THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NOTABILITY v20.02.10

A GUIDE TO NOTABILITY

Welcome, newly-christened Person of Some Importance (or &quotPoSI&quot for short)! You’re here because you asked on Discord, &quothow do I get more Notability?&quot, or because you’re studious and found it on your own! Either way, consider this your ticket to FAME, FORTUNE, and FRESHER BREATH through ENTANGLING YOURSELF IN AN INEXTRICABLE WEB OF MYSTERY AND INTRIGUE!

What’s that? That doesn’t sound good? NONSENSE! All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. Onward to GLORY!

Table of Contents:

  1. How does Notability work?
  2. What rewards are there for pursuing Notability?
  3. What’s Making Waves, and how do I raise it?
  4. What’s BDR, and why do I care?
  5. Any miscellaneous effects I should know about?
  6. F.A.Q.
    edited by Jeremy Avalon on 2/10/2020
  1. HOW DOES NOTABILITY WORK?

Notability is the primary end-game activity in Fallen London. As you have risen through the Fifth City, you have probably come across some activities that grant you Making Waves; and you may have noticed that when Time, the Healer comes calling, you lose some of that Making Waves. Now that you are a Person of Some Importance, you can start making use of that ephemeral quality.

The one and only reliable way* to raise Notability is on the card &quotA Visit from Slowcake’s Amanuensis&quot, which you may have noticed floating about as a PoSI. When your Making Waves is at or above a certain target level, which depends on several factors including your current Notability level, you can cash it all in to gain one point of Notability and reset your Making Waves to equal your new Notability level. The maximum Notability is 15 — even if you reach an appropriate amount of Making Waves, the game will not allow you to play the option to gain a level once you reach 15. Getting your first point of Notability requires 20 levels of Making Waves, and each successive point requires an additional 4 levels — 24 for 2, 28 for 3, and so on.

The reason your Making Waves is set to match your Notability, rather than dropping to zero, is because when Time the Healer comes, if you have FEWER levels of Making Waves than you do points of Notability, you will LOSE one point of Notability. This can be quite troublesome at high levels of Notability, so you need to play fairly often if you intend to maintain a large amount of it.

Once you have at least one point of Notability, you can use the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card more freely — if you have sufficient Making Waves and BDR to gain your next point, you can force the Amanuensis to show up immediately from your Lodgings, under the option &quotAttend to matters of society and scandal&quot.

*See section 5 for other, less repeatable ways to raise Notability.
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 5/9/2017

  1. SPEAKING OF THAT, WHAT IS NOTABILITY EVEN FOR?

Glad you asked, because this is the easiest part of this guide to write!

Probably the most valuable use of Notability is to upgrade your Profession. You undoubtedly have found a Profession in your time in Fallen London. Depending on how much you play, you may or may not have abandoned your Training Profession (Tough, Minor Poet, Pickpocket, or Enquirer) to advance to a so-called &quotTier 2&quot profession — Campaigner, Journalist, Enforcer, Rat-Catcher, Trickster, or Watcher, which are each available from certain faction cards when you have no Profession. These professions provide you with a unique item that gives +6 to two of your main attributes, and a weekly payment worth about 35 Echoes, but what we’re concerned about is that once you become Notable, you can upgrade your Tier 2 profession to get an even better item and a larger payment!

When you have at least 1 Notability, the card &quotAn Unsigned Message&quot gets added to your opportunity deck, drawable anywhere in London, and you can use it to upgrade your Profession to a &quotTier 3&quot — Mystic, Author, Murderer, Stalker, Conjurer, or Agent, respectively. This will trade in your old +6 item for one that provides +9 to the same two attributes, and upgrade your weekly payment to a different collection of items worth about 50 Echoes. Note that the new item you receive may not be equipped in the same slot as the old one — for instance, a Journalist receives a Weapon (Little Red Notebook), but upgrading to Author will swap that for a Companion (an Appreciation Society). Doing this requires that you have 2 Notability, but does not consume it.

Once you have a Tier 3 profession, you can use the Unsigned Message to upgrade again at 5 Notability, to a &quotTier 4&quot Glassman, Correspondent, Licentiate, Monster-Hunter, Crooked-Cross, or Midnighter. These professions provide a +12 item and a weekly payment of items worth roughly 60 Echoes — with the exception of the Midnighter, which receives a Home Comfort with +9 to both Watchful and Shadowy. This lower bonus remains because the stat bonuses on Home Comforts are slightly smaller than those on regular gear, and the Midnighter’s item is still superior to every other item (including Fate-locked ones) in that category for its particular stats.

