I’m a new(ish) player who can’t seem to keep the nightmare bar from creeping up. I’m Deranged now (brought down to 5 by the Goldfish I bought in the Bazaar) and my attempts to fix it have only added to my Menace CP. Distressing cards are popping up regularly and I just feel there must be a way to amend this.
I am aware of the Confess Your Fears option in the lodgings, but as I escaped from New Newgate solo, I know no one in the city to ask for aid. Is there another way to treat this ailment, or have I just doomed myself to the loony bin?
The loony bin isn’t that bad, really. Personally I managed to stay out of it until I had to go there on important business, and once I was there I hardly managed to explore the place before I was tossed out for having ‘returned to sanity’.
The methods I used to reduce Nightmares included feeding Lamplighter Beeswax to my Reprehensible Lizard, attending church fêtes, and also spending pleasant evenings at the Parlour of Virtue, though that requires Persuasive 45. The easiest methods are two cards: A moment’s Peace for regular reduction of Nightmares, and A familiar face at the school railings, which requires Urchins 5 and Widow 5. Side with the urchins to reduce Nightmares.
If you don’t have time to draw cards you could spend tickets at the carnival to drink hot spiced wine, but then you risk Scandal instead.
I found I ended up there a lot as a new player, and now never as an antique. I found it almost as quick to go there and come out the other side as to worry about keeping it down.
Also - I accept confessions, if you want someone to send stuff to.
There are threads on the forums with lists of people accepting invites. I suggest you check there. I am also willing to take some. But again, the nightmares menace area isn’t that awful. It’s fairly easy to get out of (especially if you’re in the second one). Considering how new you are, it may be worthwhile to let your nightmares rise just to see them.
Addendum: If you don’t mind spending extra actions, the wounds reduction storylet in your lodgings may occasionally lower nightmares if the Airs are just right. Laudanum is a good quick fix too, but newbies may find it more prudent to spend their money on gear instead. Opiates are addictive, after all.
If you are absolutely dedicated to self-sufficiency, there is a slow way to recover your sanity. If you start taking on challenges that give wounds, you can then spend time resting at your lodgings, several of which will reduce nightmares. This is a long, drawn-out process, but it works.
There used to be an option to act as a bodyguard in Watchmaker’s Hill that had nightmare reduction on a rare success which was another option for low-level characters, but the great nerf hammer strikes all good things in this game, both great and small, and that storylet got put on a roulette wheel with some far less desirable options which eat your quirks, so just churning away at that is no longer ‘practical’. edited by RandomWalker on 6/19/2014
hot wine in the refreshment tent of Mrs. Plenty’s carnival can sometimes help, depending on luck. just don’t try that too many times in a row. it won’t reduce Nightmares and you will get Scandal.[li] edited by Ria on 6/19/2014
[quote=RandomWalker]… that storylet got put on a roulette wheel with some far less desirable options which eat your quirks, so just churning away at that is no longer ‘practical’.[/quote]You could change the Airs of London in many other storylets. But perhaps having to travel to other areas is what you meant by it not being ‘practical’? I figure that with ten minutes for each Action, there’s plenty of time to click around to find one’s favourite things to do.
I’ve also neglected to mention my number one way to deal with Nightmares: Stop doing things that give Nightmares, start doing things that give some other menace while waiting for the cards that are good against Nightmares. It applies to any menace, really. :)
I was having a hard time finding the right word, hence the quotes and such. The rare outcome wasn’t too common to begin with, so diluting it on the roulette wheel brought it down below the threshold where just sleeping your wounds away was better, for me at least. Yeah, you can head to the Veilgarden, spend an action to change the airs, head back to Watchmaker’s Hill and see if things have improved, but with the lag between each change in location, it becomes far too annoying for me. YMMV, of course.
Ah, I thought it was the quirks being eaten that made those other actions undesirable. And you wouldn’t have to go back to Watchmaker’s Hill to see if the Airs are right, as you can set them as your Scrapbook quality in your profile and keep your profile in another tab, and refresh it whenever you’ve changed the airs. That’s what I do with airs, bundles and treasures. Even without checking the wiki it’s pretty easy to learn and then remember which numbers you want for certain storylets.
But you’re right in that relying on a rare result doesn’t seem like an efficient way to reduce menace.
Well, it’s the quirk eating that stops me from just using the Watchmaker Hill random storylets to change the airs. All in all, I liked having it as an option for clearing nightmares on my two low level toons, because the social actions involve a lot of bouncing around between accounts or else waiting for someone else to accept your invite and give you the second look you’ll need to pay for them to take on your nightmares. The bodyguard didn’t have pre-reqs or require using the travel interface or logging in and out all the time. It was slow, but I play in bursts so it’s not so bad.