Harry P.
Posts: 116
12/30/2017
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When I first started playing this game, I didn't fully understand what type of game Fallen London was, which is why my first account has such an odd name. I didn't fully appreciate the role-playing aspect of this game and made decisions based on the rewards I get and my desire to do everything. Story didn't matter, just how much I had seen did. Because of that, the game got boring quick. Then, while I was sending rats to complete strangers out of real-life boredom, I received a response stating it was an experience for him to be courted with dead rats. After that, we ended up sending more and more letters to each other. In order to have something to say, I had to think long and hard about what my character had done and why. Because he was roleplaying, I couldn't exactly break the 4th wall. Thankfully, my decisions, while mostly scattered, had as a whole some consistency due to my sense of self.
I decided to play my character off as a magnanimous hedonist who is also melancholic. He is always cautious and fears death, even in the Neath, and always tries to convince his friends not to be reckless. He is closest to the bohemians and to members of high society, but also to the constables and zailors as well. Despite this, he tries to be friendly and helpful with all factions, even opposing ones, and always tries to look for a solution that benefits everyone involved. He is a man who while enjoying life in the Neath, constantly misses the life he left behind on the Surface. He tries to drown his sorrow using hedonistic pursuits, but on occasion he'll let it slip. After he got his destiny, his backstory grew even more when his future self granted everyone immortality. Now he fears the death of himself and his friends so much as to seek an end to death. In the end, I even had it incorporated as the reason he came to the Neath in the first place by using the Heart's Desire Ambition and having immortality by the thing he had hoped to win all along.
When I made my second account, I did so to see the early-game content I had mostly skimmed due to lack of care for the story and made sure to have a backstory and character in mind when doing so. I decided to mix both my characters' backstory by having them been long-time friends until her brother's death. This event kickstarted the first one's quest for immortality and the second one's quest for revenge. She's ruthless at times, but has a heart of gold and a strong sense of justice. She was a loner until several calling cards coming her way forced her to make friends and suffers for it by being socially awkward. She's very curious about the Neath and never fails to hide her excitement and awe.
Making up backstories and coming up with justifications for why characters acted a certain way was incredible fun and revived my interest in Fallen London. I now really love roleplaying and wished I had started doing it earlier. Fallen London leaped to become I genuinely enjoyed and can't live without. I will forever be grateful towards the man who kickstarted my sense of roleplaying by responding to my rats. Wow, that's a weight off my chest. Sorry for ranting.
TLDR: At first, not much. Now, can't play without it.
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Harry P.: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/HarryP22h
A Magnanimous Gentleman Author with a tendency for melancholic monologues.
Elizabeth K. Broker: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Elizabeth%20K%20Broker
A Socially-Awkward Dueling Trickster with a thirst for vengeance and a soft spot for urchins.
If you are ever in need of any assistance, do not hesitate to ask either of them. The second one is still finicky, though.
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Tystefy
Posts: 450
12/30/2017
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My character was spontaneous.
http://community.failbettergames.com/topic24496-just-a-dumb-post-to-allieve-election-heat.aspx
I had already played Fallen London for perhaps a year or two before completely overhauling myself from a common lurker to... this.
This is my final form!
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Will sometimes return to post absurdity.
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gronostaj
Posts: 403
12/30/2017
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it used to be unimportant, much like the lore of one's avatar in cs:go is irrelevant to all the shooting. i played my character as a puppet-proxy for myself, and treated choices less like actual meaningful choices and more like a choice as to which segment of the interactive book will i see next.
but then i wanted to draw them, and i did, but you can only draw a character as a bandaged dementor for so long, before you feel like to give them a more characteristic look and, you know, an actual face. but what sort of look would suit this puppet-proxy with no agency and no personality of their own? so i grudgingly gave them some personality and history, loosely basing it off some of my main gameplay decisions. and then i suddenly discovered that it's... . actually..... fun.... who would've thought.
so, (like in case of many people here, i see as well) the lore and roleplaying just slowly grew on me with time.
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Gronostaj (pl. Ermine), a decadent duellist of mysterious and indistinct gender. Seeker. Willing to die- but not of boredom. Open to all social actions, including the harmful ones.
Soft-Spoken Surgeon, a doctor who owes an onerous debt. Professor of medicine at the University by day, at criminal employ by night. Open to all non-harmful social actions.
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Polite Society
Posts: 25
12/30/2017
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To echo some other fine gentlefolk here, when I first started I didn't really know what was going on. This is reflected in my original character name which is not lore friendly at all. Now I am older and wiser FL wise I still have no idea what's going on, but Polite Society was born as I thought the name better reflected the nature of the game I was getting more and more into.