If you have no profession when you draw the Unsigned Message, you can instead choose to become a Tutor or Undermanager, who receive no special items, but do get a weekly payment of 60 Echoes in cash. If you have 3 Notability and no Profession, you can also become a Doctor or Notary, which are identical to the Tutor and Undermanager except that their weekly payment is 70 Echoes.

It is worth noting that changing your Profession NEVER costs any Notability; you need only have a certain amount to unlock the option to advance.

&quotBut I’ve done that already!&quot you say. Well, before we move on, it is worth noting that when you draw the Unsigned Message, you can attempt a Notability check (100% odds at 9 Notability) which can reward a Surprise Package on success — the same sort of one you can normally only get from a friend Giving you a Gift, which can potentially be quite profitable. This is your primary reason to keep Notability high even when you don’t necessarily intend to spend it.

In addition, during an Election, keeping your Notability high will help contribute to your candidate’s total votes – the amount you contribute is the sum of your Election role quality (Campaigner, Fixer, or Agitator) and your Notability.

&quotI don’t care! I want to spend my Notability on cool things! There must be cool things, right?!&quot Okay! On we go! There are indeed several ways to SPEND Notability (as distinct from losing it naturally), which are:

— Upgrading your Lodgings!
If you have a Reservation at the Royal Bethlehem, a Key to a Brass Embassy Guest Room, or a Lengthy Lease to Premises at the Bazaar, then when you draw their cards, you can spend a very expensive item and a great deal of Notability in order to upgrade to a new version of that Lodging that will allow you to hold FIVE cards in your hand instead of four! However, these have VERY high requirements; all require an item worth almost 1,600 Echoes, and all cost at least 8 Notability! At Christmastime, it is possible to upgrade these lodgings much more easily, and at a cost of only 3 Notability apiece.

— Trading for Masters’ Blood!
You may have drawn the card &quotA Presumptuous Little Opportunity&quot by now, allowing you to exchange wine in quantity for more valuable types. The most expensive trade, &quotA dangerous deal&quot, allows you to swap five Tears of the Bazaar for a single Vial of Masters’ Blood, but doing so also costs 7 points of Notability.

— Pursuing A Paramount Presence, and driving your stats above the maximum of 200!
Once you reach 200 in a main attribute, you can choose to specialize in it from the Unfinished Business storylet in its matching location (for instance, Watchmaker’s Hill for Dangerous). Doing so requires that you possess a certain piece of Clothing gear, dependent on the attribute, and costs you 5 Notability.
After you have specialized in an attribute, you can use the Unsigned Message to trade in all your Notability in order to SET your level in that attribute to 200 plus your Notability — giving you an effective maximum of 215. Note, however, that there are still ways to lose that bonus, such as visiting the Cave of the Nadir, and any losses you incur can only be recovered by trading in the full amount of Notability again.
You may remove your specialization without the loss of the stat bonus for a cost of 12 Notability (or 15 Fate) from the Matters of Society storylet in your lodgings, at which point you may repeat the process! Should you push all four stats to 215 at once, you will be permitted to upgrade your PoSI status to A Paramount Presence, the primary benefit of which is that further uses of the Notability overcap will apply to all four of your stats at once (assuming you have lost the levels to begin with).

— Purchasing Favourable Circumstances!
At your Lodgings, on the &quotWrite Letters&quot storylet, you can pay 7 Notability for a point of Favourable Circumstances, which will allow you to instantly draw certain cards, such as Connected cards or the Unsigned Message, from that same storylet. The only other method of obtaining Favourable Circumstances is to pay 8 Fate each time.

— Helping other players with the same!
From the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card, you can donate a point of Notability to someone with none! This is extremely helpful for players who are looking to start grinding but are having poor luck drawing the card themselves, as they will then be able to summon the Amanuensis normally.

— Polishing certain Quirks!
If you are in dire need to raise your level 12-14 Magnanimous or Hedonist quirks, two options from the Entry in Slowcake’s Exceptionals item unlock at 3 Notability and will restore 15 CP of each at an identical cost of Heartless or Austere, as well as ALL your Notability (not just the 3 required)!

— Seeking the Name of Mr Eaten!
Why? In God’s name, why? What can you possibly hope to gain? Well, you can gain St Destin’s Candle, at the price of 12 Notability, from the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card. St Destin’s Candle is required to progress to the end of the Seeking storyline, but this is not the only way to obtain it. This is a Notability guide, though, not a Seeking guide, so other methods are outside our scope.
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 12/28/2019

  1. WELL ALRIGHT! I’M SOLD! BUT HOW DO I GET MAKING WAVES?

There are quite a few ways! The ones you should look into depend on whether you’re trying to actively gain more Notability, or whether you’re just trying to maintain your current level, since the former is much more difficult.

