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* ContestWinnerCameo: Eight backers of the Tales of Fallen London: The Silver Tree spinoff game's Kickstarter will be written into either Fallen London or The Silver Tree as an NPC.
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** Exactly to what extent being soulless impairs you is unclear. There's clearly a number of people who want theirs back, but at the same time it's apparently a boon for lawyers. At least one inventor apparently thought the problem could be solved with a special surgical truss. The devils themselves put it like this: "The effects? Well, nothing one would really notice. A little depression of mood. A pleasing melancholy here and there. Perhaps a lessening in appreciation of beauty. But does not beauty cause so much of the world's difficulties?"
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** Exactly to what extent being soulless impairs you is unclear.unclear, and it might be different for different people. There's clearly a number of people who want theirs back, but at the same time it's apparently a boon for lawyers. At least one inventor apparently thought the problem could be solved with a special surgical truss. The devils themselves put it like this: "The effects? Well, nothing one would really notice. A little depression of mood. A pleasing melancholy here and there. Perhaps a lessening in appreciation of beauty. But does not beauty cause so much of the world's difficulties?"difficulties?"
*** The landlord of one lodgings option (the Rooms Above a Bookshop) is suggested to be missing his soul, and he spends most of his time either moping or weeping.
*** The landlord of one lodgings option (the Rooms Above a Bookshop) is suggested to be missing his soul, and he spends most of his time either moping or weeping.
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There are four stats a player can choose to improve on as he/she/they continues his/her/their story down in the Neath: Dangerous (fighting prowess); Watchful (mental acumen); Persuasive (charm and wit); and Shadowy (stealth and cunning). Doing quests improve one or more of the stats, and better quests are revealed to the player upon reaching a certain stat value. All of them (especially Watchful) will help you learn more about the world and uncover its secrets...except for the Persuasive path, which consists almost entirely of seducing people and writing poetry. Well, until you get to the foreign office...
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There are four stats a player can choose to improve on as he/she/they continues continue his/her/their story down in the Neath: Dangerous (fighting prowess); Watchful (mental acumen); Persuasive (charm and wit); and Shadowy (stealth and cunning). Doing quests improve one or more of the stats, and better quests are revealed to the player upon reaching a certain stat value. All of them (especially Watchful) will help you learn more about the world and uncover its secrets...except for the Persuasive path, which consists almost entirely of seducing people and writing poetry. Well, until you get to the foreign office...
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* ArtShift: In Wilmot's End, descriptions are in fairly short sentence fragments (e.g. "A newspaper tucked into an overcoat. A white raven looks down through the mist").
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* ArtShift: ArtShift:
** In Wilmot's End, descriptions are in fairly short sentence fragments (e.g. "A newspaper tucked into an overcoat. A white raven looks down through themist").mist").
** When your character gets exiled to the tomb-colonies, the descriptions take the form of letters to someone back in Fallen London.
** In Wilmot's End, descriptions are in fairly short sentence fragments (e.g. "A newspaper tucked into an overcoat. A white raven looks down through the
** When your character gets exiled to the tomb-colonies, the descriptions take the form of letters to someone back in Fallen London.
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* AntiPoopSocking: You get a maximum of 10 actions at any given time (although you can pay a monthly subscription to double that amount), and they refill at the regular rate of ten minutes an action. There's an option to fill up your action bar to max by Twittering within the game, usable once every 24 hours.
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* AntiPoopSocking: You get a maximum of 10 actions at any given time (although you can pay a monthly subscription to double that amount), and they refill at the regular rate of ten minutes an action. There's an option to fill up your action bar to max by Twittering within the game, usable once every 24 hours. However, it's been taken temporarily offline, along with most of the other connections to Twitter.
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There are four stats a player can choose to improve on as he/she/it continues his/her/its story down in the Neath: Dangerous (fighting prowess); Watchful (mental acumen); Persuasive (charm and wit); and Shadowy (stealth and cunning). Doing quests improve one or more of the stats, and better quests are revealed to the player upon reaching a certain stat value. All of them (especially Watchful) will help you learn more about the world and uncover its secrets...except for the Persuasive path, which consists almost entirely of seducing people and writing poetry. Well, until you get to the foreign office...
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There are four stats a player can choose to improve on as he/she/it he/she/they continues his/her/its his/her/their story down in the Neath: Dangerous (fighting prowess); Watchful (mental acumen); Persuasive (charm and wit); and Shadowy (stealth and cunning). Doing quests improve one or more of the stats, and better quests are revealed to the player upon reaching a certain stat value. All of them (especially Watchful) will help you learn more about the world and uncover its secrets...except for the Persuasive path, which consists almost entirely of seducing people and writing poetry. Well, until you get to the foreign office...
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* InterfaceSpoiler: It mainly happens with certain opportunity cards. They'll have several options, and a number of them will be locked and will tie in with plots much further down the road than you can currently access.
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* InterfaceSpoiler: It mainly happens with certain opportunity cards. They'll have several options, and a number of them will be locked and will visibly tie in with plots much further down the road than you can currently access.
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* InterfaceSpoiler: It mainly happens with certain opportunity cards. They'll have several options, and a number of them will be locked and will tie in with plots much further down the road than you can currently access.
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** Another opportunity card involves a tomb-colonist gentleman commissioning love poetry with which to woo a human young lady. Mind you, tomb-colonists are technically human under the bandages, but it's still basically treated as this trope.
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* LovecraftLite: The game's genre has been described by its creators as [[IncrediblyLamePun Comic]] [[CosmicHorror Horror]].
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* LovecraftLite: The game's genre has been described by its creators as [[IncrediblyLamePun Comic]] [[CosmicHorror [[CosmicHorrorStory Horror]].
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* ExpospeakGag: Using a ''fictional'' word. The Professor of Antiquarian Esquivalience. [[spoiler:Or in other words, the ancient art of willfully avoiding one's official duties.]]
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* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The developers include a little bit of this on purpose, counterbalanced with some carefully picked DeliberateValuesDissonance, to make the game more welcoming to players whose gender, race, and/or sexuality would have caused problems for them in the actual 19th century. The EveryoneIsBi thing is a good example; nobody in Fallen London appears to care what gender of person you prefer to take to bed. Also, the NPCs are more gender-balanced than in many games set in the present day or the future.
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** Also another story involves you finding a courier delivering church candles having been temporarily killed by Jack-of-Smiles, you can choose to tend to him, steal his candles, or steal his candles ''then'' tend to him.
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* GoneHorriblyRight: One opportunity card has you try to settle the differences between two gangs outside your house. Should you fail, you still succeed in making the gangs get along... by getting their leaders to fall in love with each other and causing a crime spree as they cooperate on several heists.
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** It's also easy to play this way, yourself, if you mostly indulge in earthly pleasures but refuse to deal with demons on principle. You'll raise both your Hedonist and Austere qualities quite a bit.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: According to the "Advising the Loquacious Vicar" quest, even spirifers (soul-traders) find the idea of attaching a live soul to a dead body abhorrent.
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: EvenEvilHasStandards:
** According to the "Advising the Loquacious Vicar" quest, even spirifers (soul-traders) find the idea of attaching a live soul to a dead bodyabhorrent.abhorrent.
** When you are Seeking Mr Eaten's Name, after [[spoiler:the Starveling Cat]] asks a spirifier to [[spoiler:stain your soul]], he may respond, "No, you damnable beast, I will not! A man's got to draw the line somewhere, and I won't, you hear me? I won't!"
** According to the "Advising the Loquacious Vicar" quest, even spirifers (soul-traders) find the idea of attaching a live soul to a dead body
** When you are Seeking Mr Eaten's Name, after [[spoiler:the Starveling Cat]] asks a spirifier to [[spoiler:stain your soul]], he may respond, "No, you damnable beast, I will not! A man's got to draw the line somewhere, and I won't, you hear me? I won't!"
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* EvenEvilHasStandards: According to the "Advising the Loquacious Vicar" quest, even spirifers (soul-traders) find the idea of attaching a live soul to a dead body abhorrent.
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* TheTropeFormerlyKnownAsX: According to a sidebar blurb, at some point the Bazaar attempted to force the ''London Magazine'' to change its name. In defiance, the magazine changed its name to ''The Magazine Formerly Known As The London Magazine''.
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* AnimalMotifs: The stats are all given an icon of a different animal: a bear for Dangerous, an owl for Watchful, a raccoon for Persuasive, and a cat for Shadowy.
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* DrowningMySorrows: Can come up in gameplay. The wine from the Mrs. Plenty's Carnival can reduce your Nightmare score if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, you'll get plumb drunk and raise your Scandal score instead.
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fix the Namespace stuff
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* NightmareFace[=/=]SlasherSmile: The Exceptional Rose is suggested to have this. A snippet on the sidebar reads, "It carries on top a remarkable bloom. This remains tightly in bud, except for a day in late winter, when the flower opens to reveal, nestling in gorgeous red petals, a little child’s face. It looks very darling, until it smiles."
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* NightmareFace[=/=]SlasherSmile: NightmareFace / SlasherSmile: The Exceptional Rose is suggested to have this. A snippet on the sidebar reads, "It carries on top a remarkable bloom. This remains tightly in bud, except for a day in late winter, when the flower opens to reveal, nestling in gorgeous red petals, a little child’s face. It looks very darling, until it smiles."
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** References to incidents involving weasels are rather common.
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** References to incidents involving weasels are rather common.
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** To ''BladeRunner'', in a challenge at Watchmaker Hill: "'Do you make up these questions? Or do they write them down for you?' With the grudging agreement of the Constables, you interview a series of Clay Men, asking them ever more intimate and revealing questions about their 'lives', their work, their intentions, their emotions. Tortoises. That sort of thing."
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** To ''BladeRunner'', ''Film/BladeRunner'', in a challenge at Watchmaker Hill: "'Do you make up these questions? Or do they write them down for you?' With the grudging agreement of the Constables, you interview a series of Clay Men, asking them ever more intimate and revealing questions about their 'lives', their work, their intentions, their emotions. Tortoises. That sort of thing."
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* ThemeNaming:
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* ThemeNaming: ThemeNaming:
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** If you're Indulging A Less than Laudable Laudanum Habit, you can have a dream in which "your beloved dances in a graveyard," referencing Hector Berlioz's opium-inspired ''Symphonie Fantastique.''
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** If you're Indulging A Less than Laudable Laudanum Habit, you can have a dream in which "your beloved dances in a graveyard," referencing Hector Berlioz's HectorBerlioz's opium-inspired ''Symphonie Fantastique.''
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*** One player has, in fact, managed to become the first Hespiderean... [[BribingYourWayToVictory by pledging $500]] (in real money!) to another Failbetter Games project on kickstarter.
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* FungusHumongous: They live in marshy areas. The player can meet some if they live in a cottage by the Observatory, go shroom-hopping, or are breeding creatures in the Labyrinth of Tigers.
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** Also there are hints that the Bazaar may be alive in some sense. [[spoiler: And it also appears to eat love.]]
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** While in New Newgate Prison, you can get an opportunity card where you express your belief that Fallen London [[TheDarkKnightSaga deserves a better class of villain.]]
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** While in New Newgate Prison, you can get an opportunity card where you express your belief that Fallen London [[TheDarkKnightSaga [[Film/TheDarkKnight deserves a better class of villain.]]
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* MuggedForDisguise: In the Light Fingers Ambition, you need to [[spoiler:sneak into an asylum]], so you get a uniform from a guard, either by bribing or mugging him. The success text will mention the clothing not fitting you, but it'll have to do.
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* NiceHat: The Extraordinary Hat. Also the Exceptional Hat, which has [[BrainFood never eaten any brains]], despite stories to the contrary.
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* NiceHat: The Extraordinary Hat. Also the Exceptional Hat, [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial which has has]] [[BrainFood never eaten any brains]], [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial despite stories to the contrary.]]
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* DeathIsCheap: Death in the Neath is more of a mild inconvenience than anything else, although it does make it impossible to return to the surface.
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* DeathIsCheap: Death in the Neath is more of a mild inconvenience than anything else, although it does make it impossible to return to the surface. One storylet has you kill a journalist for being too interested in reporting certain things "...he'll get better, obviously, but it'll serve as a lesson".
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* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: The Rubbery Men, moist green creatures with tentacled faces and hands.
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* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: The Rubbery Men, moist green creatures with tentacled faces and hands. They don't speak English, but are still surprisingly polite and friendly.