As for Lore, my original character is basically me-ish, but far happier to take risks, kill people, steal and be nasty or generous to far further extremes than I would personally be ok with. She covers the spectrum end to end and so does whatever floats her boat at the time.
Polite Society is more RP - he is essentially a hardcore criminal and wannabee kingpin - happiest in the underground environs of the neath - murder, larceny, blackmail etc is just another days work for Polite. Strangely enough the game seems to play that way for Polite in that he has a ridiculously high renown with criminals despite generally working to build all the factions anyway (like 2-3x the others). Criminal cards just seem to rain on the guy and that's just the way he likes it. If you see Polite post on the forums chances are it will be in character (apart from this post, cough)
Mrs Eaten is my 3rd and last character - as you can probably guess she was built to be a seeker once I worked out what seeking was and decided I probably didn't want to kill my other characters but I was very interested in the mysterious storyline. She has but one goal - to find her lost love. Everything else is secondary and meaningless apart from that one purpose. This doesn't mean she doesn't get distracted however and her attention span can be quite short. Sadly she is not particularly adept at following the path or noticing there is a path, or staying on the path if she stumbles across it so I expect she will be seeking for quite a long time, Oh look, something shiny over there... oh dear here we go again...
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Absolute gentle person and in no way associated with anything nefarious or villainous of any measure. Absolutely not. Anyone saying so will have a quiet chat with Big 'Arry n'the lads.
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Addis Rook
Posts: 125
12/31/2017
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It railroads you too hard into specific kinds of characters, but the situations it presents are very interesting.
I feel like you shouldn't treat the game proper as a roleplaying medium... per se. More like, a writing/brainstorming prompt for real roleplays in the setting.
I feel like the game/roleplay balance goes like a hill. At first, it's all about figuring out how your character fits into this incredible setting that slowly unfurls itself before you as you play and learn more about it, but then your character begins to mature, and you begin to realize that the choices are simply too limited to properly account for your developing characters decisions, and the nuances behind them, and so you slowly migrate them towards the roleplaying forum. Or supplement in copious amounts of headcanon while playing. Usually it's both. :P
edited by Addis Rook on 12/31/2017
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Jolanda Swan
Posts: 1789
12/31/2017
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I agree with Addis Rook a lot. Given the game, you have to be a kleptomaniac daredevil on the wrong side of the law, not matter what character you might eventually roleplay with others. Sure, some stories ask you to make a moral choice, but if you fully role-played the game would be unplayable and/or you would miss half of it.
I avoid cruelty or cowardice, and I am surprised of how many chunks of content get taken away for that (Velocipede squad, University department etc). All in all, I mostly roleplay Jolanda in my contacts with other players and when it comes to crucial decisions. The rest of the time, my artistic, spying, comfort loving Jolanda is for some esoteric reason doing Heists at the Flit.
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Lover of all things beautiful, secret admirer of ugly truths, fond of the Parabola Sun... and always delighted to role play.
http://fallenlondon.com/profile/Jolanda%20Swan
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Amsfield
Posts: 176
12/31/2017
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I don't understand how to pay this game without RP, the rewards are not nearly rewarding enough to justify playing if not to confront decisions and see how your character fits in to this world. However, I do feel starting as a blank slate is wiser than going in with extensive backstory or traits in mind, as it will require a LOT of head cannon and stuff to try and justify certain actions. For example, Amsfield was always envisioned as a debauched, hedonistic writer with amoral tendencies, and has largely stayed true to that (although he has switched sides from more radical leanings now that the status quo benefits him), but that was all he was in the beginning and is now considerably more nuanced. I did have much more difficulty with my first two alts however, as Maiser is asexual and I hadn't thought about how much of the game that would lock them out of (the entire Persuasive track, basically), so I had to head cannon why they were doing this (although fortunately, FL is discreet enough in descriptions that wasn't too hard) and Honoria despises criminals, so why she would pursue a life of crime took some effort on my part.
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Amsfield: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Amsfield
A devotee of pleasures intellectual and fleshy. Always fabulously masked.
Honoria Kastern: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Honoria%20Kastern
A hunter, a shooter and a fisher. Also a patriotic busy body. Mildly corrupted.
Maiser: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Maiser
A young firebrand of obviously criminal intent.
Venshik: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Venshik
Not a nice person.
Asmeria: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Asmeria
Quiet, thoughtful and possibly mad. Excellent listener though. Favours grey.
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