The most common (and useful) suggestions are:

  • Inviting another player to a Private Supper via the &quotAttend to matters of society!&quot storylet in your Lodgings is the most common way of maintaining Notability week-to-week. You must currently be Acquainted With your invitee (through sending them a Calling Card on the same storylet); each Supper consumes one of your five weekly Free Evenings and gives both players some Confident Smiles, a few points of Persuasive, and about 10 CP of Making Waves. This is easily the most common way for players to maintain their existing Notability, since the actions required are minimal; if you need someone to exchange Suppers with, try the thread for that purpose, or the Fallen London IRC.
  • A Coffee at Caligula’s, from &quotAttend to matters of Persuasion and Scandal&quot, will provide only 1 CP to both parties but does not require Acquaintanceship or a Free Evening.
  • If you are Seen With, Engaged to, or Espoused to another player, going on dates via the &quotAttend to Matters of the Heart!&quot storylet will provide about 5 CP of MW for each of you. This will also consume a Free Evening.
  • Most of the Lodgings cards have an option to spend one or more valuable items in exchange for a quantity of Making Waves. Usually the ratio is about 1 Echo worth of items to 1 CP of Waves — for instance, Ambushing Smugglers on the Smoky Flophouse costs 1 Strong-Backed Labour and provides 12 CP, while a Private Auction at your Premises at the Bazaar costs a Personal Recommendation, a Collection of Curiosities, and some Connected: Society, but can provide over 100 CP as well as some cash. Generally speaking, these options are only interesting to those attempting to reach double-digit levels of Notability.
  • If you run an Orphanage or Salon, options on the Townhouse card will allow you to build up &quotEngaged in a Scheme&quot, which can later be cashed out on the same card for a large amount of Making Waves. Certain options on the Salon will give you ever more ludicrous amounts of Making Waves, but a number require Fate-locked Feast companions; if you are Acquainted with the Captivating Princess, you can spend 1 Fate and a ridiculous amount of Scheme to invite her to your Salon for an absolutely staggering amount of Making Waves (in the neighborhood of 2,000 CP, but this can vary by a couple hundred in either direction).
  • Completing a Short Story (begun via the Writer’s Desk in Veilgarden) will provide up to around 30 CP, depending on the quality of the story created. A mere &quotacceptable&quot or Competent Short Story will only provide 1-5CP, while a Masterful or Classic one will provide the most. Creating Short Stories is most effective if you have access to an Ornate Typewriter.
  • Attending the party from A Polite Invitation card will provide 1 CP on most actions during the party, plus 20-40 CP at the end (depending on whether you can cash in your Talk of the Town or only leave having &quotnot gone unnoticed&quot).
  • Once you are the Darling of the Ambassador’s Ball, accepting &quotAn invitation to dinner&quot on the Society card will provide 5 CP of MW.
  • If you have Nightmares 3, you can draw the Interpreter of Dreams card; &quotAllow[ing] Dr Schlomo to publish what you tell him&quot will provide between 3 and 10 CP, depending on luck and which dreams you talk about.
  • Side-converting third-tier (50-pence) items — for instance, 50 Tales of Terror!! to 50 Compromising Documents — will provide you a small, random amount of MW. Completing an entire 13-action carousel (resulting in a net gain of 1 of each item) will provide 1-10 CP of MW on four of those actions.
  • Converting certain items up (such as Compromising Documents to Stolen Kisses, or Tales of Terror!! to Extraordinary Implications) will also gain you about 10 CP of MW, though this may also require Favours.
  • If you draw the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card while you have 5 Notability, the option unlocked (&quotSay nothing. Wait for the Amanuensis to speak instead&quot) will allow you to simply take a guaranteed 3 CP of Making Waves and discard the card.
  • Other options on the Amanuensis card allow you to cash in either a thousand souls or 400 CP of Connected: Society for between 1 and 10 CP of MW (at random), or gamble a Tale of Terror, a Scrap of Incendiary Gossip, and a Confident Smile for a 50-50 chance of gaining OR losing some Making Waves. This last option is generally only advisable if Time, the Healer is about to hit and you are just shy of the required Making Waves to maintain your current Notability.
  • If you have not yet been banished from the Court, the options on the &quotLife of the Mind&quot storylet provide 1 change point (CP for short) of Making Waves per action.
  • Successfully completing (or escaping from) a Heist in the Flit will give you an amount of Making Waves proportional to your Burglar’s Progress.
  • If you do not live at a Remote Address, and are acquainted with the Sardonic Music-Hall Singer, using the options on &quotCity Vices: Ask the Sardonic Music-Hall Singer to help you&quot will provide 2-3 CP of MW (depending on the difficulty of the branch you use) in addition to material rewards.
  • Giving a &quotsmall donation&quot on the Soft-Hearted Widow’s card will provide 1 CP of MW. Giving a &quotsignificant donation&quot will provide 2 CP.