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Renamed from Echo Bazaar
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Welcome, delicious troper.
''Fallen London'' (formerly, ''Echo Bazaar'') is a Twitter/Facebook connected, turn based browser game produced by Failbetter Games Ltd. It's set in the aforementioned city, a mile underground and a boat down the river from Hell, where people are either piecing together the mystery of what exactly happened, trading souls, or just politely murdering other people. Players start off as prisoners plotting to break out, and after that... they're free to do whatever they want.
There are four stats a player can choose to improve on as he/she/it continues his/her/its story down in the Neath: Dangerous (fighting prowess); Watchful (mental acumen); Persuasive (charm and wit); and Shadowy (stealth and cunning). Doing quests improve one or more of the stats, and better quests are revealed to the player upon reaching a certain stat value. All of them (especially Watchful) will help you learn more about the world and uncover its secrets...except for the Persuasive path, which consists almost entirely of seducing people and writing poetry. Well, until you get to the foreign office...
Fallen London's entrance is at: http://www.fallenlondon.com/.
----
!!Tropes present in this game include:
* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The Marvellous, focus of the Heart's Desire ambition, is "(...) a notorious card game in which you can stake your soul and win your [[TitleDrop heart's desire]]."
* TheAce: Anyone with high levels in all qualities probably seems like this.
** BrokenAce: Several storylets and qualities allow you to paint yourself as such.
* TheAdjectivalMan: The Clay Men (friendly golems), the Unfinished Men (unfriendly golems), the Neddy Men (government strikebreakers), the Raggedy Men (eccentric criminals), and the Rubbery Men (eldritch immigrants).
* AfterlifeExpress: Moloch Street Underground Station in Ladybones Road is the first stop on the journey to Hell. There's a quest early in the game that has you [[spoiler:steal the timetable for a Ragged Mendicant.]]
* AllegedlyFreeGame: A lot of content requires Fate to unlock. Opportunities to find Fate in-game (i. e. without paying real money) are rare and usually get you 1 - 3 points, whereas unlocking storylines rarely requires less than ''20'' Fate.
* AllThereInTheManual: The sidebars are critical to piercing together many of the mysteries of the game's backstory.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: "Devils can't help but do mischief."
* AngelsDevilsAndSquid: The Angels are conspicuous in their absence. The Devils are everpresent, preying on the weak and gullible. The Rubbery Men are alien and bizarre, and the Devils can't stand them, but they seem harmless to mortals.
* AnonymousBenefactor: A storyline acquired early on, the identity of said benefactor eventually being revealed.
* AntiHero / AntiVillain: You can choose to be one if you don't want to be a straight version of either. Or you can opt to be [[TrueNeutral completely amoral]]. Decisions, decisions...
* AntiPoopSocking: You get a maximum of 10 actions at any given time (although you can pay a monthly subscription to double that amount), and they refill at the regular rate of ten minutes an action. There's an option to fill up your action bar to max by Twittering within the game, usable once every 24 hours.
* AntiquatedLinguistics: Not carried so far as to offend the more casual participant, but it requires no special effort to observe such diction in-use throughout.
* ArcSymbol: The stone knife, especially in the "What The Thunder Said" storyline.
** The main narrative's arc symbols are candles, candlelight, and mirrors.
* ArcNumber: Seven, kind of. [[spoiler:Mr Eaten's name refers to seven candles. There are hints that London is the fifth city of seven, whatever that implies for its future.]]
* ArcWords: A few.
** NORTH. We must go North.
** Parabola. Ware the Serpent.
** "Give me a mirror!"
** ''Whatever you do, don't fall in love.''
* ArtShift: In Wilmot's End, descriptions are in fairly short sentence fragments (e.g. "A newspaper tucked into an overcoat. A white raven looks down through the mist").
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: In one mission, you are attempting to trail a target through the carnival. If you fail, this happens.
* AxCrazy: Jack-of-Smiles, naturally. Not that he [[AnAxeToGrind uses an axe;]] he's more of a KnifeNut in that regard.
* {{Badass}}: Any player at high levels. ESPECIALLY those who concentrate on all four stats.
* BadassBoast: If you're sufficiently Connected with the Masters, one of the possible options for entering the House of Chimes involves this.
* BadassBookworm / GeniusBruiser: Any player who focuses on Watchful and Dangerous. (Naturally, this includes players who choose the Nemesis or Bag a Legend ambition)
* BadassMoustache: Some of the constables, it seems.
-->"Now that's odd. When you find your way back to the Stuttering Fence's place, there's no one there. Except a number of inconspicuously placed Constables, invisible to the untrained eye. You, however, recognise them instantly by the strength of their moustaches."
* BadassPreacher: The Bishop of Southwark. He's the finest orator in the Church. He's also a formidable wrestler, a [[spoiler:former cavalry officer]] and [[spoiler:hopes to lead an invasion of Hell.]]
* BadSanta: Mister Sacks. He comes at Christmas to take things. He might take your headache away. He might take your auntie. If you're very unwise, he might take ''you''.
* BandagedFace: Major characteristic of Tomb-Colonists.
* BatOutOfHell: London was stolen by them. Of course, only revolutionaries still use the word 'stole'.
* BavarianFireDrill: A storylet in the University involves the player stealing from the Young Stags, and the player carries a few boxes to blend in with the tradespeople there.
* BazaarOfTheBizarre: Take a wild guess.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: During the storyline where the player investigates a murder at the University, the Duchess may reveal that [[spoiler:she bargained with the Bazaar after her husband was bitten by a serpent. He survived, but in the monstrous and agonising form of the Cantigaster. She theorises that a similar fate awaits the Empress and her Consort.]]
* BedlamHouse: Subverted by the prestigious Royal Bethlehem Hotel. Its fees are almost unaffordable. [[spoiler: The mysterious proprietor waives the fee for lunatics, who consequently make up the vast majority of the guests, and live in unparalleled luxury.]]
* BeneathTheEarth: The "Fallen" in Fallen London refers to its physical location.
* BlatantLies:
** You tell these in some Persuasive storylets, and if you're successful, people believe you.
-->"Devils are feasting on human flesh in the Veilgarden! The tomb-colonists are to return home en masse! Cats are toxic! Cheese is made from spiders!"\\
"Russia is sinking! Fallen London will annexe the tomb-colonies! Mr Wines is marrying the skeletal corpse of a nun! The Spider-Council is holding a debutantes' ball! It's almost impossible to stop once you've started. Just keep talking. Everything will be fine."
** Subverted in a later storylet:
--->"[[RealityIsUnrealistic You go too far when you tell them that in hyaena clans, the leader is always a matriarch.]] The crowd are having none of it, and start pelting you with rocks."
* BlessedAreTheCheesemakers: Or more accurately, blessed is the Cheesemonger, a high-level operative in The Great Game.
* BlowYouAway: The [[spoiler:Stormy-Eyed]] quality seems to give one some degree of power over wind.
* BodyHorror:
** [[spoiler: The spider-councils, massive collectives of sorrow-spiders physically fused together into a horrifyingly sentient monstrosity.]]
** The ending of [[spoiler: the Finder of Heiresses storyline]] is pretty bad too.
** The description of what the Cantigaster actually is during one of the later Watchful quests defines this. [[spoiler: You can find out that the Cantigaster was ''once'' a man....]] Seriously, Failbetter Games seems to love this trope.
** [[spoiler:Snuffers, anyone? The Big Rat comes to mind as an especially gruesome one, a creature that speaks through the flayed faces of dead rats, sewn together and animated.]]
* BodySurf: How Jack-of-Smiles evades capture. It doesn't matter if you kill his current host, he'll be back in a new body soon. [[spoiler:He's not limited to humans either.]]
** A recent story reveals that [[spoiler: Jack-of-Smiles resides in his trademark knives, and anyone who touches one "becomes" him. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential You even have the option to take up one of his knives and go on a slashing spree yourself...]][[BlatantLies for the sake of the investigation, of course.]]]]
* BombThrowingAnarchist: The Revolutionaries, naturally.
* BrainBleach: A frequent necessity to deal with nightmares. Specific examples--
** Laudanum. Humorously, it actually does affect your health in exchange.
** Greyfields 1868 First Sporing also acts like this, only without the Wounds increase. They're hard to obtain, however.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: One opportunity's story involves using fake cats. Some bite, some explode, some bite ''then'' explode.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: The game is free to play, but you can buy Fate points with real money. With enough Fate points, you can do things like refilling your actions instantly, refilling the deck of opportunity cards, or opening additional quests not obtainable otherwise. Then again, you can get Fate points through other means other than paying.
* BrownNote: The Correspondence. Studying makes your eyes bleed and your hair catch fire. Not to mention the things that seeking knowledge of Mr Eaten does to the mind [[spoiler:specifically, compulsory self-destructive acts such as attempting to literally drown oneself in beer.]]
* BuriedAlive: In part of the Light Fingers! ambition, an antagonist warns you that if you pursue your ambition any further, you will be buried alive. [[spoiler: He fulfills that promise if he finds you continued the ambition, and you wind up in a coffin under the ground.]]
* ButtMonkey: [[InformedAttribute Lucky]] Weasels. Despite their flavor text, they exist primarily to be sacrificed to [[TheGrimReaper the Boatman,]] used as plant food, [[BrownNote exploded from singing "Pop Goes The Weasel" one too many times,]] and [[BodyHorror left half-devoured but still alive]] by the Bifurcated Owl.
* {{Cap}}:
** There's one on each of the four main qualities, though it increases as new content is added.
** There are also many storylets that do not raise minor qualities (usually quirks) if they are above a certain value.
* CatsAreMagic: Well, they talk, anyway. And they know many secrets.
* CatsAreMean: The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Want to lose a hand? [[SchmuckBait Give the beast a pat!]]
* ChessWithDeath: And dice, too, with [[{{Psychopomp}} the boatman]], which brings you closer to life. Assuming you win.
* ChurchMilitant: During the "Bag a Legend" ambition, one encounters armored combat-trained nuns. Their rosaries have spikes.
* CircusOfFear: Mrs. Plenty's Most Distracting Carnival.
* ClimaxBoss: If the game had an actual combat engine, [[spoiler:The Spider-Council]] and [[spoiler:Feducci]] would definitely be ones.
* CloakAndDagger: Spying is one of the non-combat employment options available to the community.
* ClusterFBomb: One event card has a woman writing very scandalous things about you. One of the options is to unleash a ClusterFBomb of magnificent proportions in response;
-->''"You spit foul recriminations and vicious calumny. Ladies faint dead away and gentlemen stagger under the barrage. Your target runs, weeping, with her hands over her ears. You follow her! Your tirade continues in the street, where hansoms careen hastily off and urchins fall from rooftops. You pick up your victim's dropped letters and wave them as a final salute. You are spent."''
** And if you "fail" that event you get this;
-->''"Three ladies faint. So do three gentleman and a passing waiter. Two cats fall off the roof and and an elderly horse outside keels over. You are denounced in two newspapers and a sermon. What words! You have definitely gone too far this time." ''
* ControllableHelplessness:
** [[spoiler: Playing as a Clay Man. Until you remember...]]
** A certain failure location in Ambition: Light Fingers. [[spoiler: ''You've moved to a new area: [[BuriedAlive A small, velvet lined box]]. You can't see anything. You have just enough space to twist onto your belly or your back. Oh dear God. Oh dear God.'']]
* CosmeticAward: Some of the story traits currently don't actually unlock any new actions. Presumably as the game grows they will become more useful.
* CosmicHorrorStory: Not only does it do it pretty well, it somehow it manages to pull it off ''[[LogicBomb cheerfully]]''.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Though Menaces do unlock special storylets or branches sometimes, you will suffer no detrimental effects from them until they hit 8. Due to the fact that there are four different Menaces, this happens four times over!
* CrypticBackgroundReference: All over the place, though many of them are explained in the sidebars. Figuring them all out makes up much of the game's JigsawPuzzlePlot.
** EpilepticTrees: Tons of theories are sprouting up throughout the internet about these, most notably the first four cities. In particular, there is one blog that seems to have narrowed them down to their ''exact locations and names''. ([[http://cl0ckw0rks.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/notes-on-the-previous-four-stolen-cities/ Link]])
* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: The Rubbery Men, moist green creatures with tentacled faces and hands.
* CulturedBadass: Any player who focuses on Persuasive and Dangerous.
** An NPC example would be Mr Inch.
* DealWithTheDevil:
** Hell has an embassy in Fallen London and is a possible contact for your character. There is also substantial evidence that London wasn't ''stolen'' at all...
