A little more about Fallen London

I can't remember when I heard about Fallen London first. I have this bizarre memory of watching adverts for the game when I was a little kid, but I can't seem to find archived versions of them, so I'm not sure if that was real or not. Regardless, I properly got into the game probably a little over a year ago. The whole concept of the game is that London has been dragged underground to a massive cavern known as the Neath by enigmatic beings known as the Masters of the Bazaar, traded off by a faux Queen Victoria I (the Empress) in exchange for the life of Prince Albert. In real life, we know that she could not save him, and wore black for the rest of her life. London is now trapped in many ways, one of which is in the 19th century, as, by the decree of the Empress, it has been 1899 for a couple years at this point. The rule of the Masters is a strange one, with maps of London being more or less banned and love stories being a prime product.

So, where the h___ do YOU fit into all of this? You start the game locked up in New Newgate Prison. For what, we do not know, nor really care. Once you escape, you get to making your name by pursuing four different story quests related to the four "highway" stats in the game, linked to four aspects of Victorian London's mythology. Watchful encompasses the myth of the detective. Shadowy encompasses the myth of the thief. Dangerous encompasses the myth of the killer. Persuasive encompasses the myth of the socialite. Every stat check (until a certain point) involves one of these four. It is at this point that I must shift attention back to my own experience. Fallen London has certain events that happen around the same time each year. I started playing around the start of the Fruits of the Zee event. It was here that I began to understand the grand scope of the game's content. I had my own little Dracule Mihawk at Baratie moment, where I understood quickly how completely out of my depth I was. At a certain point in your playthrough, you will encounter brand new skills. Bizarre, Dreaded, and Respectable are related to your position in high society, and mainly allow you to emphasize your importance (which can be required for certain options). There are also advanced skills which encompass the Neath's own mythology of monsters, chemistry, walking into dreams, and much more.

Something I adore about Fallen London is that the only real reward to be obtained is more story. You learn more about the Neath, including how death has become a minor inconvenience due to Hell being right there, how this city is in fact the fifth in human history to be dragged down underneath like this, and how there are actually other nations down here. You never have bosses to defeat on your own, nor puzzles to solve. All you do is figure out how to progress through the story. There's a wiki that documents basically everything you could possibly know about the game to help you through if you get stuck or need to grind out an item.

That last sentence points me towards two other things I love about this game. The first is that the game actually has social elements. You could theoretically play on your own, but you can coordinate wiht a friend (or someone on the Discord server) to progress faster or gain access to options you couldn't do on your own. For instance, as a Midnighter, one of the game's many professions, I have access to a social option where I can entertain the children at someone's orphanage. Both I and the person benefit from this. There are also actions you can take to manage the Menaces you might accumulate. Menaces are negative qualities that function as a sort of damage counter. There's one for each of the four main stats listed above. If any of them reach 8, you might end up overwhelmed and die, get sent back to prison, fall into madness, or get exiled, requiring a good amount of time to get back home. The best way to manage any of these is to ask for help.