Other storylets may give you token amounts of MW but are generally too expensive to be advisable long-term sources (such as completing an Expedition in the Forgotten Quarter), or are one-time-only (such as chatting with the guests at your Wedding to another player).
[li]
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 6/23/2017

  1. AWESOME! EXCEPT… THOSE ALL SEEM PRETTY SLOW! DIDN’T YOU SAY I NEEDED TWENTY LEVELS? HOW CAN I DO THAT IN A WEEK AT ONE TO TEN CHANGE POINTS AN ACTION? AND MOST OF THOSE ON OPPORTUNITY CARDS TOO! IS THERE SOME WAY TO MAKE THIS EASIER?

Well, now that you mention it… YES! Depending on the path you took to become a PoSI, you may have some gear with stats called Respectable, Dreaded, or Bizarre. These stats have a marvelous effect on grinding Notability; for each collective point of Respectable, Dreaded, AND Bizarre you have equipped, the required level of Making Waves to increase your Notability decreases by 1. (Your sum of all three stats is colloquially referred to as your BDR.) If you are unwilling or unable to spend Fate, but willing to put your character through hell, you can reach a maximum of 22 BDR (or 23 if you choose to become a Midnighter), which allows you to always regain your first point of Notability when you draw Slowcake’s Amanuensis, even without any Making Waves. (23 BDR is also enough to then force-draw it for a second point.) The ultimate maximum is 34 BDR, although attaining that total requires a minimum of 126 Fate, a partner willing to send you 70 Fate worth of unreciprocated gifts at the Feast of the Rose, a willingness to forgo a choice of Spouse, and a horrifyingly large investment in Seeking the Name. You can avoid grinding for some best-in-slot items with judicious Fate purchases, but not all of them (there is no alternative to Seeking the Name and indefinitely postponing a reckoning).

What follows is NOT a comprehensive list of BDR items, but instead the ‘best available’ at any given tier in each equipment slot. This means prioritizing items that are easy to acquire — so, for instance, most of the Companions are not included since it is possible to acquire a 2 BDR Companion almost the moment you escape from New Newgate! In addition, while some other pieces of gear have better boosts to Watchful, Shadowy, Dangerous or Persuasive, this list is only concerned with your BDR, since you can swap gear at will, and this is not a guide to main attribute checks.

HAT:

  • The most accessible options are to purchase any of the 400 Echo hats from Maywell’s Hattery, which each provide 1 BDR.
  • If you are planning to become a Glassman, the unique item granted by that profession is an alternative 1 BDR Hat.
  • During the Feast of the Rose, you may be sent a Tanned Mask (30 Fate) or a Mouthless Amber Mask (40 Fate), the best BDR Hats in the game at 2 points.
  • If you don’t want to wait for the Feast, you can purchase the Exceptional Story &quotThe Shallows&quot, which can reward an alternative 2 BDR Hat.

CLOTHING:

  • If you have already gained access to the University (which is likely as a PoSI), you will also have an Academic Gown providing 1 BDR.
  • If you have not started the University and do not wish to, then pursuing the tale of the Affluent Photographer will eventually reward you with one of two pieces of Clothing with 1 BDR.
  • Alternatively, you can simply purchase one of several 1 BDR Clothing options from Dauncey’s, Fadgett & Daughters, or Gottery the Outfitter in the Bazaar. In particular, either the Parabola-Linen Suit or Parabola-Linen Frock from the former two will be useful later should you decide to specialize in Persuasive, possibly as part of pursuing A Paramount Presence.

GLOVES:

  • For your 1 point of Gloves BDR, the quickest option is generally to purchase Lenguals for 400 Echoes from Dark & Savage on the Bazaar tab.
  • If you have someone willing to spend Fate on you, you can also have them send a Hand of Glory to you during the Feast of the Rose for 30 Fate.
  • If you are low on Echoes but high on connections, at 25 Renown, two factions (the Docks and the Urchins) each offer a 1 BDR Gloves item in the Wolfstack Docks, at the cost of five Favours.