** There are also dealings with Mr. Eaten. Dealings with Mr. Eaten have far, far worse consequences than the mere loss of one's soul.
* DeathByOriginStory: Comes with the [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Nemesis]] Ambition. You even get to choose whether it was your character's [[CartwrightCurse lover, spouse]], [[RelativeButton brother]], or [[AdultFear daughter]] who was murdered.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist:
** Sometimes. If your Scandal, Wounds, Nightmares, or Suspicion gets too high, you are sent to a special area that will often require you to dent some of your stats in order to escape. These "failure" states can be anywhere from actually ''beneficial'' to a legitimate concern for your stats, depending on a number of circumstances.\\
\\
However, whatever you do, do ''not'' let your Nightmares hit 8. The State of Some Confusion is ''by far'' the most punishing of the failure states -- upon leaving, you lose some of that hard-to-gain dream progress. Better than when it used to, oh, ''wipe it out completely'', but still a pain.
** The only way out of the Light Fingers failure location mentioned above is death... [[spoiler: unless you've been diligently attending to the needs of a singular plant.]]
* DeathIsCheap: Death in the Neath is more of a mild inconvenience than anything else, although it does make it impossible to return to the surface.
** DeaderThanDead: Death ''can'' still be permanent, however. You can't come back from disease or old age, and if your body is completely destroyed, you obviously can't revive either. A sort of middle ground exists, though; some people don't die permanently, but still sustain injuries too grievous for them to return to society. They're wrapped up in bandages and shipped off to the Tomb-Colonies instead.
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Many of the Black Ribboners have strong overtones of this, and many of those who are are [[HeroicBSOD traumatized wrecks]]. There's heavy DrivenToSuicide implications for some of them, too.]] Kind of [[TearJerker depressing]], really.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Since this is set in the late 1800s, of course it'll appear.
-->"[[ShamingTheMob Are we barbarians? Are we]] ''[[ShamingTheMob foreigners]]'' ?"
* {{Determinator}}: You, toward your Ambition.
** [[SubvertedTrope ...unless you decide to ignore it in favour of other storylets]].
** Also, [[spoiler:towards seeking Mr Eaten's name, if you choose to pursue the quest]].
** And figuring out what's in that painting...And attending to the needs of a singular plant...Come to think of it, a lot of opportunity cards are like this.
* DevilButNoGod: Devils are quite omnipresent. While the Church still exists (and is quite influential), angels are nowhere to be seen. [[spoiler:The Bishop of Southwark and the Bishop of St. Fiacre's both have plans to secure the assistance of the Heavenly Host, but it remains to be seen how successful this will be.]]
* DiscriminateAndSwitch: In a storylet, someone mentions "a large gentleman with a muddy complexion, if you know what I mean", [[spoiler:but the player character automatically thinks "Clay Man"]].
* DownerEnding: The ending of the [[spoiler:Comtessa]] storyline, which is also full of TearJerker.
* DreamLand: Prisoner's honey sends you there. [[spoiler:Gaoler's honey sends you to someone else's.]]
* DrillSergeantNasty: One storylet has your character training up the Constables in the art of monster-hunting, with distinct overtones of this.
-->"This is a sorrow-spider! Which end do you hold it by? TRICK QUESTION!"
* EarWorm: InUniverse; Failing challenges in Mahogany Hall gets you exposed to one of these, as a Menace stat similar to Wounds or Nightmares. The song is [[spoiler:Pop Goes The Weasel]], and something bad may happen to your [[spoiler:pet weasels]] if it reaches 5.
* EasterEgg: It is possible to play as a [[{{Golem}} Clay Man]].
* EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas: Some attempts to translate the Correspondence veer into this.
-->"Could that long ululating moan be 'A path unmarred by obstacles'? Or perhaps 'A future consumed and forgotten' would be more accurate? Well, you'll find out soon."
* EldritchAbomination: A great many, including but not limited to the Masters, the Rubbery creatures and Flukes, the Eater-of-Chains, the Vake, and more denizens of the Labyrinth of Tigers than have yet been named.
* EmptyLevels: There's an interesting subversion. [[spoiler:As your Watchful quality increases, ChessWithDeath becomes easier... until the storylet is suddenly replaced by a much more difficult one, bumping you from a 'Modest' back to an 'Almost Impossible' challenge.]] But then, you realise that [[spoiler:the scaling only happens at very specific values, meaning that, with careful optimisation of your equipment, you can keep the challenge 'Modest' by staying exactly one point below the limit.]]
* EveryoneIsBi: All the [=NPCs=] are, and all characters potentially so - seduction storylets unlocked by upping your Persuasion are the same regardless of the sex of your character, and include people of both sexes as targets.
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: A Cardsharp Monkey is one of the companions gained from an ambition. [[spoiler:However, if you have cause to incite his vengeance, he will not hesitate to cost you an awful lot of either time or money. Protip: Do not anger the monkey.]]
* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The Rubbery Men, and those things in the Unterzee.
* ExtremeOmnivore: The Starveling Cat is one, if the sidenotes are to be believed.
* EyeScream: Sorrow-spiders steal eyeballs, which [[spoiler: hatch into new spiders]].
* FantasticDrug: Prisoner's honey is a ''magic'' drug. It doesn't just give you the MushroomSamba, it actually physically transports you into a dream. Just stay away from red honey...
* FantasticRacism: ''Nobody'' likes the Rubbery Men.
* FunetikAksent: An assistant of the Enterprising Astronomer:
-->Hi have hay hitem... Hay cert-hain gentleman hat the hobservatory wanted you to have this here distressing hitem. Hi'm glad to be rid of the thing. Now, hif you'll hexcuse me, hi have matters to hattend to.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Sort of. In some storylets, the text for failure seems to be more a matter of bad luck than a lack of ability. Also, when failing some storylets that punish you with some Menace, the raised Menace sometimes doesn't make sense. (e.g. You've failed to lecture some people and don't get paid. Wounds is increasing...)
* GaslampFantasy: Definitely Victorian, supernatural, and with Gothic roots, though it leans more towards horror.
* GemstoneAssault: The ''Twelve-carat Diamond Ring'' is primarily a ''Persuasive'' item, but also increases your ''Dangerous'' by 2. To quote the item description;
-->[[DoubleMeaning "A huge diamond always]] [[{{Pun}} leaves an impression."]]
* GeniusLoci: Polythreme, where everything is alive. [[spoiler: Specifically, the King with a Hundred Hearts. He's the one who makes the Clay Men - they split off the buildings when the Hundreds dreams. Unfinished Men are what happens when he has a nightmare.]]
* GenreSavvy: The second option of the Death and the River opportunity card lets you be this. "Dark night, doomy river, dying stranger, sinister idol. Yes, that'll end well."
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Any player who focuses on Watchful and Persuasive. (Naturally, this includes players who choose the Heart's Desire ambition)
* GentlemanThief: Any player who focuses on Persuasive and Shadowy. (Naturally, this includes players who choose the Light Fingers ambition.)
* GogglesDoNothing: Thoroughly averted. They raise your Watchful score.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Possibly the Topsy King. [[spoiler:Actually, [[DealWithTheDevil he bet his mind as a stake on a certain card game.]]]] Also, knowing some secrets in the Neath pushes your Nightmares attribute, and when it gets high enough, this happens to you.
* {{Golem}}: The Clay Men, who are employed to do various grunt work in the docks and pubs. They seem to have some form of independent thought, though.
* GoodFeelsGood: The main benefit of signing up with the C.V.R. - [[spoiler: a secret organisation that works to return souls to their rightful owners. Dealing in souls is much more lucrative, but the CVR gives you a hideously expensive option that sets your Nightmare, Wounds, Scandal and Suspicion to zero.]]
* GotMeDoingIt:
-->" 'It's a fierce shame - they's both sing like angels, so they do. She was s'posed come back from the Forgotten Quarter last week. I fears the worst for her.'\\
You're well on your way to fearsing the worst too. Fearing the worst. You had better check the Forgotten Quarter. And you didn't know she had a sister."
** The Enterprising Astronomer's assistant (see Funetik Aksent above) has this effect, too. You notice the parcel is hemitting... emitting a low wail.
* GottaCatchThemAll: The accommodation keys. And several plotlines related to [[spoiler:the Labyrinth of Tigers]] involve catching and/or training an assemblage of various wild monsters.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The Masters are always scheming, but a particularly nasty one is unveiled in [[spoiler: the Light Fingers ambition.]]
* GrayEyes: Anyone with the Stormy-Eyed quality, meaning they completed Recurring Dreams: What the Thunder Said once.
-->"Were your eyes always gray? Did you hear [[TitleDrop what the Thunder said]]?"
* HallOfMirrors: At Mrs. Plenty's Carnival. Although these mirrors show you the future(?). Or they might drive you insane. Or kill you.
* HarmlessVillain: Jack-of-Smiles is a dangerous, insane serial killer who likes to hide in snowmen and leap out at people with knives. He is rather annoyed by how most of them [[DeathIsCheap just get back up again when he's done]].
* HellIsThatNoise: If a certain shadowy task is failed, a priest gets a fishhook in his earlobe. From the narration: [[invoked]]
--> "There is no sound on this earth or below it like the sound of a priest with a fishhook in his earlobe."
* HideYourChildren: Averted. One task involves starting a war between two rival urchin gangs. If you choose to do so rather than warn them, you'll hear that children are throwing each other off rooftops and into the river. Probably gets away with it because the character isn't actually inflicting the violence, and it's only a text description. Also, as DeathIsCheap in the Neath, the kids will likely be fine in the end.
* HitPoints: Your wounds quality - which increases primarily from failing high level Dangerous challenges, but can also be increased in other ways - acts as a reverse hit points gauge. When it reaches eight, you die. [[DeathIsCheap This is not notably more inconvenient than any of the other possible failure states]].
* HomelessPigeonPerson: The Topsy King. He has a bat! Also [[CrazyHomelessPeople a little bit crazy]].
* HumanoidAbomination: The Masters. Maybe. [[spoiler:And the Snuffers, horrific creatures that disguise themselves as men by wearing sewn-together human faces. The Unfinished Men may also count, given that they're ''born from nightmares''.]]
* IGaveMyWord: The Steadfast quirk measures how many times you've done this.
** ILied: The Ruthless quirk (usually) measures how many time you've done this.
* IgnoreTheDisability: Don't mention the Second City to any of the Masters, or they will be rather unpleasant to you, with varying degrees of politeness.
* ImmortalityInducer: Hesperidean Cider, ostensibly, which is actually ''an ordinary commodity sold at the Bazaar''. It costs a fortune, though; even more than an Overgoat. To our knowledge, no player has ever actually managed to buy it yet.
** In fact, it would take over three years of constant farming to get enough echoes to buy some.
* InsistentTerminology: ''[[BerserkButton Don't]]'' call him "Smiles."
* InterspeciesRomance:
** [[spoiler:The Comtessa]] is apparently in love with a Clay Man.
** The opportunity card "A deviless' serenade" has you help her write a song to her beloved, a Rubbery Man.
* JackTheRipper: Jack-of-Smiles is an obvious {{Expy}}, but is a little more [[BodySnatcher supernatural]].
* JerkAss: Any character with a high Heartless score, generally.
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: And oh boy are there lots of pieces.
* KarmaMeter: Several opposing player qualities tend to work this way, including Magnanimous, Ruthless, Heartless and Steadfast.
** Entering the House of Chimes requires the player to claim some "exceptional" quality; one option involves having high Austere ''and'' Hedonist.
* KnifeNut: Jack-of-Smiles, London's premier half-immortal mass murderer, favours those. It's not so bad if he just cuts your throat, as death isn't permanent in London, but he's still dangerous - if he slices you into chunks, you're not going to come back. [[spoiler:In fact, Jack 'is' the knives. He's 'in' the knives. If you pick up one of his knives, you're going to become Jack.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: The Heartless quirk measures this.
* LampshadeHanging: If you ask Mr. Wines to employ your maiden aunt, it will remark that 'She could almost be a sister to the delicious Mrs Gebrandt.' F.F. Gebrandt and your maiden aunt use the same character art.
* LaResistance: The revolutionaries, an underground faction in the underground city, plotting against the Masters of the Bazaar.
* LemonyNarrator: Some of the flavor text for items and quirks have elements of this. In particular, the flavor text for the [[spoiler:Seeking Mr Eaten's Name]] quest:
-->"Why? In God's name, why? What can you possibly hope to gain? Stop now. Before it's too late."
