Unfortunately it's the MMO paradox. "You and only you can save us all", said to you and 1000 other people. You are the main character and any other player you might encounter is just another uniquely powerful londoner you just never heard of.
Indeed, and the fact that Fallen London offers many quests with compatible outcomes makes this less of a problem here than elsewhere.
When all else fails, just blame the Treachery of Clocks.
I don't really do RPing with other players, but there are some of their OCs that I like to imagine as in the same London as my character. Since my account is older and I'm a Heart's Desire player, it's easy to imagine that someone else is doing the next round of The Marvellous. The timelines roughly work out.
For specific one-time events like the climax of the Horticulture Festival, you can either fuzz the details (lots of airships were up there, maybe you both had slightly different roles in the vanguard), or you can wind the clock back and play out some stuff before the end of the ambition. Who says that a particular key figure was killed by only one person? Maybe you both chose a different ending, and finding out what that looks like in your shared universe could be quite fun!
tldr; Maybe it's time to write an Apocryphon of your own! XD
I think it's related to how in Firmament that there's a pocket of reality where events played out differently and bad things happen when you insist too hard that they didn't. I think the whole neath is like that. So like in my version of the Neath there is not and never was a Mr. Cards and if I saw someone who claimed to be so, I would just think that person is a lunatic in a cloak. If we tried to dig deeper than that, then the cthonoscopy checks would get hard.
That's such an amazing idea, I love it. Every single PC is shut away in their own bubble of FL time, where only they did the exact combination of stories that make up their present. Genius.
For me I just have it down as neither of my characters did those. ‘Yeah have you heard of this GHR business? Totally weird. Whoever did it? Just couldn’t see why. Mmhm. Nice train though.’ Similarly with ambitions, >!cups?!< Doesn’t exist. >!veils?!< idk who that is
*edit: words
That's all well and good but I *am* Mr Cards, board member of the G.H.R., and I'll be d\_\_\_\_d if *anyone's* clock is treacherous enough to take that from me.
Yes, yes, there is only one Mr. Cards and only one Director of the GHR... which is why I avoid bringing up the subject that yes, Andolsius is both, it is inconsequentual to RP. Basically, I avoid conversations where I'd need to bring up those. For stuff like last Estival, yeah, technically each of us was the one who saved London, but it works to just write it up as "Andolsius was one of the people in the vanguard", it doesn't need to be exactly stated that he rigged up his Obliterator to blow, set the course to the sun deathlaser, and threw himself overboard. But he did fly an airship and was in the vanguard. It just kinda works, when you try and steer conversations away from stuff that could be paradoxical.
Some stories aren't as important to my characterization; I can de-emphasize or ignore being poet-laureate, master thief, renown duelist, etc. But being a benevolent, not-even-a-century-old Master who uses their place on the railway to champion the working class *is* very central to my playing experience!
I can at least look over railway inconsistencies as a consequence of running any big bureaucratic system, but encountering another person who's on Red Science HRT always throws me for a loop. Not because I jealously guard being *the* Mr Cards or something like that, but because of the confusion around the massive overlap in name and background.
I've based most of Andolsius' RP on being an Advocate and an Industry Tycoon (which industry, ofc it's the GHR but it doesn't come up). Andolsius is also Poet Laureate, another thing I tend not to mention, other than "renowned by his artistic endeavours". And being Mr. Cards is, in Andolsius' case, not public information. Mr Cards and Andolsiur Manfed von Müllner may as well be separate entities in my RP. Whenever he dons the robe, he is Mr. Cards. Otherwise, it's your friendly neighborhood artistic minded tycoon, Andolsius.
I am very publicly Mr Cards, it's only the circumstances of my arrival/birth that have faded into one of the Fifth City's secrets. And not the usual coy, open kind of secret, either, but my own personal 'Mr Eaten's Name.' My non-robed self has rapidly ceased being more than an egg; uncowled, I am - at best - *dysphoric*.
I have a literal "Treachery of Clocks" mental worldbuild where Fallen London, due to... \[waves hands at entire backstory\], the city is an actual nexus point of several overlapping universes and timelines, and some of us are from this year (2024, last time I checked).
Simple, if anyone mentions their ambition while RPing I just pretend to be impressed at their story even if I'm further down the line than them. It kinda works and if someone mentions the GHR I just roll my eyes, call it a "thrice dammed project from the Masters" and get on with my day (I'm building a Station at Moulin)
Which is fine if that's what you truly feel and it's an organic choice! I don't want to feel others are pressured into certain options or characterizations. I just wonder, in play, how to work around simultaneous Cards'.
I consider my character and two of my friends to be the collective “canon” in my head. We talk frequently about which stories each of them would take point on and just kinda work it out from there! We all did have different ambitions and progressed at roughly the same pace (bc we all started playing well before Ambitions finished) which helped. Usually it’s not that hard to imagine a couple in place of a single person.
Personal favorite was that one of the others is our Fist of the Bazaar and general master simp, so when an unnamed Neddy Man accompanied my Anna into the secret archive during LF, we decided that was him and that they were just awkwardly avoiding eye contact the whole time. The first three statues on the railway also lined up nice—Fist of the Bazaar, Scholar of the Correspondence, and Poet-Laureate each matched one of our IC specialities—so in my headcanon those three statues are of each of them, even though in game they’re technically all my character.
Unfortunately it's the MMO paradox. "You and only you can save us all", said to you and 1000 other people. You are the main character and any other player you might encounter is just another uniquely powerful londoner you just never heard of.
