Wiki Wiki

 Be forewarned, this post is even more rambly than usual.

I'm mostly creating this post to help nudge Google's SEO to pick up the new Fallen London Wiki, which has recently relocated to a new home. Well, "relocated" might be too tame a term. "Escaped an abusive relationship and started a fresh life" might be more accurate.

I have a long, albeit tenuous, connection with the wiki. When I first started playing Fallen London about a decade ago, there were two separate community-driven wikis. I believe that the wikidot was first; its domain name even reflects the original title of the game, Echo Bazaar. This wiki focused on gameplay and strategy; in particular, I found its item conversion tables invaluable. In contrast, the wikia was more of a straight dump of the game contents, focused on storylets: you could look up anything in the game to see what was required to make it appear, what the options were, what requirements each option had, and what each choice did.

There was some mild-mannered back-and-forth between the wiki community and Failbetter Games. Since Fallen London is almost entirely composed of text, the company was understandably not enthusiastic about their entire game essentially getting mirrored into a clickable alternative, allowing people to essentially "play" through the game without any Candle limitations. A few principles got established early on that thankfully continue to this day. First, no details can be provided on the wiki about stuff that requires Fate, i.e. spending real-world money. Secondly, there is a character limit on how much text from each storylet body can be present in an article. In practice, this has meant that you can read a summary or gist of what an action does, but will need to play it to experience the actual content.

I was a very active Fallen London player in those days, and that extended to Wiki contributions: I created the entry for the Rumourmaster's Network (now renamed Rumourmonger's Network), filled in descriptors for the higher levels of Scholar of the Correspondence, and filled in lots of details about random ranges, seasonal events and other things. I'm no longer at the vanguard of content discovery, so these days I just use the wiki as a reference. It has some absolutely excellent tools and calculators, including a best-in-slot calculator that was essential prior to the expansion of Outfits and remains extremely useful today. (Fortunately, the retirement of Paramount Presence of the Ancient Regime and the invention of new stat caps has removed the need for me use the wiki to look up each and every new action before I click on it to ensure that it will not remove 1 CP of one of my main stats.)

At some point along the line, Wikia rebranded to Fandom, which I believe was a universal move. Let's take a little tangent and talk about that!

Almost all wikis are based on MediaWiki, the open-source engine that drives Wikipedia. In the early days of Wikipedia, people embraced its ethos as the "everything encyclopedia": you could write an entry about literally anything, and there was an explosion of content and communities building out vast webs of documentation about their passions. Prior to this, information on a given commercial project was usually limited to one of two forms: either an official web site, maintained by the creator of that project and typically limited to a very high-level summary of it; or a community forum, which contained a vast amount of content of varying quality that was difficult to search but likely had the information you sought. Wikipedia seemed like a great solution to the problem of making knowledge discoverable: if you wanted to figure out what issue of Bone first revealed the identity of the farmer, or how many members were in the Minibosses music group, or who the most prolific graffiti artists in San Francisco were, you could head to Wikipedia and find out. And, on the off chance it wasn't there yet, you could do some research and create your own entry, which other users would later polish and correct and refine.

That golden era came to an end in the Great Crackdown. I mostly experienced this with the Webcomic Purge, when dozens and then hundreds of Wikipedia pages were taken down for lack of "notability". A daily newspaper comic that nobody talks about deserved an entry; a daily web comic that got millions of views and spawned a passionate following did not. The purge continued, ruthlessly removing all entries that did not meet the editors' arbitrary standards of notability. (As you might suspect, these reflect the biases you would associate from white nerds. To this day there is a long and informative article about the Vala on Wikipedia; any similar entry on a less-revered property would certainly face deletion.)

Fortunately, there was an alternative! (Sarcasm alert.) While the Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit, it just so happened to have a for-profit alternative, Wikia. Founded and run by the same people as Wikipedia, and running the same software, but instead of creating a single repository for all human knowledge it segmented each topic into a separate site, and served ads on those sites to make money. To this day I remain convinced that Wikipedia intentionally drove away these vibrant, active communities so they could make money off of them on Wikia instead.

MediaWiki itself will always remain open source, and over the years quite a few other competitors have entered this space. I ran into a lot of headaches related to this during my Shadowrun days. A trend has grown for game companies to establish an "official" site for a wiki, perhaps seeding it with some art and content but leaving it up to players to maintain and fill it in. When Shadowrun Returns first launched, their official wiki was on a domain called wikispaces.com. A ton of great content went up in there: Harebrained Schemes wrote a few articles giving details on the editor, and I and a lot of other creators wrote various tutorials and guides and other stuff. But, wikispaces went away, as you will see if you try to visit that domain now.

Prior to the launch of Shadowrun Hong Kong, HBS migrated over to a new wiki on Gamepedia, copying some (but definitely not all) of the old content and guides. That has been the main source of community knowledge in recent years, though honestly you'll likely get better results by searching Google and finding a relevant Reddit thread; we seem to be back to the old days where the best content could only be found in forums.

I contributed to the Gamepedia for a while, but threw a hissy fit when they got bought out by someone called Curse Media, and then forced me to create a Twitch account to continue editing articles. I can't justify how mad I was, but I walked away and never touched that wiki again.

If you try to go to the Shadowrun Gamepedia today, you'll be taken to Fandom, which is the new rebranding of Wikia. It's becoming yet another monopoly, swallowing up all of the alternatives that were out there and bringing all properties under its banner. After reading Goliath, I am very radicalized against the trend towards consolidation, crushing the little guy and creating big, terrible companies that give everyone an awful experience.

The monopoly wasn't the tipping point for the Fallen London wiki, though. The community editors faced a host of issues that they thoughtfully documented. One of the most germane problems for readers of the Fandom wiki, though, is that it's absolutely unusable on mobile. In recent months I've had to deal with full-screen takeovers, autoplaying videos, pages that jump around to trick you into clicking on ads, and all sorts of slimy, awful stuff. Fortunately my adblocker on my PC does a good job at removing that stuff, but that's no consolation to folks who try and read the wiki from their phones and tablets.

And yes, of course this is a direct result of Fandom establishing a virtual monopoly over the wiki space. If they were merely one of many players, they wouldn't be able to get away with providing such awful service with such aggressive ads.

The move to a new non-Fandom wiki site may be a quixotic quest; currently "Fallen London wiki" still shows the old Fandom site as the first result, and the .wiki on page 2 of results. But hopefully that will change. One especially awesome thing is that Failbetter Games is supporting this change, even though they historically haven't had anything to do with the old wikis: they announced the wiki move to players, added a wiki link to their FAQ, and even offered to pay the hosting costs for the new site. I think that's really amazing of them.

Hopefully there will be more moves like this in the future. Apparently the Fallen London community move was inspired by the Runescape Wiki's escape several years ago; that move seems to be very successful, and their wiki is now very easy to find. I do wonder if, in the future, more companies will move towards hosting their own wikis in the same way they used to host their own forums. It does blur the line between community and company, for better or worse, but on balance I'd take that solution over further fattening the Fandom monopoly.

Soooo anyways, if you play Fallen London please update your bookmark for the wiki and save yourself from watching a thousand terrible ads!

London Rising

There's been a very surprising and very welcome trove of fresh storytelling in Fallen London, the browser game I've been periodically inhabiting over the past decade. I've been at the content boundary for many years, and have a habit of just popping in every now and then: dancing my way through the Feast of the Exceptional Rose, or answering persistent doorbell rings at Sacksmas, or obliging the occasional friend asking for help dealing with their nightmares.

This return has been pretty different. Failbetter is in the midst of celebrating the ten-year anniversary of Fallen London proper. The game technically launched back in 2009, under the original name Echo Bazaar and a slightly more social-game orientation. The rebranding to Fallen London was one of the many (many!) gradual evolutions of the game. The celebrations have included what is by far the single biggest and longest expansions in the entire time I've been playing.

There's always new material being added to the game, but most of it is (quite sensibly) delivered for Exceptional Friends, paying customers who help keep the company afloat. The vast majority of FL content is free, but most of it has been in place since the early days. As with most games, only a small fraction of the total playerbase makes it to the endgame, and so most of Failbetter's updates have, understandably, been focused on improving the experiences for new players: diminishing the grindiness of the early game, adding more narrative thrust to the initial areas, providing new activities that all players can participate in.

Of course, there definitely have been end-game additions over the years. We got to visit the Elder Continent, to excavate the Forgotten Quarter in search of the Tomb of Silken Thread, and most recently to visit Arbor.  But this latest tranche is vastly different. The slack-jawed consensus among players is "It feels like becoming a Person of Some Importance all over again!" If you've played Fallen London before, you may already know that that means. If not... it's somewhat like discovering Skyhold for the first time in Inquisition, or opening the Galaxy Map in Mass Effect, or dying in Tides of Numenara. Something clicks, and you discover that there is an entire new world out there, with entirely new systems: the game is not only bigger than you thought, it's also deeper and more varied, with whole new modes of exploration.

MINI SPOILERS

When you first become a POSI, you gain access to a variety of interlocking areas and systems, new stats, new considerations. The Bazaar Side-Streets, the Zee, the Islands, the Empress's Court: you'll be visiting each of them, buying your ship on the side-streets, then a plated seal at zee, then breeding it in the Labyrinth of Tigers to get a Bifurcated Owl, easing the path to Notability to get a high-level Profession to get a stat-boosting weapon to increase your maximum Persuasive so you can reach 40 Renown so you can get the best-in-slot Shadowy Boots. The Bizarre, Dreaded and Respectable qualities that once seemed useless are now all-consuming.

Similarly, we now have several new areas. The Laboratory is where most of us will visit first. There's a complex and engaging system in here that feels very true to what I've heard from friends who work at research universities: you negotiate with the university administration, get equipment for your lab, petition for supplies, recruit grad students as researchers, engage on projects, gradually build up the reputation of both your lab (science!) and your teaching (humanity!).

On its own, this would have been a cool and satisfying addition: it's mechanically deep, and nicely challenging (it feels weirdly nice to have Watchful checks that I can't 100% pass even with my maxed gear), and can reward some unique items. But it also opens the portal to another major area, which we've been talking about for years and years: Parabola, the place behind the mirrors, which Is Not.

In some ways, Parabola is even more complex than the Lab. For starters, it includes multiple areas, which you will need to explore to find: you'll start off in your Base Camp (which you can level up - very helpful for keeping Nightmares in check!), but as you track various Parabolan creatures, you'll occasionally spot some other interesting areas. You can finally meet the Fingerkings, if you dare. Or see where the Great Game is played and play it yourself. Or float down the Waswood and look for interesting objects in the current.