* LosingYourHead: You can stumble across a counterfeit head of St. John The Baptist. (Don't think too hard about where it came from. [[spoiler:Actually, they grow on a [[ManEatingPlant certain plant]].]]) Yes, you can make horrible headless jokes with it.
* LostForever: Most storylets will disappear once your qualities rise too high or you progress in the plot, though they're usually pointless to keep trying once they disappear anyway.\\
\\
In particular are gold-coloured storylets, which can only be done ''once'', period, no ifs, ands, or buts. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the fact that they usually have multiple branches...
** Fortunately, most allow the option of re-doing them for a price in Fate (often substantial, admittedly).
* LovecraftLite: The game's genre has been described by its creators as [[IncrediblyLamePun Comic]] [[CosmicHorror Horror]].
* LowLevelAdvantage: At higher levels (26 Watchful, 33 other stats), failing at most cards will raise a Menace.
* LuckBasedMission: Virtually everything, though you can alter the odds by adjusting your qualities. There are, however, certain challenges that are ''purely'' luck-based (most players regard them with [[ScrappyMechanic disdain]]).
* LuckManipulationMechanic: Second chance items. They only exist for challenges that use the main four qualities, though.
* LuckySeven: Subverted. Seven is the ArcNumber of the very ''un''lucky [[spoiler:Seeking Mr Eaten's Name]] quest.
* MarkOfTheBeast: There is actually an entire storyline revolving around having one of these.
* MeaningfulName:
** The Masters of the Bazaar go by names related to their primary trade good - Mr Pages trades in books, Mr Iron trades in weaponry, and so on.
** The Clay Men Jasper and Lyme are named after minerals.
* MindRape: [[spoiler: The mysterious red honey, properly named Gaoler's Honey, works much the same as Prisoner's Honey - except that it transports the taster to the dreams of ''other people'' and allows them to rummage through their victims' minds.]]
* MoneyGrinding: You'll often need to do this if you want to buy equipment, since most of it is ludicrously expensive.
* NamelessNarrative: Not quite absolute, other than the Black Ribbon duelists, the Masters, the characters with Twitter feeds, and the Mahogany Hall magicians, names rarely, if ever, pop up.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Subverted. The various abominations' names tend more towards the weird than the scary. Eater-of-Chains. The Cantigaster. The King with a Hundred Hearts. Mr Eaten.
* NewGamePlus: Sort of. Currently, completing the "What the Thunder Said" dream storyline once will give you a special quality, "[[GrayEyes Stormy-Eyed]]", and reset your dream quality to zero. With Stormy-Eyed, you can go through the storyline again from the beginning, but use your Stormy-Eyed to interact with the dream in different ways and glean new information.
* NiceGuy / TheMessiah: Anyone with a high Magnanimous score becomes this, usually.
* NiceHat: The Extraordinary Hat. Also the Exceptional Hat, which has [[BrainFood never eaten any brains]], despite stories to the contrary.
* NightmareFace[=/=]SlasherSmile: The Exceptional Rose is suggested to have this. A snippet on the sidebar reads, "It carries on top a remarkable bloom. This remains tightly in bud, except for a day in late winter, when the flower opens to reveal, nestling in gorgeous red petals, a little child’s face. It looks very darling, until it smiles."
* NightmareFuel: InUniverse; some secrets in the Neath are so disturbing that they actually give your character nightmares. If this happens too often, you GoMadFromTheRevelation.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Trying to take the "good" options in stories will often lead to the game punishing you, either immediately or later on.
* NoodleImplements: During the Shadowy version of the Mysterious Benefactor story, you have to follow a spy. Apparently, at one point, "She nearly throws you off with a trick involving two hansoms, a Constable and a hurled umbrella." If you can figure out this trick, you've probably been playing too long.
* NoodleIncident: Paris.
** References to incidents involving weasels are rather common.
** Also, the University;
-->The University has a secret. Well, probably it has thousands. That business with the registrar and the cake, for instance.
* NotBloodSiblings: The Curate and his sister, apparently. It is possible to [[BrotherSisterIncest find fragments of a love letter signed by her in his desk]].
* OneNationUnderCopyright: While not a MegaCorp, the Masters of the Bazaar obviously think of themselves as merchants and traders, and are essentially the rulers of the city.
* OnlySixFaces: There's a limited number of player portraits.
* OpiumDen: The Honey Dens of Veilgarden bear a certain resemblance.
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: ...and our deaths are different, too.
** Eight or nine percent, according to the Brass Embassy, of people in Fallen London are soulless. Tedious anarchist literature claims a figure as high as eleven.
** Many people, especially in Society, are extremely keen to get theirs removed. They call the process [[spoiler:"Abstraction."]]
** Exactly to what extent being soulless impairs you is unclear. There's clearly a number of people who want theirs back, but at the same time it's apparently a boon for lawyers. At least one inventor apparently thought the problem could be solved with a special surgical truss. The devils themselves put it like this: "The effects? Well, nothing one would really notice. A little depression of mood. A pleasing melancholy here and there. Perhaps a lessening in appreciation of beauty. But does not beauty cause so much of the world's difficulties?"
** You can sell your soul at one point in the game. You even get your own infernal contract.
* OwlBeDamned: The Bifurcated Owl. ''Horrible'' things happen to your weasels if you allow them to explore it.
* {{Oxbridge}}: The University, naturally - to some extent, Benthic and Summerset College are what you would get if you tried to squeeze Cambridge and Oxford, respectively, into a single campus.
* PerfectlyCromulentWord: Most of Mr Pages's dialogue. For example, he collects Proscribed Materials as part of his war on "pestilent and obstacudent literature". Some of his dialogue uses truly obscure English words, but some of it is (as far as this troper can tell) entirely made up, but still with decent etymological roots. Also see its [[https://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Pages Twitter account, for more fantastic examples]].
* PetTheDog / KickTheDog: Even if you're a CompleteMonster or TheMessiah, there's nothing stopping you from taking a nice or cruel action out of the blue. (Doing this must greatly confuse the populace of Fallen London if you're famous...)
* PlayerVersusPlayer: Knife and Candle, the artful game of polite murder. Players are warned beforehand to become very Dangerous first before attempting this. Currently removed while it undergoes a re-design.
* PowerOfLove: Played straight, subverted, inverted, turned on its head, torn to pieces, reassembled and played with. [[spoiler:''In the deepest matters of the Bazaar, look to love. Always.'']]
* PretentiousLatinMotto: Above the gate at the Shuttered Palace. It reads "Omnis Traductor Traditor." [[hottip:Translation:"Every translator is a traitor"]]
* PurelyAestheticGender: There isn't any change in gameplay whether the player chooses "Lady", "Gentleman", or "There are people walking around with the faces of squid—''squid''—and you have the nerve to ask me my gender?". There are storylines that allow the player to seduce [=NPCs=] of any gender.
* QueenVicky: The Traitor Empress is never explicitly named, but ''very'' strongly implied to be Victoria. Consider: her consort is stated to have been suffering from Typhoid prior to London's fall--in the real world, this was the disease that killed Prince Albert. Conveniently enough, he recovered after the Fall.
* RealityWarper: If Dr Schlomo's theories are correct, [[spoiler:the Correspondence can be used to do this]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The ''Nemesis'' ambition.
* SanityHasAdvantages: The most common way to reverse madness is to become annoyed by the constant inconveniences.
* SanityMeter:
** The Nightmares quality, which mainly increases for failing high-level Watchful challenges, acts as an inverted Sanity Meter - when it reaches eight, you GoMadFromTheRevelation.
** Unaccountably Peckish, in its own strange way, also acts as a sanity meter. For some reason, being hungry is related to knowing ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. It makes a little more sense when you consider that the easiest way to become Unaccountably Peckish is by eating the wrong piece of deep-fried [[EldritchAbomination sea monster]]. Or being anywhere near the Starveling Cat.\\
\\
Whole new dimensions of terrified understanding are gained when you realize Unaccountably Peckish measures [[spoiler: your exposure to Mr. Eaten...Rubbery Lumps are boiled in HIS wellwater.]]
* SchrodingersQuestion: When you journey across the Unterzee, you don't have to actually ''choose'' your destination until you reach it. Interestingly enough, this means you can set off on a long zee voyage from London to...London.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Some [[GambitPileup extremely complicated]] plots can end with you simply saying "screw this" and going home.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The Wry Functionary.
* ShaggyDogStory: If you agree to take in the [[spoiler:Albino Rat]] at the end of the Plaster Face story, they tell you one of these: [[spoiler:The Albino Rat was once a friend of the Watchmaker's Daughter, and they were happy -- but then the Masters of the Bazaar started sending ominous messages, and the Watchmaker's Daughter felt that they wanted to own her. The Albino Rat tried to make a music box to soothe her friend, but [[DrivenToSuicide she drowned herself to escape]] [[TearJerker before the box was finished]].]]
** Of course, the Neath being what it is, [[spoiler: there's a strong implication she's not dead, but simply hiding among the Drownies - and now there are clockwork toys and gadgets rising up in bloody rebellion, and the Watchmaker's Daughter is likely deeply involved.]]
* ShamingTheMob: One opportunity card lets you do this in order to save a Rubbery Man from lynching. Success in another opportunity gives a murderess a fair trial instead of death by mob.
* SchmuckBait: ''Do not do this. Only pain and suffering will result.'' [[spoiler: Not that that stops Seekers of the Name.]]
* ShootTheShaggyDog: The ending of the [[spoiler:Cheesemonger]] story.
* ShoutOut:
** To ''BladeRunner'', in a challenge at Watchmaker Hill: "'Do you make up these questions? Or do they write them down for you?' With the grudging agreement of the Constables, you interview a series of Clay Men, asking them ever more intimate and revealing questions about their 'lives', their work, their intentions, their emotions. Tortoises. That sort of thing."
** The Rubbery Men look suspiciously like humanoid Cthulhus.
** The sidebar text for the Vake obliquely references Batman: "They say it's not a monster at all. It's a man who dresses up as a bat. To, ah, prowl the city by night. But that would just be stupid."
** All but one of the Recurring Dreams/Strange Dreams are named after the sections of T.S Eliot's "The Waste Land". Even before the newest Recurring Dream finished this off with "What the Thunder Said," that phrase was explicitly quoted in "A Game of Chess."
** Failing to break into a Jeweler's Shop results in [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk "Safes.]] [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why did it have to be safes?"]]
** Pursuing a relationship with the Barbed Wit will eventually bring up "She knows about you! That's half the battle." GIJoe!
** The Inconvenienced by your Aunt storylet owes more than a little to Creator/PGWodehouse's ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster''.
** The art for the sorrow spiders is very reminiscent of VideoGame/{{metroid}}s.
** It is possible, through opportunity cards, to acquire and care for your very own [[TheLittleShopOfHorrors Audrey Jr.]] / [[Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors Audrey II,]] complete with later [[ManEatingPlant feeding requirements]].
** When investigating a tomb in the Forgotten Quarter, one of the headers reads "It is often a matter of snakes."
** A card that can be drawn in the orphanage (an area for Light Fingers) is titled Room 101, and the descriptions suggest the character thinks it's related to the {{Room 101}} from ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''. [[spoiler:It's a broom closet.]]
** A choice in a Christmas storylet in 2010 mentions a [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} grue]].
** The London Magazine refuses to change its name:
--->"The Bazaar requires the London Magazine to change its name. The London Magazine has survived two centuries and one duel! It has published Keats, Shelley, De Quincey, Hazlitt! It will survive the translation of London to this [[ThisTropeIsBleep d----d]] abyss, and the dictates of the Bazaar. We will continue to publish under the name, [[Music/{{Prince}} The Magazine Formerly Known As The London Magazine]]."
** If you're Indulging A Less than Laudable Laudanum Habit, you can have a dream in which "your beloved dances in a graveyard," referencing Hector Berlioz's opium-inspired ''Symphonie Fantastique.''
** His Amused Lordship bears a passing resemblence to '''''[[BrianBlessed BRIAN BLESSED]]!'''''
** Longshanks, one of the older Urchins, bears an uncanny resemblence to PhilFoglio's AuthorAvatar.
** While in New Newgate Prison, you can get an opportunity card where you express your belief that Fallen London [[TheDarkKnightSaga deserves a better class of villain.]]