WEAPONS:

  • Progressing through either the Dilmun Club story or the Keen-Eyed Lapidary content will eventually reward you with a 1 BDR Weapon; the Dilmun Club’s is a lower-cost route, but the Lapidary is accessible much earlier in the game.
  • An alternative is to play through the Counting the Days carousel several times, until you have 5 Mark of Credit Pages, and trade them in for a Consonant Violin, providing 1 BDR. This is more of a hassle, but the Violin can potentially be useful at Christmastime as well.
  • Once you have a ship and an Iron Republic Safe-Conduct, you may visit the Iron Republic; at the end of your visit, you can acquire an Iron Republic Journal - a Weapon providing 2 BDR.
  • During the Feast of the Rose, someone can send you a Golden Spiked Rosary for 40 Fate — a 3 BDR Weapon.
  • If you complete the ENTIRETY of Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name, and turn back at the very last chance offered, you will receive the Seven-Fold Knock, a 4 BDR Weapon and the best in the game. However, Seeking is a hugely damaging and unrewarding storyline, and attempting it solely with the idea of minmaxing will bring you no end of misery and dissatisfaction.

Which is not to say that you shouldn’t do it anyway. Throw your character down a well.

BOOTS:

  • The only unconditionally obtainable boots in the game that provide BDR are the Kingscale Boots (1 BDR), purchasable from MERCURY on the Bazaar tab for 450 Echoes.
  • During an Election, if you are a Campaigner, you can acquire Wax-Hardened Boots (1 BDR) from Mr Mirrors’ Marquee of Mystification, either as your Free Gift, or for 25 Fate.
  • If you have Renown: Criminals or Revolutionaries 25, Defenestrating Boots and Language of Laces are available respectively in the Flit and Spite, at a cost of five Favours.

COMPANIONS:

  • Since the release of Sunless Skies, there is a permanent story available to all characters that results in the reward of a Blemmigan Tourist, a 2 BDR pet. This instantly obsoleted all other 1 and 2 BDR pets for accessibility.
  • If you spend Fate for both the Secrets of Beasts (20 Fate, available with Making Progress in the Labyrinth of Tigers 16) and access to Flute Street (25 Fate), then capture and breed each possible beast using Empyrean Redolence AND spend a great deal of time gathering Cryptopaleontological Pages of Notes at zee (from the Scientific Expedition content), you can combine all of those ingredients to create the Bifurcated Owl, a 4 BDR pet.
  • You may also obtain a 4 BDR pet by purchasing a two Overgoats from Nassos Zoologicals at the Bazaar, at a total price of 23,425.60 Echoes, and paying 1 Fate to combine them into an Übergoat on the &quotAll fear the Overgoat!&quot opportunity card. (The option to do so will not show up until you have the goats required.) The Owl will take less real-world time, while the Goat will take less real-world money. The choice is yours. Do note that the Goat provides the additional benefit of a whopping +30 Watchful, far and away the best available, and obtaining one is considered a rite of passage by many end-game players, as it is conventionally a grind of one to two months to afford one.

AFFILIATIONS:

  • By far the easiest and most useful method of getting an Affiliation is to join God’s Editors, if you have created a permanent copy of a work while at the Empress’ Court. Any of the Epic Poems or Novels will suffice, other than the Tale of the Future. They will not be consumed, although you will also need 12 Volumes of Collated Research to actually join. God’s Editors provides 4 BDR, and if you are going for the Seven-Fold Knock, will be helpful during Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name as well. If you have already been banished from Court without a suitable volume, you will need to spend 2,000 Foxfire Candle Stubs and pass a Persuasive check (100% at 200). Failure will cost the candles regardless.
  • If you do not wish to join God’s Editors for whatever reason, the only alternative 4 BDR Affiliation is to convert your Handsome Townhouse into an Orphanage.
  • All other Affiliations are significantly more expensive or else Fate-locked, and all provide less BDR than God’s Editors or the Orphanage.
    TRANSPORTS:
  • Going through the process to acquire either a Respectable Landau or a Clay Sedan Chair will provide you a 2 BDR Transport.
  • Alternatively, if you have paid the 20 Fate for the Secrets of Beasts, and have a Tomb-Lion (available while in disgraced exile in the Tomb-colonies), you may create a 2 BDR Transport through the beast-breeding in the Labyrinth of Tigers.
  • As with the Tanned Mask, you may receive a Heartwood Hearse during the Feast of the Rose, a 3 BDR Transport.
  • If you pay the 20 Fate for the Secrets of the Velocipede Squad, you will immediately receive a 4 BDR Transport, the only such one in the game.