In Parabola, you'll start seeing, using and increasing entire new stats: Mithrandcy, Glasswork, Monstrous Anatomy, and more. These stats even behave differently than the normal ones we're used to: You can train them up as before, and equip items to increase them, but you can also increase their maximum levels: usually the Glasswork stat caps out at 5 (along a pyramidal increase), but if you treat the Fingerkings right you can raise the maximum to 7, then train it up to that. Again, just being able to fail things again is kind of exciting: I've spent years just squeezing out another 1 or 2 points on a previously-maxed stat by chasing down a new best-in-slot item, and it's genuinely thrilling to once again get something going from the very start.

The University and Parabola are interrelated in wonderful ways. For example, you can create Glass Gazettes in the Lab, which will help you track Parabolan beasts. Capture a beast, and you can later study it in your Lab. This may grant you new insight that will help you further explore Parabola, and so on.

These two are also related to a third new area, the Bone Market. It's a shop near the Department of Menace Eradication, sort of a Bazaar that barters in kind: if you pick up an unusual bone in your research or your travels (sorted into the fresh and startling inventory category "Osteology"), you can take it down to the Bone Market and look for a willing buyer. This place also has unique mechanics, most notably that you will need lower BDR stats in order to attract certain buyers. This can be a problem for veteran players, who probably belong to a Respectable Club or have a Dreaded Tattoo or other permanent entanglement. Correspondingly, there is now an entirely new market in BDR-lowering items, which the Fingerkings would be all too happy to provide, at what will certainly not cause any danger for any person whatsoever.

The Bone Market is spare at the moment, at least compared to the huge amount of content at the Lab and the University. Failbetter has indicated that more options will be opening up in there soon, such as being able to open your own stall. That's right, the anniversary celebration isn't over yet: we still have more to come!

END SPOILERS

Not least of which is an entirely new festival! New festivals have been added every new and then, like the Fruits of the Zee and the Election. We're now mere days into a brand-new one, Whitsun, which is... about eggs? It feels pretty convoluted and confusing at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that most festivals probably do to brand-new players.

The core mechanic of this festival is basically: buy an egg, enhance an egg, hatch an egg. Depending on how you enhance it, you'll get different things. Mostly pets. So, it's a little reminiscent of the Feast of the Rose. Unlike the Feast, which was more card-based (to get Masquing), Whitsun is more time-based: once you get an egg ready, it takes 24 real-world hours to hatch it.

The whole thing honestly feels kind of overwhelming, but fortunately a kind soul created an extremely helpful and comprehensive Google Doc listing the possible rewards, which then lets me plan my own personal goals. There are a nice mix of desirable things here: some pets apparently unlock new branches on existing cards and stories, others boost the new end-game stats, and one is a new best-in-slot BDR boot.

(I do have to say that the new diversity in stats and stat requirements has made the already-inadequate Wardrobe system now woefully pointless. I previously wanted seven slots; now I think that up to fifteen may be needed, if the Bone Market is a regular thing. I guess we'll probably go back to manually searching through our Possessions every time we draw a new card. Just imagine searching through this mess, trying to find the one pet that gives a boost to Glasswork, or that lowers your Bizarre!)

As with most festivals, you can get a lot of stuff for free, or pay some Fate for higher-level rewards. This festival uses a new currency, the ha'penny: everyone gets three of them for free, and you can buy more for Fate. Fate is required for the end-game-related pets, or if you want more than one of the clothing items. I'm thinking of dropping some cash in the next day or two for that. Fallen London has given me so much joy over the years, and is so decent in how they manage their business, that I always feel good when I toss them a few bucks.

While eggs are the stars of the Whitsun show, it seems like there's still more to come. The Apicius Club has reappeared and we're having our first De Gustibus in, uh, maybe five years or so. You can finally pick up that Sealed Copy of the Crimson Book you've been pining for! And it sounds like there are new, Egg-related research options at the Lab, and in Sinning Jenny's Finishing School, and perhaps a local newspaper edition to be written.

Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the Ambitions! They're all done, now! This was the very first stuff in Fallen London, the big, meaty narratives that drew us in and gave us purpose in the early days. All four have been completed. Well, by Failbetter, I mean. I'm personally in the midst of a very intense bracket tournament as I pursue my Heart's Desire, but my opponent will just need to wait until I've finished admiring all these eggs.

There's lots more to see and do, and with all the dispiriting stuff happening (or not happening) in the world now, I feel very grateful for the chance to escape into Fallen London for a little while now.

Seeking the Garden

While I'm writing about Failbetter: Hot on the heels of completing the Song of the Sky in Sunless Skies, I finally achieved the last major milestone I've been tracking in Fallen London. I am now the proud owner of a Firkin of Hesperidean Cider!

The game has grown significantly since I first started playing it about seven years ago, but Cider has been an end-game goal from the very beginning. The idea of ever obtaining it seemed ludicrous in those early days. The most expensive item in the Echo Bazaar, it cost a whopping 160,000 echoes, implying years of nonstop cash-grinding. It was always technically achievable - unlike many other elements of the game it was never locked behind content gates - which just made it the more tempting.

The first people to acquire it were folks who handed over real-world cash money; someone actually paid $500 American dollars as a special backer reward for the Silver Tree kickstarter to pick it up. (And, having played the Silver Tree and learning the Princess's story, I see that that's actually a very lore-appropriate place to distribute it.) I think that since then it may have been auctioned off once or twice for charity drives. More recently, people finally earned it through legitimate in-game actions; it has become less exclusive as the game has grown older and the available money grinds have gradually grown infinitesimally higher. (When I first started the most rewarding grind was the Affair of the Box at 1.64 echoes per action; in recent months, end-game players have been flocking to the Tomb of the Silken Thread, which over the long run may earn something closer to 2.24 echoes per action.)

So, what exactly does the Cider do? That leads to some lore:

MINI SPOILERS

The Cider makes you immortal. Both in the lore and mechanically within the game.

Story-wise, certain fruit elixirs can grant eternal life to those who imbibe. This is obviously evocative of the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden, but the presentation in the game isn't specifically derivative of that. Interestingly, it seems that several different people have developed their own recipes over the years. The Capering Relicker came up with the original formula, drawing on Mesopotamian bounty. Millennia later, the Gracious Widow crafted her own version, a form of peach brandy with similar effects, enabling her to endure through the Khanate's exodus.

Obviously, immortality is very tempting to any person at any time. It holds a slightly different appeal to those in the Neath. Shielded from the Sun's light and the Judgement's laws, those who live below the surface are effectively immortal already: they can survive stabbings and shootings and drownings and all sorts of deaths, picking their bodies back up and continuing on their way. But after experiencing such a death, they can never again return to the surface. The first rays of the Sun's light will re-establish the Law, and their belated death will catch up to them.

My own character, Seberin Cirion, has always been a reluctant citizen of the Neath. There are marvels to see there, access to hidden wisdom that will fuel his goals. But he longs to feel the sunlight on his face again, to sit beneath the open sky, to lay on grass and see flowering plants once more. Because of this, during my seven-years stay in the Neath I've been very careful to avoid ever dying: I haven't paid any visits to the Slow Boat, and have relied on my Slavering Dream-Hound and other aids to keep my wounds in check.

That said: now that I hold Cider, I can finally cross that final frontier without fear. I can explore that undiscovered country while retaining the ability to return to the surface. Whether it is Paris in 1906 or some other excursion at some other date, I can confidently leave the Neath once I have claimed what I need from it.

Mechanically, the Cider is more complex and interesting than I would have imagined. I had vaguely thought that it might, like, give -8 Wounds when equipped, or let you drop wounds. It does the latter, and more, too. You can drink at any time by selecting it from your inventory. Doing so removes all of your Wounds in a single action... and also gives you 10 levels of a new quality, "A Taste of the Garden". Having these levels makes you eligible to draw new Dream opportunity cards. They are mechanically different from any other cards that I have seen: there is no "Perhaps Not" option to back out after clicking one. They behave like a mix between the red-bordered autofire dream cards and standard opportunity cards.

So far, all of the cards I've seen decrease "A Taste of the Garden" by 1, raise Nightmares by 1, and provide an Extraordinary Implication, worth 250 pence. I'm a bit surprised to see that owning Cider is itself profitable... but I guess that's how capitalism works! More seriously, this does lead to some genuinely interesting considerations for gameplay. You can drop Wounds on demand, but will effectively gain 10cp of Nightmares by doing so. You don't need to take those all at once, and they are fairly profitable to have, but you'll either need to spend future actions to manage them (and thus reduce the profitability of playing those cards), or else they effectively become menace cards.

So, yeah! I'm very pleased to have it. I haven't written much about Fallen London here for years; like many veteran players, I go through long stretches without playing, then dive back in for a seasonal festival or when some new content has been released. As I said before, Cider is the last milestone I'm currently really tracking. Here's a quick list of the various accomplishments Seberin Cirion has accomplished in recent years, most of which were added to the game long after Cider:

• I am a Paramount Presence, fully overcapping all of my primary stats and achieving several distinctive goals.
• I have acquired all the best-in-slot gear (with the sole exception of the best Shadowy Boots, which I can finally claim in safety from the Slow Boat now that I have the Cider).
• I am the Poet Laureate of London.
• I am the Courier's Footprint, the foremost authority on the Correspondence. (I believe I was also the first person to raise Scholar of the Correspondence to level 20.)
• I have a Sealed Copy of the Crimson Book, which is clearly of enormous interest to the Bazaar.
• I hold all of the rare Relicker items. (As far as I know, I was the first person to acquire a Rumourmonger's Network.)
• I've raised all of my Renown as high as I want it to be. (40 for most factions, up to 50 for a few.)
• I have 0 Renown: Hell. Especially proud of that one!
• I am a Correspondent.

I think the only major goals left, which I don't plan to pursue, are:

• Acquiring a Heptagoat.
• Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name.
• ... (I was going to say Knife-and-Candle, but I'm pretty sure that's defunct.)

END SPOILERS

So, yeah! I think I'll park my character for a while - it isn't the first time, and won't be the last. There are a few exciting things on the horizon, like the completion of the Ambitions and the fourth tier of Professions, which I'm looking forward to playing once they're available. But most of the updates in recent years have been complete surprises, whether unexpected destinations across the Zee or new archaeological sites to dig up or new works of literature to create. It's been really fun to see Failbetter expand into other regions and other modes of play in recent years, and it's also fun to still kind of have a home in Fallen London to which I can return now and then and enjoy the life I've built there.

