How to Play Echo Bazaar
- Echo Bazaar
- By Taymar
- 12 February 2010
I’ve previously written about the fascinating new Web-game Echo Bazaar in an abstract sense but some people prefer a more solid explanation as to why I’ve not had time to respond to your email regarding the game I’ve been playing. This post is dedicated to those people (Hi Mom!).
Echo Bazaar is basically a choose-your-own-adventure narrative story that you can play on your web browser. You start in Newgate Prison, with a single focus: get out. There is a deck of six cards but you can only look at one. Deal a card and decide what to do: play or discard?
Most cards offer you a choice: it will outline an action or two with your likelihood of success based on your skills. You can choose one which will use up an action or dismiss the card and then discard it and pull another one. Your cards refresh every seven minutes so once you’ve gone through the initial six, you may find that you have to wait a few minutes for more.
Red-bordered cards have a specific effect and use up an action simply by viewing them. Generally, however, you do not use an action by viewing a card. Either way, you’ll need to use up cards and actions to find a way to get out of Newgate Prison.
As you make choices, you’ll see storylets appear. These are specific to your qualities and connections, so they will change as you progress. In this particular case, you’ll begin to see options for escape based on the choices you’ve made with your Opportunity cards. You’ll need a combination of cards and storylets to make it into Fallen London.
The game is constantly changing with tweaks and new content being added every day. As a result, it’s hard to provide a walk-through of the initial experience … and impossible to detail later gameplay as it is completely dependent on the choices you make. However, you can keep track of the primary updates by keeping an eye on the Change Notes.
However, there are some constants. Part of the fun of the game is to increase your skills and open up new storylets. Each area of Fallen London focuses on a different quality: Ladybones Road for Watchful, Veilgarden for Persuasive, Spite for Shadowy and Watchmaker’s Hill for Dangerous. Each area has multiple storylets so it’s worth moving around frequently to see all the trouble you can get into.
You’ll want to save up for lodgings – staying in a spare bedroom allows you to hold and view two opportunity cards at a time. Rent a room or find other lodgings to increase your hand and your Knife and Candle bonus (more on this next week).
More importantly, you have special Storylets when you are in your lodgings, which allow you to invite your friends to events. These cost an action and will send a message to friends who are already playing Echo Bazaar (via a Twitter direct message).
If they accept the invitation, both you and your friend will receive … something. An item or an effect or the lessening of an effect. It depends.
Many of these events award a retry card which you can use in future gameplay. These cards are played automatically if you fail at a challenge using the appropriate quality, you are allowed to try once more without using up a second action. These are available for each of the qualities once you receive once you’ve received 5 skill and are quite useful for chancy opportunities.
Other interactive events are less predictable. Some social affairs reduce Menaces such as Scandal; however you may find that listening to the Nightmares of a friend increase your own. A candle-light dinner will gain you Admired points based on your companion: the more Admired he is, the greater your increase will be. Offering a quick alibi for that night will decrease your friend’s Suspicion level, without causing any detriment to yourself.
An invitation to a friend costs an action, whether your guest accepts for not. He or she will need use an action in order to accept the invitation, a rejection, however, costs nothing.
It is also in your lodgings that you will hear of routes to other locations in Fallen London. Most of these will be quite expensive to discover, however, and are not recommended for beginners.
The official currency of Fallen London is Echoes and Pennies (100 Pennies in an Echo) but there are also many opportunities for bartering, so it is worth saving up those Whispered Secrets and Rats-on-a-String just in case.
Some items can be used: you can drink Laudanum in order to reduce your Nightmares, for example, if you aren’t bothered by the physical effects. When looking at your inventory in the “Me” tab, you’ll find usable items have a yellow border. Click on the item in order to see how it is used (you won’t use up the item nor the action until you confirm).
But which of the myriad of objects are worth saving? Another question that has no simple answer. The value of the items that you gain on your mission are listed in the Bazaar but it will always cost you more to purchase the items than you gain from selling them. As inventory space is high, it can be sensible to keep everything until you find something particularly that you need. I kept all items that I found until I found lodgings for 400 Whispered Secrets at which point I sold off the rest of my items to purchase the remaining secrets I needed. But then, a friend sold her things immediately in order to purchase a dress and scarlet stockings with the resulting Echoes and who’s to say she’s wrong?