HOME COMFORTS:

  • If you are a Midnighter, your unique Profession item is a Home Comfort providing 1 BDR. This is typically the only point of BDR available in this slot without spending Fate.
  • As of the current revision of this guide, one of the Fallen London 10th Anniversary access codes will provide a free 2 BDR Home Comfort; however, access codes are typically not permanent, so this may be removed in future.
  • Purchasing the Fate-locked story &quotThe Ceremony&quot for 35 Fate will ultimately allow you to receive one of three 2 BDR Home Comforts.
  • At the Feast of the Rose, you may be sent a Set of Martyr’s Bones for 50 Fate, another 2 BDR Home Comfort.

SHIPS:

  • The Majestic Pleasure Yacht provides 2 BDR.
  • The Zubmarine provides only 1 BDR, and requires more difficult components than the Yacht (although you may choose it anyway, for your own reasons).

SPOUSES:

  • If you complete the Cave of the Nadir storyline, and do not dismiss both the Firebrand and the Missionary at the end, one will remain a permanent Companion. During the Feast of the Rose, this Companion can be upgraded for 100 Masquing. At this point the upgraded Companion can become your Spouse, granting 2 BDR.
  • The best BDR Spouse — and a whopping 3! — is the Boneless Consort; it requires that you have access to Flute Street (25 Fate), then use a certain option in that location costing 100 (!) Fate, and finally draw Slime and Amber: The Rubbery Men to find the option to be joyfully married. To a squid.
  • All other Spouses do not affect your BDR in any way. Yes, I’m still grumpy about this.

CLUBS:

  • Joining either Club (the Parthenaeum or the Young Stags) will provide 4 BDR.

Finally, during the Feast of the Rose, you may be able to meet a certain tattoo artiste, who can provide you with up to one tattoo per year (to a maximum of two). Each such tattoo will provide you with an innate point of either Dreaded or Bizarre. It is possible to elect to have no tattoo, which will provide you only one innate point of Respectable. If you later want to get a second point of BDR from tattoos, you will need to pay Fate to reset your choice.
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 2/10/2020

  1. NEAT! IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?

There are a few things that can affect your Notability without going through the rigamarole of gaining or spending it. However, these will never cause you to go above the cap of 15. Note that when you gain Notability through these methods, your Making Waves is NOT adjusted to match, and you must make sure you get enough to maintain your new level before Time, the Healer comes!

  • Another player can use the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card to send you a single point of Notability, if you have none (see section 2). This will cost them a point but will enable you to quickly start force-drawing the card and grinding without waiting for the initial draw at 0 Notability.
  • Completing a wedding with another player can affect your Notability. Depending on the Venue you choose, you may lose a point of Notability (if you’re a cheapskate, or elope), or gain up to 2 points (1 point for several above-and-beyond options; 2 points for the options unlocked with Organising a Wedding 10,000).
  • Closing your Salon or Orphanage, if you have one, will cost you 2 Notability.
  • Using either of the Quirk-polishing options from your Entry in Slowcake’s Exceptionals will consume ALL your Notability in addition to the item (see section 2).
  • At Christmastime, it is possible to receive (or send) a very special Christmas Card, at the cost of 100 Fate to the sender. The card, among other remarkable effects, will grant a point of Notability to the recipient, but not above 8.
    edited by Jeremy Avalon on 12/28/2019
  1. F.A.Q.

Q. I thought the Dilmun Club was a club? Does it provide BDR?
A. There are other &quotclubs&quot in the world of Fallen London, like the Dilmun Club and Apicius Club, but they are mechanically separate from the Parthenaeum and Young Stags, which are general social clubs rather than exclusive interest groups.

Q. What’s Obscurity? I keep seeing that mentioned on Notability-related cards. Should I worry about it?
A. Obscurity is a potentially permanent consequence of Seeking Mr Eaten’s Name. At a certain point in the story, you are asked to permanently give up your Tattoo qualities, your Profession, your Notability, your Ambitions, and your Destiny, as well as the opportunity to ever re-acquire any of them. Obviously this interferes with you making use of the +4 weapon, if that’s what you’re Seeking for, so there’s a way to avoid paying the price of Obscurity. If you actually get that far, it will be made very obvious. As far as anyone knows, it is exactly the same in all other ways; you merely don’t pay the price. This is, of course, your decision to make. Obscurity is a hidden quality, so no one will ever know — unless of course you start bragging about your 34 BDR.
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 12/28/2019

  1. IS THE NUMBER

[quote=Jeremy Avalon]3. WELL ALRIGHT! I’M SOLD! BUT HOW DO I GET MAKING WAVES?