** Failing a certain storylet causes a few agents from the Ministry of Public Decency to inquire about you. The headline for this is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_from_the_Ministry The Men From The Ministry]].
** There is an option in the "The Long Arm Of The Law" opportunity card, which allows you to reduce your Suspicion by laying a false trail. The text is something like "But what does it all mean? Why is "MONSTROUS ARE THOSE WHO WILL NOT WITHIN" written on the wall? [[HeavyRain And why all the folded paper swans?]]
* SidequestSidestory: ''All of them'', as the game technically lacks a main quest. (Although Ambitions could be considered main quests.)
* SingleSpecimenSpecies: Fallen London seems to be teeming with these, with the Vake undoubtedly at the forefront.
* TheSmartGuy / TheEvilGenius: Anyone who focuses on Watchful (which one you are depends on your KarmaMeter). This can overlap with GentlemanAndAScholar and GeniusBruiser, depending on which other stats a player focuses on.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: You can challenge other players to games of chess, which test the Watchful quality. Same goes for chess with the Boatman, although [[spoiler:he'll up his game when you do, meaning that you have to very carefully manage your gear if you want to stand a chance]].
* SocializationBonus
* TheSoulsaver: An optional subplot leads to your character becoming one of these, literally rescuing people's {{Soul Jar}}s from devils.
* StarvingArtist: They hang out at the Veilgarden. So you can sleep with them and learn their secrets.
* StatGrinding
* StealthPun: To buy a a First City Coin, you need 111 surface currency -- and [[NumberOfTheBeast surface currency costs 6 pence]].
** Also, the "Empyrean Redolence" item. "Empyrean" means "relating to the highest heavens", and "redolence" is often used to mean pungency or a strong scent. In other words, [[spoiler:it stinks to high heaven]]!
* StoryBreadcrumbs
* StrawmanU: The University has ''two'' on the same campus - secular, liberal Benthic College and Anglican, upper-class Summerset College.
* StreetUrchin: A whole bunch of gangs of them.
* SweetPollyOliver: There's a storylet that involves disguising as a butler to sneak into a study. If the player is female, it's an example of this trope. Later, player who is A Person of Some Importance can disguise as a devil to collect souls from gullible spirifers. This trope applies again.
* SwordCane: Weapon of choice for the would-be CulturedBadass.
* TakeAThirdOption: At the beginning of a story, you get a standard [[spoiler: IAmDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin. You could take it and flee, take it and sell it, or throw it into the river. However, since DeathIsCheap in Fallen London, you can just wait for the man to come back to life. (However, the guy's murderer is still around, so you need a very high Shadowy score to pull it off.)]]
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:The Comtessa.]]
* TalkingAnimal: A few, in addition to the regular sort. Rattus Faber are talking rats with a talent for smithing and mechanics, intelligent cats are involved in much of the intrigue of the Neath, and the late game introduces the Labyrinth of Tigers, kept by [[spoiler:the tigers themselves]].
* TattooedCrook: Clathermont's Tattoo Parlor specializes in tattoos that contain hidden messages. And considering pretty much everyone down in the Neath is a criminal in some way or another, and all player characters start out in [[JustifiedTutorial New Newgate Prison]]...
* ThemeNaming:
** Most of the characters [[NoNameGiven aren't]] [[NamelessNarrative named]] and instead are called "the Adjective Job Title" (such as the Near-Sighted Horologist, Struggling Artist, Revolutionary Firebrand, Secular Missionary, and Dauntless Temperance Campaigner, to name a few). This may have stemmed from the Traitor Empress forbidding the use of her name, and thus, many people follow her convention.\\
\\
The magicians of Mahogany Hall do break the pattern, though. They have actual names.
** The accommodations acquired through Opportunity Cards are all referred to as some kind of tower: the Lofty Tower for the Bazaar premises, the Tower of Sun and Moon for the reservation at the Royal Bethlehem, etc.
* ThreeWaySex:
** One of the possible endings of the [[spoiler: Melancholy Curate]] storyline.
** It's also possible to conclude your affairs with [[spoiler: The Barbed Wit and the Acclaimed Beauty]] this way--[[spoiler:on the Empress's throne, no less!]]
* ThrowDownTheBomblet: The WeaponOfChoice for revolutionaries.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: If you choose to lay a dead rat in your inventory to rest during a mass funeral for them, one of the mourners will console you by saying he was this. "E's best off quiet in the earth. Bein' eaten by beetles."
* TooImportantToWalk: As a Person of Some Importance, an opportunity card gives the player an option to defend a pair of Clay Men from prejudice, which leads to an opportunity in the sidestreets to purchase a Clay Sedan Chair, carried by those Clay Men.
* TheUnfettered: Anyone with a high Ruthless score becomes this.
* VendorTrash: Before the Economy Update, Glim and Primordial Shrieks. Now, Rats-on-a-String, Nevercold Brass, Fourth City Relics, Rostygold, and Moon-pearls.
* WasOnceAMan: This sometimes happens to those who strike deals with the PowersThatBe. Examples include [[spoiler:the Cantigaster]] and [[spoiler:the King with a Hundred Hearts]].
* WeaponOfChoice: Most of the Black Ribbon duelists have one.
** Colonel Pommery: HandCannon
** Father Norton: CarryABigStick / BareFistedMonk
** Mr Inch: SwordCane and [[TheBeastmaster assorted animals]]
** Captain Vendrick: KnifeNut
** Chi Lan: CoolSword
** Feducci: [[spoiler:BladeOnAStick]]
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: If you drink a bottle of Black Wings Absinthe yourself, the next morning you'll wonder what you did and where you got your opera cloak.
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: In an opportunity card, a naive young man wants to kill you, a dangerous veteran. In one option, you confront him, and when he asks when the duel should be, you shoot him on the spot.
* WickedWeasel: Weasels are popular pets, as they're relatively easy to keep clean and happy underground. Weasel-fighting, whether with common animals or purebred Araby Fighting-Weasels, is a popular sport.
* WorldOfPun: In a storylet involving a head[[spoiler:, a counterfeit one your singular plant may give you]], the success titles for two of the choices are "a head start" and "a heady sight".
----
''Fallen London'' (formerly, ''Echo Bazaar'') is a Twitter/Facebook connected, turn based browser game produced by Failbetter Games Ltd. It's set in the aforementioned city, a mile underground and a boat down the river from Hell, where people are either piecing together the mystery of what exactly happened, trading souls, or just politely murdering other people. Players start off as prisoners plotting to break out, and after that... they're free to do whatever they want.
There are four stats a player can choose to improve on as he/she/it continues his/her/its story down in the Neath: Dangerous (fighting prowess); Watchful (mental acumen); Persuasive (charm and wit); and Shadowy (stealth and cunning). Doing quests improve one or more of the stats, and better quests are revealed to the player upon reaching a certain stat value. All of them (especially Watchful) will help you learn more about the world and uncover its secrets...except for the Persuasive path, which consists almost entirely of seducing people and writing poetry. Well, until you get to the foreign office...
Fallen London's entrance is at: http://www.fallenlondon.com/.
----
!!Tropes present in this game include:
* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: The Marvellous, focus of the Heart's Desire ambition, is "(...) a notorious card game in which you can stake your soul and win your [[TitleDrop heart's desire]]."
* TheAce: Anyone with high levels in all qualities probably seems like this.
** BrokenAce: Several storylets and qualities allow you to paint yourself as such.
* TheAdjectivalMan: The Clay Men (friendly golems), the Unfinished Men (unfriendly golems), the Neddy Men (government strikebreakers), the Raggedy Men (eccentric criminals), and the Rubbery Men (eldritch immigrants).
* AfterlifeExpress: Moloch Street Underground Station in Ladybones Road is the first stop on the journey to Hell. There's a quest early in the game that has you [[spoiler:steal the timetable for a Ragged Mendicant.]]
* AllegedlyFreeGame: A lot of content requires Fate to unlock. Opportunities to find Fate in-game (i. e. without paying real money) are rare and usually get you 1 - 3 points, whereas unlocking storylines rarely requires less than ''20'' Fate.
* AllThereInTheManual: The sidebars are critical to piercing together many of the mysteries of the game's backstory.
* AlwaysChaoticEvil: "Devils can't help but do mischief."
* AngelsDevilsAndSquid: The Angels are conspicuous in their absence. The Devils are everpresent, preying on the weak and gullible. The Rubbery Men are alien and bizarre, and the Devils can't stand them, but they seem harmless to mortals.
* AnonymousBenefactor: A storyline acquired early on, the identity of said benefactor eventually being revealed.
* AntiHero / AntiVillain: You can choose to be one if you don't want to be a straight version of either. Or you can opt to be [[TrueNeutral completely amoral]]. Decisions, decisions...
* AntiPoopSocking: You get a maximum of 10 actions at any given time (although you can pay a monthly subscription to double that amount), and they refill at the regular rate of ten minutes an action. There's an option to fill up your action bar to max by Twittering within the game, usable once every 24 hours.
* AntiquatedLinguistics: Not carried so far as to offend the more casual participant, but it requires no special effort to observe such diction in-use throughout.
* ArcSymbol: The stone knife, especially in the "What The Thunder Said" storyline.
** The main narrative's arc symbols are candles, candlelight, and mirrors.
* ArcNumber: Seven, kind of. [[spoiler:Mr Eaten's name refers to seven candles. There are hints that London is the fifth city of seven, whatever that implies for its future.]]
* ArcWords: A few.
** NORTH. We must go North.
** Parabola. Ware the Serpent.
** "Give me a mirror!"
** ''Whatever you do, don't fall in love.''
* ArtShift: In Wilmot's End, descriptions are in fairly short sentence fragments (e.g. "A newspaper tucked into an overcoat. A white raven looks down through the mist").
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: In one mission, you are attempting to trail a target through the carnival. If you fail, this happens.
* AxCrazy: Jack-of-Smiles, naturally. Not that he [[AnAxeToGrind uses an axe;]] he's more of a KnifeNut in that regard.
* {{Badass}}: Any player at high levels. ESPECIALLY those who concentrate on all four stats.
* BadassBoast: If you're sufficiently Connected with the Masters, one of the possible options for entering the House of Chimes involves this.
* BadassBookworm / GeniusBruiser: Any player who focuses on Watchful and Dangerous. (Naturally, this includes players who choose the Nemesis or Bag a Legend ambition)
* BadassMoustache: Some of the constables, it seems.
-->"Now that's odd. When you find your way back to the Stuttering Fence's place, there's no one there. Except a number of inconspicuously placed Constables, invisible to the untrained eye. You, however, recognise them instantly by the strength of their moustaches."
* BadassPreacher: The Bishop of Southwark. He's the finest orator in the Church. He's also a formidable wrestler, a [[spoiler:former cavalry officer]] and [[spoiler:hopes to lead an invasion of Hell.]]
* BadSanta: Mister Sacks. He comes at Christmas to take things. He might take your headache away. He might take your auntie. If you're very unwise, he might take ''you''.
* BandagedFace: Major characteristic of Tomb-Colonists.
* BatOutOfHell: London was stolen by them. Of course, only revolutionaries still use the word 'stole'.
* BavarianFireDrill: A storylet in the University involves the player stealing from the Young Stags, and the player carries a few boxes to blend in with the tradespeople there.
* BazaarOfTheBizarre: Take a wild guess.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: During the storyline where the player investigates a murder at the University, the Duchess may reveal that [[spoiler:she bargained with the Bazaar after her husband was bitten by a serpent. He survived, but in the monstrous and agonising form of the Cantigaster. She theorises that a similar fate awaits the Empress and her Consort.]]
* BedlamHouse: Subverted by the prestigious Royal Bethlehem Hotel. Its fees are almost unaffordable. [[spoiler: The mysterious proprietor waives the fee for lunatics, who consequently make up the vast majority of the guests, and live in unparalleled luxury.]]
* BeneathTheEarth: The "Fallen" in Fallen London refers to its physical location.
* BlatantLies:
** You tell these in some Persuasive storylets, and if you're successful, people believe you.
-->"Devils are feasting on human flesh in the Veilgarden! The tomb-colonists are to return home en masse! Cats are toxic! Cheese is made from spiders!"\\
"Russia is sinking! Fallen London will annexe the tomb-colonies! Mr Wines is marrying the skeletal corpse of a nun! The Spider-Council is holding a debutantes' ball! It's almost impossible to stop once you've started. Just keep talking. Everything will be fine."