Courtship

Huzzah! I’ve finished off a delightful romp through The Last Court. It was exactly what I was hoping for: an entertaining diversion that helped whet my appetite for Inquisition, which also shed light on some new aspects of Thedas and let me enjoy roleplaying as a different kind of character: a ruler rather than a killer. From what I can tell, that should actually lead nicely into the more expansive type of gameplay you will take on as the Inquisitor in the upcoming game, which makes me all the more eager to try it out.

No major updates to my previous post about the mechanics of The Last Court. I will note that the Trophies, Viands, and Secrets will be needed in groups of 3, so if you’re negotiating with the Muttering Banker and trying to allocate your Bags of Royals, it’s good to focus on “topping off” to the nearest multiple of 3.

In terms of getting the best outcome, your specific allocation of resources doesn’t really matter. You can get the best ending with, say, 50 Secrets or 50 Trophies. But, you’ll get some more lore and flavor by having a wider variety of resources. All things being equal, it will probably be the most fun if you try getting a mix of things, but don’t sweat it if you seem to be particularly Trophy-heavy or whatever.

Speaking of which: in terms of strategy, hunting is BY FAR the most efficient way to gather resources. Doing court stuff in the Chateau is a lot more fun, but it's an extremely slow and expensive way to acquire end-game resources. Once your stats get to a certain level, though, you can complete a hunt in just 4-5 actions with no penalties, so that’s a much quicker way to get the resources you need to win the game. If and when I play this again with a new character, I will probably do “court stuff” for the first few days until I get enough favors for the set of advisors I want, and then mostly focus on hunting, just returning to court for Market Day and to break up any monotony.

The Last Court is much more about atmosphere than plot, but there’s still some good story in there. Let’s delve into some:

MEGA SPOILERS

Some details about my game: I resisted the temptation to break into the Chantry. I love that the choice was there, but the whole Mr. Eaten experience has taught me to be extremely cautious when the game warns me not to do something. I didn’t seem to get any particular reward from refraining, but I’m pretty sure that, if I had broken in, it would have complicated the Divine’s plans to re-consecrate it.

I thought that the Horned Lord stuff was done extremely well. I was similarly cautious about all of my dealings with him: I avoided antagonizing him, but also took care to not become indebted to him. This led to some tense situations, most notably the Bard’s rescue. I paid tribute to the Lord, but once it became clear that he would also demand a favor, I decided to rescue him myself. I debated whether to attend the Feast or not, and eventually came to the conclusion that it would be more insulting to snub him. I was cautious during the Feast, and at the end, decided to return the favor… then groaned in happy frustration when I realized how he had tricked me. Well played. It led to a tense moment during the Divine’s visit, but I was able to fob him off and everything ended well.

In terms of my personal relations: there are a lot more Counsellors than other types of advisors, so the choices there were a bit harder to navigate. I ended up deciding to go with the Smiling Guildmistress as counsellor. The Dashing Outlaw is an intriguing figure, because she’s one of the few advisors who can fill multiple slots, either Accomplice or Bodyguard. I decided to take her on as my Bodyguard; in retrospect, though, I think she’s more expensive than most other choices (which does fit the flavor and her flexibility nicely), so I might not do that in future play-throughs. Finally, I was fascinated by the Well-read Pig Farmer, and took her on as my secret Accomplice. I've been curious about Tevinter ever since Origins, and while we don’t learn a ton from her, she was a great, stereotype-busting person to interact with.

This wouldn’t be a BioWare game if we couldn’t complain about romances, so I’ll add a quick note here. I was a bit bummed that there are only two options, the Bard and the Abbess, neither of whom were super-interesting to me. What’s more annoying, as far as I can tell, you can only take the Abbess as your lover after she becomes your Counsellor. Since I didn’t realize that until after I had recruited the Guildmistress to that slot, I would need to have gotten rid of the Guildmistress, then recruit the Abbess to Counsellor, then presumably get more Favors and take her as Lover, and THEN RE-RECRUITED the Guildmistress. I guess I’ll keep that in mind in case I play again, but it felt a bit frustrating mechanically. I was also disappointed that you can’t romance the Smiling Guildmistress or the Well-read Pig Farmer, both of whom appeared to be both intriguing and available.

The most fun parts of the game were ongoing stories related to Market Day. There tended to be some really good choices and roleplaying opportunities in here, like deciding how to deal with the Elusive Iconoclast; as a fairly egalitarian-minded ruler, I used a soft touch and put her into a peaceful retreat. My favorite of these plots was probably the bit with His Dour Lordship, mostly because it spins up multiple sub-plots which aren’t immediately obviously connected with the main one. I’d acquired several Favors from him, but never really trusted him and so never made him my Counsellor; after determining that he was the spider at the center of the web, I gladly broke protocol and imprisoned him in my dungeon. Hey, what’s the point in having a dungeon if you can’t use it?

The actual Feast of the Divine is the obvious climax of the game, and I found it very satisfying. There are a couple of complications to manage, but for the most part you’re reaping the benefits of all your hard work over the previous seven days. She’s a cool character; I love the brief glimpses we’ve gotten of her in Leliana’s Song and The Masked Empire, and Chris did a great job at capturing her voice during her dialogue here. I actually debated for quite a while whether or not to blackmail her; I had plenty of Secrets, but it felt like a very aggressive thing to do. I ultimately went ahead with it, and the resulting exposition was well worth it.

I won, of course: redeemed the Shame, got back my sweet glass antler mask, and am left happily ruling over a wealthy, proud, and independent land. All hail Serault! All hail the Huntress!

END SPOILERS

So, yeah... obviously, I enjoyed The Last Court a lot! It looks like the fanbase has gotten into it, too. There's even some fan art starting to spring up!

According to the end of the game, the results have been recorded in the Keep. That’s pretty cool! There’s no UI for it yet, but I imagine it’s coming. It’s exciting for multiple reasons, one major one being that I think this is the first time that the Keep will be recording “live” outcomes as we play them, rather than allowing us to manually specify outcomes on our own.

Based on what I’ve read on the forums, it sounds like the ending of The Last Court won’t have any impact on Inquisition. Still, it’s a fun game in its own right, and I wouldn’t be shocked if it comes into play at some point in the future. One of the great things about the Keep is that it can become a sort of clearinghouse for all Dragon Age-related activities: not just the main games, but little standalone things as well, such as bits of interactive fiction, or even offline things like the pen-and-paper roleplaying game.

It will become increasingly challenging for the Dragon Age team to keep world states coherent as more and more variables come into play; but, as the Keep team has made clear, the goal is not just to support the traditional branching-plot purpose, but also to sort of serve as a place of record. The Keep is a sort of living history: a statement of what we have accomplished, of what has happened, and what COULD have happened. In that sense, it’s very much in keeping with the delightfully ambiguous sense of history that was showcased in The World of Thedas, which in turn is much like our own world’s treatment of history: often disputed, often challenged, often unknown, the more so the further back one goes. The tale of Serault feels very important at the moment. Before long, it will become another tile on the grand mosaic that depicts my own personal conception of Thedas.

The Last Court

There's a particular type of weird feeling that I think most of us have experienced at least once. Imagine you're going out to lunch with an old pal from school. A friend from work comes into the restaurant and heads towards you. You're about to introduce the two of them, but they greet one another and act like old friends. A little part of your brain explodes: "How do you two know each other?! You belong in separate universes!" It's a disorienting feeling, but also a really pleasant one, to realize that awesome folks know each other and do stuff together.

That was pretty much exactly the feeling I had upon hearing the announcement about The Last Court, the heretofore-secretive collaboration between BioWare and Failbetter Games. I've loved BioWare's games since the original Baldur's Gate, have thoroughly immersed myself in the world of Fallen London, and more recently been actively helping to beta-test Below, Chris Gardiner's story-rich roguelike StoryNexus game. When I heard the details of the project - it's a StoryNexus-based game written by Chris Gardiner set in Orlais during the time leading up to the start of Inquisition - I instantly started salivating. The fact it's integrated with the Keep makes it all the better.

(And, yes, I totally called it!)

Based on the chatter I've seen in online forums, it looks like there's a very respectable crossover of fanbases between BioWare and Failbetter. That shouldn't be surprising. I'm pretty sure that BioWare is the most narrative-driven AAA game developer, and Failbetter has a similarly intense focus on narrative from an indie background (albeit focused on slightly different genres). The early reaction seems to be very positive. Frankly, we're all starving for some Dragon Age, and The Last Court is doing a fantastic job of providing a peek into another part of Thedas, some tantalizing lore about old and new characters, and also giving us a chance to play as a different type of character, actually making political decisions that shape the nature of your realm (something that previously was only briefly touched upon in Dragon Age: Awakening).

For those of you who haven't played StoryNexus games before, you're in for a treat! They're vaguely reminiscent of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story, but much more game-like. You have various stats and items, and can often choose which of several storylines to pursue at any given time. Each "storylet" is a bite-sized standalone narrative chunk that lets you make a decision and experience the results, which might also tie into a larger overarching plot. So, it's the sort of thing that's perfectly flexible based on your available playtime: you can squeeze in a couple of storylets while standing in line at the grocery, or sit down at your computer at the end of the day and play for a longer stretch.

The mechanics of the game bear some similarities to free-to-play games... wait, come back! There are microtransactions in here, but they're absolutely not necessary to play or enjoy; no content is gated behind a paywall, and paying is just for the impatient. The Last Court uses a virtual currency called "Dawn" (unlike the "Nex" in other StoryNexus games) which you can use to play more frequently; I haven't bought any (sorry, guys!) and am pretty sure that I won't. But, again, I don't need to - I'm enjoying the savoring of this game, so I wouldn't want to rush through it anyways.

One aspect that's very different about TLC compared to other Failbetter games is the addition of a real-life time factor. Every 24 hours, another "Market Day" occurs, which spins up another aspect of the story and provides in-game rewards. There's a limit, though: you only have seven Market Days to prepare for a major event that ends the game. This means that I can't pursue my standard strategy of solely focusing on grinding up stats in the early phase of a game to overcome the challenges later on: sure, you can improve stats, but you can't just do that, you also need to start work sooner rather than later on accomplishing your goals. I appreciate that, and I also appreciate how it puts a de-facto time limit on this game. Free-to-play games often get the bad rap that they never end and only exist to string you along on a treadmill. There's no treadmill here, just a path, and once you reach the end of that path your journey is over.

