A Rubbery Man, a Clay Man and a Rat should make for a reasonably open race.

Mr Slowcake has no address. He makes no appearances. He is a member of no clubs and no academic societies. He does not deign to visit the offices of the book's writers or publishers.

Mr Slowcake is a fiction. Specifically, he is the invention of a cabal of devils. It takes all your skill to tear through the misdirections and subterfuges, but you are convinced. The force behind Slowcake's Exceptionals is the Brass Embassy. Of course, this raises more questions than it answers.

Jebediah's face is wax and his eyes are glass. His smell is a concoction of cheese and vinegar. His accent is impeccable, and a lie. You invented him. You lived as him for months, smiling with his lips, spinning his nostalgic yarns, widening his web. He is missed, when he suddenly disappears.

You pass on the message, and ask who she's trying to smuggle out of Hell.

“A spy. Damnation is the deepest cover. The crowns of Europe are hungry for news of Hell, and I intend to oblige them. Even the old feller in Rome.”

“She's bringing someone out of Hell. I've heard an old spy's tale a decade old, about a spy who was willingly damned to infiltrate Hell. She's going to bring out an agent and pretend it's the spy – play the great nations for fools. The agent will tell them Hell's a place of honey and roses. And they'll lap it up.”

A surface power – she names it, and you blink in shock – intends to mint its currency with infernal brass! They hope to harness their economy thereby to the driving engines of Hell. There have been arrangements made at ministerial level.

I think the only sensible option would be for Colonel whatsherface from the urchins (obviously disguised in a long coat sitting on the shoulders of another urchin or two).

I would vote for:
1) Silas, that rogue...
2) The Tentacled Entrepreneur (a rubberyman? Is that legal? who's behind him?). Oh, he will sweep all votes...
3)Virginia. Yesssss

The Numismatrix. She could run on a campaign of improving the economy (as a front to gather more exotic coins), as well as mediating peace (or at least trade) between the various factions (since she's the one who let's you become Closest To: ). There's a fairly obvious and entertaining idea about the fate story she'd be involved in should she win, revolving around attempting to barter for rare treasures within the Bazaar's vault.

Maybe it's the "i believe in fairies" type of idea, where if you believe hard enough that something is real, it actually does become real.

I believe in mr Slowcake.

Obviously, the Cheery Man is not going to run himself

Yeah, he managed his city SO well last time. Let's give him another.Sigh...........*holds head in her hands*. Why do I try?

2. Sardonic Music-Hall Singer. Practical, realistic, accustomed to criticism, and familiar with the struggles of average Londoners. Good at looking after herself, but no experience with managing large organizations. Bohemians, Criminals.

"I'm sure she's done worse since. I know I would if I was mayor. Now there's a thought." She offers you a gin before fishing a few torn pages from her bonnet and handing them over. As you walk away you can hear her begin a familiar song, one popular in Mahogany Hall.

Mr. Slowcake for Mayor

Here we have the essential difference between a life long activist (improve society) and a machine politician (help my voters).

Where does the Soft-Hearted Widow stand in this debate? [...] there would be the question of whether it would be closer to the DTC's approach or Jenny's.

The Turkish Girl, because I find her charming from the little content we have, and as a Shroom-Hopping Champion and low-born newcomer to the social circuit it'd be interesting to have an athlete/celebrity combo, perhaps with a backstory that could be fleshed out in greater detail, making her a blank canvas for whatever deeper mysteries your storytellers come up with... And after the Season of Stones, I could see her humble beginnings being a political selling point.

I also think it's high time we saw the Widow stand for election. As with Feducci, there's much more to her than meets the eye, but there's less content -- particularly new content -- devoted to plumbing her very interesting character.
edited by Televangelist on 7/26/2017

Do remember that he can't actually walk all that well, perhaps he wouldn't enter the race in the first place.

Looking forward to next, next year's election I'd love to see a return of familiar faces. I want the "losers" of the previous 3 elections to try again.

The Bishop renewed, the Campaigner reinvigorated, whoever next year's unfortunate is, all having another go at the election.

"Take heart, friend. The light has not yet gone out. This is not the end."

The Last Constable:
Fallen London is riddled with crime, I feel The Last Constable would try to reach a higher position in order to crack down on crime.

Admittedly, FL does seem to do a better job of crushing unionist sentiment than it's historical counterpart

1) Three urchins in a trench-coat: No one else cared about the poor impoverished children of the rooftops, so they are doing it themselves (as usual).

I still really want to see what the Contrarian would do in the seat. And I really, really--
[spoiler]want to stop him from pursuing the Liberation any further. He's a cool guy. He's just fallen in with a bad crowd.[/spoiler]
edited by Snowskeeper on 11/8/2017

Aardvark wrote:

As for the Gracious Widow, do we have any direct proof that she's actually decrepit? I always imagined her as quite beautiful beyond the shadows, much like with the Duchess and her public persona. Though I admit that I haven't yet allied myself with the Widow for Sacksmas and it's been a time since I played the Affair of the Box, so I am not up to date with my post-Silver Tree Widow-lore.

Well, whenever my character has met the Gracious Widow she's been masked by darkness and given the general impression of being really, really old - physically speaking, not just in terms of centuries lived. She's not really a hobknob and meet the voters sort of character.

The Duchess is in peak physical condition and already a public presence (she has public teas in Sprite, doesn't she?). Only question is whether the Duchess would want to run for Mayor. If she wanted to, then she could do it, easily, and I think she'd be a fine candidate.

I can't imagine a broad base of support for Molly, but the Tiger Keeper and Ms. Gebrandt look like great candidates to me.

