• Nomenclature: Notability has Levels. Making Waves has Levels that are advanced with Change Points in the normal FL fashion. I will try to be clear when referring to Levels or Change Points (CPs) of Maving Waves (MWs)



• Getting the First Point of Notability: FIrst, be a Person of Some Importance, or POSI. Second, draw the Amanuensis Card. Third, have a sufficient level of Making Waves to argue for a more emphatic type-face, which is the way you get more Notability. (Alternately, someone who has Notability to burn can draw the card and sponsor you by donating a point of their own Notability. This is hugely expensive for more Notable players, though-- see below.



• The General Forumla for Making Waves Levels vs Notability is: 20 - BDR + 4N
  where BDR is the sum of your equipped/activated Bizarre, Dreaded, and Respectable, and N is your current notability. This formula has two important effects: First, it makes increasing Notability ever more expensive (in terms of MW levels) and second, it makes BDR gear exceptionally worthwhile in the long run. For example, I just checked, and I can muster up 24 BDR points, which means I basically need no MW levels at all for the first or second point of Notability. Someone with no BDR will need 20 levels of MW just for the first point.



• Getting More Notability: Is just like the first point, except easier (mechanically) and more expensive (by the formula.) Once you have Notability, you can summon the pesky Amanuensis to your door. Go to your lodgings, attend to matters of society and scandal, and select the appropriate action. You won't be allowed to do that if you don't already have sufficient MW levels to advance your Notability, which is a nice safety feature. Basically all you lose is an action.



• What Happens When You Increase Notability: You lose MW levels, down to the maintenance level for your new Notability level. Which means that if your new level of Notability is, say, 5, you will lose all your MW levels above 5 no matter how many you had to start with. Needed 15 but had 25? Tough, the excess are gone.



• Maintaining Notability and Making Waves: Once a week, Time the Healer comes around to kick you in the Notabilities. Two things happen, as far as I can tell, in this order:
  
  
  
  
  • Your MW levels are checked against your Notability Level. If the MW level is strictly lesser than Notability, you lose a Notability point, otherwise Notability is unchanged.
  
  
  • Your MW levels are then cut in half. Note, I said levels not change points. It takes something like 78 MW CPs to get to MW level 12, but only 21 MW CPs to get to ML level 6. Yet, Time the Healer will knock your MW level from 12 down to 6. (I don't remember how the rounding works for odd levels of MW, sorry.)
  
  
  
  
  So what this means is that you need to be aware of roughly where you fall in the weekly Time the Healer schedule (and be aware that this is not something you should time to the second, the minute, or probably even the hour) and you must replenish your MW levels on a weekly basis. But, the way the advancement system works, if you advance your Notability, you are placed exactly at the maintenance level, so you have between one and two weeks before you need to deal with it.



• How to Make Waves: This is what it's all about, in the end-- Making a lot of Waves if you need high notability for something (like a new profession, say) and Making regular Waves for maintenance purposes. Here is where this guide becomes non-comprehensive, because I do not have an encyclodpaedic knowledge of all the cards and options, but in general, there are a few broad classes of cards to think about:
  
  
  
  
  • Minor Cards: These are cards like Promenade with the Celebrated Artist's Model, which gives you a small but random number of CPs, or the Soft-Hearted Widow (two options), or an Invitation to Dinner, etc. Some of these trade connections, or need connections, or trade commodities, and so forth.
  
  
  
  • Item Conversions: Some of the mid-tier item conversions grant MW points, now, including, but not nececssarily limited to: Tales of Terror --> Extraordinary Implications, Stolen Kisses --> Favors in High Places, and Extraordinary Implications --> Uncanny Incunables. There are probably others. These are usually random but with lucrative expected values.
  
  
  
  • Social Activitie: Most or all of the "Challenge a friend..." options raise MW when you win.
  
  
  
  • Publishing a Newspaper: I haven't done this for a while, but my memories are that it took a long time and gave you very little in the way of MWs. Maybe that's been re-vamped.
  
  
  
  • Lodgings Opportinites: Ah, now we're talking. Most (not all) of the lodgings cards now have an opportunity to trade something of value away for a substantial amount of MW CPs. For instance, if you own land at the Bazaar, you can hold an auction and exchange a Personal Recommendation, a Collection of Curiosities, and 4000 Society CPs (that is not a typo) for usually triple digit amounts of MW CPs. (95-140, says the Wiki.) Only you can decide if that's a good deal. Or, more modestly, the Heron Tower will exchange a Parabola Linen for about 70 MW CPs.
  
  
  
  • Tower of Eyes: This is a special case of Lodgings. The Tower of Eyes lets you set up a Salon (which I've done) or an Orphanage (which I've not, so I can't talk about.) The Salon is a kind of a carousel-- once the salon is set up ( a one time activity) then when you draw the Tower of Eyes you can either pursue a scheme, which grinds connections and mid-tier commodities for Scheme points, or you can invite guests which exchange Scheme points (and sometimes additional requirements) for MW CPs. This takes a while, so the benefits are usually substantial. Apparently, inviting the Duchess will net you in the high three figures, but I've never been that bored or desperate. One wrinkle is that who you can invite depends on your acquaintances, connections, scheme points and the Airs of London! Rob an Anonymous Wretch in Spite to change the airs.
  
  
  
  • The Tower of Sparrows: Authors and Journalists, oh how I envy you! The Tower of Sparrows allows you to exchange Nights on the Town (and a wide variety of lesser connections and commodities and some money) for a highly variable amount of MW CPs. You know how you get Nights on the Town without being an Author or a Journalist? They cost about 20 MW CPs and some Influence commodities at The Bridge Without in the Bazaar Sidestreets. This is effectively a storage mechanism for your CPs if you should find yourself with a surplus. And! And! And! This particular action is chain-able-- if you have enough Nights and other requirements, you can immediately play this card again after you've cashed in. Obviously, this takes planning.
  
  
  
  
  
• Putting It All Together: So to be effective, I recommend the following things. First, BDR: Get you some, right now. Second, pay attention to the Time the Healer schedule-- try to be at or just barely above the maintenance level at that time of the week. If you're maintaining, make sure you have enough. If you're trying to increase, either start right after that, or be darn sure you can make it all the way by that time. Third, be prepared. Stockpile the commodities you use, and when you use them, grind them back. A lot of the higher end rewards depend on drawing a lodging card, and you want to be able to use it immediately. I pursue salon schemes whenever possible, for instance, so I always have Stolen Kisses and high Bohemian Connections on hand and when I use them, I try to grind them back that very day.

What's that anti-bad luck thing called again?
edited by the truthseeker on 12/10/2015

Question about BDR--what are the best Fate and non-Fate options for each stat, and where/when can they be achieved?

I'd like to add the three 'sideways' conversion that give MW as well:

Incendiary Gossip -> Memory of Distant Shores (1-10 CP)
Tale of Terror -> Compromising Document (1-8 CP)
Zee-Ztory -> Strangling Willow Absinthe (~5 CP)

So to confirm - aside from arranging favourable circumstances, getting a 100% check on the surprise package, and upgrading to 5-card premises, there's not much other reason to get more notability? Bragging rights aside, of course.