and send so many of their spies to London.
Here are just some ideas that I have brainstormed about what can be added when on the surface:
(1) From what we have seen in both Fallen London and Sunless Sea, foodstuffs from the surface are an absolute luxury in the underworld. Perhaps instead of just representing this though cheaper supplies, perhaps they can instead be represented by a separate category called ‘Surface food’. Which you can either use to feed your crew (decreasing a small amount of terror to represent the boost to morale from a good meal), sell in London for a profit, or taken to the Khanate to offer as a rare tribute.
(2) In addition to London, the Dawn Machine, the Khanate, and the anarchist, a new group can be added to the fight for supremacy: The surface. Your captain can have the option to help one of the foreign nations above to assert it’s influences in the underworld. Doing so via a similar chain of quests just like when you establish the intelligence network in Port Carnelian.
(3) Like I mentioned earlier, there must be something that London can offer the surface other then Darkdrop Coffee. Perhaps there can be more trade opportunities? I remember reading in Fallen London that love stories from the underworld are really popular on the surface, and that is one of the reasons why the Masters have a heavy export tax against them. Perhaps your captain should be able to engage in the risky yet profitable business of love story smuggling?
(4) Finally, the current Supremacy: Anarchist quest line consists of you simply doing the same fetch quest over and over again. Perhaps it can be for challenging somehow with a more detailed story?
These are just some of the ideas that I came up with. What do you guys think?
[li]