I still haven't beaten it yet, but I think I've gotten a pretty good handle on the mechanics. Here's what I've gleaned so far, a mixture of observation, second-hand reports, and deductions. I'll try and update this post as I get further along. No plot spoilers here.

• Your character's primary stats are Rulership, Scholarship, Derring-do, Woods-wise, and Cunning. These can only increase, although raising them is usually slow or expensive. Raising them will increase the odds of success for many choices you can pick on cards.
• Serault's stats are Dignity, Freedom, and Prosperity. These can go both up and down. You'll often deliberately "spend" some of these stats in order to increase some other stats or gain items. It's generally better to keep these high, although in some certain circumstances lower is better.
• If one of Serault's stats falls to 0, you'll draw a new un-removable card that effectively lowers the choices in your hand from 3 to 2. If two of the stats fall to 0, I think you lose the game (haven't tried yet).
• Your "menaces" are Peril, Twilight, and Rumors of Revolution. You'll generally want to keep these as low as possible. When they rise too high, certain choices grow more difficult and you'll start seeing harder/worse options on cards. At 75, you'll start drawing negative cards related to this menace. At 100, you'll unlock very risky but profitable choices.
• Clues are a very common resource. They can be used to start hunting quests, to increase stats, and sometimes to gain favors.
• Bags of Royals and Authority are less common. They can sometimes be traded for other resources, favors, or to get easier options on certain cards.
• The ultimate goal of the game is to accumulate a large total number of Secrets, Viands and Trophies. You can earn these by completing Hunting quests or spending other resources. You will rarely use these.

Some general things I've noticed so far:

• Your primary stats will rise a fraction of a point when you succeed or fail at a challenge ("Rulership is increasing."). It takes many actions to raise a stat this way.
• If you accumulate Clues, you can gain 3 points in a stat by spending your current stat's value in clues on a corresponding card. For example, if you have 20 Cunning, you can pay the Outlaw 20 Clues to go up to 23 Cunning.
• You can also spend Clues to increase Serault's stats or lower Menaces in the same manner, although this seems like a waste, since there are far easier and cheaper options to improve these.
• The options on some cards played from your hand can be random. (These are often, but not always, accompanied by the icon "The Way of Things.") If you don't like the options on a card, you can try playing another one first, which can change the available choices.
• And, if you don't like any of the branches on a card, you can click "Perhaps Not" to back out. It's sometimes better to do this than to fail at a challenge.
• It seems like there are many options to recruit Counsellors, and far fewer for Bodyguards and Accomplices. Since Favors are expensive, you'll probably want to plan ahead of time which one(s) to pursue and go after them.
• Once a day, you'll draw a "Market Day" card that gives you a significant advantage and/or kick off a new storyline.
• There's a limit to certain stats: 100 for Serault's stats, 5 for Authority, and 3 for Favors from any particular person. If you're already at the cap, trying to exceed it will be a waste. 

Ideas for gaining resources:

• By the last day, you'll want a total of 50 items. It sounds like all three types are valid, but getting a mixture may give you more flexibility (haven't verified this yet).
• Trophies are very easy to collect by Hunting with a decent Woods-wise skill. Pursue the Boar and take the Hounds.
• Viands can also be collected by Hunting a Stag, although this is a little more challenging.
• Secrets are best collected by doing the Market Day pinned cards.
• All three types of resources can be collected by trading Favors with certain recruited advisors; or by raising one of Serault's stats to 100 and then spending 50 points in that and 25 Clues; or by spending Bags of Royals. These are the most expensive methods.

Have fun! I'll probably make another post about the plot after I've finished the game and can speak to the story. I will say that so far I'm having a blast. This is a true peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate situation, and I'm loving the offspring of these two wonderful developers.

Hold a Candle To

Two games have presented me with very different multiplayer combat in the last few weeks. First up, Fallen London. Back when I joined about a year ago, I saw a few references to a game-within-the-game known as Knife & Candle. It was already defunct, so I never experienced it myself, but it sounded interesting: a gentlemanly game of polite murder, pitting one person against another, with the winners stealing money from the losers and gaining prizes, including some otherwise-unobtainable items and lodgings.

In all honesty, I felt quite happy to not have the game as an option. I tend to dislike multiplayer games in general, and competitive multiplayer games in particular. One of the things I love most about Fallen London is that it can be very rewardingly played entirely solo: having friends makes certain aspects of the game easier, but nothing requires you to recruit new players to advance or other awful things that most "social" games require. I actually only started engaging in the social aspects of the game after I had reached the level cap, and I'm now at the point where I occasionally visit the forums, help out other players, and participate in in-game holidays like the Feast of the Exceptional Rose.

Speaking of which, it was at the Feast that I acquired a unique item, a Mirrorcatch Box. These were very rare, and required players to solve a very oblique puzzle in order to obtain. That made me happy - it was a fun process that involved a lot of speculation and collaboration - but also wary, since the game clearly warned players of the risk of Box Theft. Up until now, I'd been happily ensconced in a purely reciprocal social model. Any time one person wished to take an action (like give a gift), the other party would need to approve it (like accept that gift). Even theoretically competitive actions like the Tournament of Lilies require both the attacker and defender to approve of a bout. The idea that someone, somewhere, could snatch my box out of my hands without me being able to defend it... well, it was dispiriting, and seemed a notable departure from the friendly atmosphere among players that pervades Fallen London.

It turns out that this was a quite deliberate departure: the introduction of the Mirrorcatch Box was the first step in a planned rebirth of the Game of Knife & Candle. We box owners all received invitations to join the so-called Underground League. In the fiction of Fallen London, Mr. Irons runs Knife & Candle, and officially disapproves of this unsanctioned sport; however, he seems to be actually orchestrating it from behind the scenes, to some unknown purpose.

I dislike competitive games, but love Fallen London and particularly new Fallen London content, so I joined the Iron Leagues and started to play. It was an interesting system, a bit like paper-rock-scissors, where people choosing certain Forms were more likely to defeat others, and some Forms were better at defending themselves.

Torn between a desire to participate and a distaste of stabbing, I decided to compromise: I would be the Reciprocal Murderer, and only attack players after they had attacked me. Attacks were rare, just one or two a day. I held attacks in reserve, and would savagely retaliate. I don't know whether it's necessarily fair, but it seemed like a vaguely moral position.

After moving up to the Bronze Leagues, though, it got much more intense. Failbetter published a list of all the players in the leagues, and suddenly I was inundated with attacks. Which, again, felt unfair; some players would attack unprovoked multiple times, and I would often receive many attacks in a short amount of time. I later learned that, due to a quirk of the notification system, I was actually defending myself successfully a fair amount of the time; but just judging from my email, it felt like I was drowning under a wave of assaults.

Fortunately, the game does offer several means of respite: one can escape in their boat to Zee, or retreat to Flute Street, or purchase a safe stay in a cottage on Watchmaker's Hill. In my case, I simply abandoned my Form, which made me ineligible to make or suffer attacks. I figured I'd spend some time away from the game and see if things calmed down before deciding whether to take back up a Form or not.

While examining my options for safety, though, I had stopped by Wolfstack Docks to check on my options for traveling the Unterzee. There, I noticed a gold-bordered plot that I hadn't yet played, a Spider Council's lair. I thought that it might be a new addition, or else something I had skipped in my rush to reach the Labyrinth of Tigers. In any case, I thought, "Oh, this will be fun! I like stories!"

The storylet described entering the lair and meeting the spider, who purrs some words about the Correspondence and your lovely eyes. I had three options: attack, or run, or talk my way out of it. Well, given that my character is entirely oriented around the Persuasive and Watchful abilities, I barely hesitated before selecting the final option.

Big mistake! The spiders attacked. The next thing I knew, I was waking up on the slow boat. Noooooooooooo! I have very carefully kept my Wounds below 8 for the entire year-plus that I've played Fallen London, specifically because I want to be sure that I can return to the Surface with no ill effects. I hadn't even known that it was possible to be killed with fewer than 8 wounds; granted, I'd received some wounds from the attack, but they were still only at about 3 or 4. I felt devastated, and a little betrayed (appropriately enough for one who had only just escaped Knife & Candle): in every other case in the game where something bad can happen to your character, Failbetter is very good at putting warnings by those options: "Don't do this. That would be unhinged." or "Turn back now. This is a very bad idea." Being a reasonable person, I always heed such warnings. And now I'd been murdered!

Being in Knife & Candle was a mixed blessing. I had to surrender all of my Tokens to the Boatman, but he was willing to heal my wounds in exchange. I hope that this means that I didn't actually die, and I'll continue to believe that until proven otherwise.

Then, to add grievous insult to mortal injury, someone stole my Mirrorcatch box. Bah! Perdition upon all their houses!

Safely back in London, having only spent a few minutes away but feeling profoundly shaken as a result, I decided to swear off the Game altogether. I'm glad that it exists, and people seem to be delighted to play it, but it's entirely too rambunctious and harrowing for an upstanding citizen such as myself.

No, what I enjoy is: cooperative multiplayer! Specifically, Mass Effect 3 cooperative multiplayer! I actually started playing this around the same time as Fallen London, and I wouldn't have thought that I would still be playing and enjoying it so much more than a year later. It comes in waves for me - I'll happily ignore it for several months, then the itch to set Reapers ablaze will return, and before long I'm running around on Firebase London cackling maniacally. Good times!

When Bioware announced back in March that they were ending support for multiplayer, I had feared that the game would swiftly fade. That hasn't been the case, though. At least on the PC, at the times I tend to play, I never have trouble finding a game. I can usually quickly find an enemy/difficulty combo that I want (like Reapers/Silver or Geth/Bronze) in less than a minute. If I don't, I just start a new public game and solo the first wave or two. By the time we reach the first objective wave, I always have a full group of four. Players seem to be really good, too... I don't see much stupidity or selfishness these days, and people are good at cooperating to achieve objectives.