** Subverted in a later storylet:
--->"[[RealityIsUnrealistic You go too far when you tell them that in hyaena clans, the leader is always a matriarch.]] The crowd are having none of it, and start pelting you with rocks."
* BlessedAreTheCheesemakers: Or more accurately, blessed is the Cheesemonger, a high-level operative in The Great Game.
* BlowYouAway: The [[spoiler:Stormy-Eyed]] quality seems to give one some degree of power over wind.
* BodyHorror:
** [[spoiler: The spider-councils, massive collectives of sorrow-spiders physically fused together into a horrifyingly sentient monstrosity.]]
** The ending of [[spoiler: the Finder of Heiresses storyline]] is pretty bad too.
** The description of what the Cantigaster actually is during one of the later Watchful quests defines this. [[spoiler: You can find out that the Cantigaster was ''once'' a man....]] Seriously, Failbetter Games seems to love this trope.
** [[spoiler:Snuffers, anyone? The Big Rat comes to mind as an especially gruesome one, a creature that speaks through the flayed faces of dead rats, sewn together and animated.]]
* BodySurf: How Jack-of-Smiles evades capture. It doesn't matter if you kill his current host, he'll be back in a new body soon. [[spoiler:He's not limited to humans either.]]
** A recent story reveals that [[spoiler: Jack-of-Smiles resides in his trademark knives, and anyone who touches one "becomes" him. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential You even have the option to take up one of his knives and go on a slashing spree yourself...]][[BlatantLies for the sake of the investigation, of course.]]]]
* BombThrowingAnarchist: The Revolutionaries, naturally.
* BrainBleach: A frequent necessity to deal with nightmares. Specific examples--
** Laudanum. Humorously, it actually does affect your health in exchange.
** Greyfields 1868 First Sporing also acts like this, only without the Wounds increase. They're hard to obtain, however.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: One opportunity's story involves using fake cats. Some bite, some explode, some bite ''then'' explode.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: The game is free to play, but you can buy Fate points with real money. With enough Fate points, you can do things like refilling your actions instantly, refilling the deck of opportunity cards, or opening additional quests not obtainable otherwise. Then again, you can get Fate points through other means other than paying.
* BrownNote: The Correspondence. Studying makes your eyes bleed and your hair catch fire. Not to mention the things that seeking knowledge of Mr Eaten does to the mind [[spoiler:specifically, compulsory self-destructive acts such as attempting to literally drown oneself in beer.]]
* BuriedAlive: In part of the Light Fingers! ambition, an antagonist warns you that if you pursue your ambition any further, you will be buried alive. [[spoiler: He fulfills that promise if he finds you continued the ambition, and you wind up in a coffin under the ground.]]
* ButtMonkey: [[InformedAttribute Lucky]] Weasels. Despite their flavor text, they exist primarily to be sacrificed to [[TheGrimReaper the Boatman,]] used as plant food, [[BrownNote exploded from singing "Pop Goes The Weasel" one too many times,]] and [[BodyHorror left half-devoured but still alive]] by the Bifurcated Owl.
* {{Cap}}:
** There's one on each of the four main qualities, though it increases as new content is added.
** There are also many storylets that do not raise minor qualities (usually quirks) if they are above a certain value.
* CatsAreMagic: Well, they talk, anyway. And they know many secrets.
* CatsAreMean: The Starveling Cat! The Starveling Cat! Want to lose a hand? [[SchmuckBait Give the beast a pat!]]
* ChessWithDeath: And dice, too, with [[{{Psychopomp}} the boatman]], which brings you closer to life. Assuming you win.
* ChurchMilitant: During the "Bag a Legend" ambition, one encounters armored combat-trained nuns. Their rosaries have spikes.
* CircusOfFear: Mrs. Plenty's Most Distracting Carnival.
* ClimaxBoss: If the game had an actual combat engine, [[spoiler:The Spider-Council]] and [[spoiler:Feducci]] would definitely be ones.
* CloakAndDagger: Spying is one of the non-combat employment options available to the community.
* ClusterFBomb: One event card has a woman writing very scandalous things about you. One of the options is to unleash a ClusterFBomb of magnificent proportions in response;
-->''"You spit foul recriminations and vicious calumny. Ladies faint dead away and gentlemen stagger under the barrage. Your target runs, weeping, with her hands over her ears. You follow her! Your tirade continues in the street, where hansoms careen hastily off and urchins fall from rooftops. You pick up your victim's dropped letters and wave them as a final salute. You are spent."''
** And if you "fail" that event you get this;
-->''"Three ladies faint. So do three gentleman and a passing waiter. Two cats fall off the roof and and an elderly horse outside keels over. You are denounced in two newspapers and a sermon. What words! You have definitely gone too far this time." ''
* ControllableHelplessness:
** [[spoiler: Playing as a Clay Man. Until you remember...]]
** A certain failure location in Ambition: Light Fingers. [[spoiler: ''You've moved to a new area: [[BuriedAlive A small, velvet lined box]]. You can't see anything. You have just enough space to twist onto your belly or your back. Oh dear God. Oh dear God.'']]
* CosmeticAward: Some of the story traits currently don't actually unlock any new actions. Presumably as the game grows they will become more useful.
* CosmicHorrorStory: Not only does it do it pretty well, it somehow it manages to pull it off ''[[LogicBomb cheerfully]]''.
* CriticalExistenceFailure: Though Menaces do unlock special storylets or branches sometimes, you will suffer no detrimental effects from them until they hit 8. Due to the fact that there are four different Menaces, this happens four times over!
* CrypticBackgroundReference: All over the place, though many of them are explained in the sidebars. Figuring them all out makes up much of the game's JigsawPuzzlePlot.
** EpilepticTrees: Tons of theories are sprouting up throughout the internet about these, most notably the first four cities. In particular, there is one blog that seems to have narrowed them down to their ''exact locations and names''. ([[http://cl0ckw0rks.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/notes-on-the-previous-four-stolen-cities/ Link]])
* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: The Rubbery Men, moist green creatures with tentacled faces and hands.
* CulturedBadass: Any player who focuses on Persuasive and Dangerous.
** An NPC example would be Mr Inch.
* DealWithTheDevil:
** Hell has an embassy in Fallen London and is a possible contact for your character. There is also substantial evidence that London wasn't ''stolen'' at all...
** There are also dealings with Mr. Eaten. Dealings with Mr. Eaten have far, far worse consequences than the mere loss of one's soul.
* DeathByOriginStory: Comes with the [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Nemesis]] Ambition. You even get to choose whether it was your character's [[CartwrightCurse lover, spouse]], [[RelativeButton brother]], or [[AdultFear daughter]] who was murdered.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist:
** Sometimes. If your Scandal, Wounds, Nightmares, or Suspicion gets too high, you are sent to a special area that will often require you to dent some of your stats in order to escape. These "failure" states can be anywhere from actually ''beneficial'' to a legitimate concern for your stats, depending on a number of circumstances.\\
\\
However, whatever you do, do ''not'' let your Nightmares hit 8. The State of Some Confusion is ''by far'' the most punishing of the failure states -- upon leaving, you lose some of that hard-to-gain dream progress. Better than when it used to, oh, ''wipe it out completely'', but still a pain.
** The only way out of the Light Fingers failure location mentioned above is death... [[spoiler: unless you've been diligently attending to the needs of a singular plant.]]
* DeathIsCheap: Death in the Neath is more of a mild inconvenience than anything else, although it does make it impossible to return to the surface.
** DeaderThanDead: Death ''can'' still be permanent, however. You can't come back from disease or old age, and if your body is completely destroyed, you obviously can't revive either. A sort of middle ground exists, though; some people don't die permanently, but still sustain injuries too grievous for them to return to society. They're wrapped up in bandages and shipped off to the Tomb-Colonies instead.
* DeathSeeker: [[spoiler:Many of the Black Ribboners have strong overtones of this, and many of those who are are [[HeroicBSOD traumatized wrecks]]. There's heavy DrivenToSuicide implications for some of them, too.]] Kind of [[TearJerker depressing]], really.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Since this is set in the late 1800s, of course it'll appear.
-->"[[ShamingTheMob Are we barbarians? Are we]] ''[[ShamingTheMob foreigners]]'' ?"
* {{Determinator}}: You, toward your Ambition.
** [[SubvertedTrope ...unless you decide to ignore it in favour of other storylets]].
** Also, [[spoiler:towards seeking Mr Eaten's name, if you choose to pursue the quest]].
** And figuring out what's in that painting...And attending to the needs of a singular plant...Come to think of it, a lot of opportunity cards are like this.
* DevilButNoGod: Devils are quite omnipresent. While the Church still exists (and is quite influential), angels are nowhere to be seen. [[spoiler:The Bishop of Southwark and the Bishop of St. Fiacre's both have plans to secure the assistance of the Heavenly Host, but it remains to be seen how successful this will be.]]
* DiscriminateAndSwitch: In a storylet, someone mentions "a large gentleman with a muddy complexion, if you know what I mean", [[spoiler:but the player character automatically thinks "Clay Man"]].
* DownerEnding: The ending of the [[spoiler:Comtessa]] storyline, which is also full of TearJerker.
* DreamLand: Prisoner's honey sends you there. [[spoiler:Gaoler's honey sends you to someone else's.]]
* DrillSergeantNasty: One storylet has your character training up the Constables in the art of monster-hunting, with distinct overtones of this.
-->"This is a sorrow-spider! Which end do you hold it by? TRICK QUESTION!"
* EarWorm: InUniverse; Failing challenges in Mahogany Hall gets you exposed to one of these, as a Menace stat similar to Wounds or Nightmares. The song is [[spoiler:Pop Goes The Weasel]], and something bad may happen to your [[spoiler:pet weasels]] if it reaches 5.
* EasterEgg: It is possible to play as a [[{{Golem}} Clay Man]].
* EitherWorldDominationOrSomethingAboutBananas: Some attempts to translate the Correspondence veer into this.
-->"Could that long ululating moan be 'A path unmarred by obstacles'? Or perhaps 'A future consumed and forgotten' would be more accurate? Well, you'll find out soon."
* EldritchAbomination: A great many, including but not limited to the Masters, the Rubbery creatures and Flukes, the Eater-of-Chains, the Vake, and more denizens of the Labyrinth of Tigers than have yet been named.
* EmptyLevels: There's an interesting subversion. [[spoiler:As your Watchful quality increases, ChessWithDeath becomes easier... until the storylet is suddenly replaced by a much more difficult one, bumping you from a 'Modest' back to an 'Almost Impossible' challenge.]] But then, you realise that [[spoiler:the scaling only happens at very specific values, meaning that, with careful optimisation of your equipment, you can keep the challenge 'Modest' by staying exactly one point below the limit.]]
* EveryoneIsBi: All the [=NPCs=] are, and all characters potentially so - seduction storylets unlocked by upping your Persuasion are the same regardless of the sex of your character, and include people of both sexes as targets.
* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: A Cardsharp Monkey is one of the companions gained from an ambition. [[spoiler:However, if you have cause to incite his vengeance, he will not hesitate to cost you an awful lot of either time or money. Protip: Do not anger the monkey.]]
* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The Rubbery Men, and those things in the Unterzee.
* ExtremeOmnivore: The Starveling Cat is one, if the sidenotes are to be believed.
* EyeScream: Sorrow-spiders steal eyeballs, which [[spoiler: hatch into new spiders]].
* FantasticDrug: Prisoner's honey is a ''magic'' drug. It doesn't just give you the MushroomSamba, it actually physically transports you into a dream. Just stay away from red honey...
* FantasticRacism: ''Nobody'' likes the Rubbery Men.
* FunetikAksent: An assistant of the Enterprising Astronomer:
-->Hi have hay hitem... Hay cert-hain gentleman hat the hobservatory wanted you to have this here distressing hitem. Hi'm glad to be rid of the thing. Now, hif you'll hexcuse me, hi have matters to hattend to.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Sort of. In some storylets, the text for failure seems to be more a matter of bad luck than a lack of ability. Also, when failing some storylets that punish you with some Menace, the raised Menace sometimes doesn't make sense. (e.g. You've failed to lecture some people and don't get paid. Wounds is increasing...)
* GaslampFantasy: Definitely Victorian, supernatural, and with Gothic roots, though it leans more towards horror.
* GemstoneAssault: The ''Twelve-carat Diamond Ring'' is primarily a ''Persuasive'' item, but also increases your ''Dangerous'' by 2. To quote the item description;
-->[[DoubleMeaning "A huge diamond always]] [[{{Pun}} leaves an impression."]]