There are quite a few ways! The ones you should look into depend on whether you’re trying to actively gain more Notability, or whether you’re just trying to maintain your current level, since the former is much more difficult.

The most common (and useful) suggestions are:

  • Most of the Lodgings cards have an option to spend one or more valuable items in exchange for a quantity of Making Waves. Usually the ratio is about 1 Echo worth of items to 1 CP of Waves — for instance, Ambushing Smugglers on the Smoky Flophouse costs 1 Strong-Backed Labour and provides 12 CP, while a Private Auction at your Premises at the Bazaar costs a Personal Recommendation, a Collection of Curiosities, and some Connected: Society, but can provide over 100 CP as well as some cash. Generally speaking, these options are only within the purview of those attempting to reach double-digit levels of Notability.
  • If you run an Orphanage or Salon, options on the Townhouse card will allow you to build up &quotEngaged in a Scheme&quot, which can later be cashed out on the same card for a large amount of Making Waves. Certain options on the Salon will give you ever more ludicrous amounts of Making Waves, but a number require Fate-locked Feast companions; if you are Acquainted with the Captivating Princess, you can spend 1 Fate and a ridiculous amount of Scheme to invite her to your Salon for an absolutely staggering amount of Making Waves (in the neighborhood of 2,500 CP).
  • Attending the party from A Polite Invitation card will provide 1 CP on most actions during the party, plus 20-40 CP at the end (depending on whether you can cash in your Talk of the Town or only leave having &quotnot gone unnoticed&quot).
  • Once you are the Darling of the Ambassador’s Ball, accepting &quotAn invitation to dinner&quot on the Society card will provide 5 CP of MW.
  • If you have Nightmares 3, you can draw the Interpreter of Dreams card; &quotAllow[ing] Dr Schlomo to publish what you tell him&quot will provide between 3 and 10 CP, depending on luck and which dreams you talk about.
  • Side-converting third-tier (50-pence) items — for instance, 50 Tales of Terror!! to 50 Compromising Documents — will provide you a small, random amount of MW. Completing an entire 13-action carousel (resulting in a net gain of 1 of each item) will provide 1-10 CP of MW on four of those actions.
  • Converting certain items up (such as Compromising Documents to Stolen Kisses, or Tales of Terror!! to Extraordinary Implications) will also gain you about 10 CP of MW.
  • If you draw the Slowcake’s Amanuensis card while you have 5 Notability, one option will allow you to simply take a guaranteed 3 CP of Making Waves and discard the card.
  • Other options on the Amanuensis card allow you to cash in either a thousand souls or 400 CP of Connected: Society for between 1 and 10 CP of MW (at random), or gamble a Tale of Terror, a Scrap of Incendiary Gossip, and a Confident Smile for a 50-50 chance of gaining OR losing some Making Waves. This last option is generally only advisable if Time, the Healer is about to hit and you are just shy of the required Making Waves to maintain your current Notability.
  • If you have not yet been banished from the Court, the options on the &quotLife of the Mind&quot storylet provide 1 change point (CP for short) of Making Waves per action.
  • Successfully completing (or escaping from) a Heist in the Flit will give you an amount of Making Waves proportional to your Burglar’s Progress.
  • Giving a &quotsmall donation&quot to the Soft-Hearted Widow’s card, or &quotBuy[ing] a round at the Rusty Tramp&quot on the Docks’ card, will provide 1 CP of MW.
  • Giving a &quotsignificant donation&quot to the Soft-Hearted Widow will provide 2 CP of MW.

Other storylets may give you token amounts of MW but are generally too expensive to be advisable long-term sources (such as completing an Expedition in the Forgotten Quarter), or are one-time-only (such as chatting with the guests at your Wedding to another player).[li]
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 6/22/2016[/quote]

[/li][li]
[/li][li]You forgot about writing short stories and the gamut of social actions (most importantly, private suppers.)[/li]

Thanks for reminding me about Private Suppers. I’ve also added Short Stories, but they are not necessarily an efficient use of resources as the Lodgings options are.