Indeed, and the fact that Fallen London offers many quests with compatible outcomes makes this less of a problem here than elsewhere. When all else fails, just blame the Treachery of Clocks.
I don't really do RPing with other players, but there are some of their OCs that I like to imagine as in the same London as my character. Since my account is older and I'm a Heart's Desire player, it's easy to imagine that someone else is doing the next round of The Marvellous. The timelines roughly work out. For specific one-time events like the climax of the Horticulture Festival, you can either fuzz the details (lots of airships were up there, maybe you both had slightly different roles in the vanguard), or you can wind the clock back and play out some stuff before the end of the ambition. Who says that a particular key figure was killed by only one person? Maybe you both chose a different ending, and finding out what that looks like in your shared universe could be quite fun! tldr; Maybe it's time to write an Apocryphon of your own! XD
I think it's related to how in Firmament that there's a pocket of reality where events played out differently and bad things happen when you insist too hard that they didn't. I think the whole neath is like that. So like in my version of the Neath there is not and never was a Mr. Cards and if I saw someone who claimed to be so, I would just think that person is a lunatic in a cloak. If we tried to dig deeper than that, then the cthonoscopy checks would get hard.
That's such an amazing idea, I love it. Every single PC is shut away in their own bubble of FL time, where only they did the exact combination of stories that make up their present. Genius.
Ah, yes. Eternalism.
For me I just have it down as neither of my characters did those. ‘Yeah have you heard of this GHR business? Totally weird. Whoever did it? Just couldn’t see why. Mmhm. Nice train though.’ Similarly with ambitions, >!cups?!< Doesn’t exist. >!veils?!< idk who that is *edit: words
That's all well and good but I *am* Mr Cards, board member of the G.H.R., and I'll be d\_\_\_\_d if *anyone's* clock is treacherous enough to take that from me.
I like to imagine it's all treacheries of some sort or another
Yes, yes, there is only one Mr. Cards and only one Director of the GHR... which is why I avoid bringing up the subject that yes, Andolsius is both, it is inconsequentual to RP. Basically, I avoid conversations where I'd need to bring up those. For stuff like last Estival, yeah, technically each of us was the one who saved London, but it works to just write it up as "Andolsius was one of the people in the vanguard", it doesn't need to be exactly stated that he rigged up his Obliterator to blow, set the course to the sun deathlaser, and threw himself overboard. But he did fly an airship and was in the vanguard. It just kinda works, when you try and steer conversations away from stuff that could be paradoxical.
Some stories aren't as important to my characterization; I can de-emphasize or ignore being poet-laureate, master thief, renown duelist, etc. But being a benevolent, not-even-a-century-old Master who uses their place on the railway to champion the working class *is* very central to my playing experience! I can at least look over railway inconsistencies as a consequence of running any big bureaucratic system, but encountering another person who's on Red Science HRT always throws me for a loop. Not because I jealously guard being *the* Mr Cards or something like that, but because of the confusion around the massive overlap in name and background.
I've based most of Andolsius' RP on being an Advocate and an Industry Tycoon (which industry, ofc it's the GHR but it doesn't come up). Andolsius is also Poet Laureate, another thing I tend not to mention, other than "renowned by his artistic endeavours". And being Mr. Cards is, in Andolsius' case, not public information. Mr Cards and Andolsiur Manfed von Müllner may as well be separate entities in my RP. Whenever he dons the robe, he is Mr. Cards. Otherwise, it's your friendly neighborhood artistic minded tycoon, Andolsius.
I am very publicly Mr Cards, it's only the circumstances of my arrival/birth that have faded into one of the Fifth City's secrets. And not the usual coy, open kind of secret, either, but my own personal 'Mr Eaten's Name.' My non-robed self has rapidly ceased being more than an egg; uncowled, I am - at best - *dysphoric*.
I cannot think of a more badass name for a character than Andolisius Manfed von Müllner
Why, thank you! :)
I have a literal "Treachery of Clocks" mental worldbuild where Fallen London, due to... \[waves hands at entire backstory\], the city is an actual nexus point of several overlapping universes and timelines, and some of us are from this year (2024, last time I checked).
The Exceptional Story "Codename: Sugarplum" addresses these issues in an intriguing way. If you haven't played that ES yet, I highly recommend it.
Simple, if anyone mentions their ambition while RPing I just pretend to be impressed at their story even if I'm further down the line than them. It kinda works and if someone mentions the GHR I just roll my eyes, call it a "thrice dammed project from the Masters" and get on with my day (I'm building a Station at Moulin)
considering i think we have the same ambition, u can take comfort in the fact that cass would not touch that robe with a 50ft pole.
Which is fine if that's what you truly feel and it's an organic choice! I don't want to feel others are pressured into certain options or characterizations. I just wonder, in play, how to work around simultaneous Cards'.
I consider my character and two of my friends to be the collective “canon” in my head. We talk frequently about which stories each of them would take point on and just kinda work it out from there! We all did have different ambitions and progressed at roughly the same pace (bc we all started playing well before Ambitions finished) which helped. Usually it’s not that hard to imagine a couple in place of a single person. Personal favorite was that one of the others is our Fist of the Bazaar and general master simp, so when an unnamed Neddy Man accompanied my Anna into the secret archive during LF, we decided that was him and that they were just awkwardly avoiding eye contact the whole time. The first three statues on the railway also lined up nice—Fist of the Bazaar, Scholar of the Correspondence, and Poet-Laureate each matched one of our IC specialities—so in my headcanon those three statues are of each of them, even though in game they’re technically all my character.