* GeniusLoci: Polythreme, where everything is alive. [[spoiler: Specifically, the King with a Hundred Hearts. He's the one who makes the Clay Men - they split off the buildings when the Hundreds dreams. Unfinished Men are what happens when he has a nightmare.]]
* GenreSavvy: The second option of the Death and the River opportunity card lets you be this. "Dark night, doomy river, dying stranger, sinister idol. Yes, that'll end well."
* GentlemanAndAScholar: Any player who focuses on Watchful and Persuasive. (Naturally, this includes players who choose the Heart's Desire ambition)
* GentlemanThief: Any player who focuses on Persuasive and Shadowy. (Naturally, this includes players who choose the Light Fingers ambition.)
* GogglesDoNothing: Thoroughly averted. They raise your Watchful score.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Possibly the Topsy King. [[spoiler:Actually, [[DealWithTheDevil he bet his mind as a stake on a certain card game.]]]] Also, knowing some secrets in the Neath pushes your Nightmares attribute, and when it gets high enough, this happens to you.
* {{Golem}}: The Clay Men, who are employed to do various grunt work in the docks and pubs. They seem to have some form of independent thought, though.
* GoodFeelsGood: The main benefit of signing up with the C.V.R. - [[spoiler: a secret organisation that works to return souls to their rightful owners. Dealing in souls is much more lucrative, but the CVR gives you a hideously expensive option that sets your Nightmare, Wounds, Scandal and Suspicion to zero.]]
* GotMeDoingIt:
-->" 'It's a fierce shame - they's both sing like angels, so they do. She was s'posed come back from the Forgotten Quarter last week. I fears the worst for her.'\\
You're well on your way to fearsing the worst too. Fearing the worst. You had better check the Forgotten Quarter. And you didn't know she had a sister."
** The Enterprising Astronomer's assistant (see Funetik Aksent above) has this effect, too. You notice the parcel is hemitting... emitting a low wail.
* GottaCatchThemAll: The accommodation keys. And several plotlines related to [[spoiler:the Labyrinth of Tigers]] involve catching and/or training an assemblage of various wild monsters.
* GovernmentConspiracy: The Masters are always scheming, but a particularly nasty one is unveiled in [[spoiler: the Light Fingers ambition.]]
* GrayEyes: Anyone with the Stormy-Eyed quality, meaning they completed Recurring Dreams: What the Thunder Said once.
-->"Were your eyes always gray? Did you hear [[TitleDrop what the Thunder said]]?"
* HallOfMirrors: At Mrs. Plenty's Carnival. Although these mirrors show you the future(?). Or they might drive you insane. Or kill you.
* HarmlessVillain: Jack-of-Smiles is a dangerous, insane serial killer who likes to hide in snowmen and leap out at people with knives. He is rather annoyed by how most of them [[DeathIsCheap just get back up again when he's done]].
* HellIsThatNoise: If a certain shadowy task is failed, a priest gets a fishhook in his earlobe. From the narration: [[invoked]]
--> "There is no sound on this earth or below it like the sound of a priest with a fishhook in his earlobe."
* HideYourChildren: Averted. One task involves starting a war between two rival urchin gangs. If you choose to do so rather than warn them, you'll hear that children are throwing each other off rooftops and into the river. Probably gets away with it because the character isn't actually inflicting the violence, and it's only a text description. Also, as DeathIsCheap in the Neath, the kids will likely be fine in the end.
* HitPoints: Your wounds quality - which increases primarily from failing high level Dangerous challenges, but can also be increased in other ways - acts as a reverse hit points gauge. When it reaches eight, you die. [[DeathIsCheap This is not notably more inconvenient than any of the other possible failure states]].
* HomelessPigeonPerson: The Topsy King. He has a bat! Also [[CrazyHomelessPeople a little bit crazy]].
* HumanoidAbomination: The Masters. Maybe. [[spoiler:And the Snuffers, horrific creatures that disguise themselves as men by wearing sewn-together human faces. The Unfinished Men may also count, given that they're ''born from nightmares''.]]
* IGaveMyWord: The Steadfast quirk measures how many times you've done this.
** ILied: The Ruthless quirk (usually) measures how many time you've done this.
* IgnoreTheDisability: Don't mention the Second City to any of the Masters, or they will be rather unpleasant to you, with varying degrees of politeness.
* ImmortalityInducer: Hesperidean Cider, ostensibly, which is actually ''an ordinary commodity sold at the Bazaar''. It costs a fortune, though; even more than an Overgoat. To our knowledge, no player has ever actually managed to buy it yet.
** In fact, it would take over three years of constant farming to get enough echoes to buy some.
* InsistentTerminology: ''[[BerserkButton Don't]]'' call him "Smiles."
* InterspeciesRomance:
** [[spoiler:The Comtessa]] is apparently in love with a Clay Man.
** The opportunity card "A deviless' serenade" has you help her write a song to her beloved, a Rubbery Man.
* JackTheRipper: Jack-of-Smiles is an obvious {{Expy}}, but is a little more [[BodySnatcher supernatural]].
* JerkAss: Any character with a high Heartless score, generally.
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: And oh boy are there lots of pieces.
* KarmaMeter: Several opposing player qualities tend to work this way, including Magnanimous, Ruthless, Heartless and Steadfast.
** Entering the House of Chimes requires the player to claim some "exceptional" quality; one option involves having high Austere ''and'' Hedonist.
* KnifeNut: Jack-of-Smiles, London's premier half-immortal mass murderer, favours those. It's not so bad if he just cuts your throat, as death isn't permanent in London, but he's still dangerous - if he slices you into chunks, you're not going to come back. [[spoiler:In fact, Jack 'is' the knives. He's 'in' the knives. If you pick up one of his knives, you're going to become Jack.]]
* LackOfEmpathy: The Heartless quirk measures this.
* LampshadeHanging: If you ask Mr. Wines to employ your maiden aunt, it will remark that 'She could almost be a sister to the delicious Mrs Gebrandt.' F.F. Gebrandt and your maiden aunt use the same character art.
* LaResistance: The revolutionaries, an underground faction in the underground city, plotting against the Masters of the Bazaar.
* LemonyNarrator: Some of the flavor text for items and quirks have elements of this. In particular, the flavor text for the [[spoiler:Seeking Mr Eaten's Name]] quest:
-->"Why? In God's name, why? What can you possibly hope to gain? Stop now. Before it's too late."
* LosingYourHead: You can stumble across a counterfeit head of St. John The Baptist. (Don't think too hard about where it came from. [[spoiler:Actually, they grow on a [[ManEatingPlant certain plant]].]]) Yes, you can make horrible headless jokes with it.
* LostForever: Most storylets will disappear once your qualities rise too high or you progress in the plot, though they're usually pointless to keep trying once they disappear anyway.\\
\\
In particular are gold-coloured storylets, which can only be done ''once'', period, no ifs, ands, or buts. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if not for the fact that they usually have multiple branches...
** Fortunately, most allow the option of re-doing them for a price in Fate (often substantial, admittedly).
* LovecraftLite: The game's genre has been described by its creators as [[IncrediblyLamePun Comic]] [[CosmicHorror Horror]].
* LowLevelAdvantage: At higher levels (26 Watchful, 33 other stats), failing at most cards will raise a Menace.
* LuckBasedMission: Virtually everything, though you can alter the odds by adjusting your qualities. There are, however, certain challenges that are ''purely'' luck-based (most players regard them with [[ScrappyMechanic disdain]]).
* LuckManipulationMechanic: Second chance items. They only exist for challenges that use the main four qualities, though.
* LuckySeven: Subverted. Seven is the ArcNumber of the very ''un''lucky [[spoiler:Seeking Mr Eaten's Name]] quest.
* MarkOfTheBeast: There is actually an entire storyline revolving around having one of these.
* MeaningfulName:
** The Masters of the Bazaar go by names related to their primary trade good - Mr Pages trades in books, Mr Iron trades in weaponry, and so on.
** The Clay Men Jasper and Lyme are named after minerals.
* MindRape: [[spoiler: The mysterious red honey, properly named Gaoler's Honey, works much the same as Prisoner's Honey - except that it transports the taster to the dreams of ''other people'' and allows them to rummage through their victims' minds.]]
* MoneyGrinding: You'll often need to do this if you want to buy equipment, since most of it is ludicrously expensive.
* NamelessNarrative: Not quite absolute, other than the Black Ribbon duelists, the Masters, the characters with Twitter feeds, and the Mahogany Hall magicians, names rarely, if ever, pop up.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Subverted. The various abominations' names tend more towards the weird than the scary. Eater-of-Chains. The Cantigaster. The King with a Hundred Hearts. Mr Eaten.
* NewGamePlus: Sort of. Currently, completing the "What the Thunder Said" dream storyline once will give you a special quality, "[[GrayEyes Stormy-Eyed]]", and reset your dream quality to zero. With Stormy-Eyed, you can go through the storyline again from the beginning, but use your Stormy-Eyed to interact with the dream in different ways and glean new information.
* NiceGuy / TheMessiah: Anyone with a high Magnanimous score becomes this, usually.
* NiceHat: The Extraordinary Hat. Also the Exceptional Hat, which has [[BrainFood never eaten any brains]], despite stories to the contrary.
* NightmareFace[=/=]SlasherSmile: The Exceptional Rose is suggested to have this. A snippet on the sidebar reads, "It carries on top a remarkable bloom. This remains tightly in bud, except for a day in late winter, when the flower opens to reveal, nestling in gorgeous red petals, a little child’s face. It looks very darling, until it smiles."
* NightmareFuel: InUniverse; some secrets in the Neath are so disturbing that they actually give your character nightmares. If this happens too often, you GoMadFromTheRevelation.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Trying to take the "good" options in stories will often lead to the game punishing you, either immediately or later on.
* NoodleImplements: During the Shadowy version of the Mysterious Benefactor story, you have to follow a spy. Apparently, at one point, "She nearly throws you off with a trick involving two hansoms, a Constable and a hurled umbrella." If you can figure out this trick, you've probably been playing too long.
* NoodleIncident: Paris.
** References to incidents involving weasels are rather common.
** Also, the University;
-->The University has a secret. Well, probably it has thousands. That business with the registrar and the cake, for instance.
* NotBloodSiblings: The Curate and his sister, apparently. It is possible to [[BrotherSisterIncest find fragments of a love letter signed by her in his desk]].
* OneNationUnderCopyright: While not a MegaCorp, the Masters of the Bazaar obviously think of themselves as merchants and traders, and are essentially the rulers of the city.
* OnlySixFaces: There's a limited number of player portraits.
* OpiumDen: The Honey Dens of Veilgarden bear a certain resemblance.
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: ...and our deaths are different, too.
** Eight or nine percent, according to the Brass Embassy, of people in Fallen London are soulless. Tedious anarchist literature claims a figure as high as eleven.
** Many people, especially in Society, are extremely keen to get theirs removed. They call the process [[spoiler:"Abstraction."]]
** Exactly to what extent being soulless impairs you is unclear. There's clearly a number of people who want theirs back, but at the same time it's apparently a boon for lawyers. At least one inventor apparently thought the problem could be solved with a special surgical truss. The devils themselves put it like this: "The effects? Well, nothing one would really notice. A little depression of mood. A pleasing melancholy here and there. Perhaps a lessening in appreciation of beauty. But does not beauty cause so much of the world's difficulties?"
** You can sell your soul at one point in the game. You even get your own infernal contract.
* OwlBeDamned: The Bifurcated Owl. ''Horrible'' things happen to your weasels if you allow them to explore it.
* {{Oxbridge}}: The University, naturally - to some extent, Benthic and Summerset College are what you would get if you tried to squeeze Cambridge and Oxford, respectively, into a single campus.
* PerfectlyCromulentWord: Most of Mr Pages's dialogue. For example, he collects Proscribed Materials as part of his war on "pestilent and obstacudent literature". Some of his dialogue uses truly obscure English words, but some of it is (as far as this troper can tell) entirely made up, but still with decent etymological roots. Also see its [[https://twitter.com/#!/Mr_Pages Twitter account, for more fantastic examples]].
* PetTheDog / KickTheDog: Even if you're a CompleteMonster or TheMessiah, there's nothing stopping you from taking a nice or cruel action out of the blue. (Doing this must greatly confuse the populace of Fallen London if you're famous...)