It's really interesting to look back over the past year and see how the game has evolved. It's definitely gotten much more feature-rich, thanks to the multiple free DLC packs that Bioware released that added an astonishing number of new character kits, weapons, mods, and gear, as well as a half-dozen new maps. But beyond that, player habits have changed too, and I love seeing how the community has slowly evolved and shifted, spontaneously developing new mores, standards, and habits. In the early days, most successful teams would hunker down in defensible positions, protecting each others' flanks and surviving the series of waves. People generally despised players who "ran off on their own." Today, teams are almost always mobile, and constantly roam around the map. It's a more challenging playstyle, but actually more successful: if you're constantly roaming, you'll never get swarmed by bad guys, since you'll always be able to retreat to the area that you just cleared. I think it's something that people started picking up on when they spent more time in the more challenging difficulties, and it's slowly filtered down to the easier levels, to the point where it's now frowned upon to camp in a single spot. There are other, subtler social changes as well. Microphone usage, never very common on the PC, has become virtually extinct. Players now often greet one another by performing a heavy melee at the start of a wave or match. Players automatically un-ready and re-ready to give teammates more time to adjust consumables between matches. And so on.

As for myself, I'm still definitely not an expert player, but it's been very encouraging to track my progress and see how I've improved over time. I have some big news to share: I've beaten my first-ever Gold match! It was extremely challenging, and I felt like I had about a dozen heart attacks during the match, but I pulled through, and even ended up in the #2 position on the score chart at the end. I played it with my most comfortable character, my Vorcha Soldier, against Reapers. I used all of the high-level consumables that I've been saving forever: Level III Explosive Rounds, Assault Rifle Rail Amp III, and Power Amplifier Module IV. I'd equipped them because I wanted to be ready if the game dropped me into a match; I ended up in a lobby with a much more experienced player who had queued up Reapers on Firebase Ghost. He immediately readied. I gulped: I'd have no trouble duo-ing or even soloing on Silver, but for a first Gold match, I was nervous. I waited as long as seemed socially acceptable for other players to join in. Nobody did. So, heart in my throat, I readied up, and we began.

The first two waves were embarrassing. I tend to play my Vorcha as a highly mobile incendiary tank: I generally lead charges, focus on early kills to get my Bloodlust rising, and set up fire explosions that my teammates or I can detonate. Since it was just the two of us, though, I trailed my teammate and followed his lead. I'd known intellectually that enemies hit for more damage on Gold, but there's a difference between knowing something and truly grokking it. I waded into a few situations that I should have been able to coast through - like facing four Cannibals - only to end up bleeding on the ground. In the first few waves. How embarassing!

Fortunately, things got better. Two more players joined us in Wave 2, and I think I only died once or twice more in the waves after that. There were tons of time when it was close, though! Gold is insane. Brutes start appearing in Wave 2, and Banshees in Wave 3. Cannibals disappear entirely by Wave 6, so the weakest enemies you'll face are Marauders. In the last few waves, the field is entirely dominated by heavy enemies, with multiple Banshees, Brutes, and Ravagers threatening everything.

For as awful as it felt, though, it also felt awesome. The team was rock-solid, everyone coming together to complete a challenging escort mission in Wave 6. I contributed rockets to our assassination efforts on Wave 10. Everyone helped revive everyone else as the need arose. Perhaps most encouraging of all, not a single person got sync-killed over the entire half-hour duration of the match. These were all clearly bright, experienced, talented players, and I felt super-lucky to have my first Gold experience with them.

Gold is financially rewarding, too. I think we earned something like 80k credits for the match. Considering it lasted just about ten minutes longer than a Silver match, and earned close to three times as much, that's a fantastic return. (The counter-part, of course, is that I probably took a year off of my life due to stress.) I won't be making Gold a habit any time soon, but it felt great for my first outing to be a success, and I hope to return in the future.

At the moment, I'm actually switching between all three difficulties quite often, and having a blast. I'm working on my N7 Mastery challenge, which requires promoting characters. For a while, I had left all of my classes at Level 20, since that's the strongest build and let me more reliably earn more credits. Now, I play on Bronze until around level 12-15, then on Silver until level 20, then I either play a Gold match or promote the class and start over again. This also has the benefit of increasing the value of the character promotion cards I get in packs: unlocking new appearances doesn't really help you mechanically, but being able to take advantage of the bonus XP can help me reach those promotions more quickly. I'm doing this with a variety of characters. Other challenges often require either extracting with a kit 10 times or completing 200 waves with them, so I'll play a kit for 10 games, promoting as possible along the way, and then switch to another kit for the next challenge. I'm making good progress: I have beaten the Earth challenge, am almost done with Rebellion, and decently close to finishing Resurgence.

Switching between so many characters and difficulties has given me a great incentive to try out still more combinations and techniques that I otherwise would never have tried, being content to stick with my more familiar tools of Salarian Engineer and Vorcha Soldier. In the past I've almost exclusively played power-based classes, focusing on light weapon loadouts and keeping cooldowns low so I can focus on tech or biotic damage. Recently, though, I've been able to play with characters who can completely ignore cooldowns, like the N7 Demolisher, N7 Destroyer, and Batarian Soldier. That has let me try out some heavy shotguns and assault rifles, and an entirely new playstyle. It's a lot of fun!

Just before I started playing my Batarian Soldier, I finally unlocked the Cerberus Harrier assault rifle. I'd read some of the glowing accolades players have lauded this gun with, gushing over its superior damage and high accuracy. So, I loaded up my Batarian Soldier with the Harrier and my Reegar Carbine, another often-beloved but hefty gun that I've eschewed on my cooldown-dependent kits. All I have to say is: holy cow, everyone is right, that is an awesome gun. It kills things so quickly, even on Silver! As people have noted, ammunition can be a problem; but with my play style, it's actually not bad, since I tend to move around the map a lot, and can easily drop by ammo boxes en route.

I've been generally pleased at my comfort level on Silver in general. I remember when the thought of bringing anyone other than my beloved Vorcha soldier into Silver filled me with terror. Now, after I've played at least a match or two on Bronze to get comfortable with the character, and have reached a decently high level, I don't really hesitate to take it up to Silver, and generally do well there. The exact level varies depending on the kit; my Batarian Soldier was topping charts in Silver at Level 10, but my Geth Engineer waited until he was 18 to make the jump.

Possibly the most fun character I've had, if not technically the most successful, was my Geth Infiltrator. One of the very first YouTube videos I'd seen of Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer gameplay gave an arresting view of a semi-exploitative (but perfectly legal!) way to play this guy by cleverly combining several game mechanics. The Geth Infiltrator, like a few other Geth, has the Hunter Mode power. This murders your shields, and makes your screen hard to see, but gives you a lot of nice perks (faster movement, more weapon damage) and, most importantly for this built, allows you to see enemies through walls. Well, that's good, for starters: situational awareness is a really good thing. Now, for the second part of this build, we equip the Javelin. This is a very heavy sniper rifle, which is doubly challenging: I very rarely use sniper rifles, and its weight will make Tactical Cloak slower. So, why do we take it? Simple: it is able to shoot through walls, at a distance of up to 1 meter. Pretty good. Next, we attach a Piercing Mod to the rifle. This lets bullets penetrate through up to 1.35 meters. It is cumulative with the Javelin's innate piercing, so combined, we can fire through nearly 2.5 meters of solid metal or rock. (If you wanted to go truly crazy with this build, slap on some Drill Rounds as well, which can get you up to 2.5 additional meters, letting you fire through pretty much anything.)

So, what does this mean? Basically, you can kill enemies long before they see you. Hang out in another room, watching their heat signatures. Then, bam! Even firing through walls, a single shot can take down any Cannibal or Trooper, and a headshot can down a Marauder or Centurion. It's especially comical on Firebase Dagger, where you can shoot through the floor and take out enemies far below you. The whole experience is surreal, and entirely unlike any other kit I've played. Which, of course, is part of why I love ME3 MP so much, and keep coming back to it. Playing a Vorcha is nothing like a Human Engineer, and a Batarian Soldier is nothing like a Geth Infiltrator. Your strategies change, your techniques change, your basic attitude shifts between aggression and caution, leading and supporting, close-distance and long-range, diversion and accomplishment. And, of course, every single game will change depending on your other teammates, their kits, their styles of play and skills, not to mention the map and enemy you face. It seems like there are multiple aspects of the game to master - your specific kit, each individual enemy, each map - but there's enough variety in the game that it never feels repetitive. Or at least, I have yet to experience any repetition.

Anyways! I did love the infiltrator, but couldn't take as much advantage of him as others have; I'm not great at aiming for head-shots, so I generally went for the center of mass, which was pretty effective but kept me from maximizing the kit's potential. I've since moved on to other kits, but I might dust that guy off again after I have some more sniping experience under my belt.

So, yeah... hooray for cooperative multiplayer! It's great to see the community still going so strong, and it feels like there's been a steady influx of new players over the past month or two, which makes me think that ME3 is enjoying a decently stable shelf life. I hope that this continues to bode well for whatever Bioware Montreal does with the franchise in the future - they're the ones who created the multiplayer game, and its staying power makes me feel more optimistic for the post-Shepard world of Mass Effect.

EDIT: Wow!  In the brief time since I started writing the post, I've had a few more awesome experiences. I completed another Gold match, this time as a Krogan Vanguard. It was even less smooth than my Vorcha, but I held my own all right... I personally delivered both of the objects on Wave 10, before stupidly getting sync-killed by a Banshee while running to revive a teammate. After promoting that guy, I've started playing with the Batarian Sentinel. I'm actually getting a ton of utility out of his Submission Net, which is pairing quite nicely with the Kishock Harpoon Gun. The net will freeze unarmored targets in place for a brief time, which gives me the half-second I need to line up a headshot with my sniper rifle. Sure, it's a bit of a crutch, but a great one that opens up some gameplay that previously had been too difficult for me to attempt. Man, this game keeps on getting better!

Bellringer, Promenades, and Doglaw

Remember "Below"? Chris Gardiner has recently brought the game into beta. He's given beta access to all the kickstarter backers, and I've had a lot of fun over the last couple of days returning to the game's dungeon. There have been many significant changes since the public demo of the game that was available during the campaign, so this isn't just an entertaining gaming experience, but also a fascinating glimpse into the process of creating this sort of game.

From the beginning, the game has been designed and advertised to support different types of characters, but I'm finally getting to see how that works in practice thanks to the addition of The Blacksmith's Daughter. While the very basics of game mechanics work the same as with the original Barefoot Friar, the experience of playing as her is very different. She can upgrade her own equipment, so you tend to be better off just picking up one or two items, then focusing on making those items as good as you can. Gear is much more important for her thanks to its increased utility. And the flavor of the game changes dramatically, thanks to the character-unique aspects of her bond with her sister (or father).