(Similarly to how last year the candidates represented the three artistic schools (Nocturnals, Bazaarines, Celestials), and this year the three philosophies (Anchoress, Unconfined, Implacable)).

Some players offed their Repentant Forger via Uncovering Secrets Framed in Gold. The other three would make for interesting candidates.

an aunt that's somehow everyone's aunt all at once could make a humorous counterpoint to the non-existing slowkcake. an auntly candidate that exists too much.

I think this has a lot to do with the fact that we only see bits of Fallen London which Failbetter has time to write about. The Battle of Wolfstack Docks the Battle doesn't often come up, but when it does it is regarded as a watershed moment, the first real indication of something more to come. I think the loss of Mayor Jenny has been a step back from that part of the world, because her mayor card involved her efforts to provide education for often-illiterate laborers. Personally I'd love to see some endgame content for the Battle of Wolfstack Docks and the larger conflict between labor and capital. Maybe a carousel at Wolfstack Docks with options varying based on the player's choice of motive and methods in each run through the loop, like Business in Wilmot's End. Could be a nice foundation for a lengthy, involved storyline similar to Affair of the Box.

Shogo_Yahagi wrote:

Anne Auclair wrote:

You can't have a candidate who is Your Aunt to a hundred thousand other players.

You can't have a Cheery Man who simultaneously is and isn't permanently, irrevocably dead either, and yet we do.

Apples and coconuts. Again, there's no shared narrative in the Cheery Man/Last Constable storyline - so it can differ a lot for individual players. However, there is a single, shared, collectively determined narrative in the Election storyline.
edited by Anne Auclair on 11/7/2017

Oh, you are so not kidding :P Which is why I love you too ^_^

The DTC's position wasn't that people need to be made deserving. It was more that if people were homeless you had to treat the underlying conditions. A bed in a gin parlor is better than nothing, but it wouldn't do that much to help someone who became homeless because of alcoholism, would it? The symptom is being treated while the disease is being exuberated. Providing houses of healing on the other hand treats the symptom and the disease at the same time (that's the theory anyway).

Oh, the Soft-Hearted Widow takes in Seekers? I did not know that!

The Widow also lacks Jenny's self-aggrandizing nature and the DTC's crusading ways, making her a bridge in personality as well as attitudes/policy.

1. F. F. Gebrandt: a trustworthy and successful businesswoman, though we must make sure her business interests do not interfere with a mayoral post...
2. The Tentacled Entrepreneur: a trustworthy and successful businesssomething, who greatly charmed me at a party
3. The Presbyterate Adventuress. Cool as hell and a minor character that would be fun to explore or even meet.
4. The Tiger-Keeper. I'd like to offer him as a slightly less frightening and more reasonable alternative to the Matriarch. Also, I absolutely loved the keeper-who-is-a-tiger as opposed to the keeper-who-keeps-tigers you assume.
5. Miriam Plenty. Sharp, reliable(ish), a woman of the people, and mysterious. I'd like to see more of her and also like her as a mayor.

I'm not sure if this fits canonically (does the Cheery Man get eliminated if you side with the Last Constable?), but I'd like to see the Cheery Man run for Mayor. Although this doesn't fit his character, it'd be interesting to see someone associated with the criminal element so heavily change London.

D'you know, we've had a few candidates who've wanted to do something for the needy... but none who were the needy. That is, even our revolutionary candidates have been quite well-heeled sorts. Is there a possibility of a labourist voice in a London election?

I'll see your apples and coconuts and raise you figs. As in, if I gave you all of the figs that I have at my disposal to give for RP concerns, the resulting figgy pudding would just be a pudding. Role playing affects a small fraction of the players posting in the forums, who are themselves a small fraction of the players playing the game.

I can't help noticing that you've conveniently ignored my other point. You're not reading my storylets, which say that she's my aunt, you're reading your storylets, which say that she's your aunt. Everything depends on your frame of observation. She's a rather special relative in that way.

It freaked out... Sorry. So, I would recommend the Honey-Addled Detective because he gets almost no praise for all he does. Another one could be, for example, The Cheery Man, backed by criminals and dockers, or someone posing as Mr Eaten, which would be an interesting story element

One problem with Slowcake running is... how well does the rest of the player base who are less engaged differentiate between Slowcake and Slowcake's Amanuensis? I don't want the election to hinge on people misinterpreting those, and I don't know how well-differentiated they are for less engaged players.

That being said, isn't "Sunless Skies" set both in a specific timeline and in the future compared to "Fallen London"? I'm wondering now whether that would work having specific characters from that game in this one?

Re: the Cheery Man - Bad jokes aside, it's a non-issue. The Jovial Contrarian can't walk, either.

• The School of Hard-Knocks ("cruel as the streets and tough as cobblestones"). One of the Urchins, perhaps?
• The Adventuress' Correspondence Course ("exploration, survival, and soldiering"). The Presbyterate Adventuress?
• The Forms of the Tomb-Colonies ("elegant, punctilious, and effective"). Grace?

The four major acquaintances, all at the same time. If you want a close race, that's how.

Don't count your tentacles before they're elected. I get an impression that Rubbery Men aren't actually all that universally-loved outside the forum.

On the other note, I wonder what would happen if the amount of mayoral candidates was increased? Say, to four. Could maybe help split votes more evently rather than one candidate getting a huge cut of them, as well as make the election more unpredictable.

And Rubberymen are (I believe) likable characters by the FL players community.

The Bishop and the Campaigner both had names, too - admittedly not the titles they're best known by, but names! And I could take a reasonable guess at assigning a kind of a name to the Contrarian, too. The Detective's been the only completely nameless candidate.