Above all, Echo Bazaar is a game for exploration. There’s no need to know every detail and no rulebook you have to flick through. If you make the wrong decision, then at worst, you’ve wasted actions and you’ll always get more of those.
You have a maximum of 10 actions at any given moment, and a used action replenishes every 7 minutes. You have a total of 70 actions per day, which reset in 24-hour cycles based on your initial turns each day.
So once you start to use your 10 actions, you’ll have to wait at least 70 minutes to get another 10. If you use your actions as soon as they become available, you will run out in just over 8 hours.
BUT there are options for more. Once every 24 hours, you can get 10 free actions simply by twittering an official snippet from the game. This resets your current actions to 10 so make sure you are at 0 before you use this. It also increases your actions for the day by 10, so these are on top of your daily allotment.
You can also buy actions with Fate. This works similarly: spending 10 fate will refill your actions available to 10 and you will receive those options on top of your daily allotment. However, you can replenish your actions with Fate as often as you wish – well as often as you can afford.
You are awarded Fate for completing many of the longer storylets (with bronze shading), the occasional rare Opportunity card or you can purchase Fate online using a variety of methods including credit cards and PayPal. At the time of writing, Fate is available at a rate of 40 Fate for $10.00. You need 10 Fate to refill your actions or you can top up your Opportunities deck of 6 cards for 3 Fate.
Fate is also used to reset your ambition, however that’s a post for another day…
You can read about carnivals and scandal and much more in the Echo Bazaar category on this site.
Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.
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36 comments on “How to Play Echo Bazaar”
28 April 2010 at 07:09 UTC
Thanks, a pretty good intro to a very fun game. I wish I had seen this as I started playing.
7 June 2010 at 00:51 UTC
Thanks very helpful intro, but can I add one thing – you need to have friends on twitter also playing to be able to play properly, as I am discovering the hard way :( My nightmares are up to 6 and no one to meet with and confess my fears!
7 June 2010 at 09:51 UTC
Yes, it certainly helps – if you search on #ebz you can see other players and add some of them. Also feel free to add http://twitter.com/Tay if you like. :)
One thing is that you can’t tell when someone stops playing, so you end up sending out invitations (which cost an action) and never getting a response. That can be frustrating.
10 July 2010 at 07:13 UTC
My nightmares went up to 9 and I “Lost my mind”. My nightmares are down to 3 and I’m still in the state of confusion. How do I get out?
10 July 2010 at 07:22 UTC
AH! I have answered my own question apparently. It seems you must get rid of ALL of your rnightmares and then you go back to your lodgings.
10 July 2010 at 09:37 UTC
Oh good, I’m glad you are feeling better. Can I recommend laudanum if the nightmares try to get the better of you in future?
23 July 2010 at 09:59 UTC
I’ve just started playing this myself, I made a Twitter account just for the purpose. =/
I hope you don’t mind me bothering you periodically to get rid of my nightmares!
23 July 2010 at 11:31 UTC
Pai I eventually discovered you just need to go insane from the nightmares, keep drinking the water and then they will all go away. Costs a couple of turns of play but then your nightmares are back to 0 which is much easier IMHO :)
23 July 2010 at 16:46 UTC
However, doing that resets all your recurring dreams – and I would like to know how some of them turn out. I wonder if we could get a group discount on laudanum?
24 July 2010 at 00:21 UTC
Does using the Laudanum erase the dreams by itself, or is it the going insane that does that?
(Thanks for helping me out, btw)
25 July 2010 at 16:06 UTC
It reduces nightmares but leaves the recurring dreams alone. Be warned though, each drink causes wounds.
5 August 2010 at 05:45 UTC
Thank you. Can anyone tell me how to move into better Lodgings? Is that option dependent on your qualiteies, assets, and stories? (I just combined Whispered Secrets into Cryptic Secrets, so i lost 500 Whispered ones–was there an option i would have seen otherwise? i am in Rented Rooms, so relatively early in the game–do i need better social connections? Cheers.