[quote=Jeremy Avalon]snip

The one and only way to raise Notability is on the card &quotA Visit from Slowcake’s Amanuensis&quot, which you may have noticed floating about as a PoSI. snip [/quote]
You might want to change this to either &quotThe primary way&quot, or &quotThe only reliable way&quot (since one’s seasonal and the other ludicrously expensive), or even &quotThe most practical way&quot.

After all, Hallowmas gives free points notability with the higher reward teirs, weddings do too, and you even mention these further into the guide.
edited by Grenem on 6/23/2016

Thanks for this!

Low as to ~1800 as Kittenpox mentioned here.
Best to have a more accurate interval so people won’t get their hopes high; best to be prepared when it comes to MW. :)
edited by Skinnyman on 6/23/2016

Do the math: Assuming one has a typewriter and is persuasive enough, going for masterful short stories at 100 potential averages about 1.4 EPA + 0.8 MWPA. Compared to heists, that’s slightly less EPA but double the MWPA. The side-conversion cycle yields 0.5 EPA plus about 1.7 MWPA on average. Suppers are 8 MWPA, but limited to 5 per week. Coffee isn’t worthwhile unless you have use for confident smiles.

Salon, orphanage, Dante’s or bringing the celebration home are ways of buying MW at a significant material cost. It is easy to get 12 notability without using them, and possible to get 13.


edited by Mizadil on 6/23/2016

Excellent work!

One tiny addition concerning tattoos: If you choose to not get a tattoo, you will get one point of Respectable. You cannot get a second, unfortunately.

Oh, another useful one which I used is the Sardonic singer. Help her negotiate followed by An invitation to a rather exclusive soirée, if both challenges succeed, one can get 3 E and 3 MW for 2 AP. It does take some time to get her to level 9 and the Persuasive challenge is pretty high, but I found it useful. A rare success gets you to 5.5E and 10 MW for the same 2 AP.

If one is interested in the Echoes yielded/required, at a farm rate of 1.7 EPA, this option offers 1.342 MW/AP, ToT conversion is at 0.9469 and the short stories suggested by Mizadil are at 0.68.

The formula I used is: MW/AP w/E = MW/(AP*(1+(1-EPA/1.7)))
EDIT: Because grammar! :D
edited by Skinnyman on 6/23/2016

[quote=Grenem][quote=Jeremy Avalon]snip

The one and only way to raise Notability is on the card &quotA Visit from Slowcake’s Amanuensis&quot, which you may have noticed floating about as a PoSI. snip [/quote]
You might want to change this to either &quotThe primary way&quot, or &quotThe only reliable way&quot (since one’s seasonal and the other ludicrously expensive), or even &quotThe most practical way&quot.[/quote]

Done.

Low as to ~1800 as Kittenpox mentioned here.
Best to have a more accurate interval so people won’t get their hopes high; best to be prepared when it comes to MW. [/quote]

Thanks. I did not have this information.

I left this out on purpose, since it’s suboptimal, but you are right that it’s good information to have. Added it.[li]
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 6/23/2016

I know this thread is not expressively SMEN related, but I figure this is the only place to do a proper BDR calc and for that I need a question answered. Without going into spoilers here, can anyone confirm or deny if turning Seeking permanently gets rid of your Hat slot?

Trying to see if getting &quotThe Knock&quot is worth it mechanically, since the Spiked Rosary already gives 3 if you have to lose your hat slot to get the Knock then you have a net loss of 1 BDR from no longer being able to wear one of the Feast masks.
edited by ShroudedInLight on 6/23/2016

Yes, you can continue to equip Hats.[li]
edited by Jeremy Avalon on 6/23/2016

[quote=Skinnyman]Oh, another useful one which I used is the Sardonic singer. Help her negotiate followed by An invitation to a rather exclusive soirée, if both challenges succeed, one can get 3 E and 3 MW for 2 AP. It does take some time to get her to level 9 and the Persuasive challenge is pretty high, but I found it useful. A rare success gets you to 5.5E and 10 MW for the same 2 AP.

If one is interested in the Echoes yielded/required, at a farm rate of 1.7 EPA, this option offers 1.342 MW/AP, ToT conversion is at 0.9469 and the short stories suggested by Mizadil are at 0.68.

The formula I used is: MW/AP w/E = MW/(AP*(1+(1-EPA/1.7)))
EDIT: Because grammar! :D
edited by Skinnyman on 6/23/2016[/quote]

How did you come up with 0.68? A masterful short story takes 37 actions and gives ~40 MW on success, ~22 on failure (60/40 chance at 100 potential.)

(40*.6+22*.4)/37 = 0.86315789473684210526315789473684
edited by Mizadil on 6/23/2016