The game looks absolutely gorgeous, too. Well, keep in mind that it's a StoryNexus game, so it's 90% text and 10% evocative art. I've been very impressed by how well it works, though. From what I understand, StoryNexus ships with a library of card art, but almost all the art in Below is bespoke: Paul Arendt did a lot of the original concept art and card art for the Kickstarter campaign, and Yasmeen Khan (whose work I've enjoyed reading but I didn't realize was artistic) has created most of the art in the finished game. It's gently moody, the kind of art that whispers at possibilities, at things scuttling just outside of view, of haunting memories chasing you from the surface.

I "beat" the game on the first full day, though that was in large part due to some quirks of design (which have been duly reported and fixed) that allowed me to do everything without ever descending to the fourth level. I don't think I'd ever restarted the game during the kickstarter campaign, and I'm loving the way continuation is handled, which is a bit like the "New Game +" mode that I love so dearly in RPGs. Essentially, you can keep your experience and some unique items, but restart the story and reset your progress. This will get more compelling when more quests are available, but even for now, I am finding my second journey quite different from my first (thanks to an experience in getting Cursed, which has had some unexpected ramifications on my journey).

The game is a little hard to pin down, but if pressed to make an analogy, I'd say that it's closest to a game like Rogue or NetHack. There's the same randomization, the same tension between safety and reward (lurk on the upper levels for safe but slow progress, or plunge deeper to risk your life but have a shot at great treasures), and even the same elements of idiosyncratic customization. But, Below already has much stronger story elements, including the central dynamic that ties in life on the surface above with death in the dungeon below. It isn't a Bioware-esque story with strongly detailed characters and companions, but a more evocative story that sketches things out and leaves you to fill in your own emotions and details.

The beta is closed, but Chris has graciously refrained from requiring NDA's of testers, so I may chime in a bit on my experiences throughout. Even though the beta is closed, the original demo version is still running (albeit at a more reasonable 10 actions rather than the prior 100), so if you'd like to give it a whirl yourself you can do so. There's a new but fairly active community at the Google Plus community Chris set up, as well as some very insightful posts he's already made on the game's official development site.

In other StoryNexus news:

Contrary to statements I made last week, I'm still playing Fallen London. They've been pretty consistently adding new fun stuff to the game; most recently, I've been breeding exotic ravens and pickpocketing marks in Spite. The game continues to innovate on multiple fronts: new stories, but also new tones, and even whole new systems; the Pickpocket Promenade has some similarities to other special areas like the Heists, but I find it less frustrating while still being challenging. Anyways. I'm definitely less obsessed about it now than I have been in the past, but as long as they continue building the world, I'll continue playing.

Finally, I highly recommend checking out the amazing new game Doghunt, "A factual look into the life of dog." Obey doglaw! Unleash the cavalry on cats! Love Schadenfreude! Gain dog powers! Resolve situations like "Two toads stare at the same section of wall." It's… frankly incredible.

Overgoated!

It's official - I have an Overgoat! For a long time I couldn't even imagine raising the funds for such a beast. One thing led to another, though, and here we are.

I've become a regular reader of the Fallen London forums, and have been fascinated to discover the various ways fans connect with the game. There are different threads of fan-dom. Some are particularly interested in the lore: they want to know more about the story, the characters, the history behind the Neath. Some are role-players: they enjoy creating characters and inhabiting them, interacting with other humans in the shared fictional space that Failbetter has created. Others enjoy hitting the in-game achievements: collecting lots of Echoes, getting the highest-level items and pets, "beating" various storylines. Others are tinkerers, and enjoy analyzing the way the game works, figuring out the math, calculating odds, and trying to discover the "best" way to play the game.

Of course, most players are some combination of the above. Personally, I mostly play Fallen London for the lore, but the nerd/engineer part of me has been inspired by some of the analysis on the forums. This involves calculating the rewards for various storylines, figuring out the optimal way to complete those storylines, and analyzing the relative levels of risk or randomness involved.

MINI SPOILERS for FALLEN LONDON

The current consensus is that the most profitable way to earn echoes is via the "Case of the Fidgeting Writer" storyline. This is a story that will progress through up to 7 stages, starting with a 50-pence item (a Tale of Terror!) and ending with the reward of a Coruscating Soul (currently the only so-called "Tier 7" component in the game), worth 312.5 echoes. The catch: each stage has a chance of failure, leaving you with nothing. The odds of each individual stage succeeding are good (somewhere between 50-75%), but the odds of passing through all 7 stages successfully are miniscule, only about 3.75%.

Interestingly, the major challenge of Fidgeting Writer is psychological. As humans, we are more pained by failures than we are elated by successes. So, even though you may know intellectually that it's worthwhile to keep plowing through all the failures, it can still feel profoundly disheartening to suffer 26 failures for every 1 success.

Thus, the strategies around Fidgeting Writer are driven more by a desire to keep our emotions in check than anything else. Specifically, the most successful people approach the task with large batches. You'll convert all of your Tales of Terror! to Senses of Deja Vu, then all your Senses of Deja Vu to Glimpses of Something Larger, and so on. That way, all your failures are mixed in with your successes, and it's easier to keep your spirits up. (By contrast, in my first crack at this storyline a few months ago, I banged my ahead against the wall many times before calling it quits with a single Brass Ring and a single Night-Whisper. This attempt took much longer, but felt better on the whole thanks to the new approach.)

There's still ongoing discussion over exactly how much Fidgeting Writer can be expected to return over the long run; a variation of just a few percentage points for a single step can have a big magnifying influence on the progress as a whole. It's further complicated by the requirement for intermediate components. If you already have them lying around, then you can calculate your profit by just subtracting all your component costs from your eventual earnings; if you're missing any, though, then you need to factor in the time it takes to acquire additional pieces, which essentially extends the number of actions you're spending on the batch. This has also led to some in-depth discussions around the best sources for such components.

All that to say: there's a lot of math, which is a nice combination of complex and comprehensible: you just need algebra and statistics, so even my rusty many-years-out-of-college self can take a crack at it. I found myself doing similar calculations when I was creating high-level components to craft special items, and when I was spending an extended time on Polythreme. I eventually filled out several pages of a Google Docs document cataloging my experiences.

And, I'm enough of a nerd that I actually enjoy this stuff, which I think it a big part of what's kept me coming back to Fallen London for so long. It fires all parts of my brain: the analytic part, and the part that enjoys reading a story, and the part that enjoys collecting baubles, and the part that wants to imagine another world.

Speaking of another world: it keeps getting bigger! I'd put off the experimental Heist content while wrapping up the Overgoat, but I finally ran through it this morning. It's pretty fun! It has some superficial similarities to the Dinner Party, which I had quite enjoyed, but feels more game-like. You can spend as long on the heist as you want to, and can do preparation before the heist; once on the heist, there's some nice deck-management to take advantage of, and some risk analysis. I haven't done enough to be very confident, but right now I'm leaning towards this approach for my next attempt:

• Get just two Inside Information; I brought along three on my initial trip, and didn't need the third. I didn't need a key, and if you don't mess up you shouldn't need an escape plan.
•  Try to start the heist when you have a full deck of six (undrawn) cards. Like the Dinner Party, starting the content doesn't just clear your hand, but it also resets the timer on your deck, so if you only had 1 minute left for your next card to arrive, you would essentially lose 9 minutes' worth of time. Try to have just one or two actions available. This ratio will basically let you be choosier about what cards you play, without ever risking "wasted" actions.
• As with Polythreme or the Sea of Voices, only play a single card at a time, and draw after each play. This will let you avoid wasting draws on "bad" cards.
• What are "bad" card? For my money, they're the ones with only luck-based options.
• As far as I can tell, most of the non-luck options will either give you 2 progress points (if they take Inside Information or have a non-luck challenge) or 1 progress point; the 1 progress point may also increase Noise. To get the best reward, you'll need 7 progress; so you can get there by, for example, spending your two Inside Information, passing 1 skill check, and taking 1 other non-luck challenge.
• You need to draw a card to end the heist, but in my game it popped up as soon as it was valid, so I think it has a higher weighting.

I've also started my first of the new cases, the Honey-Addled Detective. I'm taking my time with that one - I was seeing a bunch of faction cards last week that would advance the story, but now that I have it, they're not showing up, and I'd rather wait for the cards than take the slower path through.

Overall, it sounds like the goal of Failbetter with the new content is to add some new stories that don't rely on grinding, which I think is a fantastic ambition. I love spending time in their world, and look forward to having newer, more fun things to do in there.

END SPOILERS for FALLEN LONDON

On a sadder note, the Kickstarter for Below has been canceled. It never took off the way the Silver Tree one did. I'm a bit curious why, although there are several factors that may have contributed. Unlike The Silver Tree, it wasn't connected to Fallen London's lore, and so the fanbase probably wasn't as inclined to support it; it was one of the first Kickstarters to be funded in Great Britain Pounds instead of US Dollars, which may have made some Americans wary; and the rewards seemed a bit pricier than the Silver Tree's (though some of that might be due to currency conversions).

However, Chris Gardiner, the lead designer of Below, has decided to press ahead with Below as a personal passion project. I'm rooting for him! They're taking influences from all the best places (Tolkien's Moria, Beowulf's cave), the writing has been very strong so far, and the gameplay has been pretty fun. I'll be checking in as the project progresses.

In other game news...

MEGA SPOILERS for SKYRIM

I've completed the Dark Brotherhood questline. It's been fun! There's actually a bit of choice involved here, more so than the Thieves Guild, although the only choice is how many optional murders you commit at the end. Still, the overall arc was pretty impressive. I'm glad that I still got to assassinate the Emperor, although the fact he was so blase about the whole thing still weirds me out. The final visit to the original Sanctuary was really creepy and impressive. I was sad that Astrid died - next to Karliah, she's probably my favorite character in the game so far - but at least she died in an impressive and meaningful manner.

I'm currently progressing along the Dawnguard expansion. I rescued Serana and returned her home to Castle Volkihar. I actually like her a lot more than I like Isran, but I don't have any desire to become a vampire, so I didn't accept the offer of blood. (It is kind of funny how her dad offers to show you how amazing vampires are, and then proceeds to turn into an incredibly ugly beast. Um, you're not exactly selling it well.) I also keep meaning to pick up the main Thu'um quest, but am endlessly distracted.

END SPOILERS for SKYRIM

That's it for now! Game on!