5 August 2010 at 13:06 UTC
Laruchka, for me, different options appeared later in the game. I think it depends on which quality you are working on increasing will give you different lodging options. I have moved twice since I got out of prison, and more options pop up now and then, but I am happy in my bookshop lodgings for the moment.
13 August 2010 at 08:07 UTC
I’m new. Add me at http://twitter.com/meilibelmont if you want.
13 August 2010 at 20:10 UTC
I’m also in a state of confusion and have been there for days. Can’t travel either. Any ideas on how to get out gratefully received!
18 August 2010 at 04:06 UTC
got thrown back in prison — how do you get out – been in there for days now
18 August 2010 at 04:19 UTC
I’m currently battling rats in my lodgings…. good lord what an annoyance, I haven’t been able to do anything else but keep trying to grind them out.
18 August 2010 at 10:04 UTC
Pai I have been battling rats for DAYS, its SO annoying – havent been able to play any op cards cos not enuf turns. I even moved lodgings in the hope that might work but it didnt.
18 August 2010 at 18:07 UTC
Yeah, I think when you get them, it should only be at level 10 or so, otherwise it takes way too long to stamp em out.
I finally got them out, the bonus is that if you raid their hoards a few times, you can get some nice things to sell at the Bazaar.
20 August 2010 at 08:19 UTC
Two things–
how do I give/exchange items with other players?
also I have a bottle of Black Wings Absinthe–anybody care to join me? Tweet me and I will send you an invite?)
20 August 2010 at 12:34 UTC
You can’t exchange things with other players in general. To use things, they have to have a yellow border in your inventory. Some of them (like the Absinthe) have an option to share with another player.
20 August 2010 at 12:34 UTC
I wonder if it’s worth doing a quick reference sheet for prison similar to what I did for the Tomb Colonies…
20 August 2010 at 14:18 UTC
That would be a wonderful idea Taymar. Any words of wisdom on how to get out again ????? Been stuck in here for a week now
20 August 2010 at 16:15 UTC
Watch the dirigibles!
23 August 2010 at 10:11 UTC
Thanks for the advice, can definitely say I’m loving the game. Was wondering how/what one has to do to move lodgings? Is it possible – I’m in a spare room at the moment but want to upgrade if I can. Any answer would be much appreciated.
23 August 2010 at 17:53 UTC
I just recently moved — the option came from one of the cards in my deck. It cost me several hundred secrets.
25 August 2010 at 14:17 UTC
should i just restart this game since I have been stuck in jail again for over two weeks now and no one seems to have any help for me? Cute game really, but being stuck in jail again for over two weeks is starting to piss me off!
25 August 2010 at 16:28 UTC
Chaos – I’m trying to get myself back into jail but it’s not that easy at high levels. You should be able to use the Opportunity Cards to get out. If I recall correctly, it’s a question of watching dirigible schedules and take any opportunity to get suspicion down.
26 August 2010 at 02:33 UTC
haven’t gotten any of opportunity cards to get out.
26 August 2010 at 16:51 UTC
The cards don’t state directly that they are for getting out – just that as you play them, you should find that the pieces come together for your escape.
Anyway, it looks like you are in luck. Today’s update offers a special contact that you can only make in jail! http://blog.failbettergames.com/post/Fallen-London-Friday-Gifts-Decisions-Mirrors.aspx
26 August 2010 at 16:53 UTC
AH, also, check your clothing and take off anything that increases your suspicion (prison clothes, masks). I’ve just remembered that some of the attributes like this can cause you to remain even though you’ve taken it down to 0.
27 August 2010 at 05:50 UTC
you get out of jail by taking off all your cloths woot
2 September 2010 at 06:12 UTC
Where does one find a Leathery Human heart…or 5 of them even? Also, is there a forum where questions like this can be asked?
2 September 2010 at 07:10 UTC
There’s a wiki: http://echobazaar.wikidot.com/
2 September 2010 at 07:48 UTC
@Pai Thank you! ^_^
2 September 2010 at 09:21 UTC
There is also this forum–I can’t search it reliably, but that’s probably me. (Did you try it already? I notice the last page mentions the items of which you speak…)
I am still much lower in stats than most of these/you folks, too I think (40s)
but still enjooying although it would be so nice to play for a chunk of time.
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