Free Ticket to Fallen London – New Moms Welcome!

1889.* *

Three decades ago, London was stolen by bats. Dragged deep into the earth by the Echo Bazaar. The sun is gone. All we have is the gas-light of Mr Fires.
But Londoners can get used to anything. And it's quiet down here with the devils and the darkness and the mushroom wine. Peaceful.

But then YOU arrived.
Welcome. Delicious friend.

Not tempted yet?

Echo Bazaar is a text-based game, a narrative game and a choice game. It won the award for the Escapist's Best Browser Game of 2009.

I'm a huge fan since the last months of my pregnancy, and perhaps even more since the birth of my son.

All of you RPG players may have soon discovered that as young parents you wouldn't have time to play at your favorite games for a while. Well, let me prove to you that Echo Bazaar is the perfect game for a GeekMom, especially one in charge of a newborn child as I am.

1. Echo Bazaar is a wonderful game, beautifully written, intricate, subtle and poetic.

The atmosphere is Victorian (they claim they are not steampunk) and therefore includes sword-canes, rival colleges at the University, the Court's etiquette, and so on. But the setting is definitely imaginary and most inventive!

You'll encounter a Struggling Artist and his Model, gangs of Ratus Faber Bandits, bandaged gentlemen from the Quiet Tomb-Colonies across the Unterzee, sorrow-spiders, a mysterious Duchess who's a lover of Cats, and the even more mysterious Masters of the Bazaar going by such names as Mr Pages, Mr Wines, Mr Veils, Mr Apples and so on.

And the Starveling Cat, of course. You can even wear her on your t-shirt, if you're really brave. Don't say I haven't warned you.

The story will offer you many options (family ties, scholar research, hedonistic leisure, fighting against vermin, hunting savage beasts, solving strange cases, building an artistic reputation, dealing with devils or with your own nightmares…) as well as many moral choices (sometimes drastic) to define your character.

2. Echo Bazaar will entrance you geek people, because of its many references to various items of (our) culture.

As a book geek, I admit a soft spot for the animals' names in the Labyrinth of Tigers. I simply love the three escaping hyenas named Anne, Emily and Charlotte, as well as the "penguin problems" featuring a love-story between Robert and Elizabeth.

(For those of you who aren't literary geek enough to share my amusement, you might give a try with your favorite search engine: I checked it and you'll find the answer very easily.)

3. Echo Bazaar has a great position about gender issues.

Third gender option, no restriction either to female characters (they are allowed to fight and become as Dangerous as they want to) nor to male ones (they can wear an "Exquisite Ivory Gown" if they fancy), and very open choices for romances: no matter if you play a lady or a gentleman (or someone in-between), you are always allowed to seduce NPC of both genders.
And everything stays very natural.

As Alexis Kennedy, the Chief Narrative Officer and Chairman of Failbetter Games, says on The Border House:

"It was something that we had in mind from the beginning, but it grew. So, from day one, we had to decide how we wanted to treat sex. I made the call that whether the player was gay or straight or male or female or something entirely exotic by C19 terms was going to be a largely implicit choice. Otherwise we just had to ignore same-sex relationships, or we had to get into the complications of simulating the whole rainbow. And I liked the idea of people just saying, you know what? my gender isn’t relevant, let’s move on."

If you don't know The Border House, they introduce themselves as "a blog for gamers. It's a blog for those who are feminist, queer, disabled, people of color, transgender, poor, gay, lesbian, and others who belong to marginalized groups, as well as allies. Our goal is to bring thoughtful analysis to gaming with a feminist viewpoint and up-to-date news on games, virtual worlds, and social media. " On this issue, you might also read Games done right: Echo Bazaar.

4. Last but not least: Echo Bazaar isn't a Time-Devouring Monster as many online games are.

Even before the birth of my son, the time challenge was the reason I never sank into MMORPG or similar games. I found I had better things to do with my free time and I was quite suspicious about the addictive side of these games.

Well, Echo Bazaar IS addictive but you simply cannot spend too much time on it because the system doesn't allowed it. You get 10 action points at a time, each one takes seven minutes to refresh, and you cannot play more than 70 per day (80 with a little Twitter trick.)

If you're not a math geek, let me explain it otherwise, in a new mom's perspective.

Your baby is asleep? Or playing alone for a while? You're just finished with your billion other tasks and you suppose you might have a minute or two of free time?

Hooray! That's enough to play. You spend your 10 points and they'll probably refresh before you'll next manage to come in front of your computer.

Wonderful escape in such little moments: that's something to notice, and a cause to rejoice for any mum.

I asked Alexis Kennedy about that and there's what he answered:

"We were very keen to build a game that people could play sporadically, so that there was a real sense of pacing and progress but that you didn't need to sink hours of time into. 70 actions a day was a bit of a guesstimate - we may yet change it; 7 minutes felt like a long enough time to keep the game slow but a short enough time that the next action felt fairly close."

We might also suppose that the birth of his first child around the creation of the game played a role, as the lovely Sonja Penelope is credited as their Founding Mascot.

And what if your geeklings are older than mine and you have different concerns?

If they're into games, they might try Echo Bazaar as well: beautifully written texts, deliciously gloomy atmosphere, dramatic effects and really moral choices — every component for a "Approved by Moms" game! They might even try their own rhymes about the Starveling Cat (*Echo Bazaar *features more than 15 different rhymes about her in the website's sidebars).

All you need to enter Fallen London is a Twitter or Facebook account to log in. You won't receive any spam (at least using Twitter, as I did).

I almost forgot: Echo Bazaar is free. They introduced a money option to buy "Fate Points" but unlike many other games, you can play to the highest levels without buying a single Fate Point (that what I did, actually).

One last word: it becomes more and more complex and fascinating as you progress in the game and the discovering of their universe.

I hope you'll give it a try and tell me what you thought.

Extra Bonus for all RPG geeks: Some delicious people are working on a pen & paper RPG in the world of Fallen London. The name will be Knife & Candle. I'll keep you informed. but if you want to be sure you're not missing the news, you can subscribe to their newsletter.