Alpha and Omega

I've been getting back into Mass Effect 3 lately. I officially beat the single-player game back in July, but since then I've periodically checked back in to the multiplayer campaign, typically just accomplishing the weekend challenges to unlock promotional weapons from the Commendation Packs. In the last couple of weeks, though, my multiplayer has "graduated" to first place in my gaming rotation. That's driven by a couple of things, but the biggest is probably the release of the Retaliation expansion and its accompanying Challenge system. The challenges are structured to give you nice goals and things to look forward to, and along the way, they've been prompting me to break out of my rut and try some new stuff, with great results.

For example, I've almost always played an engineer in multiplayer, with occasional forays into other classes. The new weekend challenge system, though, has included some awesome, fun challenges that force you to play with a specific type of character. There was one where you had to score a certain number of points with fire-based attacks (Incinerate, Carnage, Flamer, Flame Turret, etc.); another required doing a certain amount of damage through Biotic Charge; this weekend's was to set off a large number of Biotic Explosions. The resulting teams are fairly chaotic, but way too much fun. I would have thought that playing with four Vanguards would be disastrous, and to be sure people died a LOT more than typical, but everyone seemed good-natured, and took advantage of the opportunity to earn some Revive medals. The fire-based and biotic explosion challenges seem like they may be designed to help educate the players about the mechanics and use of Mass Effect's explosion system. If so, it was successful: players can see first-hand just how quickly matches can be won when everyone is setting up and setting off one anothers' explosions.

Along the way, I've finally made the step up to regularly playing on Silver difficulty. There are a lot of things that change from Bronze to Silver: enemies are faster, and hit harder; ammo boxes have fewer grenades; less health is restored after each round; bosses appear in earlier waves (Reapers by Wave Four in Silver versus Wave Seven in Bronze); and there's no limit to the number of times a boss can appear in a wave. During Operation Blast Furnace, I started playing with my Vorcha Soldier, and was surprised at how easy he made it. The Vorcha is an interesting character: with his Bloodlust skill, he's able to regenerate health, but his regeneration rate is dependent on having recent kills. This led to a COMPLETELY different playstyle than I was used to. Generally, as an engineer, I hang back behind cover, spawn a helper to draw fire, and opportunistically take shots with my powers when I can. As a Vorcha soldier, though, I strapped on my flamethrower, started running around, and learned to kill kill kill kill KILL THEM ALL CAN'T STOP MUST DESTROY WARGHARGHAWARGHA!

I kept playing with the character after beating the challenge, and started to get a better appreciation for what he does. He especially shines against the Reapers, who used to be my least-favorite faction to play against, but their mindless hordes of fodder were actually a perfect match for the soldier's mechanics. I'll typically start off by finding some Husks and Cannibals, and use my Flamethrower to quickly kill them, gaining several stacks of Bloodlust. I then run around the field, mowing down all the weak enemies I find. My biggest target is Ravagers, who are hands-down the most dangerous Reaper enemy. I used to always hate facing them, but now, if I have full stacks of Bloodlust, I can actually regenerate my health more quickly than Ravagers can shoot it down; and so I can face them with my flamethrower and burn them down in three seconds, rather than cower behind cover for half a minute or longer. I love it, and I'm sure my teammates appreciate it as well. The health regeneration is what gave me the confidence to try the build out on Silver. I equipped some one-time-use equipment for my first game, made sure to play against Reapers, and was really pleased with how it went. I died a few times, and it was definitely harder, but in a good way: I felt like I needed to be smarter, and more aware of the battlefield, my position and the enemies'.

For about two weeks, every game I played (except for Challenge matches) was a Silver Reapers game. This had a great side-effect: more cash! I typically finish a Bronze match in about 15-20 minutes. A silver match usually takes just a bit longer, a little over 20. (Though, a game on Glacier can take as little as 17.) But, a Silver match awards roughly twice as many credits as Bronze does, and I usually walk away with around 35k in credits. That means that I'm now getting a Premium Spectre Pack after every three matches, unlike before, when it would take seven Bronze matches to get one. That's meant more and better gear, new character unlocks, upgraded weapons, and carry capacity. I think that I've finally reached my maximum for the number of missiles, medi-gels, ammo packs, and survival packs I can take into each mission.

While I love tearing things up with my Vorcha, the Challenge system has been giving me some good incentives to try out some other builds. Thanks to my proclivity with engineers, and the fact that Flamer counts as a tech ability, I was about halfway towards reaching the Tech Mastery achievement. This would unlock a nifty banner, "Mathemagician", which would display in the lobby. To finish the remaining parts, though, I would need to try out some other types of characters to get some points from rarer skills. So, I played with the N7 Paladin's Snap Freeze a bunch, and the Krogan Sentinel's Tech Armor, and so on. I was bummed to realize that I couldn't actually get the banner, though, since I was missing three characters who had four of the rarest abilities: Submission Net, Geth Turret, Shadow Strike, and Electric Slash. So, I went back to my Silver Reaper games with my Vorcha, and sure enough, I eventually unlocked the N7 Slayer character. A couple of matches later, I had my swanky new banner!

I'm finally getting to the point where I'm comfortable playing Silver with other classes and other races. This weekend I did most of the challenge as an Asari Adept playing on Silver, and after getting my packs, I moved on to some other classes: the Drell Adept, and most recently the hilarious Volus Adept. I'm mostly poking away at the Biotic God challenge, but I'm also enjoying building up my skills for Silver without the crutch of infinite health regeneration.

Against this backdrop of multiplayer goodness, I was feeling even more positively disposed towards the Mass Effect universe than usual, and so I perked right up when I heard about the latest DLC expansion for the single-player game. Mass Effect: Omega is set in the Omega space station, possibly my favorite location in Mass Effect 2, and features Aria T'Loak, my favorite recurring character from the series. I haven't bought any of the other DLC for the game - there have been two campaign expansions and a couple of smaller cosmetic weapon or appearance packs - but this story just seemed too good to pass up.

MINI SPOILERS FOR MASS EFECT: OMEGA

Omega is set during the main campaign of Mass Effect 3, so I loaded a save game from before the final push. I suspect that it's playable after you recruit the Blood Pack during the main campaign. In my case, I got an email from Aria inviting me to a meeting on the Citadel (docking bay 42!), and from there we headed off to retake her station.

I was very pleased with the high level of polish in the expansion. There are plenty of great cut-scenes, dialogue, interesting moral choices to make, some Renegade interrupts. I couldn't find credits specifically for this expansion, but I'm pretty sure that Carrie-Anne Moss is reprising her role as Aria. Her dialog is as awesome as always: she's curt, arrogant, and supremely confident, even when her position seems objectively weak. There were also some wonderful little moments in her scenes. She has some amazing miniscule eye-rolls when someone says something particularly virtuous or naive. Jennifer Hale reprises her voice work as Shepard, and is as wonderful as I've come to expect. She's never showy, and perfectly expresses the role of a strong woman in a dangerous situation. There's also a cool new character (the first female Turian we've seen!) and a colorful assortment of minor Batarians, Vorcha, Turians, and Asari. Almost no humans to be seen, aside from a cute hacker at a terminal.

The combat is pretty fun. I should not have been surprised to discover that my months of playing multiplayer have totally spoiled me for the single-player game; I ended up taking the difficulty all the way up to Insanity, and still was able to beat all the fights without dying or using medi-gel. My companions were less useful than my human companions in multiplayer, but I would still treat them somewhat similarly. Back in engineer mode once more, I would stick behind cover, deploy my tools (Combat Drone PLUS Sentry Turret PLUS Defense Drone), then proceed to fight. With a better understanding of power explosions, I now alternate between Overload and Incinerate, and thus can set off a lot of helpful explosions. My companions would inevitably die, but rather than medi-gel them I would rush to their side, revive, and then get back into cover.

The fights do often feel rather different from Multiplayer, though. In MP, you're in a fixed combat space, and need to survive or accomplish objectives there. In Omega, you're generally moving forward through an area, and rarely backtracking. The levels are still interesting - there's lots of cover, some exposed zones, often multiple levels of elevation, etc. - so that was a nice change of pace. Most of the fights are simple "kill all the bad guys as you go from Point A to Point B" missions, but a few fights towards the end had more complex objectives to accomplish during a fight. Those final fights were the most difficult in Omega, but still probably a bit easier than the fight against Kai Leng, and much easier than the big London battle.

The enemies you fight are mostly Cerberus, primarily the units we've come to know and love from the single-player campaign, but they've also added in the Dragoon that was created for multiplayer, as well as a tech unit that seems unique to this DLC. There's also a new species they've created, which looks really impressive, although almost no time is spent actually fighting them.

It isn't all fighting, of course: besides the cut scenes, you also spend a bit of time in ally-controlled sectors of Omega. This is like a very stripped-down version of the Citadel: there are a couple of people you can talk to, one or two optional missions to pick up, and a single store that sells some upgrades. (One piece of advice: buy every upgrade that you want as soon as you can. You won't have many opportunities to return there.)

As usual, I generally followed the Paragon path, although I did take one Renegade interrupt (shooting out a security camera) and a handful of Renegade dialog choices (while I want to preserve as much civilian life as possible, I don't have any problem with Aria returning to her dictatorial role: I want a strong ally holding down that region). The DLC ended for me with a typically bittersweet mixed outcome. I'm curious now if my choices could have altered the outcome... it would be in keeping with Mass Effect's approach to storytelling if making a choice to sacrifice the lives of innocent civilians could have prevented the death of someone I cared for.

END MINI SPOILERS for MASS EFFECT: OMEGA

 On the whole, I was really happy with the DLC. I'll address my complaints first. Most of my issues with this are the same as my problems with ME3 as a whole:

• It's extremely easy to miss items located in a mission - datapads, salvage, credits, weapons and upgrades. It's frustrating since, unlike ME1, you can't revisit an area later to grab anything you missed the first time around; and unlike ME2, you need to be almost on top of an item before it will display in your reticule. I really wish there was some indication that items are remaining to be found.
• There are a few minor graphical glitches. Nothing too major, but occasionally characters will zap into the frame. On one elevator ride, Aria's shadow was dancing on the floor psychotically.
• I have a hard time justifying the price tag. On the one hand, it's a great expansion. On the other hand, it's $15. I bought it on Saturday night and had beaten it by Sunday night, and I wasn't playing non-stop. It's about a third the cost of the entire game of ME3, and adds the equivalent of one planet's missions.

If money is an issue, then I'd recommend waiting for a bit, as I'm sure that Bioware will eventually release an "ultimate edition" with all DLCs included. Playing through this DLC, while a good experience, actually makes me less inclined to pick up the first two ("From Ashes" and "Leviathan") - both of those are just $10, so I doubt that they would be any longer or more impressive than this one, and besides, I'm still irked at From Ashes being a Day One DLC. (Conversely, I feel increasingly dismayed that I never tried out "Lair of the Shadow Broker" from ME2, and I'm pretty sure that I'll never go back to experience it.)