* PlayerVersusPlayer: Knife and Candle, the artful game of polite murder. Players are warned beforehand to become very Dangerous first before attempting this. Currently removed while it undergoes a re-design.
* PowerOfLove: Played straight, subverted, inverted, turned on its head, torn to pieces, reassembled and played with. [[spoiler:''In the deepest matters of the Bazaar, look to love. Always.'']]
* PretentiousLatinMotto: Above the gate at the Shuttered Palace. It reads "Omnis Traductor Traditor." [[hottip:Translation:"Every translator is a traitor"]]
* PurelyAestheticGender: There isn't any change in gameplay whether the player chooses "Lady", "Gentleman", or "There are people walking around with the faces of squid—''squid''—and you have the nerve to ask me my gender?". There are storylines that allow the player to seduce [=NPCs=] of any gender.
* QueenVicky: The Traitor Empress is never explicitly named, but ''very'' strongly implied to be Victoria. Consider: her consort is stated to have been suffering from Typhoid prior to London's fall--in the real world, this was the disease that killed Prince Albert. Conveniently enough, he recovered after the Fall.
* RealityWarper: If Dr Schlomo's theories are correct, [[spoiler:the Correspondence can be used to do this]].
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The ''Nemesis'' ambition.
* SanityHasAdvantages: The most common way to reverse madness is to become annoyed by the constant inconveniences.
* SanityMeter:
** The Nightmares quality, which mainly increases for failing high-level Watchful challenges, acts as an inverted Sanity Meter - when it reaches eight, you GoMadFromTheRevelation.
** Unaccountably Peckish, in its own strange way, also acts as a sanity meter. For some reason, being hungry is related to knowing ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. It makes a little more sense when you consider that the easiest way to become Unaccountably Peckish is by eating the wrong piece of deep-fried [[EldritchAbomination sea monster]]. Or being anywhere near the Starveling Cat.\\
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Whole new dimensions of terrified understanding are gained when you realize Unaccountably Peckish measures [[spoiler: your exposure to Mr. Eaten...Rubbery Lumps are boiled in HIS wellwater.]]
* SchrodingersQuestion: When you journey across the Unterzee, you don't have to actually ''choose'' your destination until you reach it. Interestingly enough, this means you can set off on a long zee voyage from London to...London.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Some [[GambitPileup extremely complicated]] plots can end with you simply saying "screw this" and going home.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The Wry Functionary.
* ShaggyDogStory: If you agree to take in the [[spoiler:Albino Rat]] at the end of the Plaster Face story, they tell you one of these: [[spoiler:The Albino Rat was once a friend of the Watchmaker's Daughter, and they were happy -- but then the Masters of the Bazaar started sending ominous messages, and the Watchmaker's Daughter felt that they wanted to own her. The Albino Rat tried to make a music box to soothe her friend, but [[DrivenToSuicide she drowned herself to escape]] [[TearJerker before the box was finished]].]]
** Of course, the Neath being what it is, [[spoiler: there's a strong implication she's not dead, but simply hiding among the Drownies - and now there are clockwork toys and gadgets rising up in bloody rebellion, and the Watchmaker's Daughter is likely deeply involved.]]
* ShamingTheMob: One opportunity card lets you do this in order to save a Rubbery Man from lynching. Success in another opportunity gives a murderess a fair trial instead of death by mob.
* SchmuckBait: ''Do not do this. Only pain and suffering will result.'' [[spoiler: Not that that stops Seekers of the Name.]]
* ShootTheShaggyDog: The ending of the [[spoiler:Cheesemonger]] story.
* ShoutOut:
** To ''BladeRunner'', in a challenge at Watchmaker Hill: "'Do you make up these questions? Or do they write them down for you?' With the grudging agreement of the Constables, you interview a series of Clay Men, asking them ever more intimate and revealing questions about their 'lives', their work, their intentions, their emotions. Tortoises. That sort of thing."
** The Rubbery Men look suspiciously like humanoid Cthulhus.
** The sidebar text for the Vake obliquely references Batman: "They say it's not a monster at all. It's a man who dresses up as a bat. To, ah, prowl the city by night. But that would just be stupid."
** All but one of the Recurring Dreams/Strange Dreams are named after the sections of T.S Eliot's "The Waste Land". Even before the newest Recurring Dream finished this off with "What the Thunder Said," that phrase was explicitly quoted in "A Game of Chess."
** Failing to break into a Jeweler's Shop results in [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk "Safes.]] [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why did it have to be safes?"]]
** Pursuing a relationship with the Barbed Wit will eventually bring up "She knows about you! That's half the battle." GIJoe!
** The Inconvenienced by your Aunt storylet owes more than a little to Creator/PGWodehouse's ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster''.
** The art for the sorrow spiders is very reminiscent of VideoGame/{{metroid}}s.
** It is possible, through opportunity cards, to acquire and care for your very own [[TheLittleShopOfHorrors Audrey Jr.]] / [[Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors Audrey II,]] complete with later [[ManEatingPlant feeding requirements]].
** When investigating a tomb in the Forgotten Quarter, one of the headers reads "It is often a matter of snakes."
** A card that can be drawn in the orphanage (an area for Light Fingers) is titled Room 101, and the descriptions suggest the character thinks it's related to the {{Room 101}} from ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''. [[spoiler:It's a broom closet.]]
** A choice in a Christmas storylet in 2010 mentions a [[VideoGame/{{Zork}} grue]].
** The London Magazine refuses to change its name:
--->"The Bazaar requires the London Magazine to change its name. The London Magazine has survived two centuries and one duel! It has published Keats, Shelley, De Quincey, Hazlitt! It will survive the translation of London to this [[ThisTropeIsBleep d----d]] abyss, and the dictates of the Bazaar. We will continue to publish under the name, [[Music/{{Prince}} The Magazine Formerly Known As The London Magazine]]."
** If you're Indulging A Less than Laudable Laudanum Habit, you can have a dream in which "your beloved dances in a graveyard," referencing Hector Berlioz's opium-inspired ''Symphonie Fantastique.''
** His Amused Lordship bears a passing resemblence to '''''[[BrianBlessed BRIAN BLESSED]]!'''''
** Longshanks, one of the older Urchins, bears an uncanny resemblence to PhilFoglio's AuthorAvatar.
** While in New Newgate Prison, you can get an opportunity card where you express your belief that Fallen London [[TheDarkKnightSaga deserves a better class of villain.]]
** Failing a certain storylet causes a few agents from the Ministry of Public Decency to inquire about you. The headline for this is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Men_from_the_Ministry The Men From The Ministry]].
** There is an option in the "The Long Arm Of The Law" opportunity card, which allows you to reduce your Suspicion by laying a false trail. The text is something like "But what does it all mean? Why is "MONSTROUS ARE THOSE WHO WILL NOT WITHIN" written on the wall? [[HeavyRain And why all the folded paper swans?]]
* SidequestSidestory: ''All of them'', as the game technically lacks a main quest. (Although Ambitions could be considered main quests.)
* SingleSpecimenSpecies: Fallen London seems to be teeming with these, with the Vake undoubtedly at the forefront.
* TheSmartGuy / TheEvilGenius: Anyone who focuses on Watchful (which one you are depends on your KarmaMeter). This can overlap with GentlemanAndAScholar and GeniusBruiser, depending on which other stats a player focuses on.
* SmartPeoplePlayChess: You can challenge other players to games of chess, which test the Watchful quality. Same goes for chess with the Boatman, although [[spoiler:he'll up his game when you do, meaning that you have to very carefully manage your gear if you want to stand a chance]].
* SocializationBonus
* TheSoulsaver: An optional subplot leads to your character becoming one of these, literally rescuing people's {{Soul Jar}}s from devils.
* StarvingArtist: They hang out at the Veilgarden. So you can sleep with them and learn their secrets.
* StatGrinding
* StealthPun: To buy a a First City Coin, you need 111 surface currency -- and [[NumberOfTheBeast surface currency costs 6 pence]].
** Also, the "Empyrean Redolence" item. "Empyrean" means "relating to the highest heavens", and "redolence" is often used to mean pungency or a strong scent. In other words, [[spoiler:it stinks to high heaven]]!
* StoryBreadcrumbs
* StrawmanU: The University has ''two'' on the same campus - secular, liberal Benthic College and Anglican, upper-class Summerset College.
* StreetUrchin: A whole bunch of gangs of them.
* SweetPollyOliver: There's a storylet that involves disguising as a butler to sneak into a study. If the player is female, it's an example of this trope. Later, player who is A Person of Some Importance can disguise as a devil to collect souls from gullible spirifers. This trope applies again.
* SwordCane: Weapon of choice for the would-be CulturedBadass.
* TakeAThirdOption: At the beginning of a story, you get a standard [[spoiler: IAmDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin. You could take it and flee, take it and sell it, or throw it into the river. However, since DeathIsCheap in Fallen London, you can just wait for the man to come back to life. (However, the guy's murderer is still around, so you need a very high Shadowy score to pull it off.)]]
* TakenForGranite: [[spoiler:The Comtessa.]]
* TalkingAnimal: A few, in addition to the regular sort. Rattus Faber are talking rats with a talent for smithing and mechanics, intelligent cats are involved in much of the intrigue of the Neath, and the late game introduces the Labyrinth of Tigers, kept by [[spoiler:the tigers themselves]].
* TattooedCrook: Clathermont's Tattoo Parlor specializes in tattoos that contain hidden messages. And considering pretty much everyone down in the Neath is a criminal in some way or another, and all player characters start out in [[JustifiedTutorial New Newgate Prison]]...
* ThemeNaming:
** Most of the characters [[NoNameGiven aren't]] [[NamelessNarrative named]] and instead are called "the Adjective Job Title" (such as the Near-Sighted Horologist, Struggling Artist, Revolutionary Firebrand, Secular Missionary, and Dauntless Temperance Campaigner, to name a few). This may have stemmed from the Traitor Empress forbidding the use of her name, and thus, many people follow her convention.\\
\\
The magicians of Mahogany Hall do break the pattern, though. They have actual names.
** The accommodations acquired through Opportunity Cards are all referred to as some kind of tower: the Lofty Tower for the Bazaar premises, the Tower of Sun and Moon for the reservation at the Royal Bethlehem, etc.
* ThreeWaySex:
** One of the possible endings of the [[spoiler: Melancholy Curate]] storyline.
** It's also possible to conclude your affairs with [[spoiler: The Barbed Wit and the Acclaimed Beauty]] this way--[[spoiler:on the Empress's throne, no less!]]
* ThrowDownTheBomblet: The WeaponOfChoice for revolutionaries.
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: If you choose to lay a dead rat in your inventory to rest during a mass funeral for them, one of the mourners will console you by saying he was this. "E's best off quiet in the earth. Bein' eaten by beetles."
* TooImportantToWalk: As a Person of Some Importance, an opportunity card gives the player an option to defend a pair of Clay Men from prejudice, which leads to an opportunity in the sidestreets to purchase a Clay Sedan Chair, carried by those Clay Men.
* TheUnfettered: Anyone with a high Ruthless score becomes this.
* VendorTrash: Before the Economy Update, Glim and Primordial Shrieks. Now, Rats-on-a-String, Nevercold Brass, Fourth City Relics, Rostygold, and Moon-pearls.
* WasOnceAMan: This sometimes happens to those who strike deals with the PowersThatBe. Examples include [[spoiler:the Cantigaster]] and [[spoiler:the King with a Hundred Hearts]].
* WeaponOfChoice: Most of the Black Ribbon duelists have one.
** Colonel Pommery: HandCannon
** Father Norton: CarryABigStick / BareFistedMonk
** Mr Inch: SwordCane and [[TheBeastmaster assorted animals]]
** Captain Vendrick: KnifeNut
** Chi Lan: CoolSword
** Feducci: [[spoiler:BladeOnAStick]]
* WhatDidIDoLastNight: If you drink a bottle of Black Wings Absinthe yourself, the next morning you'll wonder what you did and where you got your opera cloak.
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: In an opportunity card, a naive young man wants to kill you, a dangerous veteran. In one option, you confront him, and when he asks when the duel should be, you shoot him on the spot.
* WickedWeasel: Weasels are popular pets, as they're relatively easy to keep clean and happy underground. Weasel-fighting, whether with common animals or purebred Araby Fighting-Weasels, is a popular sport.
* WorldOfPun: In a storylet involving a head[[spoiler:, a counterfeit one your singular plant may give you]], the success titles for two of the choices are "a head start" and "a heady sight".
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