If you can swing the cash, though, it's definitely worth checking out Omega. It adds lots of wonderful character moments with Shepard and Aria, and feels like a worthy addition to the Mass Effect epic. Be aware that it's a bit on the short side, but everything you do is fun, so minute-for-minute it's a wonderful expansion.

Switching topics:

I was GOING to say that I had wrapped up Fallen London, but it looks like my timing has been impeccable: right around the time I finished the last storyline, Failbetter started rolling out some new content. Much of the focus has been an extension to the Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name plotline, which I personally do not participate in, but has been fascinating to hear about second-hand. I've also seen some new heists crop up, and some recent changes to the faction Opportunity cards make it look like another wave of plots are coming up.

MINI SPOILERS for FALLEN LONDON

I'm currently frantically running through the Fidgeting Writer sequence, and I think that I, erm, might end up with an Overgoat. I know, I know, I'd sworn that I wouldn't do it, but I'm so close now!

The last storyline I did was the Mystery of the Plaster Face, and boy, am I ever glad I saved it for last - if I had tried it earlier in the game, I'm pretty sure I would have quit in frustration. So much about it irritates me... starting the second phase will cut off the chance to experience the first phase, without giving you any warning of doing such; the second phase requires a horrendous grinding without any intermediate progress (basically, keep trying a nearly impossible luck-based challenge until you succeed, and get hit by nightmares for each of the many, many, many, many times that you fail); for the bulk of the plot, I was paying my way to keep my companions safe and boost a quality to progress; only to learn that, in the latter phase of the plot, I needed to DECREASE the same quality I had spent so much money increasing, and would have been far better off not parting with the cash; THEN I lost my favorite companion in the whole game, and wound up with a nifty-but-useless pet at the end. It was pretty horrible at every step of the way, and if I wasn't such a completist I would have given up long ago; as it stands, I'm mad at myself for wasting so much time and so many resources when I could have been doing Fidgeting Writer instead.

So, if you're wondering whether to do the Mystery of the Plaster Face, I'd kind of urge against it; but if you want to give it a try anyways (and, from what I can tell, it isn't NEARLY as painful as SMEN), here are a few tips.

• If you think you might want to eventually do "A Night-time Conference" (the storylet in your lodgings with your rats), do NOT take the first step in "The Mystery of the Plaster Face" (the storylet in your lodgings with, well, a plaster face). Starting the latter cuts off access to the former.
• I think that A Night-time Conference may actually let you get through the Plaster Face without that luck-based challenge, though you may need to build up a Quality a certain amount to do so. If you do need the luck challenge, though, be prepared to bang your head against a wall for quite a long time - it took me about 20 tries to get it. For me, a good approach was to grind that storylet until my Nightmares reached 5; then take a break and go back to other stuff, using helpful Opportunity cards (A Moment's Peace, A Familiar Face by the School Railings, etc.) to bring Nightmares back down to around 2, then go back to grinding. You'll eventually get it.
• I don't have great advice to give for the middle portion... I think it might be best to stick with the cheaper bribes all the way through, but maybe it's worthwhile to grind it out with some disposable rats. 
• For the love of all that is good and holy, do NOT use your disgraced bandit chief ever, for anything, under any circumstances. It simply isn't safe. And you'll cry.

Other than that miserable experience, though, I'm still generally enjoying the game. I do look forward to acquiring my Overgoat, and suspect that by the time it's in my greedy hands, the next tier of content will be available for me to explore.

END MINI SPOILERS for FALLEN LONDON

And, as long as I'm posting random stuff....

MINI SPOILERS for SKYRIM

I'm continuing along Skyrim, though less quickly now that I'm back on Mass Effect. I've completely finished the Thieves Guild quests, and think that I'm nearing a climax of the Dark Brotherhood. After this, I think I'll probably switch back to the main quest. I'm not too interested in the Companions or the College of Winterhold factions, and many of the other missions are basic "explore dungeon X to acquire item Y and return it to person Z" endeavors.

I do still want to figure out how to buy more houses - so far I've only gotten the ones in Whiterun, Riften and Solitude.  The one in Solitude is awesome - it's sort of a cross between a townhouse and a mansion, three stories of luxury. That's where I took my wife after our wedding. Oh, yeah, that's right - I got married!

After experiencing the romance systems in Bioware games, romance in Skyrim is... pretty hilarious. It's also another great example of the philosophical differences between Bioware and Bethesda. Bioware, in their quest for curated experiences, will offer a handful of romance options; each one will be a full, complex, creative creature, with long relationship plots, myriad dialog options, and ways for you to shape and influence the relationship and your partner. Bethesda, as typical, trades off quality for quantity. You can marry any one of... well, at least dozens, and probably scores, of people. They're rather forward-thinking in that you can marry someone of either gender, and also of any species you like: Nord, Redguard, elf, lizard, cat, whatever. The romance itself is pretty laughable. You need to wear a special ring, see. Then talk to that person. If they're interested in you, they'll comment on your ring. You express your own interest. Then they agree to marry you! The ceremony itself is pretty cute - it's held in a chapel in Riften, with your housecarls on one side and your beloved's associates on the other - and they wear a pretty wedding dress. Afterwards, you can decide whether to move in with her or send her to one of your houses. And then... that's pretty much it. She'll stay there, making you home-cooked meals and providing an extra experience bonus. I think there's like a single line of dialog post-marriage to hear; otherwise she'll keep repeating stuff she'd otherwise say.

Oh, yeah: I ended up marrying Muiri, a cute apothecary's assistant from Markarth who had me murder her ex-boyfriend. I know, I know, THAT old story. I was also kind of interested in Sapphire, from the Thieves' Guild, but she doesn't seem to be marriageable. Aela the Huntress will actually accompany you on your journeys, but personality-wise she didn't seem to be a great match with my character. I'm still much more of a lone wolf, preferring to sneak through dungeons with my dual-wielded daggers rather than leading a charge of companions.

And, as long as we're comparing franchises, playing through ME so close to Skyrim has reminded me of yet another difference: just how pointless so much of Skyrim's dialog is. There are almost no points where you actually get to make any decisions when talking to someone. In most quest-related dialog, there's only one single line to "choose" from. In some cases, like the Dark Brotherhood quests, there might be three responses, but none of them will have any material outcome on the mission. I have so few opportunities to establishing my character's personality. It feels a little constricting.

However, there is one BIG choice you can make in the game, and I have been putting off making it. Skyrim is taking place against the backdrop of two crises. The first, most obvious one is the return of dragons. The second one, which I think is actually more interesting, is a... well, a revolution or a civil war, depending on your perspective. This game takes place hundreds of years after the end of Oblivion, and the Empire has gone through many changes: the Septim dynasty has ended, it's been involved in a war against the Dominion (an alliance of Altmer and Bosmer elves), been forced to sign a humiliating treaty that, amongst other things, forbids worship of Talos. In Skyrim, the Nords are increasingly disillusioned by the Empire and their role in it.

There's a struggle for power between two factions of Nords. One, led by Ulfric Stormcloak and based in Windhelm, seeks to claim independence from the Empire and establish a free Skyrim led by the Nords. The other, led by the puppet ruler Elsif and based in Solitude, seeks to continue Skyrim's membership in the Empire. At the start of the game, I had assumed that I'd be backing the side of independence. Since, you know, I'm in favor of freedom and against oppression and tyranny. So I created a Nord character, sided with the Nord prisoner during the initial attack, and even freed another Nord prisoner on the road.

As I'm delving deeper into the story, though, I'm growing increasingly drawn towards Elsif's faction. Part of this is based on my understanding that the Empire is essentially like the Roman Empire here on Earth: yeah, they're in charge, and have big armies, and appoint puppets to rule; but, they're generally happy to let their subjects run their own lives so long as they don't fight the empire, and they tie together most of the world in a multicultural, cosmopolitan quilt that's helpful for trade and culture. I've also come to understand that the Nord faction is pretty, um, racist. You never see any Khajit inside the Nord cities, and it's extremely rare to see any Argonians. The Empire-friendly cities, while still dominated by Nords, seem much more tolerant of other races and cultures. While I myself play as a Nord, and so I don't directly feel that hostility, it's still something that's pulling me towards allying with the Legion.

END MINI SPOILERS for SKYRIM

Last night's Dexter seriously bummed me out. This happens to me EVERY SEASON since the second one: The show starts out really promising, the first few episodes seem to be taking the show in an intriguing direction... then everything gets stupid, and awful, and I hate myself for getting fooled again into watching it. Note to self: next year, don't be swayed by independent reviewers who say "this season looks good!" - wait until the END of the season when they can use that phrase in the past tense. I'll save hours of time that can be devoted to more worthy programs.

On the plus side, I didn't think it was possible, but I love Parks and Recreation more than ever this season. That show continues to evolve, taking characters in believable, heartfelt, hilarious new directions. I'm really enjoying Tom's arc - I'm one of the few viewers who loved the Entertainment 720 storyline, and it's great to see him learning from his mistakes and trying to succeed again. And the relationships on that show - April/Andy and Ben/Leslie - are just delightful, and growing better as time goes on.

Speaking of relationships, last week's 30 Rock was one of my all-time favorite episodes. Jack Donaghy's reading from Atlas Shrugged was a definite highpoint.

The Walking Dead has been pretty painful this season, but I gotta say, it's still less painful than the comic books. I've been cringing during all the scenes in Woodbury, and am very, very glad to see that the show's creators have stayed away from the most sadistic elements of that sequence in the books. It's been interesting to watch The Walking Dead as an adaptation; they take a far looser approach to the source material than Game of Thrones does, and still hit many of the same story beats while radically changing around characters, timelines, and settings.

I've finally started watching the reboot of Doctor Who, starting with the Eccleston season. It's... very cheesy. I've been assured that it gets better.

Um, I think that's it for now! So many games, so much great TV... it's a wonder I ever manage to read any books these days!

UPDATE: I grabbed some screenshots from my play-through of Mass Effect: Omega. These should probably be considered mega-spoilers. Also, I can't believe it took me until now to realize that, since Omega is typically used to mean "end" (as in, you know, the title of this blog post), that name may have been a deliberate choice from Bioware to indicate that this will be the final piece of content in Shepard's story. Something to think about!